Dragon Wytch (Page 16)

After a moment, Mees-Mees reappeared. Teribeka followed behind her. Teribeka was one of the oldest priestesses to the Moon Mother, and one of the strongest. She'd been passed over for the spot of High Priestess, though, and no one ever knew why.

"I hear you are destined to visit the grove," Teribeka said, waving at Mees-Mees, who abruptly departed, returning the way we'd come.

I swallowed. Damn it, if only Lyrical had given in and agreed with Nigel, I'd be taking my oath and then spending the night on my first Hunt.

"Yes," I said, suddenly nervous. So much was riding on tonight.

But to my surprise, the old witch just smiled. "Then we'd best hurry, girl. We can't keep the High Priestess waiting."

The High Priestess of the Moon Mother cared for nothing but to serve the will of the Lady. Her only vows were to the Moon herself, and to the Moon Mother she'd pledged her life and her death. She was the gateway to the goddess.

As Teribeka prepared me for the journey, the stars clustered thickly overhead, raining down showers of sparkling light. I licked my lips, staring up at the ancient orb, feeling the weight of the metal as Teribeka bound an engraved belt around my waist, then fastened my hands with silver chains and cuffs behind my back.

She glanced at the sky. "I feel her pull, too," was all she said, but her words steadied me. I flashed her a wary smile as we started down a woodland path from the cottage. As we crept among the trees, the night air was rife with the sounds of whistling birds and feral cats that padded silent through the foliage, prowling on their hunt.

When we approached the entrance of the Grove, Teribeka stood back. "I can go no farther, child. This is a solitary journey, and you must go forward alone into Derisa's garden."

She paused, then placed a gentle hand on my arm. "Think long and hard before you set foot on this path. If the High Priestess Derisa approves, and you kneel before the Goddess this night, your life will never again belong to you. Your heart and soul will be bound inexorably to the Moon."

I glanced at the orb overhead, listening to the breath of the forest. My breast rose and fell to the woodland's rhythm.

"I don't have a choice," I said. "The Moon Mother called me when I was born. There is no other way." I rattled the chains binding my wrists. "My shackles to her are far heavier and stronger than these will ever be."

Teribeka nodded. "Then think before you speak. Death is less terrifying than the wrath of gods. The High Priestess holds the light of the Lady in her hands, and both she and the Moon Mother reward stupidity with a swift and painful death. The Moon not only watches over the night, but she is the forest incarnate. She is the Light Mother of sparkling magic, and she's the Dark Huntress who leads the pack. She will devour you should you stumble."

I forced my feet forward. The branches and decaying leaf detritus clutched at my ankles as if to call out, Stop, don't go! but I kicked it away. As I came to the line of trees guarding the entrance to the Grove, I recognized both oak and willow—strength and intuition.

Pushing through the foliage, I paused to rest my forehead against the gnarled bark. The ancient sentinels of the Grove towered so old, so wide that within their crevices they held the bodies of priestesses from ages past, curled in burial repose. Ivory bones gleamed from the voids hollowed in the trunks. Instinct spurring me on, I curtsied at each grave, paying respect to the lineage that had spawned the Moon Mother's order.

Past the sentinels stood an arched trellis, tightly cloaked in wild roses twining up the stone arc. Wisteria draped from the curved ceiling, pregnant and lush. The scent was heady, intoxicating with a hint of decay curling the edges.

The weight of my chains grew stronger with each step. Would I end up permanently scarred? Blistered from the cold fire of the silver? Or was it merely a reminder that I was near the Grove?

The wind fell to a whisper as I entered the Moon Mother's domain.

Hewn of an ancient oak, fashioned by hands long dead, the great throne of the High Priestess was inset with emeralds and peridot, garnets and moonstone. Polished arms wrapped Derisa in their embrace, curving like some great dragon's feet, and iridescent scales of metal covered the back of the seat against which she rested her head. Sprawled in the throne, a booted leg thrown over the arm, the High Priestess of the Moon remained silent until I approached.

