Dieda lifted her hand, and the silence was broken by a shimmer of silver bells.
“Hail to thee, thou new moon, guiding jewel of gentleness,” sang the maidens, nearly a round dozen, all of them come to the Forest House since Eilan had become High Priestess. The most recent arrivals had been drawn by Dieda’s music. When old Ardanos had schemed to get his two kinswomen into Vernemeton he had wrought better than he knew. Caillean listened to those pure voices offering their praise to heaven and sighed in pure content.
“I am bending to thee my knee,
I am offering thee my love;
I am bending to thee my knee,
I am giving thee my hand
I am lifting to thee mine eye
Oh, new moon of the seasons!”
With each phrase they were bending, then reaching upward in supplication, eyes fixed on the silver sickle above, so that their chanting became a dance. Now they began slowly to move sunwise around the circle, arms uplifted to the sky.
“Hail to thee, thou new moon,
Joyful maiden of my love!
Hail to thee, thou new moon
Joyful maiden of the graces!
Thou art traveling in thy course,
Thou art showing us thy shining face,
O new moon of the seasons!”
Caillean let her gaze unfocus and allowed the rhythm of the chanting to carry her ever deeper into trance. Each time it grew easier. There had been a barren period in her life when nothing seemed to have meaning any more. But thanks to the Goddess, that seemed to be over. With the ending of her blood cycles, the floodgates of her spirit had opened, and with each season she felt ever more strongly the tides of power.
And it is because of you, Eilan, she thought, sending her awareness winging towards the dark bulk of the Forest House beyond the trees. Can you hear how sweetly your daughters are singing now?
Unbidden, her own arms were opening; the girls that circled the altar seemed to move in a haze of light.
“Thou queen-maiden of guidance,
Thou queen-maiden of good fortune,
Thou queen-maiden, my beloved new moon of the seasons!”
Once more the bells shivered sweetly and the singing faded to silence; but it was a charged silence now, pregnant with power. Caillean reached out and felt the shock of completion as the other two grasped her hands; a second shift told her that the maidens had joined hands in a circle around them.
“Know, O my sisters, that the moon power is the Power of women, the light that shines in the darkness, the tides that rule the inner planes. The maiden moon governs all growth and all beginnings, and so it is that we draw on her power for those purposes for which our help has been requested. Sisters, are you willing to lend your energy to the work that we do now?”
There was a murmur of assent from the circle, and Caillean planted her feet more firmly in the cool grass.
“We call upon the Goddess, the Lady of Life, whose garment is the starry heavens; She is the virgin bride, the mother of all living, the wisdom beyond the circles of the world. She is all goddesses, and all the goddesses are one Goddess; in all Her phases, in all our faces, as She shines in the heavens, She shines within us all!” It was as if she sought to breathe against the wind. “Goddess, hear us—” she called.
“Goddess, be near us—” the others echoed her.
“Goddess, hear us now!” The tension was almost unbearable; she could feel it thrilling through the hands braced against her own.
“For the healing of Bethoc, mother of Ambigatos, we raise this power!”
She heard Dieda intone the first note of the healing chord and a quarter of the circle joining her, the sound low and thrilling as a harp string, but deeper, sweeter, louder, continuing on and on. Then came the second note; now half the circle was singing; and the third, as the chord built and was completed on a high note above which Dieda’s voice rose in a clear descant like a lark winging into the sky. It was a principle used by the harpers of Eriu in their magic, but it had been Eilan’s idea to apply it to singing, and Dieda who worked out the technique of it and taught the girls. It was like being inside a harp to stand in the midst of that singing. And gradually, as their voices blended, Caillean began to touch the spirits of the others as well.