Gaius and Cynric wandered together through the laughing throng until, near the fires, they encountered Eilan and Dieda.
“There you are!” exclaimed Cynric, hurrying forward. “Dieda, come dance with me.”
All the color left Dieda’s face and she held on to Eilan’s hand.
“You have not heard?” asked Eilan brightly.
“Heard what, Sister?” Cynric began to frown.
“She has been chosen for the Forest House — by Lhiannon herself, this very afternoon!”
Cynric reached out to Dieda, and then, slowly, let his hands fall. “The Goddess has spoken?”
“How can you accept this?” Dieda’s spirit seemed to come back to her. “You know I cannot marry you if I must take vows.”
“And you know what vows already bind me,” he said somberly. “I have been torn to pieces trying to decide. I love you but I cannot encumber myself with a wife and children for years, if ever. Perhaps the gods have chosen this way for us.”
He drew a shaken breath and this time when he reached out she came to him. Dieda was a tall girl, but she seemed fragile, encircled by his strong arms.
“Listen, beloved, there is still a way,” he said softly, taking her aside. “Three years you can give the Goddess — you need not pledge yourself lifelong. There is a battle college in the northern islands, and it is there that I am bound to go. But you are no battle-maiden; even if we were publicly pledged you could not come to me there. Perhaps it is as well you are to serve in the sanctuary for a time – you will be safer there. And if war should come . . .”
Dieda gave a little sob and buried her face against his shoulder. Gaius saw Cynric’s big hands close on her arms.
“For three years other vows will bind us,” he whispered, “but tonight is ours. Eilan, stay here with Gawen,” he added, his voice muffled by Dieda’s hair.
Eilan hesitated. “Mother said that Dieda and I were to stay together – it is Beltane —”
Dieda lifted her head, and her eyes were wild. “Have some pity! Rheis dares not cross your father – and my father —” She swallowed. “If they knew, they would not let us have even this little time!”
Her eyes wide and grave, Eilan nodded.
“Was I wrong to leave Eilan alone with the stranger?” Dieda whispered as Cynric led her away. “After all, he has lived among the Romans and may have their ways with women.”
“He is a guest in our house; even if he were the son of the Procurator himself . . .”
“He can’t be,” Dieda giggled suddenly. “My father says that the Procurator has only a single daughter.”
“— if he were, surely, he would respect the daughter of his host. And Eilan is only a child,” Cynric replied.
“She and I were born in the same year,” Dieda said. “You think her a child because she is your sister.”
“What were you expecting?” Cynric asked irritably. “That I should tell you how much I love you before them both?”
“What is there left to say? Certainly not enough -” And she stopped, for his arms were around her, and he stooped to cut off her words with a kiss.
She clung to him for a moment, then broke uneasily away. “That doesn’t help,” she said. “And if we should be seen . . .”
He laughed mirthlessly. “They haven’t put you under vows yet, have they? And I could always say it was Eilan I kissed.” He put his hands under her elbows, lifting her on tiptoe, and bent to kiss her once more. After a moment all her resistance melted, and she let him mold her against him, kissing her again and again. When he broke away, his voice cracked, “How sane I sounded, a few moments ago! But I was wrong. I can’t let you do this thing!”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t let you be walled up with all those women.”
“What else can I do?” Now she had to be the sensible one. “Cynric, you’re Druid-bred, you know the laws as well as I. Lhiannon has chosen. Where the hand of the Goddess has fallen . . .”