The Rings of Poseidon by Mike Crowson Read Free Book Online Page B

above the horizon
when the fire was lit. I watched flames curl at the base of the
cone and then rush upwards with a shower of sparks as first the dry
twigs and then the bigger boughs caught light. By the glow of the
fire I could see the faces of some who had come to the
chief-making. We were a pitifully small number. There were just the
two villages remaining on this island and the village on the high
island. I tried to concentrate on the job in hand.
    What is there to tell? A priestess invoked
the blessing of the goddess on the ceremony, then I had to catch
and kill a deer before the sun set that day. Perhaps catching a
deer was once a test of real importance when the tribe depended
upon their chief to lead them in the hunt for food, but we kept
animals ourselves now and, if we did need to supplement that food,
we hunted in a group.
    Still, a ceremony is a ceremony, so I tracked
the symbolic deer, went downwind of it, sneaked close to it, using
an uncured hide as a precaution to cover my scent and shot it with
the bow I also carried.
    The most difficult part was carrying the
animal back to the village when I'd killed it. The day was not so
very hot, but it was warm enough that I sweated with the exertion
of carrying my burden, my throat was dry, my back ached and my
muscles turned to jelly before I returned.
    The priestess set the deer to roast after
they had taken its blood and sprinkled the homes, the animals and
the fields with their blessing. Then they painted me with the
symbols of the goddess and tattooed the snake around my wrist and
forearm.
    By the time they had finished the sun was
setting. The fire was stoked up again and the priestess faced me.
She said, "I now place this symbol of the rulership on the hand of
Bend as he goes to complete the great marriage," and she put my
father's ring onto my finger. It was his and I thought it had been
buried with him.
    Then the priestess surprised me again by
taking an amulet from her own neck and raising her arms to the last
traces of the setting sun. "Visible symbol of the goddess which
sets in the west," she said, "charge this jewel, handed down from
one to the other, so that it may become a symbol of our
people."
    She fastened it about my neck, saying, "One
thing only remains to complete the great marriage. Go to your
house. A priestess-virgin awaits the moment when you fill her with
the life of our people. Go, and the goddess be with you."
    I allowed the two older women to lead me back
to the entrance of the village and underground along the passage to
my own house. I let them hold aside the hide and entered.
    "The goddess be with you", one of them said,
and the hide fell back into place behind me.
    Inside the fire had been built up and its
flickering light showed that the bed was occupied. The woman, or
rather the girl, was twelve or thirteen summers old at most and was
wearing nothing on her dark skinned body. On her budding breasts
had been drawn the symbols of the goddess. Her dark hair framed the
dark face and her hands were by her side. It was to her credit that
she was not covering herself in any way but awaiting the coming of
her lover in the great marriage with as much composure as she could
manage.
    I unfastened the belt of the woollen,
one-piece jerkin I was wearing and let it fall onto the floor then
I stripped off the jerkin itself and let that fall alongside it. I
could see the girl watching me and felt mildly embarrassed as I
took off the linen loincloth.
    She gazed at my manhood for a moment, then
said, "I am ready, my king. Together we serve the great mistress."
She paused and then added, her voice a little husky, perhaps with
fear, "I am ready for you and may the Goddess be with us."
     
    The fire had burned almost out and daylight
streamed through the fire-hole before I rose and went out to meet
the rest of the tribe, who were still waiting for me. I looked at
the expectant faces and said, "It is completed as the goddess
wills." The priestess smiled a