And then she stood. Her silhouette cast a tall shadow against the backdrop of moonlight. Clad in a plum and black silken tunic with breeches and boots, she was dressed for the Hunt, and a nimbus of lavender fire surrounded her, her aura crackling with magic. Dark she was, and beautiful, with tumbling black hair that reached her knees and waxen skin so incredibly pale that it mirrored the moonlight. Her eyes sparked with cold fire as she inspected me, her gaze slicing to the bone.

My knees buckled, and I found myself kneeling on the ground, forehead touching the soil at the foot of the throne.

Derisa stepped down and gently prodded me in the side with one booted toe. "Lyrical recommends we cast you out, Nigel that we take your oath. What do you say? If the need arises, are you truly prepared to forsake your family, forsake your life, forsake even your soul?"

Her voice swept past on a gust of wind as her lilting words wove into my heart and took hold, sucking me under. I looked up, terrified. And yet I managed to meet her gaze.

"The Moon Mother called me when I was a child," I whispered. "This is the only path I've ever wanted to walk. I need her—I can't ignore her summons."

Derisa hesitated, then knelt beside me. She reached out and, fingers resting under my chin, lifted my head to look me straight in the eye. My trembling stopped. She alone would decide my fate, she and the Moon Mother. Fear slipped away like a snake shedding its skin, and I inhaled deeply as I gazed into her beautiful face.

After a long, long while she spoke, and this time her words were soft. "Lyrical says you may be lacking in talent. This is true, although perhaps it's simply that your talent goes astray at times. But Nigel speaks the truth as well. Camille Sepharial te Maria, the Moon Mother sees into your heart and soul and finds it clear. You are both true and brave, half-breed or not. Come child, stand and face me."

I stood.

Derisa leaned close. "The Moon Mother has answered. She will accept you into her service. I ask you once more before you take the oath and there's no turning back: will you give yourself over to her, to do with as she sees fit?"

I nodded, catching a whiff of lilacs and lemon from her perfume. "Oh yes," I said breathlessly. "I'll swear my life to her. And my death."

"Then I will accept your oath. Listen well, girl, and answer." She motioned for me to stand and, as I did, the silver chains clinked delicately, and a breeze rose up, gusting wildly around us.

"Camille Sepharial te Maria, do you of your own will and volition come to the service of the Moon Mother as one of her witches, pledging yourself to her, above everything you hold sacred, including your life and breath?"

My heart began to beat. This was it; I was going to be oath-bound to the Moon Mother, and everything in my life would be set. Nothing would ever again worry me as long as I held the Huntress of the Moon in my heart and soul.

"Yes, oh yes, I swear my oath."

I could barely breathe. Derisa's voice sounded like it was coming from a million miles away, and I began to soar out of my body, my heart echoing the staccato beat of a thousand drums.

"I do swear by my oath."

Then, the questions came quickly, so quick I could barely think.

Camille Sepharial te Maria, will you live for the Moon Mother…

I do swear…

Will you heal for the Moon Mother…

I do swear…

Will you kill for the Moon Mother…

I do swear. . .

Will you die for the Moon Mother. . .

"I do swear by my oath." The gusts grew chill and brisk as the High Priestess reached out and pushed away the shoulder of my gown. It fell open, exposing my breast, and she brushed my hair to the right and pressed her palm against my back, on the left shoulder blade.

A bolt of lightning crossed the starlit sky and struck Derisa, burning through her arm, through her palm, into my back. The shock, as cold as Hel's frozen realms, ate into me, and I clamped my teeth shut, repressing a scream as I trembled against the pain. The energy was sentient, moving, a trail of frozen teeth gobbling a thin line of flesh. It filled the raw channel on my shoulder blade with liquid silver as it spiraled into a coiled tattoo of a labyrinth.

I gasped but held steady until the branding was done. Derisa pulled me into her arms, and her lips sought mine. As she kissed me, her tongue flickering against mine in a passionate welcome, the chains binding my hands fell away, and the belt dropped to the ground. With one movement, the High Priestess stripped me bare of my gown, leaving me naked and shivering in the moonlight.

Gasping, I stretched out my arms, feeling the cold light of my Lady as it poured into me, filled my veins, oozed through my body like slow honey. Laughter began to echo through the Grove, and I felt dizzy with power as the Moon Mother seduced me. Derisa pulled me into her arms and kissed me again, leisurely, slowly, her hands drifting over my body.

