by Mia Pride
Ewan looked around at the burning fires and laughing crowds of villagers. “Seems like a celebration,” he said. Just then Ceara and Gwynneth walked up and gave hugs to Ewan with excitement. They all sat down around the fire and filled him in on the events since they left Manapii, from finding Deaglan, meeting Elim Mac Conracht and Brocc in the forest, to arriving in Darini.
“I beg your pardon, King Brocc.” Brocc grumbled and looked up as another of his warriors interrupted him. At his annoyed look, the man stuttered. “T-tis the lass. She is making a commotion within her home, threatening the warriors who are barring her door. She tried to skewer Mac Gregor through one of the wooden slats of her door with a dagger! What should we do with the wee banshee?” His largest warrior was panting in extension before him, pleading with Brocc to handle Mealla. He grumbled and ran a hand through his hair. Could no man control her?
Ewan looked from the warrior to Brocc in confusion. “Trouble with a wee lass, eh?” He chuckled. “How can one lass bring grown warriors to tears?”
Brocc let out a roar of laughter at Ewan’s ignorance. “You have nay idea of what you speak, Ewan. The lass is trouble.” Brocc filled Ewan in on all of Mealla’s meddlesome acts, expecting the man to shiver and cringe at his tale. Instead, Ewan’s brows rose in interest. “I have decided to banish her, but to where, I have nay idea.”
“I will take her.”
Every set of eyes stared at Ewan as if the man had gone mad before their very eyes. “Ewan, as a companion, I would like to dissuade you from your folly…but as a man anxious to be rid of her and go home with my wife, I can only encourage you. Though, you will need to offer her mother safe shelter as well, if she wishes to relocate with her daughter.”
Ewan waved a hand as if it were no trouble at all. “I like a woman with a wee bit of fire in her blood! I need a wife and she seeks to wed a king. She will help me rule Manapii and I will gain a fierce lass by my side…and in my bed. And you get rid of her. Seems fair all around. I may as well gain a wife for my efforts to be here!” His laughter boomed from his chest, then his smile suddenly faltered in hesitation. “Eh…is she bonny?”
Brocc hesitated to answer. If he said “nay,” Ewan may change his mind and decide to leave without her. But if he said “aye,” just to be rid of her, Una may whack him on his head and he would prefer not to be whapped by both his mother and new wife all in one day.
Luckily, Una read Brocc’s hesitation and laughed. Leaning forward so King Ewan could better hear her over the loud music and laughter in the background, Una responded, “Aye. She truly is a breathtaking lass. You will agree.”
Ewan nodded and smiled at Brocc, confident in Una’s honesty. “Then we have a deal?”
Brocc hopped off the log, taking Una with him as he stood. “Tis an offer I shall not refuse. She is yours, assuming she is to your liking. You may go see her now if you like.” The men clasped forearms and Ewan’s face lit up from within. Brocc hoped Ewan would not later regret his decision, but he was a grown man, able to decide his own life. “It was a pleasure meeting you, King Ewan of Manapii, and you will always have an ally in Darini. But, I have waited long enough to take my wife home.”
Before Una knew what was happening, Brocc scooped her up behind her knees and carried her away from the festivities. The entire tuath let out a whoop and a cheer as their king carried his new wife home and Una laughed and waved at them all as Brocc carried her further away from the bawdy jokes and raucous laughter.
The very moment they arrived home, Brocc kicked the door open with his large booted foot and carried her straight into their bedchamber, where tiny red rose petals had been strewn all around the bed, their fragrance lingering in the air. She sighed as he gently tossed her onto the bed, her golden-brown waves sprawling across the furs.
Brocc looked down at his new wife and a spasm shook his heart at the sheer beauty of her. All those long years of waiting for her to finally agree to marry him were worth every single moment. For now, sprawled across his bed with her swollen belly and long waves of hair framing her face, she was even more beautiful than he could have ever imagined.
