David Gemmell - Lion of Macedon

'What will you teach me?'

'The mysteries,' answered the woman, touching her brow. And she had slept again.

She had discovered the spell of the gateway on her third day, as she walked in the garden alone.

Approaching it to look at the runes carved in the old stone, she had found herself back in the white-columned temple.

Twice more she tried, then Tamis had seen her. 'You cannot leave, my dear. You are the priestess now; you are the heir to Cassandra.'

'I don't understand — not any of this,' said Derae.

'You were the victim. The legend says that any girl who successfully survives the sacrifice, and reaches the temple, becomes the priestess until the next victim is similarly successful. You knew that.'

'Yes, but. . they bound my hands. I do not remember coming here.'

'But you are here,' Tamis pointed out. 'And therefore I will instruct you.'

Day by day the old woman had tried to teach Derae the mysteries, but the girl seemed incapable of understanding. She could not free the chains of her soul and soar her spirit into the sky, nor could she close her eyes and enter the Healing Trance. Simple tasks like holding a dead rose and willing it to become once more a fresh, budding bloom were beyond her.

At the end of the first year Tamis took her to a small study at the rear of the temple. 'I have thought much about your lack of talent,' said the old woman, 'and I have researched the origins of the legend. You surrendered a gift a long time ago: you allowed a man to violate you. This has caused your powers to be buried deep. In order to bring them forth, you must now be prepared to give another gift.'

'I do not want to be a priestess,' protested Derae. 'I do not have these gifts. Just let me go!'

But Tamis continued as if she had not heard her, her words striking Derae like sharp knives. 'I watched you heal Hermias, when his skull was crushed! That is when I knew you were the one to follow me. You can do it, Derae — but only by surrendering another gift. You know what is needed, why do you persevere with this defiance?'

'I will not do it!' stormed the girl. 'Never! You will not take my eyes!'

Tamis had shrugged and had patiently continued with the lessons. By the third year Derae showed small signs of success. She could stand in the garden and will sparrows to fly to her hand; and once she healed Naza of a cut to his arm, placing her fingers over the wound and sealing it so that there was no scar.

At night she still dreamt of escape — of running into the hills, hiding in the distant woods and somehow finding her way back to Sparta — and Parmenion.

But it would not be today, she realized, staring at the open gateway and the fields beyond. Slowly she walked between the temple pillars to the open altar where she laid the roses Naza had given her.

'When will you learn, child?' asked Tamis.

The girl looked round. 'I did not know you had returned.'

The old woman approached the priestess, laying her hand on the girl's shoulder. 'It must be as it is. Try to accept it: you are Chosen.'

'I don't want it!' cried the girl, brushing Tamis' hand from her shoulder. 'I never wanted it.'

'You think that I did? Wanting it is not part of the gift. You have it, or you do not.'

'Well, I do not. I speak no prophecies, there are no visions.'

Tamis took the girl by the arm and led her back into the garden to sit beside a white-walled pool.

'There are men and women who will die today,' said the old woman softly. 'They do not wish to. All of them will have works that are left undone, or children, or husbands or wives. They have no choice — as you have no choice. The days of the Dark God are close, my dear, and I will be dead.

Someone must follow me. Someone of courage and spirit. Someone who cares. It was always to be you.'

'Are you deaf, Tamis? I have few gifts!'

'They are there, but they have been pushed deep. You will find them when you give your own gift to the Lord of All Things, when you give up your sight.'

'No!' said the girl. 'You cannot force me! I will not do it!"

'No one is going to force you — that would destroy all I have worked for. It must be your own decision.'

'And if I do not?'

'I don't know, child. I wish that I did.'

'But you can see the future — you are a sorceress.'

Tamis smiled. Leaning forward, she cupped her hand in the water of the pool and drank. 'Life is not so simple. There are many futures. The life of a single person is like a great tree: every branch, every twig, every leaf is a possible future. Years ago I looked at my own deaths — it took almost a year to track them all down and at the end I realized there were still thousands to be seen. Now the end is close, and I know the day. But, yes, I have seen you take up the challenge and refuse it, and I have seen you both win and lose. But which is it to be?'

'Will I be able to speak to the gods?' questioned the priestess.

Tamis was silent for a moment, then she sighed. 'I am patient, Derae, but time is becoming precious. I have waited three years for you to realize there is no going back. But now is the time for a different course. I may be wrong, but I will tell you the truth — all of it, though it will be painful. Firstly, there are no gods as you think of them. The names we know — Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite — all were once men and women like you and I. But that is not to say there are no gods at all. For beyond the myths there are real forces of light and darkness, of love and chaos.'

'And which do you serve?' the priestess asked.

Tamis chuckled. 'Do not seek to annoy me, girl. If I served the Chaos Spirit, I would have taken your gift by force!'

'But that is how you hold me here. I am not free to leave.'

'As I said, nothing is simple. But I hold you not out of hate but out of love. You see, my dear, you cannot leave this place — ever. And that is not my doing.'

'Then who is my jailer? Who holds me here?' asked the priestess.

'Your death,' Tamis answered.

'What does that mean?' she asked, suddenly fearful.

'I am sorry, Derae, but you died when they threw you overboard. I found your body by the rocks, I carried you here and brought you back. That is why you cannot leave.'

'You are lying! Tell me you are lying!'

Tamis took the girl's hand. 'If you left this temple your body would decay in seconds, your flesh peeling away, corrupt and worm-filled, and your bleached bones would lie on the grass not ten paces from the gateway.'

'I do not believe you. It is a trick to keep me here!'

'Think back to the day, your hands bound, your lungs filling with salt water, your struggles weakening as you sank.'

'Stop it!' shouted Derae, covering her face with her hands. 'Please stop it.'

'I will not apologize, for it cost years of my life and alLmy power to bring you back. Naza helped to carry you here. Speak to him, if you disbelieve me.'

'Sweet Hera, why did you tell me this? I have lived here for three years, waiting for Parmenion to come for me, praying, hoping. And now you dash all my hopes.'

Then you believe me?'

'I wish that I did not,' answered Derae, 'and now I will never see Parmenion again. Why did you not let me die?'

'You will see him,' insisted Tamis. 'He is the reason I saved you. Once you have learned the mysteries, your soul will be free to fly anywhere in the world — into the past or the many futures. But it will take time for you to learn all the mysteries. . perhaps years.'

'What do years matter to the dead?'

'In this temple you are not dead. You will age, as do all of us, and finally your body will give out and your soul will fly free. When it does, I will be waiting for you. I will show you Paradise.'

Derae stood and leaned over the pool, gazing down at her reflection, seeing the red-gold of her hair and the flush of health on her cheeks. Swiftly she looked away. 'Why was I chosen?'