"I evoke the rite of single combat. Choose from your champions whomever you might and should I prevail in combat you will leave the city to mourn its dead."
"But what of Donn Cúailnge?"
"I care not for the stud bull. Whether I win or lose, the bull may remain yours."
"And if you should lose?"
"My death will be your victory. You will no longer have reason to fear my vengeance. And there will be no one left to stop you from doing whatever you desire with Ulster."
Queen Mebd smiled. "It is agreed. Let us codify the compact with our blood, yours and mine."
The queen took her blade in her hand and sliced her palm. Cú Chulainn drew his blade only a hand's length from its sheath and did the same. Both of them joined hands, hers in his, their blood mingling and binding each of them to the contract as stated.
"Very well," Mebd said. "I will send my first champion and he will meet you at the river's edge."
"Your first?" Cú Chulainn asked, raising his eyebrow.
"You did not say, in the terms discussed, that I must select only a single champion to face you, Cú Chulainn. You said I could choose from my champions... and I choose all of them."
Cú Chulainn grunted. He wasn't accustomed to making such negotiations. He'd been trained in battle but he'd never fought in a true war. And negotiations like this, these were usually exacted between monarchs. In terms of the negotiation, she'd bested him. But this was a minor victory that would soon be a mistake on Mebd's part. After all, what champion could Mebd select that could best him?
"This is not wise," Cú Chulainn said. "Each of them your champions must face me in single-handed combat. By the time this is over you will have lost all of your champions and only I will remain."
"We will see, by day's end, which one of us was the true fool."
36
"WHAT ARE YOU doing!" I demanded, appearing before Queen Mebd in my natural form.
The queen laughed. "The warrior, Cú Chulainn, will be dead by day's end."
"I delivered you Ulster and the stud bull. I do not wish to see Ulster's champion fall."
Mebd shrugged. "Then again, perhaps he will prevail. I doubt it."
"You believe you have a champion who could possibly best Cú Chulainn?"
Queen Mebd shook her head. "He has to defeat all of them."
"Even so," I said. "He'll drop them all, one by one. Surely you realize..."
Queen Mebd laughed out loud. "I have acquired many champions. One of them is more than a little motivated to see Ulster's champion fall."
"You have Aife, the woman with the ríastrad?"
"She and he have a history, you know," Queen Mebd said through a smirk.
"If pressed, he will defeat her, too."
"By the time Cú Chulainn faces my final champion he will have had to best all the rest. He will be exhausted..."
I shook my head. "You should have consulted me about this matter..."
Queen Mebd laughed. "You think I fear you, the phantom queen? We of Connacht do not revere the gods not because we don't believe in them. We do not revere the likes of you because we resent the notion that we should submit to your whims, simply because you claim yourselves to be divine. Because you imagine you are our superiors."
"You dare defy me!"
"Are you going to kill me for it?"
"That is not my way... but when your time comes, when you approach the cauldron of rebirth, I'll see to it that you return a slug!"
Queen Mebd huffed. "If such is even in your power! And if it is, so be it. As a slug, I'll defy you again! I've already bested you once, Morrigan."
The things I wanted to do to her... if I gave in to my rage. But it was not my place to kill humans. I could empower her enemies. I could rise up kingdoms against her. I could make her life a living hell to the point she'd wish she was dead. But I couldn't kill her. Not directly. The best way to defy her now was to meet my beloved at the river's edge. He did not know what he had yet to face. Aife was strong. She was a match for him even if he was well-rested. But by the time he'd face her he'd first have to eliminate twenty other champions, perhaps even more. I didn't know, for sure, how many Queen Mebd had at her disposal.
But I couldn't allow him to die. Not after all I'd done to win him as my love, not after having touched his flesh, felt him pulse inside of me... I needed to save him.
He needed more than the ríastrad if he was to prevail...
I'd reinvigorate him... if only he let me. For, I cannot force a blessing on any mortal who does not bless me, in turn.
