Elf Killers (16 page)

"What?"

"He called his mother, 'Fmoo...'" 

Olloo coughed out a laugh.

"Well he did, and he said he really missed her and hoped that the trolls hadn't eaten her yet, and he really wished that she could come live with him and be an Elf like he was..."

Olloo laughed again.

"He wouldn't have it that he was anything but an Elf. Well, you heard him when you said he was one troll not afraid of strike falcons. He just plain hated the Marfora Siofra, and no mistake about it. Yea. And he even told me some troll speech. He said those curses call themselves the Dyrney, which means 'one true people...'"

"I reckon that leaves us out," said Oisin.

"Yea,” said Kieran, "and him. And I get the idea that he spent his time with them, day in and day out, with them always a-threatening to eat him."

"Well that would certainly give him the right to feel like an Elf," said Oisin. "Say. You didn't ask him how the Marfora Siofra manage to fend off our magic, did you?"

"That's about the only other thing we talked about. How'd you guess?"

Oisin shrugged. "You're always talking about how you wish we had the magic to stop the curses..."

"I never got anywhere. I tried to bring up magic on our way back from the barn, but he refused to get what I was talking about. I swear he acted like I was trying to play him for a fool. The trolls must not even be aware of it."

"Well, this is the end of the trees," said Olloo as the three of them halted for a moment in the vast chorus of pulsing katydid calls. "I can just make out grass, right yonder beyond the brush. You still think we can find our way from here, Oisin, or should we have gone back the way we came?"

"You think it will cloud over?"

"I doubt it."

"Then we'll have no problem."

Doona and Lilee took a seat on a long low shelf of sandstone which formed a prominence on the north-east end of Carraig Faire, overlooking the Strah, well away from everyone as the women tended the kettle, fixing supper. They sat quietly, listening to a vesper sparrow below them as they studied the grass far away into the distance. It had been a long day. Onora quietly appeared behind them with two steaming bowls of stew.

"Oh," said Lilee, looking up with a smile, "thank you for supper, Onora."

"As if I actually made it..."

"Well we could've got our own," said Doona. "It's still that same strike falcon, isn't it?"

Onora nodded. "You both must be exhausted after spending the whole day cutting thatch. It didn't hurt me one bit to bring it to you."

"Sheet lightning," said Lilee at the sight of a winking of light in the haze behind the scant gathering of clouds at the horizon. "Did you see?"

"I wonder if it means rain," said Doona. "There hasn't been any since we all got here. Can you imagine? We're not at all ready for something like that. We'll all get soaked."

"It's pretty far off," said Onora. "It may never get here. There's not a bit of wind, though that could change. Well. I'm going to take Brenden some stew." 

"I'll stay with you again tonight, if you like, Doona," said Lilee. "Mom and Dad won't mind, as long as we tell them. You don't mind, do you Onora?"

"Why would I ever?" she said, pausing to turn back.

"Thanks," called Lilee.

They turned to their stew to study the horizon beyond their spoons.

"You must've read my thoughts," said Doona. "I was just about to ask you. I'm not sure I can sleep knowing that Oisin and them might be back before daylight."

"You'd better sleep. They might not get back for another night or two or even longer..."

"Lilee. You don't think that something's happened, do you?"

"Of course not. You're getting jumpy, you silly goose. They could be lots longer and not a thing be wrong..."

"But..."

"Doona. They don't even know that anything's up with you. Why should they hurry?"

Doona gave a sigh and went back to her stew. There was now a definite line of clouds, and they were quite clearly lighting up, every once in a while.

At the sound of a scuff on the sandstone behind them, they both looked up at once to find Jamys.

"Hi Daddy..." said Lilee.

"I didn't mean to give you a start," he said without a smile. "Your mom acts like she's really in labor, this time. You reckon you could come with us, Doona?"

"Certainly. Where's Caly?"

"She's over there," he said, turning on his heel to go back. "She wants your help. The baby doesn't act like it's turned right."

Doona and Lilee shared a wide-eyed look and followed him at once as he hurried across the sandstone in the failing evening light.

"I'll bet I've watched above a dozen deliveries," said Doona in a hushed voice, "but I've scarcely done more than hand over rags and pans of water..."

"It's been two hundred and twenty six year since Momma bore me..." said Lilee, ending in a squeak.

Doona took her by the hands and stopped short. "Look 'ee here!" she said, giving them a firm shake. "It's going to be all right. I don't know what Caly wants me for, but I'm right sure it's for something she knows I can do. Now nothing's going to happen, Lilee, but if it does, you know I've got magicks in me and I swear I won't let go of your momma until she's safe." She grabbed her for a quick sound hug before dashing ahead to catch up with Jamys.

They found Eunys propped on a mountain of blankets under a thatched shade between two rocks, attended by Caly and a half dozen other women, patting and soothing and sponging her with cloths.

Caly saw them coming and rose to her feet to step aside with Doona. "It's not turned yet," she whispered. "She's already having a time. Did Oisin leave any of his medicines with you?"

"Two of his bags. He took the other one."

"Does he have any bugbane?"

"I don't know. If he doesn't, should I ask Edard?"

"I'd lay odds he won't have. If Oisin's got it, fetch all of it. It may take every bit of it to save her. Now go."

Doona ran to see. His bag held more than she had imagined. It took a very long time fumbling through things. Far across the Strah, she saw a tower of clouds light up and vanish under the stars. At last she found a good ounce of bugbane root in a leather pouch. She closed up the bags, snapped up a mortar and pestle and ran.

