Daughter of Albion

Daughter of Albion by Ilka Tampke Read Free Book Online

Book: Daughter of Albion by Ilka Tampke Read Free Book Online
Authors: Ilka Tampke
to be lit. I hurried back into the crowd, my heart still hammering.
    Llwyd stood between the two woodpiles, arms raised. We fell silent to hear him speak. ‘Our earthly world—our hardworld—is a place of wildness,’ he began. ‘The forces of chaos run through its veins. They are our breath and our devastation.’
    The crowd gave a rumbling cheer.
    â€˜By our knowledge—by skin—we are aligned to these forces. Yet we know in our souls they can never be harnessed. The wildness is stronger than us and we are always subject to its mystery and power.’
    Voices began to swell.
    â€˜This night, beloved people of Summer, we kindle the fires that will cleanse our cattle, seed the belly of our earth, and bless our souls. Then—’ he paused for a moment, ‘—let the forces of chaos run free!’
    The crowd erupted into cheers. Two lesser journeymen approached, bearing burning sticks. Over stamping and shouting, they called the final incantations to the Mothers and the towering woodpiles were ignited.
    Fire surged upward into the indigo sky. I watched, motionless, staring at the flames, my cheeks smarting with heat. I had been separated from Bebin and forced back to the edge of the gathering. But as I looked out over the grainfields, pastures and forests that stretched beneath the hill and the magnificent rise of Cad beside it, my heart brimmed again with the gladness I felt in the dance. All my people were here around me, rejoicing in the land that held us. All we could ever want was given to us. For this moment, the ache for skin was gone, healed in the love and warmth of the fire.
    There were shouts and we scrabbled to make way as two white bulls were driven toward the flames. They stalled at the mouth of the firepath, bellowing in fear, eyes rolling and muscles twitching.
    Llwyd called their blessing, and they were forced, galloping, through, burning sticks at their rumps. The crowd roared.
    Now the farmers were herding all of Cad’s cattle up the hillside. The air was filled with their screams and the smell of their terror as they, too, were run through the flames and onto the safety of their summer pastures.
    When the animals had been purified, Fraid called forth the First Maiden. I pushed my way forward to see her. A deerskin cloaked her naked, painted body, and beneath her antler crown, the mask of the doe covered her face. None could see who had been chosen. She was the earth now, a Mother.
    The drums began again and the young men of Summer formed a line before her as she walked the length of them. They stood tall and bare-chested, baring their teeth and making animal cries to attract her attention.
    We all swayed and stamped as we waited for the Mother to make her match. From the corner of my eye I noticed Ruther, standing well back from the line, and I wondered why he, of all the young men, would not contest this honour. Finally the Maiden held her hand out to Juc, the newest of the warrior initiates. He dropped to his knees to accept her and then together they ran through the fires to the crowd’s screams of excitement.
    Now all were free to run the fires. The threshold maidens were brought forward first and Llwyd called blessings on their wombs as they entered the flames. Young men raced to the other side to meet them when they emerged.
    Tribespeople were dancing furiously, drunk on the fireheat. Maiden and knave were writhing in pairs, then racing down the hillside or coupling right there by the fire.
    I hovered at the edges and saw Bebin bounding away with Uaine. Ianna and Cah were nowhere to be seen. I turned back to the fires. They were why I had come.
    When all the tribespeople had run and only those without skin remained, it was my turn. I walked to the threshold. Once I had run through this passage of fire, I would be something other. Something new.
    The heat was searing. It pushed me back, yet I forced myself forward.
    â€˜Run! Run!’ chanted the

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