2.-Her eyes were large in her triangular face, the look in them beseeching. “Please,” she whispered. “Please help me.” When two gray feathers drifted down, she bent to pick them up, a hopeful expression replacing the one of despair. She gazed at the soft feathers in her hands before lifting her eyes to the heavens once more.
Morrighan made a derisive sound. “She thinks we’re angels. And we are far from it.”
“We are not that dissimilar.”
Morrighan turned her dark stare on the healing goddess. “We could not be more unalike, Airmid. For one thing angels have wings, and for another they are associated with the religious nonsense humans have conjured up to explain everything from deja-vu to what they refer to as miracles. And now that poor woman down there is holding two feathers and thinking goddess knows what about where they came from. Really, Corra—couldn’t you have been a tiny bit more careful? That dress is shedding.”
Corra backed away from the railing, her bird eyes fastening on the goddess of war. “When you are in the shape of the raven, you shed as well.”
Morrighan laughed, running her fingers through her glossy hair. “But mine are black. No human would bother picking them up.” A moment later a dark bird could be seen circling the castle. “One of my friends is here now,” she murmured, looking up.
“If you are so anxious to leave, why not fly away and leave us in peace?” Corra asked, her harried movements sending feathers flying in all directions. “And why you’re at it, ask the Dagda what is so special about this girl.”
“I think I shall—there is nothing better than a flight through the clouds.” Morrighan gave a laugh just before she shifted to raven, her beady bird eyes just as haughty as her human ones. Her wings extended as though testing for a second, before she lifted off. She joined the other bird, their dark shapes gliding upward on the thermals before tumbling downward together and swiftly flying out of sight.
“Oh, I find her so annoying,” Corra hissed. “I’m sure that was Dagda in his raven shape. I hope she finds out why he’s given us this assignment. Since when is he interested in the human realm?”
Arianrhod made a dismissive gesture. “The reason does not matter. What matters is that we focus on our charge and stop arguing about the details. As far as Morrighan’s sexual nonsense, that’s her business.””
“But her entire reason for being is alien to what the rest of us believe,” Corra continued.
“She represents death,” Airmid added.
“No, Airmid, that is not true,” Arianrhod said. “She may be the goddess of war but she does not court death, nor does she symbolize it. She is one of us, and we must see all sides of her. She is a necessary part of who we are.”
A clatter of hooves announced the arrival of Rhiannon, the horse goddess, her white mare coming to a halt at the doorway. Birds fluttered around her tangled mass of red hair, intelligent emerald eyes peering at the other goddesses as she slid off the horse’s back. Her name meant white witch or great queen, her magic lay in the healing birds that flew around her that could put people to sleep or bring the dead back to life. A gown of crimson flowed around her legs as she marched to where the other goddesses stood by the railing. “Is that our charge?” she asked, leaning over to peer downward.
Airmid nodded.
“I would have been here sooner but I had an errand to run first.”
“Let me guess. Pwyll?”
Rhiannon turned to face the moon goddess. “Are you jealous of my consort?” she asked sweetly.
Arianrhod smiled for the first time. Rhiannon was a favorite of hers. “Not all all. How are he and your son, Pryderi?”
“It is Pryderi who has troubled us of late. If I had known how hard being a mother would be I might not have succumbed to Pwyll’s charms.”
“Likely story,” Corra said, smoothing her dress with tapered fingers.
Rhiannon laughed. “Yes, he is a mighty lover, my mortal prince. I will mourn him when he is gone.”
“Now that we are all assembled,” the moon goddess said, turning back to look down, “what shall we do about this poor underdressed woman who the mighty, all father, Dagda, has placed in our care?”
