The Witches of Eileanan (35 page)

The man rolled his eyes and lay back on the ground, wincing a little as his shoulder came in contact with the earth. "You'd think then that she ken better than to tangle with the Awl! By Eà, she thought I was some stray puppy she'd picked up!"

Meghan's grim face relaxed a little. "She would," the witch said. Immediately though, her attention sharpened. "Did ye say she had run across the Awl? What happened?"

"They caught me about two days through the Pass, no' far from here actually, Eà blast them! They had a seeker, a damn unpleasant woman and the strongest witch-sniffer I've ever encountered. They'd obviously brought out the pick o' the herd to hunt me down. They beat me up pretty badly, and had me tied to a horse like a lamb trussed for the slaughter. Anyway, next thing I ken this pert uppity ward o' yours had snuck right into the Awl camp and had me untied and out o' there before I ken what was happening! They were hot on our trail, o' course, and she led them a fine dance through the highlands, back and forth and in and out like a donbeag."

Meghan clenched her fists. "The stupid lass!"

The man grinned. "And that I agree with," he said rudely to Iseult, who contemplated him calmly. "Anyway, I guess ye ken what happened then."

"I'd fain hear your version o' the story."

"Well, I cleared out, o' course. Took her supplies—sorry about that, but what could I do?" he said to Iseult. "I sure was no' going to follow that harebrained plan o' yours and head back down into the south. The Spinners ken it took me long enough to get out o' there!"

"So ye just left Isabeau there?"

"Well, she was grand, was she no'? She looks just dandy to me."

Meghan's face was the angriest that Iseult had ever seen. "This is no' my ward Isabeau but her twin sister Iseult," she said in a voice of ice. "And this stupid, bear-brained, crow-natured lump o' worthlessness, Iseult, is my cousin . .. Bacaiche. I dinna ken who is more stupid, your sister or my cousin! What was she thinking?"

"Ye mean this is no' the same girl as the one who freed me?" Bacaiche looked quite bewildered. "She looks the same, except for having cut her hair."

"She and Isabeau are twins," Meghan said coldly. "And I am very angry with ye, Bacaiche. Ye just abandoned Isabeau to the mercy o' the Awl! Ye knew she'd be fire fodder!"

"Well, I did no' ken she was your ward," Bacaiche said sulkily.

"And what difference does that make? She is young and inexperienced, and does no' realize the reach and power of the Awl like ye do. Ye stole her clothes and her supplies and left her for the Awl to find, and that I'll find very hard to forgive."

Iseult was interested to see the sulky expression that settled over the young man's dark face. So, he was in awe of his sorceress cousin.

Meghan slapped her hand several times on the ground, and Gitâ huddled in her lap, tapping at her arm with his paw. After a moment she began to stroke his glossy coat, and he pushed his quivering black nose into her palm. "Well, let us hope Isabeau has managed to escape," she said. "All we can do is travel as quickly as possible and try and catch her up. My heart misgives me, though, for surely she should be past Caeryla by now!"

"Why do ye no' scry her out?" Bacaiche asked.

"I canna," Meghan said. "She is protected."

"Obh, obh! I see! Well, that does make it difficult for ye then. Be comforted, though, it will make it harder for the Awl to sense her out as well."

"Indeed, that was the reason behind it," Meghan agreed dryly. "Now, are ye injured? I can feel pain emanating from ye."

"Arrow wound," Bacaiche said shortly. "In the left shoulder. Barbed head."

"How long ago?"

"Three nights."

"Fever?"

"Aye, unfortunately. I've been tossing and turning in this blaygird cave ever since."

"Well, let me take a look." Meghan pulled her pack toward her, and unknotted the leather straps so she could reach her pouches of herbs.

"Does she have to watch?" Bacaiche said in a long-suffering tone.

"Perhaps, Iseult, ye would no' mind fetching me water? We will spend the heat o' the day here, and start moving again once it's dark."

