Free The Rings of Poseidon by Mike Crowson Page B

curiosity as from a wish to
serve the Goddess again. I wanted my share of what some reckoned to
be a pleasure, seeing that my one exploit had been uncomfortable,
public and had ended with pregnancy. The chief of the priestesses
wondered at my sense of duty, but I rather think Nerfin was wiser.
She, however, said nothing.
    Later that year I went again to the temple.
The ditches and banks were all dug and already some of the posts
were in place. I learned that there would be a circular building
providing living accommodation for those who tended the temple
itself, which would be an open circular centre to the residential
area. There would be just one entrance to the temple. In the
building were to be the rooms for living, working and learning, for
we already supplied priestesses to most of the bigger villages and
even more were to be trained in the future. I took my daughter Gaïn
with me for the weather was warm and the distance not great, but I
did not stay long.
    The second summer after Gaïn was born, when
she was about eighteen months old, I went again to the new temple
and watched as the work progressed. The old high priestess died
about this time and her body was laid out. Before we had decided
what to do with her a local chief died too, and it was decided that
a new tomb should be built for the two of them, marking the
mid-summer sunrise line at the same time. Work on the temple
stopped while a mound of suitable size was raised over the graves.
I was impressed with arrangements when I went there for the funeral
rites. The chief was buried with a cup of mead for his journey and
his two favourite hunting axes. The body of the high priestess was
burned before the remains were interred.
    There were not the workers to spare for two
projects in a single summer, so we went back to spend another
winter in the old temple at Durring and to elect a successor to the
high priestess.
    The old high priestess had been more than
forty two when she died, and that itself caused us some problems.
She had been in charge so long that many of us had known no other:
many of her potential successors were themselves too old. In the
end the choice fell on Nerfin, though there were several her
senior.
    During the spring Nerfin was much occupied
with the question of sacrifice. We no longer sacrificed people as a
matter of routine, but the building of a temple was not routine and
every temple demands its sacrifice. Generally it was said that a
death among those building was a sacrifice and that sufficed. Here
we had a big, new temple and no deaths. Nerfin was faced with the
decision.
    We all travelled to the new temple as it
neared completion and I took Gaïn with me. She was walking and
getting into everything now, at about two and a half. I had to
watch the dark haired, rather silent child the whole time . We
camped outside but nearby and waited for mid-summer day. Grass had
grown on the hillock which marked the burial place of the old high
priestess, and a small pile of stones on its top marked the
mid-summer sunrise line. I wondered who had done that. Grass had
also grown on the bank round the temple site.
    Nerfin had called a final gathering at noon
two days before mid-summer and I had no doubt she would tell us the
arrangements for a sacrifice at the dedication of the temple. I
wanted to settle Gaïn in our tent before we met but she was not
around. I looked for her in the camp which was not only soon done
but drew a blank. I was only mildly worried, because she was always
into something and this was not the first time she had been lost. I
wandered into the temple complex and saw her across the other side
watching some workmen taking out wooden poles that had been used in
the building without being incorporated into the structure. While I
watched, one of two men handling a long pole let slip his end. The
wood caught Gaïn a glancing blow on the head and she was knocked
over.
    I rushed over to where she lay but she was
dead. I couldn't see any