These were loud folk and seemed to like their jests, many of which concerned their own exploits in the beds of buxom women or their besting of some other fellow in a brawl. They ate and drank with robust appetite and at first plied Faolan with questions: what was his name, where was he from, did he have a wife,
and what was a Gael doing living at the court of Fortriu? He made his answers brief, polite, and entirely without interest, and was rewarded when the talk turned to other matters. He counted the number of men-at-arms present, estimated those who might be on watch, and compared the total with the capacity of the sleeping quarters set aside for warriors, a realm he had investigated quietly sometime
earlier. There was room in Alpin’s house for a complement of eighty men. There were perhaps thirty present now, including those on guard. Alpin was known to have an outpost on the west coast, where his ships were maintained, but there was no current information as to its size or resources. This, Faolan needed to know. He would find a weak link somewhere at Briar Wood; he was expert at spotting them:
a fellow with a grudge, a lonely woman with a loose tongue, a child who had overheard what should have been secret. He’d have it out of them all in good time.
He glanced up the table at Ana; at the same moment she looked at him, her eyes conveying an apology. He allowed himself a little nod of reassurance; saw her lips curve in the slightest of smiles.
Ana had turned back to Alpin now, gesturing,
her expression serious. She was working hard on her own mission: to trade away her future for the sake of kings who had held her hostage for half her life. It was wrong, bitterly wrong. She was like a princess from an ancient tale, who surely should find her happiness in the gaining of her own kingdom or in a transcendent triumph over adversity. This was no triumph. With every tilt of her lovely
head, with every gaze of her limpid gray eyes, with every expressive movement of her hands she moved one step closer to committing herself to that oaf sitting there beside her. Not one of these folk had the capacity to recognize her true worth …
“So,” someone said, “you’re a court bard? There’s an old harp around here somewhere; used to be a fellow played a bit, long while ago, what was his name?
A few tunes after supper, that’d be good.”
A harp. Faolan turned cold. “Sometime, perhaps,” he said noncommittally. “I was injured on the journey here; my arm. It will be a while before I can play again. And I imagine the instrument will need attention if it’s been unused a while.”
“I’ll get a boy to hunt it out; you can take a look. Not much diversion here, you understand. Bards don’t make
a habit of wandering this way. The women’d like a song or two.”
“I work for the lady,” Faolan said. “If she agrees, of course I will oblige. But it will take time. Some fellow in a blue headband winged me with an arrow. Thought I was a warrior, I suppose. Must’ve been shortsighted.”
His companions at the table guffawed with laughter.
“Show us your scar,” someone said.
“It’s bandaged.”
“Show
us.”
There was no choice but to oblige. Faolan took care to roll up his sleeve only as far as the new wound, and not to reveal the other, older scar above it. For a musician to sustain one such injury was just about plausible as an unfortunate accident. To bear the marks of two must arouse suspicion.
“The Blues, huh?” commented an elderly man whose left cheek was adorned with row on row of faded
warrior marks. “Folk are saying they attacked your lady’s party by the ford. Alpin won’t let such an affront go without retaliation.”
“The Blues?” Faolan feigned ignorance. “Who are they? Neighbors?”
“You could say that. Dendrist’s territory, Blue Lake, runs to the east of Briar Wood. He’s a man who never seems content with existing borders.”
“Ah.”
“Not the safest way to ride in here, over
Breaking Ford,” commented a sharp-eyed man. “Whoever was leading your party must have been a fool. You’d have best gone down the lakes and up by the western tracks.”
