by Diane Zahler
At dawn on the third day there came a change. As we watched anxiously, the flush left Liam’s face, and he stopped tossing and turning. A sweat broke out on his brow, and when I felt his forehead, he seemed almost cold to my touch. I stepped back. No. Oh no, I thought, a terrible fear rising in me. Seeing my expression, Brigh bent over her son and touched his face.
“Oh, children,” she said softly. “His fever has broken. He will heal!”
I sagged with relief. Even if I could have spoken, there were no words for what I felt.
“He is sleeping now,” Brigh whispered. “And we should as well. I will stay here. You two should rest downstairs.”
As we made our way down the stairs in the pale light of dawn, Riona would not meet my eyes. She turned away from me as we tried to make ourselves comfortable on our pallets. I did not know what to do to make her less angry with me, and I was fearful of what she might say, and how much I might deserve her wrath.
The sun was high in the sky and the snow half melted when I woke. Liam was awake upstairs, sipping broth, much improved though still coughing occasionally. But when he saw me, he grinned and said hoarsely, “Why Princess, I’m beginning to think that it is dangerous to spend time with you!”
I was so glad to see him better that I teased him back, silently retorting, Well, sir, if a little dunking is too much for you, perhaps a tamer companion would suit you better.
He laughed, and I was pleased to see color come to his cheeks. “No,” he told me, “you are a fine companion for me. I just need a rest from the excitement every now and then.”
We spent the day like that, joking back and forth as I stitched away. Davina played at the foot of the bed with Coinin and the stoat, and Brigh bustled in and out of the room, bringing herbal infusions and teas and broth. Riona came as well, but she would not look at me. Finally I could bear the strain between us no longer. I folded my work and said to Liam, I must stretch my legs for a moment.
“Bring me a honey cake!” he begged.
You are a very demanding patient, I said, smiling, but I will do my best.
I found Riona in the main room, looking out the window at the street life below. I touched her on the shoulder.
“What is it, Meriel?” she asked without turning.
Please talk to me, I began. I know you blame me for your brother’s illness, and I hope you know I did not mean to—
“Of course you did not mean to!” Riona cried, spinning around. “You never mean to! You just go along doing what you please, not caring who is hurt by it!”
No, that’s not true, I protested weakly. I care—I care terribly. I would give anything to change things, to have kept Liam well. I only thought—
“But you don’t think,” Riona interrupted. “You ran off to the lake without a thought for anyone else. What if Liam had drowned? And what of Master Declan and his family, who risk their own lives to help you? You have brought the guards here, and now the whole town is endangered.”
A part of me wanted to object, to say That is not fair! I didn’t cause the lake to freeze or your house to burn! I was only trying to help my brothers! But a small, wiser part knew that there was truth in what Riona said.
You are right, I said at last, miserably. I never should have gone. I was thoughtless, and I was wrong.
Riona’s expression softened, and she took my hands. “I know you didn’t mean to harm Liam,” she said gently. “And I’m sorry I was so angry. I should have thought more too—thought of you.” I looked at her questioningly. “Now, you see,” she explained, “I know better how you feel, for I too have almost lost a brother.” I squeezed her hands, my eyes bright with tears, and we smiled at each other.
“You should go back to your sewing,” she advised, giving me a brief, awkward hug.
And I won’t go out again until it is done! I vowed. Back I went into Ennis’s room, now Liam’s, only to be met by an expression on Liam’s face as cross and disappointed as Riona’s had been. He too, it seemed, was harboring anger against me. I squared my shoulders, ready for another accusation, another abject apology.
“Well, where is my honey cake?” he demanded, and I covered my mouth to keep the relieved laughter in as I hurried out to get the cake.
Four shirts were finished by sundown. Shirt four was admirably well sewn—its seams straight, its stitches small and even, its fabric free of blood from my poor pierced fingertips. I walked about the rooms for a few minutes and drank some of Madame Eveleen’s good leek soup before starting on the fifth and last.
