Read The Falcon and the Flower for Free Online Page B

roughened with a peculiar protective need she had aroused in him. “Begone from this place and mend your wicked ways,” he bade her, loosening his hold on her shoulders.
    She made the sign of the cross and flung herself back from him into the deep shadow of a mighty stone and sped off in the darkness to where her pony was tethered. At that moment Lightning screamed and de Burgh, uttering a foul oath of frustration, reluctantly tended to his frightened war-horse.
    Estelle, busy in the stillroom, kept glancing over at Jasmine. She was very quiet and subdued this morning, and her grandmother decided not to dose her again with a sleeping draft of poppy. Estelle had made dyebaths of marigold orange, day-lily yellow, and walnut brown, and had picked dozens of early purple saffron crocus, one of the world’s best dye plants. She was busy dipping skeins of yarn and lengths of cloth. Jasmine was silently occupied mixing the dyes and pigments into her paints, while the air was redolent from boiling beeswax and bayberry as Meg made candles.
    A steward arrived from Salisbury Castle bringing a cartload of supplies for the manor and wool freshly sheared from the sheep to be expertly dyed by Dame Estelle. He was bursting with the news that William wasreturned from Wales because King Richard had been wounded in Normandy.
    Estelle nodded knowingly. “So,” she said portentiously, “it has begun.”
    Jasmine shuddered. She knew that when the steward had loaded his wagon with the things that were going back to Salisbury Castle, her grandmother would prepare to do magic this night. Usually Jasmine looked forward to participating in the rituals and spells, but to see what the future would bring would necessitate crystal gazing and suddenly she was afraid of a vision that had appeared to her twice. Once in the glass ball and once in living flesh and blood!
    Jasmine made a special visit to the herb garden to gather plants to make herself a “tussiemussie.” She would carry it as a talisman to protect her from all evil. She picked sprigs of sweet basil, wild thyme, rosemary, spiderwort, bloodroot, and tansy and bound them together with a red thread. Each was renowned for its protective quality and fragrance, which wooed the senses with an almost sacred promise.
    Later, as the veil of darkness descended over the tower room, Jasmine was visibly relieved when Estelle said, “I will do the seeing tonight, child, but it is most important that if I go into a trance you must write down everything I say. My visions will need interpreting and every detail will be vital.”
    The circle of candles was lighted and Jasmine robed her grandmother in the black cloak covered with cabalistic symbols in silver thread. The old woman wore wide amulets of copper studded with amber and turquoise and anointed her forehead with sacred oil from an ivory vial. She stepped inside the circle of candles and with long, slim fingers crushed the herbs and set them to smolder. The air was filled with the scent of cloves as if the room had been suddenly filled with pinks and carnations.
    Estelle took up the chalice majestically to drink the wine and began her chanted command. “I call upon all the Powers of the Universe to enlighten me tonight. Reveal to me the future.” She caressed the crystal globe and suddenly it began to swirl with brilliant colors. A stillness came upon her as her concentration deepened into a trancelike state. Her voice became urgent and husky as she began to relay her visions to Jasmine, who sat with quill and parchment at the ready.
    “Animals … lions … three golden lions and a lion cub with a crown. A great black oxen … the lions flee in three directions, but the black ox tramples the first lion to death … it seeks out the second lion and kills it … now the third golden lion is trampled by the black ox … a pig, no it is a wild boar, drags the cub into a dark cave … now the boar picks up the crown where it has fallen … the black