The Tower: Part 6: Ostara
Post #66: In which an invitation accepted ...
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The strange call of some exotic bird wakened her. She lay naked in shadow now. The sun touched the sea’s far-off surface. She pulled on her clothes, feeling relaxed and refreshed, and walked along the jungle’s edge, gathering lengths of the flowering vine.
Dusk stained the sky when Ginger stepped into Offrir, her arms full of flowers. Persephone was testing her drums and adjusting the tightness of the heads. Rumpelstiltskin, Heks and Poseidon gathered around a rock pedestal, heads bent, examining something on the flat surface.
Ginger, curious, joined the group around the table-shaped stone. They were examining a double handful of small round spheres.
“I recognize the amethyst, jasper and agate,” Poseidon said. “We see those in the sea.”
“These,” said the Dwarve, rolling several examples in his palm, “are precious gems in the colors favored by Pele. Here’s ruby and garnet, and these two were cut from an especially fine citrine.”
Ginger knew nothing about marbles. She nudged Rumpelstiltskin and asked for the loan of his knife, which he handed her absentmindedly. She left them to it and went to talk to Persephone.
“Not a marble fan?” Persephone asked with a smile.
“Not just now,” said Ginger firmly.
Persephone laughed. “Priorities. What a pretty flower!”
“I found it on the edge of the jungle and I thought we could wear it. I borrowed Rumpelstiltskin’s knife. The vine was so tough I gnawed it to get some loose.” She cut the long vine into shorter lengths, and Persephone shaped circlets for their heads and to hang around their necks.
“Use the rest to decorate the offerings,” said Persephone. “The flowers smell heavenly. I wonder what they are?”
“The sun is down,” said Ginger. “Shouldn’t we be starting?”
“Rumpelstiltskin has already sent the salamanders into the tunnels,” said Persephone.
A small shadow alighted on one of the drumheads. The dim light made it hard to see it clearly.
“Good morning,” Ash’s shrill voice said.
“Good evening, for them,” Beatrice remarked reprovingly.
“Hello, both of you,” said Persephone. “Will you go into the tunnels and see if you can get as many of your people as possible to come back here? We’re going to dance.”
“Certainly,” said Ash. Without further ado, he launched himself into the air and disappeared in the gloom.
“I’ll start playing,” said Persephone. ‘Go see if you can tear Rumpelstiltskin away. The marbles will wait. It’s time he headed into the tunnels to invite his people to come. Oh, look!”
Ginger turned and saw a line of fire salamanders enter the cavern from one of several tunnels. They crept along the cavern walls, some going left from the entrance and some right. Although each creature gave only about the same illumination as a candle, several together brightened the cavern significantly.
Persephone began playing a slow, measured heartbeat and for a moment awe seized Ginger. The glowing lizards; the humid air, scented with the red flowers; and the drums, like an elemental heartbeat, combined to create an atmosphere of sensual power and expectance.
Rumpelstiltskin stowed the marbles in a bag and tucked it away. “I’ll see if I can round up an audience,” he said. “I’ll be back.” He looked at Ginger. “This stone is where I leave offerings for Pele. I’ve brought a handful of gems for her. Will you see if you can make it pretty? Maybe use a couple of those flowers?”
Ginger handed him his knife. “Go on. I’ll take care of it. I brought a silk scarf for her.”
Heks lifted fire salamanders, which continued arriving in a steady trickle of warm light, onto every ledge and niche she could find, illuminating the cavern in low light, perfect for dancing.
Ginger took a fragile silk scarf out of her bundle and opened it carefully. It was the color of ripe cherries. She folded it in half, rumpled it slightly and draped it over the pedestal’s flat surface, scattering gems across it. She added three blossoms from the flowering vine and lifted a salamander onto the pedestal, setting it carefully on bare rock rather than the delicate scarf, which she did not want to scorch. In Rowan Tree she had asked Maria to cut a lock of her own red hair and she added this to the offering now. It was tied with a length of black wool. Ash and Beatrice had told them Pele favored an offering of hair.
A small weight alighted on her shoulder. “Very nice,” said Ash in her ear.
“Thank you,” said Ginger. “Did you persuade some bats to come?”
“A few,” said Ash modestly.
Beatrice snorted. “Hundreds, I should think,” she said. “They didn’t need much persuading.”
“That’s not all,” said Ash. “Don’t look, but a couple of Dvorgs have come as well.”
Rumpelstiltskin had warned them about trying to speak to or acknowledge the Dvorgs. “If they come at all, you mustn’t take any notice of them. You’ll be doubly offensive, not only abovegrounders but women, too. Don’t look at them, and don’t speak to them.”
“Should we warn Heks?” Ginger breathed. “I don’t want to turn around.”
“She already knows,” said Ash. “She’s moving the fire salamanders so as to leave the walls by the tunnels unlit. One of the Dvorgs has come in and found a dark corner to watch from. Here comes the other. Good. Once they’re settled, they’re completely invisible. Nobody’s paying any attention to them.”
