Imandra said gently, "It is not for everyone, Kassandra. Only for such as you, who are born with the link to the Gods."
"I do not understand this," Kassandra said, feeling sullen and inclined to contradict everything that was said to her. Petting the snake, she said, "I dreamed the other night - or perhaps it was a vision of some sort - of the Goddesses. But the Serpent Mother was not one of them—"
"You dreamed? Tell me about it," said Imandra, but Kassandra hesitated. Partly she felt that to tell her dream might dilute the magic; it had been sent to her as a sacred secret and was not intended for anyone else. She cast a pleading look at Penthesilea, for she did not want to offend the Queen who had been so good to them, either.
"I advise you to tell her, Kassandra," said the Amazon Queen. "She is herself a priestess of the Earth Mother, and perhaps she can tell you what this means to your destiny."
Thus encouraged, Kassandra began, detailing every moment of her vision, ending with her confusion that neither the Maiden, nor Earth Mother, nor Serpent Mother had appeared among the Goddesses. Imandra listened intently, even when Kassandra, momentarily overcome by the memory, let her voice sink to a whisper.
When she finished, Imandra asked quietly, "Was this your first encounter with any of the Immortals?"
"No, Lady; I have seen the Mother Goddess of Troy speak through my mother's mouth, though I must have been very small indeed at the time. And once…' she swallowed, lowered her head and tried to steady her voice, knowing that if she did not she would break into wild weeping without knowing why, "Once… in his own temple… Apollo Sunlord spoke clearly to me…'
She felt Imandra's gentle fingers rest on her hair.
"It is as I thought when first I spoke with you; you have been called as a priestess. Do you know what that means?"
Kassandra shook her head and tried to guess.
"That I must live in the Temple and care for the oracles and the rites?"
"No, it is not as simple as that, child," Imandra told her. "It means that from this very day you must stand between men and Immortals, to explain the ways of the one to the other… it is not a life I would choose for my own daughter."
"But why have I been chosen?"
"Only those who called you know the answer to that, little one," Imandra said, and her voice was very gentle. "On some of us they lay their hand in a way we cannot mistake. They do not explain their ways to us. But if we try to escape their will they have ways of forcing us to their service, forget it not… no one seeks to be chosen; it is the Gods who choose us, not we who seek to give our service to them."
Yet, thought Kassandra, I think I would have sought this service… at least I do not come to it unwilling. The snake seemed to have fallen asleep in a heavy puddle on her arm; Imandra leaned forward and scooped it up still sleeping, letting it slide as if melting down the front of her dress.
"When next the moon shines full, you shall seek her," she said. And Kassandra felt an omen in the way she spoke.
CHAPTER 12
"I know so little of being a priestess," Kassandra said. "What must I do?"
"If the Goddess has called you, she will make it clear to you," said Penthesilea, "and if she has not, it does not matter what you-do or do not do; it will be all the same."
She patted Kassandra on the head and said, "You must get yourself a snake, and a pot to keep it in."
"I would rather keep it inside my dress as the Queen does."
"That is all very well," said Penthesilea, "but any animal must have a place that is all her own, for a refuge."
Kassandra could very well understand that. And so she went to the market with her kinswoman, seeking a pot for her snake; tomorrow, she told herself, she would go into the countryside, seeking a snake for herself. It did not seem suitable to buy one at the market for money, though she supposed she could speak with the people who raised snakes for the temple. Perhaps Imandra could be persuaded to tell her what she should know.
She searched among the pot-sellers in the marketplace, and finally found a vessel tinted blue-green and decorated ,with sea-creatures; on one side stood a priestess offering a serpent to some unfamiliar Goddess. It seemed to Kassandra that this was the perfect pot in which to keep her snake and she at once bought it with the money that Penthesilea had given to her. There were many pots decorated exactly like it, and she wondered if they were all put to the same use.
That evening as the sun set, she stood with Andromache on the palace roof, looking down into the darkness of the town as one by one, lights were kindled in the city below.
"You cannot go before the Goddess in leather Amazon breeches," said Andromache. "I will lend you a robe."
Kassandra frowned. "Is the Goddess a fool? I am what I am; do you think I can deceive her by changing my garment?"
"You are right, of course," Andromache said soothingly, "it cannot matter to the Goddess. But other worshippers might see and be scandalized, not understanding."
"That is another matter," Kassandra agreed, "and I understand what you mean; I will wear a robe if you are kind enough to lend me one."
"Certainly, my sister," said Andromache, then hesitated, saying almost defensively, "You will be my sister if I marry your brother, and when I come to Troy I will have a friend in your strange city."
"Of course." Kassandra slipped her arm around the younger girl, and they stood close in the darkness. "But Troy is no stranger than your city."
"Stranger to me, though," said the young girl. "I am accustomed to a city where a Queen rules. Truly, does your mother Hecuba not rule the city?"
Kassandra giggled a little at the thought of Hecuba ruling over her stern father.
"No, she does not. And your mother—has she no husband?"
"What should she do with a husband? Two or three times since my father died, she has taken a consort for a season and sent him away when she was tired of him—that is what is right for a Queen to do if she has desire for a man—at least in our city."
"And yet you are willing to marry my brother and be subject to him as our women are subject to their men?"
"I think I shall enjoy it," Andromache said with a giggle, and then cried out.
"Oh, look!"
Across the sky a line of brilliant light slashed and was gone.
Another followed it swiftly, and another, so brightly that for a moment it seemed that the earth itself reeled as the sky displaced itself. Star after star seemed to lose its moorings and fall, as the two girls watched. Kassandra murmured, "There remain till the Spring stars fall…'
In the darkness a shadow separated, became two, and Queen Imandra and Penthesilea appeared on the roof.
"Ah; I thought perhaps you were here, girls. It is as they told us," said Penthesilea, looking up at the shimmering heavens, as star after star appeared to detach itself from the sky and shimmer downward, "a shower of falling stars."
"But how can the stars fall? Will they all fall out of the sky?" Andromache asked, "and what will happen when they are all gone?"
Penthesilea chuckled and said, "Never fear, child, I have seen the star-showers every year for many years; there are always plenty left in the sky."
Imandra added, "Besides, I cannot see how it would affect us here on earth if they all fell - except that I should be sorry not to have their light."
"Once," said Penthesilea, "when I was a very young woman, I was with my mother and her tribe - we were riding on the plains far to the north of here, among the iron mountains - and a star fell close to us, with a great crackling and sizzling noise and light. We searched all the night, in the smell of the burnt air, and at last we found a great black stone, still glowing red; that is why many believe that the stars are molten fire which cools to' rock. My mother left me this sword, which I saw forged of the sky-metal."