Chapter Three

  The Beginning of All Things

  “Follow me, Winter Hunter,” Gerbil led Cailean and Gwen deeper into the cavern, deeper into the severed mountains, Gerbil put his leaf-tipped staff to the wall-mounted torch and got it to ember before holding it to a long line of bronze embedded in the wall. “Firegiver tonic, so useful,” the Druid said as two lines of fire traced either side of the hallway and, weaving around turns and curves and lighting their way as Gwen and Cailean followed the old man into the mountains.

  “You’re really the last Druid here, what happened to them all?” Gwen asked.

  Gerbil sighed, “Some have been on travel, trying to find ways to assist the Hunters and people alike, but most, well let's just say I became the Eldest druid rather recently, they were called by the Goddesses as all mortal men are eventually,” he turned to Cailean, “Not by the Red Lady of course, not called for some great destiny, called because their time in this world was finished and fulfilled, not all men can escape death as you did,” he laughed, turning from Cailean and continuing to lead them to follow the trail of fire to a great central cavern.

  The lines of fire-given bronze stretched and curved around a great circular cavern lighting a great library at the center of the Severed mountains. Gwen marveled at a collection of books even greater than that in the Summerhold palace where she grew up. Around the cavern were several oak tables and chairs. This great library appeared as if it was once a bustling hub of study. A place for several druids to work together and grow their knowledge, but now it was empty save for an old man whose eyesight was so aged he could barely read by the faint firelight that lit the hall.

  “Goddess bless,” Gwen said, holding her hand to her mouth.

  “You’ve much to learn oh maiden of the sun, I’m sure you’ve many questions,” Gerbil said, “Go ahead, as you can see we’ve many tomes and records, many answers, go on, ask away,” He tapped his staff on the ground and turned to Gwen.

  Gwen sighed and turned to Cailean as she bit her lip. Cailean just shrugged, “Go on,” he said as she turned back to the old man.

  “How- how do I bring the Spring back?” She asked, wringing her hands on her Wolfskin jacket.

  “Leading with the most pressing issue I see,” Gerbil said, “What do you know of the Turning Ceremony?” he asked.

  “Well, I’ve seen it several times growing up, that artifact, the Goddess Anchor, that has something to do with it, right? What is it anyway?”

  “The Anchor is an old ware, one of many left behind by the goddesses, and one of the few we still know the location of, and you do know the location, right?” he asked.

  Cailean nodded, “The Gailech family must still have it. Do we need that for the turning?”

  “Oh, you think you can already bring the turning? You think that you’ve done the job of paying man’s penance all on your own?” Gerbil said, pressing the leafy end of his staff to Cailean’s chest.

  “Today, when the sun rose, it was warm, we could feel it, we’ve survived the winter. Gwen, the Sun Blood, survived the winter, it must be time for the turning,” Cailean said, “We must send an owl to Kal-Dovean, and call for a turning,” Cailean nodded.

  “Would not be a wise idea,” Gerbil shook his head, “Tell me young Hunter, what do you know of meditation?” he asked.

  Cailean shook his head, “Too much. I’ve seen what I’ve seen, Red Lady and all, not too keen to dive back there,” Cailean straightened his shoulders.

  “I have been meditating every night since the turning into this horrible season, I’ve seen things as well, young Winter Hunter,” Gerbil wrung his staff, “The Gailech family seems linked to the Voice, I can’t say for sure, but sometimes when I’m in the field, it’s night, and I see the shadow on the moon as it crosses and blocks the sun,”

  Gwen shook her head, “I’m sorry, Master Druid. Shadow, Moon, sun, field, what does any of this mean?”

  Gerbil sighed, “It is a complicated business, deciphering visions, not all are as clear as the Red Lady begging you to bed her in a great green grass field,” he smiled.

  “Wait, what?” Gwen shot Cailean a look.

  “It wasn’t like that, not for me at least,” Cailean gave Gwen a shrug.

  Gerbil laughed, “Oh, young Winter Hunter, it’s been a time since I had someone to jest with,” he turned to Gwen, “Don’t you get jealous little sun-kissed girl, no man would prefer the Red Lady’s demands when he had a maiden as glowing as yourself on his arm,” he smiled.

  “So you’ve had visions, what did they say?” Gwen asked, “I’m sorry, I’m not a winter hunter, and I was never raised for the duty that comes with Sun Blood, I know nothing of vision, prophecy, or meditations,” she turned to Cailean, “I told you that you could tell me whatever you saw,” she reached for his hand.

