Rhiannon (29 page)

“You yield to his flattery, Granna,” Rhia teased, “as he called you wise.”

“So be it,” Granna allowed, then set to snoring.

Rhia's mind raced as she quickly cleaned up from the meal, and the moment she could she ran to join Thaddeus and Jonah where they worked behind the nether cottage. Jonah was sharpening the ax blade at their grindstone, whilst Thaddeus was harnessing the cow to their garden plow. Rhia leaned against a tree, tapping her chin with Mam's cross, wondering how to approach them with what preyed so heavily on her mind.

“So, now you both have heard of Wythicopse Ring,” she finally called out to them. “And many believe a fiercesome dragon does indeed guard the spot, as Granna told. Though certainly, I believe dragons do
not
exist, as to believe elsewise would be ignorant and never Christian, would you say? Still, there's that rumor of a dragon ever afoot among plenty of people. Good people, too, and many of them Christians.”

Why could she not come to the point and speak of the chance she'd soon have to be spy within that place? Instead she talked of dragons, a simpler thing in many ways.

Thaddeus looked over at her and smiled, stroking the neck of the harnessed cow to ease its nerves. “You've lost me, Rhia.”

Jonah wiped his streaming forehead with his arm and slid his thumb along the ax blade. “Sharp enough,” he pronounced as though he'd not so much as heard her. He shouldered the ax and headed toward the woods.

Thaddeus took the handle of the plow and eased the cow to a pull with a cluck and a small touch of the withy limb he'd cut for the job.

“Stop!” Rhia called out, pulling her hair, frustrated with the both of them beyond endurance. “Would you two have me toasted to a crust by the fiercesome Dragon of Brynourth whilst I spy upon those unpredictable squires and never so much as protest it whilst you still have the chance?”

The cow had decided to put on some speed, and Thaddeus had no recourse but to come along fast behind it. He struggled to guide the plow as it bit into the ground with its single sharp tooth, but he looked at her with wide and startled eyes as he stumbled past.

Jonah, meanwhile, turned on his heel to face her.

“Rhiannon, stop your riddles and say exactly what you mean, else Brother Thaddeus and I may well decide to toast you to a crisp ourselves!”

Rhia planted her knuckles upon her hips. “How's
this
, then? I have a plan for hearing the boasts the squires may make about Aleron's scarf! I am to meet Sir Leonard and his friends to celebrate Beltane Eve at Wythicopse Ring, though there be dragons about, or might well be! Or
one
, anyhow,” she rambled. “I've heard its fiercesome sighs with my own ears! It's held in an underground chamber, the roof of which is made of tiny flat stones that make up magical pictures—a brown hare, and a fine lady with large dark eyes! Though I figure you won't believe me, I nevertheless say to you that my friend Maddy has also seen the very same—”

“And has the hare a pink nose?” Jonah called back. “The lady holds a red flower, I'll wager. Look further and you may see an ancient man upon a donkey, as well.”

She stood stunned for a moment, then drew in a sharp breath. “How'd . . . how'd you know?”

Thaddeus, meanwhile, had cornered with the plow and now was staggering back in their direction. He noted the expression on Rhia's face and pulled the reins taut, throwing his full weight backward to bring the stubborn cow to a reluctant, mooing halt.

“I said, how'd you
know
?” Rhiannon again called to Jonah, stomping her foot. As he'd chosen to ignore her the first time, this time she was outright bellowing.

Jonah calmly replied, “Rhiannon, how I know of that chamber can be of little importance to you, as you'll not be joining their party on Beltane Eve or at any other time. I don't know how you could consider it with what we suspect of that bunch.”

He turned again toward the woods.

“He's right, Rhia,” Thaddeus said, quietly and firmly. “We won't hear of it. I too am shocked you would consider such a thing, if you want the truth.”

Well, it was the worst course the two of them could have taken, as Rhia now saw red and would not have been dissuaded from attending had a band of angels come to order her to desist.

“When did you two become the lords and I your vassal?” she fumed. “For your information, good sirs, I go where I choose to go and do what I choose to do, and I've been much looking forward to attending this party! I suppose I can spy upon a private conversation as well as anyone else, including the two of you!”

