Sorceress

Chapter 5:

For five days and nights, I have journeyed through the dense foliage of the forest. Today, I wake up in the middle of the night, restless underneath the star streaked sky. I slowly get to my feet, noticing the glade is scattered in puddles of moonlight streaming through the gaps in the branches. I smile to myself, caught up in the beauty of it. Picking up a crinkled leaf, I mutter under my breath, and set it in a puddle of moonlight. Still muttering, I draw the outline of the puddle of moonlight in small pebbles. The circle bursts into an eerie bonfire of lilac and silver flame. Back in my village, we would often carry out this ethereal ritual. The Celts as a people have a strange way with nature, sorcerers not uncommon among most tribes. It seems as though I am developing the skills of a sorceress. I draw a witch stone symbol into the soil, watching as it turns liquid silver in the ghostly bonfire.

I sit for a while, mentally remembering to thank the Goddess Abnoba for her help in my escape of the Viking village. It feels as though it is already a distant memory. In the distance I can hear the rush of moving water, and quickly snap out of my reverie, running towards it, hoping for it to be my destination. I stop before two large stones about a metre apart, torches blazing on their sides. Inscribed upon them are various versions of the ogham script. Steeling myself, I plunge forwards.

I break through the dense mass of branches, into the clear expanse of black. Torches suddenly loom into light to the right and left of me, in a straight line. In their weak light, I can make out a ravine falling down into the darkness below. Across the ravine is more forest, and more torches lining the brink of the foliage. To my left, I see a waterfall- the source of the noise that I heard back in the glade. Leaning across it, is a weeping willow, it's bark grey in the watery light. Cautiously I make my way along to it, and tentatively reach out to touch the shimmering water cascading into the abyss. Ice cold shivers run along my fingers as the water glances off them.

"Beautiful, isn't it," a voice breaks through the darkness behind me. I whip around, to see a woman with dark black hair step into a speckle of light. She seems to be around the age that my mother was before she was murdered- around forty five. Her mark on her shoulder defines her as a Celt of a tribe that was actually quite close to mine. Before it was burnt to the ground.

"Yes it is, it is truly magnificent," I answer, smiling at the woman. She returns my smile, before slowly sitting down so that her legs are dangling over the edge of the ravine.

"Come sit, my name is Allil" she pats the ground next to me, "I am sure that you have many questions for me?" Hesitantly, I sit next to her, gripping the ground next to me.

"Yes- can you tell me why I am here?" I insist.

"We are the run away slaves. I presume that you have heard about us through the many stories?" I nod my head. My prediction being true. "One of us was returning from the shrine of the Goddess of Abnoba, when he saw you, and left a message for you to be able to find us." I nod, again, silently thanking this man a thousand times and more for watching out for me. We lapse into silence, and I soon catch myself looking up at the stars in the sky far above me. A tear trickles down my cheek as I remember Brea telling me about the spirits of the ones who are dead being immortalized as stars. I name a particularly bright star as Brea, reassured that she is up there, looking over me. The woman smiles sadly at me. "My children are up there too. And I know that they are now free from the sadness and pain of this world, free in another." She says, head raised to the sky. A raven black bird swoops down to her, coming to rest on her shoulder. Absent mindedly, she strokes its silken wings. "This is Oisin, he and I have become good freinds over the years." Suddenly pulling herself back into now, she extends a hand to me, "would you like to see where we live?"