Son of the Shadows Page 6

  “There’s no need for haste,” said Iubdan quietly. “Such matters are weighty and should be given due consideration. What seems the best choice at first may not prove its worth in time.”

  “All the same,” Liam said, “your daughter is in her eighteenth year. She could have been married these two or three summers past. Might I remind you that at her age Sorcha was wed and the mother of three children? And an offer from a chieftain of such standing comes but seldom.”

  Niamh stood up abruptly, and now I could see that she had indeed been listening and that she was quivering from head to toe.

  “You can stop discussing me as if I were some—some prize breeding cow you want to sell off to advantage,” she said in a shaking voice. “I won’t marry this Uí Néill. I can’t. That’s—that’s just the way it is. It just can’t happen. Why don’t you ask him if he’ll take Liadan instead? It’s the best offer she’s likely to get. And now, if you’ll excuse me—” She blundered to the door, and I could see the tears starting to flow as she stumbled out and away along the hall, leaving the family in stunned silence.

  She wouldn’t talk to me. She wouldn’t talk to Mother. She wouldn’t even talk to Iubdan, who was the best listener you could hope for. Liam she avoided altogether. Things began to get quite strained as the days passed and Fionn’s letter remained unanswered. There was no sign of a compromise, and my uncle became edgy. Everyone recognized that Niamh’s reaction went beyond what might be expected (which was shocked but flattered surprise, followed by a show of maidenly reluctance, and eventually blushing acceptance). What they could not understand was why. My sister was, as Liam had pointed out, quite old to be still unwed, and her such a beauty. Why hadn’t she jumped at such an offer? The Uí Néill! And a future chieftain at that! The gossip was, it was Eamonn she really wanted, and she was holding out until he came back. I could have told them differently, but I held my tongue. I had an idea what was in her head. I had a suspicion about where she went those days she made herself vanish from sunrise to dusk. But my sister’s thoughts were impenetrable; I could only guess at the truth, and I hoped fervently that my misgivings were unfounded.

  I tried to talk to her, but got nowhere. At first I was kind and tactful, for she cried a lot, lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling or standing by the window with her tear-stained face bathed in moonlight, looking out over the forest. When kindness had no effect, I became more direct.

  “I don’t think you would make a very good druid, Niamh,” I told her one night as we sat alone in our room, a small candle burning on the chest between our narrow beds.

  “What?” I had certainly got her attention with that. “What did you say?”

  “You heard me. There are no warm blankets, no accommodating servants, no silken gowns in the nemetons. There is a lifetime of discipline and learning and self-deprivation. It is a life of the spirit, not the flesh.”

  “Hold your tongue!” Her furious response told me I had come close to the truth. “What would you know? What would you know about anything? My plain little sister, wrapped up in her herbs and potions and her cozy, domestic round! What man’s likely to want you, save a farmer with big hands and mud on his boots?” She flung herself down on the bed, her face in her hands, and I suspected she was crying.

  I took a deep breath and let it carefully out again. “Mother chose a farmer with big hands and mud on his boots,” I said quietly. “There were more than a few women at Sevenwaters who thought him quite a catch when he was a young man. So they say.”

  She did not move, did not make a sound. I sensed the deep misery that had given rise to her cruel words.

  “You can talk to me, Niamh,” I said “I’ll do my best to understand. You know it can’t go on like this. Everyone’s upset. I’ve never seen the household so divided. Why don’t you tell me? See if I can help?”

  She lifted her head to look at me. I was shocked at her pallor and the deep shadows under her eyes.

  “Oh, it’s all my fault now,” she said, in a strangled voice. “Upset everyone, have I? Who was it decided to marry me off so they could win some stupid battle? That wasn’t my idea, I can tell you!”

  “Sometimes you can’t have what you want,” I said levelly. “You might just have to accept that, hard as it might seem right now. This Fionn might not be so bad. You could at least meet the man.”

