Hero's Song (29 page)

"I'll make you another," she whispered.

The mallow paste was ready, and Brie slowly began to rub it into a patch of fire that burned at Collun's wrist. He let out a high-pitched animal sound. From then on, they told him later, he was delirious. Nessa said it was Brie, her face pale and set, who rubbed the mallow salve into Collun's raw, mangled flesh, reapplying it several times.

When he finally came out of the delirium, Brie bathed Collun's flaming face in freshwater. She told him she thought the salve was already beginning to heal the oozing weals on his body.

They got him to drink an herbal broth that Brie had improvised, sweetened with bits of Mealladh's apple. Collun felt weak and wrung out, but his heartbeat was steady and the gray streaks only occasionally darkened his vision.

His jaw throbbed. It hurt to move it. In the wavering light of a candle nearby, Collun could see his arm. It had been burned in a spiral pattern where the Wurme's tongue had wrapped around it. Undamaged skin alternated with festering ribbons of red. His shoulder was a mass of blistered flesh, and his hand was swollen and
seeped with red-and-yellow pus. He remembered what the Wurme's tongue had done to the thick branch on the shore and wondered why he had any arm left at all. Perhaps, he thought, the Cailceadon Lir had protected him.

The soles of his feet had been badly burned. He wondered how he was going to walk again. And yet he was alive, and the mallow salve was healing his body more quickly than he would have thought possible.

As Brie sat by him, bathing his face, Collun noticed that her hands were covered with blisters. She told him she had gotten them while pulling him away from the dead Firewurme and onto the Ellyl horse.

"Fiain," Collun said, suddenly afraid. "Where is he?"

"He is fine," answered Brie. "The cave is too cramped for him, I think. He prefers to wait outside. He gallops around the causeway at low tide."

Nessa joined them then with a new batch of herbal broth. Collun looked again at his sister's emaciated face, and his heart twisted in his chest.

"What did they do to you, Nessa?" Collun asked.

Nessa looked at her brother. For a moment her eyes were unfocused and strange, as if she did not know where she was or even who she was. Collun anxiously reached over and touched her hand. "Nessa?"

The girl's eyes suddenly refocused, and they filled with tears.

"Crann said you must have held out for a long time, because Urlacan set out late to find me," Collun said painfully.

Nessa nodded, covering her eyes with her hands. "For as long as I could. But in the end..." She dropped her hands, her mouth twisted in anguish.

Collun held her hand tightly. "It was Bricriu, wasn't it?"

"Yes. The night before my coming-of-age ceremony, there was a feast at his dun. Halfway through the evening, Lord Bricriu asked to speak to me privately in his library. I entered the room, and then everything went blank. I woke in the darkness in a dungeon below Bricriu's dun."

"The labyrinth," said Collun.

"Was it? I knew it only as darkness. Each day Lord Bricriu came, carrying a candle. He said I would be given nothing to eat or drink until I told him where the chalcedony was. I told him I didn't know what he was talking about, but he only laughed. Days went by, and I grew weaker and weaker. Every day Bricriu came. 'Where is the chalcedony?' he'd shout. 'Where is it?' Soon I became too weak to answer.

"I think he believed, finally, that I knew nothing of the stone. The next time he came he brought a piece of bread, some cheese, and a flagon of cold water. He said I could have them if I would tell him about my brother and my mother. I sensed that to speak might bring harm to you and Mother, though I did not know why. So I kept silent. Bricriu was very angry. After that he used needlelike pieces of metal, which he heated in a torch's flame." Nessa shuddered and bowed her head. After a while she spoke. "I don't remember much beyond that. Except that somehow I did not tell him what he wanted to know.

"There was a journey on horseback then. I was given a little to eat and drink, but it made me sick. Finally we came to a rocky land with air that hurt to breathe. By then I was able to eat again. It was night and we were
camped by a large river. There were many Scathians around the fire, as well as a number of hooded creatures with yellow eyes that frightened me."

"Morgs," Collun interjected.

"There was suddenly a great commotion," Nessa continued. "Another large group of Scathians arrived, and at their head was a tall, fair woman. She wore a strange war helmet with two silver horns rising from the crown. It hung low on her forehead and over her nose, curving into the beak of a large bird of prey.

