by S. J. Smith
That night before she sought her bed, she prayed fervently to God that her brother would return safe, with a solution to their problem.
*****
She was awake early the next morning to see her brother and his men ride out with Captain Alfred at his side. There was an uncertainty in the air as a priest blessed their journey and bid them return with good fortune on their heels. She stood at her father's side and watched the men ride out of the gates, the chain and plate of their armor glinting in the sunrise. Brida and Ulric lingered in the bailey until the men had vanished over the horizon and there was nothing to look at but the steadily lightening sky. Ulric sighed heavily and turned, laying a hand on Brida's shoulder and squeezing before he laboriously made his way back into the keep. Brida stayed a moment longer then followed him.
The halls felt empty without Eldric and his men to fill them. She lifted her skirt out of the way of her feet and mounted the tightly winding stairs to the upper levels of the keep, seeking out her brother Edmund's room. As her maid had said, his fever had broken during the night, and now he truly slept peacefully. When he woke she would have a hot bath drawn for him and try to find a delicate way to tell him that Eldric might not come home. They were traitorous thoughts to have, but Brida couldn't help them. She feared for her brother's safety, and would have given anything and everything she had to make sure he came home safe. Brida and her maid tended to their needlework and commented on mundane things until there was nothing left to speak of and conversation lapsed.
Brida's attention wavered. Only the sharp prick of the needle against the tip of her finger drew her back into the present. She sucked her finger into her mouth, scowling, just in time to hear Edmund inhale sharply and move around on the bed. With a tiny groan he cracked his eyes open. Brida turned her gaze to her maid.
"Fetch the doctor," she said, "and heat water for a bath." The maid curtsied and hurried off, her shoes pitter pattering on the stone floors. Brida helped Edmund to sit against the head of the bed, smoothing his hair back from his face. "Are you well, brother?" she asked.
Edmund's eyes were half-lidded, but his gaze focused easily on Brida's face. He smiled weakly. "I am," he said. "Have I missed much? I had such strange dreams... You were in them, surrounded by fire, by death..." He shook his head and groped for Brida's hand. She clutched his tightly.
"I'm well, brother," she said, "things are well. We have... a solution, I think, to our problem."
"Oh?" Edmund asked. "What?"
Brida took a deep breath and told him as carefully as she could, watching his expression go from shock to concern.
"That's risky," he said. "And you say Eldric has gone?" Brida nodded. Edmund sighed and sank back against his pillows. "I pray to God he comes back safe."
"I'm as skeptical as you," Brida said. "I doubt this man is anything more than a crazy old hermit, but Captain Alfred was very adamant that he has some kind of great power. What I fear most is the price our father will have to pay to win this man to our side. We have already almost depleted our treasury fighting these invaders, and now with the trouble to the south..."
"The faster this conflict ends the better," Edmund said, "no matter the cost."
Brida managed a small smile and leaned in to kiss the side of Edmund's temple. Soon after her maid returned with several of the man servants in tow, each of them carrying buckets of steaming water which they poured into the tub by the fire. Brida and her maid left, leaving one man servant to help Edmund undress and get into the bath. The doctor came hurrying down the hall after they stepped out, slipping past them into the room without bothering with a greeting.
"That will be all, Judith, go rest," Brida said to her maid.
Judith curtsied and left. Brida stood alone in the hall for a short time, listening to the soft voices of her brother and the doctor conversing. Their tones reassured her that nothing was terribly wrong, and that Edmund's leg had remained clear of any further infection. Brida returned to her own room to change out of her dress into something simpler and more suited for a walk through the carefully maintained garden in the back of the keep, where Brida could always find a sense of peace when she sought it.
A small statue of Mary sat in the quietest corner of the garden, a place touched by sun only twice a day. She knelt in the soft grass before it, folded her hands and bowed her head, and thanked the blessed lady and her son for healing Edmund, and sent up prayers once more for them to protect her brother Eldric on his righteous journey to save their lands and people, no matter what the cost. She would even sacrifice herself to see that he came home safely.
*****
The week that passed between Eldric's departure and his return, looking tired and dirty but whole, was agony. Brida prayed every day and spent her time taking care of Edmund, doing everything from washing his wound and helping him walk around the room to reading to him when the pain kept him up at night. He was well enough to stand on his own by the time their brother came home and was at her side when she rushed out to greet the party after a panting look-out delivered the news of their arrival. Their father followed shortly after to greet his son. Anxiety rolled off of him in waves, accentuating Brida's own, but she cared more for her brother's well-being than she did for any sorcerer he brought home.
Eldric was at the head of the party, sitting tall on his horse despite being covered with dirt and sweat from the journey. A stable boy hurried up to take the reins and leave Eldric free to dismount and stride to Ulric, throwing his cloak back over his shoulder.
"Well?" Ulric said. Whatever concern he had for his oldest son he hid well. "Do you have what we need?"
"Yes, my lord," Eldric replied.
"Bring him to the hall," Ulric said. "I will speak to him in private."
