Stone Soul (The Ailigh Wars Saga, #3) by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2023-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Emain Macha was steeped in silence. As the sun rose to cast its rays upon the grass, the assembly of druids took to their knees and pressed their foreheads to the damp earth, facing westward, as was tradition. With closed eyes, they prayed to their gods for guidance.

Grainne called upon her most gracious lady Cáer, and in the emptiness of her mind, she was greeted only with quiet. A hand-drum beat a solitary thump and its note echoed inside her head. Silence settled around her. She could hear, beside her, Anú’s shallow breath. And then a voice cried out from across the enclosure.

‘Ashton, son of Pol.’

Without looking, Grainne knew that the druid who had been named would stand and face the sun.

The drum beat again.

Somewhere outside, the horses whinnied.

‘Gilleán, son of Osán,’ another voice spoke.

Grainne tightened her eyes. Two names called; two remaining. She pleaded to Cáer that the goddess would speak to her, but still nothing came.

Another name was called. ‘Caoimhe, of Clan Ranait.’ The female druid would now stand with the other two.

Beside her, Anú pressed her hand on top of Grainne’s. When Grainne looked at her, the girl whispered, ‘She tells me your name.’

Grainne shook her head, and before Anú could speak aloud, a fourth name was uttered into the silence. ‘Rannal, son of Tuile.’

The drum rattled a longer beat. The four nominees stood while the assembly took to their haunches. The nominees raised their hands to the sky and praised the sun god, and then they knelt. The remaining druids rose and came forward, placing their hands on the heads of the four nominees in turn, gifting them the love and wisdom of their gods.

A sacrifice would be made and, in the morning, a new archdruid would be elected.

In times of history, when it was necessary to elect a new leader, the process would have begun on the nearest fire festival with feasting and moments of godly solitude. Visions would be invoked around the fires, and discussions of merit would be had. Bones would be cast, and omens studied. But although the archdruid died before Samhain, they did not have the luxury of attending his bedside and coming together in time for a festival. With his murder—the only known murder of an archdruid in all their memorised history—the rules and regulations had been swept aside; the election must take place now or their Order would suffer for it. There were no senior members of the brehon left, and those that gathered at Emain Macha amounted to little more than two hundred. Two hundred druids to serve a nation, to oversee births and deaths, marriage and separation, illness and disease. Two hundred druids to uphold the laws of man and the laws of the ancients. There was not an island small enough to warrant the need for so few druids.

When the naming ceremony had ended and a goat was brought forward for the sacrifice, Grainne found Anú sitting on the grass in the sunlight, her cloak drawn over her head for extra warmth, her dress pulled tight around her legs.

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