Song of Ireland

by Juilene Osborne-McKnight

  Suddenly the entire company shrank before our eyes. They appeared to us then as folk of half our size. The heads were huge, their dark hair crackling with some kind of electricity. Their eyes were black as night, huge and ovoid, devoid of any color or expression, their skin a pale and dusty gray. Their ears winged up and back in folded layers tipped with dark feathering. Their arms were extremely long and their hands possessed of long, slender fingers. Macha pointed one of these fingers at me.

  “Is this better, Poet of the Milesians?”

  I could say nothing. I stood riveted to the spot, speechless, our warriors around me, our women sobbing in the darkness. I have traveled the wide world, but never in my travels had I seen creatures such as these.

  Macha tapped her triangle again and her sisters imitated the gesture. Now before us stood three women, all beautiful. Macha had long dark hair, and dark eyes. Her figure was slender and feminine. Her sisters too were dark and compelling. Behind me in the darkness, I heard my brother Eber Finn call out.

  “By the gods, oh, by the gods.” I heard him fall to the ground, his swords and armor clanging on the stones.

  Macha turned toward Eriu. “How easy it is then, is it not, Little Sister? It requires so little to make such a change.”

  Suddenly Eremon ran forward, his sword outstretched. Macha simply gestured toward him. Lightning traveled up the sword and into his arm. He was lifted off his feet and landed hard on the ground near Eber Finn.

  “Almost too easy,” said Macha. She heaved a great sigh, then simply turned and walked toward the headland.

  Eriu stepped into our silent midst. “Hear me, sons of Mil,” she said. All of the faces of the crowd turned toward her, including those of her own people. Banba and Fodla stepped up behind her.

  “Among you, have there been those who carried a darkness within them? Who worked not for the good of the tribe, but for other, darker purposes?”

  No one made response. The dark power we had seen this night far surpassed anything our people had ever seen.

  Suddenly from the crowd Airioch Feabhruadh called aloud. “We must admit to our own darkness. Though such dark creatures as we are look the same on every given day.”

  His caustic self-criticism broke the mood of terror.

  A wave of uneasy laughter moved among us.

  “These are our dark ones,” said Eriu. “We call them the Raveners. They are ours; we claim them so. They journeyed here with us from … Greece. But we of the Danu bear no such dark magic. Our magic is of science, our portals and our spears. You have come here among us, unaware of what awaited you. We tell you this now. We, the Children of the Braid, do here declare that you are under our protection. Call upon us and we will come to your side. We will meet you at the doorways between our worlds. For all of time, I do declare that we will be your friends and your companions.”

  Behind her suddenly her warriors began to range up with their Light Spears; her physicians encircled her. I saw the look of gratitude flood across her face.

  “We will defend you with our knowledge and presence, with our Light Spears and our Silver Arms. When you are ill, our physicians will heal you. We ask that we do not return to our ways of a year ago. Here at the feasting table, we have known joy together. We offer you our friendship; we ask you to return it in kind.”

  Some of our people backed away. I could see others shaking their heads in the negative. But Eremon and Airioch stepped forward.

  “Eriu of the Danu, we have heard you,” said Eremon. “I and my clan accept your offer of friendship.”

  “As do I and mine,” said Airioch.

  Eber Finn said nothing, but I felt gratitude for the courage of my brothers wash over me.

  An Scail came up beside me. She whispered softly. “I think this night that our people begin what will be a long and troubled relationship with the Children of the Danu.”

  “Troubled defines it well,” I whispered back.

  Eriu spoke again. “We thank you for the hospitality of this wondrous night. Accept our apology that these of ours have sundered the celebration. We will depart from you to give you time to contemplate these things.”

  She met my eyes; hers were brimming with sadness, and as usual, they were overlarge.

  When the Danu had left us, I helped Eber Finn to his feet. He lay where he had fallen, still as a log but for the look of terror on his face.

  “We have seen these before,” said Eremon. “At the Plain of Mag Tuiread. Granted not as horrible as what we have seen tonight. But, Brother, you are a warrior. You set a bad example for your clan.”

