Chapter Twenty-One - Chapter Twenty-Five Summary

The beginning of chapter twenty-one describes Caillean's plan, which has been accepted, to keep Gawen in the Forest House. The women know him as Mairi's illegitimate child, and he is kept by a nurse called Lia. Gossip circulates that he may be Dieda's, as Dieda has disappeared, but nobody guesses the truth.

Meanwhile, Cynric has escaped from Roman custody, though no one knows where he is.

At the next rites of the Oracle, Eilan changes the herbs so that she will still be in contact with the Goddess, but not in the trance-like control of the Druids. The Arch-Druid, thinking she is in this trance, councils her to advise peace, and the Goddess chooses to speak these same words. Later, her father comes to see her, asking her to council revenge on the Romans; she...