“I know nothing of such matters,” said Faolan, whose constant scanning of the riotous hall for anything that might be of significance had at last been rewarded. There were serving dishes on a stone shelf at the side, and among the
servants who bore platters to the table and away, a man was quietly loading items onto a small tray, enough food and drink for perhaps two. This in itself was nothing surprising; he was probably taking supplies to some of the fellows on watch, or tending to the elderly or infirm. It was the man himself who caught Faolan’s eye. He was shortish, with a powerful chest and extremely broad shoulders,
his build accentuated by the ankle-length robe he wore. His head was completely bald and, unlike the hirsute Caitt warriors, he was clean-shaven, his face decorated with battle-counts but not with kin signs; a seasoned campaigner, then, and of Priteni blood, but not highborn. His stance breathed power. In that contained energy there was a control that stopped Faolan’s breath. What was such a man
doing bearing little trays of roast meat and ale as if he were an ordinary servant? The bald head turned, and Faolan noticed a mark behind the right ear, a small, crudely executed tattoo in the shape of a star. A pair of light, inscrutable eyes met Faolan’s briefly, then the fellow took up his tray and went out. Faolan noted the exit he used; it was the doorway closest to Alpin’s private quarters.
“Bard!” the chieftain called.
With a pang of misgiving, Faolan got to his feet.
“Come here!”
He walked to the top of the table, bowing low and obsequiously as he reached Alpin. “My lord.”
“No music tonight?” Alpin asked with a grin. “No ditties to divert us?”
“My lord—” Ana began.
“Let the fellow speak for himself, my dear. He has a tongue; I’ve heard him use it.”
“I hope to entertain
you in due course, my lord Alpin,” Faolan said, aiming for a subservient tone. “It would be little enough recompense for your consideration in riding out to meet us. Unfortunately, my arm is damaged and I cannot play. Besides, my instruments were lost in the accident that befell us.”
“You don’t need your instruments to sing, nor your arm,” Alpin growled.
“Indeed not, my lord. But I am weary
tonight. I do not think the lady Ana will require music of me when our losses are so recent. It is hard to summon fair tunes when the heart is full of sorrow.”
“Of course you need not sing for us tonight, Faolan,” said Ana. “Later, perhaps.”
“Not planning to keep the fellow permanently, are you?” challenged Alpin. “I don’t have Gaels in my household; it only makes folk suspicious.”
Ana’s cheeks
had turned pink. “Faolan is entirely reliable, my lord. A musician stands outside political loyalties. I’m hoping he will remain here for some time. At least until our negotiations are concluded. I had hoped he might play—”
“At the wedding,” Faolan said through gritted teeth. “After that I will return to White Hill.”
There was a brief silence, then Ana put a hand up to shield a yawn. “Will you
excuse me, my lord? I am very weary, and wish to retire now.”
“By all means.” Alpin’s eyes were all over her; Faolan could read his mind, see the image there of Ana lying on her bed, relaxed in a soft nightrobe, the curves of her body enticing, the candlelight playing on her pale skin and shimmering fall of hair. “Sweet dreams, my dear.”
“There’s just one thing,” Ana said, rising to her feet.
“I need your assurance that we will have an early opportunity to discuss Bridei’s terms for the marriage. I wish to have that settled before I make any decisions. I would prefer to have Faolan present during our negotiations, since he is the only man left from my escort. While he has no expertise in such affairs, I imagine it is he who will bear the account of our dealings back to King Bridei. It
would be foolish to send another messenger when Faolan will be traveling that way in any case.”
Alpin regarded her, full lips twisted in a sardonic smile. He seemed torn between amusement and irritation. “I’m not accustomed to women giving me orders,” he said.
“It’s not an order, my lord,” said Ana. “The flood robbed me of my skilled negotiator, along with many friends. You would not want King
Bridei to hear that you took advantage of me in these dealings because of that unfortunate event, I am sure. Of course you will make some allowance for the very awkward position in which I find myself.”
Faolan suppressed the urge to applaud; it had been neatly done. She possessed an infinite capacity to surprise him. The conversation had drawn the attention of all the men and women seated close
to Alpin; their heads were turning from one speaker to the other with the avid interest of folk watching a skilled combat. Faolan, still on his knees, made his expression blank.
