Lady of Poison_ The Priests - Bruce R. Cordell [23]
Thanial was a self-proclaimed wild ranger but also a devout adherent of she who Thanial called the Queen of the Forest. So Thanial was schooled in forest craft and also in the mysteries of Thanial's Queen, called Lurue. According to Thanial, knowledge of the first was also knowledge of the second.
Marrec proved an apt pupil. The more he learned, the more he realized that the spirit of Lurue was something he could love and cherish. Not only was she the goddess of the animals but also a free spirit of adventure and happiness. She was a guide for those who wished for no home but the wild. At that time, he decided that he would devote himself to the goddess, and serve her needs in the world.
One morning Thanial woke him with a strangely serious air.
"What is it?" Marrec asked.
"It's time I showed you something. I wasn't going to, but I've changed my mind. I think you're old enough." Thanial had a leather satchel in his hands, worn and obviously very old.
It wouldn't be out of character for Thanial to lure Marrec into a false sense of alarm, only to laugh uproariously when the true situation, usually somehow comedic, became apparent. Marrec ruefully shook his head and smiled. "All right, lay it on me Thanial."
Thanial laid the satchel down across the great table he and Marrec had built from lengths of pine. As serious as a stone, he undid the old leather ties then carefully removed from it an object: A glazed stone bulb the size of a fist from which a short stone handle stretched. Tassels with small charms and beads were tied to the handle. As Thanial removed from the object from the satchel, it rattled. It was a child's rattle.
Marrec's face flushed, and his eyes grew wide. He knew that rattle. It was his, from his earliest childhood.
"Where…?"
"You had it clutched in your hand when I found you," explained Thanial gently. "It was I who found you, a child in the forest, sixteen years ago almost. It was I who asked the cobbler to take you in to make a home for the orphan I found lying all alone in the woods."
"You found me?" Marrec didn't know where to start. "But where? Why? I don't understand."
"Your adoptive father thought it best to indicate that it had been he who found you, not I. That's all."
Marrec swallowed, but he could see that Thanial had more to say. "What else?"
"When I found you… you were not exactly as you appear now. Oh, from a distance you seemed a human child of nearly two years, crying, red faced, clutching your rattle, but when I bent to retrieve you from the forest floor, I saw something I didn't want to believe. I thought at first it was a parasite, but I was wrong. Curling up through your black hair were tiny… serpents. They were rooted, as if hair, in your head."
Marrec heard a rushing noise in his ears. He stared at Thanial, uncomprehending.
Thanial continued, "I took my blade and severed them. I didn't think twice. I cut them out by their roots. They didn't grow back. You didn't seem to miss them. In fact, you acted like any toddler would act, though at first I feared otherwise; I feared some monstrous influence. But no, at least one of your parents was obviously human. You were perfectly harmless. I kept you for a time, but I knew I couldn't raise you right. I gave you up to the village. I gave you up so you could have a real family."
Still Marrec couldn't utter a word. As he did unconsciously every day of his life, he raised a hand to his brow and with his fingers probed above his hairline for the hidden scars.
The edge of the main forest was dark and close. Clouds tumbled across the sky, gray and vast, and from their bellies they unleashed