Crystal Warrior: Through All Eternity (Atlantean Crystal Saga Book 1) (50 page)

Love was the most amazingly empowering feeling. He could conquer the world for love of this woman, and the son she'd given him. Love gave him purpose and strength. It was overwhelming.

Then to his consternation a deep sadness washed over Gynevra's face and he thought his heart would break.

Lowering her eyes to their joined hands, she said, her voice little more than a choked whisper, ‘I love you more than I can ever explain and—because of this I can't bear to watch you with other women. If I join with you, then—legally I must do so if you continue to accept contracts. I could be punished for turning my back on that.’

Then her chin dropped to her chest in shame as she admitted, her voice ragged with emotion, ‘I'm sorry, I can't do it. I'd not be accountable for my actions.—I'd scratch, and strangle, and kill.’

Jasmine scented the breeze cooling their cheeks and the perfume would forever remind Taur of this moment, the moment he finally understood what was most important in his life. It was startlingly simple after all.

‘Then I'll accept no more contracts.’

She lifted her head and searched his eyes, her own wide and uncertain. Then slowly the tears gathered and spilled down her cheeks and her mouth curved into a tremulous smile.

‘May the Goddess forgive me,’ she whispered through her tears, ‘but I cannot deny you.’

In the days that followed she spent many hours seeking forgiveness from the Goddess for the sin of pledging herself to Taur when she knew she had to leave him if she ever found a way. Yet she could not turn her back on the gift he offered nor deny him her pledge in turn.

Flesh melted from her bones and the King ordered ever more delectable dishes from the Castle bake-house to tempt her. The bright sheen of bronze faded from her hair and Difleer took to rinsing it in an infusion of marigold petals and beech leaves. Her eyes, bright with a feverish joy, were ringed with darkness. As the designated day of their sacred joining drew near, vitality seemed to desert her entirely.

The fiery joy that had lit Taur's eyes on his return from Zephra's Spa was fading too, along with the boundless energy with which he'd arranged the details of Nyalda's first royal joining for nearly forty years. Gynevra was often aware of his troubled gaze on her and was grateful the elaborate celebrations he was planning along with his busy schedule of state duties kept him from concentrating too closely upon her.

Had things been normal Difleer might have rousted her mistress with her droll but plain speaking, but the housekeeper was floating in a small rosy cloud of her own. For the first time in her life she was considering pledging her troth to one man and the notion was strangely appealing and frightening all at once. So engrossed was she, airing all her thoughts on the matter and the intimate details of her courtship by Bagos who managed the King’s stable, she scarcely noticed her mistress's declining spirits.

It was Lady Nudon who finally voiced what others only whispered behind their hands.

‘Are you not delighted my son makes like a clod in declaring to all who will listen that he loves you and that to love a woman is a wondrous thing? Are you not honored he threatened to fight Lord Davidod for suggesting you had cast an evil spell upon him? Is this how you repay him? By looking as if you’re approaching your execution?’

Nudon had come to the King's apartments with the baby whom she'd had out on a thick woolen rug in a sunny corner of the Emerald Pavilion. He'd become fractious and, returning him to his nurse, she'd found Gynevra, who’d excused herself from the Court on the pretext of going to the Temple, huddled in a corner of the vast window embrasure overlooking the harbor.

With the child as a catalyst the older woman had become as friendly and caring as she'd originally been hostile and Gynevra had begun to discover and value the deep fund of wisdom Nudon hid behind a loud hectoring manner and complaints of negligence of her welfare. Hugging her knees close to her chin, Gynevra glared sullenly at the old Queen now, resentful of this sudden attack.

Nudon stood for a moment, hands on hips and the old belligerent expression on her carefully painted face. Just as Gynevra began to wonder what she'd done to occasion the return of the resentful woman she'd first met, Nudon sighed heavily and dropped to the window seat beside her.

‘What is it that bothers you, child?’ she asked gently, her face sagging into lines of concern.

