Hero's Song

by Edith Pattou

  Brie drew a deep breath. She had told no one what the killers looked like except Collun, and she knew he would never speak of it. "That was in the past," she said, her voice high and stretched thin. "What of the future?"

  The wyll's amber eyes widened. "That which you seek lies in Dungal," she said.

  Brie's pulse quickened, and the invisible cold hand at the back of her neck tightened its grip. "My father's murderers?" she asked, locking eyes with Aelwyn.

  "If that is what you seek."

  The wyll adjusted the torque on her arm. "It has been long since a seeing took such hold of me. Do you yourself have draoicht?" Aelwyn asked, curious.

  "You mean magic?" Brie gave a short laugh. "Of course not."

  Collun spoke up, his hand on his trine. "I carry a stone...?"

  Aelwyn shook her head briskly, uninterested in the cailceadon. "No, it is from her." She turned back to Brie. "What is your name?"

  "Breo-Saight. Or Brie."

  "'Fire arrow..,'" the wyll said thoughtfully. "Listen, there is more." She drew Brie closer and spoke softly into her ear. "Shifting water and earth. Sacred standing stones covered with seabirds. A crippled man. And a man of power. Treachery. I saw hatred, the lust to kill. I saw death." Her breath tickled Brie's ear. "And ... an arrowhead pointed at your own heart."

  Abruptly she resumed her normal voice. "There. That is all." She reached up and smoothed a coppery braid. "Now, does someone have a bauble for Aelwyn?" she asked, flashing a catlike smile.

  Brie was too dazed to respond. Kled nudged Collun, who had been watching Brie with a worried frown.

  Aelwyn crossed to Collun and said in a teasing voice, "Didn't you say something about a stone?"

  "Uh, no ... I mean..." He stumbled over his words, reluctantly tearing his gaze from Brie. "That stone is, uh, too precious..." He trailed off.

  "Not the cailceadon," laughed the wyll. "I have no interest in so potent a stone. I mean the one in your other pocket."

  Puzzled, Collun felt in his pocket and drew out a chunk of rock he had found while plowing several days ago. It had several large saphir gems embedded in it, and he had thought to dig them out and make a bracelet or hair clasp for Brie.

  Kled gave him another nudge, and Collun offered the rock to Aelwyn.

  She took the chunk of rock with a look of pleasure, holding it up to the light coming through the dairy door.

  Brie had been sitting very still, unaware of the conversation around her. Abruptly she rose, a flash of blue from a saphir banding her cheek as she began to move across the barn.

  "Will you go to Dungal?" Aelwyn called after Brie.

  Brie paused. "Perhaps," she said, her voice sounding muffled.

  Startled, Collun gave Brie a sharp look.

  "Be warned, Breo-Saight," said Aelwyn, rummaging in her colorful layers of clothing for a soft leather pouch. As she slid the rock into the pouch she continued, "Once you go to Dungal, it is not easy to leave."

  "You left."

  "Because I like pretty, shiny things, and your people will pay well for the skills I have. But the hiraeth, the heartsickness from being away, it is with me all the time, like a knife in the heart. Farewell, Breo-Saight."

  "Farewell, Aelwyn," Brie said, and left the barn.

  There was a roaring in her ears and her breath came short as she moved away from the barn. Her father's killers. In Dungal. She would have her revenge.