The Broken Raven

by Joseph Elliott

  One thing is certain: the sword is as hungry to kill as the sgàilean are. I lash out at four approaching sgàilean, unaware if it is me controlling the sword, the sword controlling me, or a combination of the two. Either way, we destroy all four in one mad flurry. Their death smell scorches my nostrils and I roar at the sound of their departing screams.

  I tighten my grip and raise the sword high into the air. A wild crimson glow pulses out of it, bathing me in its light. It acts like a beacon, causing sgàilean to flock toward it from all directions. Hundreds of shadows, speeding toward me, all intent on my death. My breath races at the speed of a raging bull. I’m clutching the sword so tight my fingers feel like they’re on fire. I close my eyes, focusing on nothing but the whispers as they draw nearer, nearer. The sword thrums in my hand.

  I slowly count to three, then I open my eyes and I strike.

  I find the Badhbh man’s special sword right away. It’s on the ground where the crying boy threw it. I pick it up. The shadow thing that was here before has gone away. I run to the loch. When I see it I can hardly even believe it. It is a battle and a big one. Moving lights are all around the loch which are red and pink ones from the other weapons that the Badhbh man made. And it is black black shadow things trying to get the people and screaming. I cannot see Crayton or Jaime or Aileen. I run to find them and help them. I will get the shadow things. I am not afraid.

  Someone is running toward me and they are holding a Reaper tool. It is a long stick with a blade on it for the cutting the crops. It is what the Reapers use, I know that. It is a magic one now and it is glowing. Does the person need help? I can help them. I cannot see the person. Uh-oh — it is not a person. It is a shadow thing that has the Reaper blade. It comes at me and swings it. I do a jump backward. The blade nearly cuts my face it is so close.

  The shadow thing’s other hand is a claw in all directions trying to grab at me and tear me apart. I swing the Badhbh man’s sword at it but the shadow thing is too quick and it is too hard to do it. When I move the sword to get it, it is already gone.

  It has both of its shadow hands on the Reaper blade now and it lifts it high. I put up the Badhbh man’s sword and the blades hit together. It is a big crash with sparks and my arms wibble. I fall onto the ground on my back. The shadow thing swings the Reaper blade from the side and hits the sword out of my hands. Then it moves the Reaper blade up into the air again. It is a pink line sharp in the sky. It is going to get me and I will be dead. I cannot stop it. The blade moves fast toward me. I close my eyes.

  Something grabs my shoulder and pulls me backward. It hurts where it grabs me. It is a different shadow thing which has got me and it is pulling me away. The only good thing is that the Reaper blade did not kill me but the bad thing is this shadow thing has got me now and it will kill me instead. I hit it with my hands but it holds on harder. I am bumping on the ground so fast and all of me hurts. There is screams around me and shadow things disappearing and falling people and horrible smell and it is too loud in my ears and my eyes and I cannot stop or make the shadow thing let go.

  My bottom is wet and so is my back and my legs and I am splashing wet all over and then under water and I cannot swim and I will drown. The shadow thing lets go. It feels like my shoulder falls off when it does it. I sit up. I am in water and wet all over. Milkwort runs out of my pocket and into my hair. He does not like it in the water. He nibbles on my ear which means to tell me to be more careful. I tell him sorry and stroke him.

  I am in the loch. Where did the shadow thing go? And why did it bring me to the loch? Shadow things do not like the water.

  Sun-Leaf, says a voice in my head. I turn and Thistle-River is next to me. He says he hopes he did not bite too hard.

  It wasn’t a shadow thing that pulled me away, it was Thistle-River!

  You saved me, I say to him in my head. He tells me my life was in danger so he helped me the same as I helped the deers. I say thank you to him and I say it again because I mean it a very lot.

  I stand up and look all around. The loch is full of the deers. Outside the loch there is fighting everywhere. Lots of shadow things have got the special weapons which makes them even more worse. I want to help but I do not have a weapon anymore and I wasn’t very good at doing it with the weapon anyway. I need a plan which is helping without having the weapon.

