"Padrec Raven."

When they were alone, Dorelei's stiff dignity evaporated. She shuddered into his arms. "Hold me, husband."

"Thy pain be mine," he murmured into her hair.

"Salmon will move to Cnoch-nan-ainneal," Dorelei trembled. "Among the Venicone."

"Aye, wife."

"My heart be . .. sick. First Cru—"

"A will return."

"And now Gawse. And look thee how I must be

proper gern in all things before such as Bruidda." Do-relei sniffled and wiped her eyes. 4 'Raven, give counsel. At my word, many of these will follow us south. Thee must help in this."

"Fhains all together? To what purpose?"

4 To defeat Venicone, grind them into the dirt. To make iron arrowheads dipped in hemlock to kill a's elder."

He saw her mood. It was no part of wisdom. "No, Dorelei."

"And in garlic that a dies in pain, dost hear? Would nae give an easy death."

"No."

"Say not? Nae, thee must help!"

"Not to kill."

"Did a not kill

"Dost think being Christian is that easy, that you can follow Jesu in the sun and other gods in the dark? That the Psalms and stories are the pretty-sounding whole of

"Will have vengeance," she vowed, "and these will follow me to't."

"Aye, a will follow Dorelei Mabh." Padrec sighed at the brick wall of her. "But know what you bring to them. Know what you bring them to. It is through God that you are strong. Vengeance He reserves to Himself."

"1 will kill the murderer."

"Or be killed and undo the blessed work thee's started. Dorelei, hear me. Know what we have started. Be Prydn out there, and never do so many gather together except at Bel-tein or Samhain. Yet they've come, fhain on fhain, all respectful before thee as a symbol like the Chi-Rho. The Hebrew needed Moses to make them one. So a need the living Mabh. Dost think Jesu did not question or doubt or despair? On the night a was sold, a wanted to turn away, avert what was to come."

She was implacable. "Did stone Gawse as a would drive Wolf from a's fires. Must forget that?"

"No, but will forgive."

"Never."

4 'For thy own sake, wife. For thy soul's sake. I teach the word of my Church. In my Church I can't even call you the wife you are. I stay because I would rather fail Church in that than leave thee. But thy husband will not help thee to death."

Mere words; she hurt and he suffered with her. Padrec squeezed her small body to him as if he could press out the anguish, absorb it into his own strength. And when did I grow strong but in her?

"Some believe the black fawn foretold you as the angel promised Christ." And to them, as to the Galileans, everything Mabh did would be symbolic. If she went in peace among the Venicones, her example would sway others, perhaps even the muddy-souled Picts.

"South, then. Let us face these silly Picts and show how weak and useless their magic against a queen who lives in Christ; that she is stronger by not needing to strike back at frail men."

In his arms, Dorelei shook with the released pain she might show him or Cru, but no other. And all of it was there for him to read when she raised her face to him.

"Will need thee tonight to love me."

"Yes. Would now, but there be duty."

"Must hold someone."

And her Cru is gone, Padrec finished for her. If he managed jealousy better than Cru, he could still feel it. "Will be strong together. Will not leave thee."

Not even for God, may He forgive that.

"Fhains wait for us, to see the Jesu-magic." Dorelei opened the fhain chest and took out a heavy gold chain with emerald pendant and hung it about Padrec's neck. "And wear thy gold bracelets. Will trust thee more, seeing my trust."

The grief had washed her eyes, leaving them huge and vulnerable in the rath shadows. "Thee ask much, Padrec. Christ Jesu asks much. But come."

The dozens had not moved since Dorelei called her husband away; it would not be fitting. When she came out of the rath with Padrec Raven, they turned their gaze to her as she moved formally to Malgon's forge. Padrec took the tall pole with its wooden Chi-Rho symbol from Drust and held it high.

4 'In this sign shall thee conquer. In this sign—here and now, this very day, shall Jesu rout the evil out of Blackbar and make it servant to thee. In this sign are all things possible; without it, nothing."

k% Let a hear of Jesu!" Drust beseeched. 4 'Speak of the Passion and the death conquered."

4 'So will I. For Jesu is nae god to tallfolk alone, no wreathed idol for the halls of Roman-men alone. A was sent by God, but born in crannog among shepherds, and a's life was like to thine. When a spoke of God's joy in finding the soul once lost, did tell of a strayed lamb. What Prydn has not rejoiced when lambs were lost and found again in glen or fell? Then know Jesu was born to thee and of thee to bring thee home to God. Let the gerns of Reindeer and Marten, Wolf and Hawk hear and judge the truth of this talc-speaking.

"Was in the first days when Jesu walked the earth. One of his fhain doubted, would not believe, and did sell Jesu to the Roman-men for silver."