Eldric bowed his head. Ulric gave a last look out at the weary men currently dismounting in the courtyard then turned on his heel to head back into the keep. The tension in the air eased with his departure. A grin broke out across Eldric's face, weary but joyful. He closed the distance between himself and his siblings and wrapped them both up in a tight hug. He smelled of horses and sweat and leather. Brida returned the embrace earnestly.
"You need a bath," she said when she pulled away, wiping tears of relief from her eyes. "You stink of the road."
"Aye," Eldric said. "As soon as I deliver our sorcerer to Father. I plan on having a good bath, a hot meal and a large mug of ale to wash it down." He looked at their brother. "Edmund. It's so good to see you up and about. I was worried I would return to find you still bedridden."
"With Brida's help," Edmund replied. He craned his neck to look over Eldric's shoulder. "Where's this man you sought?"
Eldric half turned. Brida followed her brothers' gazes. Many of the men she recognized, both young and old, but there was one, tall with hair the color of a raven's wing, that was not one of Eldric's men.
"Is that him?" she asked softly, afraid to speak above a whisper lest the stranger somehow hear her.
Eldric nodded. "He's a strange fellow," he said. "Very quiet. But he came easily enough."
"What did you offer him?" Brida asked. She remembered her prayers to God and the Virgin Mother and suddenly found it very difficult to breathe.
"Money," Eldric replied. "And the promise that he would be left alone once this conflict ends. He agreed easily enough once I gave him my word, perhaps too easily." Eldric's face darkened with distrust. "At any rate, we have what we need, and now I must find what I need." He left his siblings with a final smile to make his way to the stranger.
"Help me to my room, sister?" Edmund said. "My leg hurts to stand on."
"Of course," Brida replied. She slipped her arm through Edmund's and turned them around, putting their brother, his men, and their secret weapon behind them. With the help of a cane Edmund could walk easily enough, though his pace was slow and jolting. It was stairs that gave him the most trouble. Brida was always afraid he would tumble back down them and crack his head open. He made it up with l
ittle trouble. Brida helped him into bed and left him with a book to amuse himself, then left to see if the guards would allow her into the great all.
Her curiosity about this sorcerer had been piqued and she wanted to know who he was and what he could do. Just because her father hadn't seen fit to educate her in the ways of war didn't mean that it was beyond her realm of interests. Her future was in the balance, as was that of those she loved most. Were they to lose this conflict, there was no doubt in her mind that her entire family would be executed, and Brida would either find herself married to a brute or with her head on a pike next to her brothers'.
To her surprise the doors to the hall were cracked open, and it was only her father and Captain Alfred inside with the stranger. The air in the room was heavy with tension. It scraped across Brida's skin the second she slipped inside to stand against the back wall, eyeing the stranger carefully. He was taller than both men and dressed in simple clothes, the kind meant for travel and a hard life, and not at all the finery Brida had expected such a powerful man to wear. She wasn't sure what she had expected, if she was honest. Someone older, perhaps, with white hair and a long beard, like in the old legends, and the villains in the stories her nurse had used to tell her and her brothers.
"I will do as you have asked," the stranger said in a low voice that seemed like it came from deep within his chest. "And I will keep my word, so long as you keep yours and leave me in peace. I know not how you found me, but you will put everything you saw from your mind. I do not make a habit of dabbling in the affairs of hu—of mere men."
Ulric nodded. "Courtnay's forces are gathering here, at our northern border." He jabbed a finger at a map stretched across the table, held down by a dagger at one corner and a goblet at the other. "We've not the forces to hold them off, but with you on our side victory is assured." He glanced up at the sorcerer. "If you fail to keep your word, I will cut your head off myself."
The stranger didn't flinch. "I am a man of honor," he said. "You need not worry about your enemy offering me a better price. I am no mercenary to be so easily swayed."
"Good," Ulric said. "Captain Alfred will show you to your room, at the top of a turret, as you requested. You will find it sparsely furnished, however. It has been many years since those rooms were used to house guests."
"It will suit my needs," the stranger said. Brida quickly left the room, hoping to keep her intrusion unknown, but not quite sure why it mattered. Had her father not wanted anyone into the room he would have had the doors shut and ordered the guards to bar anyone from entering. She had just as much right to know what was going on as anyone else.
Still, she couldn't push away the feeling that she wasn't supposed to have been there. She heard Alfred's voice behind her, drawing close to the door, and made her way towards the garden. She had every reason in the world to be there. No one would question her presence.
She felt eyes on her before she quite got out of sight, and couldn't stop turning around to see who it was, expecting her father, but it was not. Alfred was speaking, completely unaware that Brida was near, but the sorcerer was looking right at her with eyes as sharp as a hawk's, even as he followed behind Alfred. Brida's throat tightened and she feel her cheeks warm, the intensity of the stranger's stare boring right through her. He turned his head away eventually and vanished around a corner after Alfred, but Brida still felt the weight of his gaze on her all the way to the garden.
