‘Have patience, clansman,’ she said. ‘Cernunnos ruled for hundreds of years. In that time he took human wives and raised many sons. One of those sons, Rigantis, rose against him. A colossal war took place. In the end Rigantis stormed the castle of his father and beheaded him. The reign of Cernunnos ended. He was the only Seidh ever to suffer death, as far as we know. Rigantis tossed away the crown, returning conquered lands to conquered peoples. He stayed in the north and raised his own sons, at last forming the Rigante clan. These are our legends. These legends are known to every Rigante child.
‘And here is the hard fact: they are not legends at all. Cernunnos lived. Cernunnos reigned. Cernunnos was beheaded. But he did not die. The body was burned in holy fire, the bones reduced to ash. But not the skull. Cernunnos was a Seidh, and the Seidh took the skull. They placed it in a box of black iron, and covered it with ward spells. It was hidden then from the eyes of men. For centuries. I have not tried to follow the events all the way from that day to this, but what I do know is that the skull was found five hundred years ago. The men who found it called themselves the Dezhem Bek, the Ravenous Ravens. They brought the world to the brink of ruin before they were overthrown. They called the skull the Orb of Kranos, and claimed it healed wounds and offered visions. The skull disappears from history at that time, but some two hundred years later it was brought to the town of Shelsans, across the narrow sea. Priests there understood its potential for evil. They tried to destroy it, but no-one now knows how to make the holy fire. The skull was impervious to blows. They could not smash it, nor grind it. So they hid it below ground.
‘It was in Shelsans that Winter Kay found the skull. Unlike the original Dezhem Bek he did not merely use its latent power. He fed it. He fed it with blood. A few days ago he killed the king, and allowed his blood to flow over the ancient bone. This was an error of tragic proportions. As every man here knows the king’s grandfather was from the north. He had Rigante ancestors. Traces of that Rigante heritage were in the king’s blood. The first Rigante were born of Cernunnos and a human wife. In effect a living part of Cernunnos – the blood of one of his descendants – was applied to the dead bone of his skull. What was before merely a relic with some latent earth magic clinging to it is now fully sentient. It hungers for life, for power. It seeks a return to the flesh. It desires to walk upon the earth, and rule as it once did. Should that happen then the war in the south will seem little more than a child’s game in a meadow.’
She fell silent and approached the table. Jugs of water and goblets had been laid there. The Dweller filled a goblet and sipped the contents.
Korrin Talis was the first to speak. ‘You are saying that the Seidh have returned, Dweller. Is that not what we have been praying for these last eight centuries? Have you yourself not spoken of such a miracle?’
‘Aye, I have,’ she admitted. ‘I dreamed, as the old often do, of a return to a golden age. I thought the wisdom of the Seidh would help us restore the land. What I now understand is that their wisdom was what led them to leave us in the first place.’
‘You believe then,’ said Potter Highstone, ‘that Cernunnos is evil?’
She shook her head. ‘He transcends evil, Badger. If an ant were able to think as we do, would he not see as evil the child who stamped on him? Would the bull about to be slain for the Beltine Feast see as good and kindly the Rigante who cut his throat? Cernunnos is evil in our terms. He will bring destruction and terror on a scale not seen for millennia. He will do this because he can, and because it brings him closer to his goal: the destruction of all human life.’