by Cory Huff
“I don’t know why she won’t teach you, Sophronia,” Liam replied angrily. “Let me go there in the morning and ask, and maybe I can figure it out. Stop asking me. You know more about Badb than I do!”
“She is one of the greatest generals in my stories of the fairies, and she suddenly shows up and is real? Do you know what this means, Liam? I’ve been singing stories about real people! Well, real fairies. How many more are real? Are they all real? We’ve seen an elf, goblins and now a mythical general. What about sprites? Pixies? Are there more elves? What about the Fomorians and the Frost Prince?”
Aidan spoke up in an irritated voice, “Sophronia, it is dark already, and you’re still yelling. Will you please stop?”
Sophronia had fumed all the way here. She had started in on Liam as soon as they had come inside and decided to stay here. She was incensed that Badb would refuse to teach her. She considered herself a bard, and she thought the Sidhe were supposed to love bards. She was the storyteller of the group, and she was being shut out of the story. She looked at Aidan and made a rude gesture, but she lowered her volume.
“You don’t even want to learn,” she muttered.
Liam shot her a look, as angry as either of them had ever seen him. “Don’t want to learn? I have nearly died at least three times because of the Ogham.” His volume was low, but simmering with resentment. “I didn’t ask for this. I want to learn though. I want to learn to make it go away. Badb said she would help me control it, so it doesn’t kill me. That’s a good start. When I figure out how to make it go away, and figure out how to make people stop trying to kill me, I will go home, and you can go on your merry way writing new stories. Never mind the fact that you have one of your brothers left at home who, I presume, love you. I’ve been alone since…” he choked on his emotions. He turned away and walked to the back of the house they were hiding in.
Aidan and Sophronia made eye contact again. Neither of them had seen him this upset. This was the first time he had said anything about being alone or lacking a family. They both sat down, Sophronia feeling guilty about provoking Liam.
She noticed that there were tears in his eyes again. He saw her looking at him, and he bowed his head as if hiding. She was curious about what had come up for him, but Sophronia was kind enough to let him cry in silence. She stood back up and walked across the room, wondering how she could apologize to Liam as well as convince Badb to train her. The only story she knew of Badb was that she had led an army in battle against an army of rival Sidhe. Badb had flown over the enemy army as a crow, scouting their numbers and terrifying that army with her cries of death and doom. When she landed at the front of her troops and transformed into her warrior form, she chanted a poem as she led the forward and with the final line, struck the first blow of combat. She killed a dozen Sidhe herself and won the day.
Where did these stories originate? Why had she never asked herself that question? There were hundreds of years of history she was missing. An account that nobody in Atania had ever thought to discover. They all just went about their daily lives as if a mystery of epic proportions didn’t surround them.
What had happened to Ghealdar, and how was it connected to what happened to Atania? Did the people who destroyed Atania also destroy Ghealdar? Was it the Sidhe? Badb seemed as if she knew about what happened. Sophronia wondered if there was a way to get her to trust Sophronia enough to talk.
What in the Creator’s hell was going on?
Sophronia pondered on this problem for a long while as total darkness fell. She heard the occasional sniffle from Aidan. Liam was completely silent.
In the silence, there was sudden cheering. It was as if thousands of voices raised a cry of war out of nowhere. All three of them stood up and looked at the door. The cheers were muffled by the walls and by distance. How far away were they? A wave of cheers rose again. They were chanting a war cry. “Ghealdar stands! Ghealdar will not yield!” they were shouting over and over.
The three of them looked at each other again. Aidan spoke, “We can’t go out there can we?”
Sophronia shook her head slowly, “I think this is the danger we were warned about.”
Liam spoke, “There’s something else coming.”
They all went quiet and listened. They backed up away from the door. Aidan drew his weapons.
A high-pitched sound began clashing with the war chants. It was an equal voice of thousands. It was challenging to understand what the other host was saying.
“It’s birds,” said Aidan.
