would make us very happy.” Vic smiled softly at me.
I felt a rush of emotion and had to blink back tears. Hormones acting up, no doubt. “I can think of nothing I’d like better.”
The pair beamed at me. I swallowed the knot in my throat. Alanna sniffed happily. We were disgusting. No wonder I was puking.
“Lady Rhiannon,” Alanna said after she finished sniffing. “May I present to you our lead mason, Kai. Kai, the Lady Rhiannon, Incarnate of Epona,” she finished with a flourish.
The tall, young man stepped forward and executed a low, respectful bow.
“Lady Rhiannon, I am pleased to be in the service of Epona.”
His voice was unique—not deep or unusually loud, and way too youthful to be particularly manly, but it had a quality that intrigued me. It made me think that I would enjoy listening to him read.
“Perhaps more important are the stones pleased to be in the service of Epona?” I asked, finding it impossible to contain my curiosity (mentally crossing my fingers that I was not committing a faux pas in asking).
“Absolutely, my Lady!” His face brightened and became animated with an eagerness that I wish my students could have emulated. Of course, they wouldn’t have known what emulated meant. Sigh. “I searched the mines of the Sidetha until I found the marble vein that spoke the Goddess’s name. It is from that marble that the support columns of the structure are being formed.”
“I would love to see that marble,” I answered, intrigued at the notion that stone could have a preference.
“Follow me, my Lady. I would be honored to show you.”
“Rhea, Dougal and I are through here. We need to see to the winter supply of grain.” ClanFintan lifted my hand to his lips.
“Okay, I’m going to check out this stone stuff, then I need to look in on Epi. She’s been restless lately. I’d like to take her out for a ride. Exercise seems to calm her.” I’d known too many Oklahoma women who kept riding through most of their pregnancies to worry about whether it would be safe or not in my supposedly delicate condition. Plus, Epi was not like other horses. I knew she would be extra careful with me.
“I will meet you back at the stables.”
“Good day, Lady Rhiannon,” Dougal gave me a quick bow, and then he touched Vic’s cheek in a gentle caress before he followed my husband.
“If you wait here, my Lady, I will have the workers clear some scaffolding in order to accord you a better view of the main support column.” Kai said, his voice breaking endearingly, as he hurried away, obviously excited at the opportunity to share his love of marble. I nodded at him encouragingly.
After he was gone, Alanna elbowed me and jerked her head toward Vic. The Huntress was still standing there, gazing after Dougal’s departing form like a lovesick teenager. I caught Alanna’s eye and we quickly surrounded the Huntress.
“Girl, you’ve got it bad,” I teased.
Victoria blinked and brought her eyes back into focus.
“I have no idea about what you are speaking.” She sounded like Miss Priss, but her cheeks were pink.
“All I can say is that it’s a good thing he’s young.” I grinned at Vic.
“They do say the young have boundless energy.” Alanna mused.
“He is not that young.” Vic tried to sound offended, but I could hear the smile that was lurking behind her proper Lead Huntress facade.
“So, tell me,” I leaned into her side and spoke conspiratorially. For months I’d been dying to ask Vic about centaur sex. Now seemed like the perfect opportunity. After all, we were females, and females like to talk about sex. (Try not to be shocked.) “Just what kind, and how much energy, will poor Dougal need?” I nudged her and winked. “On your wedding night.”
Vic looked down at me, a little grin pulling at the edges of her full lips.
“Yes,” Alanna’s deceptively innocent voice trilled, “tell us.”
“Well…” Vic motioned for us to lean even closer to her, which we did (gleefully). “Have you ever seen horses mate?”
We nodded.
“Then you know they bite and squeal and kick when their passion is ripe?” Her voice suddenly reminded me of Mae West.
We nodded enthusiastically.
“You know that sometimes their desire is so fierce that the mating is filled with violent, uncontrolled lust?” Her voice shook with intensity.
We nodded very enthusiastically.
Breathing heavily, she paused. Looking from Alanna to me, her smile widened. “Well, it is nothing like that.”
With that, a flippant guffaw burst from her mouth, and she spun away from us, twitching her tail haughtily.
“She is not going to tell us, is she?” Alanna sounded wistful.
“Doesn’t look like it,” I sighed. “Damn.”
Alanna sighed in mirrored frustration. (Note to self: it’s about friggin time I asked ClanFintan to explain centaur sex.)
“My Lady, if you will come this way.” Kai had returned and was gesturing for me to follow him into the center of the construction area.
As Alannna and I caught up with him I whispered to her, “Is it normal that he’s so damn young? I mean, he’s a friggin teenager. He can’t even be sixteen! Barf.”
“The spirit of stone speaks strongly within him. It does not care that he is young, only that he is willing to listen. You will see.”
We joined him atop the marble stairs that had already been completed. It was an enormous area that was littered with massive chunks of marble, some of it raw and some already carved and smooth. Around the circumference of the structure were the bottoms of thick columns. These columns weren’t fully formed yet, and they looked like broken teeth in a giant’s mouth, but as we moved farther into the building site I could see that several central columns were already completed. They stood tall and proud, as if they were concentrating on setting a good example for the others. We stopped directly in front of the center-most column, which was so broad there was no way the three of us could touch fingertips if we stood around its base, arms outstretched. The marble was a luminescent, pearlized color with deep, smooth grooves etched into its expansive length. Its top was intricately carved in a circular pattern of interwoven knots framing plunging centaur warriors.
“This is the central support piece,” Kai said. His unusual voice had a faraway sound as he looked adoringly at the newly constructed column. “Each individual piece of stone I used to construct it spoke Epona’s name. I brought it home.”
“You hear a voice in the marble?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
He smiled at me. “It is not a sound—not exactly. It is more like a whisper in my
