Read Lady of Avalon for Free Online Page B

visible, and if so, we will have to find a way to feed ourselves here.”
    “That is your business, Lady. Dealing out the stores we already have is mine,” said Eiluned. She shoved the stone slab back into place again. No, it is the Lady’s business, thought Caillean as they continued with their count of bags and barrels. It is because of Her that we are here, and we must not forget it.
    It was true that she and many of the older women had never known any home but that of the priestesses. But they had skills that would win them a welcome in any British chieftain’s hall. It would be hard to leave, but none of them would starve. They had come to serve the Goddess because She called them, and if the Goddess wanted priestesses, Caillean thought with the beginnings of a smile, it was up to Her to find the means to feed them.
    “-and I cannot do it all alone,” said Eiluned. With a start, Caillean realized that the other woman’s comments had become a buzz of background noise. She raised her brows inquiringly.
    “You cannot expect me to keep track of every gram of barley and turnip. Make some of those girls earn their keep by helping me!”
    Caillean frowned, an idea blossoming suddenly. A gift from the Lady, she thought, my answer. The girls that studied with them were trained well, and could find a place in any household in the land. Why not take the daughters of ambitious men and teach them for a time before they went out to marry? The Romans did not care what women did-they did not even need to know.
    “You shall have your helpers,” she told Eiluned. “You shall teach them how to supply a household, and Kea shall teach them music, and I shall teach them the old tales of our people and the Druids’ lore. What stories will they tell their children, do you think? And what songs will they sing to the babes they bear?”
    “Ours, I suppose, but-”
    “Ours,” Caillean agreed, “and the Roman fathers who see their children only once a day at dinner will not think to question it. The Romans believe that what a woman says does not matter. But this whole isle can be won away from them by the children of women trained in Avalon!”
    Eiluned shrugged and smiled, half understanding. But as Caillean followed her through the rest of the inspection, her own mind was working swiftly. One girl among them already, little Alia, was not meant for the life of a priestess. When she returned to her home she could spread the word among the women, and the Druids could let it be known among the men of the princely houses who still cared about the old ways.
    Neither the Romans with their armies nor the Christians with their talk of damnation could prevail against the first words a babe heard in his mother’s arms. Rome might rule men’s bodies, but it was Avalon, she thought with rising excitement, the holy isle, safe in its marshes, that would shape their souls.
    Gawen woke very early and lay awake, his mind too active for sleep again, though the bit of sky he could see through the crack in the daub and wattle of the hut was just beginning to lighten with the onset of day. Brannos was still snoring softly on the other bed, but outside his window, he heard someone cough and the rustle of robes. He peered out. Overhead the sky was still dark, but to the east a paler flush of pink showed where the dawn would break.
    In the week since he had come to Avalon he had begun to learn its ways. The men were assembling in front of the Druids’ hall, the novices robed in grey and the senior priests in white, preparing for the sunrise services. The procession was wholly silent; Gawen knew they would not speak till the sun’s disk showed clear and bright above the hills. It would be a fine day; he had not lived all his life in a Druid temple without knowing that much about the weather.
    After sliding out of bed, he got into his clothes without disturbing the elderly priest-at least they had not consigned him to the House of Maidens, where he would