May Earth Rise by Holly Taylor

Author:Holly Taylor
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781605420547
Publisher: Medallion Press
Published: 2009-10-16T21:00:00+00:00

Part 3

Day Break

Whence come night and dawn,

Whither the earth is moving on slowly,

The hiding place of night before day.

Taliesin, Fifth

Master Bard

Circa 277

Chapter

* * *

Thirteen

Eiodel & Cair Duir

Gwytheryn, Kymru

Eiddew Mis, 500

Suldydd, Lleihau Wythnos—midmorning

You must be out of your mind!” Sigerric cried.

Cathbad, Archdruid of Kymru, stiffened in his chair at the insult. But he attempted to keep his voice even when he replied. “I am not out of my mind. And I must insist that you do this the way I say.”

“There is no way,” Sigerric went on furiously, “that I am going to let Havgan go to Caer Duir without a guard. No way under the sun.” For a moment he wondered why he was still such a fool, why he was still so determined to protect the life of the man he had once called friend—once, but no longer. But he knew why. Loyalty was an integral part of who he was. He had always known that. If only he had had the wit to have been more discriminating on whom he originally bestowed it.

“He must come without his men,” Cathbad continued to insist. “The ceremony of tarw-casgliad is sacred to the Druids. Anything which smacks of coercion will compromise the results of the ceremony.”

“You are a fine one to talk about compromising the ceremony,” Sigerric sneered, unable to bear the smug tone of the Archdruid. “Are you not using it for your own ends?”

Cathbad rose, his face suffused with rage. “I am doing this for the Druids! Not for my own aggrandizement!”

“Ha!” Sigerric cried.

The two men continued to argue with each other in the dim chamber at Eiodel, Havgan’s dark fortress. The chamber contained a few slit-like windows, which should have brightened it somewhat as the midmorning sun streamed down. But Havgan’s form blocked the light from the north window, as he stood there looking out over the plain to Cadair Idris, the mountain hall of the High King of Kymru, the edifice that was still denied to him.

A fire glowed feebly on the hearth, shifting shadows across the ceiling and walls. Firelight glinted occasionally off the goblets of ruby and gold on the dark oak wood table that stood in the center of the room.

Cathbad’s dark eyes, even in the gloom, seemed to Sigerric to give off a mad glow. Sigerric knew that the time had almost come to discard this increasingly erratic tool. After the ceremony, perhaps.

Finally Havgan moved, shifting around to gaze at Sigerric and Cathbad. At his movement both of them fell silent.

“We shall do it as the Archdruid says,” Havgan said.

Sigerric was outraged. “What? Go alone? What better time might the Kymri have to kill you than at Caer Duir?”

“You will be surrounded by loyal Druids,” Cathbad insisted, his old face almost breaking into a smile at his triumph.

“Don’t be a fool, Cathbad,” Havgan said smoothly. “Your Druids are anything but loyal.”

Cathbad’s face darkened. “I must protest—”

“Don’t argue with me,” Havgan said his tone smooth but his words clipped. “Your own heir has recently gone to Arthur, taking with him your most talented teachers, as well as his own son.

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