Photo Attribution: © Francis C. Franklin / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Alec has set out to woo a lover he had from before he trained as a knight, Robin of Ravenswood. She has a daughter Apple who is not his though she might have been. He is also ordered by his father to pick a woman who is unlike his sister so none can make the mistake of thinking the Elders selected him for Elspet. Robin has rich brown hair and a motherly body and fit the need perfectly. She also loves Alec.
“The next morning, I took breakfast to Robin. Not many were up and about that early, but the little girl Apple was, and thus her mother too. While the child played with a puppy who had wandered into their camp from someone else’s Robin showed me the masks and costumes she had brought for the Lady’s dance that evening and in Shap on the morrow. They were bright red tunics trimmed with blue grey edges like a robin’s breast and cloaks of dark feathers to fasten over our woolen ones. The masks were feathers fit on leather. The red feathers circled the eyes and arched blue grey up over the brows in a startling fashion. When she tried hers on to show me, she changed into an otherworldly sprite.
“What do yer think? Would yer mind bein’ a robin with me? Twas a whim I took to late in winter when I waited fer me namesake ta fly back ta th’ Fells an’ tell us spring would come.” I grinned. I didn’t mind at all. She didn’t know it, but these costumes reinforced my need to be very much with her and not my sister. Even when I walked about without her, people would remember who I danced with. The costumes were so striking people would talk of them all year long.
“Tis perfect,” I agreed and kissed her long and lovingly….
That night I joined Robin to march into Heppeshaw with the Odindale Circle, bedecked as magnificent robins. The costume suited me. It suited Robin equally well. We were something not quite human, half divine and half avian. She raised her arms beneath her cloak and flapped them slowly like wings. I would not have been surprised if she had flown up over the Stones to see us all through to our hearts. I loved her, damn it. I did! I winged after her to everyone’s delight as we wove in and out among the people gathered for the procession into the Stones.
I was lighthearted until we reached the entrance and passed before my sister and my oath brother and the May Queen and King from Tibbay. When I looked at them my heart dropped heavily with fear. Mayburn and Cray wore glittering masks dusted with tiny crystals that reflected the firelight. He wore the leather leafy green mask of Derg Corra. She wore the vines of Rhiannon. If Robin and I looked like holy birds, those two looked like the Gods. The air shimmered about them. Their lights were white, bright lavender and indigo or maybe purple. The darker tones were hard to see in the night before the fires were lit. Robin bowed before them and I hastily followed, surprised at my resistance. Tis three-fourths play acting I chided myself. I should not be bothered to bow before two from Tibbay. But I was. Callum stood proudly by my sister. Their finery matched the King and Queen’s. We had two couples of power. I had not seen that done, or mayhap I had. When my mother had been well enough to lead the Circles she was always the Great Priestess but not always the May Queen. She never went to the Bower if Gil was not there.
When all had entered, we joined hands around the Circle and Andrew closed the Gate of Power. The torch bearers circled the dark unlit fire in the center and began their sensual dance, wooing all of us as they approached the wood with their fiery torches and teased us into guessing when they would penetrate the wood and light the fire. We all understood their meaning. They seduced us with their dance and meant to. When the eight torches entered the wooden stacking all at once, the drummers stopped. We waited soundlessly for the fire to take. It began slowly as lust does in the base of one’s groin and moved up gradually catching fire until we faced a roaring conflagration that pulsed inside each of us. Then they lit new torches to burn the guard fires outside the Circle. When the four guard fires burned hot, the torches fitted into holders at the quarters and cross quarters. Robin leaned against me for support but our hands held the Circle fast until Mayburn was called to step forth as Rhiannon Rigatona. When she answered I did not know her voice. She blessed the Circle and commanded they remember Her. I stared.
“Tis no’ the lass we ken from Tibbay,” I whispered to Robin.
“Tis th’ Goddess,” she whispered back, excited and pleased.