4 'How much silver?" Bruidda wondered out of habit.

'Thirty pieces."

4 'Was good trade." Wolf gern was scarce older than Dorelei, but coarser-featured and scarred from fighting. k4 Have been sold for less myself."

44 Was it so good?" Padrec challenged her. 4i Judas the betrayer lies in hell."

"And where be this hell?" Wolf gern asked.

4 'Where God is not. Cut off from God's light and love, where can it be but hell, as Prydn cut from the love of a's fhain."

Cru betrayed me, and I sent him to hell, Dorelei thought bitterly. But I would have him back. Does God regret Judas so? Not all of us show our scars like Wolf

gernfor the world to see. Nothing stays, the world costs, and I know what hell is.

Padrec told them of Gethsemane and Jesu's arrest and trial, and of Golgotha. Between two thieves he suffered, and to the thief who believed, a man low as any Veni-cone, he promised Tir-Nan-Og.

"Jesu died, and three scant days later arose in the flesh to walk among a's fhain. Now, here was the manner of it. A did not ask worship but faith. For that faith, does offer to Prydn and tallfolk alike a life eternal. Salmon and reindeer, wolf and marten, the beasts with whom we have understanding, spin out their little time in little life, but thee are blessed. In this sign, in this belief, there can be no death."

"Will cheer my son to know," Bruidda muttered. "A's skin darkens on Taixali wall. Do hear thy Jesu bids us love. Must love tallfolk as well?"

Padrec opened the question to all of them. "Reindeer asks if Prydn must love tallfolk. A wise question."

"None wiser," Bruidda snapped. Padrec burst into laughter with the rest of them.

"Nae, but a would not be funny if a were not true! Open thy heart and see what be inside, even as thee read the entrails of the black fawn. Would pour fresh goat's milk into soured jar? Neither will thee receive Jesu with a heart soured by hate. There's the answer."

It was an image they could understand. Padrec held up the Chi-Rho again. "Salmon gern has learned in her dignity that this is no easy sign to follow, but what fhain has ever known an easy life? This magic is not that thee fear, but that thee believe, even as Dismas, the thief who died with Jesu."

Padrec passed the Chi-Rho to Drust and took the iron bar from the forge. "Be gerns here who have made strong magic for a's people. Who will be the first to laugh at Blackbar? Who will be strong as a dying thief?"

"Here!"

Dorelei did it, and Padrec understood why where a

year ago he wouldn't. He'd cut her from one comfort, Cru from another, the Venicones from her mother. She darted at Bruidda, took her hand, and pulled the startled woman to Padrec. "The blood of Mabh be first."

"Yah!"

Bruidda was stunned, shrinking as far as possible from the iron but unable to pull away from Dorelei without a loss of presence. "Girl—•'

"Sister," Dorelei prompted in a tone of honey and steel.

"Did bless thee once in thy fear and newness, even with my own grief. Thee answers with insult."

"If Reindeer runs from iron, who of these will dare? Take the iron."

"In the name of Christ Jesu," Padrec urged.

The three of them huddled close in that whispered conference, each with his or her grasp of ultimate truth. Bruidda had been forced by an arrogant girl into a position from which there was no retreat but forward. And she must hide the fear from her people, dared by a child yet to bear wealth or see it butchered. She must do this thing but would not forgive it. She glared at Dorelei and raised her right hand.

"Let be, then. Reindeer dares Blackbar by its true name—iron!"

Among the squatting Prydn about the hill, her sister gerns and many others rose in respect. Bruidda took the moment to her advantage. "Even Salmon stands for Reindeer. Hear! Have called on the name and spirit of iron! Feel how a do ring us about. With this hand, and in the name of Jesu, I dare the iron." Her fingers closed about the bar, lifted it from Padrec's hand, raised it overhead.

"Glory to God, Alleluia!" Drust shouted.

"See!" Dorelei sang. "See where Reindeer tames the— "

"A/7 It burns me — it burns!"

Stunned, they all saw Bruidda drop the bar as if it

were blistering hot, clutching at her hand. 'The evil marks me!"

Padrec's heart skipped a beat as Bruidda held up the palm with its red mark like a burn. He should have grasped the moment himself, but there was a quicker demon in Dorelei. She swooped down on the petrified Bruidda, snatched at the stricken hand, and plunged it into the tempering trough.

"As did burn me," she proclaimed to all of them, "before the blessed healing water. But a moment and see." Then, in an urgent whisper to Bruidda: 'The magic needs belief. Was like burned and like healed. Believe, sister. Jesu be stronger than iron. Believe."

"Does burn like fire."

"Believe. Let go thy fear."

"Thee's shamed me."

"Believe. Be nae pain, nae chronachadh come to thee. Even now the pain lessens, fades, runs away. Believe."