The Sun Goddess of Cargills Castle

by Neisha Nilsen

  I went to bed that night thinking of Tunnan. He made a bit more sense to me now. He’d no control over his family’s actions, just as he had no control over Bres freezing Brigid, but I bet the guilt was eating him up inside. No wonder he stayed away from people. If his parents were capable of that sort of betrayal what could other people do to him or to the people he loved. I felt sorry for him. I knew he wouldn’t appreciate it if I talked to him about it, so I was going to leave it where it was and just carry on pretending that I didn’t know the truth, but I’d carry on with a lot more respect for Tunnan than I was currently giving him. I tucked Uar’s warm strong arm around my belly as I felt the pull of sleep take hold of me.

  CHAPTER 21

  “We have to do something” Brea said, “and we need to move soon.”

  Uar agreed. “I agree, the sun is out but our Mother is not. Bres will be planning and we need to be one step ahead of him.” Uar cringed with the mention of his father’s name.

  Uar had called a meeting with all the heads of the Gold Belts and me, I was invited too. Zeg was sitting on my shoulder looking on anxiously.

  “If the front entrance to Brigid is blocked, then why don’t we just take the back way?” I asked curiously. Surely there’s another way to her, if there was a front, there must be a back.”

  “Good idea Brigid except the back is blocked too. The bones of judgement only allow entrance from the front. Our Mother made sure that was the only way through before she froze.” Yute said looking glum.

  “Well… there is Grisbid rock.” Hagrid mumbled.

  I heard Brea snort. “Grisbid rock is a tall thin hunk of rock about two miles from the back of the cliff, surrounded by deep sea.” Brea said. “There is no way we can get to the cliffs from there and even if we could, we wouldn’t get through.”

  “Yes but it looks directly to the back of the cliff, that can’t be a coincidence.” Hagrid replied.

  “I agree” Brea said, “but we’ve been there, it’s baron and near impossible to climb. I don’t see how there’s any connection.”

  “Did you say Grisbid?” I asked.

  “Yes Grisbid rock” Brea answered.

  “How do you spell it?”

  “Why?”

  I think I was onto something. “Just, how do you spell it?”

  “G.R.I.S.B.I.D” Brea said slowly. She didn’t believe there was any connection between this rock and the cliff.

  The whole room was silent. The wheels in my mind were running full speed. “Has this rock always been there?”

  “Well, no. It actually only appeared the day our Mother was frozen.”

  “Ah ha!” I yelled as I jumped up. Zeg jumped onto Uar’s shoulder as I marched around. “I know what to do!” I paced eagerly around the room with enthusiasm. “If the rock appeared the day Brigid froze, it must be a clue, something to help us get across another way.”

  “Yes but we’ve been there. I’ve climbed it and it’s impossible, it seems to have no connection except for when it appeared. We can’t swim across the channel separating the rock and the cliff face. There’s a beast that lives far below and even if we climb the cliff, we can’t get through the barrier, I’ve tried. The bones of judgement are the only way through.”

  “That maybe so, but you’ve never had me before.”

  “What do you mean?” Brea asked.

  “Grisbid rock!” I yelled again slower.

  I felt Uar wrap his arm around me. “You are a genius.”

  I turned and kissed him on the lips. “Yes I am. Do you not get it? Did you never do wordplays at school?”

  Everyone looked at me strangely. “Yes word plays. It’s when you try to make a word out of jumbled letters and Grisbid rock unjumbles to Brigid’s rock.”

  The room fell silent again before everyone started talking excitedly to each other, the penny dropped. “You see it has to have something to do with it. There must be a way, and maybe you never saw it before because I wasn’t here.”

  Brea fell silent and looked into the fire. “Yes” she murmured. “Maybe you’re right.” I could see her thinking in her mind, letting the information sink in.

  “We need to go there. You need to show me where it is.” I knew once I was there I’d know what to do. I didn’t know what it was yet, but I knew deep down inside myself that this is what has to happen. This was the way.

  “I agree with Brigid, we need to take her to the rock.” Uar said. “We will get you up to the top and guard you while you figure out what it is we are to do from there.”

