Daiv smiled at her dubiously.
"That I am prepared to do, Golden One. I can't help wondering, though, how they will accept me. After what you've told me about the Men of your tribe—" He shook his head.
Meg made a happy-sound deep in her throat; slipped from Nessa's back and covered Daiv's lips with her hands.
"There is nothing to fear, Daiv. The Men of my Clan—pah!—they are not like you. They are weak things, meant only for breeding. The Mother will know, the moment she sees you, that you are one like the Gods. She too made the pilgrimage. She will rejoice and be glad. And—" Meg moved closer into the circle of his arms. "She will be gladder still when she sees our happiness."
"I hope so," said Daiv soberly. His lips met hers in the touching-of-mouths that he had taught her. Then, "But it is too late for us to finish our journey today," he said. "We must find a place to make camp."
"Just beyond the turn," Meg told him excitedly. "I know every inch of this country, Daiv. When I was young, and studying under the Mother to become a Priestess of the Clan, I used to ride out here to seek solitude and the guidance of the Gods. Just beyond the turn there is forest and a small stream. This is an ancient land, my lover; the trees are mighty and strong. But—" Her eyes found his adoringly. "But not so mighty and strong as you."
Daiv said, "Now, Golden One!" reprovingly, but Meg felt happy-crinkles in her heart as she saw the way he drew back his shoulders to lead the way into the forest. She did not mount Nessa again, but walked behind Daiv, leading the tamed and captive doe by its bridle.
Nessa had been Daiv's gift to her, a mount to take the place of the horse Meg had lost on her way to the Place of the Gods when the Wild One had attacked her. "A wedding gift," Daiv had called it—which did not make sense. But, then, Daiv was always saying strange things. That was, Meg thought, a trifle awefully, because he came from Kirki, which was a holy place far to the southland, near the Land of the Escape. His tribespeople were direct descendants of those Ancient Ones who, long ages ago, had fled from Earth to the evening star in the bowels of a metal bird that spat fire.[1]
Daiv's skill had captured Nessa, wild woodland doe, but Meg's gentleness had tamed her. She had borne Meg across all these foreign territories; through Braska and Zurrie, to the blue-shining fields of Tucky; now, at last, back to Meg's beloved Jinnia.