Child? To her consternation, Gynevra felt tears welling inside her. It had been so long since anyone had called her ‘child’. Almost overwhelmed by the need to cast herself into Nudon's matronly arms, she hugged her knees tighter and fought back the threatening tears. Queens weren’t supposed to cry. And she no longer had the excuse of being pregnant.

‘Do you not wish to join with my son?’

‘More than anything,’ Gynevra managed to whisper huskily.

‘Then why,’ asked Nudon, her face wrinkled with perplexity, ‘do you look as if you've been condemned to death on the altar? People are beginning to talk and laugh at Taur when they think I'm not around but when you were Queen as long as I was you become very clever at hearing while not appearing to listen. It’s bad enough that they call my son `clod' but now they're starting to whisper that he's lost his mind. It's dangerous for a King to lose the respect of his people, Gyn'a. More than anything now he needs the support of your radiant happiness and obvious joy in his love and the sacrifice he makes of himself in declaring it so publicly.’

Staring at Nudon, Gynevra felt her eyes widen as realization overcame her. She'd allowed herself to become almost paralyzed with fear of the consequences of perjuring herself before the Goddess.

‘I've been so afraid—and by my very fear I've created that very thing of which I am afraid! I've created my own punishment!’ she whispered. ‘Oh, Movuon, thank you for making me see what I'm doing. What a fool I am! The Goddess gives us what we seek for ourselves. Is that not so?’

Gynevra leapt restlessly to her feet and began pacing about the huge room. Then suddenly she turned, swooped and hugged the older woman who strove ineffectively to conceal her flush of delight.

‘Thank you, Movuon, for showing me how I must be.—Difleer!’ she called, tapping a small copper gong on the wall, ‘I will have a bath and massage and I wish to look exceptionally beautiful for the King tonight.’

Eyebrows dancing high on her forehead, Difleer popped her head through the door curtain, and said dourly, ‘The King'd think you beautiful in reed-wraps and herding clogs. What's the fuss?’

‘I love him, Diffie, and all the world shall know it.’

The housekeeper stilled for a moment, then swept into the room, dropping to her knees before her mistress and looking up at her with dancing eyes.

‘Well now, Lady, ain't that the most amazin' news I've heard in years!’ she declared.

‘Oh get up, Diffie, and don't be such an ass.’

As Gynevra led the way to the bathing cavern, Difleer prancing comically in her wake, Nudon sat muttering about the folly of being over-familiar with the servitors.

The Sacred Joining of King Cadal Isidor II of Nyalda and Princess Gynevra of Poseidonia took place on summer solstice of the twenty-fourth year of the King's reign. He'd come to his throne at age ten in the same year she'd been born but it was only really since kidnapping her and separating Nyalda from Atlantis that he'd become King in fact. In those years the boy had become a warrior, a priest, a statesman, and a contract sire unparalleled. Now also was he a father and about to become a sacred partner but more than that, he was becoming the spiritual leader of his people.

The sun hadn't risen yet on this mid-summer day, when Gynevra rolled across the bed to lie on the warmth Taur's body had created and smile serenely into the darkness. She knew, in the ‘knowing’ place in her heart, this day marked a crossroads for Nyalda. It was a day when many would choose a new road, see a new vision of old values, pledge fealty to their King and his dream for their future. As with all times of change there would be those who could not, or would not move out of the old energy into the new, those who would strive to turn back or disrupt, and those who would move on.

For tonni the weather patterns had been presaging this time of change. All were aware of it and were becoming anxious, restless to move into whatever was coming. Gynevra felt the restlessness within herself, knew Taur felt it too.

It was only a few breaths since he'd left to make his way to Temple Zedalin to perform the Dawn Ritual. When she judged he was safely out of the apartments she leapt out of bed, calling for her housemaid. After a hasty bath Difleer brushed out her hair and helped her into a plain priestess gown tied with the ennead belt. Entering the King's Private Fane, accessible to her now Merwin's Crystal no longer resided there, she sat down on the soft-cushioned copper meditation chair, closed her eyes and immediately began entering the deep trance state prior to apportation.