  Eber Finn hissed under his breath. “Brothers, I must speak with you.” He glanced around, saw his wife with a group of women by the fire, their heads bent low in whispered conversation. “Alone,” said Eber Finn.

  We settled in my dwelling, Airioch, Eber Finn, Eremon, and I. At the last moment, Colpa and Bile ducked beneath the door of the dwelling.

  “We are brothers too,” said Colpa.

  “You have but fourteen years upon you,” Eremon began, but Airioch held up his hand.

  “There is much wisdom in these little brothers. They should stay.”

  Eber Finn cleared his throat, looked at the assembled company.

  “My wife does not like the north.”

  “Then return back to us here at Inver Skena,” said Airioch. “We have missed you; how easy it is.”

  “It is not easy,” said Eber Finn quietly. “It … there is a woman in the north. I have been … bedding her for quite some time. She … was most beautiful. And she knew …” He glanced at our two youngest brothers. “She knew of new and pleasurable ways to mate that my wife did not know.”

  Airioch shrugged. “So what of this? It is the way of the Galaeci to like the mating.”

  “The woman,” said Eber Finn. “It is she that you saw tonight.”

  “Who?” said Eremon. “One of the sisters?”

  “Not Banba I hope,” said Airioch, grinning. “I would still have designs there had I not so many wives wearing me out.”

  But I was watching Eber Finn’s face; it was white as the sea foam, his eyes large and unfocused.

  “O you gods,” I said softly. “You have been mating with Macha.”

  “I have,” he said. “In this last visage you have seen. I had not seen her as a man. Nor had I seen her as … whatever those dark-eyed little folk were. I have all along been mating with … that … and I did not know. My wife.” Here he looked again at our youngest brothers. He swallowed and closed his eyes. “She came upon us once in a wooded glade. She flew into a fury and cast herself upon us. She tried to scratch at the eyes of Macha—she did not call herself that, Brothers—and Macha simply stood, naked in the clearing, lifted her arm, and threw my wife to the ground.”

  He shook his head. “I scrambled to help my wife. I voiced my anger at … Macha, but my wife stopped speaking to me entirely. And when Macha came again for me, with her raven hair and her pendulous breasts, I went.”

  Airioch put up his hand. “You will move back among us; you will never see her again. You will be an attentive husband and father. Your wife will come to forgive you.”

  “No,” said Eber Finn. “There is more. My wife has made a friend among the people of the north. She is a woman, a warrior. She has taught my wife the ways of war, to swing a broadsword and wield a dagger, to move in the forest silent as the deer. She has whispered to her that Eremon got the better piece of land, that he builds a better rath, that he is safer and happier where he is. My wife stirs our people to come against Eremon.”

  Eremon shook his head. “But why should they do so? Clan is clan.”

  “Because the woman is Banbh,” I said softly.

  “Banbh?” said Eremon.

  “Sister of Macha, Brothers. She is the bringer of war.”

  “Still,” said Eremon, “your clan will not come against me. I am your brother.”

  “Our cattle fail, our crops wither in the ground. Our children are
thin and the darkness around us moves with strange lights and odd noises.”

  “Because the Morrigu causes such things to happen; those sisters feed upon destruction and rage, confusion and greed,” I said. “Think clearly, Eber Finn.”

  “I think that my clan will come against you, Eremon. And my wife will be at their head.”

  “And where will you be?” asked Eremon.

  “They are my clan; I am their chief. I wish to remain as chief; I wish to return my wife to me.”

  “But you need not do that with war,” said Airioch. “Hear me, Brother.”

  “You are not really my brother, are you?” said Eber Finn. He stood and left the dwelling.

  “I am sorry for that last, Airioch,” I said softly.

  “My broher,” said Bile. He held forth his good arm and Airioch clasped it.

  Eremon followed suit.

  Colpa looked thoughtful. He turned toward Airioch. “Each day before us there are choices. For good or evil. For strength or weakness. For care of the tribe or care of the self. Is this not what you have taught me, Brother?”