“I usually dance topless, but maybe I’d better not,” said Ginger, feeling suddenly uncertain. “I don’t want to make anything worse.”
“You’re not dancing for them,” Beatrice pointed out crisply. “You’re dancing for Pele. The whole point is to allow a few of them to actually see Pele with their own eyes. It doesn’t matter if they’re offended at the same time. Pele is passion. She won’t join you if you make yourself small. These stony folk forgot their place in the web of Yrtym and imagine they can stand alone. Remind them of the sacred female. Be the dancer you are.”
Ginger took a deep breath. “You’re right. I think I’d better go change. Are they still coming in?”
“Yes,” said Ash. “Bats, fire salamanders and Dvorgs.”
Without looking around, Ginger scooped up her bundle and exited the cavern. Stars filled the sky.
She had brought a long gauzy skirt and simple tunic of turquoise shot with fiery green, colors of sky and sea and the Green World. She hung large golden earrings from her ears, fastened a bracelet of bells around an ankle and slid several thin bangles of copper, brass and gold on her wrist. The final touch was the simple flower circlet for her head and around her neck.
For a moment she stood under the night sky, feeling the rock beneath her bare feet, the whisper of fabric against her skin and the sensual anticipation of dance.
“May Pele come,” she breathed to the night.
“If she doesn’t, it won’t be your failure,” said Poseidon, standing up. He’d been sitting in the rock’s shadow, so silent she hadn’t seen him. Ginger’s cheeks burned, realizing he’d certainly seen her changing her clothes and adorning herself.
“Nothing I have heard does justice to the Red Dancer,” Poseidon said. He took her hand, pulled her to him and kissed her on each cheek. “I’ll be honored to dance with you. Let’s hope that honor is not cut short by Pele murdering me.”
Ginger laughed. His charm and humor were irresistible. Poseidon was known for his appreciation of women. Why be self-conscious?
“You might have told me you were there,” she said, a smile in her voice.
“But then I wouldn’t have seen,” he returned, unrepentant.
“Will you watch from out here, then?”
“Yes. Until the time seems right.”
“A few Dvorgs have come.”
“Good. Go and dance, my dear. Don’t worry.”
When Ginger re-entered the cavern, she had the impression it was filled with rustling, squeaking, scratching and breathing. The fire salamanders pulsed subtly to the drums’ rhythm. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed several shadowed figures clustered against and near the cavern wall containing tunnel entrances, and suspected additional Dvorgs watched from outside the cavern.
Heks wore a simple skirt the same color as the scarf with Pele’s offerings, topped with a light sleeveless tunic of cloudy grey. She, too, wore a crown and necklace of red flowers.
“You look wonderful,” said Ginger. “I haven’t seen you wear red before.”
“Red is the color of life,” said Heks. “If an old woman like me can wear it and dance, a passionate woman in the prime of her power certainly can. Are you ready?”
“Do you think we should start? Should we wait for Rumpelstiltskin?”
“He’s there,” said Heks, pointing. “Ash and Beatrice are above him on that ledge.”
“Then let’s begin,” said Ginger. Firmly, she put away her fear and uncertainty. She walked to the cavern’s center, taking in the fire salamanders, Persephone’s alcove, and the dark gap of the cavern entrance from the mountainside, from which she knew Poseidon watched. She let her gaze pass vaguely over the Dvorgs clustered in the shadows.
Persephone picked up the rhythm and transitioned into a flowing, more complicated beat. Ginger closed her eyes and stopped thinking, letting the drumbeat enter and fill her body until it began moving in response.
She hadn’t danced underground before, or in the company of so much stone. Every setting influenced the dance taking place within it, she knew. The rock called from her body a kind of passionate strength, a desire to shout with a guttural sound. She crouched low, dancing from her center, moving like an animal. She felt as squat and strong as the Dvorgs themselves, stubborn, obdurate, enduring.
Heks joined her, upright, self-contained, her dance muscular and wiry, her arms raised above her head, turning like a column of grey and red, and a cloud of bats formed a spiral shadow around her, circling up around her body, flying from her fingertips into darkness and flitting down to her feet before repeating the pattern.
Ginger heard a nearly inaudible murmur from the direction of the Dvorgs and Persephone slid into a more sensual, slightly faster rhythm. Ginger, having started with a dance of stone and cave, straightened her back and stood tall, anchoring her feet in the energy of the rock and reaching for the sun, the sky, the moons, and the stars. She whirled and stepped, dancing the trees, the silvery falling rain, the dawn sky’s pearly colors, the Green World and the turquoise water.
She found herself dancing in a moving spiral of fire salamanders on the cavern floor. She allowed her feet to follow their guidance. Heks moved ahead of her in the spiral, turning and stepping, arms outspread, smiling like a child at play. Bats swirled around them, tilting and whirling in their own dance. Ginger wondered if Ash flew among them.