“Brocc,” she had said innocently, but with a wicked gleam in her eyes, “there is still so much I do not know about making love…”
He groaned as her words registered and brought himself down upon her willing body. “Una…I shall endeavor to be your personal instructor on all things love for the rest of your life,” he whispered as he ran his lips down her upturned throat and over to her breasts as he pushed the neckline of her dress down off her shoulders. “Starting now.”
Chapter 21
“I am very grateful you were both able to come back to Darini for Beltane,” Una sighed as she sat down on a wooden bench and rubbed her sore back. “I will need all the help I can get to prepare for the feast on the morrow. It seems I can do almost nothing these days, what with this babe in my belly always in the way.”
Ceara chortled. “It could be worse. You could have Gwynneth’s ever-expanding girth.”
“What an awful thing to say, Ceara! And not at all sisterly.” Gwynneth looked down at her overly-large belly and compared it to her two sisters. It was quite large. “I cannot help it if Liam has planted his enormous child within my womb,” she laughed. Her laughter was replaced by a grimace as the babe kicked her in the ribs. Apparently, the babe was none too pleased with her jest.
Outside, a loud boom shook the earth and the three sisters let out matching squeals of shock. “This storm is very unexpected for this time of year. I hope the men come back inside soon. This lightning is frightening!” Una chewed her lower lip in distress as she stood up and opened the front door, searching for any sign of the men in the swiftly dimming light of day. Another bolt of lightning streaked down with vengeance from the sky, lighting it up with a shock of blue flashing light.
“Aye. This dry storm is unlike any I have ever seen. Not a drop of rain. Only wild streaks of lightning,” Gwynneth shuddered at the eerie wind howling outside the house.
The sound of wood cracking and splintering mingled with Una’s startled scream. “Oh, by all the gods! The lightning has trunk a tree! Tis on fire! And in the middle of the village!” Brocc was still out there. Without another thought, Una’s slippered feet hit the dry path at a swift run, her only worry for her husband’s safety.
Ceara and Gwynneth followed her out toward the tree that roared and popped as the flames licked at its dry bark. “This is a disaster!” Una cried as she ran closer. It had been a dry spring and the crops were already suffering from the lack of rain. The fire was much too close to their wheat field, threatening to destroy what little crop they had to feed their struggling tuath.
Just then, the men appeared from around the corner of one of the granaries. They carried wooden buckets filled with water and several men trailed behind them. Liam locked eyes with the three approaching women and roared a warning at them that stopped them in their tracks. “Nay! Do not come any closer!” he yelled at them over the sounds of chaos in the background, children and women crying as the men shouted commands at one another.
If Liam thought for one minute Una would stand back and allow her village to burn, he was mad. She continued running as fast as she could, her chestnut hair trailing behind her. The heat of the blaze hit her body like a wall, but she continued her approach.
“Una!” Ceara hollered at her sister to stop, but she wouldn’t slow and Ceara gave chase. Gwynneth trailed behind, the burden of her babe weighing her down, but she followed them into the fray.
Another streak of angry lightning split through the clouds, lighting up the sky directly above the three sisters. Una saw it before the other two, but there was nothing to be done. The violence of the bolt hit her and her sisters mid-stride, sending a surge of energy through their bodies that knocked them back several feet, crashing with a thud on the hard-packed earth.
“Nay!” Screams of horror filled the air from onlookers, while Liam, Garreth, and Brocc launche
d themselves over their motionless wives. “Oh, nay!” Garreth wailed as he reached Ceara and grabbed her cold, pale face in his large palms.
Liam placed one hand on Gwynneth’s heart and another on the babe. “Her heart still beats,” he whispered frantically, trying to shake her awake.
Brocc shook his head as he held Una’s limp body in his arms. “They have nary a scratch on them…” he said with awe. Una was dirty, and her green dress was charred around the hem and torn from her fall, but nothing more.
“Una! Mo chroí! Mo leanbh!” He began to panic, praying to all the gods that his wife and child would survive both the strike of lightning and the impact of the fall. Just then, her eyelids fluttered open and her green eyes glowed brighter than he had ever noticed before. “Una?”
