Daughters of the Moon

Note: Thanks again to Liter Knight for her careful editing!

Chapter 11

Siobhan Arda Tibernack followed the crack of the musket up the hill. It was a warm summer day and the sun felt good on her face. She closed her eyes and faced the sun, taking a moment to enjoy the feel of it on her skin. It was getting later into summer and colder days were ahead, and in the back of her mind she knew the sun would soon be hidden for other reasons. The slope of the hill made her legs burn and she smiled to herself, knowing the woman she was walking towards chose this hill because it was the steepest one near town.

At the top of the hill she saw her. She looked tiny from where Siobhan was, but she knew even up close she was a tiny wisp of a thing. The cooks in her father's kitchen were always telling her to eat more, but even when she listened to them it never seemed to make a difference. As Siobhan walked toward her she was reloading the musket with rapid, mechanical efficiency. She was good enough to drill the clan militia's new recruits. At twenty paces she whirled, half raising the musket before she registered who it was, then she looked around quickly to make sure they were alone and broke into a wide smile. Siobhan's heart sped up at that smile and she started walking a little faster. She understood why the woman had looked around first. It was not the smile you gave a fellow soldier or even a friend. It wasn't the kind of smile that was allowed to them.

Siobhan took a few more quick steps, her long legs eating the remaining ground between them. Then she was looking down into her beautiful face, her wide dark eyes. She looked around quickly too, it never hurt to be careful, then leaned down for a kiss. Siobhan tensed as she did it. It was still new to her, expressing herself like this, even alone, and the tension just made it more exciting. The girl put an arm around her waist and she finally relaxed, softening her lips and enjoying a gentler kiss. After a moment they broke it.

"You found me," said the girl.

"I did," said Siobhan, "you were making a lot of noise."

The girl stepped back and pushed back some of her dark, curly hair, "I just wanted to get some practice in. The trials are tomorrow night and I want to be ready."

Siobhan glanced at the target, both the regular ones and the magewrought mobile targets that raced along the ground at varying speeds. Both were riddled with bullseyes.

"I think you're ready," said Siobhan. Her voice was very dry.

The girl blushed a little at the dryness in Siobhan's voice, "I know. I'm sorry. It's just... you know they almost never allow immigrants into the daughters."

"They didn't before but things have changed. A lot has changed in the last year."

"A lot has changed," said the girl, sounding terribly sad for a moment.

Siobhan decided to ignore that sadness for now, but it hardened her resolve to ask for some answers tonight.

"And even if it were still hard for outlanders, you would be one of the rare exceptions. You can even sneak up on me."

"It was just that one time."

"That's more than anyone else has done. You're more than good enough. And you're at more risk of tiring yourself out and hurting yourself during the trials than of not having the skills you need."

The girl ran a hand through her hair, "You're right, you're always right."

"Not always, just almost always."

"I just couldn't relax."

"Well, why don't we go back home and get you something to eat. You're still too skinny."

"It all just goes to my ass."

"I don't see how that's a problem."

"If it gets too big it'll make it harder to sneak around."

Siobhan sighed, "You are so difficult."

"Sorry."

"That's alright. I like difficult. Let's get something to eat and we can test your sneaking skills by going to this nice private little grove I found and I'll see what I can do to help you relax."

The girl licked her lips, "I don't know, what if someone sees?"

Siobhan paused. Normally she was the cautious one but the smell of the girl's sweat, the way she licked her lips, made her bold, reckless even, and she liked it.

"If someone sees us we'll tell them it's the business of the daughters and no business of theirs."

The girl's cheeks were very pink, and Siobhan felt warmth on her face that had nothing to do with the sun.

"Alright, yeah, that sounds great."

The girl leaned up and kissed her again. Siobhan opened her mouth a little and the girl's tongue peeked in. They broke the kiss.

"I love you," said the girl.

Siobhan jerked back. Shock running through her. That was the first time either of them had said it.

Siobhan cursed herself as the girl backed away, "I'm sorry."

"Please, don't be sorry."

"That was stupid."

"No, it's so sweet."

"It's too soon."

"It's not."

"I didn't mean to push things. It's just... with everything that's happening. With what's coming. I just didn't want to miss saying it."

