by Grace Martin
Sparrow told him and he nodded. ‘That sounds fair,’ he said. ‘I’ll give you a hair stick for the same price as the ribbon, what do you think?’
I think I gaped at him. I never thought haggling was going to be this easy. I’d never bought anything in my life before and here I was buying a silver stick with a pretty rock on it for the price of a ribbon. ‘Sold,’ I said quickly.
He leaned forward and held out a fistful of hair sticks. ‘Which one appeals to you, young lady?’ he asked. His voice seemed deeper all of a sudden and I wondered if he was really as old as he looked. He was skin and bones, so every wrinkle showed on the few square inches of face that weren’t hidden by his wild beard. I looked at the hair sticks. I could still hear someone calling my name.
One of the sticks seemed to stand out and I was hardly sure why. Perhaps the silver gleamed brighter. Perhaps the little amethyst on the end was smoother or brighter than the others. I reached out for it, but before I could touch it, he turned to Lili.
‘Today, I think we should have a little special price for sisters,’ he said. ‘Two for the price of one. Pick one too, my dear.’
She chose a silver stick with a blue stone on the end and gave him a shy smile. He turned back to me and held out the silver wand with a purple crystal. ‘And I believe you chose this one?’
‘Yes, yes.’ I wanted to get my hands on it. The moment I touched it, I knew it was the wand that had been calling my name. The wand knew me, knew me as well as I knew myself, like it was a part of me. I gasped. A magic wind lifted my hair.
The man’s eyes went wide. ‘I knew it,’ he breathed.
I was holding the wand up, the little crystal nestled into my palm. All of a sudden, a bright light shone out of the wand, pointing up into the air and crackling like lightning. The next thing I knew, there was a huge clap of thunder and storm clouds raced to cover the sun.
If the people around us were quick to cry, ‘Magic! Magic!’ the man was faster. He threw his arm up into the air like he was pointing at the clouds.
‘Get out of here!’ he muttered, not looking at us. ‘Run! Hide! I’ll draw them away!’
So we ran and hid behind a pile of crates and rubbish that partially obscured an alley halfway down the other side of the square. The people around called for the guards and they grabbed the man. He didn’t even try to run away.
The crowd fell silent suddenly. I heard the flapping of enormous wings and looked up. There was a dragon in the sky. He swooped low towards the marketplace and landed in the square. People cried out and ran away, but there was a woman riding on the back of the dragon and she shouted, ‘No one move!’ Everyone froze.
She dismounted, her white and silver cloak and gown moving constantly in the magic wind all around us.
‘Who used magic?’ she demanded.
The crowd parted and she could see the old man, held by half a dozen guards. When she saw him, she started to laugh. ‘Ah, Cuchulainn, you old dog, you couldn’t hide forever, could you?’ she asked. The man glared at her and I sensed that he was holding back, like he could reef his arms away from his captors, if he so chose. He wanted to do it, I could tell, wanted it badly and started to tense his muscles to move. I was watching him through a gap in the pile of crates and for a moment I could have sworn that our eyes met.
He sagged between his captors, again a gaunt old man. ‘It was me,’ he said. ‘It was me.’
‘Of course it was you,’ she said, almost sweetly. She turned and went back to her dragon. ‘Take him to my castle,’ she said. ‘Find a place for him in the dungeons there. Keep him alive ‒ but you don’t have to keep him happy.’
She mounted the dragon and flew away. The man was dragged away, directly past our hiding place. As he passed our position, I heard him whisper, ‘It’s all right,’ and then they bundled him into a cart and drove away.
Sparrow didn’t stop crying for an hour. I sat cross-legged in the alley and Sparrow lay beside me, her head in my lap. She knew that the man had given himself to the guards to keep me safe. He had sacrificed himself for me. No one had ever done anything like that for me before. I had never had a parent, never had a relative who cared about me, neither of us had. We had only ever had creepyguardians. And yet, today, a stranger had allowed himself to be taken to the White Queen’s fortress to save us.
Sparrow cried. I didn’t cry. I was too stunned.
