The Witches of Eileanan (21 page)

"She was like a daughter to me, many years ago," Meghan said. "She was my apprentice. Until a few days ago I had no' seen her for nigh on twenty years. I had thought her dead."

This one is a solemn little owl,
Gitâ said, sitting up on his hind legs and observing the girl as he nibbled on a piece of bread.

Meghan ignored him, saying, "She is your mother, ye ken."

"Aye, I had thought as much. But why does she sleep? Eight seasons I have looked after her here, and only once has she woken."

"I do no' ken why she sleeps. Ishbel's magic was always strange and unknowable. I can only guess that her mind and body needed the healing spell o' sleep. It was terrible, y' ken, the Day o' Betrayal, the burning o' all we loved. It came so unexpectedly."

"Did ye no' have dreams to tell o' its coming?"

"I do no' have the gift o' prophecy," Meghan sighed. "I wish that I did, much might have been saved that is now lost. All the Towers were attacked, ye see, or at least the ones that were still standing after all this time."

"The Towers o' Roses and Thorns were no' attacked."

"No, but then we all thought they had disappeared long ago. And they are so deep in the mountains, so difficult to get to."

"Aye, Feld said it took him almost a year to get here."

"Feld?" Meghan exclaimed. "There is a sorcerer here called Feld?"

"Indeed. It is he who taught me to speak your language, and to read, and to use the One Power." Khan'derin waved her hand so the flame of the candle leaped higher, but Meghan was on her feet.

"My auld friend Feld is here! Thank the Spinners! May I see him? Take me to him!"

They found the old sorcerer in the library on the sixth floor, a pair of glasses perched on the end of his beaky nose as he turned the pages of a book almost as large as himself. He looked up when Meghan came in, and began to laugh, a dusty-sounding chuckle that ended in dry coughs. "So, the rumors I heard are true! Ye did survive the Burning."

"Och, I'm a tough auld thing," Meghan said. "I canna believe my eyes! What are ye doing here?"

It took many hours to tell the story, for Feld was noted for his ability to get sidetracked, particularly when boasting about the great library of the Towers of Roses and Thorns, but at last Meghan had the details from him. Feld had barely managed to escape the Day of Betrayal—a sudden impulse to visit the flea markets in search of old manuscripts had meant he was away from the Tower of Two Moons when the Red Guards struck, and had seen the smoke and heard the screams on his way back. Always wily, the warlock had slipped away, cursing the Banrìgh, and frantic about his apprentice Khan'gharad and his other friends and colleagues. By stint of clever disguise and the help of some witch-friends he had escaped into the Whitelock Mountains where he wandered a long time, racked with grief and horror at the burning of his precious library and the execution of so many witches. At last some semblance of reason returned to him, and he remembered the tales of his apprentice, who had appeared at the Tower of Two Moons on the back of a dragon, the first human since Aedan Whitelock to cross his leg over a dragon's back. Khan'gharad Dragon-Laird had told him the tale of how he had rescued the young dragon princess from a certain death and so earned the gratitude of the great queen-dragon. So Feld, who had devoted his life to dragon lore, had made the long and difficult journey through the mountains to Dragonclaw and there asked the dragons for sanctuary. He had lived at the Towers of Roses and Thorns for fifteen years, tending Ishbel as she slept and studying to his heart's content.

"I do no' ken if they would have let me stay if they had no' thought I could look after Ishbel, who turned up here in the days following the Burning. The twins were born at the Hall o' Dragons, ye ken, and a strange birth it must have been, their mother out o' her mind with grief and horror and the only attendants dragons."

"So she must have flown straight there. What a journey that must have been, heavily laden with unborn twins as she was. I wonder she could stay in the air!"

"I think it was only the spirit that kept her alive, for truly, once the twins were born, she fell asleep, and asleep she stayed for all those years."

"So Ishbel has been asleep these past sixteen years?"