Holding her head, she shook it and looked herself over. “I…I am alright,” she whispered. She looked around and saw her sisters, both cradled by their distraught husbands, clutching their heads, yet stirring back to consciousness. She felt her babe kick her firmly and winced.
Brocc began to speak and she shook her head. “Tis alright, Brocc. The babe kicked me. All is well.” She began to stand up wearily, but she swerved and Brocc stood with her, helping her steady on her feet.
“Una…your eyes.”
She scrunched up her nose and looked at him as if he were mad. “My eyes are fine, Brocc.”
“Nay. They are not. They…” he scratched his head and swallowed hard. “They are glowing like the sun!” He looked over at the other sisters and their eyes were just as bright, burning green fire into the now darkened night.
“What are you—” Una looked at her sisters and gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. Was it the charge from the lightning that had caused such a reaction to their eyes? The sisters looked at one another with frowns of worry between them.
Ceara stepped out of Garreth’s hold and put her hands out, one to Una and one to Gwynneth. Her sisters came forward slowly, taking her hands with theirs. A shock ran through their clutched hands as they made contact and a powerful thrumming vibrated their bodies. The hairs of their nape stood on end and three pairs of glowing green eyes bore into one another. “This is it.” Ceara smiled.
Una twisted her face in confusion. “This is what? What has happened?”
Gwynneth cleared her throat and took a deep, steadying breath. “Aye. I did not even think of it until just now, but it must be. Today is…”
“The eve of Beltane,” Una finished for Gwynneth, suddenly understanding. Gwynneth nodded.
“The twenty-first anniversary of our birth,” Ceara added.
“Aye. And we have all come together, just as the legend said we would on this day.” Una whispered, clutching her sisters’ hands tighter in hers.
“Patrick said it would take a violent act of nature to trigger our powers,” Ceara whispered as she shook her head at the thought.
Silence overcame them as they felt a new sensation flowing through their blood. That lightning strike had been no coincidence. This was the fruition of their legend. The gods had sent this storm.
Suddenly, Una snapped out of her spell. “The storm!” She looked around at the fire blazing all around her village. It had already engulfed their dry fields and threatened to spread further into town. “We must do something!”
Ceara stepped out of their circle and walked with steady legs closer to the fire.
“Ceara! Nay!” She could hear Garreth protesting in the background, but she put a hand up to silence him as some strange force pulled her closer, guiding her body nearer to the raging fire, popping and hissing its warning at her. The time was now. She knew it. She could feel it in her blood. This fire was hers to command.
Putting out her palms to the fire, she squinted her blazing eyes and breathed deeply, willing the fire to cease its destruction. She could feel the heat of the fire burning her palms, even though she stood several feet away. The sensation was surprisingly painless. It was as if the fire was being absorbed by some unseen power radiating from her palms.
The flames visibly receded, and the men of the tuath continued to aid her with their small buckets of water, passing them up from the lake several yards in the distance, all the way to the fire. It wasn’t enough. The passing of buckets was a slow process and the water sloshed out too much, leaving the bucket half empty by the time it approached. The source of water was much too far away. The powerful wind of the night was blowing too fiercely and only aiding the spreading fire. Awareness slammed into Ceara. She could not do this alone. There were three Sisters of Danu, and all three must work together to tame the elements.
“Gwynn! Una! It must be all of us!” Her palms continued to burn as she controlled the fire as much as possible, but it would never be enough without her sisters. She could not take her focus from the blaze, but she didn’t need to, to sense her sisters’ approach. Their bodies were working as one in that moment. Una stood to her left with her palms stretched to the sky as Gwynneth came up to her right, palms facing down toward the lake in the distance.
All three felt the shared energy surging between them as they focused their eyes, cleared their minds, and commanded their elements. A stream began to form in the distance, beginning at the shore of the lake and trailing over the dry earth, flowing freely and quickly as it gained ground. Within moments, a fresh stream traveled lazily through the village and covered the burning fields. Between Gwynneth and Ceara, the fire was almost out, but the wind continued to howl and feed the flames that threatened to spread away from the stream and over toward the dry land.
