Bones of the Dragon - Margaret Weis [174]
The spring was located deep in the woods, near Owl Mother’s house. Skylan thought back to the time the old crone had magically healed the wound when the boar had gored him. That same day, the ogres had arrived. The time seemed distant and remote, as if it might have happened in some other lifetime. Or to some other person. He remembered, suddenly, what Owl Mother had said to him on that day: The thread of your wyrd snaps tonight. Tomorrow it will be spun anew.
He was pondering her words and thinking that they had come true and wondering, with a shiver, how she’d known—when he realized that Aylaen was laughing.
“Did I say something funny?” he demanded irritably. He was not in the mood to be laughed at.
“Yes,” said Aylaen. “You want me to attend a boring old Kai Moot! Why should I? I’m getting more than enough sleep now, thank you.”
“I know the meeting will be dull and tedious,” Skylan admitted. He took the bucket from her and knelt down to fill it at the sparkling stream. “But you have to attend. You have to tell them you want to become a Bone Priestess, and you want to do it in a hurry.”
“But I don’t want to become a Bone Priestess,” Aylaen protested, still laughing. “I’ve seen what Treia has to put up with. People whining and complaining and asking her to do the impossible to make their lives better. I don’t know where she finds the patience.”
“You have to do this, Aylaen,” Skylan insisted. “This is the only way for you to become Kai Priestess, and that is the only way we can be married.”
“Skylan, you’re not serious—”
“Hevis take me if I’m not!” Skylan said, glowering at her. “Why do you insist on mocking me? I am Chief of Chiefs. I want you to be my wife! You will do this, Aylaen. I command it!”
Aylaen flushed, hot blood rushing to her face. “You may order everyone else about, Skylan Ivorson, but not me! I do what I want and what I want is—”
“—the same thing I want,” Skylan interrupted her impatiently. “You love me. I know it. Stop teasing me. I am a man now, not a boy. The time for such foolery is passed.”
“I am not teasing you!” Aylaen said, her rage mounting, burning away reason. “Garn did not want me to tell you, but I have to! The truth is—”
“Garn!” Skylan exploded. “What has Garn to do with us? Look, if you’re mad because you have to be Kai Priestess, I don’t blame you. The position would be mostly ceremonial.”
Skylan slid his hand around her waist and drew her close. “You will be spending most of your time raising our sons.” He tried to kiss her.
“Skylan, let go of me.” Aylaen averted her face, avoided his lips. “I have to be getting home. Mother will be needing my help with supper.”
Skylan let go of her, but his expression was dark with anger. “I don’t understand you, Aylaen. I know you love me—”
“—like a brother, Skylan,” she said.
He glowered at this, but before he could say anything, she turned away and began to walk rapidly down the path, her skirts swishing around her ankles.
“The Kai would never make me their leader, Skylan,” she said, flinging the words at him over her shoulder. “It would be an insult to all the other Priestesses. Those like my sister, who studied all her life.”
“It is not up to the Kai,” said Skylan, crashing through the brush after her. They had both forgotten their task. The water bucket remained beside the stream. “The gods make the choice.”
“You know what I mean,” said Aylaen impatiently.
“Besides, there is precedence.”
“Precedence for what?”
“For making a woman who has never been a Bone Priestess the Kai Priestess.”
Skylan had known he might be confronted by this very argument, though he had thought it would be raised by the Kai Moot, not by the woman he loved. He had gone to the Talgogroth to discuss the matter.
“Griselda the Man-Woman. Her deeds of heroism in battle impressed the gods so much, they told the Kai to make her Priestess, and they