The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley Page B

filled his vision, and a grief so long suppressed that even now he could not give it a name.
    His grip tightened on Eilan’s arm.
    "Silly!” Eilan laughed at his expression. "They are only effigies. Even in the old days it was only every seven years that the Summer King or his substitute was offered to renew the land.”
    "You are a Druid’s daughter,” he said, easing down upon the grass. "I suppose that you would know.”
    She smiled and sat down beside him at the edge of the circle. "I have not the lore they teach them in the Forest House, but I have heard that tale. They say that the Chosen One would be treated like a king for the year before his doom. It was a great honor for his family. His every wish was fulfilled, he had the best of food and wine, and the most beautiful young women were brought to him. It was an honor to bear a child to the god; even the women of the sanctuary were not forbidden to him; though it is death for any other to lie with one of the priestesses. And at the end of his time…” She hesitated. "He was given to the fire.”
    Eilan was sitting very close to him. He could smell the fresh, wild-flower scent of her hair.
    "I have heard that there is a new cult in Rome called the followers of the Nazarene who believe that their prophet was the son of their god and died for their sins,” said Gaius. Personally, he favored Mithras, the soldiers’ god.
    "They are not only in Rome,” she said. "My father says that some of them fled to Britannia when the Emperor was killing them. And the Druids allowed them to build a sanctuary at the Isle of Apples far to the south in the Summer Country. But here we have only the consort of the Goddess—or his substitute, who gives his blood to the land.”
    Shouting, teams of young men swung the effigies on to the bonfires, cheering as the flames surged against the sky. Eilan flinched as another group ran past, and Gaius put his arm around her protectively.
    "Now they are burning all the evil spirits, and presently they will drive the cattle between the fires to keep them safe throughout the summer when they pasture them in the hills. The fires are very powerful…” She went red suddenly with something more than the heat of the flames.
    "What else happens around the fires?” he asked gently, trembling a little with the effort it took not to draw her closer. Even through the gown he could feel the slender softness of her body. When he first met Eilan, he had thought her a child, but now, slender though she was, he realized that she was a woman, and knew that he wanted her.
    "Well,” she began hesitantly, looking fixedly into the flames, "on this night, while the fires of the Goddess burn, couples who are pledged leap over them, hand in hand, to honor the Goddess and to plead with her for children. And then they go into the forest together. Perhaps in the old days it was not known how children were made; but Ardanos says that they observed that children were born after they so honored the Lady—and folk still honor her by following that old custom…”
    "I see,” said Gaius gently, and felt his pulsebeat quickening.
    "Of course,” Eilan went on quickly, "it is not a thing that the daughters of chieftains or Druids do—”
    "Of course not,” said Gaius, very softly. His body was telling him that this was something the son of a Prefect could do very well, but he hoped he could keep it from Eilan. As the daughter of his host she should be as sacred to him as his own sister. "And yet, it would be lovely if…” he took a deep breath, "if we might honor the Goddess thus together…”
    He could sense the heat and color in her cheeks, though it was now almost too dark to see. She stilled within the circle of his arm.
    "I never thought…” she said softly, and stopped, beginning to tremble a little in turn. But she did not pull away.
    "That is how I would show you