The Dark Swan/Part 3

With Bride's fire in my eyes, I could see clearly beneath the stars and glowing moon. I traveled for a long time, trusting that I would find Giobhniu's dragon.

I faced some peril in the forests and swamps. I came across fierce creatures and some nights the storms raged and the ground was distrusting beneath my feet. On more than one occasion, my boots sunk deep into the mud, lurking up about my thighs and I struggled against the pull of the earth. I was forced to grab at roots and stones, conjuring all of Bride's power within me to pull myself up and continue.

I lost count of days and nights spent in the dense, swampy woodland but eventually I found an opening into the world beyond and I slipped out. I felt joyful walking down populated roads once again. I barely thought of Ailsa, Lynn and Mayra and how they must be shivering in Bride's temple. I admit that in my happiness to be out of the forest, I almost forgot Bride as well. I could almost have been content to stop my journey, to find a little cottage that would take me in and live upon the land of Giobhniu but I could hear Bride crying every now and then within my head, keening for her home, keening for me and as I continued on I began to hear another sound. It was a sharp intake of breath that made the whole sky move gracefully.

Leaves blew upon trees for hours before I actually reached the lair of Giobhniu's steadily breathing dragon. The dragon's breath was like a fierce storm, threatening to blow me away with every step that I took. "Guide me Bride," I asked and I placed my fingers upon the mark of my Goddess, cradling myself against the storm. "Help me to pass the dragon. Otherwise all is lost. I have faith. Help me please." I felt the symbol burning on my arm once more, a hot, glorious sensation and as if it was an impulse, I spread out the fingers along my left hand. A light shot out from my fingers and a silver, shining shield appeared where the light had been. I grabbed the shield and held it up against the fierce winds. I pressed onwards with the grace of Bride to guide me. The path through the lair of Giobhniu's dragon was up a mountain pass, winding and steep. I pressed on my way and the wind became warmer, like fire as I neared the dragon.

I almost ran the other way when I saw the shape of Ghiobniu's dragon lying across the path and the lands beyond. The dragon's head was as large as five enormous boulders and each nostril flared greedily. It's scales shone like diamonds and they were sharp and menacing. I did not know how to approach the dragon or what I would do to defeat him, but I put my faith in Bride. I knew that she would help me for she loved me and she had great power.
I decided that rather than tempting my fate by walking straight into the claws of the dragon, I would first approach it face to face and so I walked up to the dragon. My body was a frail toothpick compared to his largess. Bride's voice sounded through me once more. "I need to pass here dragon. What do you ask of me to slip through, my life intact?" The dragon growled loudly. His breath was hot steam and wind.
"You must give me something." The dragon muttered.
"Anything," I replied.
"You are a man of faith," the dragon muttered dangerously. "Your blood is particularly valuable."

"My blood?" I stuttered carefully and I could hear the fear of Bride lingering in my speech. She was shouting "No!" again and again, writhing about inside of me. "Yes, your blood," the dragon repeated.

"You may pass me and descend into the the roots of Yggdrasil but should you return, you will give your Goddess her mantle and when you reach the pass again, I will drain you of your blood."

I shuddered. Bride would not let me find the words to agree. The symbol on my arm burned painfully but I disobeyed my Goddess in love. I summoned my strength and nodded my head. The dragon moved aside greedily, the ground shaking with his incredible weight and as I passed along the road I felt his sharp scales scrape up against me.

Bride was crying, I knew, thinking of a way that she could still save me and abashed at how I loved her so selfishly and selflessly in the same moment. She raged in part and once again I thought of Brides sisters, shivering in her sanctuary. I placed one foot in front of the other. I was already so close to completing my lovers foolish quest.
The place where the four leaf clovers grew was not far from that pass. There was a huge willow tree, bare of leaves as though it was always cold and dead but the grass and clovers on the ground were green and vibrant. Bride followed me slowly. She was sad and regretful but soon she would be worshiped again. Soon, I would prove my love to her.