"She stirred a few years ago when the comet passed over and our young Khan'derin arrived but did no' wake until last week, when the Dragon-Star came again. I was with her, brushing her hair and washing her face as I always do, when suddenly she stirred and her eyes opened. Och, the surprise and joy! Fifteen years I have tended her, and all that time she slept as sweetly as ye could imagine."

"How . . . how was she when she woke?"

"Och, it was terrible. I had forgotten, ye see, that those sixteen years she has been asleep were but a dream for her. All she remembered were the blood and the fire and the death, the terrible betrayal o' the Rìgh whom we had served so faithfully. And o' course, the death o' Khan'gharad. That was the last thing she remembered, how her lover died."

Meghan felt a great tide of ancient grief pour over her, and though she tried to fight it, tears began to slide down her wrinkled cheeks. She rested her forehead in her hand and struggled to control herself, but her grief had been stifled too long and the dam had finally burst.

After a while, she felt Feld's frail hand patting her shoulder and heard him say awkwardly, "Come, come, ye are wetting my book, and indeed it is far too auld and rare to be wetted with salt tears. I ken what it is ye did, and how that must grieve your heart, but really, what could ye do? Ye saved Ishbel's life and your own, and ye could have destroyed the Banrìgh, which indeed would have been a good thing, much as it pains my heart to say that the death o' any living thing could be a good thing."

"The mother-dragon told me Khan'gharad is no' dead," Meghan said, wiping her lined face impatiently.

"Did she so? Well, dragons do no' lie, though they can twist words in such a way that they might as well be telling an untruth. I canna see how he could have lived after ye opened a chasm at his very feet, but then the Banrìgh survived, did she no', and her black-hearted servant with her. Stranger things have happened. Take the waking of Ishbel herself. One moment she was asleep, the next awake and looking about her with those great blue eyes of hers. She knew you needed her, Meghan, though I do no' ken how. I tried to keep her here, even caught her in my arms and tried to hold her down, but she was too strong for me. A wee thing like Ishbel, too strong for me! Och, I am getting auld. She struggled and fought like an elven cat, and after she had won free, threw herself out the window o' her room! I thought she must be mad in her grief, and the confusion of waking after so long, and trying to kill herself.

"I was always a fool. Ishbel the Winged, to die by falling out a window! For light as a feather, she twirled and floated through the sky, and I watched her till she was beyond the Cursed Peaks, and out of sight. I could no' rest till she returned, I fretted and fumed, and young Khan'derin celebrated her coming o' age alone and not very happy, I am afraid. I felt I could not be easy until Ishbel was safe home again, though when she did return it was to sleep's arms that she turned, no' mine, and asleep she has been ever since." The old warlock sighed, and took off his glasses to rub them with the skirt of his robe.

Meghan and her old friend Feld talked long into the night, and he told her of some of the marvels of the Towers' library. It had been gathered together by the great twin sorcerers, Faodhagan and Sorcha, and Feld claimed it had some texts from Alba, the Other World, which they had brought with them in the Great Crossing. Written mainly in Latin, one of the sacred languages of the Other World, they were very difficult to read but Feld had persevered gamely.

"The twins lived in harmony with the dragons, ye ken, riding their backs and building the Great Stairway for them. Faodhagan was a great artist and craftsman, far greater than anything we ken, and a great wielder o' magic. It is he who built the dragons' palace, and the Towers o' Roses and Thorns, as well as many o' the other Towers too. Books in this library tell o' acts o' magic that are almost beyond belief. I have barely started my work, even after fifteen years here."

Suddenly Meghan felt so tired she could barely keep her eyes open, and she rested her head in her hands and her elbows on the table while Feld went on describing the treasures of his library. After a while she must have dropped off to sleep for she woke when he laid a hand on her shoulder, begging her forgiveness and leading her off to bed.