Maybe he'd scorn me. Maybe he'd hate me as a result. But I had to give him my power... I had to save his life. And if I did, perhaps in time, he'd love me still.
37
CÚ CHULAINN HAD bested the twelfth champion Mebd had sent to challenge him before the maiden appeared. She'd offered to fight alongside him. Then, with a single flick of the wrist, she'd thrown him on his back. As she straddled him, though, he saw it in her eyes... she was the same creature who'd met him the night before. She'd appeared, before, as a faerie. Why, Cú Chulainn wasn't sure. But now she appeared as a maiden, offering him her aid... she couldn't be trusted.
He saw it as she straddled him, a blade pressed to his throat—as if to prove to him she was a capable partner in battle.
"You must be a witch!" Cú Chulainn shouted.
The maiden laughed. "A witch? I am so much more than that, young hero. But you have rejected my offer—an offer that might have been your salvation. For that reason, I tell you, the time will soon come when you will fall in battle. Your blood will be evermore a curse on the land—for it will be the blood of a warrior who spurned the invitation of the Morrigan."
A black cloud of smoke surrounded the woman. A black crow flew out of the cloud—and when the smoke dissipated the woman was gone.
Cú Chulainn returned to his feet. It was not the first time he'd encountered the Morrigan and, he feared, it would not be the last. Was it she who'd seduced him the night before? Cú Chulainn stomach churned at the thought.
And for the goddess to propose she become his lover? Cú Chulainn thrust his blade into the ground in anger. To spurn a goddess... he'd be cursed for it. But to accept the advances of the phantom queen, the wife of the Dagda? He'd never escape the good god's wrath. He was damned either way.
"Cú Chulainn, the hero of Ulster!" a man's voice spoke.
Cú Chulainn gripped his broadsword by the hilt and pulled it from the ground. Eventually, Cú Chulainn thought, Mebd's final champion will fall. Cursed by the Morrigan, or not, I will see this through.
Cú Chulainn's thoughts drifted to his encounter the night before. He'd known she wasn't human. He couldn't recall ever having met her before, yet she was alarmingly familiar. The woman's whose touch, whose desire, had coursed through his body like electricity. The one for whom his lusts had distracted him for only a night, a night that allowed Mebd to make her move.
All of this was the Morrigan's doing! Damn her for it!
Cú Chulainn grabbed his blade and, in ankle-deep water, charged the warrior who approached him at the edge of the fjord. Something struck him in the ankle. Cú Chulainn tripped, crashing headlong into the water.
He quickly turned and spotted an eel that had caught itself around his ankle. He punched at it.
The eel squirmed and made its way to the shore where it transformed into a wolf.
"Morrigan!" Cú Chulainn shouted. "You and your tricks!"
Mebd's warrior caught him from behind while he shouted at the Morrigan, now howling at him from the river's shore. Cú Chulainn quickly grabbed the warrior and flung him over his shoulder until he had the warrior by his chest plate and held him beneath the water.
Another champion down...
Cú Chulainn leaped ashore and charged after the wolf as it made its way toward the groves beyond the fjord. The wolf was riling up a herd of cattle as if to force a stampede.
What in the name of the great god himself i
s she doing?
If the goddess loved him, as she claimed, why send a stampede after him?
Cú Chulainn tossed his broadsword aside and a single stone. He hurled it with all his might toward the Morrigan, toward the wolf, striking her in the eye.
She howled as she transformed yet again—this time into one of the cows. What she'd started as the wolf she finished as a cow—stomping around and riling up all the rest of the herd.
Cú Chulainn grabbed a second stone. This time, he hurled it at the Morrigan's leg. Cú Chulainn could hear the bone break when the rock struck it...
This time, the Morrigan disappeared.
"Like I don't have enough on my hands as it is," Cú Chulainn said to himself. "All of Mebd's champions and I must do battle with a goddess as well?"
Shaking his head, Cú Chulainn returned to the river's edge. He didn't know how many more champions Medb had for him, but he was certain it was only a matter of time before the next one arrived.
