Keeper Of The Light (4 page)

Then Donaill threw back his head and laughed so loudly that his horse jumped a little and her two dogs looked up in concern. He went on laughing as his stallion stepped up into a trot, even as Rioghan felt the warmth of embarrassment creep over her face. She kept her silence, though, and as much of her dignity as she could.

Let him laugh.
He was doing no more than proving her right.

The horse moved more quickly now, and Donaill’s laughter finally subsided. It was not long before Rioghan realized they were getting close to Sion. “Stop here, please,” she said.

Instantly Donaill reined the stallion to a halt. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

Before the horse could move again, Rioghan quickly slid to the ground. “Not at all,” she said. “I thank you for allowing me to ride with you this far. But…I would prefer to have no visitors at Sion, unless they have come to ask for my help.”

He cocked his head and grinned down at her. “I may well come again to ask you for your help, Lady Rioghan. Perhaps you will look forward to it.”

Rioghan stared up at him. “I thank you for bringing me this far. But I assure you, king’s champion Donaill, I will not so much as glance back over my shoulder when you ride away.”

He laughed again and backed the stallion away from her. “Go in safety, my lady. I can see you are well guarded. I may be back for you sooner than you think.”

She raised her chin and then turned to continue on her way, signaling her dogs to come to her side. With a deep breath she walked on down the road, hanging her black leather bag from her shoulder and telling herself that this was no different from any other time when she might have walked home from Cahir Cullen—though she knew he was sitting on his horse and watching as she walked away.

Rioghan smoothed her black cloak, arranged her fall of dark hair by running her fingers through it, and raised her hot face to the cool winter air so that the breeze might take away the heat that coursed through her. In a moment she would be around the next curve and out of his sight. Breathing slowly and deeply, she closed her eyes for a few steps and tried to think of nothing but the feel of the road under her feet and the sound of Scath and Cogar trotting alongside.

Opening her eyes, she felt that her mind was clear once again. There were no more thoughts of Donaill intruding upon her peace of mind, no more images of broad shoulders and blue eyes and laughing smiles, no lingering memories of a hard, smooth waist beneath her arms as she pressed herself close behind a tall, strong man on a galloping stallion…

Horse’s hooves sounded on the road once more, though this time they were moving away from her. Then, suddenly, they halted.

Before she could think, Rioghan turned back to look. She had thought to see only the back of Donaill’s head and his strong, wide shoulders. But her face grew hot again as she saw, instead, his gleaming blue eyes and wide grin as he caught her gaze.

“Farewell again, Lady Rioghan! Soon you will not need to look back to see me, for I will be standing at your side!”

With that the stallion galloped away, leaving only the sound of Donaill’s laughter floating in the cold winter forest.

Chapter Three

Sabha sat straight and tall on the very edge of her bare sleeping ledge, her hands folded and unmoving in her lap. She remained very still and looked neither right nor left as the door of the house swung slowly open and her husband walked inside.

The afternoon sky was a featureless gray behind him. “Hello, my wife.” Airt closed the door and took a step toward her, then another. She continued to gaze straight ahead.

Airt paused, then walked all the way to the ledge and sat down beside her. “I am glad to see you well. I have missed you. I—”

“What do you wish to do?” she asked.

Again Airt paused. He tried to look closely at his wife’s face, but she continued to stare at nothing. “I wish to be with you,” he whispered, and he reached out to place his hand over one of hers. But she did not respond to his touch; her arm grew rigid the moment he took hold of her, and after a moment he withdrew his hand.

“What do you wish to do?” she asked again.

“Sabha, please do not be angry with me.”

“I am not angry with you.” Her voice remained as cool and still as the frost that limned the grasses in winter. “I simply need to know what you intend, so that the proper decisions can be made.”

He shrugged. “Nothing at all has changed. I intend to be a husband to you, a husband who loves you, as I have always been.”

“Yet clearly there is another who also has your love.”

Airt sighed, and shifted on the ledge. “It is not like the love I have for you. It is different. It is—”

“Then you do love her.”

“Not…not the way—” He held up his hand before she could interrupt him again. “Coiteann is not like you. You are a lady who could only be a
cetmuinter
,
holding the honored position of a first wife. She is—”

“I know what she is.” Sabha breathed deep and refolded her hands. “You intend to bring her into the house. Into
our
house. You intend to take her as a
dormuine.
A second wife. A concubine.”

Airt moved a little closer. She held herself very still. “Sabha…I am now one of the king’s warriors. I may well be chosen as one of his personal retinue, and they are second only to the king’s champion himself! Men of such rank often have a chief wife, and then a second or third wife as well. The law has always allowed it. King Bran has three such wives, and Cronan and Fergus, both part of his personal retinue, each have two. You know that it is quite usual for a man of rank to have secondary wives, and now that I am rising into such a level—”

“You wish to have all the symbols of your success for all to see.” Sabha turned to look at him. She noted, as though from a great distance, that his face was pale and he seemed to be sweating. His eyes flicked left and right, and he would not meet her gaze.

“We spoke of this very thing before our marriage,” she said. “I thought I had made it clear to you that I wished to have no other wife in this house. You said nothing about wanting to do such a thing. Why did you lie to me, Airt?”

“I did not lie to you!” He looked up at her at last. “I simply…I just never spoke of it. I did not want to upset you. I do not ever want to argue with you, Sabha.”

“And letting me believe the sky is blue, when it is actually red as blood, is not a lie?” Slowly Sabha shook her head, then looked down at the straw. “I see,” she whispered. “I see now.”

