The others did not feel it in the same way, or if they did gave no indication and said nothing about it. This, of course, was why the hill was chosen in the first place, but still I wondered that Hafgan and Blaise did not appear to notice the power flowing around and over them.

Hafgan took his place on the seat in the centre of the circle – nothing more than a slab of stone supported by two other, smaller slabs – there to wait until the others arrived. Blaise inscribed a series of marks on the ground and then stuck a suck upright over them. The sunshadow had not passed another mark on the ground before the first druids appeared. They greeted Hafgan and Blaise, and regarded my mother and me politely but coolly, while exchanging news with the two druids.

By midday all had arrived in the grove and Hafgan, cracking his rowan staff three times against the centre stone, declared the gathering assembled. The bards, thirty in all, joined him in the ring, and younger filidh and ovates began making their way round the ring with washing bowls and cups of heather water, and pouches of hazelnuts.

I was included in the circle. Charis stood looking on, a short distance away outside the ring, her face grave and intense, and it came into my mind that perhaps she knew what was about to take place. Had Hafgan told her? Was that why she had been asked to accompany us?

'My brothers,' said Hafgan with staff upraised, 'I greet you in the name of the Great Light, whose corning was foretold of old within this sacred ring.' Some of the Brotherhood shifted uneasily at these words. Their movement did not go unnoticed, for Hafgan lowered his staff and asked, 'You resent my greeting – why?'

No one spoke. Tell me, for I would know,' said the Chief Druid. His words were a challenge; quiet, gentle, but spoken with an authority that could not be ignored. 'Hen Dallpen?'

The man singled out made a slight movement with his hands, as if to show himself blameless. 'It seemed to me a strange thing to invoke a foreign god in our most sacred place.' He looked to the others near him for support. 'Perhaps there are others among us who think the same way.' 'If so,' said Hafgan flatly, 'let them speak now.' Several others voiced agreement with Hen Dallpen, and more nodded silently, but every man there felt the strain of Hafgan's challenge. What was he doing?

'How long have we waited for this day, Brothers? How long?' His grey eyes swept the faces of those gathered around him. 'Too long, it appears, for you have forgotten why we come here at all.'

'Why no, Brother, we have not forgotten. We know why we assemble here. But why do you castigate us so unfairly?' It was Hen Dallpen speaking out, more boldly now.

'How so unfairly? Is it not the Chief Druid's right to instruct those below him?'

'Instruct us then, Wise Brother. We would hear you.' The voice was that of a druid standing beside Blaise.

Hafgan raised his staff and turned his face heavenward, making a low moaning noise in his throat. The strange sound drifted off into the silence of the grove and Hafgan looked at those around him. 'From ancient days we have sought knowledge so that we might learn the truth of all things. Is this not so?'

'It is so,' intoned the assembled druids. 'How should we be slow to grasp the truth when it is proclaimed before us now?'

'We know many truths, Master. Which truth is proclaimed this day?' asked Hen Dallpen.

The Final Truth, Hen Dallpen,' replied Hafgan gently. 'And it is this: the Great Light of the world has ascended his high throne and calls all men to worship in spirit and deed.'

This Great Light you speak of, Wise Brother, do we know him?'

'We do. It is Jesu, him the Romans call Christus.' There were murmurs. Hafgan's eyes swept the assembly; many looked away uncomfortably. 'Why does his name frighten you?'

'Frighten us?' asked Hen Dallpen. 'Surely, you are mistaken, Wise Leader. We are not afraid of this foreign man-god. But, neither do we see good reason to worship him here.'

'Or worship him at all!' declared another. 'Especially since the priests of this Christus declaim against us, mocking us before our own people, belittling our craft and authority even as they seek to extinguish the Learned Brotherhood.'

They do not understand, Drem,' offered Blaise gently. They are ignorant, but that does not change the truth. It is as Hafgan says, the Great Light has come and is being proclaimed among us.'

'Is that why he is here?' The one called Drem turned angrily to me. I saw other dark looks, and understood the reason for the coolness of our reception.

'It is his right to be here,' said Hafgan. 'He is the son of the greatest bard to draw breath.'

Taliesin turned against us! He left the Brotherhood to follow this Jesu, and now it seems you would have the rest of us do the same. Are we to abandon old ways to chase after a foreign god simply because Taliesin did it?'

'Not because Taliesin did it, Brother,' replied Blaise, restraining his anger, 'but because it is right! He who was foremost among us knew the truth of a thing when he saw it. That alone argues for the Tightness of it.'

'Well said, Blaise.' Hafgan motioned me to join him in the centre of the ring. Blaise nodded encouragement, and I stepped forward hesitantly. Hafgan placed a hand on my shoulder, and raised his staff in the air. 'Before you stands the one whose coming we have long awaited, the Champion who will lead the war host against the Darkness. I, Hafgan, Archdruid of the Cor of Garth Greggyn, declare it!'

Silence greeted this pronouncement. Even I questioned the wisdom of such a proclamation, for clearly many of the Learned Brotherhood were unhappily nursing wounds they had received at the hands of the Christian priests, and others were openly sceptical. But the words were out and could not be taken back. I stood there, quaking inside, not from anxiety only, but from the implications of the Archdruid's words: the Champion… leading the war host… Darkness…

'He is but a boy,' scoffed Hen Dallpen. 'Would you have him sprung full-grown into life, like Manawyddan?' demanded the druid beside Blaise. There were a few allies among the Learned Brotherhood at least.

'How do we know he is Taliesin's son? Who can attest to his birth?' wondered one of the sceptics. 'Were you there, Indeg? Were you, Blaise? And you, Wise Leader; were you there? Well?'

'I was.' The voice took everyone by surprise, for by this time they had forgotten that my mother stood looking on. 'I was there,' she said again, stepping forward. Yes, this was why she had come, not only to see her son proclaimed among the Learned Brotherhood, but to help if things went awry, which, as Hafgan had anticipated, they had.

From now on, Hafgan had said, men will begin to recognize you. That sly fox meant to give it a fair beginning.

'I bore him and watched him bora.' My mother stepped into the sacred ring and came to stand beside me. So, there I was, Hafgan on one side, my mother on the other, surrounded by unhappy druids, feeling the strange power of the grove flowing around me. It is not surprising then that I should be taken out of myself to perform an act I was scarcely aware of, and remember now only in amazement.

The druids stood looking on, unconvinced. '… a child bom without breath or life. Taliesin sang life into his still body… ' Charis was saying.

I felt the air shudder around me, pulsing with the power of the grove. The stones in the sacred circle appeared to change from grey to blue as around us thickened a wall of shimmering glass, spun from the intense, charged air; the enmity of the druids towards me, together with my presence, had awakened the sleeping force of the omphalos, the centre of power on which the hill had been constructed.

I saw Otherworld beings moving among the circled stones. One of them – tall and fair, his face and clothing shining with a gleaming radiance that danced like sunbeams on water – came towards me and pointed to the Druid Seat where Hafgan had been sitting. I had never seen an Ancient One before, but part of me expected to see him and so I was not surprised. No one else noticed, of course; nor did I give any indication of the wonder taking place around us.