IT HAD NEVER been my intention to torment Cú Chulainn—and in the middle of his battle with Mebd's champions, no less. But I had to get to him... I had to turn his heart...
Not that he might love me, but that his life might be spared... if he was going to survive the ordeal he needed more than he had. He needed me...
He just didn't realize it.
First I spoke him a warning. I hoped my declaration of what might be his impending death would soften his hardened heart. I thought if I interfered in his battles, if he saw his plight, he might relent from his stubbornness and accept my aid. Yes, I wanted him to love me. But if he were ever to love me he had to live...
I tripped him up as an eel, I distracted him as a wolf and sent a stampede after him as one of the herd. And he still bested the warriors who came after him. He still wounded me...
I could heal myself...
Or I could use these wounds to my advantage...
Frightening him into accepting my aid was not going to work.
But he was tired...
He still had more champions to defeat...
And he was thirsty...
That's it! It pains me to deceive him this way, but I cannot think of another way to bathe my beloved in my power, to give him the strength he needs to fight off the rest of Mebd's champions... to stand a chance against Aife...
CÚ CHULAINN WAS exhausted. He still could barely believe the Morrigan appeared as a woman in hopes he would permit her to join him in battle. If she was the one who'd seduced him the night before... how could he ever trust her? It was her fault, after all, that Ulster had fallen. And now she'd shown her true colors. She'd tried to trip him as an eel. She'd tried to cause a herd to stampede down upon him.
But he'd prevailed. And, at least for now, she'd given up.
Cú Chulainn strolled back toward the river. How many of Mebd's champions had he killed? Too many... he hated killing... he just wanted this to be over.
"Young man," a woman said as he passed by a herd of cattle—all of them were likely the offspring of Donn Cúailnge. "You look as though you could use a drink."
To turn down such an offering from an old woman would have been rude. Besides, Cú Chulainn was thirsty. Parched, in fact. And a drink would help him recover his strength. "I'd be delighted."
The woman took a mug and filled it to the brim directly from the cow's teat.
Cú Chulainn took a sip. It was delicious. It wasn't that the milk was, alone, particularly tasty. No better than one should expect from fresh milk. But he'd been fighting for so long it tasted better to him than any cup of milk he'd ever sampled.
He gulped the rest down.
"Bless you, good woman," Cú Chulainn said, smiling at her. He cocked his head as he examined the woman more closely... she had a lame leg. She was missing an eye. And she clung to her side as if she were in pain. These were the wounds he'd inflicted on the Morrigan... the cow's broken leg, the wolf's lost eye, and the eels bruised side.
"You!" Cú Chulainn exclaimed.
At that moment, the Morrigan shifted again in the form of the maiden he'd seen before. "With your blessing, I have blessed you in turn. The milk you drink is not of the cow, but it is my own."
"Your own milk?" Cú Chulainn nearly gagged at the thought.
"And with it comes my power that it should see you through the day, my love. For I am a goddess of war and death, and with my milk invigorating your frame, combined with the wolf who is within you still, not even Mebd's final champion will be able to defeat you."
Cú Chulainn cocked his head. "Thank you, I guess. But I have this handled..."
"But you do not know the final champion you must face, my love..."
"Why do you keep calling me that!"
"Because I've loved you for many years, Cú Chulainn. I've loved you even though your heart has so often longed for others... and I love you still. Pray, should you survive this battle, you might return my love and we might finally be together."
Cú Chulainn shook his head. "I have to return to my wife..."
"So long as you remain at her side, my love, your life will always be one in defense of Ulster. Yes, even now, as Ulster must evermore bend the knee to Mebd of Connacht, you will have no choice but to live a warrior's life. With me, I can give you what you desire. You can live an eternity as a god, as a god of poetry and verse! You can inspire the bards for generations!"
Cú Chulainn sighed. "Your offer is... generous... but I cannot. I have betrayed my vows already and I will not a second time, no matter how much I might desire it."