  People are running and the shadow things are chasing them and getting them. It is too horrible to see it. Why do they not run into the loch? If they get into the water then the shadow things cannot get them.

  One of the running people is Aileen. She does not have a weapon and the shadow things are going to get her. She will be safe in the loch, like me. She needs to come here.

  “Come into the — loch!” I shout. “Aileen! Qu-quickly!”

  She doesn’t reply. Maybe she doesn’t hear me. Then I see why she can’t come into the loch. There are shadow things all around it and they are keeping people from coming in. I don’t know how Thistle-River got past them. It must be because he was running so fast. This is so bad and it was not the plan. If Aileen and the other people cannot go into the loch there is nowhere safe for them to be. How can I make the shadow things go away? I am thinking hard for the clever plan.

  The shadow things do not like fire and they do not like water. That is what I know. Also they do not like rain. The Nice Queen Nathara told me that. It is because rain is water. If it rains the shadow things will go away. I look at the sky. It is dark and some clouds but it is not raining and I cannot make it do that. I have to have a different thought. Then I get one.

  Can you help me? I ask to Thistle-River. And then I say please for the manners. Thistle-River says that yes he will help and asks what I need him to do. I tell him my plan. It is for all the deers to make it rain with splashing. If they splash big ones all around the loch, the shadow things might think it is raining and go away.

  Thistle-River thinks it is a clever plan. He lifts his head and does three loud deer barks. The other deers do it the same, all around the loch. They are looking at me now. Follow me and make big splashing, I say to Thistle-River, and I start running in a circle around the edge of the loch. I run as fast as I can and I stamp hard with my feet to make the splashes. Thistle-River does it too and then the other deers do it as well. They run faster and make bigger splashes with their hooves. They are all running past me and the big splashes go over me and I’m wet. It is harder for me to run with all the deers running as well and harder for me to see with the water on my head.

  Then one is next to me that is not a deer. It is a bull and it is Crayton’s bull and it’s called Bras. He stops and goes lower which is asking if I want to go on his back. I do want to go on his back so I climb up and I hold on to his hair with my hands. He starts running so so fast. I scream because it is fun to be fast. All of the deers and me and Bras are running now in the circle around the loch and there is so much splashing and water. My ears are full with the stamping. The water from the loch is raining on the shadow things and they don’t like it and they move away. It is my plan and it is working. The shadow things go away in all directions and the people with weapons get them easy because the shadow things are confused. Crayton is one of the people doing the fighting with his spear. He is good at fighting and gets lots of shadow things and is strong. There is lots more horrible screaming which is the shadow things being stabbed and disappearing.

  The deers slow down running and so does Bras. I say thank you to Bras and get off from him into the water again. It is cold on my legs and I am shivery pimples. The people with no weapons come into the loch and they are safe. I knew my plan was a clever one.

  “Agatha, you genius!” says Aileen. She comes to me with lots of splashing and hugs me. It is a nice hug and I like it. “It was you, wasn’t it? That got the deer to chase the sgàilean away from the shore?”

  “It was!” I say. “It was me,” and I am smiling.

  “Hang on, what’s that?” Aileen points behind me. There is one
light that is brighter. It is a weapon I think but it is more red and more bright. It is down by the other side of the loch.

  “I don’t — know,” I say.

  We walk toward it but stay in the loch so the shadow things don’t get us. The person with the weapon holds it in the air high.

  “Is that — ?” asks Aileen. She doesn’t finish it what she was going to say. The strangle sound that is the shadow things gets louder. They have seen the bright sword too. All of the last ones go to it quick all together. I cannot see who it is that has the bright sword because they are covered in too many shadow things that are black swirls and screaming explosions. The sword is doing flashes and cuts so so fast and it is getting them. It is getting them all.

  There are too many screams that are loud and horrible and then the last one goes and there is no more screaming. It is quiet and not as dark as before. The wind is the only sound blowing. I can see the person who is holding the bright sword now. I cannot even believe it. It is Jaime. I wave to him and smile but he doesn’t see me. He is wobbling. The sword drops from his hand and he falls to the ground.

