Susan King - [Celtic Nights 03] (2 page)

Eva MacArthur sat fidgeting beside her cousin Margaret, who never fidgeted. Next to her, the ferryman glanced down; his face was craggy and kind. Sometimes the children—Eva and her brothers, their cousins and friends—could coax him to tell tales on rainy afternoons, like today.

He had been a warrior, and Eva would rather hear about those adventures. Today's story about Innisfarna, her island, she had heard many times, and was not in a mood to hear it again. The legend reminded her too much of her beloved mother, who had bequeathed the isle and its castle to Eva upon her death but a year past.

"The prince was the youngest of the king's sons, a fine skilled warrior, but desiring peace," Alpin continued.

Eva sighed. So it was the story of the prince, the faery, and the sword again, and it would be rude to interrupt. She closed her eyes to listen.

"His people had long been at war with the dark faeries, powerful creatures of magic and beauty, who stood as tall and strong as humans. The prince wanted peace and an end to the troubles, but that would never come, it was said, until a bargain was struck with the faeries. But no one knew what sort of bargain would please the faeries.

"The handsome prince set out to find an answer but everyone just shrugged when he asked how to end the warring."

Eva glanced around, past Margaret's blond perfection, past her own brothers' dark, glossy heads—Simon with a twig in his hair from a morning wrestle, Donal somber as the MacArthur chief's heir, until he stuck out his tongue at her.

The boy beside him was Lachlann MacKerron, the blacksmith's foster son, adopted as an infant when his own parents had died. He was a bit older than the others, lanky and black-haired, his muscles as taut as a man's from working in his father's smithy, though his cheeks were not yet bearded.

Lachlann, Eva thought, would be like the prince in the tale of her isle. Though no king's son, he was handsome, kind, quiet, and strong. Her brothers and her male cousins were no princes in her mind, for they were scruffy and annoying.

Simon poked Eva, who was leaning past him to look at the smith's son. Lachlann flashed a stern blue glance at her, a reprimand more effective than her brother's jab. She subsided.

Alpin went on. "One day the prince encountered an old woman at a well, and carried buckets of water home for her. In return for his kindness, she answered his question.

"'Seek the princess of Bright Island, Aeife the Radiant One, the fiercest woman warrior of the dark faeries,' the old woman told him. 'You must take the three secrets of her power: a silver bowl, her golden ring, and
Claidheamh Soluis,
the Sword of Light. Then she will ask you for a bargain.'

"'Where do I find Aeife the Radiant One?' asked the prince.

"'Follow the hawk to a river, then follow the salmon until you find a mountain, then climb it for three days. Look east, west, north, and south until you see Bright Island.'

"'Simple enough,' said the prince, though he was not so certain.

"'The Radiant One sleeps in the daytime, when you must steal from her the sword, the bowl, and the ring. If you wake her,' the old woman warned, 'she will do battle with you, and if she defeats you, things will go badly for your people.'

"The prince thanked the woman and went on his way. He followed the hawk, swam with the salmon, climbed the mountain, and looked down into a loch, where he saw the island. He rowed there through a thick mist. On the isle, he saw a light glowing like a thousand candles."

Eva could not sit so long without doing something. She had a bold and fiery nature, unlike Margaret's calm. Eva's father, chief of the MacArthurs, said someday he must find a laird or a chief's son to wed his only daughter. Until then, her own boldness and her father's distraction in his grief at losing his wife gave Eva freedom to do as she pleased.

She itched to move now, and she did not like the end of this story. Scuttling backward, she edged near the door as Alpin spoke.

"The prince entered a silent castle and followed the strange light," Alpin continued. "He went room to room seeking the sleeping princess before she could wake to do battle with him. He opened a door and saw her asleep on a bed draped in gossamer.

"The Sword of Light lay clasped in her hands. The golden ring circled one of her fingers, and the silver bowl sat upon a table. The sword gave off a light bright as sunshine, but the princess slept deeply.

"He took the silver bowl, slipping it into his pocket. Then he slid free the golden ring and put it on his finger. He touched the Sword of Light—and then he saw Aeife's face.

"She was beautiful, with hair like black silk and skin like cream. His heart stirred in his breast like a wild thing. He knew that if she woke, he could never lift his sword against this girl.

"Her eyes opened, the color of silver clouds, and her hands stirred. The prince could not believe that such a slender, lovely creature could defeat him. But he had lost his heart to her already, gone down and down like a stone in a loch.

"He kissed her mouth, a taste like honey and berries, a kiss with the pure magic of true love. And the prince was truly lost."

Eva closed her eyes, glad she sat near the door, where no one could see how this part of the story melted her heart. She looked at the blacksmith's lad again, wondering if someday he might kiss a girl with just such tenderness.

He glanced at her then, a keen blue flash. She scowled.

"The kissing woke Aeife the Radiant One," Alpin said, and Eva's brothers snickered. "The Sword of Light was between her and the handsome young man who had stolen the silver bowl that would magically fill with porridge, and the golden ring through which one could see the future. But she still had the Sword of Light. And now she must do battle with him for it.

"But she looked at him and her heart stirred like a butterfly set free. She rose from the bed and took up the sword, knowing nonetheless what she must do.

"The prince spoke then. 'I will not do battle with you,' he said. 'Give me the Sword of Light and we will end this feud.' He took hold of the handle with her.

