Our custom, in those days, was to tell all of the young boys to work hard at the business of men – hunting, fighting, tale-telling, and the like – for we knew that, one day, Cyrddhwe, the Horned Lord, would return to us. In an elder age, he led our ancestors over the water to these isles; when our need was greatest, he would come to us, once more. That was the wisdom passed down to me by Aehlric, who instructed me in herb-lore and in the reading of the stars in my long-ago youth.
Aehlric was slain some twenty winters ago, when Remai sandals first trod upon the sacred black earth of our homeland and Remai swords first tasted the blood of our people, and so I became the druid of my tribe. We watched for the signs. We made the offerings of old. We begged for Cyrddhwe to walk the long gray road back from death, to deliver us from these usurpers.
And he heard us, and answered, though not in the way that any of us might have expected.
For twenty years, I have counseled the boys to be strong, and cunning, and skillful in craft. For twenty years, I have studied the omens and waited for the young man whose brow would bear the crown of the Horned Lord. How Aehlric would laugh, to see the wise made foolish.
Take your place before the fire, stranger, and give ear to the story of Cwynne. Give ear, and I shall tell you of the Horned Huntress; how it was that a girl came to make war upon the Remai, leading the stag-riders into battle with the Bone White Spear.
Aehlric was slain some twenty winters ago, when Remai sandals first trod upon the sacred black earth of our homeland and Remai swords first tasted the blood of our people, and so I became the druid of my tribe. We watched for the signs. We made the offerings of old. We begged for Cyrddhwe to walk the long gray road back from death, to deliver us from these usurpers.
And he heard us, and answered, though not in the way that any of us might have expected.
For twenty years, I have counseled the boys to be strong, and cunning, and skillful in craft. For twenty years, I have studied the omens and waited for the young man whose brow would bear the crown of the Horned Lord. How Aehlric would laugh, to see the wise made foolish.
Take your place before the fire, stranger, and give ear to the story of Cwynne. Give ear, and I shall tell you of the Horned Huntress; how it was that a girl came to make war upon the Remai, leading the stag-riders into battle with the Bone White Spear.