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Cybele was outraged that Jenna would have the impudence to appear here, in her hut, when it was obvious that her plot to keep Cabirius and Kelle captive had been exposed. And to be suggesting a bargain! What could Jenna possibly have to bargain with? She had lost all when her captives had regained their sense and voices. Cabirius sat at the table with his arms crossed. He was an exceptional statesman, Cybele knew. She had missed his wise counsel terribly over this past half-year. She was happy now to let him drive this confrontation. "Jenna, my dear gaoler," he said, his voice as strong and clear as ever. "What proposition do you come to suggest?" He gave her a transparent meaningless smile, and leaned back on his stool. She was clearly uncomfortable. Perhaps she had not even realised that her captive had been freed when she came to this hut. "Cabirius. I am pleased to see that you are so well. I had thought you would starve yourself to death for some unknown aim." "Know you of despair, Healer? Two seasons without human contact is no easy burden to bear." She had no answer. "I have come to offer you assistance, O Chosen One," she said, now addressing Cybele. Cybele laughed disbelievingly. "You, offer assistance to my cause? That seems unlikely." "I was your friend once, Cybele, Have you forgotten?" "A knife held by a friend cuts twice as deep, Jenna. I have not forgotten how when I thought you friend, you ruthlessly stole my closest counsel from me." "You do not understand my reasons," Jenna protested. "No, and I hope I never do, for I would surely have lost my humanity if ever I can empathise with what you have done," Cybele hissed at her. "I can see my mission here is useless," Jenna said in obvious frustration, then turned to leave. Cabirius sensed a definite trap, but called her back regardless. He could not risk to not at least hear her plan. "Jenna, tell at least what you came for. Or is your plan so changed by my presence?" he said. She turned back to face them. "No. We intended to free you long ago, but were trapped by our own foolish scheme. Now, I can only see the value of being honest with each other. What they had done to that poor, poor child...." "Annia?" "Yes. Such a sweet tiny thing. What the Crone's bitches did to that girl was unforgivable." It made sense to Cabirius now. Kelle had told him of Jenna's weakness for young girls. The bloodthirsty slaughter of such an Innocent by Cerridwen's followers would indeed turn Jenna against them. "What do you suggest?" Cabirius asked. "An alliance." "Why should we trust you? I suspect you have been ally before to those who you now claim as your enemy." She hung her head. "It is true. Not I, but Thomias left Kelle to the Crone's mercy in the stone ring. I know it was a mistake, but the God grew impatient, and you were gathering your strength." Cybele leapt at her and deftly twisted her one arm behind her back. "Did he also leave Annia to the Raven?" she hissed to Jenna. Jenna shook her head violently. "No, no. We did not see Annia at all. I thought it was just a trick, that you had invented the tale to distract me from finding Kelle here. It is the truth!" Cybele released her with a thrust that threw her to the ground. Cabirius spoke. "You saw nothing then in your simmering cauldron?" Jenna shook her head again. "Magick is a most unreliable art. When most I need to know something, it is of least help to me. I knew something evil was afoot, but I had no idea that it was the foul murder of a child." She creased her face in disgust. "I usually only see flashes of that which means nothing to me," Jenna added, "such as your twins at Kelle's breasts." Cabirius blinked at her slowly, in a carefully unreadable response. Cybele turned to him, though. "Twins?!" she cried. "I had not guessed you were to be doubly blessed by the Goddess, Cabirius. Congratulations!" He still did not respond, and quickly changed the subject. "What can you offer us? Know you the names of Cerridwen's supporters?" he demanded. Jenna shook her head. "If I did, I would have acted against them myself. My God prevents killing, but I have no doubt that I could provide some punishment that came close." "I am sure Cabirius is well aware of that," Cybele spat at her. Jenna ignored the comment and continued. "What can you tell us then that we do not already know? Think you we have not tried to unmask them ourselves? They have always eluded us, though. The closest we have come is to find the new wet blood of some poor beast they have slaughtered on the stones." "You would know then that the Old Ones had no hand in it," Jenna offered. "Why?" "Would they risk eating the flesh of a beast? They would not then be able to fly from their bodies, being so polluted." "Sacrifice does not necessarily mean the beast is eaten," he said. "I think she is right, though, Cabirius," Cybele interrupted. "Kelle said that those who pursued them in the forest were young. Masked and heavily robed, but leaping freely like wolves." "How many?" he asked, a little annoyed that there was important intelligence from his own side which he had not yet had the opportunity to collect. Cybele shrugged. "Maybe a dozen, she did not really see." "If you can catch even one, I believe you would have them all," Jenna suggested. "How so?" asked Cybele. "They would all bear a mark. If we can prove a case against one, you could outlaw the sect and hunt them by their brand." "Are you so sure that they are foolish enough to carry a mark?" "Do not you and Attis?" Jenna countered. "Hardly the same thing, we were born with our crescents." Cybele knew Jenna had seen her own mark, but wondered how she knew of Attis's. He had never served as Consort without covering the blood-red sickle on his chest. A man bearing the mark of the Goddess was a strange thing, after all. "Those who follow Cerridwen bear a mark, believe me. Your own open rituals are mere play compared with those of the Crone." "Why would young women follow her, when she is the face of the Goddess in decay?" Cybele asked. "She is also the most powerful face of the Goddess," Jenna explained. "Death and destruction cannot be prevented." "But neither can growth and new life, from the first and second faces of Ceres," Cybele countered. Cabirius spoke. "Yes, they can. It would take only a generation of barren wombs to put an end to all our endeavour." "Or a generation of slaughtered babes