The River of Dancing Gods (12 page)

"That is the hardest faith of all," she agreed. "How can you know unless you have been tested? How can you have goals when you don't know what is attainable?.

"I will teach thee these things. Think upon it. What wouldst thou do in this world? What is thy desire? Consider well thine answer, for the wrong choices may yet deny thee these things..

She thought about it. Just what did she want from this world.

"Adventure," she decided and told Huspeth. "Excitement.

Challenge. The feeling of doing something important..

The beautiful vision smiled. "Ah! Those answers are the ones that bring joy to my heart. Accept my proposition, and I Page 57 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods will teach thee faith—and after that power and skill. If thou dost freely join of our order, I will give thee the means to what thou sayest thou cravest. But the way is very hard..

Again Marge thought about it. Freedom. Independence. Adventure.

What were the alternatives? Nothing exciting. She suspected, too, that this was what Ruddygore had intended, no matter what the doubts of Huspeth. He didn't seem to do anything randomly—except eat. Still, there were some doubts ... "You say the way is hard. What do you mean?.

Huspeth considered her reply. "For one thing, the longer thou dost remain virginal, the greater thy powers will grow.

They will not vanish when thou dost submit, but they will never increase beyond that point. Dost thou, young and beautiful, consider that too great a price?.

"No," Marge responded quickly. "My life recently has been pretty full of that. Until I can hold my own with the respect of men, I can withhold myself. At least, I think I can..

Huspeth nodded. "No man may enter the Glen Dinig, not even Bakadur and his precious Council. Thy testing will come much later and far from here, when thou wilt need thy skills the most. But come! The night is young! Let us begin!.

Huspeth was human once more, but still the figure of angelic beauty. Only those catlike glowing eyes remained, although such perfection was in itself inhuman. She walked over to Marge, unhooked the halter and bead-skirt, and threw them into the fire. "To begin, thou must return to the beginning,.

the witch said. 68 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS She reached down on the ground and picked up a gourd that had been hollowed and hardened into a drinking vessel. "Drink of this completely and do it now," she instructed Marge, who took it, sniffed at it hesitantly, first cautiously tasted, then drank the whole contents. It was a sweet drink that seemed honeybased, but as it went down, she could feel a tingling begin, first deep within, then slowly outward until her entire body seemed covered with tiny little electric pricklings. Her mind, too, was slightly numbed by it. She was wide awake, but content to stand there, not really thinking at all.

"Thou art an empty vessel into which I will pour great truths," Huspeth almost chanted. "Come! Stand before the fire..

In a trance. Marge moved as instructed and waited patiently, aware but unable to do much of anything.

Huspeth positioned herself opposite the fire and raised her hands. The fire seemed to grow brighter and leap up to her, like a thing alive.

"Listen well," the witch began. "In the dawn of creation were Adam and Eve created in the Garden, and of the sons thou knowest, but of the daughters of the first time thou knowest not. While the sons did quarrel and kill, the daughters did reject those ways and sought to recommune with the Creator. One Page 58 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods found special favor of the Creator, and it is she who is at the root of our order. Look! Look into the flames and behold Eden as it was!.

Marge looked. In the flames she saw that which had been so needlessly lost, a garden of impossible beauty; a magic garden that was beyond any earthly experience because it was created in true and absolute perfection. To see such total peace and such absolute beauty and perfection fairly tore at her mind, but within her, too, was a great sadness that such a place had been lost forever.

"Feel thy sins, thy doubts, thy fears, leaving thee," Huspeth intoned. "Feel them being drawn out when thou art faced with the vision of the one perfect Garden. Peel them as they fall into the flames and are so consumed. Feel thy past consumed, thy guilt consumed, all consumed and gone in cleansing flames.

Thou art the daughter of perfection incarnate. Thou art but one step from the Garden, a daughter of Eve, free of all save the one sin that denies thee entrance..

As Huspeth spoke. Marge felt something drain from her, r JACK L. CHALKER 69 pour out from every part of her mind and body. Heavy, dark feelings, things which she had lived with so long that she had never even known they were there. Things from the dark corners where no human looked and where all things of Hell and darkness dwelt. And as each poured out, unseen yet as tangible as tumors excised from the body by a surgeon, she felt an increasing lightness, a total sense of well-being.

"Thou daughter of Eve, dost thou accept they wedding to the First and Perfect One and acknowledge her primacy?.

"I do, I do," Marge responded, meaning it.

"Then, thou daughter of Eve, closest to perfection, linked to thy world and ours, know now the curse of our holy order.

Know that, having seen perfection, thou canst never attain it, nor can any whom thou dost know or love. For only in knowing what was forever lost canst thou know how truly cursed is all humankind..

Tears welled up inside Marge and spilled out as she realized the meaning of Huspeth's words. To have known perfection and now to know that one might never attain it...

"Gather you, daughters of Eve, about this place and time to see this child," Huspeth commanded. And all around the fire Marge sensed but could not see a host of women, all of great power.

"Do you approve this union?" the witch asked the unseen host.

"We do, we do," came a hundred whispers from the dark beyond the fire.

Page 59 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods "Who is our Holy Mother?.

"Eve, who was first and created in perfection," came the response from the unseen host.

"Who is our enemy?.

"Hell, who carried corruption to our Holy Mother's bosom,.

came the response.

"Who is now the mother of this child?.

"Eve, who was first created in perfection..

"Who shall her mother be among the daughters?.

"Thou, who bringest her forward..

"Child—dost thou accept this covenant and this sisterhood, now and forevermore? Wilt thou be my daughter in covenant?.

