Isobel

by Chloe Garner

  “Is that why you’re helping me?” Allie asked. Isobel frowned at her for a moment, then understanding crossed her face and she smiled.

  “No. I just hate seeing talent wasted.” She paused. “And I enjoy annoying Gede.”

  “You aren’t going to tell him…?”

  “Oh, no, child. I’m not laying traps for you. I do a great many things that are sure to annoy him, and sometimes he finds out and is annoyed.”

  Allie grinned at her own hands, then absently straightened her gelding’s mane.

  “I mean it with all sincerity, though,” Isobel said after another minute. “Enjoy this time. Good or bad, your life will never be like this again.”

  Allie considered it, feeling her brow fold down. She nodded at Isobel.

  “Thank you.”

  Isobel nodded back decisively, then clucked to her mount and trotted up to the front of the procession to ride next to Rafa.

  Allie watched them for a while as the pair rode in silence. They never seemed to need to talk to each other, and it made Allie feel safe. They never felt any doubt, either one of them. She knew Gwen wished she felt a bit more doubt, sometimes, but she nevertheless wished and hoped that she would be like that, someday.

  Her thoughts wandered again, and the landscape rolled past.

  “Allie!”

  The call came from uphill, but Allie was unable to find its source before its source came barreling into her.

  “You’re here!”

  “Is that where I am?” Allie answered, trying not to get stepped on as her horse skittered away from the fearsome red-headed ball of energy. Kenna dragged her up the hill.

  “You have to come meet everyone. I’ve been telling them all about you.”

  Allie pulled her wrist away.

  “You’ve what to who?”

  “The girls,” Kenna said, as if that clarified everything. Allie could at least guess at part of what that meant. The clans that were too far away to come in a morning trek would have planned to arrive the night before to avoid overnight travel and still be here in time for the main festivities.

  Allie was concerned that she might have been able to guess the rest of the meaning of Kenna’s clues.

  Reluctantly, she let Kenna drag her the rest of the way up the hill toward the main gate of the hillfort.

  The hillside was transformed from the sleepy grazing grounds that had been there the last time Allie had come. Large portions of the space had been claimed by visiting clans, all of them within the immediate protection of the king, and the Caledd were there in their hundreds, men, women, and children. The rest of the hillside was set up for competition, games, and feasting. Long benches lined the hill in one section where families sat in their heavy furs, eating and talking, creating a general uproar that was characteristic of the midwinter festival. In the competition grounds, little boys played with sticks in anticipation of the more grown-up sports that would come later. Everywhere, despite the cold, there was heat and cheer.

  Through the gates, the scene was much the same, though much of the activity was on the part of Drest’s people as they attempted to be hospitable to their guests, ferrying food and necessities down the hillside. Here a man attended to a horse that had gone lame and there a pair of women sat over a cloak, repairing it from a travel accident. Allie heard a woman scream and hesitated, but Kenna kept on.

  “Colin’s wife,” she said. “Her baby is come early. She’ll probably spend the rest of the winter here.”

  Allie wasn’t sure she knew who Colin was. Kenna knew everyone, always had. She traveled with Drest for his tours of the clans, and everyone knew she was being groomed for an influential marriage. It was her job to know everyone, just as the king did. Allie had more than once thought that seldom had a woman been better- or worse-suited for a destiny.

  “Is she okay?” Allie asked.

  “The midwife says the baby is set right and that Gavina is progressing well,” Kenna said. It had never occurred to Allie that women had babies all the time. Kenna acted like it was nothing, but the idea that a person was being born and Kenna could just walk past was astonishing to Allie. Kenna glanced back at her with amusement.

  “She has hours left,” she said. “The baby may not even come today. It’s her first.”

  Allie looked over her shoulder as she walked, still shocked, then Kenna turned a corner around the main dwelling, and Allie’s thoughts snapped back to the present.

  “Everyone, this is Allie. Allie, this is everyone.”