"I did not know at first who she was," said Nessa, "but then I heard one of the men call her queen, and I knew she must be Medb."

"You saw Medb herself?" asked Collun, his eyes wide.

Nessa nodded, her hands clenching and unclenching. Her face had gone white.

"What did she do to you, Nessa?" Collun cried out.

The tears came again. "I'm sorry, Collun," she whispered. "But her eyes..." Nessa faltered. "They were so pale, almost white, like her hair. And when she stared down at me I felt so cold, colder than I've ever felt before. I almost fainted, I think." She paused, then began again, her voice still a whisper. "I could bear Bricriu's needles better than those eyes..."

Brie poured Nessa a cup of chicory and handed it to the trembling girl.

"I was lying on my side, near the fire, my hands and feet bound. Medb stood looking down at me; she took off her war helmet, and her hair fell straight and white to her shoulders. She was beautiful, but in a cruel, frightening way.

"Then she leaned over and picked me up. Her arms
were like iron. She carried me as if I were a baby and walked to the edge of the causeway. She lowered me into the rancid water until I was completely submerged except for my head. Then she took hold of my hair with one hand, pulling it so tight I cried aloud.

"With the other hand she rummaged in the folds of her white cloak, then pulled out a stone. She held it up in front of my face. Something about the blue stone looked familiar to me, but I was too terrified and ill to remember what it was. 'Where is the stone like this one?' she demanded. I told her I didn't know. With the hand gripping my hair she pushed my head underwater and held it there. I was on the verge of losing consciousness when she roughly pulled me up again. I gasped for breath and she stared down at me, no expression at all on her face.

"'Where is the stone?' she said again. I told her I didn't know. Then she changed tack and began asking me the same things Bricriu had—where I was from, if I had a brother, if my mother was Emer. And on and on. She would ask, I wouldn't answer, then she'd put my head underwater just to the point when I thought I was dying. Then she'd pull me up and ask again. Finally, I broke. I told her about you and Emer and Aonarach. When I finished, all she said was, 'Does he have the stone?' And suddenly I remembered where I had seen a stone like the queen's: in the handle of your trine. I did not speak, but she abruptly let go of my hair. 'Yes,' she said. 'I thought so.'

"She lifted me back up in her arms and carried me across the causeway. I saw the Firewurme then. It was watching us. I think I was in a state of shock. I
remember looking at the Firewurme's tongue and wondering what you and Mother were doing in Aonarach. Medb took me into this cave. She told me I would stay alive only if I remained inside. She pointed to a clear, wet-looking substance that lay on the ground, the Wurme'ssram; she said it would burn me.

"As she turned to leave, I finally found my voice and asked the queen why she was doing this to me. She smiled again, her eyes like ice. 'A little experiment,' she said, 'in brotherly devotion.' Then she was gone. I went to the cave's entrance and watched her cross the island. She walked directly up to the Firewurme. They seemed to be communicating in some way, then the Wurme opened its horrible maw and slid its tongue to one side. I'm not sure what I saw next. It was like a nightmare. But I could have sworn that the queen reached her arm into the Wurme's mouth, right up to her shoulder. She kept it there for only a moment and then turned and left the island.

"I saw her ride off with her men. When they were out of sight, I tried to leave the cave, in spite of what she had said about the sram." Nessa lifted her feet, showing them the burn scars on her soles and on her knees and the palms of her hands. "When my feet could no longer hold me, I crawled. But the Firewurme came with its yellow eyes and black tongue..." She faltered.

"How did you live?"

"There was food left for me at the back of the cave—salted meats and hard biscuits. And there was the spring with an occasional fish I caught with a spear I made out of driftwood. But the food ran out some time ago, and there haven't been many fish..." Her voice
trailed off, then she fixed her eyes on Collun. "Why did she bring me here?"

Collun picked up the dagger. He told Nessa about the Cailceadon Lir. "Medb had you kidnapped believing you might have it, or at least would know where it was. When Bricriu told her you did not have the stone and would not tell him of your family and home, she had you brought to Scath. Then she sent the morg Urlacan after me, keeping you here as bait just in case Urlacan was to fail."

Nessa absorbed the information in silence.

"The wizard Crann also wondered if Medb thought to use us to flush out our father," Collun added.