Una mumbled something under her breath as her hands began to swirl over her head, as if speaking to the wind and commanding it to cease its destruction of her people. Within moments, the wind stopped. The leaves on the trees stilled and the eerie howl in the air went silent. The flames lowered as Ceara mimicked her sister and began to speak under her breath to the fire, as if it were a misbehaving child being reprimanded by his mother.
Gwynneth followed suit, communicating with her element, demanding the new stream of her creation to spread over the earth, snuffing out the low-lying flames. Within moments, a stifling smoke filled the still night air as the flames died out completely and the water spread further, calming the singed earth and putting out any remaining cinders.
As the silence stretched, the sisters looked awkwardly from one to the other, praying to the gods that they had succeeded in their first task and the flames would not ignite again once they slowly lowered their palms.
The lightning storm had ceased and the wind picked up again, but with much less force, moving the cloud of smoke surrounding the village further into the night sky. As the smoke cleared, Ceara blinked and stared at her sisters with awe on her face. Their eyes had gone back to their usual green, no longer glowing within their depths. Then she looked around at the people of Darini, shock clearly communicated across their gape-mouthed stares.
A hand reached out and touched her shoulder and she jumped out of the moment. “Are you alright, a chailín mo chroí?” Concern glazed Garreth’s hazel eyes and she immediately spun around, clutching him to her tightly as the impact of what had just happened finally hit her. She had controlled the fire. Her eyes had glowed! They had saved the tuath by using their combined abilities. The legend was true.
Her knees buckled at the sudden loss of all her strength. The same shared energy between her and her sisters that had fueled them with the power of the gods, suddenly released from them all at once as they collapsed against their husbands. Feeling herself being picked up by strong hands and carried back into the roundhouse, she closed her eyes and gladly relied upon Garreth’s strength.
Epilogue
Fall 58 AD
“Shhhh, tis alright, mo leanbh, mama is here,” Una whispered as she held her crying son with his head resting on her shoulder, stroking his back in soft circles to help release the pent-up gas in his protruding tummy. “There you go, Brennain,” she said with a smile as her son let out a
large belch and then a sweet sigh. Brocc came over and kissed Brennain on top of his soft fuzzy head. He had his father’s jet black hair and his mother’s beaming green eyes. Una lifted her dress back over her breasts now that she was done feeding her son and then cradled him in her lap so he could look around the room at his family.
“He is a perfect mix of you and Brocc!” Ceara said with a smile. “Greetings, Brennain! Say hello to your cousin, Eoin!” Eoin’s hazel eyes looked up at his mother’s voice, then across to his cousin as a bubble of saliva formed on his bottom lip. “Well,” Ceara shrugged, “Perhaps tis how a babe says hello?” She said with a giggle as she kissed her son’s cheek. Garreth grunted and stroked his son’s full head of blonde hair as he rested on Ceara’s lap.
“Eoin looks exactly like his papa,” Brocc said with a chuckle.
“Good thing his papa is a strapping man,” Garreth said with a mock wiggle of his brows. “Want to take bets on who Liam and Gwynn’s child will look like?”
“Well, from the sounds coming from that room, it will not be long until we find out. Once Liam calls us in, you papas will be in charge.” Una gave them both mock scowls, “Can you handle it?”
“Absolutely!” Brocc said defensively, “everything except feeding time. I am afraid we are ill-equipped for that task.” He laughed as Una smacked his arm playfully.
Una and Ceara traveled to Iverni as soon as word had arrived that Gwynneth was very near her time. Both parties had to take carts and travel with guards, in case they ran into trouble. With the Aithech-tuatha still wandering the woods, there was always a risk of danger.
Despite their temporary truce with Elim, he was as unpredictable as the wind and they would be prepared for any future trouble he may cause. But for now, they all felt relatively safe, hoping that their help in safely delivering Elim’s son into the world would remain fresh in his mind if he should encounter any of them on their travels.
