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After a long, long while she spoke, and this time her words were soft. "Lyrical says you may be lacking in talent. This is true, although perhaps it's simply that your talent goes astray at times. But Nigel speaks the truth as well. Camille Sepharial te Maria, the Moon Mother sees into your heart and soul and finds it clear. You are both true and brave, half-breed or not. Come child, stand and face me."
I stood.
Derisa leaned close. "The Moon Mother has answered. She will accept you into her service. I ask you once more before you take the oath and there's no turning back: will you give yourself over to her, to do with as she sees fit?"
I nodded, catching a whiff of lilacs and lemon from her perfume. "Oh yes," I said breathlessly. "I'll swear my life to her. And my death."
"Then I will accept your oath. Listen well, girl, and answer." She motioned for me to stand and, as I did, the silver chains clinked delicately, and a breeze rose up, gusting wildly around us.
"Camille Sepharial te Maria, do you of your own will and volition come to the service of the Moon Mother as one of her witches, pledging yourself to her, above everything you hold sacred, including your life and breath?"
My heart began to beat. This was it; I was going to be oath-bound to the Moon Mother, and everything in my life would be set. Nothing would ever again worry me as long as I held the Huntress of the Moon in my heart and soul.
"Yes, oh yes, I swear my oath."
"Camille Sepharial te Maria, do you accept the yoke of the witch, knowing that you chance never seeing the robes of a priestess, that you will never be free to pledge another goddess, that your spirit will forever be bound and belong to no other gods save the Moon Mother as long as you walk the world in this body?"
I could barely breathe. Derisa's voice sounded like it was coming from a million miles away, and I began to soar out of my body, my heart echoing the staccato beat of a thousand drums.
"I do swear by my oath."
Then, the questions came quickly, so quick I could barely think.
Camille Sepharial te Maria, will you live for the Moon Mother…
I do swear…
Will you heal for the Moon Mother…
I do swear…
Will you kill for the Moon Mother…
I do swear. . .
Will you die for the Moon Mother. . .
"I do swear by my oath." The gusts grew chill and brisk as the High Priestess reached out and pushed away the shoulder of my gown. It fell open, exposing my breast, and she brushed my hair to the right and pressed her palm against my back, on the left shoulder blade.
A bolt of lightning crossed the starlit sky and struck Derisa, burning through her arm, through her palm, into my back. The shock, as cold as Hel's frozen realms, ate into me, and I clamped my teeth shut, repressing a scream as I trembled against the pain. The energy was sentient, moving, a trail of frozen teeth gobbling a thin line of flesh. It filled the raw channel on my shoulder blade with liquid silver as it spiraled into a coiled tattoo of a labyrinth.
I gasped but held steady until the branding was done. Derisa pulled me into her arms, and her lips sought mine. As she kissed me, her tongue flickering against mine in a passionate welcome, the chains binding my hands fell away, and the belt dropped to the ground. With one movement, the High Priestess stripped me bare of my gown, leaving me naked and shivering in the moonlight.
Gasping, I stretched out my arms, feeling the cold light of my Lady as it poured into me, filled my veins, oozed through my body like slow honey. Laughter began to echo through the Grove, and I felt dizzy with power as the Moon Mother seduced me. Derisa pulled me into her arms and kissed me again, leisurely, slowly, her hands drifting over my body.
"Welcome, newest Daughter of the Moon," she whispered.
I caught my breath as it fully hit me: I was forever pledged to the Lady. Her will was my own. "I belong to her…" I said, unable to keep the joy out of my voice.
Derisa flashed me a feral smile, her eyes wickedly happy. I said nothing. What could I say? My world had changed forever, and I could only lean my head back to gaze up at the sky, nestled within the embrace of the High Priestess.
And then, a faint noise began to echo within the back of my head. The Moon Mother was whispering to me.
And then the whispers became a thunderous tumult—a cacophony of poetry and song. I felt myself teeter on the edge of chaos. She was calling me. Into the woods, to run with her. Into the woods, to join the Hunt, to race with the wild pack across the sky. I could see them: hounds and hares, bears and panthers, warriors and hunters long dead, and wild witches who had eons ago given their oath to the Lady of the Night. And at their helm, the Moon Mother herself led the chase, a silhouette of silver fire with bow slung over her shoulder, fierce and howling through the velvet night.
"Come play with us… come run with us…" the voices beckoned.
With a frantic cry, I looked up at Derisa and saw that she, too, was heeding the call. She reached for my hand, and I placed it in hers, trusting her, trusting the Moon Mother. As Derisa's fingers closed around my palm, we were suddenly aloft, caught up by the Hunt. Caught in the wake of the chase that crossed the sky every month when the moon was full, we leapt onto the astral—body and soul—and went spiraling into the sky, watched over by our giant, brilliant Goddess who gazed down from the heavens.
