Deception's Pawn (Princesses of Myth) (21 page)

I hadn’t learned much the previous day about making a meal, but at least I picked up one important lesson:
never
rile the cook.

Lady Lackwit, you’d better chew your food very carefully from now on, unless you don’t mind finding a nutshell or two in your porridge.

I ran from the great house to search for Kian and had the
good luck to spy his friend Connla manning the ringfort gateway. “You
want
to talk to him again?” he exclaimed when I told him my mission.

I nodded. “He’s my friend, Connla, and I’ve let a single ill-chosen word stand between us long enough.”

“I can guess which one of you said it.” Gormlaith’s sweetheart grinned. “He’s as dear to me as if we were brothers, but only one of us got the brains. There’s a ramshackle hut behind the blacksmith’s forge. He told me he’d be there this morning, looking after that bird of his.”

“Thank you, Connla. You’re as gallant as Gormlaith says.”

I left him beaming and headed for the forge. The hut behind it was quite small and part of the roof was missing, but Ea had stayed safe and comfortable in such rundown quarters before, when Odran and I kept her at the crannog.

“Kian?” I called softly as I pushed aside the bull hide covering the doorway.

“Maeve!” He stood in the center of the hut with Ea unhooded on his wrist. “Come in, come in, we were just talking about you!”

“Yes, we were,” said Bryg. She’d kept so still, leaning against a wall in the shadows, that I hadn’t noticed her until she spoke. Her face was cold and unwelcoming.

“Is that so?” I said, as if there were nothing amiss. I needed to let her know that I wasn’t her rival for Lord Artegal’s son, but first I had other matters to set right. “I’m afraid to ask what you’ve been saying, Kian. I’ve treated you badly these past few days, sulking when we should have been clearing the air. Bryg and the other girls tried to make me see how childish that was, but I can be stubborn. I’m sorry.”

Kian laughed. “My mother’s been treating you worse. I should apologize for her as well as myself. I get hotheaded, especially over someone I care about so very—”

I hastily cut off his unwelcome declaration by turning to Bryg and exclaiming, “So he hasn’t been calling me a monster?”

“Not at all.” Bryg lowered her eyelids and wouldn’t meet my gaze. “He began by saying how much he missed talking to you, and his memories led him from there to all the times you two enjoyed together with our—with
that
bird.” She gave the slightest of nods to indicate Ea.

“Uh, sorry if I bored you, going on like that, Bryg.” Kian looked embarrassed.

“Oh no, Kian, not at all! If you hadn’t shared all the stories dear Maeve told you from her past”—her glance darted his way for an instant, then down again—“I never would have known the
true
Maeve at all.”

“You do know me, Bryg,” I protested. “We’re fosterlings together, friends—”

“Mmm. And yet, until Kian told me, I had no idea of how
unique
you are, a princess who’s a would-be warrior with a bard’s persuasive tongue. What a feat, convincing a man to risk teaching the High King’s daughter weaponry! And not just once. Why didn’t you tell any of
us
about your adventures? Did you think we’d make fun of you for learning how to use a sword?”

“There’s nothing to tell,” I said uneasily. “I’m done with that now.”

“A pity. So it was all for nothing.”

“Bryg, you’re speaking so strangely. What’s the matter?” I tried to take her hand, but she backed away from me.

“Let it be, Maeve.”

“I can’t. You’re unhappy.”

Bryg lifted her head and stared. “Does that bother you?”

“Of course it does. You’re my friend. I want to help you.”

“Well, then—” Her stony expression suddenly glowed with the warm, lively smile I knew. “Promise that you’ll confide in
me
from now on. You’ve had an extraordinary life filled with so many things that I wish I’d known sooner. Why did I have to hear about them from Lord Kian?” She linked arms with me and leaned her head against my shoulder. “Do you know that awful boy sometimes treats me like a child? He keeps secrets from me because he’s decided I’m too much of a weakling to deal with any sort of bad news.”

“I only did that once since your return, Bryg,” Kian protested. “There was a wolfhound pup you liked—”

“Yes, and one of the grown dogs killed it, but
you
told me Lord Artegal gave it to a farmer who’d done him good service. I learned the truth elsewhere.” Bryg looked smug. “I always do.”

“Sorry, Bryg,” Kian said. “I didn’t mean to offend you, just protect you. I keep forgetting that you’re well again.”