That wand was Umbra. I’d never known her name and I’d never heard her voice again, but I’d carried her with me every day of my life after that. She’d given me impressions, tried to make me a better person occasionally, but she’d never spoken again.
I never forgot the man in the square. Even now, as the princess, the Bach Chwaer, I wasn’t sure that anyone would do such a heroic deed to save me. I thought of Aoife, locked up somewhere with a bunch of Librarians and soldiers to guard her. Was there anyone who would do such a heroic deed to save Aoife?
I doubted it. I’d only known her a few days and I wasn’t sorry to see her die.
I told Aine and the Empress the story of how I’d first found Umbra. Aine was shocked to hear that I’d not only touched the historic artifact, but used it. I didn’t tell her I’d used Umbra for everything, from securing my hair, to calling down a storm, to stirring my tea and heating it up when it got cold.
The Empress tried to get details out of me, but I had no details to give her. Who was the man? Where had he come from? How did the White Queen know him? What happened to him? Had he singled me out to give me the wand particularly because it didn’t sound like a random encounter. No street hawker allows a customer to set a price.
I couldn’t answer any of it.
Aine looked confused. ‘Why ask where she got the wand?’ she asked finally. ‘What does the past matter? Why not just ask her where she had it last and we can go look?’
‘Because it isn’t there, yet,’ I said, which is a great answer if you want to be mysterious and a smart arse.
The Empress allowed a corner of her mouth to move into a small smile. ‘Don’t tease, Emer,’ she said gently. She had long since let go of my hand. Now she patted Aine’s hand. ‘All will become clear in due time, my daughter. Trust us, for now.’ She sighed and said to me, ‘I hoped you might have remembered something helpful. Never mind. We will find Umbra, because we must.’ She smiled again but it was a thin, unpleasant smile. ‘We will find Umbra because someone did, and we have something they didn’t have.’
‘What?’ Aine asked.
‘We have Umbra’s sister,’ the Empress said.
I was allowed to go back to my room and I was glad to get out of all of it. If I could have ridden away from all of it and never been called Princess again, I would have done. But I had to get back to Elisabeth and the only way back to Elisabeth was through the Portal. I had to find out how to use the Portal and I would do anything to get back to Elisabeth.
Perhaps the thought of riding away was uppermost in my mind because I didn’t go back to my room. Instead, I found myself in the stables. I thought I might look in on Caradoc’s horse, just in case he was there. We had had some good times together, when I was only a featherskin and cleaning out the stables.
I got a shock when I looked into the stall where Caradoc kept his horse. Maldwyn was there, sitting on a pile of straw and polishing a sword.
I made an embarrassing noise and turned quickly to go.
‘Wait, please, princess, please?’ I stopped. It was so hard to disobey his voice, even though it was a child’s voice.
I turned and was as haughty as I knew how to be. ‘What do you want, you grubby little urchin?’ I was aware all the time of the sword he held in his hand. If he made one move to hurt me, I might not be able to use much magic to stop him, but I could skewer him with that sword.
‘Princess, please, I heard about what you did that night at the Halls of the Young. It was amazing. I saw Lord Caradoc when he rode away to help. I never saw anything like it.’
‘Who has?’ I replie
d.
‘I wanted to help, but I’m only a squire,’ he said. ‘I want to be a hero, too, like Lord Caradoc.’
‘Do you, now? Pity you’re apprenticed to an evil bastard then, isn’t it?’ I was being sarcastic, but I saw the look in his eyes and realised that he knew what his master was like.
‘I’d rather be apprenticed to the Lord Caradoc,’ he said. His voice was piping and sweet, not at all the voice of the man I knew, but every word he said reminded me of who he would grow up to be. ‘Lord Caradoc freed the Camiri. Lord Caradoc stands up for people who are alone. I wish I could be apprenticed to him. He wouldn’t treat me like my knight does.’ He looked down at the sword in his hand. He gave it a few desultory swipes with a polishing stone and I realised that he was cleaning it for his master. He wasn’t lying in wait for me with a weapon.
I leaned back to sit against a bench by the wall. ‘And you think you’re good enough to serve Lord Caradoc, do you?’ I asked.