Siobhan stepped close again and grabbed her hand.

"It's not too soon."

"No?"

"No, you just surprised me. You have to understand, this isn't the League or even Cambria. I lived my whole life so scared to say any of this out loud. To even think it, in case it might show on my face."

"I know. I'm sorry I pushed you."

"No, I wanted you to push me. You've helped me become more myself. I was... I was a shell before I met you. Gods, it's only now, when we might all die."

"We're not going to die."

"I know, but my life didn't begin until I met you. I love you too, Lucy."

This time their kiss was the deepest of all. Siobhan lost herself in her love's lips, this tiny furious girl who had fled west with the remains of her country's army and fallen into Siobhan's life like a comet. For the thousandth time she wondered if the Morgen, the goddess of fate and war and the patron of the daughters, had reached down and put this girl in her path, had given her what she needed to face the darkness that came behind her.

They broke the kiss. "Now, why don't we go get something to eat."

Lucy laughed, "I am getting pretty hungry."

...

Sobhan was on her back, staring up between Lucy's legs at her big beautiful ass. The tension in her belly was slowly building as Lucy's tongue moved over her clit, and she reached around Lucy's hips and squeezed her ass, communicating her approaching climax. She looked down the plane of her body and stared at Lucy's chin bobbing as she kept licking her. Then she went back to Lucy's clit, soaking wet from her saliva and Lucy's arousal, and kept licking with her tongue, increasing her pace. She wanted Lucy to come at the same time she did and she knew she didn't have a lot of time. Her hands moved from Lucy's ass and ran up and down her back, enjoying the feel of her skin, the heat that her tongue had kindled in her lover. Lucy was a small little thing and her weight was comforting pressing down on Siobhan. Siobhan enjoyed the feel of Lucy's nipples brushing across her torso as they pleasured each other

Then Siobhan felt her climax kindle, Lucy's tongue strokes turning to fire across her clit. Siobhan tried to hold it back as long as she could while she flicked Lucy's clit rapidly. She was rewarded when she felt Lucy's body stiffen above her and heat up even more as her own orgasm approached. The tension built and built until finally the dam broke. Siobhan buried her face between Lucy's legs and screamed as the waves of flexing pleasure overcame her. She had discovered she was very loud when she came, as if all the pleasure she had denied herself her whole life came rushing out of her now that she had allowed it to. But she always muffled it, part of her terrified of who would hear. Above her she heard Lucy moaning, the low deep moans that Siobhan loved so much because she knew they were just for her to hear.

In too short a time the waves of the climax receded and she relaxed into the blanket. She felt Lucy sag on top of her, her weight pressing down a little more and shifting as she relaxed. Then Lucy rolled off of her and flipped herself over, cuddling up next to Siobhan.

Siobhan stroked her love's hair gently, "I feel so wicked doing that."

Lucy chuckled, "It is strange. I thought my first girlfriend was nuts when she suggested it. But if you want both our tongues to get where they need to go it's the best way I know of."

Siobhan stared up at the leaves overhead, lit by the sun's evening light. The forest had begun to cool around them and the sweat of their lovemaking felt cold on her skin, but she didn't cover up yet. She didn't want to move.

"Is that who you lost?"

Next to her Lucy tensed.

Siobhan almost apologized for asking, almost told Lucy she didn't need to talk about her past, but she held her tongue. She felt like she deserved to know. She let the silence stretch and after a moment she was rewarded.

"No. No, Mira was great. She really helped me figure myself out, but I stopped missing her the day I met you. God, I feel awful saying that. I hope she's okay...No, it was my sister."

"Your sister?"

"Carla. She raised me herself. My mom died when I was four and my dad... he tried but he wasn't very reliable and he died when I was a barely a teen. After that it was just us. We traveled from town to town. She kept us both alive. She was a practitioner."

"Really? A hedge witch?"

"Yes. God, she was so good. She taught herself with my mom's notes. She worked out of basements and store rooms and she could heal a man better than any guild mage. Eventually she got a job at a spellwright shop in Tamlin. She kept the place afloat herself. I was already good at writing and she paid for me to learn telegraphing. She took care of us."

