Gwenhwyfar_ The White Spirit - Mercedes Lackey [38]
“Gwen, walk with me.” The queen’s voice made that a command. A gentle one, but nevertheless, a command. Obediently, Gwen went to her mother’s side and set her pace to the queen’s slower one.
The did not go far, only to a bit of stone outcropping overlooking the chariot course that made a convenient seat. Eleri eased herself down onto it, while Gwen remained standing until her mother patted the stone beside her. Still puzzled, but grateful, Gwen took a seat beside the queen, and Eleri put one arm around her daughter, hugging Gwen close, and with that gesture, Gwen became the princess again, and not the young warrior.
“I’m sending Cataruna to the Ladies,” Eleri said, out of nowhere. “I know you wanted that yourself, and perhaps in time we shall send you, but—your mentors tell us that you are doing well. So well that they have urged me not to send you until you are much older, and your training is complete.” Gwen turned her head up to look at her mother in astonishment, to see the queen gazing down at her with an anxious look in her eyes. “This kingdom needs as many with the Blessing as powerful as I have been given, as Cataruna has been given, as we can manage to get properly trained. Cataruna leaves today, in fact, in company with two of the village girls who also have the Blessing; the king and I wanted to send her off before she made any serious attachments to a boy, and there are several now with whom she might. I hope you are not upset.”
Now Gwen was even more astonished. “No!” she blurted. “Braith was right. This is what I want!”
Eleri sighed, and her face took on an expression of regret. “Your father said that you would say that.”
Gwen’s brows creased. “Is that bad?”
The queen hugged her again. “Not at all. But you know that the hand of the goddess was strong on you when you were born, and I was sure that there was nothing that you would want more than to take up the Power. Now—” she sighed more deeply “—now you are around Cold Iron so much that the power is fading. I begin to think, as Braith does, that there were two goddesses bestowing their Blessing on you, and one of them was Epona. I cannot fault you at all for choosing her. And I know I will not have to ask you twice; you want this, more than anything.”
Gwen nodded solemnly.
“Then my blessing on you, and Cataruna will take your place. There is Cataruna, and perhaps your other sisters.” The queen got ponderously to her feet. “I have been watching you at your training, and your mentors are right; your hand was made for the chariot reins, for the bow, and perhaps for the sword. I will sleep well of nights, knowing that you will be a strong guardian to your little brother as he grows.”
“I promise!” she said firmly. In fact, she could not think of anything more delightful. She would guard him until he was old enough to take up these first lessons himself, and then she would help to teach him. And when he was a man, she would be one of his chosen Band, and fight at his side.
The queen’s hand rested briefly, caressingly, on her head, warm and tender. “Go back to your lessons, young warrior,” she said fondly. “Be wise as the salmon, crafty as the fox, valiant as the wolfhound, and fierce as the hawk.”
Then she turned, and as she did, Gwen felt something quite peculiar, a sense that something had been loosened between them. Not broken—not at all—but it felt very much as if the queen had opened a door to her and was letting her go through it all on her own, like the first day a young falcon was taken off the creance and allowed to fly free.
She looked up into her mother’s eyes. “I will,” she repeated, making a pledge of it. “You’ll be proud of me.”
“I already am,” her mother replied, and turned to make the slow journey back to the castle.
Gwen couldn’t stand to be indoors that night, sandwiched in the big bed with her sisters.