Sara Douglass – Battleaxe

Will you be my friend, Timozel? I would like an Axe-Wielder for my friend.” The request was so

strange and so unexpected that Timozel’s eyes flew open. In front of him stood the most horrific

and disgusting creature he’d ever seen. He screamed with such intensity that the kind blackness

came to claim him again.

30

THE MOTHER

As night fell Raum advised Faraday to take Shra and try to get a few hours‘ sleep before

the ceremony at the Mother. Faraday looked for guidance to Jack and Yr, but they told her to

trust Raum in whatever he asked her to do, so Faraday cradled the sleepy child in her arms and

curled up in one of the blankets. The last thing she saw before finally drifting off into sleep was

Jack, Yr and Raum sitting around a small campfire, deep in conversation.

Raum shook her awake some hours later. ―It is time,‖ he said softly. Faraday sat up and

rubbed her eyes. It was very cold and she shivered when the blanket fell from her shoulders. For

once the cloud cover had blown away and the stars wheeled above them in their countless

thousands, while the full moon floated fat and complacent just above the peaks of the mountains.

Faraday woke the child who, uncomplaining, wrapped her arms about Faraday‘s neck as the

young woman hefted her into her arms. ―Where are Jack and Yr?‖ she whispered.

Raum nodded to the tree line and Faraday could just make out the huddled forms of the

two Sentinels as they sat and watched under the nearest of the trees. ―They will not disturb us,‖

Raum said softly. ―Now, do not say another word unless I ask it of you. Are you ready?‖

Faraday nodded silently.

―Then come.‖ Raum turned his back and started to walk down to the lake. Some twenty

paces before the water‘s edge he stopped and turned to Faraday and Shra. ―We must take our

clothes off here,‖ he said. ―The Mother demands that we meet her as naked as the day we were

born.‖

Faraday opened her mouth to protest, but Raum‘s eyes bored into her own so fiercely that

eventually she nodded stiffly and slipped Shra out of her tunic and leggings. Putting the still

placid child down on the ground, she slipped out of her rough woollen dress. The shock of the

night air on Faraday‘s naked skin instantly raised gooseflesh and she shivered as she folded her

dress. Unbidden by Raum, but feeling it was the right thing to do, Faraday unpinned her hair and

shook it down her back. Turning around and picking Shra up again, Faraday averted her eyes

from Raum‘s nakedness and was grateful that the dark of the night hid her own hot face. She

suddenly thought about what her mother would have said about this, and for an instant her eyes

stung with painful tears, but she blinked them away. Hugging the child to her, Faraday followed

Raum down towards the water.

Raum turned as they reached the water‘s edge. ―Remember, no sound unless I ask you.

Put Shra down. She will have to stand on her own for this.‖

As Faraday slid the child down onto her feet, Raum quickly stooped and picked up

something from a large flat rock at his feet. Faraday‘s eyes widened as she realised that he held a

large hare in one hand and a sharp bone knife in the other. Again Raum‘s eyes met her own and

Faraday bit her lip to stop herself from saying anything. Although its flickering ears indicated

that it was still alive, the hare lay virtually motionless in Raum‘s arm.

―Thank you,‖ he whispered almost inaudibly to the hare, ―for this sacrifice that you are

willing to make for us. Tonight, you will join with the Mother.‖ Then, hefting the bone knife in

his other hand, he made a long slit down into the hare‘s chest cavity. Blood welled out of the

deep gash and shone darkly in the moonlight. Placing the knife back on the stone again, Raum

dipped the fingers of one hand into the blood and bent down to Shra.

―With this blood, freely given by friend hare, I bind you with the Mother. Will you

promise to serve her, to aid her, and never betray her?‖

―I do so swear,‖ Shra lisped, and Faraday realised that they were the first words she had

heard the child speak.

―Then may the paths to the Sacred Grove always remain open to your feet, Shra,‖ Raum

said gently. He ran the fingers of his bloodied hand lightly along her face and chest, leaving three

parallel lines running down her body. ―With this blood you are bound.‖

Raum rose and faced Faraday. ―With this blood, freely given by friend hare, I bind you

with the Mother. Will you promise to serve her, to aid her, and never betray her?‖ Raum asked.

Faraday thought of her eighteen years of utter devotion to Artor and her complete trust in

the Seneschal. She wondered what she was doing, how she could possibly have found herself in

this situation? She opened her mouth to say the words, but for a moment nothing would come

out. Gaping helplessly, she wondered if she should run, run as fast and as far as she could. Then,

just as she was about to break from Raum‘s stare, Faraday remembered how she had felt at the

Star Gate, how she had thought then that Artor was totally insignificant compared to the deeper

mysteries of the Forbidden. There was more to life, and more beautiful, than the Seneschal‘s

Way of the Plough.

―I do so swear,‖ she said softly. Raum dipped his fingers into the blood again and raised

them to her face, tracing three long trails of warm clotted blood down her forehead and the

length of her face so that one trail ran down her nose and mouth to the point of her chin and the

other two ran down either cheek.

―Then may the paths to the Sacred Groves always remain open to your feet, Faraday.‖

Raum ran his fingers down Faraday‘s chest, leaving one trail of blood down her sternum, and the

other two trails tracing down her breasts to her nipples. ―With this blood you are bound.‖

Faraday closed her eyes, repulsed by the feel of the warm slick blood on her breasts,

unable to stop herself remembering the feel of the hot blood as it had splattered and run down her

breasts in her vision. When she opened them again Raum was still staring at her, but his eyes

were sympathetic and Faraday realised he understood the feelings the blood had stirred in her.

Feeling empowered as somewhere deep within her the Mother enriched her new daughter with

strength and courage and understanding. Her doubts and fears faded.

Raum spoke gently. ―Faraday, will you honour me with the Mother‘s marks?‖ He held

the hare out slightly away from his body.

Faraday, no longer afraid or even cold, dipped her fingers into the hare‘s chest cavity,

realising with a start that the animal‘s heart was still beating. She raised her dripping fingers and

marked Raum as he had her, and then smiled at him. ―May this blood renew your bonds with the

Mother,‖ she said, ―and may your feet hold firm to the paths of the Sacred Grove.‖

Raum smiled at her, pleased that she had bonded so well, and then reached down to the

hare and tore its living heart out with an abrupt twist of his hand.

―Mother, with this heart‘s blood may you wake for us this night,‖ he cried into the still

night, hurling the still quivering heart into the lake. As soon as the heart and its blood drops

spattered across the surface of the water the entire lake burst into a luminous deep emerald

glow—the lake became a vast bowl of light. The sight was so beautiful that Faraday was unable

to stop a gasp of wonder.

Raum turned from the lake, tossing aside the carcass of the hare, and touched Faraday‘s

shoulder gently, his eyes reflecting the emerald light. ―Behold the Mother,‖ he smiled at her.

Faraday could not tear her eyes from the spectacular scene before her. The emerald lake

lit up the entire mountain, and even the stars in the night sky reflected some of the luminous

colour of the water. Power seemed to vibrate from the lake, calling to Faraday, and at last she turned her eyes toward Raum in mute appeal.

―Yes,‖ he whispered. ―It is time to present you to the Mother.‖ He leaned down to pick

up Shra and then held out his hand for Faraday. ―Take my hand, Faraday, and walk with me and

Shra through the Mother and into the Sacred Grove. Be welcomed.‖

Faraday grasped his warm hand, and then they slowly began to walk down into the water.

Timozel again felt himself being pulled into the nightmare and he struggled against it,