Druids by Morgan Llywelyn Read Free Book Online Page B

day. I tried to keep my sleepy head alert and not scratch my skin where the blood dried in itchy crusts.
    When the sun was low in the sky, we faced the final challenge. Beyond me trees a wide pit had been dug, and in it Aberth the sacrificer built a fire of blackthorn, the wood-of-testing. Each group of three was told to select its heaviest member. Ours was obviously Vercingetorix. Carrying the heaviest between them, the other two were to leap across the pit where the flames were high-est.
    “A man must know he can exceed his own limits,” Menua told us. “And a man must honor his promises. Each of you will promise the other two not to fail them.”
    The pit was dauntingly wide. If the two jumpers did not make a mighty effort, or if the one balanced on their locked arms moved at the wrong moment, all three would fall and be burned, perhaps fatally.
    Crom Daral’s nerve broke. He shrank against me. “I can’t do it, Ainvar,” he whispered.
    Vercingetorix spared him only a glance, then said to me as if issuing a command, ‘ ‘Ask for someone else to be our third.”
    Part of me was grateful for that instant, confident leadership. I almost surrendered to it. But Crom was blood kin and had long been my friend. I would not deny him his manmaking to please
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    Vercingetorix. The Arvemi were of Celtic blood like us, but they were not us. We Camutes had gone to war against them in the past and would again; that was what tribes did.
    My head would decide the matter.
    ‘ ‘We three are going to jump together,” I announced firmly.
    Crom protested m a faltering voice. “But I’m too tired.”
    My temper frayed. “We’re all tired! We’re supposed to be, this isn’t meant to be easy for us. Neither is it impossible or they would not ask it. The tribe needs new men.”
    Crom’s lower lip jutted forward. His eyes were blank, reflect-ing the flames. “I can’t.”
    “Leave him,” said the Arvemian.
    A voice murmured in my mind. I clutched the idea before it could fly away. “I know what we can do, Vercingetorix. Help me. Collect an armload of rocks, hurry!”
    He stared at me. He was not accustomed to taking orders from someone his own age. Feeling the powerful tug of wills between us, I became very aware of the awesome strength of his.
    Summon the spirit of the stone, said the voice in my head.
    I obeyed. I concentrated; I became stone.
    A heartbeat passed. Another. Then Vercingetorix grinned and I knew I had won.
    We loaded Crom’s arms with rocks until he was heavier than either of us. Then he sat on our locked arms and Vercingetorix and I leaped the blazing pit.
    We left the ground in stride like a team of trained chariot horses. Up, up! Beneath us the fire snarled and crackled. A thrill ran through me, but it had nothing to do with the danger.
    We soared’
    Linked together we became more than two, Vercingetorix and I. For that brief flight we were one creature with the combined abilities of both, and something more. Something glorious.
    When we landed on the far side of the pit and set Crom down, Vercingetorix looked at me and I knew he had felt it too, that numinous moment when together we could have leaped a pit twice as wide, over flames twice as high. We exchanged a glance of exultation.
    Crom intercepted the glance. He sagged and sat down cross-legged on the earth, staring dully at the pit.
    Five sets of boys fell. Two were badly burned.
    The manmaking concluded, Dian Cet laid hands on each of
    our heads in turn. I hardly felt the touch of the druid Judge, or
    36 Morgan Llywelyn
    heard his voice as he said, “Tonight you are a man, Ainvarofthe Carnutes.”
    My senses were still flooded with the feeling ofVercingetorix’s hands clamped on my arms, and the memory of transcendence as we soared above the fire.
    When we returned to the fort, Vercingetorix and I walked side by side. We did not speak, but I was increasingly aware of the tidal pull of his personality, drawing me to him. Whatever was in