  Allie frowned at the congregation of girls, fighting the urge to back away from them. All of them were around her age; some a year older, some as much as three years younger. All of them stared.

  At her.

  And then the questions started.

  “Are you really learning to shoot?”

  “Have you killed anything?”

  “Is it hard?”

  “What will you do if your mother finds out?”

  “Aren’t you afraid of Gede finding out?”

  Allie threw up her hands in front of her and backed into Kenna, who pushed her forward again.

  “Uh uh,” the girl said. “You’re staying, girlie.”

  Allie looked back at her, and Kenna grinned.

  “They all want to know,” she said.

  “Know what?”

  There was a silence, then a tall girl named Brietta stepped forward.

  “Will you teach us?”

  It was surreal.

  Kenna had snuck back to her hut and stolen Aedan’s bows, a shorter hunting bow and a longer warbow, and the girls were handing them around, trying them out with a sense of novelty that made Allie wonder why they hadn’t done this before.

  Why none of them had done it, before.

  Why had it taken Isobel’s permission for her to try this?

  There was laughter and giggling, and a number of the girls had red welts on their wrists where they had hit themselves with the bowstring. Kenna had them up and down the insides of both wrists, as she couldn’t figure out which hand to use to draw, and refused to quit trying, no matter how much the welts hurt.

  Allie walked among the girls, adjusting their stances as they faked holding a bow, showing Brietta how to adjust the angle of her draw based on how far away the target was. She wanted to tell them that she was just a beginner at this as they gathered around her to watch her draw Aedan’s warbow, but who else was there?

  She let the string go, drawing a loud slap against the leather on her wrist and a hum in the string as it came to rest. Her body followed the idea of the arrow in its slow, innocuous arc, feeling the thud as it came to rest in the target her mind conjured at the hillfort wall.

  “Can I use that?” Kenna asked, fingering the leather wrap. Allie took them off and handed them to Kenna and a girl called Mavis, who was practicing with the hunting bow.

  Allie could master the hunting bow, but the warbow was too tall, and the draw too heavy, for her body. She could feel the strain across her shoulders from repeated draws, but refused to show it out of silly pride. The other girls, strong from normal chore work, were surprised at how specialized the muscles involved were, and Allie was a little concerned that someone would notice the consistent, specific soreness among the girls and figure out that something was going on.

  As she was showing another girl how to wrap her fingers around the string in order to hold an arrow steady, the rest of the girls fell silent. Allie looked up to find Aedan walking around the back corner of the building. The girls started to cluster, moving generally behind Allie and talking quietly to each other. The feeling of nervous tension was universal among them, except from Kenna, who loosed the string on Aedan’s warbow with a marvelous twang.

  “That’s too tall for you,” Aedan commented as he walked past Kenna toward Allie.

  “Then get me a shorter one,” she answered, drawing again. He grinned, and the silence behind Allie became more deafening.

  “I’d wondered where you’d
gone,” he said, raising his chin to look at the girls. “I should have known Kenna would have told anyone she could trust.”

  Allie glanced over her shoulder, amused and feeling very special. Aedan rolled his thumb down his jaw, then shrugged.

  “Most of the families are assembling to eat,” he said. “If you don’t want your wee brothers looking for you, I’d recommend being somewhere they can find you.”

  There was a rush as the dismissal sunk in, then the women brushed past Allie and Aedan.

  “He won’t tell, will he?” one of them whispered on the way by. Allie closed her eyes and shook her head, completely calm. Kenna let her bowstring fly again, then grunted as she rubbed her shoulders.

  “Work to make an ox of you,” she said. Aedan put out his hand and she gave him the bow. Allie gave him the hunting bow that had been guiltily shoved into her hands when he’d shown up. Aedan was watching her with steady, curious eyes.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I’d expect it of her,” he said, motioning at Kenna, “but this is a bit more than I’d seen, from you.”

  “It just happened,” Allie said. Aedan laughed.

