Lady of Avalon Read Online Free PDF Page A

until she floated free in unsullied purity. As one, the priestesses lifted their hands in adoration.
    With an effort Caillean steadied her voice, willing herself to sink into the familiar rhythm of the ritual.
    “In the east our Lady Moon is rising,” she sang.
    “Jewel of guidance, jewel of the night,” the others chorused in return.
    “Holy be each thing on which Thy light shines…” As Caillean’s voice grew stronger, so did the chorus that supported her, her energy amplified by that of the other priestesses, theirs rising as her inspiration grew.
    “Jewel of guidance, jewel of the night…”
    “Fair be each deed Thy light reveals…” Each line came more easily, power reflecting back from the other women’s response to her own. As the energy rose she found herself growing warmer as well.
    “Fair be Thy light upon the hilltops…” Now, as Caillean ended a line, she found the strength to hold the note through the answer, and the others, holding their last note, supported hers in sweet harmony.
    “Fair be Thy light upon field and forest…” Now the moon was well above the treetops. She saw the Vale of Avalon laid out before her with its seven holy isles, and as she gazed, the vision seemed to expand until it was the entirety of Britannia that she saw.
    “Fair be Thy light upon all roads and all wanderers…” Caillean opened her arms in blessing, and heard Kea’s clear soprano soar suddenly in descant above the chorus.
    “Fair be Thy light on the waves of the sea…” Her sight sped across the waters. She was losing awareness of her body now.
    “Fair be Thy light among the stars of heaven.” The radiance of the moonlight filled her, the music lifted her. She floated between earth and heaven, seeing everything, soul outpoured in an ecstasy of blessing.
    “Mother of Light, fair moon of the seasons…” Caillean felt her perception narrowing until the glowing moon was all she could see.
    “Come to us, Lady! Let us be Thy mirror!”
    “Jewel of guidance, jewel of the night…”
    Caillean held her final note through the chorus and after, and the others, sensing the energy building, upheld it with their own harmonies. The great chord pulsed as the singers drew breath, but was sustained.
    The priestesses rode the power, sensing without need for signal the moment to bring out their mirrors. Now, still singing, the women moved closer together until they formed a semicircle facing the moon. Caillean, still standing on the eastern side of the altar, turned toward them. The music had become a low hum.
    “Lady, come down to us! Lady, be with us! Lady, come to us now!” She brought down her hands.
    Thirteen silver mirrors flashed white fire as the priestesses angled them to catch the moonlight. Pale moon-circles danced across the grass as they were turned toward the altar. Light gleamed from the silver surface of the bowl, sending bright flickers across the still forms of the priestesses and the standing stones. Then, as the mirrors were focused, the reflected moonbeams met suddenly on the surface of the water within. Thirteen trembling moonlets ran together like quicksilver and became one.
    “Lady, Thou who art nameless yet called by many names,” murmured Caillean, “Thou who art without form and yet hath many faces, as the moons reflected in our mirrors become a single image, so may it be with Thy reflection in our hearts. Lady, we call to Thee! Come down to us, be with us here!”
    She let out her breath in a long sigh. The humming faded to silence that throbbed with expectation. Vision, attention, all existence were focused on the blaze of light within the bowl. She felt the familiar shift of awareness as her trance deepened, as if her flesh were dissolving away, and no sense but sight remained.
    Now even that blurred, obscuring the moon’s reflection in the water of the silver bowl. Or perhaps it was not the image but the radiance it reflected that was changing, brightening, until the moon and its