grip of a high fever.
The shaman felt Connor’s face, and shook his head. “Nothing more to be done but to remove the red hand.”
As soon as Bresal said this, the tall intruder with feral golden eyes left them.
Several witnesses pushed into the sleeping chamber but sentries led the Starwatchers through the hall and outside. When the woman Maedb caught sight of them, she shrieked what could only be insults.
“Don’t look at her,” Cian whispered and disappeared from them as quickly as he appeared when they arrived.
The sharp point of metal wielded by a different sentry escorted them into a small wooden structure without any openings except its door that the sentry barred with a thud from the outside. Here the two Starwatchers were confined while the amputation took place. They listened intently. Maedb’s wail carried throughout the Invaders’ camp, but brave and stupefied Connor gave out not a sound.
Time passed and any indication of sunlight vanished. A mostly male assembly around the great hall gave a series of rumbling shouts as Bresal spoke to them, then the two Starwatchers heard the throng dispersing. Still they were held fast inside the small, dark cell. At length, the two smelled food preparations from the west area of the camp, and heard the clink of earthenware cups brought together. A wooden pipe sounded a slow but reassuring tune. Maedb’s keening had ceased.
Boann said, “He did not suffer.”
Tadhg raised his face to find her still standing in the darkness. She had not once sat down on the ground while they were confined, but he had. His thighs would ache from being crouched for so long, the place pressing itself in on him. Being held inside walls was anathema to a Starwatcher and she detested being imprisoned here as much as he did. He appeared thankful for her lack of chatter or speculation while they were trapped in this dark hut among scores of warriors outside. Motionless, her back against the rough wall, her escape from this ordeal had been to think of every detail earlier and where Cian might now be waiting.
“The Invader champion must be dead,” Tadhg said. He stood up to her eye level. “Perhaps the long knives made a quick job of it.”
“We are to live, Tadhg. Their champion lives, or they would have swiftly avenged his death on us.” Mouth dry, she managed a whisper.
He inclined his handsome face close to hers. “Two deaths for the one, and all three would miss this evening’s meal. Then again, might they be trying to starve you and me?”
She returned his faint smile, and they leaned on each other’s shoulders. They waited for a sound, a word, a sign, from Cian or from any of the warriors plodding around the hut.
At last a stumbling drunk sentry with a torch opened the door, growled at them and motioned them into the cool night air. The tall Invader stood nearby watching her and Tadhg. She returned his look, caught up again by his long legs and his bearing. He was like one of the intruders’ tawny stallions, powerful and disturbing. His eyes scorched over her body and she turned away, confused.
Under the starflung sky, sentries with torches accompanied the pair to the gates and over the plank bridge, leaving them at the forest’s verge without ceremony or thanks. The sentries provided them no part of the intruders’ evening meal, and no torches for their journey home.
It was new moon and darkness swallowed the two. They waited at the edge of the forest while their eyes adjusted. Tadhg pointed to where a planet had already traveled below the horizon. They quickly located a star pattern in the east and checked its position against the North stars and bright stars in the west. Tadhg and Boann passed north through the woods and bracken and safely into their homes.
They eluded warriors lurking at a marshy clearing adjacent to the three brooding starchamber mounds. The Invader warriors sent by Maedb to kill Boann and Tadhg waited until first light to route themselves
The shaman felt Connor’s face, and shook his head. “Nothing more to be done but to remove the red hand.”
As soon as Bresal said this, the tall intruder with feral golden eyes left them.
Several witnesses pushed into the sleeping chamber but sentries led the Starwatchers through the hall and outside. When the woman Maedb caught sight of them, she shrieked what could only be insults.
“Don’t look at her,” Cian whispered and disappeared from them as quickly as he appeared when they arrived.
The sharp point of metal wielded by a different sentry escorted them into a small wooden structure without any openings except its door that the sentry barred with a thud from the outside. Here the two Starwatchers were confined while the amputation took place. They listened intently. Maedb’s wail carried throughout the Invaders’ camp, but brave and stupefied Connor gave out not a sound.
Time passed and any indication of sunlight vanished. A mostly male assembly around the great hall gave a series of rumbling shouts as Bresal spoke to them, then the two Starwatchers heard the throng dispersing. Still they were held fast inside the small, dark cell. At length, the two smelled food preparations from the west area of the camp, and heard the clink of earthenware cups brought together. A wooden pipe sounded a slow but reassuring tune. Maedb’s keening had ceased.
Boann said, “He did not suffer.”
Tadhg raised his face to find her still standing in the darkness. She had not once sat down on the ground while they were confined, but he had. His thighs would ache from being crouched for so long, the place pressing itself in on him. Being held inside walls was anathema to a Starwatcher and she detested being imprisoned here as much as he did. He appeared thankful for her lack of chatter or speculation while they were trapped in this dark hut among scores of warriors outside. Motionless, her back against the rough wall, her escape from this ordeal had been to think of every detail earlier and where Cian might now be waiting.
“The Invader champion must be dead,” Tadhg said. He stood up to her eye level. “Perhaps the long knives made a quick job of it.”
“We are to live, Tadhg. Their champion lives, or they would have swiftly avenged his death on us.” Mouth dry, she managed a whisper.
He inclined his handsome face close to hers. “Two deaths for the one, and all three would miss this evening’s meal. Then again, might they be trying to starve you and me?”
She returned his faint smile, and they leaned on each other’s shoulders. They waited for a sound, a word, a sign, from Cian or from any of the warriors plodding around the hut.
At last a stumbling drunk sentry with a torch opened the door, growled at them and motioned them into the cool night air. The tall Invader stood nearby watching her and Tadhg. She returned his look, caught up again by his long legs and his bearing. He was like one of the intruders’ tawny stallions, powerful and disturbing. His eyes scorched over her body and she turned away, confused.
Under the starflung sky, sentries with torches accompanied the pair to the gates and over the plank bridge, leaving them at the forest’s verge without ceremony or thanks. The sentries provided them no part of the intruders’ evening meal, and no torches for their journey home.
It was new moon and darkness swallowed the two. They waited at the edge of the forest while their eyes adjusted. Tadhg pointed to where a planet had already traveled below the horizon. They quickly located a star pattern in the east and checked its position against the North stars and bright stars in the west. Tadhg and Boann passed north through the woods and bracken and safely into their homes.
They eluded warriors lurking at a marshy clearing adjacent to the three brooding starchamber mounds. The Invader warriors sent by Maedb to kill Boann and Tadhg waited until first light to route themselves
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