"And what do the omens say this hour is propitious for?” Close to him, the reality of his presence was overpowering. Eilan was glad the old tales had taught her how to reply.
"It is propitious for the making of a priestess in the ancient way,” he said gently. "They have told you that a priestess must be physically a virgin, but it is not so. A priestess of the Goddess gives herself at her own time and season, and when the power has passed through her, resumes her sovereignty. She gives, but is never taken. She is the initiator who sanctifies the Sacred King, that he may bestow the blessing on his queen, and life may be renewed in the land.”
"And that is what you want of me?” Eilan realized that she was trembling. "How can I do it? I do not know how!”
"Not you, but the Goddess within you—” Eilan’s breath stopped as he smiled. "And it is my office to awaken Her.”
He released the hide, and as its stiff folds fell away she saw that he was naked, his body the image of the potent god. He smoothed the hair that curled away from her temples, and it seemed to her she would have fallen without the support of those strong hands. Then he bent to kiss her upon the brow.
Goddess! her spirit cried, and felt consciousness ignited by a white flame that surged downward as he kissed her lips, her breasts, and knelt to bless her womb. In that moment she was aware of her own essence as she had never been before, and yet at the same time, all selfhood was subsumed in Another, and whether that Presence was a part of her or she of it, or Her, Eilan could not say. What she knew beyond question was that in a sense that surpassed even the comfort of Gaius’s arms around her, she was no longer alone.
Eilan burned and was not consumed, and it seemed to her that the voice she had heard sang in tones of flame—
"The enemy you would conquer, you must love…
The law you would fulfill, you must defy…
The thing that you would keep, you must now give…
Thus will you have the victory…
Daughter of Druids, through you the Dragon will be reborn.”
Her awareness flared with images of blood and splendor, battles and stone cities and a green tor above an inland sea, fire and sword and finally a fair-haired man with Gaius’s eyes who rode to battle with the image of the Lady on his shield.
"I will!” came her reply. "But do not leave me alone—”
"Daughter, I am always here,” came the reply. "Thou art Mine, from age to age while Time endures.”
She knew that she had heard those words before, that this was only the renewing of an ancient bond, but the love that lapped her was becoming a sea in which she drowned, a light in which all awareness was consumed.
Eilan’s next conscious thought was of floating in cool water. She sensed dark trees around her, and moonlight, and in the next moment many hands had hold of her and were lifting her to the shore. She blinked in amazement as she realized that she was lying beside the bathing pool in the stream below the House of Maidens.
Eilan tried to speak and found she could not. She realized then that what had happened to her was a mystery too deep for telling, even here. And yet she wondered that they could not see it, for the Divine Heat still blazed within her so that her skin dried as soon as they helped her rise from the pool. In silence the other women clad her in a robe of new linen dyed the deep blue that the consecrated priestesses wore.
"You have journeyed between the worlds; you have seen the light that is without shadow; you have been purified…” said a voice Eilan recognized as Caillean’s. She looked up, but it was the woman she had seen on the parapet in her vision who seemed to be standing there. "Daughter of the Goddess, arise, that your sisters may welcome you—”
The priestesses helped her to her feet and fell in behind her as she followed Caillean along the path that led to the Sacred Grove.