Son of the Shadows. Juliet Marillier
credit,’ Sean growled. ‘Give him one chance to show himself in public, and the first thing he does is seduce the daughter of the house. Very apt indeed.’
‘That’s enough, Sean.’ Iubdan was keeping his tone steady at some cost. ‘Your youth makes you speak rashly. This is as much Niamh’s doing as the young man’s. He has had a sheltered upbringing, and perhaps did not fully understand the significance of his actions.’
‘Ciarán has been with the brotherhood many years, though he is still but one and twenty.’ Conor still looked straight at Niamh, and in the lamplight his long, ascetic face was as pale as his robe. ‘He has, as I said, been an exemplary student. Until now. Apt to learn. Willing. Disciplined. Skilled with words, and with other talents he has barely begun to recognise in himself. Niamh, this young man is not for you.’
‘He told me,’ said Niamh, her voice cracking. ‘He told me. He loves me. I love him. There’s nothing as important as that. Nothing!’ Her words were defiant, but underneath it she was scared. Scared of what Conor had not said.
‘There can be no union between you and this young man.’ Liam spoke heavily, as if some untold grief weighed on him. ‘You will be suitably married as soon as possible, and you will leave Sevenwaters. None must know of this.’
‘What!’ Niamh flushed scarlet with outrage. ‘Wed another man, after – you can’t say that! You can’t! Tell them, Liadan! I will wed no man but Ciarán! What if he is a druid, that need not matter, he can still take a wife, he told me –’
‘Niamh.’
At the sound of Father’s voice, her torrent of words came to an abrupt, hiccupping stop.
‘You will not wed this man. It is not possible. Perhaps this seems unfair to you. Perhaps it seems to you that we make our decision too quickly, without considering all arguments. It is not so. We cannot explain our reasons to you in full, for, believe me, that would only add to your pain. But Liam is right, daughter. This is a match that can never be. And now that you have given in to your desires, you must take a husband as soon as it can be arranged, lest – you must be wed, lest a worse evil befall this house.’
He sounded weary beyond belief, and I found his words strange. What my sister had done was foolish and unthinking perhaps, but it hardly seemed to merit such harsh treatment. And my father was ever the most balanced of men, his decisions based on a careful weighing of all relevant matters.
‘May I speak?’ I ventured with some hesitation.
The response was not encouraging. Sean glared; Liam frowned. Father did not look at me. Niamh stood frozen, save for the tears rolling down her cheeks.
‘What is it, Liadan?’ asked Conor. He had a tight guard on his thoughts; I had no idea at all what was in his mind, but I sensed a deep hurt. More secrets.
‘I’m not excusing Niamh or the young druid,’ I said quietly. ‘But do you not judge too harshly? Ciarán seems a man of favourable aspect, of good manners, clever and honest. He treated my mother with great respect. Would not such a match deserve at least some consideration? Yet you dismiss it outright.’
‘It cannot be.’ I knew from Liam’s tone that the judgement was final. Further argument was pointless. ‘As your father says, it is agreed between us that we can only do what we must to salvage the situation. It is a very grave matter; one whose full implications we cannot make known to you. This must go no further than these four walls. It is imperative that it be kept secret.’
It seemed to me a darkness had come awake and was present amongst us in this room. It was there in the red mark that marred my sister’s cheek. It was there in Liam’s criticism of his wise brother. It was there in the lines and grooves etched stark on my father’s face. It was in Niamh’s eyes as she turned on me in fury.
‘This is your fault!’ she sobbed. ‘If you’d kept out of it, if you hadn’t followed me, snooping after me, none of them would have known. We would have gone away, we could have been together –’
‘Hold your tongue, Niamh,’ said Iubdan in a voice I had never heard him use before. She hiccupped to a stop, shoulders heaving.
‘I want to see Mother,’ she said in a small voice.
‘Not tonight,’ said Father, now very quiet. ‘I have told her of this, while we awaited Conor’s arrival, and she is much distressed. She has agreed to take a sleeping draught, and is resting now. She asked for you, Liadan. I told her you would look in, before you retired for the night.’ He sounded terribly tired.
‘I want to see her,’ Niamh said again, like a small child denied a treat.
‘You have forfeited the right to make your own choices.’ My father’s words hung in a cruel silence.
I never thought I would hear him say such a thing. He spoke out of the depths of his hurt, and my heart bled for him. Niamh stood mute and still.
‘We’ll speak further of this later,’ Father went on. ‘For now, you’ll go to your room, and you’ll stay there until we decide what’s to be done. That decision must be made quickly, and you’ll abide by it, Niamh. Go now. No more tonight. And no talk of this, not to anyone, you understand? Liam is right, this must be kept contained here, or more harm will be done.’
‘What of the boy?’ asked Liam.
‘I will speak to him tonight,’ Conor replied, and he too sounded weary to exhaustion. ‘It will be a measure of his worth, how he deals with this.’
I sat by Mother until she fell into a fitful sleep. We did not speak of what had happened, but I could see she had been weeping. Then I went to my room, where Niamh sat bolt upright on her bed, staring at the wall. There was no point in trying to talk to her. I lay down and closed my eyes, but rest was impossible. I felt sick and helpless and, for all Conor’s wise words, I could not escape a sense that I had somehow betrayed my sister. There was indeed a darkness over our household, as if the shade of a past evil had come to life once more. I did not understand what it was; but I felt its grip on my heart, and saw its touch in my sister’s pallid, tear-stained face.
‘Liadan!’
My eyes came open at Niamh’s urgent whisper. She was by the window.
‘He’s here! Ciarán. He’s come for me!’
‘What?’
‘Look down. Look down to the trees.’
It was dark, and I could see little, but I heard the muffled hoofbeats as a lone rider came up very fast, too fast, from the margin of the forest. The horse’s feet crunched on gravel and then were silent. There was a hammering on the outer door, and the flare of a lamp.
‘He’s here,’ said my sister again, her voice alive with hope.
‘So much for Liam’s plan to keep this quiet,’ I said drily.
‘I must go. I must go down to him –’
‘Weren’t you listening to anything they said?’ I asked her. ‘You can’t go down. You can’t see him. This is forbidden. And didn’t Father say something about staying in your room?’
‘But I must see him! Liadan, you have to help me!’ She turned those large, beseeching eyes on me, as so many times before.
‘I won’t do it, Niamh. Anyway, you’re wrong. Your young man is not here to fetch you away in secret. A lover does not do so by knocking down her father’s door. He is here because he has heard the news, and does not understand. He is here because he is hurt and angry, and wants answers.’
Downstairs, the nocturnal visitor had been admitted and the door closed after him. It was silent again.
‘I have to know,’ hissed Niamh, grabbing me by the arms right where she had bruised me before. ‘You go, Liadan. Go down and listen. Find out what’s happening, tell me what they’re saying. I must know.’
‘Niamh