As I passed the stairway, I heard the shop door open. It was late for a customer, so I glanced down to see who had entered. An old woman, wizened and bent, stood at the long wooden counter, and I saw Master Declan turn to serve her. She had a gray braid that peeped out from beneath the hood of her cloak, and as she placed a wrinkled, ropy hand on the wooden counter, I drew in a startled breath. On that ancient hand was a ruby ring—Lady Orianna’s ring. Some might have thought the stone colored glass, but I knew that blood-red jewel. My stepmother the queen was inside the apothecary’s shop.
I turned from the stairs in a panic and ran to where Madame Eveleen and Brigh sat before the fire, talking and knitting.
Brigh! I cried silently. The queen is here! Catkin, who lay curled beside her owner, rose and hissed. The hair on her back stood straight up.
Immediately Brigh was on her feet. “What is it?” Madame Eveleen asked, frightened at the dismay on our faces.
“The queen is in the shop,” Brigh replied, low. “Where are the children?”
“Davina and Ennis have gone out to buy bread before the bakeshop closes,” Madame Eveleen said. “And Riona—”
“I am here,” Riona whispered, coming in from the kitchen. “What shall we do? Liam cannot be moved!”
“I’ll go down,” Madame Eveleen told us, heaving her bulk from the rocking chair. “Stay here—and stay quiet!”
“Beware,” Brigh said to the apothecary’s wife, relaying what I told her, “for the queen does not look like herself, but like an old woman.” Madame Eveleen nodded and descended to the shop.
We positioned ourselves at the top of the stairs, where we could not be seen from below, and listened. “Good evening, Mistress,” we heard Madame Eveleen say as she reached the foot of the stairs. “What can we do for you?”
“Good evening, Madame Apothecary,” the queen said in a voice that both was and was not her own. Anyone who did not know better would think an old woman was speaking, but I could make out Lady Orianna’s silky tone beneath the quavering words. “The snow has ended and the sun has melted it away. Still, the cold has left me with a terrible ache in my shoulder. Have you a poultice or an ointment that will soothe the pain?”
“Indeed we do!” said Madame Eveleen cheerily. “My husband will mix monkshood and juniper with boiled white willow skin to make a poultice. You must apply it every evening and morning. In a week or less the pain will disappear.”
“Like magic!” the queen marveled. “Are you sure there is no witchcraft in your preparations?” I exchanged a look with Riona. Was the queen trying to learn if she or Brigh was working with the apothecary?
“Oh no,” Master Declan said, confused. It was clear he had no idea who she was. “We use no witchcraft at all, just simple herbology.”
Lady Orianna tried a different approach then. “While I wait, perhaps you can tell me about a very strange tale I have heard. A girl and boy were seen as wet as water rats—fallen through the ice while skating, I believe?”
Madame Eveleen laughed, though it sounded strained to me. “Yes, we saw them as they came past the shop, poor things! Did we not hear that they were strangers, Husband, visiting a relative?”
“Ah,” said the queen. “And who might that be? There cannot be many strangers here in Tiramore.”
Master Declan took his time answering, and I pictured him grinding herbs with his mortar and pestle as he thought. “We did not hear more of the story,” he said at last.
“Foolish children, not to realize that new ice will not hold!” His careful response made me think that he had become suspicious of the identity of his customer. Perhaps his wife had given him a look or a sign to beware.
“You do not know them, then?” asked the queen, her tone sharper now and more cunning.
“I don’t believe so,” Master Declan replied. “They were so bedraggled when they passed, though, that I could not have known if they were our next-door neighbors!”
“Though our next-door neighbors’ children are but infants,” Mistress Eveleen added quickly, not wanting to turn the queen’s attention to her neighbors.
“I see,” the queen said smoothly, and I suddenly feared that she did see. I had the strange, uneasy feeling that her thoughts were spiraling their way up the stairs, searching for me. I backed slowly away, trying to keep my footsteps silent.
“Finished!” I heard Master Declan say in a tone of great relief. “Your poultice is ready, Mistress. Rub it in well, and cover the shoulder with a wool cloth to keep in the healing warmth.”