‘No, princess.’ He turned and put the sword onto a shelf. ‘Princess, I know I’m not good enough, but I want to be good enough and I know that Lord Caradoc could teach me how. He could be my master. He has no apprentice. I would be a good apprentice. I’d do anything for him!’
‘Huh.’
‘I’m a good apprentice. I learn fast. I’d learn real fast for Lord Caradoc. Can’t you talk to him for me, please, princess?’ He looked at me and for a moment he looked shy. ‘I know Lord Caradoc likes you. I can tell from the way he looks at you. He’d listen to you. All you’d have to do is tell him that I’m a good apprentice and he’d talk to my master and then I’d be free to serve Lord Caradoc.’
‘You want me to speak for you?’
‘Yes, princess. Lord Caradoc would listen if you said it.’
I shrugged. That was news to me. I liked the thought that Caradoc would listen to me, but I wasn’t going to share that with Maldwyn. ‘We’ll see.’ I levered myself up from the bench. I really didn’t want to sit there and chat with the kid who ruined my life. I stalked out of the stables without saying goodbye.
Chapter Seventeen
As I left the stables, Aine ran into me. She gasped and cried out, ‘Emer, where have you been?’
‘What, was I wanted?’
She went to speak then stopped herself and I thought, Aha.
‘I was just looking for you,’ she said eventually, after looking at the sawdust beneath our feet for inspiration. I didn’t know you could get inspiration from sawdust but there you have it.
‘What do you want then?’
‘Um, oh, I just, well…’
‘Really?’
‘What are you doing here, Emer? This is a terrible place.’
‘It’s just a stable.’
‘Yes, but terrible people come here.’
I thought about my talk with Maldwyn. She wasn’t wrong, but I said, ‘It’s just a stable.’
‘Yes, but, well, can we go somewhere else?’
I let her lead me back into the castle. It seemed very dim inside after the bright sunlight in the courtyard. Even Aine had to pull her shawl closer around her shoulders, but she relaxed progressively more as we went indoors.
‘So what’s up?’ I asked.
‘Emer, I need your help.’
I think I sagged a little bit. I was getting very tired of being the hero. I didn’t want to be everyone’s hero. I just wanted to go back home to Sparrow and be her hero. ‘Really?’ I said on a sigh.
‘Emer, while you were outside looking at horses, of all things, my life has fallen apart. Please, come quickly, I need to talk to you!’
I had to go with her. How could I turn around and say that I wouldn’t help her when she was so desperate? She was so pathetic. I’d never once seen her stand up for herself. I was glad I was going back to my own time because if I stayed here then I’d never stop rescuing her.
She took me to her room. I noticed that it had a bigger bolt on the door now. Whether someone had noticed that the door had been forced, or whether Aine had mustered up the courage to actually tell someone what the knight had tried to do, I didn’t know. I thought it was more likely that a servant had noticed it. She drew me down to sit on the window-seat beside her. She held both my hands.
‘Emer, it’s Sir Cai,’ she said. ‘My life is over! I don’t know what to do!’ She let go of my hands so she could press both hands against her face and sob.
I let her sob for a moment. I sighed, to pass the time. ‘What happened?’ I asked. ‘Who is Sir Cai and why is your life over?’
She looked at me like I was mad. ‘You know who Sir Cai is.’
‘Nope.’
‘Emer, he is my betrothed.’
‘Him? What happened?’
‘He heard about Darragh’s demand and came back to the castle. He offered to marry me.’ She smiled, twisting her lips bitterly. ‘He very generously offered to relieve me of my virginity to save my life. Mother told him that he was a bit late for that and… he got very mad. Mother offered to let him back out of the contract, but he refused. He said that we were only delaying the wedding because of my jitters and if I wasn’t a virgin anyway then we might as well get married tonight, so I can start performing my wifely duties.’
I recoiled a little. Poor Aine.
She went on. ‘Emer, it’s even worse. Mother agreed.’ Her voice was thin and I could barely hear her speak. ‘Emer, we’re going to get married tonight. There’s going to be a ball. After that he’s going to take me away to his own land so he can show off his princess.’ Her hand went up to her face again. ‘Emer, that can’t happen!’ She began to cry again.