"My love... please... you must reconsider."
"Are you not the wife of the Dagda?" Cú Chulainn asked.
The Morrigan sighed. A tear fell down her cheek. "Not by choice, my love. And he has offered my freedom if I might earn the affections of a mortal, the very mortal whom I love... if I might be loved by you, Cú Chulainn."
Cú Chulainn placed his hand on the Morrigan's shoulder. "You do not need to appear to me this way."
The Morrigan nodded and returned to her natural form. "I only thought you'd find this form more pleasing. I've observed you often, I've seen the women who catch your eye."
"Why would you change yourself, your own natural beauty, for my sake?"
"It seemed to me you preferred women of a slighter frame..."
"I appreciate the beauty of a woman who embraces her truth... you are beautiful however you've appeared to me..."
"Even as the eel and the heifer?"
Cú Chulainn laughed. "In a manner of speaking... I suppose there was a majesty in those forms. But this is what suits you, my Morrigan. You are beautiful as you are..."
"If only you'd known me when I was but three sisters..."
Cú Chulainn shook his head. "I cannot imagine that you were any less beautiful then..."
"So you will have me?"
"I honor you, Morrigan. But I cannot betray my wife. And for that, I am sorry."
"As am I," the Morrigan said. "For today you must do the unthinkable... you must face the mother of your child. She is Mebd's final champion."
Cú Chulainn sighed. "I should have expected that I suppose. But alas, since my son has come of age perhaps I can bring myself to face her, finally. You've given me a great gift. I will prevail."
"Bless you, Cú Chulainn... my love... and if you should ever change your mind... you need only call on the nearest raven and it is likely that it will be I."
Cú Chulainn nodded. "Bless you, divine Morrigan."
38
THREE MORE OF Mebd's champions. Cú Chulainn slew them each with ease.
Only one more... he was ready.
Before she arrived, I appeared to him a last time, washing one of the fallen warrior's blood-stained armor in the river. He nodded at me. It was meant to be a warning. As a bard, he'd know what the omen meant. I did not want him to be careless. It was meant to encourage him to fight with care, to rely on the power I'd granted him by the aid of the heifer's milk.
A howl echoed
in the distance. It was her. Not as a human. She appeared in the ríastrad.
Cú Chulainn heard turned to me and smiled before grabbing his broadsword and raising it overhead.
"Come at me, Aife! You've always wanted vengeance! Now is your chance!"
In full wolf form, Aife continued to charge after him.
She stopped as Cú Chulainn prepared to swing his blade.
The one who stood there transformed again, now in human form. It wasn't Aife. It was not a woman at all!
Cú Chulainn couldn't believe what he saw... a young boy, not much older than Cú Chulainn had been when he first learned he had the ríastrad. His hair was short and red. His body, though, was built like Cú Chulainn's had been in his youth. He was young, tall, virile, and strong. The age was right. Could it be hm?
"My son?"
"My name is Connla. I am the son of Aife... and of a man who abandoned us before I was born."
Cú Chulainn dropped his blade. "I cannot fight you, my son..."
Connla shook his head. "You cannot call me son... and I will not call you father... even if it is your blood in my veins."
"I will not fight you."
"Then you will die!"
"If vengeance is what you seek, it will be yours today, Connla." Cú Chulainn unwound the wrappings he'd placed on his feet—it was what he preferred to wear when in battle—and seeing a large boulder proceeded to tie himself to it.
"What are you doing?"
"I will bind myself so that I might not, even if the wolf overtakes my form, fight back against you."
"Mother said you were weak..."
"Like I said, my son. I will not fight you."
"You must fight me, Cú Chulainn!"
"I am your father... please refer to me as such."
"I will not!"
"Then you can kill me however you see fit, my son."
"Fight me like a man!"
"Will my death make you more of a man, my son? I've lived a life I never wanted. The life of a hero, of a champion, a man destined for battle. But it is a fool who thinks by afflicting others with death he might come to live."
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 130