Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd [89]
When the priests brought the girl to the High Priest and explained where they had found her, he stared at her in wonder. As they uncovered her, the sunlight caught her golden hair so that it flashed. Dluc slowly nodded:
“This,” he murmured, “surely this must be the one. For truly, her head is crowned with gold.” And he ascertained that the long, soft golden hair was indeed genuine.
“Where are you from?” he asked.
The girl spoke no language that they knew; but by sign language she let them know that she came from far to the east, from a place where there were snow-capped mountains. She was the daughter of a chief killed in battle, she claimed. This was the story most slaves told, hoping to get special consideration, but Dluc considered that in her case it might be true. In any case, he was sure that he knew what he must do.
A few hours later he climbed the hill to Krona’s house and announced without hesitation:
“This is the girl foretold by the auguries. The curse over Sarum has been lifted. She will give you heirs.”
Krona stared at the girl. He put his long hands through her hair wonderingly, pulled out several strands and inspected them.
“Is this really the one?” he asked.
“I am sure,” Dluc replied.
“Perhaps,” he murmured. “Perhaps it is so.” And staring at her in almost childlike surprise, for the first time in many months, he smiled.
“What is her name?” he asked.
Dluc thought.
“Menona,” he said, which meant She Who is Promised.
The next day, Dluc married Krona and the girl.
But before he did so he said firmly to the chief:
“You must sacrifice a ram to the sun and acknowledge that he is the greatest of all the gods.”
And Krona bowed his head and said:
“Let it be done at once.”
When he heard those words, the High Priest knew that the reign of terror had ended.
During the night that followed, Dluc stood alone in the henge; many times he looked up into the heavens and murmured:
“Never again, Sun, never will I doubt you!”
At dawn he sacrificed the ram.
In an astonishingly short time, the years seemed to fall away from the chief. He came out of his house on the hill; he inspected his many fields; and once again he began to receive merchants. The network of spies was forgotten and just as they used to, the farmers now approached him without fear to receive justice and to get his advice.
The girl was a marvel. Dluc had explained to her in sign language that she had been sent by the gods to this great chief and that she was to provide him with children, and once she understood she nodded calmly. She seemed pleased with her lot, and indeed, Krona’s house was an improvement on the merchant ship or the prospect of life as a slave. Dluc soon came to believe for he watched her carefully, that she was indeed the daughter of a chief herself; for her hands were soft, not like those of an ordinary woman, and once in Krona’s house, she carried herself with the dignity of a chief’s daughter.
What was certain was that the gods had sent her. Although she did not speak the islanders’ language, she seemed always to understand Krona’s wishes and it was a joy to see the old chiefs face light up whenever he saw her.
As for being his companion in bed – when the High Priest enquired if all was well, the old chief grinned at him like a boy.
Dluc believed it was now safe to recall Omnic from his mountain hiding place, and that autumn, at the festival of the equinox, the ceremonies to the sun god were resumed with all their former splendour, and Krona led the people of Sarum as, once again, they worshipped in peace at the sacred henge.
But for Nooma the mason, the summer brought no lightening of spirits but a new fear, that rose like a cloud over the horizon and soon seemed to cover the whole sky.
The work