The Good Counselor by Rachel Alexander

Author:Rachel Alexander [Alexander, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-21T18:30:00+00:00

Lemnia shook out the saffron veil and draped it over Eurydice’s head, carefully placing the shell and lily crown atop it. “Orpheus is from my tribe in Thrace, the Cicones. You join a proud line by marrying him.”

Eurydice nodded. “My mother was a dryad daughter of the Kabieroi. I suppose that would be my tribe.”

“Indeed,” she said with a smile. “My allegiance is to this temple before my kin, of course. I’m proud to have such a talented woman join our ranks.” Lemnia wrapped her tattooed arms around Eurydice, giving her a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. The entire priesthood had welcomed her as family, showered her with love and respect. She returned the old woman’s embrace.

“Will I be expected to wear those too?”

Lemnia looked at her faded ink and chuckled. “No, they reflect your father’s tribe by birth. That’s why your husband is unmarked… he wasn’t born legitimate. Besides, you have such lovely skin. Why mar it?”

Eurydice frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t know. I think the wildflowers would do well on me.”

Lemnia smiled. “If you wish it.”

“What do the Ciconian women do when they marry?”

“We break a loaf of bread over the head of the bride, and after the ceremony, she and her husband share a morsel with each guest. Otherwise, we’re much like the rest of Thrace or Hellas.”

“And before the wedding?”

“Solitude. To reflect on leaving one’s family to make a new one. For though you are your own creature, you are no longer alone. You are bound to another. Forever.”

Eurydice drew in a deep breath. “That may be well for me…”

“It would be wise. Usually, it is done with the door closed, in the house of your family. But your home is all of Samothrace, yes?” Lemnia smiled then paused and grew solemn. “I knew your father.”

Eurydice stiffened.

“His name was Deimas. He was a hierophant when I was but a water bearer, just eleven years old. In that time before the great famine when Da Potnia drained fertility from the earth.”

“I was barely walking and still at my mother’s breast,” Eurydice mused. “Had she weaned me before the famine, she told me, then I would not have lived.”

“The winter took your father.” Lemnia paused, her eyes unfocused. “He was a good man and a better leader, who respected the old ways.”

“Can you tell me more about him someday?”

Lemnia lingered at the door. “Of course.” She nodded to Eurydice and quietly left the room.

Eurydice gazed into the bronze mirror. Her dress was simple linen but felt like the finest lawn compared to the woven reeds she’d worn every day. She reached to her hip for her water bladder, but her fingers closed around nothing. Her effects were all stowed away, just as she would be. She swallowed.

In spring she would return, and take Orpheus with her into the wilderness, to collect honey and herbs, to tend the trees, and feel the grass under her feet. And he would take her to Eleusis. She smiled. Perhaps she would see Persephone again.

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