And then, her anger made her do a thing she might elsewise never have done.

“As for you, Sir Jonah?” she called at the top of her lungs, her heart beating fast. “Would you be so reckless with the feelings of your own true sister, Adela? For her sake, heed my distress and come tell me what you know of that chamber! I must needs know
everything
of it in advance, as I
will
go there on Beltane to confront those we figure to be Aleron and Jim's dire enemies, and there's naught in the wide world you can do to stop me!”

Lifting her trembling chin, and in a more courteous voice, she added, “In particular, if it please you, I'd know if there be a dragon.”

Sir Jonah again stopped walking, but this time he stood frozen in the bracken at wood's edge. He slowly turned in her direction, then he took the ax from his shoulder and drove it easily into the nearest oak. An oak is a very hard tree, Rhia thought. She gulped, somewhat regretting that she'd opened her mouth.

He meanwhile trod with measured step and downcast eyes to where she waited with Thaddeus. “Tell how you knew of my sister,” he demanded, staring at the ground.

“You mentioned her yourself this morn, remember?” Rhiannon answered. She cleared her throat and forced air into her lungs. “And, well . . . you mistook me for her, several times, when you were ill and not yourself.”

He lifted his eyes and looked at her. “I loved my sister,” he whispered raggedly. “I tried to save her. Her
screams
!” He pressed his hands to his ears. “I took the oars from Aleron and rowed back for her—I
did! Naturally
I did! But the small craft was only meant for a few, and it capsized and quickly sank when so many jumped inside.”

His anguished eyes suddenly filled with tears that he made no move to conceal.

“Why, why, why could I not have perished with the rest?” he whispered. “Why did God give Aleron strength to pull me to shore and revive me from my drown? In His mercy, why would He not let me sleep eternal with the others?”

“But it could not have been your fault that . . .” Rhia began.

But Sir Jonah did not want to hear, and indeed had already turned from them to run blindly toward the forest, stumbling across the rough ground, punching and kicking the brambles aside as he went. This time it was Rhia who started after him, and Thaddeus who reached to stop her.

“He needs to be alone,” he said simply.

Rhiannon whirled to Thaddeus, some exasperated.“Say it, Thaddeus, won't you, finally? Just put words to what we both know.”

Thaddeus stared at the place in the treeline where Jonah had just disappeared. The leaves and rushes there still quaked as from a typhoon.

“Yes, Thaddeus said with a small smile. “I believe he is.”

Now that they'd decided Jonah's hidden identity must indeed be fact, not vague imagining and far-fetched conjecture, Rhia felt dizzy with the knowledge of it. “I bent my knee to him in the chapel last night,” she whispered. “He asked me for friendship's sake never to do that again, nor to tell anyone he'd been seen here upon our bluff.”

Thaddeus nodded. “You heard him say that he and Aleron traveled incognito to those shrines, and that his only wish is to die seeking Divine pardon. He cannot bear the shame of owning up to his rightful station, nor the turmoil it will bring. I truly fear he would end his life rather than resume it as Prince William Aethling. We have to respect his honorable decision. Even to you and me he must always remain Sir Jonah.”

“Of course, Thaddeus,” she whispered. “As a pilgrim, he may eventually find some measure of peace. With the world watching and judging him, how could he ever?”

They stood together in silence for a while, marveling at the secret they shared.

Then Thaddeus cleared his throat. “Rhia? I can understand that you now wish to overhear what you may at Wythicopse Ring on Beltane Eve. But, well, why did you consent to be a part of the Beltane revels there to begin with? Forgive me if I presume too much, but it seems unlike you to join such a dangerous and . . . well,
frivolous
party.”

Her neck felt aflame at this unexpected query. “I would never have said yes to such a thing, except that I was . . .
trapped
by my friend Maddy.”

Thaddeus gave her the slightest frown. “Trapped?
How
trapped?”