  “Yes, we’ll figure it out.” Brea said. “Right, you all know what to do. We leave at daylight.”

  Everyone made their way to their beds, except Tunnan. He stood to the side of the doorway shrouded in darkness. “Are you coming with us?” I asked gently.

  He didn’t answer but looked away. Uar pushed me through the door gently and whispered “I’ll join you soon.”

  I looked between Tunnan and him. “Fine” I huffed. “I’ll see you soon.” It was clear Uar wanted to talk with Tunnan and quite frankly he could talk to him for as long as he wanted. I needed my bed. It was going to be a big day tomorrow. Tomorrow was going to be my awakening, and I hoped I wasn’t leading anyone astray and that I really would know what to do once we got there. This was our only option, there were no more. We definitely couldn’t get through the bones of judgement anymore, the Fomorians wouldn’t let that mistake happen again. This rock was the key, I knew it was, it had to be.

  ◆◆◆

  We set out at first light. I’d put on some leather pants and golden chest armour. My hair was piled high on top of my head gathered into a pony tail. A trail of glowing light fell down my back. I rubbed the fire arrow on my palm and smiled. I’ll meet you soon. I had a sword strapped to my belt and Tunnan’s small bow and arrow strapped to my back, not that I needed it anymore since I could shoot fire arrows from my hands, which was very cool, but I liked the feel of the bow and arrow on my back. It strangely gave me reassurance and strength remembering what I’d been through and what I’d done and survived. Zeg had made himself at home in a small leather coin purse Uar gave me that I’d strapped onto my belt. He looked happy he was coming with us and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

  It took us a couple of days to get to Black’s bay where we needed to be to get to Grisbid Rock. We took the long way around so as not to draw attention to ourselves. We didn’t want to give Bres and his merry band of Fomorians a heads up. It was a long couple of days which gave me time to think and my mind filled of thoughts of my family. They must be worried like crazy. I missed them, I even missed Tom. I couldn’t wait to see them and if all this worked out, that could be soon. I’d be seeing them soon. How I was going to explain my disappearance was beyond me. Was I going to tell them the truth, would they even believe me or was it best I lied. Maybe this was something I should speak to Uar about. I didn’t know if there was some sort of God code that you weren’t allowed to talk about it… kind of like fight club. The first rule of fight club - you don’t talk about fight club.

  Zeg’s powers surprised me daily. He’s teleporting skills were unreal! He was so small, so to get anywhere quickly, like stealing Hagrid’s food for instance, he’d teleport to grab the food and back to me again. It was utterly hilarious. He’d look up at me with a cheeky smug grin. I would give him a wee tickle on the back and a giggle. He’d rock back and forth on his little bum silently laughing as Hagrid sat by the fire seething. Hagrid knew he couldn’t catch Zeg, how could he – Zeg could teleport as quickly as he could blink.

  ◆◆◆

  My hair whipped around my face in the wind as I looked out to Grisbid Rock. It was about ten metres in diameter, not very wide at all, but what it lacked for in width it made up for it in height. It stood straight out from the sea, about ten stories above the sea level. It was a sight I’d never seen before, it certainly didn’t look natural. This rock was put here for a reason and I was going to figure out why. The rock sat out
in the middle of Black’s Bay so we had to take a row boat out to it. We had come across a few Fomorians on the way here, but hid from them, rather than risk being seen. We saw none around Black’s Bay though. Brea reckoned that was because there was no way to get in through the back and Bres knew it. He was keeping all his cavalry to the front, where the attack should be coming from. The water was dark and cold. I could see shadows ducking and diving out of sight. Large dark murky colours, giving me the hebe-gebes. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing things or not. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me like when I was a child and I used to think monsters were hiding in my closet if it was slightly open. My parents had to shut it for me so I’d sleep.

