Read Online Tower of Thorns by Juliet Marillier - Free Book Online

as I was at the most difficult stage of preparing a salve, there was a polite tap at the stillroom door. I swallowed the snarling
Go away
that sprang to my lips. That kind of knock might mean Flidais or one of her attendants, Deirdre or Nuala. “Who is it?” I called.
    The door opened and there was the Lady of Bann, clad in a gown of russet red with her hair in cunningly interwoven plaits. So much for avoiding her. I could feel myself scowling. “Lady Geiléis. Did you need something?”
    â€œTo speak with you, if you permit. May I come in?”
    â€œI’m busy. If I interrupt this preparation, the mixture will curdle and be spoiled. Sit on that bench, over there.”
    Geiléis sat. If she thought me unmannerly, she gave no sign of it. I took my time with the preparation. Rushing it was likely to see a botched result, which meant good ingredients wasted. So I stirred the mixture in its little pot on the brazier, tested it from time to time, eventually took it off the heat, added further components, stirred again and waited until it was well thickened. I spooned it carefully into a sturdy jar. My visitor waited in silence while I washed pot, ladle, spoon, knife and chopping board in the bucket and wiped them dry.
    When all was to rights, I dried my hands on my apron and addressed Lady Geiléis. There had been plenty of time to rehearse theright words in my mind. “I’m hoping you have not come to ask me if I can travel west with you, my lady. I understand how difficult things are for you, and I have some sympathy. But I’ve given Lady Flidais my word that I will stay here and look after her. She needs me.”
    â€œYou take your calling seriously.”
    â€œWhy would I not?” Impossible to sound anything but sharp.
    â€œI meant no offense. Watching you work is an education.”
    â€œI work better on my own. Was there something else you needed? Were you seeking some kind of remedy?”
    â€œYour opinion only.”
    â€œI’m a healer, not a councilor.”
    I saw Geiléis school her features. Thinking, no doubt, that I sounded hostile and wondering why.
    â€œAll I ask is that you listen awhile,” she said. “I seek nothing further from you.”
    â€œVery well. You’ll excuse me if I get on with my work while you talk.” I busied myself, wondering what was coming.
    â€œYou are a wise woman, Mistress Blackthorn. A wise woman is generally well versed in ancient lore, or so I understand. And . . . I believe it is usual for your kind to be more open than most to the strange and uncanny. More precisely, to the fey. Some folk do not believe they exist outside the old tales. But you were quick to suggest the creature in the Tower of Thorns is not of this world. Tell me, in the course of your years as a healer, have you yourself encountered beings of that kind?”
    She could hardly have chosen a question better calculated to annoy me. My past was not for discussion. Not with anyone. “I do know a great many tales, and the fey are in most of them.”
    â€œBut beyond the tales, in the world where you and I walk? Have you met beings that are neither the wild creatures of forest and hills, nor human men and women, but Other?”
    â€œThat question strikes me as somewhat intrusive, Lady Geiléis.”
    â€œThen let me put it a different way. Are you open to the idea that such beings may exist? That they still walk the secluded places of Erin alongside our own kind?”
    â€œIt’s possible.”
    â€œSome have suggested the creature in my tower is simply an animal that has wandered into the place and found itself trapped; or a flock of unusual birds out in the woods; or, indeed, a figment of my imagination. My requests for aid have been greeted with ridicule.”
    â€œMm-hm.” It was all too easy to imagine how that had felt: to tell her tale, perhaps to the northern ruler she’d mentioned, only