Iseult complied willingly, glad to get out of the stuffy cave and away from Bacaiche's sneer. By the time she returned, the water bags filled to bursting, Meghan had lit a fire and coaxed the smoke to disappear up a tiny vent in the cave's roof. Bacaiche was sitting up against the wall, bare chested, though his black cloak was still draped over his shoulders, and was wincing and swearing as Meghan probed at the arrow wound with sensitive fingers.

"Something major is afoot, Meghan, I swear it," he was saying. "All my reports show the Fairgean are rising, and there is nobody to stop them. The sea witches are all wiped out, and apparently their caves are now housing the Fairgean. Is that no' a horrible irony? And at the height o' the comet something happened, some spell. . ."

"Aye, I felt it too."

"So did the Lodestar."

"Aye."

"Jaspar must feel it too, must he no'? It must be tormenting him, the loss o' it."

"Aye."

Iseult noted the melancholy note in Meghan's voice and shifted slightly so she could see the wood witch's face. Meghan was staring into the fire, her wrinkled lids lowered over her eyes, her hands clenched. Gitâ crept back into her lap, and the sorceress stroked his velvety fur.

"Ye do hear it too, Meghan?"

Meghan nodded her head, not looking up. Staring from one face to another, Iseult saw a strong resemblance between them, despite the great disparity in age. Both were very dark, with a jutting nose and sharp cheekbones. Both had a white blaze in their hair just above the left brow, and a stern, stubborn mouth. The only difference was in the color of their eyes. Meghan's were a brilliant black, Bacaiche's an odd yellow color.

"I must free it," Bacaiche said restlessly. "It calls to me all the time, and it's fading, it's getting weaker. It has a pitiful sound, do ye no' agree? It says the time is coming."

"Aye," Meghan said and sighed. "My path is showing clearer before me all the time. I almost see the way clear... almost." Her voice drifted away.

"I canna see that!" Bacaiche said bitterly. "I sent a ship to Carraig to find out what news there is and the ship just disappeared. I sent another ship round to Tirsoilleir and it disappeared too, even though it had on board one o' the few remaining Yedda that I've been able to find. The seas must be full o' Fairgean, all round the island. Even the pirates are too afraid to send out their ships, and indeed, what point is there, when the merchant ships are no' running? There's nothing for the pirates to rob."

"But what about trade?" Meghan asked.

Bacaiche shrugged his hunched shoulders. "I also went to
Tùr na Fitheach,
as ye instructed, but it stands empty, almost ruined. I did see ravens, though, and one followed me for many miles. It did no' make me feel easy."

"So when did the witch-sniffer pick up your trail?"

"At
Tùr na Gealaich dhà,"
Bacaiche said shamefacedly.

"Fool," Meghan said coldly. "Why did ye return to the Tower o' Two Moons? Ye must ken it would be watched."

"The Lodestar was calling me," Bacaiche said pleadingly. "I came from Ravenshaw through the Whitelock Mountains and it was too close ... I could no' resist it."

"I told ye to be patient." Meghan's voice was cold and hard. "If ye are to win the Lodestar, ye must play the waiting game. How dare ye go to the Tower! She must realize we feel the Lodestar as much as Jaspar does. Ye led the Red Guards straight to me!"

"I'm sorry," Bacaiche said, and Iseult could tell apology was difficult for him. "It troubled my senses. . ."

"Destroyed your sense, more like," Meghan said, bandaging his shoulder tightly. "Bacaiche, ye will stay with me now. Too long I have let ye gallivant around, playing your rebel games and tickling the nose o' the Banrìgh. But there's too much at stake here. I do no' want ye out o' my sight until the Lodestar is safely in our hands. Do ye understand?"

Bacaiche nodded sulkily.

Because Bacaiche could not walk very well, crippled as he was, it took them another four nights to reach the Pass. He limped forward with an odd hop to his gait, leaning on a rough club he had made from a branch, and frowning angrily at Iseult whenever he caught her contemptuous gaze on him. Iseult was happy to leave his nursing to Meghan, though there was little else to do. Normally Iseult would have gone hunting, but Meghan had forbidden it, much to Iseult's disgust. Instead Meghan asked her to spend sometime foraging in the forest for roots and herbs to add to their scanty supplies, but Iseult was not familiar with the plants that grew this low down and, despite Meghan's lectures, still considered gathering the work of the very old or very young.