  “Ahhh, is this safe?” I asked nervously as I looked into the dark depths of the ocean. I was in the small wooden row boat with Uar and some of the other Gold Belts. Zeg had taken his place upon Uar’s shoulder. Standing tall looking into the distance like he was waiting for something. Brea was in a back-up boat with Tunnan and some others following closely behind. The rest stayed hidden on the beach. Not all of us could get over. There were only a limited number of row boats and limited room on top of the rock.

  “Yes, you’re fine. The water is deep here that’s all.” Uar answered, but I saw him gulp as he looked into the depths. He was scared too. Were there monsters in the bottom of this sea?

  We continued on, dodging small swells of the sea until we got to the cliff face of Grisbid Rock. There was nowhere to park up, no beach or stony edge, it was a sheer cliff face. How were we going to get up this? I looked up the length of the rock, my head falling back as far it could go. Jeez, this was not going to be easy. We slowly made our way around to the back side of it, the side furthest away from the cliff face that held the lady of the sacred flame. Uar jumped out onto a small flat surface, Zeg held on for dear life at the impact. I could hear Uar’s sword clang against his shield when he landed. He stood there like a living god, which I supposed he kind of was. The size of him and his presence was magnificent, I was falling in love with this guy, actually I think that was too late, I was already in love with this guy, from the first moment I saw him in my dreams. He reached down for me to follow him. He pointed to small holes that had been etched out of the rock. It looked like a crude type of ladder, something we could use to climb it.

  “We have to climb that?”

  Uar nodded as I landed neatly beside him.

  “Well, at least there are foot holes… that’s good, right?” That had to make things easier surely.

  “Up you go” Uar said as he bowed in front of me. “Ladies first.”

  “Ladies first my ass” I mumbled to myself as I put my foot in the first foot hole and my hand above it.

  “What?”

  “Nothing, I said nothing. Let’s get this over and done with.” I called back as I started to climb. Uar had a smile on his face as he and Zeg followed closely behind.

  One by one we started to climb, one behind the other like little ducklings following their mother. I’d hate to lose my footing and slip, knocking everyone down like dominos. That would suck.

  The higher we got the windier it got. My hair kept getting in my eyes, even though it was tied up. The glowing orange kept catching my eye and distracting me, I was still unused to the blinding glowing colour. Every time it would hit my face I’d expect it to be blond. I cursed as I kept climbing. I was getting to a point where I didn’t want to look down, I couldn’t look down. Instead I looked up, I was close to the top, not too much further to go. My muscles ached and were starting to shake. This was hard work, I truly hoped I knew what to do once I got up there. I managed to drag myself over the top to the flat grassy top. I crawled to the middle, to the safest place and lay on my back and breathed. I closed my eyes and kept breathing letting my muscles recover. Everyone did the same. Uar was beside me and passed me his water. I gulped it back greedily.

  “My god that was hard work” I panted as I handed the water back to Uar.

  “Right, we’re here… what now?” Tunnan asked. Brea elbowed him in the stomach.

  Tunnan ended up coming on the journey. I’m not sure what’s going on with him or what Uar and him talked about the night before we left, but he was here none-the-less and we needed the extra muscle to help us defeat Bres and his army. I tried not to dwell on it.

  “I don’t really know, I suppose I should have a look around and see if there’s anything that might help me.” I looked around very unsure of myself. The only thing on this rock apart from the grass I was sitting on was a little tree. I stood up and slowly walked over it.

  “It’s an oak sapling” Uar said as he gently put his hand on its branches. “The same type of tree that surrounds mother.”

  Zeg jumped on it and pulled out his sword. I smiled at him.

  “This is a sign, I know it. This is significant.” I said softly to Uar. Everyone was catching their breaths and not paying us too much attention or they were just letting us get on with it without an audience. Either way I was happy for it.

  One of the leaves started to glow slightly under Uar’s touch. Zeg jumped onto another branch afraid the glow would reach him. We all looked in awe as the bright glow filled the veins of the leave, then as soon as it happened it disappeared. Uar and I looked at each other and smiled. I leaned out and touched the tree. I could feel the glow run down my arm as it hit the little tree. Glowing letters formed on the trunk I kept my hand on the tree as the letters swirled around each other. I dared not look away in case something happened and they stopped. I didn’t know if it was just me that could see them or if everyone could see it. I knew Uar could though, he put his hand on top of mine and the letters started to form a sentence.