‘Tell your mother you don’t want to marry him-’
‘But it isn’t just that! I always knew that I would have to marry a man I didn’t love. I always hoped it would be an old man who wasn’t too energetic, if you get my drift. But there’s something I haven’t told anyone and I don’t know what to do!’
‘Can you tell me?’ I was beginning to wonder if she was going to be able to screw up her courage enough to tell me at all.
She didn’t even open her eyes. ‘Emer, I have a daughter.’
Oh, my.
‘Emer, I made sure she went to a good family. She’s happy. She knows she’s adopted, but she knows that her adoptive parents love her and she knows that Ruairi and I love her. She’s happy and that’s all that matters to me. No one knows, no one but me and Ruairi and her parents, and the midwife who came last night.’
‘You told her?’
‘She noticed. She was my midwife when I was pregnant with Rhiannon. I even named my little girl after her, I was so grateful for all her help. She searched high and low to find the perfect family to look after my baby. She worked so hard, she couldn’t have been more dedicated if it was her own baby.’
Knowing as I did that Rhiannon was from the future and only a ‘few years’ older than I was, I was pretty sure that Baby Rhiannon wasn’t just named after Midwife Rhiannon, but that instead Baby Rhiannon would grow up to midwife her own mother. That was just weird. No wonder she had such an odd sense of humour. I wondered if she knew for sure which one of the twins was my mother, but I wouldn’t ask her in case she said something sarcastic or something mysterious.
‘I’m sure she did,’ I said, soothingly.
Satisfied that I’d played my part in the conversation, Aine went on. ‘I can’t leave my little girl behind. I’ve known all my life that I’ll be forced to marry a man I don’t love, maybe even a man I don’t like and I can do that. I’m a princess. It’s what we’re for.’
Wow. I’d never thought about that before. I’d always thought that princesses existed to be pretty and pampered, but now that I thought about it, Aine was right. Princesses existed to be forced into marriage purely on political terms and to have children, regardless of their personal feelings. I’d always thought that being a princess would be wonderful. Hearing Aine talk now made me realise what a gritty reality it actually was.
‘And
Ruairi ‒ I won’t even be able to tell him. He’ll hear about my wedding, hear that I’m going away long after I’m gone. I’ll never see him again. They won’t let me leave the castle today, I’m sure of it. They’ll be too afraid I’ll run away.’
‘Where is he now?’
‘He’s in Caillen. I know it isn’t far away, but he isn’t a courtier or a Baron or anything. He’s just a farmer, but I love him with all my heart.’ She put her face into her hands and began to cry again.
I sighed again ‒ we kept reprising our parts in this conversation. She’d cry, I’d sigh. To tell the truth, though, I was sighing now because it was that or burst into tears.
‘We’ll have to tell your mother about it, Aine, and that’s that. She seems like a caring person. I’m sure she’ll put a stop to it.’
Aine wiped away her tears. ‘She knows, Emer. I told her this morning. She was shocked and maybe even a little disgusted, but she knows and she’s sending me away anyway. She isn’t a caring person. She cared a little for Aoife, but you’ve seen how ready she was to sacrifice her. Aoife was her favourite and Aoife is in prison awaiting her death. She never cared much for me. The only person I’ve ever seen her care for ‒ was you!’
‘But… but we can’t let this happen!’
‘I don’t know what else to do!’ She bent forward and buried her head in my lap while she wept. I stroked her hair and thought of all the times I’d held my Sparrow like this.
Whenever you hear about this kind of thing, the first idea people have is this amazingly creative, covert and, above all, complicated idea that even Umbra wouldn’t be able to find her way out of. They think of every possible angle, confound their enemies before the enemy even realises they’re an enemy. The story moves away for a moment and the next thing you see is a beautiful woman getting ready to rob the palace of the crown jewels. The plan is told to the audience just as aforementioned beautiful woman is climbing up the vertical walls of the castle using nothing but a pair of hairpins and her teeth.