Then they all understood. Caws. The calls of thousands of crows. They were calling to each other, and it was growing louder as well. The louder the crows became, the quieter the Ghealdar chants grew. Soon the caws drowned out the war chants. Then the screaming began. Men and women were screaming for their lives, begging for mercy, calling for retreat. The confusion was hellish. People were issuing conflicting orders and pleas.
They heard the sound of a battle beginning. The clang of metal weapons on metal armor. Screams of agony and pain and fear became general. The cries of death became the primary sound as the crows faded into silence. The slaughter continued for over an hour before it began to fade in intensity gradually. However, it didn’t completely go away. There were moments of silence punctuated by sudden cries for mercy, cut short. The moments of silence initially last just a few seconds, then a minute. Then five minutes. Hours had passed with the three companions from Atania listening in horror. Aidan and Liam wept silently. Even Sophronia stood there as tears streamed down her face. None of them slept.
Finally, as the moments of silence were longer than the cries for mercy, the caws began again. It was less intense, but they were out there, feasting.
Liam spoke for all of them when he spoke with a husky voice, “We should not have come here. This horror was not meant for living ears.”
6. Liam and His Teacher
Liam woke up. Once the crows had quieted down to dull background noise in the wee hours of the morning, Liam had decided that he would sleep for at least a few hours. He was going to get some answers today. He stood up and stretched, trying not to make noise. He had found a bed upstairs in this new house. He crept out of the room with his pack, trying not to wake the others.
He walked downstairs and found that he needn’t have bothered. Aidan was sitting on the couch, cross-legged. His sword and ax on the floor in front of him. It looked like he hadn’t slept at all. His eyes were red, and he looked disheveled in general. Sophronia was sitting on a chair near the window. They had drawn back the curtains to let the morning sunshine in and dispel the horror of the darkness. She stared out the window. Neither of them acknowledged him as he came down the stairs.
“I’m going to meet Badb,” said Liam when he reached the bottom. “Whatever happens, I will meet you both back here before dark?”
Neither of them answered.
“Aidan?” he asked.
Pulled from his revery, Aidan looked at Liam, “What?”
“I will meet you back here before nightfall? If you go out?”
“You’re still going?” asked Aidan.
“Yes, Aidan. I’m still going. This is why we’re here.”
Aidan nodded. “Ok.”
“Sophronia?” Liam asked.
She nodded as well, “We will be here. It is not safe to be elsewhere after dark.”
They were both looking down, lost in reverie, trying to process the night’s sounds when Liam walked out the door. At home, he would describe this as a typical morning: nothing on the streets except a stray crow. He looked at it, glancing over his shoulder, as he walked through the cobblestone streets choked with weeds. At home, he would have forgotten the crow immediately. However, here in Ghealdar, everything seemed to have just an extra tinge of abnormal. It set him on edge.
The crow seemed to be following him. It kept showing up in various spots on housetops as Liam made his way through the streets.
Liam didn’t realize what corner he was ro
unding when he was face to face with the boneyard again. The late morning Summer sun radiated warmth off of the white ruins of the courtyard. Liam was struck again by how many people had died here. His guts twisted as he remembered the screams in the nighttime. Were these the bones of the people begging for mercy they’d heard last night? Was that crow watching him the descendant of the crows who had feasted here on this innumerable graveyard? He retched but swallowed his bile. He understood how Aidan felt.
Movement caught his eye to the left. There she was. Badb. Straight out of legend, or so said Sophronia. Liam had never heard about her in any story, so last night he had asked Sophronia about Badb. Anything you can tell, he had asked. She had scoffed at him and rolled her eyes. She refused to tell a story, but she gave him the bare minimum of facts. There were several stories about wars among the Sidhe and all of them featured one of the Morrigan sisters, a triplet set of powerful Archfey who led the armies of the Summer Queen. In the stories, Badb was a shapeshifter often taking the shape of a crow. In her Sidhe form, she was a mighty, sword-wielding, armored warrior capable of besting all but the most powerful of immortal beings. She was also savage and ruthless when angered.
