Better stop before I cut off one of my fingers! I thought, blinking, and bent to set the pruning knife on the ground. The hedge was an old one, and before me, twisted branches formed a natural backrest. It felt natural to curl into it, and in another moment my eyes had closed.
My lips moved soundlessly. Shelter me for a little while, hazel sister, and I will finish trimming your hair…
I never knew whether it was some sound from below or a whisper from the hazel hedge itself that woke me. For a moment, still dazed with sleep, I could not think why my heart was thudding with alarm.
The shadows had lengthened just a little, and the afternoon was warm and still. I glimpsed Dierna’s red head near the reedbeds farther along the shore—the girls must be watching the ducklings. Then a closer movement caught my eye. Becca was crawling along the trunk of the old oak tree that had fallen half into the water during the last storm.
I leapt to my feet. “Becca! Stop!”
For a moment I thought the little girl had heard me, but Becca’s pause was only to grab at something in the Lake. Then she was on her way again.
“Becca, stop! Hold on!” I cried as I galloped down the hill. Dierna was standing up now, but the shoreline curved inward here and she was too far away. I saved the rest of my breath for running as I saw the toddler stand up, reach towards the water with a glad cry, and fall in.
I felt a flicker of wonder that time, which a few moments before had seemed to drag so endlessly, should now be passing in such a swift whirl. Becca had disappeared beneath the surface. Grass and shrubs flashed past, and then I was thrashing through the shallows, reaching out as the little girl came up, flailing, and snatching her into my arms.
Becca gave one hiccup, coughed up water, and then began to scream.
In moments, it seemed, we were surrounded by priestesses. I relinquished the child to the little dark Lake-woman who had been brought to Avalon to be her nurse and sighed with relief as the sound of Becca’s cries faded away. But in the next moment I realized that someone was still yelling.
Dierna was crouched on the ground, whimpering as Ganeda berated her with a violence all the more shocking because her body was as rigid as stone. Only her hair, escaping from its coiled braids, jerked and trembled. I stared, half-expecting it to burst into flame.
“Do you understand me? Your sister could have drowned! And with your poor mother lying ill—do you want to kill her too, by destroying her child?”
She is worried about Sian, I told myself, but even the other priestesses looked shocked at the venom in Ganeda’s tone.
Dierna shook her head, grinding her cheek into the earth in an agony of negation. Beneath the freckles her face was as white as bone.
Just as fear had moved me to save Becca, compassion compelled me into action now. A swift step brought me to Dierna’s side. I bent, cradling the girl in my arms as if the assault from which I strove to protect her was physical.
“She meant no harm! She was playing—it was too much responsibility for so young a child!” I looked up at the High Priestess, beginning to tremble myself as that furious gaze fixed on me instead. I used to wonder if my dead mother had resembled her sister—I hoped that Rian had never looked the way Ganeda did now.
“She must learn discipline! She is of the sacred line of Avalon!” Ganeda exclaimed.
So am I, Aunt—so am I! I thought, but my own mouth was going dry with fear. Once I hoped that you would love me, but I don’t think you even know how!
“Get away from her, before I forget to be grateful to you for saving the little one. You cannot stand between Dierna and her punishment!”
Dierna gasped and clutched at my waist. I tightened my own grip, staring up at the older woman defiantly.