  Trust the light

  “Trust the light” I whispered. “Trust the light” I said again a little louder. The letters slowly disappeared over the ocean in a straight line towards the cliff of the sacred lady. “Follow the light.”

  “We need to follow the light” I said to Uar.

  I went to take a step over the edge where the letters had disappeared over the ocean. “What are you doing?” Uar yelled. “You’re going to fall!” He pulled me back and hugged me.

  I breathed him in and took a deep breath. “We need to trust the light, which means follow it and we need to follow it over to the cliff.”

  “Are you crazy? There’s nothing there, you’re going to fall to your death.”

  “Can you not see it?”

  “See what?”

  “The light.” I could see a bridge of light following the letters’ path to the top of the cliff. Everyone looked at me dumbfounded. “Look” I said as I grabbed some grass and threw it out in front of me.

  Uar stared at the blades of grass that were sitting in mid-air. “Brigid, you’ve found the way”

  I felt Zeg’s tiny weight on my shoulder. He was ready to go, as was I.

  “Yes, with your help Uar. Follow me. Follow exactly where I place my feet.” I felt very important all of a sudden. They were all following and listening to what I said. I hoped I looked as cool as I felt at that moment.

  I took a step forward into what would appear to be nothing. I could see the light, it was easy for me. I could see an invisible bridge about a metre wide stretching from Grisbid Rock to the cliff. The glow was faint but I could see it but nobody else could, not even Uar. Uar followed closely behind me, being careful to step where I had stepped. I took my first step slowly, just in case it was a trick, but I knew deep in my heart that it wasn’t. Only myself and Uar could have done this, it needed both of us to unlock the access to the back of the cliff. That was why no one had found it before. I kept walking, one foot in front of the other. The wind was blowing strong, but not strong enough to knock us down. I ignored it and kept walking forward. Everyone was quiet as we walked in mid-air above the dark depths of Black’s Bay. I had a creepy feeling something was watching us from its depths below, there was something there, not willing to show itself yet but I could feel it and I
was certain it was not my mind playing tricks on me. This was not like the pretend monsters in my wardrobe. I prayed that we would make it to the end. It was a weird feeling. The ground under us was solid, it was a bridge, yet it was nothing. I tried not to think about it too hard and just get to the end. This was nearly over. Once we got over and entered the oak trees that guarded the horizon of the cliff, we would have done it. The Fomorians couldn’t get in then, they wouldn’t be able to pass.

  CHAPTER 22

  We finally got to the end with everyone accounted for. There were no nasty surprises as we crossed. It felt too easy. I held my hand out the entire way ready to burst out a fiery arrow if needed. Zeg had his little sword out ready to strike should the occasion need it. I had to calm him down at some points crossing the bridge as all I could see out the corner of my eye distracting me was a little sword waving frantically within my peripheral vision. I’d definitely give him five stars for dedication and determination. He was my little loyal warrior. I stepped gently onto the dirt and breathed a sigh of relief when everything seemed normal. I could feel the sun on my back and I could hear the rustling of the wind hitting the trees around me. Everyone stopped behind me, waiting and watching, anticipating my next move. What now? Tall oak trees flanked me on all sides. I could hear them calling out for me, I could hear her calling me, urging me to move forward, letting me know she was close. Zeg’s energy increased, could he feel her too? My whole body was zinging with light and energy, my arm and hand glowed brightly showing the familiar patterns circling my hand and my arm. I took a step forward and came across no obstacles. No bolt of lightning burned me, the earth did not open and suck me underneath, which I half expected it to do. There were no bones of judgements singing to me, no force field stopping my advance, I was through, I was here, where I was supposed to be. This was what my existence was about, was me making it here, to this spot in this dimension. I turned and smiled and motioned for everyone to keep moving forward, it was safe. I moved aside so they could get through. We still needed to keep our voices down. The Fomorians were on the other side of these woods.