“You could do with a trip to Avallach yourself, Lord Kian,” she teased. “The druids there would cure your faulty memory. If you travel east to Lord Diarmaid’s holding on the coast, you might find a trader willing to ferry you over. From there, any man you meet will know how to guide you to the druids’ settlement
if
”—she raised a warning finger—“you haven’t already forgotten what I’ve just said.”

It was a great relief to hear Bryg’s lighthearted teasing. “I’ll try to remember not to forget,” Kian replied, getting into the spirit of the joke. “So have you forgiven me?”

“I have no choice.” She made a helpless gesture. “I don’t dare snub you. If Lady Lassaire’s willing to chastise the High King’s favorite daughter for making her adored boy unhappy, what do you think she’d do to me?”

“Nothing, if she values her husband’s rank,” I said. “Your father’s a bard. His gift for satire makes him more feared than a dozen High Kings. He could bring down Lord Artegal with a single mocking song.”

“He could
not
,” Kian said loyally, but he looked uneasy and changed the subject. “The weather’s mild today. Let’s all go watch Ea fly.”

I agreed enthusiastically, but Bryg waved away the invitation. “I have some small chores to do,” she said. “Go have fun. And Maeve, look after Lord Kian. Make sure he remembers how to find his way home.” The pleasant echo of her laughter lingered in the hut as she ducked through the curtain and was gone.

Kian and I flew Ea over a field close to the ringfort instead of carrying her through the woodland. It gave us more time to let her enjoy the freedom of open skies. It felt good knowing that there was no need to conceal our meetings. That secrecy ended when I decided not to seek his help in learning weaponry any further. As long as I could find solitary times to continue practicing with my sling, I was happy.

I shaded my eyes with one hand, greedily drinking in the sight of Ea hovering in the blue.
Let them all see me here with him
, I thought.
Let them spread as many rumors as they like, saying Kian and I are more than friends. If that’s the price for more moments like this, I’ll pay it gladly.

I whirled the lure above my head and drew Ea to my hand.
Kian praised my success as he coaxed her onto his wrist and hooded her. “I’ll settle her for the night,” he said. And then, shyly: “Will you sit by me at dinner?”

“Bryg and the others will tease me about it,” I said. “On the other hand, your mother will be overjoyed.”

I underestimated Lady Lassaire’s reaction when she saw me choose a place at Kian’s side. That woman smiled so victoriously you’d think she was a chieftain bringing home the severed heads of his enemies. My friends made provoking faces at me through the whole meal, and even Ula set aside her poise to lavish kisses on an invisible lover. I expected to endure worse once the four of us went to our room for the night, but it would all be in fun and harmless.

It began as soon as the last of us came through the bull-hide curtain. Gormlaith hurried to her bed in the far corner of the room, made her nightly preparations quickly, and lay down. With her back turned to the rest of us, she began taking long, deep breaths, as though she’d fallen asleep the moment she ducked under the cover.

She doesn’t want to join in the teasing
, I thought.
Does she think it would be disloyal to her Connla, since he’s so close to Kian? That’s sweet, but it wouldn’t make any difference to me. I’ll tell her in the morning.
I started to braid my hair for the night, waiting for the first gibe.

“Let me do that for you, Maeve,” Dairine said, dropping onto my bed so clumsily that she almost knocked me over onto the floor. She grabbed a fistful of my hair as I toppled.

“Ow! Be careful,” I cried.

“Tsk, I’m
so
sorry. I’m obviously not highborn enough to touch Lady Maeve’s gorgeous curls.”

“I didn’t say—”

She was back in her own bed without waiting to hear me. “
Someone
thinks she’s too good for the rest of us,” Dairine announced.

“
Someone
always did,” Ula chimed in. “Too good, too pretty, too
clever.
” She put extra bite behind the last word.

“Clever enough to use one fish to catch another.” Dairine giggled.

“Oh, I don’t think she was using
fish
for bait, do you?” They snickered.

“What are you talking about?” I pleaded, thoroughly confused. “I wouldn’t have sat with Kian tonight, but he asked me, and I didn’t think it would be so important.”

“Oh, he
asked
her,” Dairine said in a nasal drawl. “Lord Kian
asked
her.”

Ula snorted. “I’m surprised she’s not claiming that he
begged
her.”

