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Chapter 1 BEGINNING

Screams in the dark

Mother pushes and after a long fight I slip out of her body on to a bed of blood-soaked grass I cry frohs weakly, picks rily, lips fastened to her breast,blood from my wrinkled, warm skin Once I'm clean, mother shields me as best she can She's weary but she can't rest Must les to her feet Stu, but protecting me always

Banba never believed I could remember my birth She said it was iht I was i it

But I wasn't I re into this world roughly, in the wilderness,to her as she pushed on through the rain, over unfa to keep me warm

My thoughts were a juments and flashes But even in my newborn state of confusion I could sense h I was too young to truly know terror, I felt it in my heart and trembled

After endless, pain-filled hours, she collapsed at the gate of a ringed, wooden fort-the rath where I live now She didn't have the strength to call for help So she lay there, in the water andat me while I scowled and burped She kissed reedily until the ry, I wailed for ated The old warrior foundin the arms of my cold, stiff, lifeless mother

"If you remember so much, you must remember what she called you," Banba often teased irl"

But if she did give me a name, she never said it aloud I don't know her name either, or why she died alone in suchofof hers, where I came from or who I really am Those are mysteries I don't think I'll ever solve

I often retreat into et the horrors of the present I go right back toabout the big Tat he'd found, the debate over whether I should be left to die outside withic, that she'd rear ainst that, suspicious ofa curse down on the rath if they drove ot her way, like she usually did

Growing up in Banba's tiny hut Everybody else in the rath shares living quarters, but a priestess is always given a place of her own Lying on the waroat'sat a world which was so people moved their lips, but not sure what the noisesthe words

Crawling, then walking Growing in body and ether to talk, screeching happily when I got the I had a name-Bec It means "Little One" It's what Goll called me when he first foundI owned, so nobody could ever take from me

As I grew up, Banba trained ic I was a fast learner, since I could reht ic than spells A priestess needs to soak up the power of the world around her, to draw strength froood at that I doubted I'd everpriestess, but Banba said I'd improve in time, if I worked hard

I discovered early on that I'd never fit in The other children ary of the priestess's apprentice Their mothers warned them not to hurt me, in case I turned their eyes into runny pools or their teeth into tiny squares of mud I was sad that I couldn't be one of them I asked Banba where I cao where I'd be more welcome

"Priestesses are welcome nowhere," she answered plainly "Folk are pleased to have us close, so they can call on us when the crops fail or a woet round with child But they never truly trust us They don't take us into their confidence unless they have to Better get used to it, Little One This is our life"

The life wasn't so bad There was always plenty of food for a priestess, froer to win her favour and avoid a nasty curse And there was respect, and gifts when I made spells work People wondered hoerful I'd becoer Banba often laughed about that-she said people were always either too suspicious or expected too much

A few treated me normally, like Goll of the One Eye Chief of the rath once, now just an ageing warrior He didn't care that I was a stranger, fro to be a priestess I was siirl to him He even spoilt me sometimes, since in a way he felt like my father, as he was the one who found and named me He often played with avewhile others laughed or sneered All the children loved Goll He was a fierce warrior, who'd killed many men in battle, but he was still a child secretly, in his heart

Those were the best days Drea the crops Herding cattle and sheep I wasn't supposed to do ordinary work, but if a child was lazy and I offered to help, they usually let me Some even became friends over time They wouldn't admit it in front of theirthey'd talk to ames

Playing working learning the ways ofon the way it had since the world began, like it was meant to

Then the demons came