  Cailean squeezed it back, “I did, and I will, I’ll tell you everything I see,”

  “Even if it’s the Red Lady?” Gwen asked.

  “Even if it’s the Red Lady,” Cailean nodded.

  “Stop your lover’s quarrel, we’ve much to do, and you’ve much to learn,” Gerbil tapped his staff on Gwen’s hip.

  “Hey, watch yourself with that,” she said, letting go of Cailean’s hand and batting Gerbil’s leafy staff away, “What do I need to learn? What do we need to do? If I can bring the spring back I will, just tell me what I need to know,” Gwen said straightening her shoulders.

  “I’ll tell you of my visions, maiden of the sun,” he gave her a nod and turned to Cailean, “You’re young, probably still spending your meditations in the field of plenty, the great and soft green glass, the flowers of colors no one living in this world could fantasize. Ironic,” Gerbil sighed, “The greatest Paradise one could imagine living in, and to get there all you have to do is die,” He tapped his staff on the stone floor of the cavern and the embers from his burning staff flecked onto the floor as they dimmed, “I’ve not seen that field in, many years,” Gerbil took a deep breath, “My visions show a darkness on this world, Winter Hunter,” he looked to Cailean, “A winter that may never end,” he turned back to Gwendolyn, “Less this girl is truly Sun Blood and our deliverer,”

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  “Whatever it is I have to do, whatever it is I have to learn, I’ll learn it,” Gwen said.

  “Then you best get to reading, you need to prepare for what's to come,” Gerbil said as he headed to the library and ran his hand over several tomes, “Yes, here it is The Goddess’s Gift,” he pulled it from the shelf and blew a light cloud of dust off it before setting it on the center table. He opened the tome, “This is a record of every season turning for dozens of generations,” he panned through the pages, “A record of truce found between the families Giran and Gailech,”

  “Truce? But I thought the two families were supposed to work together,” Gwen said, “And if the Gailech family wants to bring this never-ending winter, why would they want to end the truce?” she asked.

  Gerbil held his burning staff up, he waved it through the air, “It’s a story you’ve heard most of I’m sure,” the embers from the leaves atop his staff began to dance off the edges of the leaves and instead of falling to the ground dying they stayed in the air and began to flow through the air leaving behind trails of light as they took the form of a woman, “Long ago, the goddesses brought the earth of the land out of the frozen seas and brought their light to it,” he continued to move his staff and the embers formed into a dazzling show of light, goddesses lifting a great stone out of the sea as the embers cascaded around it representing the great ocean that surrounded the small island that was the known world. “The Goddesses created the land, for they were women, and a woman creates,” Gerbil continued to wave his staff around as the showing of embers continued,” Gwen, reached down and slid her hand into Cailean’s as they watched and listened to the wise Druid.

  “The goddesses filled the land with their myriad of creations, all that crawl, slither, fly and swim, but low, there was a creation there that none of them could remember making, a creation that came out of the land rather than from the hands of the mother goddesses, they found man,” he said as the embers formed into a barbarous looking man, primitive, hunched over and uncivilized, “In finding man, they found a new way to create, and from this new way of creation Goddess and man together brought forth woman,” Gerbil looked to Gwen and smiled, “And since that day we couldn’t imagine a world without them,” he looked back up and continued that old story, “Women, beautiful as they are, are such because every woman carries a bit of the goddesses beauty with her. The years passed and eventually, every man would take a woman, and the Goddesses watched from above as their creation’s creations lived and frolicked in paradise together as they blessed humanity with a never-ending spring. Gwen squeezed Cailean’s hand as Gerbil’s tone soured, “But just as it is a woman’s role to create, it is a man’s role to destroy,” The Druid raised his staff and bashed its other end on the ground as the ember images of frolicking early humans shattered and reformed into a great and mighty warrior standing proudly on a hill, “Man is greedy, in the times that followed there wasn’t a man alive who didn’t covet the wife of another. War came to the peaceful spring, men fighting over women, over the claim to the embodiment of the goddesses’ beauty and blessings,” the embers swirled around and almost filled the entire cave now as a great battle in the form of fire and ash raged over the three. “There came a man, who had taken one hundred and forty-four wives for himself, he thought his might so powerful he could challenge even the Goddesses. His name was Gailech, the first king of the night. He took all land, and all men followed him,” Gerbil pounded the ground with his staff again and the embers all at once died and fell to the ground, “The Goddessess, seeing that man must be punished, turned their backs on him, and let the Voice be released,” even the light around the Brass ring lighting the cave had died to a simmer at the mere mention of the Voice of Winter, its evil so powerful that even the mention of it could dim a raging fire, “For his actions, man was cursed to a generation of winter, forty years in the cold, no blessing, no love, a penance served so man could learn what a world without the beauty of the Goddessess would be like,” Gerbil took a deep breath, the turned his staff back up and the faintest trace of embers on it grew, and rolled in the sky, forming a woman, “All was not lost though, for the Goddess of the Sun, mightiest of all holy forces, came to a young maiden with the name of Giran, they blessed her with the touch of the sun, and the young maiden and her husband welcomed a sun kissed child, and the sun was reborn as the child was raised to be a leader of man,” the fire around the bronze trail flaired back up and brought the light back to the cavern, “The progenitor of your family,” Gerbil looked up to Gwen. “The line of the Goddesses has been unbroken since those generations ago, thanks to you. Or at least thanks to your father having the same lusts as any man, holy linage or not,” Gerbil smiled.

