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She knows that kingship is a fleeting thing, passing to those who can provide the strength, wealth and prosperity to the tuath, and has little to do with directness of descent. She knows it with a firm conviction, but has no source of this knowledge. Another piece of herself, it seems at first, but the knowledge isn’t personal, it’s common to all.
The weather has played its part this harvest year, swelling the grains with enough rain and sun, so they hang in abundant ripeness, dry unbent rather than mouldy from too much wet. The heifers, calves and sheep, with all the plentiful grass, have fattened and grown to a great size and the milk has flowed from the udders of all the cows that have borne calves. The cabbage blossoms out, its broad leaves curling round a thick centre and the engorged onions expand to sizes some call miraculous. Blackberries and all their attending cousins make startling promises with great clusters of flowers.
The use of the term ‘king bee’ instead of ‘queen bee’ is based on the understanding of the time. The time period was one of great change where the old power structures of the pre-Christian faith were being supplanted by the Christian faith. There was some tension between the two groups and also some accommodation. The