and children," Jenna added ominously. "You think they would go so far?" Cybele asked. Both Cabirius and Jenna nodded. It seemed that they were allies now regardless of their intention. Such a deadly enemy in common left little room for the spiritual differences between them. "It seems we are bound to work together, then," Cybele unwillingly admitted. "Then you will not challenge Thomias at tonight's ceremony?" "About Kelle and Cabirius? That is up to them, for they are the ones who have suffered at your hands." Cybele looked to the thin and wasted young Priest. He stared at Jenna evenly. "I will seek no public contrition," he said with a bitter ring to his words, "but expect not our private forgiveness, witch." "I beg your leave, then," Jenna said, backing toward the door. "And tonight, Thomias will stand with you to support your panel for Annia." She left, and Cybele followed her to the door and bolted it. "So you are to be a father twice over at once, my dear counsel," she said to him with a smile. He looked away from her, and she came up to him and sat beside him at the table. She took his hand in her own. "Is something the matter, Cabirius?" she asked gently. "The Goddess does not speak to me often," he said quietly, "but she spoke to me clearly on this one thing. I shall bear only one child in my life, a son called Maenwyn. If Kelle is to bear twins, they will not be mine, and I can only think that it is because some disaster will befall me and our son." "Surely it need not be so. Perhaps it is simply that Kelle will couple with another and bear his children. It does not mean anything." "Then you do not know Kelle. She wants to remain faithful to me, to be like a Mainland husband-and-wife." "Kelle?!?" Cybele roared with laughter. "The same Kelle who has been from bed to bed all over the Isle?" Cabirius slapped Cybele hard across the face. As she recoiled from the blow, she turned to him in white-hot fury. "You dare to strike the Chosen One?" she hissed. Cabirius realised the danger of what he had done. To strike any Priestess could be punishable by death, and it had only been through Cybele's defence that he had not been killed for Kelle's rape. "I am sorry," he stammered. "I do not know what came over me. I would never mean you any harm, Cybele." The use of her name suddenly felt an infringement, even though he had murmured it to her many times in her own bed. She looked at him, as though judging how to react. "I believed not Attis when he said you were capable of violence. You had always been so sweet and gentle with me," she said in a studied and even voice. "I have never before struck anyone. It is the truth, although I know not what Attis has accused me of," he said in a confused tone. "He did not say you had injured another, only that he thought you capable of roughness and aggression. I now see that he was right." Cabirius gently reached forward and stroked her cheek where a mark now reddened from his blow. She did not pull away, but turned to bite his palm. He then slipped the hand behind her head and leaned forward to kiss her roughly. Within heartbeats, he had pushed her back onto the table, sending the dishes of food clattering to the floor. He entered her without preparation, hard and dry. He forced his erection fully into her, rubbing her raw in a few thrusts. She gasped and writhed, but made no word to stop him. She reached down to pull his phallus up against her swelling as he rammed it into her. She quickly peaked, a sharp shuddering explosion in her groin. Cabirius came soon after, with an angry roar and stabbing thrust. He then pulled her up and held her limp body close to his own, with her legs still wrapped around him. "You are the Goddess, Cybele. I will always love you, nomatter what happens." She squeezed him tightly, and understood his meaning. Kelle was not the only one who sought the pairbonding of the Mainland. Cybele thought that it was the least that she could do, to allow them to live together. It was certainly not the way of the Goddess, and smacked of the new God, but what was her option? To risk the loyalty of her best counsel and friend? "I am sorry if I offended you," she offered. "I know Kelle is a good woman, and will make a wonderful mother for your Maenwyn. I am sure there is a perfectly sound explanation for the two babes, or else perhaps Jenna lied." He smiled, and leaned forward to kiss her, then slipped from her and brought her a dampened towel. Cabirius then spoke to her in the voice of her trusted counsel. "You think it wise to let a laywoman keep her child?" "I am closing the Hall of Kore," she answered simply. "Why? Would you let the rule of the Temple die out and be replaced by laypeople who follow the Goddess only in small ways?" "I would not think you would object," Cybele answered. "What I wish for myself and what is best for the Goddess are not necessarily the same thing." "What a rare creature you are then, that you would advise me for the Goddess when it so contradicts your own most heartfelt desire." He looked away from her uncomfortably. "You do wish to live with Kelle and your child, do you not?" she prodded. "Yes, I do. But I know that if we follow that path, it will only be a matter of generations before the Goddess is no more than legend." "And that is such a bad thing?" asked Ceres' own Chosen One. "How can you say that?" he pleaded. "It tears me in two, for I bear no love to the new God, but if we do not keep to the Goddess's ways in all things, He will win the Isle for His own." "I bear the mark, Cabirius, but I am only human. I cannot stop the tide, or make the stars stand still in the heavens." "You sound as though you are resigned to the very death of the Goddess!" he said, clearly shocked. "She will never die, Cabirius. She does not need our earthly worship to survive in her own realm. When the time is right, and the Nameless God has had his chance, she will return. Do you truly think she is so jealous that she would make our crops fail because we did not pay her homage? No, I do not believe it. Only the new God is so arrogant." Cabirius came up to her and held her in a full embrace. "My son shall be raised in awareness of all that we owe the Goddess, the earth from which our crops grow and the sky from which the rain falls. Even if the very Temple crumbles to the ground, Cybele, Ceres will live in the hearts of my child's children."
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