"'Let go, for I must protect my people,' Aeife said. They faced one another, human and faery, new lovers from old enemies, until the moon sank and the sun rose.

"At last they grew weary, and they caught each other as they fell. The Sword of Light was between them. Then the prince flung the sword from the window into the water of the loch below, and it went down and down like a lantern.

"They both knew that the blade tossed into water could mark a truce between their clans, and so they pledged their hearts to peace forever. Aeife said that the Sword of Light would guard the border between the earthly and the faery realms. 'Beneath this island lies the threshold to the other realm,' Aeife told the prince. 'But you must make a bargain, and promise to stay with me always on this isle.'

"The prince agreed, and he kissed Aeife the Radiant One. Together they shared the bowl that gave food and the ring that showed the future, and they lived in joy on Bright Island.

"When enemies—humans who craved the power Aeife held—came to take the isle, Aeife faced them valiantly with a shining sword of faery make, with her husband the prince at her side. They protected the isle and its treasure.

"And the Sword of Light still lies at the bottom of the loch," Alpin continued.

Eva reached up to open the latch. She did not want to hear what came next.

"Peace and plenty existed for both the humans and the faeries. In time, Aeife's daughter took over the safekeeping of the isle. And it is the duty of every first daughter descended from Aeife to guard the isle and the sword hidden in the loch. Enemies fear the power of this place. They cannot win here."

Alpin pointed to Eva. "Our own little Eva guards the isle now that her mother, bless her soul, is gone. If ever there is trouble on this island, the descended daughter takes up a sword in her hand to defend her people."

Eva cracked open the door and bolted.

Chapter 1

Argyll, Scotland Spring, 1428

Wild as blackberries she was, sweet and dark and unruly, and she would never be his. Lachlann MacKerron knew it, had always known it. Yet he paused in his work and leaned in the doorway of the smithy to watch her. He allowed himself that much.

Eva MacArthur, daughter of the clan chief, stood in the yard talking quietly with Lachlann's foster mother, holding a basket of cheese and oatcakes as an offering of comfort for the new widow. Ever since his foster father's death, many neighbors had made kind gestures, but only Eva had come to visit every week.

Inside the smithy, a piece of steel heated in the forge, but it could be left for a few moments. Lachlann lingered in the doorway. Sunshine gave Eva's dark hair a warm sheen, and he knew without looking that her eyes were the gray-green of a stormy sky. He tipped his head to admire the lean line of her body; she was not tall, though made with grace and strength.

She had outrun him often in childhood, when they had played together in the hills with her brothers and MacArthur cousins. He did not doubt she could outrun him still, had she wanted. In the past few years womanhood had tempered her natural penchant for boldness, and he liked that softening well upon her. She would make a fine wife for a man—but she was not for him.

The only daughter of a chief would never be matched with a smith's foster son, even if the young smith's true birth name and birthright were grander by far than anyone suspected. The secrets that Lachlann had learned as his foster father lay dying had changed him forever. His past, his identity, his future had altered in the past weeks. He struggled to accept it.

Shaking his head, he stirred himself from his thoughts to watch Eva as she spoke with his foster mother. Eva's life was changing too. It was said that her father, the MacArthur chief, meant to betroth his daughter soon; he would consider only men of influence and power, chieftains and the sons of clan chiefs.

News and gossip was often shared at the smithy, and Lachlann did not usually listen—but he gave discreet attention to any discussion of Eva's marriage. His customers said her father preferred her to wed a Campbell who was an advisor to the very king, though the man was far older than Eva.

Lachlann knew he should be happy for her, but he was not. He already disliked that particular Campbell, and here was more reason.

Eva smiled at him then, and it seemed as if a sunbeam came through a cloud. Grief and anguish had tormented him for weeks, but he brightened in the bask of that smile. Returning a brisk nod, he wiped his hands on the leather apron that covered his belted plaid.

He was aware that he filled the space of the doorway awkwardly, too tall, too broad in the shoulders, his head bowed beneath the lintel. Suddenly he felt large and clumsy and crudely made, with her clear-eyed gaze upon him. His dark hair sifted over his eyes, and he shoved it back, his long fingers grimed with ash and the handling of iron.

Eva embraced his foster mother and took her leave, and Lachlann turned away. He entered the dark haven of the smithy, where the fire glowed red and much work awaited him.

Soon he would leave Balnagovan and Loch Fhionn in Argyll. When his path and Eva's crossed again, years from now, she would not come to love him as he loved her. Surely, he thought, she would despise him for what he must do.

But he could not turn away from the obligation of vengeance that rested with him now—even if the man he now regarded as his enemy, a man he had heard little about until recently, was to become Eva's Campbell husband.

Lachlann turned toward the forge, and soon Eva peered inside the smithy door. A sunlit rectangle spilled through the doorway, and her shadow touched his feet. He stepped back.

"God's greeting to you, Lachlann MacKerron." Her voice was as mellow as honey.

"And to you, Eva MacArthur." His words thrummed inside the dim, stone-walled smithy. "I thank you for visiting my foster mother so often. She values your kindness."

Eva smiled ruefully. "We all care about her, and miss your foster father. Finlay MacKerron was a good man. My father laments losing an armorer of his merit, but he says that you will be as good, if not better, one day. He admires the blades you have made for him."

"Give him my thanks." The late sun made a fiery halo around her head. The glow suited her, he thought.