Her first night in a soft, warm bed for over a week did wonders for Meghan and she woke reinvigorated and almost happy. Although she and Feld had never been very close at the Tower of Two Moons, each preoccupied with their own concerns, it cheered her greatly to see a familiar face. It was also a comfort to know there was a great store of knowledge here that one day could help the witches reestablish the Towers, and perhaps even take them to greater heights of wisdom and understanding. The discovery of Khan'derin was also a wonder and a joy, for here perhaps was a power equal to Isabeau's, and another young witch to fill the halls of learning both she and Feld dreamt of. Meghan washed her face and plaited her gray hair amidst dreams of a new Tower and a defeated Banrìgh.

There was a knock on the door, and Khan'derin came in bearing a tray with hot porridge and tea. She was wearing a loose white shirt, and her head was covered with a long-tailed white cap so Meghan could still not see her hair. The old witch smiled at her. "I am glad that I came," she said. "Indeed, twas grand to find the lost Towers o' Roses and Thorns intact still, and so rich in knowledge. So much has been lost. Feld tells me there are books here that came over in the Crossing!"

"Are all the other Towers really destroyed then?"

"I believe so," Meghan replied. "I sent carrier pigeons to those we knew still stood, and tried to contact their scrying pools in case any witches had returned after the Burning, but received no response at all. And I asked in all the villages and towns of Upper Rionnagan, and everyone says the Towers lie in ruins, with no living creature but rats and crows to disturb their emptiness. I hope one day we will rebuild them, but for now they are nothing but a pile of stones."

Khan'derin shrugged. "I never really believed in their existence anyway," she said. "The first I really heard o' witches was when I came here to the Cursed Valley and met Feld. He tries to teach me, but what do witches have to do with me?"

"A lot, I hope," Meghan said. "Bide a wee while I eat and we can talk."

Khan'derin remained standing. "I do no' want to hear what ye have to say."

Meghan was surprised and affronted. "What do ye mean?"

"The Firemaker had a dream that I was to leave the Spine o' the World and travel far away. I do no' wish to go."

Again Meghan was conscious of the fact that Khan'derin was an unknown quantity and that she must tread carefully. "Do no' your grandmother's dreams speak truth?"

"All dreams are visions o' what may be. We ourselves choose whether or no' to make dreams reality."

"What did the Firemaker dream?"

"She dreamt that I was to come face to face with my shadow."

"What does that mean, do ye think?"

"I did no' ken afore I met ye, but now I fear ye mean to take me to meet this girl ye keep speaking o', the one who is meant to look like me."

"Indeed, she looks enough like ye to be your mirror image. I am sure now that she is your twin sister, born to Ishbel the Winged, whom ye call the sleeping sorceress. Ishbel and the Dragon-Laird Khan'gharad were lovers, ye see, back in the Tower o' the Two Moons. When the Red Guards attacked the Tower, Ishbel was only a few weeks away from giving birth. I helped her escape, and she must have flown in search o' Khan'gharad's people then. The dragons say they found her on the slopes o' Dragonclaw— what ye call the Cursed Peaks—in dreadful pain. They helped her give birth then gave Isabeau into my care and ye into the care o' your father's people. I do no' ken why they separated ye."

"Because twins are forbidden, I imagine," Khan'derin said coldly.

"Perhaps . . . though I would have gladly taken ye both. Twins are no' forbidden in Rionnagan. I do no' understand why they are here."

"It is no' natural for two to be born o' the one womb. They are too close, the threads o' their destiny too tangled. They bring tragedy, for we are all meant to be born and die alone."

"Is this why ye do no' want to come with me? Ye do no' want to meet Isabeau?" Despite herself, Meghan's voice was incredulous.

"No' only that. I have just been scarred. I was to have joined the council next winter. Auld Mother says I am the youngest warrior ever to receive my scars."

"Is that what the scars are for? A mark o' fighting prowess?"

Khan'derin traced the scar on her right cheek. "This is for hunting. Last winter I made the greatest kill and so was given my first scar. This one," and she traced the left scar, "is for fighting."

"Fighting? Who do ye fight?"

"Our greatest enemy is o' course the Pride o' the Fighting Cats, who dared to trespass on our traditional hunting grounds and then made an assault on our Haven. The Fighting Cats are fools, trying to muscle in on our land."