Heks reached the spiral’s center and the salamanders merged and flowed, leading her back to the far edge of their formation, and for a moment it seemed to Ginger she stood still and the cavern itself danced.
She felt warm. She unbuttoned her tunic and threw it into a corner. The flowers around her neck brushed her bare skin. Watching her feet as she danced the salamanders’ spiral path, she saw a crack in the cavern floor begin glowing. She remembered Ash and Beatrice’s description of Pele’s arrival to accept Rumpelstiltskin’s first offerings and felt a surge of excitement mixed with apprehension. Had Pele heard the invitation and come? How could she lead such a powerful primordial figure in dance?
The fire salamanders broke their spiral and formed a large circle around the crack, rippling and pulsing with orange and yellow. The drums commanded, intoxicating and irresistible. Heks threw back her head and let out a shout, half exultation, half demand. Ginger felt the drumbeat in her belly and her hips, felt power blossom in her body’s core and danced from it.
The crack widened. Ginger heard excited male voices murmur as the Dvorgs stirred in the shadows. It grew steadily hotter and sweat coated Ginger’s skin and dampened her hair. Two vague hand shapes appeared at the crack’s edge, followed by the soot-black figure of a voluptuous woman. Two burning blue eyes took in the scene as Pele stood on the lip of the crack, her figure wavering and shimmering in a haze of heat.
A snake wrapped around her like a lover, yellow and black, scales glistening in the salamander light. Unlike Pele, the snake showed itself in clear detail. Its head, at the level of Pele’s shoulder, bobbed to the drumbeat.
Ginger, sensing the moment of truth, poured her soul into her dance, her hair a red mist, her bare breasts shining as if oiled, her body strong and proud. She let out a fierce, wordless cry, which Heks echoed.
Pele’s figure began clarifying. Her skin was night velvet over muscle and firm flesh, her hair dark snakes. An orange gem winked from the mystery of her navel, and another glimmered in her nose like a red star. Ginger, on impulse, approached Pele, dancing and whirling. She removed the flower crown from her own head and set it lightly upon Pele’s stormy locks, let the drumbeat take her a few steps away, and then returned and draped her flower circlet around Pele’s neck.
Pele took a step forward. Ginger faced her, smiling in invitation, rolling her hips. She felt her breasts bobbing. Pele’s gaze focused over Ginger’s shoulder and Ginger turned and danced away, allowing Heks to take her place.
Heks had removed her tunic as well. Her small breasts were soft, and she had the androgynous figure many wiry women achieve as they age. She possessed none of Ginger’s lush, smooth curves or youthful power, yet she drew every eye. She looked like an old empress with the flower crown on her pewter head and the skirt flaring around her legs, red as wine, black as raspberries, dark as cherries. She made Ginger feel soft and childlike.
Heks grinned ferociously at Pele, baring her excellent teeth. She gathered her skirt in one hand, raising the hem coquettishly, baring her stringy leg to above the knee. She danced before Pele like an insect sheathed in a garnet carapace, like a thorny bramble budded with berries, like a late-blooming rose the velvety color of old blood.
Pele smiled, her teeth shockingly white in her dark face, bent her knees and rolled her hips seductively. The drums vibrated through the cavern. The snake twining around Pele writhed with ecstasy.
Pele held her arms out gracefully and rolled her belly and hips as though they were independent from the rest of her body. The orange jewel glimmered seductively above the wiry hair at her groin. Her ankles, though strong, were surprisingly well-formed, and she stepped lightly on the stone floor as she danced.
Ginger, with an effort, stayed in her dance, though she wanted to stop and watch the scene. Now that Pele had joined them, it was more important than ever to lead the dance until the end. She glanced toward the corners where the Dvorgs huddled, and thought with satisfaction they had accomplished Rumpelstiltskin’s goal. Pele had come, and several Dvorgs had seen her with their own eyes. Word would spread.
Pele and Heks danced among a shifting cloud of bats, flitting in silent formation like smoke. Ginger moved closer to them and the aerial dance of velvet and suede engulfed her. Each of the three dancers stayed in her own dance, but the gravity of the dance they created held them together and the drumbeat anchored their mutual power.
A soft commotion arose among the watching Dvorgs, and for a moment Ginger thought they were actually going to join the dance. Persephone’s drumming didn’t falter, but increased in tempo and resonance, sounding almost triumphant. Ginger, glancing at her, saw her grinning delightedly at someone entering the cavern.
As Ginger danced, straining to see in the soft salamander light and underground shadows, an enormous flat head thrust itself between her and Pele. Pele’s snake, which until now had remained wrapped around her, fastened its gaze on the newcomer and in one sinuous movement crawled down Pele’s muscular arm and twined itself around the head and neck of a giant snake, as thick as Ginger’s thigh, who could only be Mirmir.