When she got back, the women already had a kettle heating on the fire. Every Elf was sitting nearby. Eunys was having a hard time. Maybe the bugbane would help her deliver. It was supposed to. "No, no," she said as different anxious women tried to help, "it needs to boil for a while and then nearly cool." When her fifth batch was cooling, Doona stood up to keep her legs from going to sleep. She walked away from the fire, staring up at the stars as she stretched her neck. There was a rumble of thunder from far away as new breezes chased through the grass in the moonlight.

Suddenly Lilee grabbed her, burying her face in her leine. "Momma's trying so hard," she whispered, shaking to keep from sobbing.

"If she needs me, Lilee, I promise she'll be all right. I'll die if I have to..."

Suddenly the great rock went pink with a deafening peal of thunder as great scattered splotches of rain pelted the sandstone before passing by. And at once the Elves gave a great chorus of cheers and clapping as the baby boy surged forth, breech first, in a river of blood. "Doona!" cried Caly. "Here! Press hard, right above her bone and hold it."

Doona did as she bid at once.

"That's got the torrent, girl, but I don't know how you're ever to let go. We'll just spell each other off, as long as we can last."

"I've got my magicks," said Doona. "I'll not move."

Oisin, Olloo and Kieran returned in the wee hours of the morning to find every single Elf curled up asleep about the dying embers of Eunys's fire. They were astonished to find her fast asleep beside Jamys with her new baby, with Doona squatted stiff armed beside her, still keeping her pressure point, deeply unconscious. Oisin saw no signs of further hemorrhage as he worked anxiously to revive Doona amidst the sudden stirring of the multitude of Elves and the fuming jealousy of Kieran's pacing.

Chapter 12

Oisin had a pallet fixed at once for Doona and spent the next few hours tending to her and helping Caly look after Eunys and the baby. When it was finally light, he was astonished when he stood up to go and saw the beginnings of several buildings out by the well. "Two of them look nearly ready for rooves," he said. "What buildings are they?"

"Queen Vorona's kitchen and the front room of the apothecary," said Jamys, getting to his feet. "Now the back part, when we get that up, Edard insists he's going to share with you. Vorona's kitchen roof is going up first. And when we're done, everyone talks as if we're going to celebrate."

Oisin nodded and turned away to find Doona fast asleep. He smiled at Lilee and disappeared over the rocks.

Lilee spent the next couple of days by her mother's side with Doona, finishing up a new Strah flax dress, a seamless leine for Doona. "It's going to be wonderful," said Doona, looking very pale under the bright blue sky.

"I think I'll have it ready this morning."

"I can't wait to try it on."

"Too bad everything comes out creamy white. Green would be perfect with your eyes."

"I don't see why it has to," said Eunys as she shifted on her pillows and offered a teat to the new Master Aedan. "I've dyed all sorts of things, and I've a hunch that you could have it as green as you want..."

"How?" said Lilee.

"Have you paid any attention to that aster which is in bloom all over, that everyone calls 'black dots’? Its petals are full of the deepest green juice, deeper green than even wooly worm guts."

"I'd not really noticed, Momma," said Lilee.

"You and Doona have been too wrapped up with young men, I expect. There's a big kettle down by Vorona's new house that never made it up here. Ask her if you can have a fire in her new fireplace. Be sure and tell her what it's for, first. Take the kettle and pack it tight with black dot heads. Then fill it with water and boil it down. Then you can boil your dress in it. If it won't stay fast, it'll at least stay green long enough for Doona to surprise Oisin."

"But how can Doona surprise Oisin with it, if we're dying it out in plain sight of everyone?"

"The men are the ones doing all of the thatching on her roof. No one will ever notice. Besides, it's Doona's surprise, and you'll have it done for her before she has the strength to be up on her feet."

Lilee studied Doona's snarled bush of red hair, exposed at the end of her covers. "Kieran was over here to see you, but you haven't talked to him yet, have you?" she said.

Doona rose onto her hands and knees.

"What are you doing, Doona?" said Eunys.

"I'm coming right back," she said as she weakly rose to her feet and shuffled to the edge of the rocks to look out over the Strah. Cliff swallows twittered and chirped as they swooped and dove in the air in front of their colony of nests down the face of the great rock below her feet. The air felt good blowing through her hair as she eased herself onto a rock.

"So," said Lilee, quietly sitting beside her, "you didn't say anything did you?"

"My word! I scarcely knew he was there. I just kept falling asleep."

"Well, you've got a perfect time a-coming. Everyone has agreed to a celebration dance as soon as Queen Vorona's kitchen is roofed. And we're due a bit of fun, don't you think? Not just for doing all this out here, but do you realize how long the Marfora Siofra have kept us from dances?"

"A dance, Lilee. This'll be the first one we've had since you and I first cared about whether some special young man might dance with us or not."

"Yea, and it makes me nervous, too."

"What for?"

"Well, you've got Oisin and Kieran trying to ask you, Doona..."

"So?"

"Nobody's going to ask me, really..."

"Bite your tongue, Lilee! You're a very pretty and sweet and wonderful young lady and you just wait and see how many young men ask you to the dance."

"You're the sweetest friend anyone could have, Doona," she said, giving her a squeeze, "but I don't see where all these young men are going to come from, 'way out here in the grass." She turned her face into the wind. "And none of them will be Kieran," she mumbled.