Liam wondered if Badb was the one that Elder Kaufman had sent him here to see. He wondered why she would not teach Sophronia. He wondered if there was some other person here in this forsaken city that could teach him instead. Perhaps he should turn away and keep looking. Or flee altogether. He realized that she was walking closer. His brow broke out in a sweat, and it wasn’t the Summer heat. His heart hammered. He didn’t want to know what was happening here. He would leave. He opened his mouth to thank her and say that her services would not be needed, but suddenly she was so close, and her eyes met his, pinning him where he stood. Her eyes were light blue, with large, black pupils. They were more round than his own eyes, almost perfectly circular, and the pupils were too large. He thought that if he looked at them long enough, he might be sucked in and the hidden fire within Badb might consume him. Looking into this vast blackness, he realized he was dealing with a person with reserves of will that he could never hope to match. She had caught him in her machinations, whatever they were, for good or for ill. For a moment he was tempted to try to look into her mind again. He thought about her reputation and how angry she had been yesterday. He would not look further than that blackness. He would wait for her to start.
They stood there, just a few feet apart, staring into each others’ eyes. After a long time, Badb nodded slowly. It was more than her neck, but her whole upper body, almost a bow. It reminded him of the way crows bow to each other when they meet in murders.
“Let us begin,” she said. “Tell me what you already know.”
Liam hesitated, “I don’t know anything.”
“Nothing? Sophronia has taught you nothing?”
“I know that the Ogham exists as some magical language. I know that the Sidhe are real. I know that I have somehow accidentally begun using the Ogham without meaning to do so, and I know it is killing me.”
Badb’s head cocked to the side, “What do you mean killing you?”
“I mean that when I use the power, it makes me sick. I get nauseous and dizzy, and my head feels like it is going to explode. I pass out and am unable to function for days at a time.”
Badb muttered, “I knew the Gaeas was a bad idea.” Then, more directly at Liam, “It is your human side I think. The Gaeas is preventing you from accessing your powers.”
Liam looked at her blankly.
“You don’t know about the Gaeas, do you?” Badb’s straightforward blunt way was throwing Liam off, and he responded, “No.”
“It’s what we did at the end of the war to stop humans from destroying us. It made all of them forget about the magic. However, we constructed it in haste and didn’t think through all of the implications. We didn’t know what would happen to the children of the Sidhe with a human parent. There were many things we didn’t know.” She looked haunted for a moment like she saw something terrible in her mind. “Mistakes were made.” She shook herself. “You have been able to access your power though. What enabled you to do that?”
Liam considered. He knew what it was, but he wondered how much he should tell this being of immense power. Then he realized that he couldn’t possibly be worse off than he was right now. If she wanted to kill him, she could probably do it with the snap of a finger.
“Fear,” said Liam. “When I’m in danger, the power explodes out of me. I used to be able to hold it in, but the more danger I’m in, the worse it becomes. The last time, I caused a cave in that nearly killed my friends and me.”
Badb looked puzzled, “What did you do? How did you almost cause a cave in?”
Liam shrugged, “We were under attack. I looked at the ceiling above them and just wished it would fall in. A wave of energy exploded out of me and collapsed the cavern.”
She bobbed her head. She looked concerned. “Why didn’t you just turn them away, or turn yourself invisible?”
His eyes went wide, “Can I do that?”
“Not every Sidhe can turn invisible. Some can only misdirect or hide. I have never met a Sidhe that controls earth like that.” Her faced turned stony and cold. “Only humans manipulate with that kind of brute force.” She stared at him with her unnervingly round, blue eyes. “I think you need to find your Sidhe side, Liam. Your brute force ways of using the…” her mouth twisted with disgust, “Ogham, as you call it, are causing you to trip the Gaeas. Access your heritage and be free of the bondage of this curse.”
Liam cautiously asked, “How?”