  When I open my eyes, Aileen is there. She’s saying something, but I can’t focus for long enough to figure out what. Everything is such a blur. Did I really just kill all those sgàilean? It was like I was in the center of a tornado, one that was intent on my destruction. But the sword . . . The sword took over. I don’t know what happened. It didn’t feel like it was me, yet at the same time, I’ve never felt so alive.

  My head is still full of the sgàilean’s death screams; they linger like a painful echo at the back of my mind. I’m on the ground. Did I fall? The ground is so uneven. There was something else, someone else . . . Donal.

  “Where’s Donal?” I ask, ignoring whatever it was Aileen was trying to say to me. “He was hurt; they have to help him. He was right here. He needs help, he was bleeding, he — ”

  “Cray carried him to the sickboth,” says Aileen. “He’s still alive. I think he’s going to pull through.”

  That’s all I needed to hear. While there’s life, there’s hope. And Cray — he’s alive too.

  I’m so tired. I close my eyes.

  I feel like I could sleep for a hundred years.

  Everyone is cheering. All of the shadow things are gone and we did it. I shout too. It is a loud noise I make that isn’t words. It is just noise because I am happy and it’s fun.

  “Thank goodness you’re safe,” says Maistreas Eilionoir. She grabs my fists and squeezes them. “You’re not hurt?”

  “No,” I say. My head is pounding a lot of hurt because of talking to the deers but I do not say that one.

  “It was a hard-won fight,” says Maistreas Eilionoir, “but we did it. We lived to tell the tale.”

  I nod my head yes. Maistreas Eilionoir gives my fists one more squeeze and then goes to someone else and squeezes their fists as well. It is what everyone is doing. I wanted Maistreas Eilionoir to tell me I am the hero but she didn’t. Other people talk to me and grab my fists but no one tells me I am the hero. Maybe they didn’t see the clever plan when I did it with the deers to make the splashing.

  “So you decided to disobey my instructions to stay in the nursery,” says Lenox. He looks tired but his smile is not a cross one.

  I do my pretty smile for him. “I was doing lots of helping,” I say.

  “I’m glad you’re all right, Aggie, even if you are terrible at doing what you’re told.”

  It is still nighttime and everyone is tired from the fighting but there is lots to do. Some people were hurt by the shadow things and the Herbists are making them better. The Stewers give out bowls with drink in. A woman gives one to me and I drink some. It is hot and makes my tongue ouch but also it is sweet and juicy nice. Other people pick up the bodies of the people who are dead. It is sad that they are dead. They put them next to the loch in a line. Lots of people help them do it. Tomorrow we will say goodbye to them. “Caidil gu bràth” is what we will say which is “Sleep forever with peace.”

  After, it is time for everyone to go to sleep. Not forever, but with the peace.

  “Today will be a day of celebration,” says Kenrick. “A celebration in honor of our fallen clansmen. A celebration of our victory over the sgàilean and of what we can achieve when our two clans work together. The Badhbh, here beside me, assures me that the sgàilean are no longer a threat. They have been destroyed and will never return.” There is lots of cheering at that and fists in the air. “To our friends from Clann-a-Tuath, I say this: you have helped us defend our enclave and helped protect our beautiful Isle of Skye — our shared home. I met with my clan this morning, and it has been agreed that we will reciprocate your help and support you in reclaiming your enclave, by whatever means necessary. May Clann-na-Bruthaich and Clann-a-Tuath forever be strong!”

  Everyone shouts again because they agree. It is very good what he said and means we can go home. Maistreas Eilionoir stands up. She is going to speak too. I have not finished eating morning meal yet but it is not allowed when they are talking. I put in one more mouthful quick before she starts. It is a big one. Crayton is sitting next to me and he laughs when he sees me do it.