  “Aye, that’s what happens when Kenna gets involved. Things just happen.”

  She waited for some sense of condemnation, but there was none there. He put his arm back toward Kenna, holding out the pair of bows.

  “Put those back, will you?” he said.

  “If Gede catches me with them, he’ll beat me,” Kenna said.

  “You stole them, you can put them back,” Aedan said, turning subtly to put his arm around Allie’s waist. “I’m sure you’re plenty clever enough to outwit Gede.”

  Kenna sighed dramatically, then widened her eyes at Allie and dashed for the back wall.

  Allie and Aedan walked the other way.

  “Why aren’t you angry?” Allie asked after a minute.

  “Why would I be?”

  She shrugged.

  “I don’t know. Anyone else would be.”

  He watched the sky where it met the rocks off in the distance, then chuckled.

  “I can’t answer that, I guess. You ever notice that no one ever says anything to Isobel?”

  “Yes,” Allie said. He laughed again and nodded.

  “You just have to believe that you’re right, and face down anyone who says otherwise.”

  “Am I right? About what, even?”

  Isobel did what she did for reasons. Allie felt like she was only doing what she wanted, without considering what other people thought. Or how they would react. It was the kind of thing that forever made Gwen sigh at her. She was hardly interested in facing anyone down. She’d just melt away and go do what she wanted again. Aedan was watching her.

  “Maybe that’s why you’re the one who should do it,” he said. “You aren’t trying to make anyone do anything.”

  “What does that even mean?” Allie asked. “What am I not making anyone do?”

  He watched her for another step.

  “Change.”

  “Allie!”

  Allie turned to see Drude charging out of the house. He swept her up in a huge hug. She felt her eyes bug out.

  “You came and didn’t find me?”

  She was surprised, overwhelmed, at his display of familiarity. He clapped her on the back.

  “Not that I can blame you for wanting to spend all of your time with Aedan, here. If I had a sweetheart, I wouldn’t want to see anyone else, either.”

  She took a step back. Were they sweethearts? Did everyone know? He laughed and hugged her again.

  “I’ve missed you, little one. Not so little anymore, though, are you?”

  She turned to Aedan, using mock anger to cover embarrassment.

  “Do you tell everyone everything?”

  He looked away, abashed, but grinning.

  “It’s a handsome match,” Drude said, ignoring her. “Even my da would approve, if you asked.”

  Allie found her mouth clamped closed. Wait a minute.

  “Why?”

  Aedan, while not the king’s own son, was still a political asset that Drest would not hesitate to spend wisely. Surely the king would have preferred Aedan marry a chieftain’s daughter, to tighten the relationships among the clans. Allie was the daughter of an outsider, of no value at all. Drude, for the first time ever, looked uncomfortable.

  “Have I said too much?” he asked Aedan.

  “It’s fine,” Aedan said. Allie spun to look at Aedan. He held his hands out a fraction.

  “It’s not that important,” he said. “But you’re the only lass to come from Rafa’s clan. Any of the families would love to have you as daughter, if they knew how to pursue you.”

  “Hamish approached Rafa last year for Kade,” Drude said.

  “Rafa chased him halfway here with a bludgeon,” Aedan said. Drude’s wink communicated to Allie that it was an exaggeration, but not much. Allie looked away again, more embarrassed.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Aedan said, ducking his head to try to catch her eye. “You believe me?”

  “I never thought I was important,” she said, a bit stunned. Drude clapped her on the back again.

  “Course you are. Let’s eat.”

  With that, the awkward moment was over, and Allie followed Aedan and Drude out of the hillfort and down the hillside to the benches. She found Gwen after a few minutes, and the three of them sat across from Gwen and several others of Rafa’s clan.

  “Where have you been?” Gwen asked. Allie couldn’t tell if the question was suspicious or off-handed.

  “With Kenna,” she answered, trying not to look anxious.