“I thank you, Master Apothecary,” said the queen, her voice deceptively humble. “I am greatly impressed with your skill and knowledge. I am sure I will be back soon—very soon! This old body has aches and pains almost daily.”
“We should be very glad of your patronage, Mistress,” Master Declan said graciously.
We heard the sound of coppers being exchanged, and then the jingle of the bell as the door opened and closed behind Lady Orianna. I sped to the window and watched the queen hobble down the high street in the dusk, her stooped form convincingly old and frail. As she reached the town gate, she turned suddenly, standing straight and tall and looking back at the shop. I ducked quickly, hoping that she had not seen me. I could almost feel the terrible heat of her gaze burn through the windowpane as I dropped to my knees, trembling with fear.
12
The Witch:
And What She Wanted
The sound of the shop door opening below, and Davina’s chirpy voice as she came in with her brother, brought me to my feet. I ran into Liam’s room. Riona was already perched on the bed, describing to him what had happened.
The queen knows we are here, doesn’t she? I asked, but Riona did not have to answer. I must finish the last shirt! I said in silent panic. We haven’t much time!
I picked up my sewing and began to work furiously, my hasty stitches once again long and uneven. There was still so much to do: the shirt front had to be sewn to the back, the sleeves stitched together, and then the finished sleeves attached to the body. Each one of the four shirts I’d completed had taken a full day or more. Who knew how long I had before the queen returned? My desperation unnerved me so much that I sewed the body of the shirt closed, leaving no way to put one’s head through. I had to rip the stitches out, my hands trembling.
Liam tried to rise from his bed, but Riona and Brigh urged him to rest.
“You may need your strength before long, lad,” Brigh told him somberly, and he lay back, frustrated with his weakness.
“I am so useless!” he fumed. “Meriel, how can I help you?”
Tell me a story to distract me, I suggested, and willingly he complied, as Riona and Ennis stood at the window, watching for the queen or her guards. He told me the tale of Sadhbh, a girl who, because of an enchantment, had to take the form of a deer.
“When the great warrior Finn was out hunting, his dogs ran a deer to ground, and when he came up to them, he found the hounds lying with their heads on the flank of the deer,” Liam told us. “Amazed, Finn took the deer home, and in the night it turned into a woman—the beautiful, pearl-pale Sadhbh.”
“Oh,” breathed Riona, turning momentarily from the window, “did they fall in love?” I looked up briefly, and saw Ennis turn sorrowful eyes on her.
“They did,” Liam said, “and they were married. But Finn had to go away to war, and when he came back, Sadhbh had disappeared. Finn searched for her for seven years. He walked the entire land, singing:
“‘I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.’”
We were silent for a moment at the beauty and sadness of Finn’s song. Then I asked, Did he find her?
“Never,” said Liam sorrowfully.
So his quest was all in vain?
“No, not entirely. He did not find what he was looking for, but he found a boy seven years old—Ossian, his son by Sadhbh. So it was not a failed quest, but a changed one.”
I sewed and sewed as he spoke. Night came and went; the sun passed overhead; shadows grew short across the room and then lengthened again. The front and back of the shirt were attached at last by late afternoon, and I started on the sleeves. I did not stop to eat or stretch my tired limbs. Every now and then Riona would rub my back, or Liam would massage my aching fingers.
Below us the business of the shop went on. Ennis reported to us each time the door opened and the bell jangled, for he could see that we were tense with worry. But the customers were the blacksmith with a burned finger, and the fishmonger’s wife with a headache, and a trader passing through with blisters on his feet. None was the queen.
As evening drew nigh, the door sounded one last time, and then we heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Ennis came into the room, pushing his blond hair back from his eyes.
“Your Highness,” he said to me, “a woman is below, asking to see you.”
“An old woman?” Liam said, sitting up. “Is it the queen, disguised?”
“If it is, she is in a different disguise. This lady is not at all old, and she is tall and straight. Her forehead is very high.”
