Son of the Shadows (76 page)

You are still bruised in body and mind. I

did not wish to—to demand more than you might—"

I sensed a ferocious scowl in the darkness. "You thought me incapable?

Was that it?"

"I—well, I ... I am a healer, after all, and it is only common sense—"

He stopped my words with a kiss, a firm, no-nonsense sort of kiss. It was briefer than I wished;
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Johnny was between us and in danger of being squashed, "Liadan?"

"Mmm?"

"Will you share my bed tonight?"

I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. "More than likely," I told him.

The goddess blessed us, I think. Someone looked kindly on us that night, for Johnny fell asleep and never woke until morning; and the others took themselves off and arranged a watch, and we heard not a whisper from the three of them. As for me and my man, we lay closely entwined under the shelter of the rocks, and we showed no more restraint than we had that afternoon by the lake, for it had been a long time. We clung and gasped and wept in our need for each other, until at last we slept, exhausted, sharing a blanket under the great bowl of stars. At dawn we woke from the sweet warmth of shared sleep, and neither of us stirred save to touch softly, and brush lips against flesh and whisper little words, until we heard Rat busy with the fire, and Gull making some comment about where we might have got to.

"There will be other mornings," I said quietly.

II

"Until now, I don't think I ever really believed that." Bran was getting up, reluctantly, covering his finely decorated body with the plain traveling clothes he favored. I watched unabashed, marveling at how lucky

I was.

"We must believe it," I said, and at that moment Johnny awoke and began to call insistently for his breakfast. "We must believe in a future, for him, for these men, and for ourselves. Surely love is strong enough to build that upon." I think it was for the Fair Folk I spoke, more than for us.

But if they heard me, they gave no sign of it. I had made my decision. I had changed the course of things. If that meant I

would never hear from them again, so be it.

So we rode away northward, without any fuss, a quiet, orderly band of travelers dressed in clothing that

would draw no attention, a man whose face was a study in light and shade, whose features bore the bold, fierce pattern of the raven, and were at the same time fair and young. Which side you saw depended simply on how you chose to look at him. A woman with dark hair plaited down her back and strange, green eyes. A black man with odd-looking hands, and a gull's feather In his braided hair. A youth bearing a child, and a large, silent fellow on a large, silent horse. Ever northward we rode, to the rugged coast that looks out toward Alba, home of warrior women.

Behind us the land of Ulster awoke to the morning, an autumn sun hazy bright over soft green valley, and sparkling lake, and the dark loveliness of the great forest of Sevenwaters. Behind us a fire burned out, and a plume of gray smoke marked the site of its destructive force, a force Otherworldly in its precision and its fury. Perhaps the Sorceress believed us dead, perished in its furnace. But we turned our backs to it and rode steadily away, and as we rode I heard it in my head once more, though the place of the barrow was far behind us now, the deep, humming sound of the west wind as it moved over the top of the ancient mound and passed across the narrow aperture left there for the mysterious piercing entrance of the midwinter sun.

It was like the sonorous, ancient note of a great instrument; a salute of recognition and of farewell.

Well done, Daughter

, breathed the voices of my ancestors.

Ok, bravely done

.

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