"I will," Marge responded.

"She will. She will'." the host echoed.

70 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS JACK L. CHALKER 71 "As a sign of this, child, place thy hand in mine!" With that the witch reached her hand directly into the flame.

Marge was aware that this was a critical choice and that she was free to make it or not to make. It. To put her hand in the fire...

She reached forward, feeling the heat of the flames, and grasped the hand of Huspeth. There was a searing sensation, then a sharp pain, ahd she knew that a razor-sharp cut had been made in her hand. Blood, not just hers but Huspeth's, dripped from their clasped hands into the flames and hissed.

"Witness the bonding of blood, you daughters," Huspeth intoned. "Witness the act of trust in placing her hand in the flame. She is truly flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, and is bound over into our holy order and subject to all its strictures and commands." "Let it be so," the chorus intoned.

The hands were unclasped and withdrawn, and Marge somehow had enough control to glance briefly at hers. It was unbumed, but there was a crosslike incision on the wrist which was just starting to clot.

Slowly the fire died down to its original strength, and the sense of presences all around diminished and was gone. They were alone once more. Huspeth reached down and picked up a second gourd and walked over to her. "Drink and rest," she instructed gently.

Hardly aware of the pain in her wrist, Marge took the gourd and drank from it unthinkingly, then allowed herself to be led to a soft clump of grass in the small meadow, where she lay Page 60 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods down and was soon fast asleep.

Huspeth stood there a moment, then said, "Arise thou by moonlight..

Marge's sleeping form did not stir, but from her body rose a mistlike substance that congealed and solidified into a human form. It was the form of a girl-child, perhaps six or seven, and it bore little resemblance to the sleeping woman as she now was, but a great deal of resemblance, had anyone there been able to know it, to the little child Marge herself had once been.

Huspeth reached out her hand to the child and smiled, and the child-spirit approached and took it, smiling back.

"Didst thou see the pretty Garden, my daughter?" the witch asked.

"Oh, yes. Mommy! It was so beautiful!.

"Well, it's not completely gone. Look around thee here, at this glade and this forest. See its beauty and its magic, for it is alive..

The little girl looked around with a little girl's eyes and a little girl's mind—and saw.

The weeks sped by quickly, and Huspeth proved a good teacher indeed. Marge was aware that she was getting a lot of information indirectly, somehow, but she didn't discover how.

Still, she found many of her old fears and attitudes changing, and within her grew a new sense of self-confidence.

The forest and glade of the Glen Dinig, which had seemed so lonely and fearsome not long before, became a familiar friend in both day and darkness. It was certainly a magical wood, filled with wonders, yet its most magical quality was its utter peacefulness and tranquility. Not even the insects would bite. The deer and marmots and other natural inhabitants had no fear of her, nor she of them, although they were not tame.

There was a balance, a perfect balance, and carnivores were not allowed.

Much of the instruction was rote memory, since she had no means of recording or reading over anything, but Huspeth was a good teacher with a lot of aids for problems. The lessons ranged from the simple—how, in fact, to prepare wondrous meals merely from what was around one, and all vegetarian— to the making of potions from the same plants and the recognition of them. There was magic, too—not only in the potions but in how to sensitize oneself to the energies around one, and to sense the life energy in the trees and grasses, the blaze of a deer in full flight, even the furies of nature.

One day there was a great thunderstorm with enormous bolts of lightning all around. Soaked completely, both of them stood in the middle of the glen, and Marge watched as Huspeth called down the bolts, directed them, and bent the terrible forces to her will. Training mind and will, Marge learned a little of wielding such natural power herself and found, later, that one who could deflect the lightning could deflect other things as well.

There was physical training, too. The use and throw of the Page 61 Chalker, Jack L - The River of the Dancing Gods dagger, and how to conceal it while wearing only the flimsiest 72 THE RIVER OF DANCING GODS of garments. The sword and saber also had their uses, particularly when one could subtly influence the thrust or direction of an opponent's blade.

Her muscles were hardened and strengthened through long runs and severe exercise including the use of weights. She learned, too, to know her own body, to control its every movement and action. Aided by potions, her physical and mental control slowly jelled into almost absolute mastery. Even Huspeth was impressed. "Daughter," she said, "thou art truly superior to most mortals thou wilt meet..

The training advanced, but it never let up. There were times when there was no sleep at all, and she learned to draw on the life energies around her to sustain her.

Eventually, concealed by spells, they went forth out of the Glen Dinig to observe the ways of fairies and men. It took some getting used to, for at the start Marge was almost overwhelmed by the sense of corruption within all of them, but she learned their ways and their powers, their strengths and weaknesses, as best Huspeth could teach. And she felt more and more remote from them all.

"That is because thou art becoming more than human," the witch told her. "It will mark thee. But thou wilt never forget who thou art or whence thou hast come, 0 daughter..

Of Huspeth she learned only the very little the witch was willing to impart. She knew, though, that the witch was thousands of years old at the very least, that her power was as great as any on the Council, but that she had become so much more than human that she could no longer abide living in the world among the corruption she felt so dearly. For all that Huspeth had imparted to her. Marge knew that the power and wisdom her teacher contained were as an ocean to her thimbleful.

One day, while out on their look at the world the witch had forsworn but to which Marge knew she would have to return too soon, they saw their first unicorns.

They were fully as beautiful and as grand as legend had made them, far more than horses with curved, pointy horns.

Their eyes, too, were very different—almost human. And yet, looking at them. Marge felt a disturbance within the magnificent creatures that shouldn't be there.