by Cathi Shaw
Mina lifted her cup and took a sip of the warm tea. Then she purposely changed the topic and began to discuss the challenges of working with Sukey. Soon the angst left Thia's face and for once Mina was thankful for her mother's poor choice in employees.
****
Mina had said that there would be music in the Great Room that night. So after Thia had finished the dinner and Sukey was in the kitchen cleaning up, she made her way out to the bar to take over Mina's duties and listen to the music. She never missed a chance to hear her sister's beautiful voice.
Despite her anticipation for Mina's performance, Thia couldn't stop thinking about Teague. In her mind's eye, she saw the strange silver eyes that belonged to him. She had decided that she was not yet ready to deal with whatever his sudden appearance might mean. Now that she was faced with the reality of him, she sensed he would be important in her life but she didn't know exactly what role he would play. Tonight she was hoping Mina's music would weave its usual magic and take her thoughts away from the sudden appearance of Teague.
But no sooner had Thia moved behind the bar than she noticed Teague standing beside the harp, his mandolin in his hands. Her heart dropped as she realized that he would be performing with her sister. Clearly there would be no escaping her troubled thoughts tonight.
"Looks like our guests brought the entertainment with them."
Thia turned to see Kiara leaning against the bar, her pretty mouth turned down in disapproval.
"Is that why it's been so busy this evening?" Thia asked. She had sold out of the last of the dinner pies an hour earlier. Typically they would have leftovers at this time of year but the Great Room was teeming with Villagers. Somehow the news of evening entertainment at the Inn must have spread through the town.
Kiara nodded and grimaced as Sukey flounced up to the bar and ordered a round of ale for her table
"What do you think of the strangers, Thia?" Sukey asked, her voice rising in excitement. "That Caedmon is a handsome lad, isn't he? And the other one can play and sing. Oh! We hardly ever get this kind of excitement in the Village during the winter months!"
Kiara made a face behind Sukey's back. Thia hid her smile as she turned to fill the glasses. Kiara had always been vocal about her disapproval of Sukey but Thia was happy for her empty prattle tonight. It kept her mind off darker thoughts.
"Don't you think that Caedmon fellow is handsome, Kiara?" Sukey asked, oblivious to Kiara's black mood.
"Not in the least," Kiara responded coldly.
Sukey's mouth fell open. "Well, I'm going to bed him before he leaves, mark my words! A big lad like that!" She giggled and put the frothing mugs on her tray before sashaying across the room.
"I swear, if that girl doesn't stop throwing herself at the customers…" Kiara trailed off angrily. "Why did Brijit ever offer such a girl a job?"
Thia reached out and put her hand over Kiara's, which was gripping the bar so hard her knuckles were turning white as she watched Sukey flirt with Caedmon across the Great Room.
"Hush. You know why Brijit hired her," Thia said softly. "Her mother needs the money."
Kiara loosened her grip slightly. "But I don't need the aggravation," she said.
Before Kiara could say any more, music filled the room and all talk ceased.
Mina's voice and talent on the harp always drew a crowd but tonight with Teague harmonizing and playing his mandolin the atmosphere in the bar became almost magical.
They sang some lively songs together and Sukey was able to get Jake, the blacksmith, to dance a jig with her. Thia noticed that the girl first tried to get Caedmon to join her on the dance floor but he flatly refused her. She saw Kiara closely watching the exchange from the other end of the room. She didn't miss the satisfied smile on her sister's pretty face when it became clear that the big stranger would not consent to dance with Sukey. Perhaps Mina was right about Caedmon's effect on Kiara.
As the night wore on, Thia was kept busy filling mugs of ale. She found to her surprise that even with Teague singing and playing with her sister, the music was soothing to her nerves. She was actually starting to relax a bit when Teague began to pluck a sad melody on the mandolin. His voice lifted in song and he seemed to be looking directly at Thia.
On a deserted river bank
In the sad summer sun
A wee lass sat and wept
As though her life were undone
I came across her accidentally
And asked her why she cried
In her loneliness and grief
She said her parents had died
Sadness and sorrow
Wash, wash away
Leave and don't follow
To the end of days
Thia froze as the bewitching notes wove the story he was singing through the Great Room. The entire room seemed to have paused, lost in haunting melody that Teague was playing.
As the last notes faded away, Thia looked down and wiped her eyes. The feelings swirling within her were conflicting. The song he sang told the story of how they had met. Her weak hope that Teague was merely a boy who just happened to look like someone in a dream was shattered. It was clear from his song that Teague was the boy who dreamwalked with her. The only question left was why was he here?
CHAPTER FIVE
Thia turned the dead bird in her hands and began to quickly remove its feathers. She absolutely despised cleaning and plucking the chickens but had decided the nasty task might take her mind off the haunting song that had been running through her head since the previous evening.