"Welcome, newest Daughter of the Moon," she whispered.

I caught my breath as it fully hit me: I was forever pledged to the Lady. Her will was my own. "I belong to her…" I said, unable to keep the joy out of my voice.

Derisa flashed me a feral smile, her eyes wickedly happy. I said nothing. What could I say? My world had changed forever, and I could only lean my head back to gaze up at the sky, nestled within the embrace of the High Priestess.

And then, a faint noise began to echo within the back of my head. The Moon Mother was whispering to me.

And then the whispers became a thunderous tumult—a cacophony of poetry and song. I felt myself teeter on the edge of chaos. She was calling me. Into the woods, to run with her. Into the woods, to join the Hunt, to race with the wild pack across the sky. I could see them: hounds and hares, bears and panthers, warriors and hunters long dead, and wild witches who had eons ago given their oath to the Lady of the Night. And at their helm, the Moon Mother herself led the chase, a silhouette of silver fire with bow slung over her shoulder, fierce and howling through the velvet night.

"Come play with us… come run with us…" the voices beckoned.

With a frantic cry, I looked up at Derisa and saw that she, too, was heeding the call. She reached for my hand, and I placed it in hers, trusting her, trusting the Moon Mother. As Derisa's fingers closed around my palm, we were suddenly aloft, caught up by the Hunt. Caught in the wake of the chase that crossed the sky every month when the moon was full, we leapt onto the astral—body and soul—and went spiraling into the sky, watched over by our giant, brilliant Goddess who gazed down from the heavens.

Everything blurred except the passion for the chase, the drive to seek and catch those who belonged to the night. As reason bled away from my soul, the silver light of moon magic welled up in my heart, and I let go of my last worry, my last fear, and gave myself over forever and always to the Moon Mother.

Chapter Twelve

"Camille? Camille?" Delilah's voice jolted through my thoughts. I shook my head, dazed. The unicorn horn was back in its box, which was still on my lap, and Kitten was shaking my shoulders. "Are you all right?"

I blinked, trying to sort out my thoughts. "I guess so. Apparently, I decided to take an unexpected trip down memory lane. How long was I out?"

Morio glanced at his watch. "Six minutes. At first we thought you were communing with the energy of the horn, but when you let out a squeal and put the horn back in the box, I figured that you'd checked out."

A squeal, huh? Delightful. At my most mystical, I was an intimidating and beautiful sight. I knew it was true, so why bother denying it? However, it would seem this hadn't been one of those times.

"I guess my mind decided it needed a vacation." Inhaling deeply, I savored the awareness a lungful of oxygen brought to my thoughts. Breathing did wonders for the brain.

"I think I jumped into something far deeper than a trance. Unless I miss my guess, I stepped out of time, bilocated, and whisked myself back to my initiation night," I said, letting out a delicate cough. "I could swear I just relived the entire evening—but six minutes? Not quite enough time for that."

"The horn didn't harm you, did it?" Feddrah-Dahns's eyes flickered.

"Harm me? No, not at all." I cautiously reached for the crystal again. "I just wasn't prepared for the intensity of its energy. That crystal spire packs quite a wallop. The shock sent me looping back to… to another time in my life when another great power took hold of me."

Took hold of me, sank in her teeth, and never let go.

As I reached for the horn, it occurred to me that it might be sentient. I could sense stray thoughts and emotions emanating from the spire, and they sure as hell weren't grounded to anybody else in the room.

I raised my finger to my lips, motioning for everyone to hush as I reached deep with my aura, rooting my energy into the soil and branch and root and twigs that lay just outside our door. Though I was no earth witch, I communed just fine with the forests and plants. Their mana would keep me centered.

Once I was prepared, I gently wrapped my hand around the horn and lifted it out of the box again.

This time, when the sweeping range of power swept over me a second time, I was able to keep myself afloat. When I started to flounder in the sea of energy, I forced myself to focus on the horn in my hand, on the chair on which I was sitting, on Feddrah-Dahns and Mistletoe and Delilah and Morio, all of whom watched me anxiously.