Chapter 43
Sparks shot into the air. Katarin watched them dance, the way they seemed to pull away from each other only to be drawn back together. She sat back, stretching her legs out, boots towards the fire, and sighed.
Olwen poked the fire with a stick, sending a shower of sparks flying upwards. Most people had sought their beds hours ago. Sitting across the fire from them were Tristan and Isolde, the skinroamer with her head in Tristan’s lap. They’d washed the journey from their faces and had full bellies.
Katarin couldn’t sleep. She didn’t want to sleep.
She didn’t want to walk in her dreams, even if it meant she might see her mother once more.
In her dreams, Cruithea was calling, and it was getting louder.
Katarin didn’t want to see the horned woman again either.
She could sense her, waiting. She wasn’t afraid of her, but she knew exactly who she was.
Inanna, come for her Chosen.
Olwen sat back, abandoning her stick, leaning over to press a kiss to Katarin’s shoulder. For a moment, Kat froze, her eyes skating to Tristan and Isolde, but neither of them gave any indication they’d seen. Displays of affection, even small, were not something Katarin was used to.
She cleared her throat. ‘Tristan, do you have any idea how many Witchfinders might have joined Mordred? How many would have followed Mark to Dinas Emrys?’
It was Isolde who answered. ‘At least twenty, if they all made it out of Malist after Medb’s attack on the city.’
‘Twenty,’ Kat echoed. ‘Fantastic. Well, however many there were, there are five less after Marsh’s failed attempt to take our ship.
’ She shifted her position, crossing her legs, tapping her fingers against her thigh.
‘I always thought the Sheletari were devoted to the Sacellum and the One God. How did some of them end up…’
‘With my husband?’ Isolde asked. ‘Power.’
Kat glanced at Tristan. ‘And you? I know you didn’t have a choice in joining but did you seek power?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘My uncle tried to encourage me to shift to his legion of Witchfinders, but he soon decided I wasn’t powerful enough.
Nor did I want it. He called me a coward because I didn’t seek to covet others or control them.
I apparently lacked ambition. But, I’m from Kunis.
We revere the Red One. Everything we do is for Her. ’
‘Mark was always angry about that,’ Isolde said, sitting up. ‘He couldn’t stand the idea that an Old One – a goddess at that – was going to upset his ambitions. He wanted to rule the Sacellum, and under him, there would have been nothing but the One God.’
Olwen smiled lazily. ‘I’d love to have seen his face when he realised that not only was the Sacellum under the control of the Red Sisters, but that it was smoothing the way for Ereshki to return.’
Kat frowned. ‘Wait a second. That’s not—’
‘To be taken literally,’ Olwen cut in. ‘It isn’t about Her but about her vision for the world – the one she saw your brother create. His elevation to king is Her return.’
Katarin blinked. ‘She really orchestrated everything?’
Olwen nodded.
‘And if Arthur doesn’t get to create the world she saw?’ Kat swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. So much lay on Arthur’s shoulders. It was no wonder he sought comfort in that sword attached to his hip.
‘Then She will start again, somehow,’ Olwen explained. ‘But I have a feeling She won’t have to. Arthur will give us the future the Two in One has been trying to create for centuries.’
Isolde and Tristan headed for bed, leaving Kat and Olwen to watch the dying fire.
‘Olwen,’ Kat said. ‘Can you tell me about Inanna? I’ve been trying to remember everything my aunt had tried to teach me, but I was a child and I wasn’t interested.’
‘But you are now,’ Olwen stated. ‘Does that mean—’
‘I haven’t decided anything yet,’ Kat said firmly. ‘But I am worried about what Gaheris said, and what Melhala said. I’m worried about what might happen to Cruithea if Mordred isn’t defeated.’
Olwen nodded. ‘I worry about that as well.’
‘Why? It isn’t your home,’ Katarin pointed out.
‘But it is,’ Olwen corrected. ‘It is the home of the Two in One. I might not have lived beneath those trees, like you, but I have lived with the sister goddesses. Cruithea is as important to me as it is to you, Katarin.’
‘Tell me about them then. If I am to do this, I’ll need to know,’ Kat said, but Olwen surprised her by shaking her head.
‘After Arthur does what Ereshki and Inanna wish him to – close the realms – you won’t need to know, because they will no longer walk this earth,’ Olwen said. ‘The Old Ones will be gone, Kat. It will be up to the people to decide how to live.’
Katarin sighed. ‘Are people ready for that?’
‘Men have always been ready for power. The problem is what they do with it once they get it. The Sacellum was created by the Red Sisters,’ Olwen began. ‘The Word was written by the Red One, and men changed it.’
‘Why didn’t you stop it?’ Kat asked. ‘If you knew it was happening, why not stop it?’
‘Because She told us not to,’ Olwen said.
‘It changed only by word of mouth, to begin with. Was it a mistake to let them? Perhaps. Men like Mark saw an opportunity for control and they took it. Malist has always remained under the control of the Red Sisters. The poisonous corrupted version of the Word was taken to places like Kernou and to the south of Teyath. It spread, and by the time we understood what had happened, it was too late to change it.’ She poked at the fire with her stick again.
A flurry of sparks shot into the sky. ‘This has all been at play for a long time, Katarin – whispers behind hands, plotting and scheming. A coup led not from inside the Sacellum but from outside of it. We had no choice but to let it happen. If the Red Sisters abandoned Malist to put out spot fires, we’d have lost the city and the Sacellum. ’
‘But those spot fires became a forest fire,’ Kat mumbled.
‘Yes,’ Olwen agreed sadly. ‘The only thing that stopped it spreading to Malist was the presence of the Warriors of the Light. Mark and those who supported him did not have the power to stand against them.’
‘Yet Ereshki allowed women to suffer,’ Katarin pointed out. ‘She allowed our power, our agency, to be taken from us.’
‘Did she?’ Olwen asked. ‘Think about it. Those women you rescued. Women like Jenyfer. What better way to build an army than to give them something to fight for? Something to reclaim?’
Katarin shook her head in disgust. ‘Fuck your goddess,’ she snarled. ‘She’s no better than the rest of them. I’m glad they’ll be gone.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ Olwen said. ‘Or maybe not. This shit stain of a world has allowed something else to happen, something none of those men could have ever predicted.’
Kat snorted. ‘And what’s that?’
‘Your brother,’ Olwen answered softly. ‘A man born in the heart of adversity. A man who has seen the darkness. Who has had to fight it so he can see the truth of himself and now, he will fight it for the rest of us so that we will have a world bathed in Light.’
Katarin stared at her, stunned at the depth of it all, at how an Old One’s scheming had played out and had led them all here. Had ultimately brought them all together. ‘So by having the true Word redistributed…’
Olwen nodded. ‘Rebuilding a world won’t be easy, Kat, but words are powerful things – they will think they’re still following the One God for a while, until eventually, they’ll forget about him, and they’ll shift their faith to Arthur.’
‘You’re so certain of that,’ Kat mumbled.
Olwen smiled. ‘People need something or someone to believe in. And the Red Sisters are behind him. We will spread the new Word – Arthur’s Word – once he has written it.’