It hadn't helped that everyone seemed to be talking of Teague's musical talents today. Mina couldn't contain her joy at having a musician of her own caliber staying at the Inn indefinitely. Sukey had dreamily recounted the events of the night as she helped prepare lunch. Apparently after Caedmon had rejected her advances Jake, the blacksmith, had been more than happy to walk her home at the end of the evening. Sukey was certain it was the magical quality of the music that had turned Jake's eyes her way since he hadn't noticed her before. Thia thought it probably had more to do with the fact that Jake had finally accepted that Kiara was never going to be romantically interested in him. Jake was a practical man. He had moved on to a woman who would have him.
Kiara seemed to be in a blacker mood than normal and was only too happy to help when Thia asked her to do the dirty job of slaughtering the six birds.
Thia's fingers worked rapidly pulling the tough feathers from the bird's skin. Her mind was racing, she needed time to dissect was going on and she needed to do so away from Teague! She was still dwelling on the words from his song.
The dreamwalks were something she never spoke of. She knew the dreams she shared with Teague were different than her other dreams but she never considered that they might be real or that Teague might be anything more than a figment of her imagination. Thia turned the bird over and continued to viciously remove feathers, trying to push the disturbing thoughts aside. She'd lain awake most of the previous night trying to come up with an explanation for what was happening and the only reward she'd gained was a sleepless night.
This was no use. She would just have to find Teague and talk to him, whether she liked it or not. No sooner had the thought formed than a familiar voice suddenly filled her head.
It's time we talked, Thia. Teague's voice was so real that she stopped what she was doing and looked around the small yard behind her only confirming what she already knew. She was alone.
What was going on? Teague was not present and yet she could have sworn she heard him clear as a bell. Thia shook her head and wondered if she really was going crazy. She recognized Teague's voice perfectly. It was the voice she'd been hearing since she was six years old. A voice she thought only existed in her dreams.
Putting the bird aside, Thia moved towards the kitchen door. She was just reaching for it when it opened, and she found herself face to face with Teague.
For a moment they just stood and stared at each other. Thia t
ook in his familiar features: the unruly brown curls on top of his head and the high cheekbones that seemed to be at odds with his boyish face. The faint beginnings of laugh lines that were forming at the corners of his eyes. And those eyes. She felt a shiver run down her spine as she held his gaze with her own. His eyes were closer to silver in color than grey and they currently had so many emotions shifting through them that she couldn't identify any of them, despite the fact that they clearly reflected what she was feeling inside.
"I thought it was probably best we talk in private, don't you agree?" he said aloud.
Thia nodded. He was right. Sukey would be arriving to start helping with dinner preparation soon and there was no telling whether Kiara might come to see if she needed more birds. Her sister had been in a killing mood earlier. It was probably best that she talk to Teague away from curious eyes until she figured out what was going on. She moved out of his path and Teague stepped out into the small, enclosed yard shutting the kitchen door firmly behind him.
"What are you doing?" Thia asked, trying to ignore the veiled panic in her voice as she watched him move to the table where the dead birds lay. Grimacing slightly he removed his gloves and reached for one of the birds.
"It's more probable that I saw you doing work and offered to help than that I sought out a supposed stranger for a private talk, don't you think?" he asked reasonably.
Thia nodded and moved wordlessly behind the opposite end of the table to resume work on her abandoned bird. She watched Teague's hands as he skillfully removed feathers from the bird he was holding. Clearly he'd plucked chickens before despite the look of distaste on his face.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "And how do you do that?"
Do what? he asked without speaking aloud, the boyish grin on his face.
Thia felt a pang in her gut. That grin was so familiar. She'd seen it so many times in her dreams. Even as his features had shifted, the round youthful face lengthening into that of a young man, two things had stayed the same in her dreams: Teague's eyes and his smile.
She swallowed, sudden fear curling in the pit of her stomach. Teague paused in his work and looked across at her.
"Please stop doing that!" Thia said, flinching when she heard the desperation in own voice. "It's bad enough that you’re here, in person. I don't need to be hearing you in my head, too!"
"Okay," he said guiltily. Thia fought to suppress dream memories. His eyes, an even more amazing silver grey in person, glimmered in the late afternoon light.
She looked down, taking solace in the sudden silence between them.
"It's not a dream this time, Thia."
"I know," she admitted in a whisper. "But how is this happening?"
Teague shook his head at her, his hair falling forward over his forehead. "I know you're shocked. I was, too, when I first saw you. Then I realized that what we thought were only dreams, were just forays into a different reality." Excitement lit up his features. "A reality that, at times, feels more real than this one, don't you agree?"
Thia opened her mouth to deny what he was saying, even as a dozen memories burst to life in her head. Her mind focused on her first dream memory of him.
Teague had been a boy, only a few years her senior. He’d found her scared and alone along a small river, just as his song had depicted. It must have been some time after Brijit had told her the truth about her birth parents - that they had both been killed in a horrible accident. In the dream, she'd been looking for her parents and found herself suddenly alone.
She remembered the feeling of utter loneliness and despair that had flooded her. She’d wandered lost and afraid, sobbing her heart out. And then suddenly the boy – Teague - had been there. He had led her along a path and back to where Brijit and her sisters had been waiting for her. When she woke she'd felt safe and overwhelmed by the sense that everything was going to be all right.