Lucy took a breath, "And then they came and they ruined everything. They tore it all down in a single night. Carla's boyfriend was with the army and she was going to get out with him but she went back into the city to get me out too. When she came to get me they came for me too. They wanted me because I had been handling the army's communications. Have you ever seen one?"

"No."

"They're so awful. They look like people but when they look at you there's just nothing there. Their eyes are just dead, like glass. And the things they do to you. One of them told me to come with her and she made herself so beautiful... so beautiful that all I wanted to do was to please her and I just walked away from my sister like she wasn't there, like she didn't matter. And the other one was a haunt and it froze Carla in place with its eyes. Do you know about the haunts?"

"I've heard stories."

"I didn't know about them at the time but I've talked to soldiers that were there and they say when one of them looks at you like that it's like being trapped in a nightmare. You can't move and the fear is beyond anything. You just stand there staring at them knowing you need to move but you can't and then they kill you. But Carla broke its gaze, she broke its gaze!" Lucy's voice dripped with pride.

"That's incredible."

"Yes, she was incredible. And she called up fire and she burned it alive right in front of me and told me to run..."

Siobhan stroked her hair, "And you ran."

Sibhan felt some wet on her shoulder where Lucy pressed against her, "I did. I was just a telegrapher. A weak little thing. I went to get her boyfriend. He was a mage like her so I figured he could do something. But when I found him he said it was too late. She was already gone. He didn't even try."

"He was probably right."

"It doesn't fucking matter. He loved her and he abandoned her... Just like I did."

"You couldn't have done anything either."

"I know. I know but that doesn't matter."

"And that's why this is so important to you. Joining the daughters. Fighting them."

"I'm tired of being weak. I depended on Carla my whole life and she was always there for me right until it killed her."

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know that. I know it was theirs. It was all theirs, but... But if I had just been stronger, like I am now... All I can do is avenge her. They need telegraphers for the army, but I need... I can't just stay back anymore. I need to kill as many of those things as I can. It's all I can do. It's the only way I can honor her."

Siobhan was quiet for a long minute, "I had an older brother. My father's heir. He was clever, he discovered I wanted to join the daughters but he never mocked me. He taught me to fight and he always supported me. He died too. This war would have been his chance to be a hero. He was supposed to lead my clan to battle with my uncle, to have songs written about his courage, but he died three years ago."

"I'm so sorry. What happened?"

"He was on a clan raid. A stupid petty skirmish. A neighboring clan had stolen one of my cousins and he was trying to get her back, or maybe just avenge her since she was already spoiled. God, men are so stupid."

"That's awful."

"Yes it was. It is. but that's not why I'm telling you this. Tallis isn't like Cambria. They call us a country but we've never been unified. All the clans are constantly raiding each other for revenge for past raids. It was an endless cycle of outrage and revenge. This is the first time we've been united in generations. It took the threat of the vampires destroying everything to finally bring us together."

Siobhan turned to face Lucy, to stare into the big dark eyes of the woman she loved. Those eyes were red rimmed and very determined.

"So I understand revenge. I've been raised to respect it. But I've seen what it can do when it consumes you. Don't let it be all there is. Since I found you, for the first time I can imagine a future where I'm happy. Where I'm with someone I love rather than some clan chief's son who I have to pretend to desire for the rest of my life while I bear him children. I'll help you take your revenge, but save some of yourself for me, so we can have a future when this is over."

Lucy bit her lip and nodded, "Okay, okay I can do that."

...

Siobhan waited in the clearing by the fire with her two sisters. They were all dressed in black, and each held one of the symbols of the Morgen, the goddess of fate and war. Fyanna, the wildest and fiercest of the daughters, held the sickle, the symbol of Macha, the Reaper of Men; Cerwen, the wisest of the daughters, held the drop spindle, the symbol of Neman, the Weaver of Ruin; and Siobhan, the strongest and deadliest of the daughters, wore the cloak of raven feathers, symbol of Barad, the Mother of Crows. They waited by the circle of the fire for the first of the supplicants to arrive.