She sank down on a bench and tried to still her pounding heart. He was far more attractive than she had expected, even more-so up close, and his eyes... they were almost golden, and almost too bright against the darkness of his hair and brows. His stare remained burned into her as she sat in the fresh, cool air, watching a patch of sunlight slowly move across the ground as time passed. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she failed to hear the soft crush of boots on the grass approaching her.
She jumped at the voice that spoke. "Your brother spoke much of you, but he failed to mention your beauty."
Brida pressed a hand to her chest as her heart settled from its scare. "Thank you," she said, breathlessly, and looked up into the eyes of the sorcerer.
"I hope I'm not intruding. My manners are lacking," he said.
"No," Brida replied. "No, not at all. You may sit, if you like."
She moved to the edge of the bench to make room, the cold stone seeping through the layers of her dress. The stranger pulled his cloak aside and sat on the opposite edge, so still that he looked like a statue himself.
"My name is Cynric," he said. "I'm sure you know why I am here."
"To help us," Brida replied. "They say you have powerful magic."
"In a manner of speaking," Cynric said. "So long as your father keeps the promise his men made to me, you and your family need not worry for the future."
“I can't help but wonder what you were offered to lend us your aid,” Brida said. “We're strangers to you.”
“Not many people know where I make my home,” Cynric said. “I would prefer to keep it that way. Your brother offered both wealth and solitude once this conflict is done.”
“You don't sound eager.”
“I am not,” Cynric replied, “but I gave my word, and I will keep it.” His tone rang true. If her brother and father trusted him, or at least believed him, then she would as well.
“Can you do magic?” she asked.
“Not any kind you would understand,” Cynric replied.
Brida's brows dipped. “Try to explain it, then,” she said.
A corner of Cynric's mouth twitched. It could have almost been the start of a smile. “I commune with the earth,” he said, “and can call creatures long hidden from the eyes of man to my service.”
“Such as?” Brida asked.
“Such as dragons,” Cynric replied. “The fierce wyverns answer my call. There is no army on this earth that is fit to stand against them. Your victory is assured; you have my solemn oath. As long as your father keeps his promise to me.”
“You're very suspicious,” Brida said.
“A man like me must be,” he said, “or else face persecution or worse. Mankind is not as accepting of the old ways, now. It is better for me to be on my own.”
“You must be lonely,” Brida said. She blushed at her own boldness. Cynric only shrugged.
“At times, yes,” he said, his gaze on Brida heavy and thick with something left unspoken. “If you will forgive my forwardness, it's part of why I sought you out. I sense the same loneliness in you.”
Brida looked away and folded her hands in her lap. “It's hard to be the only woman,” she said. “My brothers are good men, but they treat me as something fragile, something to be protected. I know I am stronger than they think.”
“You are,” Cynric said, surprising her. “I can sense it. There is little that you cannot take in stride. They will learn that, one day.”
“I hope so,” Brida said. She glanced at Cynric from the corner of her eye. He looked to be the same age as Eldric, who was only five years Brida's senior, but he seemed so much older, his shoulders heavy with the weight of a lifetime of knowledge and experience. It should have been intimidating, but instead Brida simply felt a great sadness.
“I thought also,” Cynric said, “you might like to know that the army will assemble and march in two days’ time. Your enemy's forces have already mustered, and there is a choke point they can be funneled to where there will be no hope of victory. Your brother and father will lead the charge.”
Brida knew the day would come, but it didn't stop the sharp pang of terror in her chest. She let out a shaky sigh. “Thank you for telling me,” she said. “I will pray for them.”
“They will return safe,” Cynric said. He reached over and laid one warm hand over Brida's own. “I swear to you.”
Brida looked down at their hands, but didn't move hers away. “You're very certain.”
“I have every reason to be,” Cynric said. His touch lingered for a second longer, enough
that by the time he stood all traces of cold had been driven from Brida's fingers. “I'll leave you to your thoughts,” he said, and bowed stiffly before turning away.
Brida watched him go and let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. A small mist formed in front of her face. She noticed then the goosebumps on her arms, but couldn't be sure if they were from the air or from the feel of Cynric's hand over hers.
*****
The second time Brida watched her brother ride away from the keep he had their father at one side and Cynric at the other, the sorcerer sitting uneasily on a borrowed horse. The beast shifted restlessly under him, pawing at the ground and shaking its head. She and Edmund were left behind, Edmund temporarily taking their father's place as head of the household. Were the army not to return, then he would be king in Eldric's place. Brida hoped it wouldn't come to that. The sound of the army marching away from the keep was almost deafening, and when the thud of hooves and clank of armor and weapons faded, the silence they left behind was just as loud. Edmund leaned heavily on his cane, his jaw tight and skin pale. Brida slipped her arm through his and leaned into him, worry eating away at her stomach.
“They'll come back,” he said. “They must.”
“Yes,” Brida replied. She thought back on Cynric's words and wished she could believe them as much now as she had in the garden. There were so many variables, and she shared her father's skepticism about Cynric's powers. She bit back a sigh. So long as they returned safe and sound and their foe defeated, it mattered not if Cynric could truly wield magic or not. All she wanted was her family together again and her home at peace. She knew Edmund was thinking the same.