“Dairine, Ula, shame on you, picking on Maeve this way.” Was Bryg coming to my rescue? “She’s going to think you envy her for capturing Lord Kian.” There was a pause, and then: “She already thinks you’re jealous of her for everything else, from the tip of her crooked little nose to the bottoms of her sprawling feet. Isn’t that right, Princess Goosefoot?” This time they all laughed.

I felt the blood rise to my cheeks. I’d never thought my feet were particularly wide until now. And if they were, what was wrong with that? But somehow, hearing my friends treat it as a flaw made it seem like one to me. Why were they doing this? I didn’t know what to say, and I lay there hoping that if I remained silent, they’d leave me alone.

“Maeve?” Bryg called softly. “Maeve, dear, aren’t you talking to me? Did I hurt your feelings?”

“I think she’s asleep,” Ula whispered.

“
I
think she’s trying the same trick on Bryg that worked on Lord Kian,” Dairine declared. “The longer she keeps her tongue tied in a knot, the closer she draws her prey until the miserable creature is hopelessly in love with her. Poor Lord Kian, she’s tired of him already, so she’s moving on to her next victim.”

“Me?” Bryg shrilled. “But how—? Oh my, doesn’t she know we’re both
girls
?”

“Does she care?” Dairine asked archly.

“She thinks she’s a man, that’s what,” Ula said. “I heard that she used to dress like one too. Nothing she’d do would surprise me. You’d better not close your eyes tonight, Bryg, now that you’ve had the bad luck to catch her eye.”

“No, I can’t stand it, save me!” Bryg cried. “You’re my
friends;
you can’t let this happen. I don’t want her to have me. I don’t want her to touch me. I don’t even want to breathe the same air and that—that—”

“You don’t have to!” I sprang out of my bed, holding the blanket tight around my body, and bolted for the door.

Three pairs of hands grabbed me before I could slip past the bull-hide curtain. For someone who claimed she didn’t want me to touch her, Bryg had no qualms about digging her fingers into my arm and squeezing to the bone. I thrashed in their grip, but three against one was a fight I couldn’t win.

“How stupid are you, Maeve?” Bryg hissed. “Do you want to make a spectacle of yourself, running out of here like
that
?” She tore away my blanket, leaving me shivering in a thin, ragged dress no longer good for anything but night wear.

“She just wants to do it to get us in trouble,” Ula said. “Now that she’s lured Lord Kian back, she’ll be Lady Lightning’s darling again, Maeve do-no-wrong, Maeve pure-and-perfect.” She accented the end of her sentence with a vicious pinch on my shoulder. I yelped.

“There she goes,” Dairine said. “Making noise over nothing, fussing like an old woman.”

“Like a
baby
,” Bryg amended. “Hush, everyone! The High King’s infant daughter is full of her mother’s milk and sleeping. If we disturb her, we’ll pay for it with our lives. Some kings rule by wisdom, but Lord Eochu never had much of that. He’s such a fool that he fed his tongue to the Morrígan’s ravens and now he can only speak with his sword.”

“Shut up! Don’t you dare say such things about my father!” I shouted, flailing my arms to drive them away from me. My three tormentors simply danced out of reach and surged in again, shoving me against a wall. I squirmed and pushed back, but they kept me pinned until I screamed in frustration, “Let me
go
!”

My yell brought the sound of running feet to our doorway and a man’s voice asking, “Is everything all right in there, girls?”

Silence froze all of us for a breath. Then two hands clamped themselves over my mouth and Dairine replied, “Nothing’s wrong. Lady Maeve was having a nightmare.”

“Oh. Sorry to hear that. Rest well.”

We heard his footsteps retreating. Once he was gone, the hands covering my mouth dropped and everyone but me giggled.

“What’s the matter, Maeve?” Bryg asked amiably. “Wasn’t that funny enough for you?”

“What you were doing to me wasn’t funny at all,” I retorted. “Let’s do the same to you and see how you like it!”

Dairine guffawed. “What did I tell you, Bryg? Our friend Maeve likes to think she can take a joke as well as any of us, but she wouldn’t recognize one if it bit her!” She threw her arms around me. “We had to have a bit of fun with you tonight, Princess Goosefoot. It’s our way of reminding you that you’re still one of us, and not the lady of Dún Beithe just yet.”

“I never said I wanted to be—”

Bryg yawned loudly. “Can we talk about this in the morning? I’m
so
tired.” The others followed her lead immediately, and I found myself standing with my back to the wall, shivering in the dark.