He broke off and stared fiercely from Eilan to Mairi, who took a tottering step towards him. Groaning, he gathered both of his daughters into his arms. Sobbing, Eilan held on to her sister. Once she would have found comfort in her father’s arms, but these were griefs from which he could not protect her.
“Senara’s body was not found in the ashes,” he said brokenly, “and she was not yet ten years old . . .”
Eilan thought, Then it may well be that she still lives . . .but she did not say it aloud.
“I had meant to bring Mairi home when the news about Rhodri was confirmed, but now I have no home to offer her. I can give no protection to anyone now . . .”
“Lord Druid, perhaps you cannot,” said Caillean quietly, “but your Order can. The Forest House will shelter Mairi and the little
ones for as long as they have need. And I want to ask if you would permit Eilan to enter as a novice priestess of the shrine.”
Bendeigid sat up and looked sharply at Eilan. “Is that what you want, child?”
“It is,” she said simply. “If I may not marry where I love, then let me give my love to the Lady. It would please me indeed, for I used to dream about such a life before I was old enough to think of marriage at all.”
For the first time, her father smiled, albeit shakily. “It will please your grandsire, at any rate. I had not intended this life for you, Eilan, but if it is truly what you want, then I am pleased too.”
“But what —” Eilan bit back the words. How could she have forgotten? Her mother would never say anything more to her at all. But her father seemed to have sensed what she could not say. He sank down again by the hearth, his face buried in his hands. She had never guessed that her father could weep. But when he looked up again she saw his cheeks streaked with tears.
Eilan was likewise bereft, but she had no tears. Will Gaius think me dead when he hears? Will he weep for me? Better, perhaps, that he should think her dead than faithless to his memory. But it did not matter; she would be a priestess of the Forest House. Beyond that she could not make her mind go.
“They shall be avenged!” exclaimed the Druid, gazing into the flames. “In all of Britain shall those wild devils find no lives so costly as these! Even the Romans have never dared so far, and I tell you I would accept help even from them to get revenge! This will mean war! For it is not only rapine and murder, Eilan; it is sacrilege. To attack the home of a Druid, kill the wife and daughter and granddaughter of Druids; and destroy the sacred things – how could they do it? The Northerners are our kinsfolk, and I have studied with the Druids of Eriu.”
“It has ever been the way of our people to fight each other when there was no common enemy,” Caillean quietly observed.
“But we do have such an enemy,” exclaimed Bendeigid. “Do not we all hate Rome?”
“Perhaps the wild tribes think of us as Romans now . . .”
The Druid shook his head. “The gods will surely punish them; and if they do not, our people will. Cynric has been as a son to me, and I tell you, he will curse when he hears of this day! But he is away in the islands to the north. You and Mairi are all that are left to me, Eilan.”
Indeed, she thought, remembering. I have so few kin left and Dieda too has lost a sister. Will she welcome me to the Forest House?
Well, whatever came of it, a priestess she would be. Of her father’s blood remained Mairi, and her newborn daughter, and her son; she wished that these children might be a comfort to her father. He was not yet old; he might marry again and have others of his own or, more likely, Mairi would find a new husband and have more. But if Eilan went to the Forest House, he would get no grandchildren from her.