Chapter 13

Lugh looked reluctant to speak but, knowing that he must, he began his tale. He looked around the table for a moment and the past rushed into his eyes so that all could see, and then he spoke, “When Sulamith and I were found out, I thought, I believed, that she was lost to me. I did not know then that anything had come of our love.” He looked at Rhiannon apologetically. “When I first saw her on that rocky beach I knew that I was in dire trouble. From that moment, though she did not at first know it, she had my heart. She was sitting on a large rock in the light of the setting sun. She was beautiful, as beautiful as any Fay woman, but solid and earthy. I was hiding from her under the waves. She couldn't see me, but all I wanted was to show myself to her, and touch her golden hair and her alabaster cheek, and look right into her sky blue eyes. She was tall and noble, and I was sixteen and I wasn't thinking with my head. I came out of the water and spoke to her. I can't remember what I said to her but she was sweet and innocent and kind and I couldn't help it. I loved her. We met there every night for a month. Her lady in waiting and one of the King's men would act as a lookout for us. I would slip back into the sea if we thought there was a risk. We would talk and talk. We were young and idealistic and we realized as we went how much we had in common. It seemed too good to be true when we revealed our love to one another and both recognized that a union between us would unite our two kingdoms, that if we produced an heir it would be a child that both Human and Fay could follow. We decided to consummate our relationship. Our plan was to go into hiding together and, once we had a child, to make our union known. We assumed that we had years before our parent's reigns would end and that it would give everyone a chance to adjust to the idea of a new kingdom, but we were caught. We were on the beach together. We had just made love. I had given her a ring, and brought for her the circlet of the moon because that is what she was to me. The moon pulling the tide.” Lugh blinked hard and took a deep breath. “We heard a cry in the woods, and swords, and she said to me, “Quick hide!” I slipped under the waves. She pushed the ring and the circlet under the blanket, but her younger brother and four armed men took her bodily away. Her lady in waiting, who was crying, came and took the blanket that we had been on together. She found the ring and the circlet. I watched her hide them on her person. It was the last time that I ever saw Sulamith.” Lugh was silent for a moment or two but the force of his memory conjured, for a brief moment, an image of Rhiannon's mother as he had seen her, sitting on that rock in the sun that first time. It hovered in the air before him, and he looked at it with such longing and tenderness that Rhiannon realized that he had never really gotten his heart back.

“A week later a druid brought a message. Its meaning was clear. Any attempt to see or communicate with Sulamith would be considered an act of war. Going public about the relationship I'd had with her would also be taken as an act of war. Either action would result in Sulamith being immediately arrested and executed for high treason. My father was furious. I was forbidden any attempt to rescue her and I couldn't think of a way to do it without unduly risking her life. I never saw her again and I wasn't with her long enough that last time to realize that she had conceived.” He was silent for a space and all eyes were on him. “If I had known what she would go through . . .”

Rhiannon couldn't help herself. She stood and went to him. He wasn't the father who had raised her and she didn't put her arms around him, but just stood beside him with her hand on his shoulder. Her right hand. The one with the heartsease ring on it and the ferns and vines spiralling up her wrist. He took her hand in his and gently squeezed her fingers. He was even younger than she had thought. When he spoke again his voice was steady. “I don't have a very complete picture of what happened to Sulamith after this, but Rowan tells me that Gwydion can shed some light on this time, and what went on in the human court.”

No one could be unmoved by Lugh's story and all eyes turned towards the old Druid with avid curiosity. Rhiannon wished that she could hear this story alone without the circle of eyes that would continually check on her, look at her face and see if their were tears. Of course there were tears. What did they think she was? But that was half the point of starting this in front of the Fay council. They needed to see what she was, even if all they saw was a delicate little fairy gardener who couldn't keep her cheeks dry. The story alone would be enough to make them follow her, but hearing it with her, for the first time, would make them an inescapable part of her tale and she would have their support.