  “That’s good, coming from you! You wouldn’t know a real man if you saw one. Didn’t you suggest Eamonn as a likely choice for me? Eamonn?”

  “It did seem—possible.”

  There was a long silence. I kept still, seated cross-legged on my bed in my unadorned linen nightrobe. I supposed what she had said about me was true; and I wondered again if my father had been wrong about Eamonn. I tried to see myself as a man might, but it was pretty difficult: too short, too thin, too pale, too quiet. You could say all these things about me. I was, however, not discontented with the face and body I had inherited from my mother. I was happy with what Niamh disparagingly called my small, domestic round. I had no wish for adventures. A farmer would suit me just fine.

  “What are you smiling at?” My sister glared across the room at me. The candle made her shadow huge and menacing on the wall behind her as she sat up, dashing the tears from her eyes. Swollen with weeping as it was, her face was still dazzling in its beauty.

  “Nothing much.”

  “How can you smile, Liadan? You don’t care at all, do you? How can you imagine I would ever tell you anything? Once you know, Sean knows, and then they all know.”

  “That’s not fair. Some things I keep from Sean, and him from me.”

  “Oh yes?”

  I did not reply, and Niamh lay down again, her face to the wall. When she spoke, it was in a different tone of voice, wobbly and tearful.

  “Liadan?”

  “Mmm?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “Sorry I said that. Sorry I said you were plain. I didn’t mean it.”

  I sighed. “It’s all right.” She had a habit of coming out with hurtful words when she was upset and taking it all back later. Niamh was like an autumn day, all surprises, rain and shine, shadow and brightness. Even when her words were cruel, it was hard to be angry with her for she meant no harm by them. “I’m not looking for a husband anyway,” I told her, “so it hardly matters.”

  She gave a sniff and drew the blanket over her head, and that was as far as we got.

  The season drew on toward Beltaine, and the work of the farm continued, and Niamh retreated deeper into herself. There were heated words exchanged behind closed doors. The household was quite unlike its usual self. When at length Eamonn did return, he received the warmest of welcomes, for I think we were all glad of anything to ease the building tension among us. The tale he had to tell was indeed as strange as the rumors had suggested.

  We heard it the night of his arrival as we sat in the hall after supper. Despite the season, it was cold, and Aisling and I had helped Janis prepare mulled wine. Ours was a safe household, where all were trusted; and so Eamonn told his story openly, for he knew the depth of interest in what had befallen himself and Seamus and their fighting force. Of the thirty from Liam’s garrison, but twenty-seven had returned. Eamonn’s own losses had been far greater, as had Seamus Redbeard’s. There were women weeping in three households. Nonetheless, Eamonn had returned victorious, though not quite in the way he would have wished. I watched him tell his tale, using a gesture here and there to illustrate a point, a strand of brown hair falling across his brow from time to time, to be pushed back with an automatic sweep of the hand. I thought his face bore more lines than it once had; he carried a heavy responsibility for a man so young. It was no wonder some thought him humorless.

  “You know already,” he said, “that we lost more good men than we could well afford on this venture. I can assure you that their lives were not lightly thrown away. We deal here with an enemy of quite a different nature from those known to us:
the Britons, the Norsemen, the hostile chieftains of our own land. Of the one and twenty warriors that perished in my service, not two were slain by the same method.”

  There was a murmur around the room.

  “You’ll have heard the tales,” Eamonn went on. “It may be they spread the tales themselves to increase the fear. But these rumors are founded in fact, as we discovered for ourselves when at last we encountered this enemy.” He went on to tell of a northern neighbor with whom a long-running dispute had flared into action, of cattle raided, of retaliatory strikes.

  “He knew the strength of my forces. He would never, in the past, have done more than attempt to herd away a few head or light a small fire somewhat too close to one of my watchtowers. He knew he could not match me in battle and that any action he took would bring about swift and deadly retaliation. But he covets a parcel of land I hold, bordering his own most fertile area, and has long schemed to acquire it. He tried once to buy the disputed territory from me, and I turned him down. Well, he found another use for his silver pieces.”

