The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley Page B

was staring at the Priestess as if entranced by that clear gaze.
    "Nor pledged in marriage?”
    "Not…yet, although I have thought…” her voice faltered.
    Tell her, thought Eilan. You are pledged to Cynric! You have to tell her now! But though her lips worked, Dieda stood frozen, like a young hare when the falcon’s shadow falls.
    Lhiannon unfastened the heavy blue cloak that hung from her shoulders. "Then I claim you for the Goddess; henceforth you shall serve Her whom I serve and no other…” The cloak opened like a dark wing as the Priestess swung it round, and light flared as the branches moved in a sudden wind.
    Eilan blinked. Surely it was only sunlight—but in the dazzle, for a moment she thought that the opening of the cloak had revealed a radiant figure. She closed her eyes, but imprinted upon her inner sight she saw still a Face with a mother’s tender smile and a bird of prey’s fierce eyes, and it seemed to her that it was she, not Dieda, who was fixed by that gaze. But Lhiannon had not spoken to her, nor seemed to see her at all.
    "From henceforward, you shall dwell with us in the Forest House, my child. Come to us there—well, tomorrow will be time enough.” Lhiannon’s voice seemed to come from a great distance. "So be it.”
    Eilan opened her eyes once more and saw the shadow fall as the cloak settled across Dieda’s slim shoulders.
    The women who followed Lhiannon intoned, "She is the beloved of the Goddess; Her choice has fallen. So be it.”
    Lhiannon took the cloak from the girl’s shoulders and her attendants helped her to fasten it again. Then she moved away from them, towards the festival.
    Eilan’s eyes were still fixed on her. "The choice of the Goddess…you are to be one of them…What is the matter with you?” She came back to herself and saw that Dieda’s face was deathly white, her hands locked together.
    Dieda shook her head, shivering, "Why couldn’t I speak? Why couldn’t I tell her? I cannot go to the Forest House—I am pledged to Cynric!”
    "But you aren’t, not yet, not formally,” said Eilan, still dazzled by what she had seen. "Private promises aren’t binding, and nothing has gone so far that it cannot be undone. I should think that anyone would rather be a priestess than marry my brother—”
    "You should think—” said Dieda furiously. "Yes, you really should think, sometime—it would be a new experience for you, I dare say—” She broke off in something like despair. "You’re such a child, Eilan!”
    Eilan stared at her, realizing that the other girl did not share her excitement. "Dieda, are you saying that you don’t want to be a priestess?”
    "What a pity her choice did not fall upon you,” said Dieda helplessly. "Maybe we should say it was you. Maybe, like Father, she mistook us. Maybe it was really you she meant—”
    "But that would be impiety, if the Goddess has chosen you,” Eilan protested.
    "What am I going to say to Cynric? What is there that I can say to him?” Her control broke and she began to laugh helplessly.
    "Dieda,” Eilan put her arm around the other girl, "can’t you speak to your father? Tell him that you don’t want this? If it were me, I should be happy, but if you hate the idea—”
    Numbly, choked with misery, Dieda said, "I dare not. Father would never understand, nor cross the High Priestess. There is something—” In a voice which hardly reached her kinswoman’s ears, she said, "Father is so much Lhiannon’s friend—it’s almost as if he were her lover—”
    Scandalized, Eilan turned her eyes upon the other girl. "How can you say that? She is a priestess!”
    "I don’t mean they’ve done anything wrong, but he has known her so long. He seems at times to care more about her than anyone alive—surely more than any of us