Gwydian began his part of her story. “In order to go onward with this tale I will have to take a step back and explain Sulamith's family to you. At the time of these events I was the head of the Royal College of Druids and I was well acquainted with the royal family. Sulamith's parents were staunch traditionalists. They were not unkind but they had always believed that the status quo must be maintained and that they knew best. Sulamith was a quiet gentle dreamer, and she was their pride and joy. They trusted her and they thought that they knew her, but she had a passionate heart and had dreamed of change even before she met Lugh. Sulamith and Lugh would have succeeded if she had been an only child, but nobody could deny the effect that Seamus, her younger brother, had on the court. He was in short a sly, narcissistic, psychopath. At the age of eleven I found him drowning a litter of puppies in a bucket. Dismayed I asked him why, and he told me that it was, 'An interesting feeling when their lives left their bodies.' At thirteen I once found him with the daughter of one of the court ladies. He had tied the little girl to a tree and was pulling her toenails off. It was quite some distance from the castle but the little girls screams . . .” Gwydion shook his head. “I brought her back to the castle with me and the whole matter was very carefully covered up. Seamus plotted and schemed and by the time he was fifteen he had a solid grasp of concepts such as bribery, blackmail, and extortion. I think the best example of his character though would be what I discovered from a young woman that I found crying in an alcove. She was one of the queen's ladies and she was bleeding profusely. I didn't know what was wrong with her and I didn't ask, I simply did what I could for her and then brought her to you people. It was nineteen years ago. Some of you may remember her.” Gwydion stopped almost as if unwilling to continue but then forced himself onward. “Once she was recovered enough she told me her tale. She had become pregnant by one of the King's Knights, but he was a younger son and unable to support her, so hearing of this, though she did not know how he'd heard, Seamus approached her with an offer. Let him have his way with her and he would, as he put it, 'Make it so that she didn't have anything to worry about.' I do not like to say this part out loud,” the old man said suddenly. “There is such an ugliness to it that it burns the heart, but it is an illustration of the Exiled Prince's character that does not bear forgetting. He brutalized the girl to the point of miscarriage then left her to bleed. She told me what he said to her when he was done with her. 'There. You'll bleed out in about half an hour, then you'll have nothing to worry about.' Apparently he laughed. Seamus believed that he was entitled to anything that he could take, as long as he didn't get caught. A significant amount of time and resources had to be put in by the king and council to hide his crimes. This happened only a week before he exposed Sulamith to their parents. He had an amazing amount of contempt for her. I think that Sulamith made him feel what a scabby dirty person he was inside and he wanted to see her crawl.” Gwydion looked at Lugh and shook his head sadly, “Nothing good happened during that period. It was what could only be called an evil time. Once it became apparent that Sulamith was pregnant she was hidden. At this point the king approached me and asked that I open a door to the other world to hide Sulamith and later exile her child. I refused. I explained to him that in order for a human to have access to the kind of power that was required to open a doorway, a human sacrifice was necessary, and that since the plague wars all druids have sworn an oath, a fairy binding, literally preventing them from taking this kind of action. I instead suggested that it may perhaps be best to accept the course that Sulamith had plotted for us. This lost me my position at the college, as I now knew what was happening, and Sulamith's parents thought of it as a terrible embarrassment and a huge risk. I was threatened with torture and death, so I left and kept very quiet. Caitlin, Rowan's Grandmother, was at the time just a lesser council member, but she understood that I was leaving and offered me a place at her Husband's family home where I have been living very quietly for the last nineteen years, and while I was out of the court, I was not out of touch.” The crafty old druid's eyes twinkled. “I have, you see, my spies and the court is riddled with them. There are more people hiding in that city who would have been sympathetic to Sulamith's cause than I think anyone realized. What happened in the end was that a Fairy woman was captured and tortured until she agreed to open a door to the other world. Sulamith was taken there to have her child and then the child was left behind. I did what I could to make life easier for Rhiannon and the people who raised her. I had a few contacts in the Broad River Stronghold who were able to put Gavin and Fionnuala in contact with Flanagan, a Wood Sprite who makes his home in the other world, and I was able to have wards put on their home. I always wished that I had been able to tell Sulamith of this and that I had been able to do more. From what I understand her parents controlled her by threatening the life of her child. Behave or we can and will have the child killed. Then after Seamus had gotten the old King out of the way he used Rhiannon as his trump card to control Sulamith as well. Somehow, she managed to be a good queen despite the unhappy life she lead. But Seamus had power at court. He was ruthless, brilliantly evil and very dangerous, and if we believe even for a moment that he hasn't still got some of that power we are kidding ourselves.” He looked at Rhiannon. “Six weeks ago I received word from one of my spies that you had been killed. Then the very next morning only hours after receiving that message Rowan showed up at my door looking, might I say, quite pleased with himself. And who do you think he had with him?” Gwydion chuckled. “It was hard to hide my surprise or know what to do about it, but when I saw the ring that you had hanging around your neck, I knew that he would figure out who you were eventually.” He looked at Rowan and Rhiannon. “I remembered Sulamith's unhappiness and I hesitated to bring so much sadness to you when you and Rowan were so obviously happy together. I thought that perhaps you were safer if you didn't know. I knew that Rowan was the safest person in all the worlds for you to be with, and when he told me that he was taking you to Lugh, I knew that it was only a matter of time before all of this came out.”