Rhia closed her eyes. “What she tells me to do, I
must
. I cannot naysay her, as when I try, she comes up with a different road to the same thing, and I am hoodwinked before I know it! Ever since we were little girls, Maddy's begged to be brought to our chapel at some midnight. See, she likes a scare, and she likes a frolic, as well. Her new boyfriend is one of the squires, and she wanted to impress him and his mates this Beltane with a scare
and
a party, at our sacred chapel! Which is ridiculous, of course. I
had
to say I'd join them at Wythicopse Ring so she'd drop her insistence on coming up to our bluff!” She put her face in her hands and shook her head. “I know, I know. It sounds right daft. But . . . if you
knew
Maddy. I must please her or . . . or
else
.”

Thaddeus looked glassy-eyed. “I confess, I've little experience with such things.”

She sighed and nodded. “Being an oblate for holy brotherhood, you mean.”

He shook his head and gave a laugh. “Nay, I mean I've had little experience with such complications because I'm
male
. Our friendships be true and simple, thank God!”

He strode toward the treed ax, still shaking his head and laughing.

“Well,
sir
!” Rhia called after him. “I thank God that I am
female
, and therefore do not traipse through life unaware of friendship's necessary
complications
. I marvel that boys have friends at all, as careless as they treat each other, what with their constant rough brags and crude jokes and punches to the arm and . . . and
so
forth.”

She could not resist a bit of laughing pantomime, swaggering with her arms held from her body in rude imitation of a boy, her mouth gone slack and her features pulled stupid.

Thaddeus watched, amused, as he meanwhile struggled to free the ax. “Fair trade, then, lady. I'll stay simple and sleep nights, whilst you brood about your girlish entanglements.” With a final smile, he yanked the ax free and turned to begin cutting the wood for Mam.

As she headed back to the cot for her seed bag, Rhia thought how she might have added that her girlfriends did not run so abruptly to the woods when they were upset, either, leaving their mates to do their afternoon work for them.

 
Mam was not about when Rhiannon reached the cottage, and Granna still dozed beside the fire. Rhia grabbed the seed sack from its peg. She was tiptoeing back toward the door when from above her came a plea. “Sister Rhia! Take us
with
you!”

She looked up to see Daisy grinning hopefully down at her from the loft with Sal doing likewise over Daisy's shoulder. Sal had spent the day with them as they observed her reactions to Sir Jonah. At mealtime she'd seemed unfazed by him, so mayhaps she was no longer spooked and might soon go back to her own dwelling.

Rhia put her finger to her lips. “Come along, then, but quickly and quietly!” she whispered. “Have a care you don't wake Granna, or she may have
inside
jobs for us!”

On such a bright and warm afternoon, that would truly rankle.

Daisy came clomping down the ladder, made clumsy by dragging her tortoise along. Rhiannon hurried to lift her down the last two rungs, then she climbed up to the top and steadied Sally from behind as she climbed slowly step-together down. Rhia then grabbed the hands of both girls and hustled them outside.

“Three fish, three fish!” Sally cried when they were standing upon the violet-studded new grass. She clapped her hands, squinting up at the sun, heedless of its dazzle.

“What's that noise?” Daisy asked. “Sounds exactly like thunder, only different.”

“ 'Tis merely Thaddeus, cutting wood,” Rhia answered, staring at the lumpish bundle the young girl carried. “Daisy, why is your pet wrapped to resemble a sausage?”

Queen Matilda was wearing a red stocking of Granna's. It was pulled taut over her shell's wide girth, then had been cinched closed around her scrawny neck and stringy tail with dandelion chains.

“Tildy is dressed for a wedding,” Daisy proudly explained, holding her up.

“Or someone's funeral, if Granna misses that sock,” Rhia murmured, shaking her head. “And how may she walk, as you've trapped her feet within her gown?”

“She's to be pulled to the wedding in a fine carriage,” Daisy answered with a dignified air. “Meanwhile, I shall carry her majesty where'er she pleases to go.”

The animal had perceived that she was now outside and batted within the woolen sock so furiously that she slipped from Daisy's hands. She fell the short distance to the ground and, though she'd doubtless expected freedom, was panicked by finding herself still stranded within her woolen dress. She opened and closed her beak several times, still struggling and squirming, then stretched her neck to its entire amazing length as her eyes bulged with distress.