I knelt down and looked among the clovers. Directly under the willow tree was a square patch of clovers with four leaves that stuck out like a door in the ground. From their cluster I took one clover and then another and another. When the third clover was plucked a light gleamed radiantly surrounding the patch of clovers and seemingly from nowhere a trench opened up onto a series of huge roots, thick and graced with a hard bark.

I reached into the folds of my cloak and found the tiny flask that Daere had given me. I popped the clasp of it open and swallowed without hesitation. The taste of the potion was vile and it made my limbs ache as though a thousand spikes were being driven through them. Afterwards, it made me feel light.

On the ground before Bride, instead of the shape of her lover was the form of a ghost and it did not even resemble me in appearance. Instead, I had a full body of jade black feathers, gleaming in the sunlight and a long graceful neck. The spirit of a dark swan stood before her.

Bride keened once more as my swan spirit slipped through the roots of Yggdrassil, turning easily one way than that as though I was floating on water in this new body. I had human thoughts but as I had in the upper world, no speech. I continued through the roots for what must have been hours when I saw the toe of a corpse. It appeared beautiful and young. Its hair was long in golden locks.

Laying over the corpse was a magnificent red mantle, made of a soft velvet. I approached the body carefully and I said a prayer to Bride. I asked that Bres rest in peace, assured in the undying love of his Goddess. Than I clenched my strong beak against the edge of the mantle and in a quick flourish I pulled it away from Bres' silent body.

The beautiful youth turned to a decayed skull and then to a pile of dust within seconds of the mantle being removed. Bride's magic was no longer with him. His dust scattered through the roots of Yggdrassil and the mantle, light in my clutches, radiated with power and beauty.

I glided again through the roots of Yggdrassil until I came out again where the clovers were four leaves beneath the dew. As soon as I left Yggdrassil's roots I regained my human form, laying the mantle upon the green ground and smiling proudly. Taking her full form, Bride stepped forward and wrapped the mantle about herself. The red was beautiful against her skin and it matched her vibrant hair. She smiled at me and embraced me as she could never do in her weakened state.

“I love you,” my Patricius, she said quietly. “You have done me a great favor in returning my mantle to me.”

Without hearing me speak, my Goddess knew that I was honored and happy.

“But you did not keep your faith in the face of Giobhniu's dragon. You did not let me speak through you and because of your foolishness, you would die if you return that way. I cannot let you die” Bride whispered, like silver magic dropping from her lips. “I will not let the dragon drain your blood for you will never return to that pass.”

I nodded, taking courage. Bride bent down, the mantle wrapped warmly about her shoulders. She keened for me as she never had cried for me before and from the tears grew a small lake in that place, beneath the cold willow tree. The lake was large and magnificent and the sun shone eternally upon it.

If you could find that place, you would find heaven on earth, water to drink from to keep you young and living always, atop the roots of Yggdrasil.

Bride kissed me for a last time and she touched my forehead. With her warm touch I became a swan again, my feathers a dark black in the gleaming sun. This time, however, I was not a ghost, I took full form and I stepped into Bride's lake and relished in my lover's powerful gift. I was never to be human again. Bride spoke to me though I could hardly understand her speech any longer.

She left me and passed by the dragon herself. She went into Ireland and she cast her mantle out over the land and every where that it covered became her domain. Aylsa, Mayra and Lynn were happy once more and Bride's disciples grew in number.

I floated upon the lake, alone and pensive. But Bride did not leave me there forever. Every year Ireland is wrapped in winter. It snows and the ice grows thick on the ground for my lover has left her domain to visit her lover.

She goes to the lake side and takes of her robes to reveal her beautiful shining body and in a flourish, she too becomes a swan, her feathers pure white and lovely against my blackness. We live on that lake together and glide beneath the moon. She is my Goddess and I shall never stop loving her.

Nor will Bride forget how I went to the ends of the earth for her, how I faced perils, how I promised my blood to a dragon, how I swept into the roots of Yggdrasil for her. I live forever, in her faith.

As this story ends, a new cycle begins, winter has washed over the land once more and my Bride has returned to swim gracefully beside me. But please know that she loves you, oh disciples of Bride as much as she does me, for she will return to you and there will be spring again. The flowers will bloom as her sacred heart does.

The End