‘Tell me! Is the Big Man hurt?’
‘No, but the dove died.’
‘I know that. You told me. The lion struck it with his paw. What happened to Ruathain?’ He shook her but she stayed silent for a moment, and he could tell she was gathering her strength. Patience was not one of his virtues, but he sat quietly, watching her. Vorna looked at him, then took his hand.
‘I have no words to make this more gentle, Connavar. The dove was Tae. She was riding with Ruathain when they attacked. An arrow pierced her heart.’ He heard what she said, but the words seemed to have no meaning.
‘Tae was riding with Ruathain and has been hurt?’ he heard himself say.
‘She is dead, Conn. Killed.’
‘This cannot be! You are wrong. I promised her we would go riding. She is angry with me. That is all. Stop saying these things.’ Panic made his hands tremble. ‘Are you punishing me for Arian? Is that it?’
She shook her head, and struggled to her feet. ‘I have been cruel at times in my life, Conn. I could never be that cruel. Ruathain is bringing her body back to Old Oaks.’
Conn rose unsteadily. There was a roaring in his ears, and his limbs had no strength. Words whispered up from the recesses of his memory.
‘Keep all your promises, no matter how small. Sometimes, like the pebble that brings the avalanche, something tiny can prove to be of immense power?
‘I always keep my promises, little fish.”
‘Remember, Conn, no matter how small.’
‘No matter how small,’ he whispered. He fell to his knees, his head in his hands. Vorna knelt alongside him, her thin arms around his shoulders.
‘Come, Connavar, let us go to meet her.’
‘I broke my promise, Vorna. I broke it.’
‘Come,’ she said, drawing him to his feet.
The Fisher Laird sat in his hall, his sons around him at the long supper table. There was little conversation, and the Laird drank heavily, cup after cup of strong ale. ‘There’ll be no weregild now,’ said Vor, his eldest son.
The Fisher Laird stared into his cup and shivered. Then he glanced across at Vor. The hulking young man was disappointed, and his flat, ugly face looked sullen. The Laird shivered again, and cast his gaze along the men at the table. His sons. He had once had high hopes of them all, that they would be strong men, Pannone warriors to be admired. But they were not strong men. Oh aye, they were physically powerful, but they lived their lives in his shadow. He drained his cup. The ale was making him melancholy. He looked back at Vor. ‘How could you cause him to kill the girl?’
‘That’s a little unfair,’ said Vor. ‘He had a big target directly in front of him. I nudged him to make him miss. You didn’t want Ruathain dead. You wanted more of his cattle and ponies. The arrow could have gone anywhere. It was just ill fortune.’
‘But it didn’t go anywhere,’ snapped the Fisher Laird, his big hands cradling the ale cup. One of the three lanterns guttered and died, making the hall even more gloomy. Another of his sons moved across to it, lifting it from the wall bracket.
The Laird went to refill his cup, found the jug beside it empty, and pushed himself to his feet. He was a big man, with flat features. ‘Only the fool was supposed to die,’ he said. He swore loudly and hurled his cup against the far wall. Carrying the empty jug, he strode to the back of the hall and refilled it from a barrel. Hefting the jug he drank deeply, the amber liquid running down his silver beard and drenching the front of his tunic. His heart was heavy, and he was more than a little frightened. Had he broken his geasa? He wasn’t sure. And Maggria the seer had left the settlement on the morning the fool went out with his bow. No-one knew where she had gone. ‘Let not one of your deeds break a woman’s heart.’ For most of his life the geasa had been a subject of dark humour. He had been an ugly child and an uglier man. Not the kind of man that women fell for. His wife had only married him for his position, and had never, as far as he knew, loved him. Nor he her, come to that. She had borne him five sons and then announced that she would like a house high in the hills. The Fisher Laird had built it for her and she had moved away. Truth to tell he did not miss her.