“Discussions, negotiations, what need of those?” Alpin spread his hands. “I know what I want.” He winked at the men seated near him. “I don’t think you would have made this long journey, my dear, without a pretty good
idea of what would happen at the end of it, escort or no escort. All we need is a day or two to get to know each other, and a druid for the handfasting, and your man here can be back off to White Hill before he’s had a chance to set finger to string.”
“Faolan,” Ana said, “get up, please. My lord, I am too weary to assemble my thoughts. What I do know is that Bridei made precise terms for this
arrangement. I am duty bound to set them before you. If you cannot accommodate that, I—we—have no choice but to return to White Hill forthwith.”
Silence again. Alpin was picking his teeth with a shard of mutton bone.
“Really,” he said at last. Behind the word stood the flooded river, the attackers, the long, lonely road back to the southeast. A woman traveling with only a musician to protect
her. The fact that, here at Briar Wood, Alpin was master.
“Yes, my lord,” said Ana. Her courteous tone was belied by her tightly clenched fists.
“Ah, well,” said Alpin, “it’s late. You’ve had a long journey. Wise to retire; don’t forget that bolt, my dear. You can’t trust a bard, their minds are all on the impossible events of story, the ones in which swineherds become kings and slaves bed princesses.”
The men laughed. “Good night, my dear. Don’t look like that; I’m only joking. Bard, you’re dismissed. I hope you have songs in our own tongue and not just in that wretched Gaelic.”
“I’ll do my best to oblige, my lord, should the opportunity arise.” Faolan returned to his lowly place at the board as Ana departed with her waiting woman behind her. He hoped she did remember the bolt. This fellow
was clever, a deal more clever than his boorish manner suggested. He must be watched. Now Alpin got up and, with a word or two to his men, followed Ana out through that door leading to the family quarters.
Put her next to me
. If the man thought she would let him in tonight he was deluded.
“My lord retires early,” Faolan murmured a little later to Gerdic, the serving man who had helped him earlier
with clothing and shelter, and now sat by him at table.
“He’ll be back,” Gerdic said.
So Faolan waited, watching the comings and goings in the hall, listening to the gossip. Some of the men brought out game boards—so they were not all uncouth oafs—and he observed and made helpful suggestions, but did not play. Later, bouts of wrestling took place before the hearth, the men laying wagers on one
another’s prowess. Faolan joined in the betting and made sure he lost, not that there was anything to lose, since he had no worldly possessions in this place beyond a horse that was not his to trade.
“I saw a fellow here before who would make a sturdy opponent in such a combat,” he observed at one point; Gerdic seemed friendly, and he thought this casual comment worth risking. “Bald man with
big shoulders. Looked like a fighter. Don’t think he’s here now.” He glanced around as if seeking the man.
“That’d be Deord.” No more was offered.
“Deord? What is he, a warrior?”
“Not exactly.” Gerdic seemed ill at ease. “Alpin’s special guard. We don’t see him much. Keeps himself to himself. You wouldn’t take Deord on in a fight unless you had a death wish.”
“Mm-hm.” Faolan did not ask,
What does he guard? Where did he come from?
He knew when to push and when to hold back. There was a reticence here. Tomorrow was another day. In the morning he would go farther afield; he would find the information Bridei wanted. He supposed, also, that he must attempt to mend a harp.
Sleep evaded him. It was strange that he, who had for so long spent his nights alone or kept vigil by a wakeful
Bridei, now lay in the darkness feeling Ana’s absence as a sharp ache somewhere in his chest. Six nights he had held her in his arms, had sheltered and warmed her, had cradled her strength and her gentleness against his heart. Then, he had longed for journey’s end, so that he might not have to confess how much he wanted her. At the same time, he had wished the journey to be endless, to fade into
a song, a tale, a memory of piercing joy and of deepest regret. It was over now, and the loss of her made this pallet the loneliest bed he had ever lain on. No, perhaps not quite. There had been a night, once, when he would have begged the gods to let him die, save that he had already learned the bitter lesson that such choices are always beyond the scope of men. He did not want to die now. There
was still work to be done.