Mistress Tuileach! I cried, jumping up. My cloth and needle fell to the floor. I ran from the room, but at the top of the stairs I suddenly remembered Riona’s words, harsh but true: You do not think! I stopped in my tracks and thought hard. What if it was not my governess? What better way for Lady Orianna to trap me than by pretending to be Mistress Tuileach?
I turned to Riona, who had come up behind me, and said to her, Have Ennis ask the lady this: What was the last thing she told me before we parted?
Riona conveyed my request, and Ennis hurried down the stairs. A moment later he was back. “The lady told you, your love for your brothers is your greatest power,” he said. I closed my eyes, picturing Mistress Tuileach saying those words, and I clapped my hands with joy.
It is she! It must be—the queen could not have known that! But I was still uncertain, and I looked at Riona and said. Do you think that it is safe?
“I believe that it is,” Riona replied. “Go and greet her, Meriel!”
I clattered down the stairs, and there, by the great wooden counter, was my beloved governess. She held out her arms, and I flew into them.
Oh Mistress Tuileach, I have missed you so! I exclaimed.
“Now, Princess, it has not been so very long,” she said calmly, but her arms were tight around me. “Though I understand that much has happened since we parted.”
So much! I cried. Riona and Liam’s house burned—and Liam fell through the ice and was terribly ill—but before that, we saw my brothers in human form! And then—
“Oh, child, wait, wait,” Mistress Tuileach said, smiling at my wild recital. “Let me at least put down my valise and warm my hands.”
“Please, Mistress,” inserted Madame Eveleen, coming out from behind the counter. “Do come upstairs. We have a fine fire and tea and cakes with which to break your journey. And we would be honored if you would bide with us tonight.”
I could not imagine where we would put Mistress Tuileach, for the little rooms were already bursting with guests, but she accepted with gracious relief and mounted the stairs with me. Below, Master Declan closed up the shop, and then he and his wife joined us. Even Li
am got out of bed, his color much better and his strength returning. We sat before the crackling fire, and I sewed as Mistress Tuileach revived herself with ginger tea and scones and listened to our tale.
When all had been told, and Mistress Tuileach’s hunger and thirst slaked, I asked her, How did you find us here?
“When I met Madame Brigh on the road—before the cottage was burned—she and I spoke of her work and how she often consulted with the apothecary. It was all I had to go on, so I thought I would ask here first. A lucky meeting indeed!”
I am so very glad you have come, Mistress Tuileach, I said gratefully.
“I had heard about the fire, even as far away as Corbrack, and I came right away,” she said, patting my hand. “I thought you would need all the help you can get. I cannot do much, but I can add my strength to yours, Madame Brigh.”
Brigh nodded and said, “The queen is very powerful. And she is a shape-shifter as well. She came into the shop yesterday as an old woman, and only her words—and her ring—gave her away.”
Mistress Tuileach put a comforting hand on my shoulder. “Poor child, to have such wickedness set against you!”
I can do the task, I said stubbornly, not looking up as I stitched away.
“I’ve no doubt that you can. And see how nicely you sew now!” There was great amusement in her voice. “It took only a witch and a terrible enchantment to teach you.” I made a sour face at her, but she knew I didn’t mean it, and she gave me her rare, transforming smile.
Worn out from her long journey, Mistress Tuileach slept in Davina’s bed that night. Riona and Brigh stayed up to keep me company as I worked, and Davina dozed at my feet until her mother carried her off to sleep in her parents’ room. I was determined to finish, but the long hours at Liam’s bedside had taken their toll. Riona and Brigh fell dead asleep as they sat, and when all but the last sleeve was sewn, I drifted off despite my best intentions.
The shop-door bell woke me with a start as the first customer of the day entered below. I cursed myself for falling asleep. I stretched my stiff neck and turned back to my endless sewing. Riona and Brigh still slumbered in their chairs, and I let them sleep. Mistress Tuileach brought me tea and bread and butter, and I began to stitch on.
