Page 83 of The Daughters of Avalon
By the power of earth, fire, air and water, my Goddess, I beg thee protection.
By the power of earth, fire, air and water, my Goddess, I beg thee protection. By all on high and law of three, it is my will, so may it be.
The onslaught stopped.
A hush fell over the demesne.
Some of the birds slid from the sky, as though they’d encountered an invisible, immovable force. Not a single one came closer than Elspeth bade them. They dropped from the sky to the ground, forming a perfect line of black about the castel.
With a shuddering breath, Elspeth met her husband’s gaze, and the look in his eyes was full of—not admiration, but horror. Lowering her hand before anyone could see what she’d done, she stood, as everyone else stood, stupefied, watching the remaining ravens swoop up and retreat.
Chapter
Thirty
“Elspeth, love… I swear to you… I am but grateful.”
Elspeth sat despondently at the lord’s table, stabbing at her trencher with her jeweled poniard—another gift from Malcom’s grandmother’s coffers. She wasn’t hungry.
No matter how hard he tried to convince her, she would never forget that look of terror in her husband’s eyes.
“I care not what you think you saw,” he persuaded her. “It was naught but awe for what I witnessed with my own two eyes.”
“You, and everyone else,” Elspeth said ruefully, knowing only too well that once the danger was past, she would become subject to their fears. Visions of her grandmamau’s burning tormented her and no matter that she was astounded by her own power to fight Morwen’smagik, she feared the price yet to be paid. Gratitude only went so far. Todaymagikwas evoked againstmagik. It was impossible not to know this instinctively, even if these people didn’t immediately comprehend from whence it had come.
It had come from her.
Shehad summoned it—a shield to keep the birds at bay, and the evidence of her intervention surrounded the castel. Thousands of black birds lay piled like dry-stacked stone no more than ten feet from the castel walls.
She tried to find the will to eat, to regain her strength, because her body felt limp with exhaustion, and she doubted she had any strength to climb the stairs to bed, much less fend off another of her mother’s attacks. The spell she’d cast—nay, not a spell, but a plea to the Goddess—had sapped every bit of energy from her body, and now, she felt like a dirty, limp rag… waiting to be discarded.
Malcom pushed her hair out of her face. “No one saw anything, Elspeth. They were too busy fearing for their lives.”
Finally, with a plea in her eyes, she peered up at her husband, daring to hope.
“Tis true,” he swore. He tipped up her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I have not heard not one word spoken against you, my love, and if anyone saw what I saw, I will make certain they understand… their lady works wonders in the name of love.”
Elspeth flung her arms around him and said, “I love you so much, Malcom. I am so blessed to be your wife and no matter what happens know that I count myself blessed for having known you.” Alas, there was a niggling sense of terror still growing deep inside her, for she had betrayed Malcom, and would he still feel the same about her once he knew?
“I love you, too,” he said, kissing Elspeth on the head.
Elspeth held him tight, so afraid to let go, lest he change his mind and send her home.
Finally, he peeled himself away. “Why don’t you go see to Cora… and then, if you must, join me on the ramparts.”
Elspeth nodded and dried her eyes.
It wasnear dawn when she joined Malcom on the parapets. From her vantage between machicolations, she could see the child’s prostrate body still lying in the field, and the sight of it made her long to run out and clasp him to her breast.
Poor, poor child.
It was a grim reminder that her mother would dare anything, and they waited with bated breath to see what more would come.
As for Stephen, there was no word from theirKing, but his camp remained. All those bright red tents remained squatting at the foot of their hill, the once billowing cloths as still as stone. It was almost as though there was no life in that quarter, but it was an illusion, Elspeth realized—a glamour placed by her mother to hide the scurry of movement between tents, and the night-long councils. There was little doubt in Elspeth’s mind that if she was so surprised by the power of the spell she had conjured, her mother was equally startled, and would certainly be taking measures to veil her plans from prying eyes—Elspeth’s eyes.
This morning, it seemed death had prevailed. The stench of it was overpowering.
By the first rays of the morning sun, they could bear it no longer and men lit pitch-soaked arrows and aimed them into the carnage of shining black wings, lighting a bonfire that was slow to ignite, but once it caught flame, it sent dirty, stinking flames into a grey morning.
