Chapter 62: Precautions

Located on the north side of the shrine, the women’s quarters were divided between an upper level with a long hallway lined with individual rooms of similar sizes that were mostly sleeping chambers, and a lower level that included several clusters of rooms, each with a small central courtyard. One of the clusters, the largest, served as the exclusive living quarters of the chief priestess; another was the shrine’s nursery; the rest were communal work or meeting places.

Unlike the other three sides of the shrine, the north side had no outer wall or walkway, as it had been built along the very edge of the cliff that jutted out into the deepest part of the lake and formed the base of the entire shrine. Short of flying, or scaling both the rugged cliff and the sheer wall above it, there was no way into the north wing except through its only entrance, the doors of which were closed and barred at night and guarded during the day.

Priests invited into the women’s quarters were received in one of the rooms or courtyards on the lower level. Even Herrwn, the shrine’s chief priest and once the consort of a high priestess, had never climbed the stairs to the north wing’s upper hallway, and it went without saying that the priestesses’ exact sleeping arrangements there were not something he’d had reason to know before this. By the time Rhonnon finished her account, however, he had no doubt that—in the extremely unlikely event that he should need to—he could find his way to the girls’ chamber blindfolded. In particular, he knew that the five young priestesses shared a room, which, like the other rooms on that side of the corridor, had a single door that opened to the main hallway and three windows that looked out over the lake.

When the first of the sprite’s antics occurred, the five girls were still quartered in the shrine’s nursery. Rhonnon confided that she initially had thought the pranks were being played by one or more of the girls themselves (and while she didn’t specifically mention the twins, those two would certainly have been Herrwn’s first suspects).

“But,” she went on, “their nursemaid was adamant that she never let them out of her sight, and so …”

And so the girls had been moved from the nursery to a secure room on the upper level. The move had not stopped the pranks but had put an end to suspicions that any of the girls were involved, since the antics had continued—and spread to other parts of the shrine. Here Rhonnon interposed that “while a frog in the soup might seem amusing, a hole bored in the side of the chief priestess’s chalice so the sacred wine dribbled down onto her robes when she drank from it was not!” before going on to describe the measures they’d taken to see to it that the young priestesses-in-training were shielded from the sprite’s malevolence.

The windows of their bedroom, which were usually left open in the summer months, were kept closed and barred. One servant had been assigned the duty of staying in the girls’ bedchamber to watch over them while they slept, while another was on guard outside their door. So now, besides being invisible, the sprite would need to be able to fly or pass through solid walls to get through the defenses that Rhonnon had set in place—and if it did, it would find itself facing protective amulets hung from the ceiling and around each of the beds, the steaming vapors of repellent herbs now kept simmering in a cauldron over the chamber’s hearth, and two fiercely loyal servants, one of them ready to recite the shielding charms to keep it at bay while the other rang a bell summoning the priestesses to drive it off.

“And during the day?” Herrwn didn’t doubt that Rhonnon had equally stringent oversight planned for the girls’ waking hours and felt ready to move on to learning what part he was to be assigned.

“As you know, Gwenydd, the eldest of the girls, is already taking part in all but those rituals reserved to those who have made their first journey to the Sacred Pools. Beginning at tomorrow’s Sacred Sunrise Ritual, the younger ones will now join her. Likewise, I am having a table set for them in the main hall.”

“They will be eating with the rest of us? Is that wise?” Herrwn hastily amended the implied criticism by saying, “Not that I have any doubt of your wisdom, which is demonstrated in all you have done to assure the safety of the young priestesses-in-training, but as so many of the … antics of this shameful sprite have occurred at our communal meals, do you think it safe for them to be there?”

“It is that or keep them locked in their bedroom while we dine, and I doubt whether any of them, least of all Arianna, would accept that gracefully. But I have of course instructed that their table be placed in a secure corner well away from the kitchen, which seems to be a particular haunt of our unwelcome guest. Assuming that meets with your approval”—Rhonnon clearly assumed it would—“then, taking into account their daily lessons, there is, you understand, only the late afternoon to consider.”

Herrwn did understand. Based on what Rhonnon had said so far, there was no time that the girls were not behind locked doors or under at least two watchful pairs of eyes except for the late afternoon, when the senior priestesses conversed in their private meeting room or relaxed, according to their wishes.

“So, it would be of some help if I were to assume responsibility for watching them at that time, perhaps entertaining them with children’s tales as I once had the privilege of doing in an earlier time of need?”

“It would.”

From the genuinely relieved look on Rhonnon’s face, Herrwn could see she’d been expecting him to object or make some excuse. To the contrary, he was not merely willing but delighted, recalling as he did the moment in his dream in which Lillywen had looked up at him, biting down on her lower lip as she had in life—and going from that to picturing the five girls gathered around him, his daughter’s spirit hidden among them and listening in, as he told them the stories he had never had the chance to tell her.

With the matter settled between them, Rhonnon stood up and said that she would make the announcement at the next day’s meeting of the High Council. Taking this as his dismissal, Herrwn rose as well, gave another deep bow, and left to resume his practice for that night’s oration.

All five girls were at the Sacred Sunrise Ritual the next day, as Rhonnon had said they would be, and Herrwn was charmed to hear their pure, sweet voices joining in the chant to welcome the rising sun.

On his way to breakfast, Herrwn quietly filled Olyrrwd and Ossiam in on the new arrangements for ensuring the welfare of the young priestesses-in-training. Instead of continuing into the main hall, Ossiam turned aside and declared that he would retreat to his tower, determined as he was to spend his every moment evoking the names of the deities, both minor and major, to protect and defend them all from the perversity of this demonic predation. He was gone before Olyrrwd could say with a snicker, “And who, then, will protect and defend us against the spirits you call forth?”