The trials had begun as the sunset and the supplicants had until the witching hour to reach this clearing. They had to traverse woods that had never known the touch of an ax, scale a cliff without aid of rope and cross a river fed from the icy mountains to the north. In the woods were targets hung in the trees that had to be shattered by a musket and on the cliff were colored stones that had to be collected. And scattered throughout the forest and at the top of the cliff and patrolling the river were the rest of the daughters of Morgen, armed with quarterstaffs and bows with fowling arrows. They would break the ribs and shatter the arms of any supplicants they caught. Siobhan waited and prayed. She knew it was forbidden to pray for the success of a supplicant in the trial but she did it anyway, in her secret heart. She prayed that her love would enter the circle of light and the warmth of the fire.

Her prayers were answered and then some. Lucy was the first to arrive. It took all of Siobhan's self control, learned over years of hiding what she was, to suppress her smile, her shout of joy.

As Lucy approached Fyanna began the ritual, "who comes to sit at my fire?"

"Lucy Westerly Barcroft, One who would bind herself to death."

"From what blood and clan do you come?"

Usually the supplicant would list their lineage, their clan affiliation and any famous ancestors. But Siobhan had taught Lucy a proper response for an outsider.

"I have no clan, no kin, no blood to speak of. Fate has given them to the crows and now I give myself to their mother."

Siobhan stepped forward, "Why should we accept one of no clan, no kin, no blood?"

Siobhan had told her this was what she was required to say but that the answer had to come from her.

"Because I have known Death; the death of kin, the death of home. The death of hope. Death has been my companion on the road of fate and now I give myself to it, that I may visit it on those who deny the gods."

There was silence and Siobhan laughed to herself quietly. Lucy had a poetic streak but she hadn't expected her to outdo whoever had written up this ritual. Siobhan suppressed her amusement as she watched Fyanna struggle to remember the final phrases of the ritual in the face of Lucy's declaration.

"The Reaper of Men accepts you as kin, as clan as blood," said Fyanna.

"The Weaver of Ruin accepts you as kin, as clan, as blood," said Cerwen

"The Mother of Crows accepts you as kin, as clan, as blood," said Siobhan.

Siobhan stepped forward and held out a raven feather. Lucy took it and tied it to the knot Siobhan had bound in her hair before the trial had begun. Then Siobhan dipped a finger in the pot of blood she had in her hand, contributed from all the daughters before they took their positions in the trial, and put three streaks on each of Lucy's cheeks, one for each of the goddess's aspects. Lucy looked up at her, eyes shining with pride, and Siobhan reached forward, very slowly and squeezed her hand.

"Come, sister, sit by the fire and be refreshed, and wait with us for your sisters to join you."

Siobhan led Lucy to the fire. Before she turned to resume her position for the next supplicant she leaned forward and whispered in her love's ear.

"You are magnificent. I love you."

Lucy jumped, her beautiful face breaking out in a smile.

Siobhan returned to her position and waited. Over the course of the next few hours six more supplicants entered the circle of the fire. It was the most they had ever had in a single night, but still only a fraction of the night's supplicants. The daughters of Morgen had been flooded with supplicants ever since the clouds of war began gathering to the west, ever since the armies of the Dragon began gathering their hosts to march on Tallis.

It was only in the last few years, as the influence of the league and the church of the Champion had grown, that women had slowly been allowed to join their men on the clan raids and small skirmishes that were a constant feature in Tallis. That trend had accelerated with the new threat of the vampires. Women who volunteered to defend their homeland from the undead hordes were now accepted among the clan warriors but still faced ridicule and hostility from the men who made up the clan's standing army.

The daughters of Morgen were the one exception. They had existed as a small warrior elite for generations. The daughters were essentially a small cult of an old religion long swept away by the Father's church, but they were tolerated and even respected because of their deep roots in the founding of Tallis and their fearsome reputation as scouts, skirmishers, and assassins without equal. Until ten years ago, to be accepted into the daughters was the one way for women to fight alongside their men to defend their clans. Now that women were slowly being accepted into the regular clan war bands, the daughters' training and place in their culture was bringing them new respect and a flood of recruits. Membership in the daughters was treated as an open secret. Never spoken of but known by friends and family, and the clan war chiefs always knew how to call on the daughters of their clan when their skills were needed. To become a daughter was a guarantee of respect and even promotion for the women trying to break into the traditional clan armies.