  “I’m sorry,” Gwen’s hand went lip as she slid it from Caileans, “Master Druid, have the Gailechs have always been this way, have they always been evil, have they waited for every turning ceremony for the opportunity to kill us all. It makes no sense, the families have worked together, been brothers for- forever,” Gwen said.

  “I told you that you’ve probably heard only most of the story,” Gerbil sighed, “Gailech had over a hundred wives, there were scant few noble sons in his bloodline. They formed a council, fought their own brothers to see the hope of Giran raised in this world, the sons of Gailech himself…they were the first Winter Hunters,” Gerbil’s spine popped as he straightened his back and then turned with straight shoulders to Cailean, “They say if you’ve truly heard the hunters call you must have a bit of that blood in you,”

  “Men can’t create, we only destroy,” Cailean looked down.

  “And destroy you do, destroy monsters, destroy wickedness,” Gerbil pounded his staff again, “The power to destroy doesn’t have to always mean a rabid desecration,” he said.

  “Master Druid,” Cailean fell to his knees, “Teach me, teach me whatever I have to know. I call upon you whilst begging the Goddesses, help me bring the Spring back,” he said, looking up.

  “Rise young Winter Hunter, even if you do carry the blood of Gailech, it's far from the concentration of a truly wicked foe, this Prince of Power that old family has spent generations breeding with care to create,”

  “Prince of-? Who?” Gwen asked.

  “Edmund,” Cailean turned to Gwen, “Edmund Gailech, I knew there was something wry about him,” Cailean rose to his feet, “I was young, my senses teased me at even a slight breeze. I had all but started to write them off. But when I saw him at the turning, I felt something, it's him, isn’t it? The Prince of Night,” Cailean said.

  “In my visions, I see a young man, a man without a heart, a man who willingly lets the Voice consume him, a great turning is upon you, children,” Gerbil sighed, “The sun lives with you, and just as in the days of old, a man and a woman must work together with the blessings of the Goddess if we are to continue to live in a world that creates rather then one that destroys,” he turned to Gwen, “Follow me, Maiden of the sun” he led her to the center table, a stack of tomes upon it, “These pages are markedly older then you, treat them with the respect that your elders deserve,” he said, waiving his burning staff dangerously close to them, he rested a hand on the stack, “You can learn all you need to know about the intricacies and ceremony of turnings past. When the time comes, if you’re ready, you can bring the light of the sun, bring the spring back to man,” he said.

  Gwen approached the table, looking over her shoulder at Cailean with a worried face. He just gave her a nod that let her know that he had full confidence in her.

  She carefully took the first tome, it felt so brittle and aged that she feared its crusty and dried-out leather cover could crumble in her hands. She rested it down and opened it, “Where should I start?” she asked.

  “I put the newest on top, start from the last turning, at least the last turning recorded I should say, and work your way back. Each reading will tell you another thing you need to know about your sacred duty, and once you’ve gotten some reading in you and actually learn what's going to be required of you, then we can practice,” Gerbil smiled.

  “Practice?” Gwen asked.

  “You didn’t think it would come naturally did you,” a grin came across his face as he turned to Cailean, “You survive death in the name of seeing your lady love again and you think a warm sun the next morning meant you’ve done enough to truly end Winter’s blight, ah, youth, endlessly hopeless to its detriment and its credit,” he sighed, “As for you, young Winter Hunter, we’ve our own work to do, follow me,” the old druid's staff tapped the ground as he walked past Cailean and led him to a hallway. He put his staff to another line of Bronze and fire rushed forward, lighting the way as Gerbil led Cailean deeper into the mountain.