Divine by Blood

Oklahoma "A storm comes." John Peace Eagle squinted into the southwest sky. His grandson barely glanced up from his portable Playstation. "Grandpa, if you'd get cable out here you wouldn't have to do all that sky watching. You could check out the Weather Channel instead, or watch it on the news like everyone else." "This storm could not be predicted by mundane means." The old Choctaw Wisdom Keeper spoke without turning from his study of the sky. "Go now. Take the truck and return to your mother's house." This did make the teenager look. "Really? I can take your truck?" Peace Eagle nodded. "I'll get a ride into town sometime this week and pick it up." "Cool!" The boy grabbed his backpack and gave his grandpa a quick hug. "See ya, Grandpa." It was only after Peace Eagle heard the engine roar and then fade as the boy drove down the dirt road that led to the two-lane highway to town that he began to prepare. Rhythmically the Wisdom Keeper beat the drum. It did not take long. Soon shapes began stirring between the trees. They entered the clearing beside the cabin as if they had been carried there by the growing violence of the wind. In the fading daylight they looked like ancient ghosts. John Peace Eagle knew better. He knew the difference between spirit and flesh. When all six of them had joined him he spoke. "It is good you have answered my call. The storm that comes tonight is not only of this world." "Has the Chosen of the Goddess returned?" one of the Elders asked. "No. This is a dark storm. An evil one stirs." "What is it you would have us do?" "We must go to the sacred grove and contain what is struggling to be free," Peace Eagle said. "But we defeated evil there not long ago," said the youngest of the tribal Elders. Peace Eagle's smile was grim. "Evil can never be truly defeated. As long as the gods give world dwellers freedom of choice, there will be those who choose evil." "The Great Balance," the youngest Elder said thoughtfully. Peace Eagle nodded. "The Great Balance. Without light there would not be dark. Without evil, good would have no balance." The Elders grunted wordless agreement. "Now let us work on the side of good." * * * Rhiannon welcomed the pain. It meant that it was time for her to live again. Time for her to return to Partholon and take back what was hers by right. She used the pain to focus. She thought of it as purification. Ascending to Epona's service had not been a painless ritual. She expected no less from what Pryderi must have planned for her.detached from for so long, it was a shock to suddenly be aware of muscles and nerves and the cascade of cramping pain that radiated like drowning waves from her core. Rhiannon tried not to dwell on thoughts of how this birth should have been. She should have been surrounded by her handmaidens and servants. She should have been bathed and cosseted and pampered--given ancient herbal infusions that would dull her pain and fear. Her women would never have left her alone to face the birth by herself. And her daughter's entry into Partholon would have been met by joyous celebrations, as well as a sign from Epona that the Goddess was pleased by the birth of her Chosen's daughter. No, she couldn't dwell on those thoughts, even though she secretly hoped that when this child was finally born Epona would return to her and show her some sign--any sign, even though she wasn't in Partholon and this child wasn't her first. Somewhere in the blackness between the seemingly endless surges of pain Rhiannon had time to think about that other child. The infant she had aborted. Did she regret what she had done? What good did regret ever do? It had been a choice she had made in her youth. A choice she could not undo. She must focus on the daughter she was giving birth to now, not mistakes in her past. When the next spasm of contractions seized her sCast, P. C. is the author of 'Divine by Blood ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780373802913 and ISBN 0373802919.