  Eamonn took a mouthful of his wine, wiped his hand across his mouth. His expression was somber.

  “We began to hear of lightning raids by an unseen enemy. There was no damage to the guard towers, no sacking of villages or burning of barns. Just killing. Highly efficient. Imaginative in its method. First an isolated post, where two lay dead. Then a bolder ambush. A troop of my guards patrolling the western margin of the marshlands taken, all of them. A nightmare scene. I will spare the ladies the details.” He glanced quickly in my direction and away again. “Not cruel, exactly. There was no torture. Just … extremely efficient and—and different. There was no way to tell what we were dealing with. No way to prepare. And my cottagers, my farmers, were in a state of sheer terror. They thought these silent killers some Otherworld phenomenon, creatures that could appear and disappear in a flash, some hybrid of man and beast, devoid of any sense of right or wrong.” He fell silent, and I believed his eyes saw an image he wished he could erase from his mind.

  “You would think,” he went on finally, “that on our own territory, backed up by Seamus’s men, we would have no difficulty in expelling any invader. My men are disciplined. Experienced. They know those marshes like the back of their hands; they know every forest path, every place of refuge, every potential trap. We divided ourselves into three groups and sought to isolate the enemy in one particular area where we believed his force was concentrated. There was success at first We captured many of my northern neighbor’s men and thought the threat all but over. It was strange, though; our prisoners seemed nervous, always looking over their shoulders. I suppose I knew, even before that point, that the attacks were not made by a single enemy. My neighbor’s silver had bought him a force he could never have mustered himself, a force such as none of us here has at his disposal.”

  “Who were they?” asked Sean, who was hanging on every word. I sensed his excitement; this was a challenge he would have relished for himself.

  “I saw them only once,” said Eamonn slowly. “We rode through the most treacherous area of the marshland, returning to our main camp with the bodies of our slain. It is not possible to mount an attack in such a place. I had not thought it possible. One false move and the ground will shiver and shake and swallow, and all you will hear is the little ripple of the water as it takes a man under. It is quite safe, if you know the path.

  “There were ten of us,” he went on, “riding single, for the track is narrow. We bore the bodies of our dead across our saddlebows. It was late afternoon, but the mists in that place make day seem like dusk and dusk like night. The horses knew the way and needed no guidance. We kept silence, not allowing our vigilance to lapse even in that forsaken place. I have good ears and sharp eyes. My men were handpicked. But I missed it. We all missed it. The smallest pipe of a marsh bird; the croak of a frog. Some little noise, some signal, and they were upon us. Coming from nowhere, but rising each at precisely the same instant, one to each of us, taking his man from the horse, despatching him neatly and silently, one with a knife, one with the cord, one with the clever thumb to the neck. As for me, my punishment had been selected especially. I could not see the man who held me from behind, though I used all the strength I had trying to break his grip. I felt my own death at my back. But it was not to be. Instead, I was pinned there, watching, listening, as my men died before and behind me, one after the other, and their horses crashed in panic off the path and were swallowed by the trembling waters of the marsh. My own mount stood steadfast, and they left him alone. I was to be allowed to return home. I was to witness, helpless, the slaughter of my own men and then to be set free.”

  “But why?” breathed Sean.

  “I am not sure I understand that even now,” said Eamonn bleakly. “The man who held me had a grip around me, and his knife against my throat, and enough skill in his hands to stop me from struggling long. In this kind of combat he possessed an ability such as I could hardly imagine. I could not hope to break free. My heart was sick as I waited for the last of my men to die. And—and I almost thought the rumors true, as the shifting mist showed me a glimpse, here and there, of those who took their lives with cool detachment.”

  “Were they indeed half man, half beast?” asked Aisling hesitantly, afraid, no doubt, of sounding foolish. But nobody was laughing.