  “Thank you, Kenrick, and thanks to everyone here,” Maistreas Eilionoir says. “It is no secret that all we have truly wanted since coming back to this island is to return to our home, to the stability and familiarity of our own enclave. We long for it, we have fought hard for it, and we will fight again if necessary. Knowing we have your support fills our hearts with courage. We have always considered Clann-na-Bruthaich our allies, but from this day forth, we also consider you our friends.” People cheer and fists in the air again when she says it. Then she says, “Last night was a testament to what we can accomplish together. We are here today, sharing morning meal, because of each and every one of you. That is the way of our clans. We fight. We survive. We thrive.”

  Maistreas Eilionoir sits down and there is more cheering. I look at everyone around me happy and smiling and then I know it. Maistreas Eilionoir is right when she said we did it together and it means that everyone is the hero. We were all brave and did helping and that is what is being a good clan. I am the hero too because I helped the crying boy and I had the clever plan to make the deers do the splashing but I do not need everyone to tell it to me. I know that it is true.

  After morning meal it is time to say goodbye to the deers. They are my friends and I like them but they want to go back outside the enclave. That is where they live. They will be safe there now that the shadow things are gone. They walk together through the enclave and everyone waves at them. When we are at the Lower Gate, the Moths open it and the deers go out. I say a special big goodbye to Thistle-River.

  We will meet again, Sun-Leaf, Thistle-River says to me. He bows his head and I bow mine too. Then he does two loud deer barks and runs off into the trees. I hope it is true what he said that we will meet again.

  It is time for the celebrating. Everyone goes to around the meeting tree which is a black one now. It was Jaime who burned it. Some people play the pipes and I do some stamping. Someone starts saying an òran and everyone joins in with the chanting. It is the one about the giants called Faolan and Eòsaph. I have heard it a lot of times. Faolan and Eòsaph were the brothers but they didn’t like each other so they fought with big hammers. That is why the Skye island broke off from Scotia because Eòsaph hit the ground so hard and it cracked a big one. I say some of the words but I can’t remember all of them. Remembering isn’t my best one.

  It is fun to hear the piping and the òran and do the stamping with my clan but then it reminds me of something and I have to leave. I walk away to the wall and go up the steps to the top. It is cold with the wind but also there is sun a bit and it is nice on my face. Skye island is pretty this morning. It is a bright one with the sunshines on the grass. Milkwort comes out and sits on my shoulder so he can see it too. He thinks it is pretty as well. I walk a long way around the wall looking out all the time
.

  “Hey, Aggie, what are you doing up here?” I turn around and it is Jaime who said that. I knew it was him because I know how his voice sounds. I don’t know why he is on the wall, though.

  “I’m a — a Hawk,” I say. “I’m looking out and being a — good one.”

  “Didn’t you want to join the celebrations?”

  I shake my head no. People are still playing the pipes. I can hear it. The music and everyone happy made me think of when Jaime had to marry the girl from Raasay. That was when all the bad happened. That’s why I came to the wall to look out, to make sure the bad doesn’t happen again.

  “Why are y-you here?” I ask Jaime. He is not a Hawk, so it is not his duty to be on the wall looking out.

  “I just felt like getting away for a bit,” he says. “It’s nice up here. Peaceful.”

  “Yes,” I say. “It is.” Then I say, “You got so — many of the sh-shadow things, Jaime. You were the — the best one.” I saw him do it. He shakes his head but doesn’t say anything. “It’s good that the shadow things are gone now,” I say. I smile a big one. I want to make him smile as well. When he sees my smile he does a big smile too. Jaime is my good friend.

  “Did you hear it when Kenrick said he will help us get our e-enclave back?” I say.

  “Yes.”

  “That is a good thing. I want to live there again now.”

  “Me too.”

  “Do you think the B-Badhbh man will help as well?” I ask.

  “I doubt it. He’s a coward. The Bó Riders might help, though. Cray’s going to go back and ask them.”

  “The Bó Riders are coming — here?” I say. “To S-Skye?”

  “They might. That’d be good, wouldn’t it?”