"Our father? Why should she care about Goban?"

"Not Goban," Collun said softly, and then he told Nessa everything. He told her of their true father and of the chalcedony that had been passed down through Cuillean's family. Nessa listened quietly, shaking her head in wonder. She wept when she heard Emer had died, and for the first time since hearing of his mother's death, Collun was able to let his own unshed tears fall.

Then Nessa wanted to hear more of Collun's journey, but before he could begin, Brie interrupted. There was a note of suppressed excitement to her voice.

"I had forgotten all about it until now," she said, reaching into a pocket, "but I found this caught in a fold of your tunic after you killed the Wurme."

Collun took the object she handed him with an instinctive twitch of revulsion. It was a stone, covered with the oily black fluid that had gushed from the Firewurme's eye. Then he remembered the sharp object that had struck him on the forehead just before he lost consciousness. He rubbed the stone, and as the oily fluid came off he saw a glint of blue. His heartbeat quickened. Using the corner of his jersey, he began rubbing harder. When he was finished, a dull blue-gray stone lay in his palm. With trembling hand, Collun reached for his dagger. Though slightly larger and rougher, this stone was the mirror image of the one embedded in the handle.

Collun looked up at Brie. Her eyes were bright. "When I heard Nessa say the queen had put her hand into the Wurme's mouth, I wondered."

"Then," Collun said slowly, "the Firewurme was guardian not only of Nessa but of Queen Medb's shard of the Cailceadon Lir as well."

A silence filled the small cave as the realization of what they had found sunk in. If they could carry the stone out of Scath and to Temair, Medb would have lost both the Firewurme and the chalcedony. And perhaps then Eirren would be safe.

"We must leave here," Collun said. "Now."

Brie shook her head. "You are not ready to travel. The burns—"

"It doesn't matter. She will come for us. She may even be on her way."

"Surely Medb could not yet know about the Firewurme."

"We can't be certain," Collun argued. "She has many spies. Or she may even have felt it when the Wurme died. She has great powers."

Nessa's eyes had grown wide and staring. She was again clenching and unclenching her hands. "Medb come here?" she said in a whisper. "We must escape.
We must get away!" The girl's voice was edged with hysteria.

Brie looked from brother to sister and shook her head. "We can try," she said finally.

They quickly prepared to depart. Collun placed the cailceadon shard in his wallet of herbs. Brie used up the last of the mallow making a large batch of the burn paste. Then she hastened to the entrance of the cave to call for Fiain. The Ellyl horse was already heading toward them.

But halfway there, Fiain slowed. He came to a stop and lifted his head into the air.

"Something is wrong," Brie said uneasily.

Then they all heard it. The familiar, unmistakable caw.

"What is it?" Nessa whispered in fear.

"A scald-crow. One of Medb's spies," answered Collun.

Brie crouched low, carefully peering out.

"There are three of them. They are circling the Wurme. Like vultures," she said.

The cries became louder.

"They have spotted Fiain," Brie told them. Collun let out a sound and tried to get to his feet. But he fell back, his face white with pain.

"One of the birds is splitting off, heading south."

"To Rathcroghan and its queen," said Collun grimly. "And Fiain?"

"Another is flying after him, but Fiain is too fast for it. He is heading south. I can barely see him now. I do not see the third bird anywhere." She scanned the sky for several moments, then crossed to Collun with a look of concern.

There was a sudden whirring of wings and a rush of cold air. In the dim light of the cave Collun could see only the bloodred eyes of the scald-crow as it bore down on him.

He grabbed his dagger with his unburnt hand and flattened himself against the wall of the cave. The bird rushed by within a fingernail of his scalp.

The scald-crow circled and dived again. Collun's blade made an arc in the air. The Cailceadon Lir glowed. There came a keening scream and then a thud as the bird hit the ground. A thin stream of blood spilled from the scald-crow's torn breast.

Collun let go of the dagger. He was trembling violently. Nessa cried without a sound, and a pale-faced Brie stared down at the fallen bird.

Then they heard hooves on rock, and Fiain appeared in the entrance to the cave. The Ellyl horse was breathing hard and frothing at the corners of his mouth. There was no sign of the scald-crow that had been following him.