Born of the Sun Read Online Free PDF Page A

to Niniane. Fara was looking lovely herself in a green gown with a necklace of barrel-shaped gold beads alternating with gold-mounted garnet pendants displayed on her breast. Garnets shone also in the pins that held her hair. The other women too wore fine garments and rich jewelry. All her life Niniane had been told that Saxons were savage barbarians who lived in sunken huts with their pigs and their goats. The reality of Winchester was quite a shock.
    “What are all these other buildings?” she asked Nola a little diffidently as they walked across the courtyard in the wake of Fara.
    Nola saw the direction of her eyes. “That is the king’s private hall,” she answered. “And the one next to it is the queen’s hall.” A group of men also on their way to the banquet passed them without speaking. Nola continued to identify the buildings for Niniane. “That large hall over there belongs to Cutha,” she said, “and that one there houses the royal princes.”
    Niniane’s eyes moved from the buildings Nola had named, to the smaller halls nearer the gate. One of them had a huge wooden pillar rising from an enclosed courtyard next to it. “And what is that?” she asked, looking at the building distinguished by the pillar.
    “That is the temple,” came the reply, and Niniane’s smoky-blue eyes widened as she stared at the unremarkable timber building.
    “Do they offer sacrifices in there?” Her voice was hushed. Nola shrugged. “I don’t know what they do. It is for the men. The women go out to a grove in the forest for their rituals.”
    Niniane stared at the girl walking so unconcernedly beside her. “Are you a Christian, Nola?”
    “My parents were Christians, but Venta has been under Cynric’s rule since before I was born.”
    “Does he persecute Christians, then?”
    “Oh, no. He is not a man to care which god you worship, so long as you recognize where your earthly allegiance lies. But there have been no priests in Venta for years. Most Britons are like me; they don’t care very much about religion one way or the other.”
    There had been few priests at Bryn Atha, but the Atrebates had held to their faith. With a flash of contempt, Niniane thought that the Venta Britons sounded like an indifferent lot. They seemed to have given their Saxon conqueror remarkably little trouble.
    The women had reached the steps of the great hall and Fara mounted first. There was a set of double doors leading into the hall, and the men on duty there opened them ceremoniously for Fara and her companions. They passed through the double doors and into a porch, somewhat like the porch on the women’s hall. This porch was larger, however, and had been partitioned into two rooms, one on either side of a central anteroom. The doors that led into the main room were open and Fara beckoned to Niniane to come up beside her. Niniane obeyed and together the two women advanced into the great hall of Winchester.
    It was the largest room Niniane had ever seen. The hearthplace in the middle of the floor was so long that there were two fires on it, one at each end. The room was so broad that the cross-beams were borne up on carven pillars. There were benches fixed along the two long walls, and above the benches hung a magnificent display of arms: great embossed shields and shining swords. Many of the benches were already occupied, and the men ceased talking for a moment as the women entered. Niniane had the unpleasant sensation of being stared at and then the voices picked up again and she walked beside Fara toward the high seat that was set in the middle of the right wall.
    This seat, two seats actually, was distinguished from the other benches by its greater height and by the splendor of the arms that hung behind it. Long trestle tables had been set up in front of all the benches in the hall and Fara gestured Niniane to a seat to the left and at a little distance from the high seat. Niniane sat, bowed her head a little so her hair would