O'Deoradhain started to walk away; as if startled by his movement, the seal out in the river roared a last time and dove into the water with a soft splash. "O'Deoradhain, wait."
"No, Holder. There's nothing more to say. Go and see things for your-self and ask the questions you need to ask. When you need me again, I'll find you." He smiled at her. "I wanted to be the Holder, aye," he said. "But I think Lamh Shabhala has chosen wisely on its own." With a wave, he slid back into the undergrowth again, and she heard the sound of his retreat.
Out in the water, a dark shape slid away toward the lough.
Night Mist Alley was a dirt lane in the Low Town area. Even in the sun-light, it was dim, with the
houses staring at each other across a muddy strip down which two people could barely walk abreast. Children were screeching and chasing each other through the puddles, filthy and snot-faced, and the adults Jenna saw stared at the sight of an obvious Riocha and her two chambermaids out where the royalty rarely walked.
The third door on the left was indeed red though the paint was scratched and peeling, and the door itself appeared to have been kicked, the lower panel cracked and bowed in. Jenna motioned to the maids to remain in the alley as she went to the door and knocked. There was no immediate answer. She knocked again. "Just a moment. ."a woman’s voice answered, and a few seconds later, the door opened. A woman blinked into the sunlight. "By the Mother-Jenna?"
Ellia Tara’s daughter, stood there. Jenna nearly didn’t recognize her. She was heavy with child, one hand under the rounded bulk of her belly, face and fingers swollen. After her initial surprise, she smiled at Jenna.
"By the Mother-Creator, look at you," she said. "Don’t you look wonderful! Oh Jenna, it’s so good to see you! Everyone thought you’d died when those horrible soldiers came. And to think you came here, like us."
"Us?" A feeling of dread was filling Jenna. She wanted to rage, wanted to take Lamh Shabhala and bring a storm of lightning down on this house and this town and leave everything in flames.
"Aye." A possessive, triumphant smile lifted Ellia’s lips. She turned slightly to call back into the darkness of the room. "Darling, come and see who’s come to visit us. You’re not going to believe this."
A sleepy grunt came from the interior. Jenna heard the sound of shuf-fling feet, then a man’s form showed behind Ellia as she opened the door wider. The man took a step into the light. She knew who it was before she saw him, knew from the leaden stone that filled her stomach, knew because of the blackness that threatened to take her vision. Her world was suddenly shattered, crashing in crystalline shards around her.
Coelin.
Ellia’s arm snaked possessively around Coelin’s
waist as he gaped at Jenna. "Look, love-it's Jenna! Back from the dead! Jenna, did you know that Coelin has sung for the Rl himself. .?"
Ellia must have continued to speak, but Jenna heard none of it. She stared at Coelin. He stared back, slack-jawed, rubbing at his eyes as if trying to rid them of a sudden nightmare. "Jenna, I…" he stammered, but Jenna shouted back at him in fury.
"You bastard! You damned lying bastard!" Jenna turned and ran from the alleyway, her maids hurrying after her with wide-eyed glances behind.
"Jenna!" she heard Coelin shouting behind her, and Ellia's now-shrill voice asking him what was happening. Jenna fled, helpless tears hot on her cheeks, unheeding of the people around her, staring. She only wanted to be away before the temptation to use the cloch grew too strong, before she gave in to the temptation to get revenge for this awful deception. It's your own fault! she railed inside. You're so stupid. So naive and stupid. .
“Jenna!" A hand touched her shoulder and she whirled around with a cry, her right hand going to the stone around her neck, the radiance of Lamh Shabhala between her fingers already brighter than the sun. Coelin, Panting, took a step backward from Jenna, his eyes wide. He was shoeless and half-dressed, his feet muddy, his legs bare under his tunic. His breath was a white cloud around him in the cold air. He spread his hands wide, as if to ward off a blow. "Jenna, listen to me. ."
Her chambermaids flanking her, Jenna chopped at the air with her left hand. "You have nothing to say to me!" she shouted back at him. "Nothing! You disgust me, Coelin Singer. And I'm ashamed of myself for letting you. ." She couldn't say the words. Fury obliterated them.
"Jenna, let me explain!"
"Explain what? Is that your child Ellia's carrying? Tell me now-is it?" Coelin started to shake his head, started to speak, and Jenna lifted the cloch. "Don't you dare lie to me again, Coelin, or I swear it's the last words you'll ever speak."
Coelin gulped and hung his head. "Aye," he said, his voice a whisper. "Tis mine." Then his head came up, and his green eyes gazed at her imploringly. "But, Jenna, I love you. ."
"Shut up!" Jenna screamed at him. Light flared from her fisted hand, and shadows moved over the buildings around them. Someone shouted in alarm, and the curious crowd that had begun to gather around the encounter suddenly vanished. "No!
Don’t you dare say it. Who arranged this, Coelin? None of this was an accident, was it? Who made certain I’d find you, who told you to seduce me?" When Coelin said nothing, Jenna stamped her foot, the light flaring yet brighter. "Tell me!"
"Tiarna Mac Ard," Coelin sputtered. "He… he sent word that I should come here, said that you needed someone familiar, that I could help him help you. ." He stopped. His hands lifted toward Jenna, then went to his sides. "Jenna, I didn’t mean. ."
She wanted to kill him. She wanted to hear Coelin scream in agony as the lightnings tore him apart.
She wanted him to feel the pain and hurt that was coursing through her now. Her hand trembled around Lamh Shabhala but she held back the energy that wanted to surge outward. "Did you marry her?" she asked.
A nod. "Aye. When Tara realized that Ellia was with child, she came to me. What else was I to do, Jenna? At that time, I thought you were dead, and your mam and Tiarna Mac Ard, too."
"Do you tell Ellia you love her, too? Did you come to her after you’d been with me and snuggle down alongside her and give her the same words you give me?"
"Jenna-"
She spat at his feet. "I never want to see you again," she told him. "If I do, I swear to you that I’ll use Lamh Shabhala to strike you down. Stand before me again, and I will leave Ellia a widow and your child fatherless. Go, Coelin. Go and find some way to tell Ellia about this. Maybe she’ll keep you; maybe she’ll even find the love in her to forgive you." She lifted her chin, her eyes narrowing. "But I won’t," she told him. "I never will, and I am your enemy from this moment. Do you understand me, Coelin?"
He nodded, mute. He looked as if he were about to speak again, but Jenna tightened her fist around the cloch, and-wide-eyed-he turned and fled, walking then running back the way he’d come. Her breath fast and painful in her chest, Jenna relaxed her grip
on Lamh Shabhala, and the stone's brilliance faded.
The street around them was empty and silent except for the ragged sound of her breath. "Come," she told the maids. "It's time we returned to the keep." They started down the lane toward where the carriage waited. As they walked, a man stepped out from between two houses and stood in the narrow street, barring their way. One of the chambermaids screamed at the sudden confrontation, but the man ignored her. One arm was in a sling, and he no longer seemed quite as dangerous. He looked at Jenna.
"Now you know," he said. "I'm sorry, Jenna."
"You could have told me, O'Deoradhain. Or did you get a perverse pleasure out of knowing I'd be humiliated?"
His head moved slowly in denial. "I took no pleasure in it, Holder. I would have preferred to tell you myself, but you wouldn't have believed me," he answered. "You know that, if you look inside."