Andre Norton - Horn Crown

She was looking deeply into my eyes. Nothing passed between us. I do not know what she sought to see, or if she could indeed find it. Slowly her hands arose from where they hung by her sides, and—Would she dash the cup from me? Or was her choice otherwise?

Above mine her fingers curled around the bowl of the goblet, curled and held. Then she lifted it out of my grasp. As she took it, I stooped a little more and touched her white feet, the old words ready on my tongue:

“Those who seek shall also find, and rich shall be the treasure found. In the Maiden lies the Queen, and in the Lady’s name do I salute her, even as I salute thee.”

I raised my hands and laid them to where her slender thighs joined her body:

“In the Maiden awaits the fulfillment of the harvest. In the Lady’s name so I salute thee.”

Rising to my feet, I touched her small, firm breasts.

“In the Maiden stands another who cometh forth when the time is ripe. In the Lady’s name do I salute thee.”

Gathea held the cup level now between my lips and hers. In her eyes there was an awakening wonder—a change.

I drank from the cup she proffered, and then she drank also. Between us the cup was empty and she tossed it from her. It did not fall to the pavement, rather was carried through the air to stand upon the altar. That pillar of silver light there was deepening, changing, into rich gold. I took Gathea into my arms and the kiss I gave her, even as Gunnora had promised, was to seal my fate and open the last barrier.

The golden light—the warmth—we forgot all else. What remained was priestess and Lady, man and HornCrowned Lord. From their union would come power with which much could be wrought. As I took one who no longer would follow the sterile path of Dians, I felt that weight settle upon my head—the crown. Liegeman I had been, in this hour was I Lord.

Kinless—clanless—and crowned!