  “Lively as ever, I imagine,” Gwen said, looking up at Allie with raised eyebrows. Her attention turned to Aedan, who froze as her eyes hit him.

  “Yes, as ever,” he said, looking something like abashed. Drude choked on a cup of ale that he had swiped from someone, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

  “She never changes,” he agreed. Gwen nodded slowly and Drude sprung back to his feet.

  “I came for food,” he announced.

  “Right,” Allie said, standing as well. Aedan was a bit slower to his feet, still mesmerized by Gwen’s steady attention.

  “Right,” he finally echoed as Allie dragged him away.

  “What happened?” Drude asked with a coarse laugh as they hastened over to the cooking fires where the bounty of food was laid out for service.

  “I don’t know,” Aedan answered. “It was like she was reading my soul.”

  “She does that,” Allie said.

  “Been spending too much time with Isobel, then,” Drude said. “Scary.”

  They all agreed as they heaped plates with food and picked their way back through the crowds, eating as they walked. Aedan and Drude called out greetings to friends as they passed. It was strange. Allie had spent most of her life living in Drest’s kingdom, but she still felt like an outsider, at the festivals. Aedan and Drude knew most everyone. It wasn’t like Kenna, who would have known everyone, no matter where she was from. This was just a sense of familiarity that was a comfortable fit for both of them.

  “Drude!” someone called. Drude and Aedan turned to find several of the boys from Rafa’s training school at a long empty bench. They waved them over and Aedan paused. Allie nodded him on. She ate with Gwen every day.

  “Is it true?” one of the boys asked as they sat.

  “What?” Drude asked.

  “War,” another said. Drude grinned and leaned out over two meaty elbows, picking at the food on his plate dramatically.

  “Well, I can’t say yes, but I can’t say no, either,” he said.

  “Who are they going to let go?” a third boy asked.

  “Not you, Murdoch,” Aedan said. The skinny boy looked indignant, but he was well and truly short of his growth spurt, and looked like he’d recently been stretched between horses. The bigger boys chortled to each other, and Murdoch looked disappointed.

&n
bsp; “We aren’t going to war,” a fourth boy said dismissively, waving a bone around the table. “We aren’t that lucky.”

  There were mutters of agreement around the table.

  “My uncle said that the Romans are trying to say he owes them taxes,” Jock, the one who had waved them over, said.

  “Anyone at the wall,” Drude nodded.

  “Your uncle trades with them,” Murdoch said with a sneer. Allie saw from Aedan’s expression that this was a touchy subject. Allie could imagine. She didn’t want to think about actually seeing a Roman face to face. Not if anyone expected her to be polite.

  There was an awkward silence for a minute, then Drude shrugged.

  “Caledd are Caledd,” he said. There was a nod that went around the table, and Allie leaned over her plate to eat, letting the conversation continue around her.

  The games were as rowdy as ever, and as the evening went on, the drinking picked up, and the laughter got louder. There were impromptu wrestling matches - no less than three between Drude and Aedan, alone - and there was shouting as the usual fights broke out and were drowned in more mead. The sun began to set, and girls began to visibly show up on the hillside wearing white dresses in the bright moonlight.

  The crowds began to quiet, and a full hush fell as the gray cloaks began to materialize out of the woods like a mist creeping up toward the hillfort.

  The druids had arrived.

  Tavish, the head of the druid order in the Caledd lands, emerged from the group, dropping his hood back and coming to stand in the gap between the druids and the rest of the Caledd. Drest wasn’t far away, and he came to stand before Tavish, kneeling in the frosty grass. Tavish put his hand on Drest’s head and spoke a few private words, then Drest stood and Tavish backed away, raising his hood again. Drest’s rule had been revalidated by the druids. The crowds parted further and the girls in the white dresses came forward, forming a circle that they stretched to an arm’s-length separation, then sitting on their knees. Aedan took Allie’s hand for a moment, sending a warm rush up to her elbow, then she went to sit in the second circle.