Thia stared at the boy in front of her, studying his face for any sign that he was joking. But Teague was serious, his eyes willing her to understand but Thia refused to admit that what he was saying could be true.
"It’s not possible, is it? After all, there are no such things as different realities," she insisted vehemently. "There has to be some other explanation. If I dreamwalk, why don't I do it with my sisters? My mother? My friends?" She gestured helplessly. "The only person I've ever shared a dreamwalk with is you. Why is that?"
Teague was silent.
The silence seemed to stretch between them, heavy with shared knowledge. Thia blinked. She finished her last bird and saw that he had also finished and put his gloves back on. The early winter afternoon sun was low on the horizon.
She reached for the tray of birds to carry them into the kitchen. Teague hurried around the table and took the heavy tray from her before she could protest. For the first time Thia noticed he was taller than in her dreams. Not as tall as her sisters but certainly taller than she.
He looked down at her, his eyes unreadable in the fading afternoon light.
And yet the essence of him was so familiar. Before she could stop herself Thia instinctively reached out to touch his forearm, wanted to feel the warm muscles above his gloves, to reassure herself that he was real.
Teague jerked away before she could reach him and Thia felt an inexplicable sense of hurt flood through her.
"I'm real, Thia," he whispered aloud, his breath stirring the hair on her forehead. "But you can't touch me. I can't explain right now but please don't try."
Suddenly needing to put some space between them, Thia whirled and opened the kitchen door. The room beyond was empty.
As they entered the warmth of the kitchen, the inner door opened and Sukey came rushing in, babbling an apology and instantly breaking the tension. "I'm so sorry I'm late, Miss Elethia. Miss Minathrial asked me to help Miss Kiara clear the dining tables." She stopped short when she saw Teague standing in the kitchen, his arms full of the plucked chickens. She smiled winningly. "Oh, sir, I hope you don't mind me saying but your music last night was amazing." She fluttered her eyelashes in a flirtatious manner.
Irritation filled Thia and she found her voice. "That's fine, Sukey. Why don't you get started on dressing the birds?" The sharpness in her tone making Sukey flinch in surprise.
Teague put the tray on the large wooden counter. Thia smiled politely at him, very aware that Sukey's curious eyes were on them both. "Thank you for your assistance with birds. It was very kind of you."
Teague's mouth twitched as he suppressed a grin. "My pleasure," he answered politely as he backed out of the kitchen but his eyes glinted in a way that suggested their conversation was far from over.
CHAPTER SIX
Moments after Teague departed, Kiara ran into the kitchen.
"Brijit is back," she announced breathlessly.
Leaving Sukey to follow her instructions for dinner, Thia went with Kiara in search of her mother. They found Brijit with Mina in her small private sitting room.
Brijit had removed her travelling cloak but her face was creased with exhaustion, her grey curls starting to slip from the braid at her neck and her shoulders drooping in fatigue. Nevertheless, she smiled when she saw the girls arrive.
"We didn't expect you to be gone so long," Mina told her.
Brijit nodded. "Neither did I. It was a long, hard delivery for the mother. Sadly the child was stillborn." She paused for a moment, blinking back tears. "There was nothing I could do except save the life of the mother."
Thia felt her mother's grief. Brijit rarely lost a patient. Her healing ability was almost legendary in the Village. But when she did lose someone, regardless of age, she felt it keenly.
Brijit shuddered once and then looked up, tears in her pale blue eyes. "But tell me what has been happening around here since I left?" she asked, sniffling and changing the subject. "Nothing too exciting, I trust?"
It was Kiara who spoke up. "A group of strangers arrived the day you left."
Brijit and Kiara exchanged a dark look th
at Thia couldn't decipher. Then Brijit smiled so quickly Thia wondered if she'd imagined it.
"Strangers? Well, Kiara don't look so glum. Business at this time of year must be seen as a blessing," she said then gave a knowing laugh. "Tell me, my dear, is one of them handsome and paying you an inordinate amount of attention?"
Mina piped up. "Well, there is a handsome young man in the party but Kiara insists that he's rejected her rather than giving her attention!"
Kiara glared at her sister. "I did not say he rejected me. I said he insulted me."
Brijit raised her eyebrows as laughter filled the room. "Well, how long are these strangers staying?" she asked after the laughter died down.
Mina wrinkled her brow. "There was something strange in that. They weren't sure how long they would stay." She paused and seemed to be thinking over her words. "They are an interesting group. At first we were quite nervous about their rough appearance but it turns out that they are a very nice family."
“You weren’t nervous at all,” Kiara corrected her sister. “All you could think of was how exciting it was to have a group of Outlanders staying at the Inn.”
"Outlander?" Brijit asked, faintly.
"Yes. A father and his two sons."
Brijit looked up, suddenly sober. "What are their names?" she asked sharply.
Thia looked at her mother in surprise. Brijit rarely spoke in that shrill tone of voice.
Kiara answered her question. "The father's name is Weylon and the sons are Caedmon and Teague."