  Airioch nodded.

  “You have taught him this?” I regarded Airioch.

  “I had to learn it the hard way,” said Airioch.

  “But that is what Eber Finn is doing,” said Colpa. “Do you see? We cannot blame the Morrigu entirely. They put choices before Eber Finn, before his wife. They are choosing badly.”

  “Very wise indeed,” I said.

  “What shall we do?” asked Eremon.

  “I do not know,” I said. “We shall try to keep him here with us. We shall hope that his thinking clears. We shall pray that brother will not come against brother.”

  CEOLAS SINGS OF DARKNESS

  Why must you move in the world,

  Sower of evil, bringer of sorrows?

  And why do we turn toward you,

  Licking our lips for desire,

  Losing ourselves to sate a hunger?

  Who are you, darkness?

  Why are you always among us?

  39

  “He has been waiting at the portal for more than a fortnight.” Banba shook her head.”Ever since the night of the feast.”

  “He waits at the rising of the sun and he returns after sunset. It makes my heart ache to see it,” said Fodla.

  “What would you have me do? You were the two who told me not to see him. I have done as you asked.”

  “Well, we were wrong,” said Banba. “It has been known to happen before. And we have made you both miserable.”

  “Well, I happen to think that you were right after all,” said Eriu.

  “If you let Morrigu change your mind,” said Fodla, “then she has won.”

  “It is not Morrigu,” said Eriu. “It is what they saw inside Morrigu. They saw Morrigu without her Metaphor and they were repulsed, terrified.”

  “But we look nothing like the Raveners.”

  “Of course not,” said Banba. “Not to us. But Eriu fears that perhaps to them we would. Perhaps they would see us and see our common ancestry. Perhaps they would think that we are all evil, as Morrigu is. Perhaps this poet of Eriu’s would take one look at her without her Greek Metaphor and run screaming for the sea, having lost his mind, a gibbering idiot, reduced to drooling in terror for all of time.”

  “Banba!” said Fodla. “You go too far.”

  “She does it to make me see my foolishness,” said Eriu softly. “And she is right. But there is more than just my fear that a human man cannot love a Danu woman. We have his child and she is trapped with us and he is trapped in his world.”

  “But neither of them knows that,” said Banba softly. “Skena is the happiest of babies, and Amergin has put aside his grief for his lost wife. He loves a woman of the Danu. It shines from his eyes. Did you hear his song? He calls the place Eire—the land of Eriu.”

  “And if he sees me as I am?”

  “Why is that necessary? Let him see you as your Metaphor. If I were to succumb to Airioch’s invitations, as I just might one of these days, I would surely encounter him as that Greek woman he seems so smitten by. Why not do the same?”

  “Because I do not want Amergin to be smitten by a Greek woman. It will be more than just mating, Banba. I love him; I love his eyes and his hair and his big human frame and his soul and his song. I will not cease to love him. I will love him when we both have left these bodies and have gone into the Braid.”

  “And you want him to love you as you are,” said Fodla softly.

  “Is that too much to want?” asked Eriu.

  “There is only one way to know that,” said Banba.

  Moonlight was streaming over the clearing when she came through the portal, the blue light snapping shut behind her.

  He was seated with his back against the rock, Ceolas on his lap, but he leaped to his feet as she stepped into the clearing.

  “I thought that you would never come again.”

  “I considered never coming again.”

  “But why?”

  “We terrified your people and wreaked havoc on your Lughnasa feast. Is that not enough?”

  “Eriu, we Galaeci can wreak havoc all by ourselves. Even now, my brother Eber Finn threatens to make war against my brother Eremon.”

  “Why?”

  “Because his wife wants Eremon’s land. Because Eber Finn has been mating with …” Amergin paused.

  “Macha! In one of her guises.” Eriu waited for his answering nod. “You see, it all comes back to her, doesn’t it? She likes you; she finds the Galaeci complex and troublesome. You are her favorite new target. I am ashamed of that, ashamed that she is related to the Danu. And I fear all the trouble that she will cause you.”