Badb responded, “Open your soul to the world around you and see things as they are, Liam. See with the eyes of the Sidhe and drop the human veil. The trees sing — nature hums and the animals speak. The crows bring me the news. What animals follow you?”
“I don’t interact with animals,” said Liam. “Well, I do. But I made things out of their skin. I’m a leatherworker.”
Badb stared at him and made him nervous. He kept thinking.
“Humans follow me.” He said quietly. “The children play outside my shop. Aaron and his friends watch me and pick on me. Or, at least they used to. I know everyone in my neighborhood, even if I don’t talk to them very much. Sophronia and Aidan followed me here.” He looked at her for a long time. “People follow me.”
Badb nodded slowly. “You are not only Sidhe. You are also human. I am not the greatest teacher, but I’m all you have. You have much to learn and unlock. Continue opening your heart and mind to what’s happening around you, and I will try. That is all we can do.”
“Long before you were born, the Sidhe lived in harmony with the humans. We were enamored with your passion and your intensity. For such frail, weak creatures, humanity was able to accomplish so much. You figured out how to grow wheat, and it exploded your population. You built cities to live close together. We were fascinated by the way you kept changing, especially since we rarely change. We showed you the Ogham stones,” she grit her teeth. “Everything we did with the humans we did for your good. We wanted to see you thrive alongside our cousins, the Tuatha. This world we are in now, Liam, it’s … different. You now of Thir Na Nog?”
“I’ve heard the name in stories before. Sophronia told me that it exists in the shadows, that only the Sidhe can visit,” responded Liam. He wondered why she grit her teeth. What about this was agitating for her?
“Close. Non-Sidhe can visit Thir Na Nog. However, in all but the rarest cases, they must be invited in. This world, what the Sidhe call Domaine An Duine or the domain of men, is like a dull reflection of Thir Na Nog. The flowers are less bright, the fruit less sweet, and the air less refreshing. It’s as if your world was created by making a poor copy of our world. But that copy is what allowed the mortal races to come into existence, like you and the Tuatha. We worry about the Tuatha, and we worry about you. Or we did.”
She paused for a long time while they walked. Liam stayed silently, hoping she wo
uld share more.
“I think that’s ultimately why Cyric did it. He had been to Thir Na Nog and had seen how beautiful it was. He was jealous. He murdered hundreds of thousands. The Tuatha da Danaan, the elves, were reduced to just a small tribe. He forced my hand with Ghealdar and led nearly every human alive to slaughter. The fact that Darian Bloodstone killed him on top of Dragonshome Peak was fortuitous because I think Cyric might have even found a way to thwart the Gaeas.”
Liam’s heart pounded, and his vision swam. He stopped and took several quick breaths. He saw figures standing in front of him, faintly, as if they had been painted over the scene in front of him. He saw his mother, a gorgeous, dark-haired woman he only vaguely remembered, standing over him, soothing him because he’d had a bad dream. He remembered that she used to soothe him after he had nightmares. Why did he remember this now, so powerfully?
“Liam, are you unwell?” Badb was speaking to him.
Liam was pale and sweating. He shook his head no. The name Bloodstone was echoing through his mind again and again like a warning bell.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, alarmed.
“Who is Darian Bloodstone?” Asked Liam, between breaths.
“You don’t know?” Badb’s eyes practically bulged. “The Gaeas was thorough indeed if it struck his name from your memory.”
“That name…Bloodstone. There’s a tribe of warriors… on the Thir… named Bloodstone. They have a tattoo…that looks like three red gems…Are they related to this Darian person?”
“Liam,” Badb spoke in that military clip, but not unkindly. “The Bloodstone tribespeople are direct descendants of the army that fought with Darian on Dragonshome Peak. They were Darian Bloodstone’s army. The Gaeas made them forget who they were and they became the Bloodstone clan. This same thing happened to all of the tribes on the Thir. All of the rival tribes used to be the house armies of the noble families of the Atanian empire. They forgot the details of their petty rivalries, but not their dislike of each other. That stayed and was passed down through the generations without explanation.”