  “They were men,” Eamonn said, in a tone that suggested there might be some doubt. “But they wore helmets, or masks, that belied the fact. You might think you saw an eagle or a stag; some, indeed, had markings on the skin, perhaps above the brow or on the chin, to suggest the plumage or the features of a wild creature. Some had helms adorned with feathers, some cloaks of wolf pelt. Their eyes … their eyes were so calm, as calm as death. Like—like beings with no human feelings.”

  “What about the man who held you?” asked Liam. “What manner of man was he?”

  “Evasive. He made sure I did not see his face. But I heard his voice and will not forget it; and as he released me at last, I saw his arm revealed when he drew his knife away from my neck. An arm patterned from shoulder to fingertips with a delicate web of feather and spiral and interlocking links, an intricate and permanent design etched deep into the skin. By that I will know this killer again when I avenge the murders of my good men.”

  “What did he say to you?” I was unable to keep silent, for it was a fascinating tale, though terrible.

  “His voice was—very even, very calm. In that place of death, he spoke as if discussing a business transaction. It was only for an instant. He released his grip; and as I drew breath and turned to pursue him, he vanished into the encircling mist, and he said, Learn from this, Eamonn. Learn well. I am not done with you yet. And I was alone. Alone save for my trembling horse and the broken bodies of my men.”

  “You still believe these are not—are not some creatures of the Otherworld?” asked my mother. There was an unsteadiness in her voice that worried me.

  “They are men.” Eamonn’s tone was controlled, but I could hear the anger in it, “men of awesome skills in the field, skills that would be the envy of any warrior. For all the strength of our forces, we neither killed nor captured a single one of them. But they are no immortals, this I discovered when I heard from their leader again.”

  “Did not you say you had never seen this man?” asked Liam.

  “Seen, no. He sent me a message. It was some time later, and we had encountered no more of them. Your reinforcements had arrived, and together we’d flushed out the rest of my neighbor’s meager force and sent them packing. Our dead were honored and laid to rest. Their widows were provided for. The raids ceased. The threat appeared to be over, though folk still shuddered with dread at the memory of what had happened. They had given this murderer a name. They dubbed him “the Painted Man.” I thought his band gone from my territory. Then the message was brought to me.”

  “What message?”

  “No simple words of challenge; nothing so honest for this m
iscreant. The message was … perhaps I should not relate this here. It is not fit for ladies’ ears.”

  “You’d better tell us,” I said bluntly. “We’re going to hear it regardless, one way or another.”

  He looked at me again. “You’re right of course, Liadan. But it is—it is not pleasant. None of this story is. I was brought … I was brought a leather pouch, which had been left where my men could not fail to find it. Inside this pouch was a hand, a neatly severed hand.”

  There was total silence.

  “By the rings it wore, we knew this was removed, with some skill, from one of our own. I interpret the gesture as a challenge. He tells me he is strong; I know already that he is arrogant. His services, and those of the men he leads, are now for sale in these parts. Of that we must take heed in planning any venture.”

  We sat stunned for a while. At last my father said, “You think this fellow would have the gall to offer any of us his services after what he has done? To ask for payment?”

  “He knows the value of what he has,” said Liam dryly. “And he’s right. There’s many a chieftain whose scruples would not stop him from accepting such an offer had he the resources to finance it. I imagine they would not come cheap.”

  “One could hardly consider it seriously,” said my mother. “Who could ever trust such a man? It appears he would change his allegiance in an instant.”

  “A mercenary has no allegiance,” said Eamonn. “He belongs to the man with the fattest purse.”

  “Nonetheless,” Sean spoke slowly, as if working something out, “I would like to know if their skills by water equal those they showed in ambush. Such a force, used in conjunction with a well-disciplined, larger troop of warriors, would give one a great advantage. Do you know how many men he has?”

  “You would not seriously consider employing a rabble such as this?” asked Liam, shocked.