She raised her head, staring across the room, and went on speaking. “You want a second wife. Some women can learn to be content with such an arrangement, but most cannot—no matter what the law allows. I know well that I cannot, and I made certain you understood this before we made the contract for our marriage. Do you not remember?”

He looked down. “I remember. But…I feel certain, now, that once you understand that you will always be my beloved first wife…that no one will displace you from this honored position…that you and no other will be the chief wife…you will come to accept this, as the wives of such men always do.”

“Airt, you are rising through the ranks of the king’s warriors, and you wish all to know of your status. What greater symbol of your status than another wife on your arm—and in your house, and in your bed?”

He tried to look into her eyes, but his gaze wavered and at last he looked toward the fire. “You, too, will benefit from my bettered status. There are advantages for you as well. You could…” He turned to look at her again, but the hard mask of her features put a stop to his words.

She said, “You are doing this for yourself alone. Do not insult me by trying to say that it is somehow being done for me. You have found a way to have extra women for yourself while still remaining married. That is for you and you alone.”

But Airt held his ground. “Think how nice it would be for you, Sabha,” he pressed. “You would have a companion around for the times I am gone in service to the king, which can sometimes stretch into days or fortnights. She would always be here with you, a sister, if you like, to help you with the work.”

“Then tell me this, please. If the custom of taking a second or even a third or fourth wife is such a fine thing, why is it only the men who want to continue it? Why does no woman ever ask that another wife be brought into the house alongside her?”

He smiled down at her, and briefly patted her hand. “Sabha, Sabha…I know that this is often difficult for the chief wife at first. The other men spoke to me about it. But I want to reassure you that I will be as understanding as any husband could be. And I promise to bring you whatever you like as a special gift, something for you alone.”

Sabha felt her face growing hot, even as a cold hand clutched her heart. “A special gift,” she murmured, and shifted slightly on their ledge. “I do not know how I can properly thank you.”

He grinned. “Just allow me to continue to love you as I always have, and allow Coiteann to join our family.”

“Are you so certain she is the right one to be a second wife to you and a sister to me?” she asked, watching his face.

His eyes brightened. “Oh, she will fit in with our family better than any other could. She knows well that she will never displace you as a chief wife, and has agreed to serve us both.”

“She is willing to take a place second to me? She would share you with me, freely and without rancor or jealousy?”

“She would, she would! I have spoken to her about it. She—”

“She was here in our home. She was here in our bed. She meant for me to learn of this so that I would divorce you and she could have you all to herself. Do you not see this?”

“Oh, but you are wrong—she wants to be a part of our family, not destroy it!” Airt looked at her and smiled, looking as happy as Sabha had ever seen him. “It will be well, my beloved. It will be very well for all of us. I promise you that.”

Again she made herself draw a breath. “I know that you do not intend to hurt me.”

“Never, never! I love you, Sabha. That will never change.”

“I know that you love me. But love is not enough to make a marriage.”

He cocked his head, studying her with a puzzled expression. “What more could any man and woman need to stay together than love for each other?”

“They must have respect. They must have loyalty. When those two things are present, and love is the third part, then they might stay together and be happy for all of their days. But love alone is not enough.”

“Oh, but Sabha, I have nothing but respect for you, and my loyalty to you will never waver. You already know that I love you. You need not ever worry about any of those things.”

“I know,” she whispered, nodding slightly. “I know.”

“Then you will accept Coiteann into our home as a sister and second wife?”

Sabha listened to a few beats of her heart, even as she willed herself to remain motionless. “Allow me this,” she said at last. “Allow me to stay here alone in our home for a time. Allow me to remain apart from you while you go to live with Coiteann.”

His smile faded. “Why…why would you want me to do that?”

“Because my position on bringing a second wife into this house has not changed. You must now choose between us, Airt. You must decide whether you want me or you want Coiteann, for you cannot have us both.”

Again he reached for her hand, closing his fingers over the fist that rested in her lap. “But I do not want to leave you! That is the last thing I want. I only want to add to our family, not take away from it!”

Sabha moved her hand away. “Go and live with her, and get your fill of her, so that you can never say I tried to stop you. While you are there, you can make your decision. I have already made mine. You cannot, and you will not, have us both.”

“Sabha…” Airt stood up in the soft straw and faced her. “I will do this. I will go and live with Coiteann for a time, but only because it is what you want. I do this only for you, so that you can think of what I have said and come to understand that it will be good for all of us.”

He kissed her gently on the forehead and then walked across the house to go outside, closing the door behind him as he left.

Sabha closed her eyes.

A heavy, moonless dark surrounded Sion. In the warmth of her cave, Rioghan lit an extra lamp to take away the last of the shadows, and then dropped a few dried flowers into her bronze cup where it rested on the stone edge of her firepit.

Two of her dogs stayed inside the cave with her, but instead of lying down in the comfortable straw they paced about the large space and sniffed the night breeze, occasionally whining or growling low in their throats. And as they paced they would look up at Rioghan and then toward the entrance of the cave, their concern and uneasiness plain in their eyes.

Rioghan, too, found that she could not sit down. She took a ladle and poured a little hot water from her bronze cauldron into her cup, left it to steam on the stone wall of the hearth, and then stepped out into the darkness just beyond the light of the cave.

Mist rolled about her feet. Thick clouds left the sky a featureless black. The only light came from the hearth and lamps behind her, and from the red-gold shine in the eyes of the many dogs trotting back and forth, growling softly, in the open meadow before the cave. A few of the dogs came over to touch her hand with their noses or stand beside her for a moment, always looking out into the darkness, always moving on again to patrol their territory and guard their home.