A sudden movement of the crowd swept her almost off her feet; she lost her balance and collided with a man in a dark cloak. He murmured something, then started. "Eilan! Is it really you?” Strong hands seized her elbows and a familiar voice demanded, "Where did you come from?”
And Eilan looked up into the one face which of all the faces in the world she had least expected to see; the face of Gaius Macellius.
Wordless, she clung to him. He felt her trembling and pulled her closer. Abruptly the confusion around her was stilled by the circle of his arms.
"Eilan—” he repeated. "I did not dare dream I would find you here!”
But I did, thought Eilan dimly. When I woke this morning my first thought was that you were near; why did I not trust it?
His arms tightened around her; and in that moment she forgot all of Caillean’s words of warning, all her own misgivings and fears. She knew only that she was happy.
She laughed a little shakily. "I’m afraid I lost myself; I was trying to return to the Forest House, or at least to the other priestesses who came to the festival, but I was not sure which way to go.”
"The road is over there,” he began, and then at her involuntary movement, broke out, "Must you really go back at once? I came to this—this part of the world, only in the hope of seeing you—”
She could hear, as clearly as if he had spoken, I cannot bear to let her go now!
"If you go we may never meet again,” he burst out, his voice shaking as he spoke. "I think I could not bear it, to lose you again. Eilan…” His lips hesitated on the sound of her name like a caress; she felt it like a wash of cool fire across her skin. "You cannot leave me…” he murmured into her veil. "It is Fate that has brought you here, alone…”
Not precisely alone! she thought, smiling at the surging crowds around them. But it was true; only Fate, or the Goddess, could have brought her here, to his arms. Deliberately she set aside the training that had required a sworn priestess in the company of a man who was neither father, grandsire or brother to keep her eyes modestly cast down, and looked at him.
And what had she thought she would see? What could her eyes tell her, she wondered, seeing how strongly his hair still curled off his forehead, the stubborn jut of the jaw beneath the short beard he had grown on his last campaign, and the naked need in his dark eyes, that her heart did not already know? The inner and outer vision came abruptly together, and she saw at once the pinched face of the boy she had nursed four years ago, the strong features of the man he was becoming, and something else, a face battered by experience and discontent, its young promise being eroded by the years.
My poor love, she thought, is that what you will be?
"Must you really go?” he repeated, and she murmured, "No.”
Gaius swallowed, and lifted her veil back from her forehead. She felt him stiffen then, and realized that he had noticed for the first time the blue crescent drawn between her brows.
"I am a priestess,” she said quietly and felt him flinch in understanding. But he did not let her go, and she did not pull away.
The very thought that she might not see him again was beginning to take the light from the sky. No doubt Caillean would have told her to leave him at once; but for once she would not do what the older priestess thought wiser, but what she wanted to do. And whatever came of it, this time, at least, Caillean could not be punished for it.
Two drovers blundered into them and backed away, eyeing them oddly as they caught sight of Eilan’s blue robes. Gaius frowned and wrapped his brown cloak around her, pulling her veil back up to hide her bright hair.
"Let’s get you out of this crowd, anyway,” he muttered. His arm was still around her, strong and steadying, and as they walked on, neither knew quite where they were going, only that they were together, and it was away from the crowds.