Prophet of Moonshae

Hanrald shrugged. 'Not as I've heard. I suppose he could have been a deranged hermit come down out of the mountains. The gods know that a solitary life up there, watching for trolls and firbolgs around every hill, would be enough to drive a man to madness!'

'Lady Princess,' called Earl Blackstone, turning to look over his shoulder at her from his position at the lead of their column of horses. 'I would speak with you if that meets your pleasure.'

'Certainly, my lord.' She turned to Hanrald. 'Thank you. It sounds a most mysterious circumstance!'

'Aye-mysterious, and fatal,' replied the young lord as Alicia's mare trotted forward to Blackstone's side.

'This whole block here is the Granite Ridge,' the earl said, gesturing to a huge gray mass of rock that rose to their right and extended along the horizon like the backbone of some spiny lizard. The trail had gradually climbed away from the cantrev and the earl's estate.

All along the ridge, the riders saw the black mouths of tunnels, all leading toward the interior of the great block of stone.

'Where you found gold,' Alicia added.

'Indeed.' The memory obviously pleased the earl, and well it should, for the discovery of the yellow metal had made him the wealthiest man in the kingdom.

The trail took them around a great shoulder of the ridge, and all at once Alicia felt the onslaught of a great sadness, like a heavy cloak that fell across her shoulders, one that she was unable to shake free. She noticed at the same time that none of the tunnel mouths, with their rust-colored drool of tailings spilling downward in wide fan patterns, marked this face of the rock-studded landform. It looked oddly barren, in contrast to the heavily excavated slopes they had passed, yet Alicia knew that this was in fact its natural state.

Granite Ridge reached out, as if with a protectively curled arm, to wrap around a small pool of water in a narrow swale. Steep slopes, rocky but climbable, rose upward on three sides of the pond, while the trail approached from the fourth. Stunted cedars sprouted, apparently from solid stone, around the stagnant surface.

The path curved downward, over erosion-smoothed boulders, to the shore of the brackish-looking water. A small shelf of level ground surrounded the circular pond, though much of the shore was choked with bracken and willows.

'The Moonwell,' breathed the princess. This was not the first of these once-sacred pools she had seen, but never had one affected her like this. She felt within her the birth of an almost hopeless sense of despair. The water lay placid, deathly still, the surface too dingy to reflect an image of the encircling rocky height. She saw a speckled pattern across the surface where weeds flourished in the liquid that had once been as sacred as the blood of the goddess herself.

'Not much to look at, is it?' inquired Blackstone gruffly.

'Ah-beauty lies not always on the surface of the view,' Tavish pointed out.

'No, this surface seems to be mostly algae and other such scum,' observed Keane dryly.

'Shhh!' Alicia, not knowing why, hissed for silence. The others ceased speaking, though the clopping hooves of the horses intruded loudly. Abruptly she looked at her companions, all of whom studied her curiously. The scrutiny annoyed her. There was something here. Perhaps the others didn't feel it, but she most certainly did.

'Let's dismount,' she suggested, though they were still a hundred paces from the well.

The others obliged, though Blackstone bade his men-at-arms to remain astride their horses and alert some distance away from the princess and her party.

As if sensing that Alicia saw something they did not, Tavish and Keane held back as the princess started slowly toward the shore. Blackstone would have lumbered at her side, but the bard laid a restraining hand upon his arm and, with a scowl, he slowed his pace to remain with the pair.

Alicia noted other details: the perfection of the setting, with the bluff curled protectively around the pool; the symmetry of two waterfalls-little more than splashing rivulets, actually-that spilled toward the well, one from the right and the other from the left. Among the cedars, she noted a flat-topped stone arch, symbolic gate to this sacred place of the Earthmother's.

Once again the young princess tried, unsuccessfully, to shrug off the bleak feeling of sadness. The Moonwell seemed like an open wound, crying out for some kind of salve. In that instant, she knew that the mine could not be allowed to corrupt it.

Reverently she passed beneath the arch and approached the shore. The placid water swirled slightly as a gust of wind eddied in the circular valley, and then the surface fell still. Alicia walked until her boots rested on two low stones that jutted from the shore into the water. She couldn't see the bottom through the murky stuff, though it must have been a mere foot or two deep here.

She stood there in silence for some time. It might have been hours, though more likely only a few minutes passed. She felt herself drawn deeper and deeper into the soul of the water before her.

'Lady Princess, what do you see?' Blackstone couldn't help himself. He clumped forward on the rocks to stand at her side, not waiting for her to answer his question. 'The vein of gold extends at least through that height… there.' He pointed to the shoulder on their right.

Suddenly Alicia had a picture of those tunnel mouths, dripping tailings down the slope, into the well. She immediately understood the desecration that would be.

'The well must be preserved,' she said quietly, turning to look at the earl.

Blackstone's dark eyebrows came together in such a ferocious scowl that his anger felt like a slap across her face-and that, too, was an abomination in the sacred place of holiness and peace.

'You can't be serious!' he insisted. 'It's dead! Look at it, for the sake of the gods and the Ffolk! It stands here useless, while above it lies gold, millions of coins worth!'

'Enough!' Alicia barked her command, not in her role as a princess but in the voice of something deeper, more abiding. It was a power that filled her words, as proved by Blackstone, who blinked, biting back his anger, and held his tongue.

Abruptly a wave of weariness swept over Alicia, and she staggered on the rocks. She would have fallen but for the arm of Tavish as the bard reached out and helped her back to the dry shore.

'What is it, child? What happened?' asked the older woman, her voice soft and concerned.

Alicia looked at her and at Keane in wonder. 'I don't know.. . Something, a feeling, came over me-a knowledge that this place is still important.'

'For the sake of the gods, why?' demanded the earl, his fury once again forcing him to speak. In his mind, he saw a stream of gold flowing away from him, just out of his reach.

'Perhaps you should leave her for a while,' Keane suggested, his voice low.

The earl whirled on him, and for a moment, the full force of his fury threatened to explode against the thin tutor. Then something-perhaps the memory of Gwyeth's humiliation at Keane's hand-gripped his tongue. Still furious, he stomped away from the trio at the edge of the pool.

'Thanks-thank you both,' Alicia said. She felt shockingly weak, as drained as if she had just undergone a long and arduous training session with horses or arms.

'Now, tell us, what did you see?' Tavish persisted. Alicia noticed that the bard's eyes flared brightly, as from the heat of some private excitement.

'Nothing-not really. I didn't see anything, but I had a feeling here. First, of sadness-a sadness so bleak that I feared my heart would break. Then when I approached the water, it was as though I heard a soft voice counseling me, warning me. I knew that it would be wrong to let any harm come to this well!'

'I fear yonder earl does not share your conviction,' murmured Keane, with a sidelong glance at Blackstone. The earl had rejoined his men-at-arms and now glowered darkly at the trio on the shore of the pool. His son Hanrald said something to the earl, but the noble brusquely gestured the younger man away.

Alicia looked up in alarm. 'He must not destroy the Moonwell! We- I-have to make him understand and obey me.'

'It won't be easy,' Keane observed. 'The king has already given him virtual agreement to go ahead with his plans. Remember the meeting in Callidyrr?'

'Agreement pending the approval of King Tristan's envoy-of me!'

'He may dispute that, claiming that the envoy was originally announced as the queen.'

'She would understand. My mother would know if she could but come here!' Alicia exclaimed. 'But even without her presence, I don't believe Blackstone would disobey an order backed by the authority of the High Crown of the Isles!'