Flight of the Goddess

A manuscript has been found in Britain where the druids were known to be educated, a place called Mona. The parchments tell us of the embattled Celts, who are defending their homelands from the Roman invaders. The writer is Master Luteric, an oak-sage druid, a member of Aes Dana, the Order of the Wise. He tells in the manuscript what is happening to the Celtic people. Julius Caesar threatens to subjugate them and to make Gaul a colony of Rome. The Celts are fighting for their survival. Luteric tells of accompanying his granduncle, Lord Amergin, to Gaul, as emissary of the high druidic council on the Isle of Mona. Deirdre, who becomes Luteric#xE2;#xAC;"s betrothed as the story develops, is a student-druidess. We read of her strange calling despite being the untutored waif of a drunkard. We follow her to Sena, island home of female Aes Dana, where over two hundred druidesses are formed and educated. The girls have one year of novitiate, six years of bardic college, then seven years in the college for ovates and seers, and seven years more of specialized druidic training, before they will receive their staffs and be true ban-drui. The age of the youngest druidess with a staff is thirty-three. Deirdre is far behind her fourteen classmates, who are much better educated. She is almost expelled by the novice mistress, but for the intervention of Lady Genanu, the archdruidess. Deirdre graduates just barely and moves to the College of Bards. There she and her classmates, now whittled down to ten, hear and ponder the arcane lessons of their druidess teachers. #xE2;#xAC;SThe purpose of the bardic college,#xE2;#xAC; said Mistress Sualtaim of the Sweet Tune on their first day, #xE2;#xAC;Sis to educate you to love and to appreciate the spoken word. Words are the way we primarily communicate. To know their power and to have it at your command is no small thing. A good bard should have three intentions in using her words. To change people's attitudes or reform their morals, to extol peace and tranquility among people, and to celebrate what is good and beautiful and true. You#xE2;#xAC;"re to use your words either to praise, instruct or inspire. Otherwise, shut up.#xE2;#xAC; Luteric#xE2;#xAC;"s manuscript recounts the legend of Uxellodunum, where an unknown goddess leads a Celtic tribe from their homelands on the Danube and into southern Gaul. The goddess reappears when they finally get there. Her name is Uxella, and she creates a spring on a high plateau, giving an abundance of water to grow crops and feed livestock, while being a natural fortress against enemies. "Let these waters be a sign of our covenant,#xE2;#xAC; the Goddess said, and all of the oak-sages heard her words. #xE2;#xAC;SThis spring which I've created will last, as long as I am honored and trusted. Bring here those who are ill and who suffer among you. Let them pray to me and offer sacrifice. Those I find worthy, I shall heal." Luteric and Lord Amergin go to Uxellodunum and attend the high druidic council of Gaul. Julius Caesar#xE2;#xAC;"s legions are capturing druids and druidesses with offers of bounty, dead or alive. The council must decide if it should go into exile to the Isle of Mona. The archdruid is convinced the council should go and the archdruidess wants it to stay. The result brings Caesar#xE2;#xAC;"s army to the gates of Uxellodunum, the last hold-out of Caesar#xE2;#xAC;"s Gallic Wars.