The Pool of Two Moons Read Online Free PDF Page B

song o' the blackbird, ye mean," Lachlan scowled. Lifting his head, he sang so sweetly a pang hooked through Iseult's throat and she had to swallow and look away.
    "It was dangerous for ye to be with me." Meghan's voice was low and quick. "I was hunted everywhere, with a price on my head and every seeker in the land focusing on me. I hoped the Banrigh would not find out ye had survived her ensorcelment, and so I had to keep ye well hidden. No one had cause to suspect the jongleurs, and Enit could safely conceal ye and keep ye safe."
    "Still, a jongleur's caravan is no' the place to be learning the tricks o' witchcraft," Lachlan responded. "Ye can hardly blame me for no' knowing as much as ye would like, when ye left me to be brought up by gipsies."
    "Aye, happen ye are right," Meghan responded with unusual mildness, "but that is no excuse for no'
    learning now that ye are with me again. Besides, ye ken ye wanted to stay with Enit once ye knew she was working with the rebels. Ye were filled with black rage against the Banrigh and wanted to be striking against her."
    "Aye, because ye would no'!"
    "Do no' be a fool," Meghan snapped as she reached the stone-crowned summit. "Ye ken I was working with Enit all the time, I could no' be wandering around in the countryside with a price on my head and a face that every crofter and shepherd knew. Ye just could no' stand to work in shadows, ye had to be out, flaunting yourself and gaining a reputation! Besides, ye ken Enit tried to teach ye some o' the Yedda Skills but ye were as always too impatient, too sulky."
    "I could hardly remember to speak, Meghan, if ye remember. It was ages afore I could even summon the One Power again."
    "Yet ye were always very strong as a bairn, I still canna understand why ye fear the Power so much now—"
    Lachlan opened his mouth to retort, but Meghan held up an imperative hand, insisting on silence while she made the genuflections necessary before she would cross through the great doorway of stone. When they passed through to the inner circle of stones, the sun was tilted on the far distant peak of the Fang, turning the glacier to rose and lavender. It was sunset, time for the rites to begin. The spring equinox marked the end of winter and the dead time, and the beginning of the summer months. It was a time when the magical tides turned, a shift in the harmonies of the earth. For the first time since the coming of the cooler weather, daylight lingered as long as the night. Though not as important to the witches' calendar as Beltane or Midsummer's Eve, it was still a key event and was usually celebrated with the burning of fragrant candles, the making of wreaths and the ringing of bells. Although the three of them were alone in the forest, Meghan intended to celebrate the equinox as fully as if the Coven of Witches were still a power in the land. Once every family would have decorated the house with evergreen branches and chanted the rites, and the bells would have rung out loudly from every village meetinghouse. Now that the Coven was outlawed and witchcraft forbidden, only a few would dare celebrate the vernal equinox, and they would do it in secret. Even fewer would endure the hours of fasting and praying that Meghan insisted upon first; and when they spoke the incantations, it would be in low voices and with fearful glances.
    Her eyes shut, a wreath of dark leaves on her head, Iseult endured the lonely hours of the Ordeal, thinking of the great snow-capped needles of stone and the white valleys that had always been her home. Iseult missed the Spine of the World. The warmth of these green hills made her slow and soft, and prone to romantic imaginings. Still, she was proud to be following in the footsteps of her hero father, the first of her people to cross the Cursed Peaks and travel in the land of the sorcerers. He had died here, or so she had thought. The dragons had said that he was not dead, only lost, and so Iseult dreamed of finding him and