The King was just arriving by reica at Temple Zedalin when the Queen materialized beside the Sacred Pool where Archinus Varia and High Priestess Cielcif awaited her. It had cost her dearly in jewels and gifts to the Temple to convince Varia to let her be Adonai for the Dawn Ritual on summer solstice but she counted it money well-spent. On this day she, Gynevra of Poseidonia, would be the only woman with whom King Cadal Isidor would join.

By the time she entered the Holy of Holies at Zedalin by the Goddess Door her heart was dancing with excitement, blood coursing through her veins like a torrent through a canyon. The Goddess energy was with her, strong and pure, her body pulsing to the beat of the Earth, which she represented. Because this rite was performed within the sanctity of the Holy of Holies, the Goddess was tethered to the altar on her back. The God of the Dawn, the Sun God wearing the golden solar disc on his head, would cover her body entirely with his, symbolizing new life and a new day on the Earth.

Varia and Cielcif took their places either side of her head and began the welcome chant to the God of the Dawn. From beyond the God Door opposite the foot of the altar, priestly voices joined them.

‘Hail God of the Dawn

Bringer of Life to the Earth’

Gynevra thought her heart would leap from her chest with joy as he entered, stood at her feet and looked into her eyes.

What joy is this, Golden One! To find you thus on this morn takes my breath away.

Save enough to do what must be done, great God of the Dawn! This Goddess of the Earth is thirsty for your light.

His smile was bright and for her alone.

That I can promise, my Golden Goddess.

One of the priests made the invocation to the Great God of All Life to bless the ritual awakening of the Earth. Another lit the sacred flame and poured water from a golden jug into the sacred crystal cup and called on the Gods of Fire and Water to bless the Earth this day. Cielcif placed a handful of small gemstones in a carved wooden bowl and briefly fanned the air with a small, curved peacock feather before laying it beside the other symbols and calling on the Gods of Earth and Air to bless the Earth this day.

Now the four slowly raised their hands and moved back to the four corners of the room to raise the pyramid energy over the Gods on the altar. As the energy took form above them Varia began to chant in her pure, deep alto the invocation to raise the Sun God for the new day.

‘Come to me, God of a trillion stars, God of a million fires. Pour your light into my sacred vessel
.
’

The plea of the Goddess to her God was strong and clear from mind to mind but he must await the completion of the invocation which would only come when Varia was certain the God had ‘risen’ sufficiently to pour his light into the Earth.

Suddenly she began a deep earthy hum, which the other three immediately joined and Taur came down over the altar, and entered her with one sure thrust.

God of a trillion stars indeed! God of a million fires! Gynevra fought to keep her eyes open, her gaze locked on his, so above all Dawn Rituals he ever performed, this would stand supreme. He'd stolen her soul! They stood together on the edge of the world and watched the stars soar through the heavens.

Golden One, 'tis you who fills me with light. Always when I'm joined with you like this I'm filled with light.

It's but a reflection of that which you bring me.

Ta’a. Together we make immense light. Come, soar through the heavens with me—now!

The energy-burst about them was bright enough to be seen by all in the room and intense enough to stun the two on the altar. For several moments they lay heart to heart, forehead to forehead and waited for the sanctum to stop spinning. Then slowly the Sun God rose from the Earth. Circling the altar three times, he left by the Goddess door.

As the women walked back through the garden courtyards between Zedalin and Hecanil, Gynevra was aware of an increase in the chill from Varia, but Cielcif on the other hand was fizzing with a joyous energy. Gynevra had asked her to be her handmaiden for the day and when Varia left them Cielcif went with her into the Holy of Holies at Hecanil to light a lamp to Ist and Asar for their blessing on the union and to meditate.

Cielcif could scarcely wait until they were alone to say, ‘You make such amazing energy together, you and the King. No wonder Varia is jealous. I've never seen him like that with any other woman and I've officiated at a few Dawn Rituals now! Oh Gynevra, surely your sacred joining is ordained by the Gods. How can you doubt it?’