After the first day, when half the plants Iseult brought back were either poisonous, inedible or unripe, Meghan sent Gitâ with her. Although Iseult could not speak the donbeag's language, the little creature could at least prevent her from pulling up more of the noxious plants, and direct her to hazel-nut bushes or wild carrots. When they returned, Iseult was scowling and Gitâ was chittering exasperatedly, Iseult having apparently spent more time paddling in the stream than looking for food. Meghan had a few stern words with her and, as always, Iseult bowed her head and said nothing, her face carefully expressionless.

Gitâ chittered again, and ran up Meghan's long plait so he could pat her earlobe. Meghan smiled and said, more gently, "Gitâ says ye played in the water like a baby otter— all squeals and laughter."

Iseult kept her eyes lowered, as was proper when speaking to an Auld Mother. "I have never immersed my body in water before," she said. "In my land all is white and cold; any streams which are no' frozen run too fast and are too cold for immersion. The loch at the Tower unfreezes in summer, but the thorns grow too thickly around it and, besides, I am always busy with my studies or looking after the sleeping sorceress."

"I see," Meghan said gently. "So ye do no' ken how to swim?"

"I am no' sure what that word means," Iseult answered politely.

Meghan sighed. "I wish Isabeau was here. She swims like an otter herself, and I am sure she would teach ye."

"I have no need o'. . . swims," Iseult answered gruffly.

She saw the wood witch looking at her in a puzzled way, as she often did, and thought the witch must find her as strange as she found the witch. She suspected the wood witch did not like her, perhaps because she knew how to hunt and kill; Bacaiche also disliked her for his own peculiar reasons, and Iseult was not used to being disliked. She had been a loved and cherished member of the pride, surrounded always by affection, and given great respect because she was the granddaughter of the Firemaker and so would one day rule in her place. Bacaiche was the rudest person she had ever met, either ignoring her or treating her with contempt. So Iseult ignored him too, although she found herself stealing glances at him as he limped along, slashing at the heads of thistles with his stick.

At first she had been on guard around him, because she sensed he was dangerous and unpredictable, and Iseult had decided her role was to protect Meghan, who was very old and frail and had such a strange reluctance to hurt or kill. Soon, however, she decided Bacaiche was more afraid of Meghan than of anything else, and was unlikely to harm her. His antipathy to herself she ignored, knowing he could not hurt her, particularly in his injured state.

Bacaiche was indeed a puzzle. He spoke with great arrogance, yet in moments of repose there was a look of such brooding unhappiness on his face that Iseult felt an unaccustomed sense of pity. She had realized the day she met him that he was a hunchback, his head set on a short neck below a great hump on his shoulders. As he was deformed, Iseult would normally have dismissed him as unimportant or even a bothersome liability. In her country all deformed or crippled babies were left out for the White Gods, and those injured in accident or warfare spent the rest of their lives limping around the Haven and trying not to get in the way. Life on the Spine of the World was not an easy one, and death always only a whisper away. Pity was not an emotion Iseult had ever been taught to revere. It was a sign of weakness. So she was astonished at the strange tenderness Bacaiche sometimes awoke in her, especially since his attitude to her had not improved on discovering she was not the meddlesome Is'a'beau. Occasionally he threw a sardonic comment or exasperated look in her direction, but otherwise they both worked hard at ignoring each other.

Every morning, after they found a cave or thicket in which to camp, Meghan sat by the newly kindled fire and stared into her sorceress ring, which she took out from the hidden pocket in the seam of her dress. Each time she came out of her trance her face was grim, her eyes hooded. Iseult guessed she was trying to find traces of Isabeau, though sometimes it was clear from later conversations that she had contacted other witches in other parts of the island.

Every morning, Bacaiche would announce that he too must try to make contact with his friends. One gray, pink-streaked dawn he even got out a bright, metal bowl and poured water into it, saying defiantly, "Dide will be frantic. I must tell him I am safe . .."