  “As my brother Colpa says, Eber Finn had to choose for her as well. But that is not all, is it? I have waited for you for almost one full waxing of the moon.”

  Eriu sighed. “I know. I have stood on the other side of the portal and listened to Ceolas.”

  “Why did you not come to me?”

  “Because you are right. Macha is not all that troubles me. Is there somewhere we can go, Amergin? Somewhere where your kinsmen cannot happen upon us.”

  “There is the dwelling where An Scail and Airmid taught Bile to speak. It is that way”—he pointed—“through the forest.”

  “Take me there,” she said softly. “There is something I would show you.”

  He built up the fire, shook out the pelts and skins. When the little conical hut was warm and bright, he took her hands. “Show me,” he said quietly.

  She withdrew her hands, took a long, deep breath. “O Danu, I am afraid.”

  “Of me? I would never harm you, Eriu.”

  “This I know,” she said softly. “I am afraid of me.”

  She raised a trembling hand to the triangle at her neck. She closed her eyes and tapped it once. She remained quite still, her eyes closed.

  “Open your eyes, love,” he whispered softly.

  She opened them.

  “Can I … touch you?” he asked softly.

  “Yes,” she said, her voice broken and small.

  He ran his hands gently along her cheeks, then traced a finger gently along the multiple curves of the ear, threading up along the fine feathering there.

  “Like shells of the sea,” he whispered softly.

  He slipped his fingers into her curls and watched as they slipped back into place with sparks of electricity. He leaned back.

  “I remember these eyes,” he said softly. “I have been watching for them ever since I first saw the magic of them hidden inside the … Other. How beautiful they are, how like a sea, turquoise and blue and gray. I feel as though I could drift away inside them.”

  She sat very still, her long fingers pressed together. He lifted them quietly, pressed his lips to each hand.

  “You are not still afraid, are you?”

  “I am,” she said softly. “You can see that I am not … human.”

  “I have known tha
t something else was underneath your guise from the night that I held you on the Plain of Mag Tuiread. I could feel the tiny fragility of your bones beneath my arms. And I have seen your eyes and the eyes of your companions.”

  “I do not repulse you?”

  “You are like quicksilver, like moonlight on water, like the water itself. I would think that I might frighten you, all of us Galaeci, great hairy beasts that we are.”

  “You have never seen the Fomor,” said Eriu. A small smile played at the edges of her lips.

  “They must be hairy beasts indeed, then.”

  A little laugh escaped her; it sounded half like a sob. “Oh, they are.” She shook her head. “I thought that you would find me … frightening, that you would see in me the Morrigu.”

  “How could I see her at all? She seemed to me a wizened lump of darkness, a void where there should be color and light. But you; you are all color and light. It is like looking at the sun upon the water. Oh, Eriu, for months we have sat side by side against the portals and we have talked of all the world. I hear the same voice that I heard beside me. It is the voice that I love. Beyond that … how magical you are, how delicate and beautiful to me. I am almost afraid to touch you.”

  “Touch me here,” she said softly, putting her hand against his lips. “Touch your lips to my lips. I have been longing for it, Amergin.”

  “Ah, sweeting,” he said softly. “So have I.”

  And the kiss, when it came, was like a feather, like a breeze, oh, like a promise.

  CEOLAS SINGS OF LOVE REBORN

  My heart, oh my resilient heart,

  My joy, oh you my joy.

  I am laughter once again

  I am sweet desire

  I am a man made whole in you.

  How shall I bless you, love

  For this gift of yourself

  Perfect as you are?

  40

  “Iwo go ’mong them, Amer’in.”

  “But why, Bile? Are you not happy here among the clan?”

  At fifteen he had become a giant of a boy, long and lean, with a quick smile. He turned to look at Illyn, and I saw the shining black braid that cascaded down his back. I knew that she must have braided it for him. His good hand held tight to Illyn’s hand. He inhaled.