The Dawn Stag: Book Two of the Dalriada Trilogy by Jules Watson Read Free Book Online

Linnet now, Rhiann saw the glitter of tears on one firelit cheek, as her aunt listened with her head half-turned away, staring into the leaping flames from her place in her rush chair. Only Linnet could grasp how much the welcome of Nerida, the eldest priestess, had meant to Rhiann, ending an exile that had festered as a wound in Rhiann’s soul for three long years.
    ‘What I said to them,’ Rhiann whispered, watching the birch logs snap and settle in the fire, ‘I thought I could never go back. I blamed them …’
    Linnet reached for the iron poker and nudged an errant branch back into the hearth. ‘I knew they would understand, child. They were just waiting for you to return of your own accord.’
    Rhiann nodded, unable to speak, and drew the fringe of the shawl through her fingers.
    ‘And did you go to the village, daughter?’ Linnet asked, in a carefully gentle voice. To the beach. Where the raiders came .
    ‘Yes.’ Rhiann cleared her throat, glanced up at her aunt. ‘I had to. But Eremon was there, and that made it easier.’
    Instantly, the shadow of Linnet’s pain cleared, and her eyebrows arched. ‘Eremon?’
    His name hung there, all the unsaid questions behind it drawing a wan smile to Rhiann’s face. However, what happened in the stone circle was too new to share with anyone, and instead she told Linnet about Eremon as the King Stag, and his sacred tattoos.
    At that, the lines of strain remaining around Linnet’s eyes smoothed out in the firelight. Rhiann’s aunt was close to forty, but the fine bones of their family held the flesh well, and the life of a priestess – in Linnet’s case, a life of quiet duty separate from the cares of others – lent her face an ageless tranquility. Rhiann, cradling her cheeks in her hands, severely doubted she would ever look so serene. She was the Ban Cré, the Mother of the Land. Her role was not to retreat into a solitary life on the mountain, but to embody the Goddess for her tribe and live among them.
    And now I can serve them truly again . Suddenly Rhiann’s eye fell on Linnet’s doorway and the silver gleam of moonlight creeping under it, fading into the glow of the lamps. The joy that had infused her as she stood outside Dunadd’s gates fountained up again, tinged with excitement. If her full connection to the Goddess had returned, then she should be able to see visions in the sacred pool again. She would no longer be blind!
    ‘Aunt? Does the Goddess swim now in the sacred water?’ At this time of year, the moon often passed directly over the spring.
    Linnet sat up, the blanket in which she had wrapped herself falling from her shoulders. ‘Yes, child – do you wish to speak with our Lady? I will give you what you need.’ She rose, taking a rush lamp and making her way to the workbench that stood against the curved wall, between the two box beds. The rafters were so laden with dried herbs, roots and salted joints of meat that she had to duck to reach the shelves. ‘I have the saor here.’
    ‘No,’ Rhiann said quickly, rising from her cushion, letting the shawl drop away. ‘No saor .’She wanted to do this without the aid of the herbs that freed spirit from body. She used to be able to see unaided, when she was pure, before the raid. Now that she had returned to the fold of the Sisters, she should be able to do it again.
    Her whole body ached with yearning at the memory of the light she used to sense, filling her body. Surely she would feel it again …
    Out in the moist, silvered night, Rhiann tried to step softly and slowly. Yet as soon as the hazel trees closed around her she couldn’t restrain herself – for the first time since the stone circle she was alone, and at one of the Mother’s most sacred gateways. Rhiann’s feet quickened, and she began to run.
    Leaves trailed against her cheeks, and the cool air misted her breath, scented with loam and wet rock. Ahead, a soft light beckoned, and when she broke into the clearing, her chest