"Sky iron is better than iron ripped from the Earth," confirmed Imandra, "perhaps because it is not under the curse of the Mother - it has not been torn from the Earth but is a gift of the Gods."
"I wish I could find a fallen star," murmured Andromache,"they are so beautiful."
She was still encircled in Kassandra's arm, and her tone was so wistful that Kassandra murmured, "I wish I could find one and give it to you as a gift worthy of you, little sister."
Penthesilea said, "So we are free to return to our own plains and pastures; we do not yet know why the Goddess sent us here."
"Whatever the reason," said Imandra, "it was my good fortune; perhaps the Goddess knew I had need of you here. When you go southward, you shall ride with my gifts. And if some, of your women choose to remain and instruct the women of my guards they shall be well paid." She looked upward where the stars were still tumbling and dancing across the sky and murmured, "Perhaps the Goddess has sent this as an omen for your journey before her, Kassandra. There was no such omen for me when I sought her far country to offer my service," she added, almost enviously.
"Where must I go?" asked Kassandra, "and must I journey alone?"
Imandra touched her hand gently in the dark. She said, "The journey is of the spirit, kinswoman; you need not travel a single step. And although you will have many companions, every candidate journeys alone, as the soul is always alone before the Gods."
Kassandra's eyes were dazzled by the falling stars, and in the strange mood of the night it seemed that Imandra's words had some curious and profound meaning stronger than the words themselves implied.
"Tell me more about the metal from the sky," said Andromache. "Should we not search for it, since it is falling all around us, and we need not mine it nor send for it on the ships from the Northern lands?"
Imandra said, "My court astrologers foretold this star-shower, and they will be watching from a field outside the city, with swift horses, so that if a star should fall near, they will go out and search for it. It would be impious to let a gift of the Gods go thus unclaimed or to let it fall into the hands of others who would not treat it with due reverence."
It seemed to Kassandra that hundreds of stars had fallen; but looking into the dark light-sprinkled heavens overhead there were quite as many as ever. Perhaps, she thought, new stars grow when these fall. The spectacle was beginning to seem quite ordinary, and she turned her eyes from the sky, sighing.
"You should go to bed," Penthesilea said, "for tomorrow you will be taken with the others who are to seek the Goddess in her country. And eat well before you sleep, for tomorrow you will be required to fast the day through."
"You will sleep in my room this night," Andromache said, "because I have promised to lend her a robe for tomorrow, Mother."
"That was a kindly thought for your kinswoman," Imandra said. "Get you to bed, then, girls, and do not lie awake long talking and giggling together."
"I promise," Andromache said, and drew Kassandra to the dark staircase leading down into the palace. She took Kassandra to her own room, where she called one of her serving-women to bathe them both and bring bread and fruit and wine. When they had bathed and eaten, Andromache leaned on the windowsill.
"Look, cousin, the stars are still falling."
"No doubt they will do so all the night," Kassandra said. "Unless one falls through the window into our chamber, I cannot see that it makes any difference to us."
"I suppose not," said Andromache. "If one should fall here, Kassandra, you can have it for a sword like Penthesilea's; I have no desire for weapons."
"I suppose I have no need for them either, since it seems I
no am not to be a warrior, but a priestess," said Kassandra, sighing.
"Would you rather be a warrior for all your life, Kassandra?" But Kassandra set her teeth and said, "I do not think it ever matters what I would rather; my destiny has been set, and no one can fight fate, no matter what weapons they may bear."
When both girls lay side by side in Andromache's bed, and even the intermittent light of the falling stars had dimmed toward morning, Kassandra sensed through her fitful sleep that someone stood in the door; she half roused to murmur a question, but she was still held in sleep and knew she made no sound. Drowsily she knew that it was Penthesilea who stole quietly into the room-to stand looking down at them in the moonlight for a long time, and then reached down to touch her hair for an instant as if in blessing. Then, although Kassandra did not see her leave the room, she was gone and there was only moonlight there.
CHAPTER 13
The dawn was just paling in the sky when a woman entered the room, unannounced, and flung open the draperies. Andromache buried her head under the blankets against the light, but Kassandra sat up in bed and looked at her. She was a woman of Colchis, dark and sturdily built, with the self-confident bearing of one of Penthesilea's warrior women; she wore a long robe of bleached linen, pure white and unadorned. About her wrist coiled a small green serpent, and Kassandra knew she was a priestess.
"Who are you?" Kassandra asked.
"My name is Evadne, and I am a priestess sent to prepare you," she said. "Is it you or your companion who is to face the Goddess this day? Or, perhaps, both of you?"
Andromache uncovered one eye and said, "I was initiated last year; it is my cousin only." She shut her eyes and seemed to sleep again. Evadne gave Kassandra a droll smile, then became very serious again.
"Tell me," she said, "all women owe service to the Immortals; and all men too; do you mean that you will do them service when they ask it of you or that you will devote your life to serving them?"
"I am willing to devote my life to that service," Kassandra said, "but I do not know what it is that they ask of me."
Evadne handed her the robe Andromache had laid over a bench. "Let us go into the outer room so we will not disturb the princess," she said. When they were in the outer chamber she said, "Now tell me, why do you wish to become a priestess?"
Kassandra then told the story again of what had happened to her in the Sunlord's House, for the first time speaking without an instant of hesitation; this woman knew the Immortals, and if anyone alive could understand, she would be the one. Evadne listened without comment, smiling slightly at the end.
"The Sunlord is a jealous master," she said at last, "and it comes to me that he has called you. All the same, the Mother owns every woman, and I cannot deny you the right to face her."
Kassandra said, "My mother told me that Serpent Mother and the Sunlord are ancient enemies. Tell me, Lady—" the term of respect came naturally to her lips,"she said that Apollo Sunlord fought Serpent Mother and that he slew her; is this true? Am I disloyal to the Sunlord if I serve the Mother, then?"
"She who is the Mother of All was never born - and so she can never be slain," Evadne said, making a reverent gesture. "As for the Sunlord, the Immortals understand one another and they do not see these things the way we might. Earth Mother, so they say, first had her shrine where Apollo built his Oracle; and they say that while the shrine was a-building, a great serpent or dragon came out of the very navel of the earth, and the Sunlord - or, perhaps his priest, it makes no difference—slew the beast with his arrows. And so, I think, some ignorant folk put it about that he had a quarrel with the Serpent Mother; but the Sunlord, like all other created beings, is her child."
"Then, although it is the Sunlord who has called me, I may answer the call of the Mother?"
"All created beings owe service to her," said the priestess, repeating her reverent gesture, "and more than that I may not say to the uninitiated. Now, I think, you should wash and make yourself ready to join the others who will make this journey with you. Later, if you wish, I can tell you some tales of the Goddess as she is worshipped here."