Deception's Pawn (Princesses of Myth) (9 page)

“If that’s my reward for such a small gift, what will you
give me when I say I’m taking you hunting now?” he wondered aloud.

“Hunting?”

“With this one.” His fingertips smoothed Ea’s wings. “I know you admire the bird, and it must like you or it would’ve had a chunk out of you. I thought you might enjoy seeing what it can do besides look pretty.”

“She,” I said quietly.

“What?”

“You keep calling that lovely kestrel ‘it,’ but see those broad dark bands across her tail feathers? That’s how you can tell she’s female, and you tell a male by his cap of blue feathers.”

“Huh! I guess I learned something. How did you come to know that?”

I hesitated. The thin braid I’d made from my own hair was still tied to Ea’s foot. For whatever reason, Kian hadn’t removed it. Did I want to point it out and tell him the full story behind my bond with her?

Not yet
, I thought.
I can’t talk freely about Ea without naming Odran, and I won’t—I can’t speak of him to Kian. Kian’s been kind to me—he might even become my friend someday
—
but Odran is my heart. I can’t entrust anything so precious to Kian yet.

I shrugged and gave him a hedging reply: “I’ve talked with people who know about wild birds. Isn’t there anyone like that here, or are you the only person at Dún Beithe who knows their ways?”

“I’m no expert, or I wouldn’t have needed you to tell me that my hunter’s a huntress,” Kian said amiably. “So, as long as
we’re out here, do you want to see it—I mean, do you want to see
her
work?”

“Yes. More than anything.” My heart began to beat rapidly. I had to hold myself back or I’d give that young man another kiss. One was safe, but two? He might get ideas—ideas involving a third kiss, and a fourth, and then what? I would rather not have to waste time explaining why I’d kissed him twice and no more when we could be watching Ea fly.

Kian led me beyond the trees on the far side of the clearing to where the woodland ended and an open field awaited. It wasn’t a short walk, but my aches became an afterthought as I looked forward to seeing my Ea take to the skies again. Part of the field was plowed farmland. I could see a small house in the distance and a thin trail of smoke from a cookfire lazily climbing its way into the clouds.

“This is a good place,” Kian declared and removed Ea’s hood. The kestrel uttered a fierce cry of impatience, spreading her wings and turning her head sharply, taking in her surroundings. “Go on then, pretty one.” He jerked his arm up and she soared.

I held my breath in rapture. Nothing I’d ever seen was as beautiful as this, nothing had the power to enchant me so deeply. I followed Ea’s flight with more than my eyes; my spirit soared with her. “How lovely,” I whispered.

“I agree.”

Something in Kian’s tone made me tear my eyes from Ea to discover him staring at me in a vaguely disturbing way. I remembered such looks from the days before my brothers were born, when I was still the High King’s prize, the hero’s portion,
the promise of wealth and power that he dangled before the lords of Èriu to earn or keep their allegiance. I didn’t like it then and I liked it less now, here far from Dún Beithe and alone with Kian.

“Do you mean me, Lord Kian?” I imitated the flirtatious lilt I’d heard Dairine use when trying to catch the attention of a new man. “You’re certainly not the first to tell me that, so I do hope you’ve got a new way of describing why I make all other girls look like rag-dressed sticks topped with handfuls of straw. Where do you want to start? My eyes?” I fluttered my lashes. “My hair?” I tossed it with both hands. “Will you start at my feet and work your way up or start at my head and work your way down? I don’t care, as long as you’re original. I’ve heard it all so many times before that if I listen to one more repetition—”

His smitten look faded into a very wobbly grin. The poor young man didn’t know what to make of me, but he pushed ahead anyway. “Lady Maeve, I truly think that you’re as beautiful as … as … as the sun that—”

“Not that! Not the whole dreary ‘You outshine the sun and the moon and the stars’ again! Didn’t I warn you to say something
new
? Oh, the sameness, the fatal
sameness
! I’m done for!” I cried, clutched my heart, and keeled over in the worst imitation of sudden death you could ever hope to see.

I lay in the grass with my eyes closed, still as a block of wood, drawing shallow breaths, waiting. I waited no more than four heartbeats before I heard the sound I’d hoped for: Kian’s rousing laughter.

“Get up, you foolish girl,” he said, gently nudging me with his toe. “Get up before a field mouse crawls into your
beautiful
hair, or a crow pecks out your
beautiful
eyes, or a raven gobbles up your
beautiful
tongue.”

I sprang to my feet willingly. “That’s not a very big feast for a full-grown raven. What about my
beautiful
brain?”

“The brain that thought I was actually flattering you?” he scoffed. “There’s not enough meat there to make a meal for my kestrel.”

I breathed easier. My ploy had worked: Kian wouldn’t be able to look at me without recalling my deliberately silly display. How could he ever court a girl he couldn’t take seriously?

Relieved, I set my attention on Ea once more. She hovered over the field, searching the grass for signs of prey. Suddenly she dropped and struck, ending the life of some unlucky insect or rodent in the grass.

Kian cheered. “
That’s
my beauty! She’s too small to go after anything worth eating, but she sometimes flushes hares for my arrows. I’ll bring along my bow next time and you’ll see.”

Next time
 … The promise of those words filled me with happy anticipation.

“What about tomorrow?” I blurted. “You could teach me how to shoot instead of how to use the sword. I wouldn’t need to change my clothing for that and I’d be standing still, so my aches wouldn’t bother me.”

Kian regarded me with grudging admiration. “Taking charge of everything, are you? I’m not ready to swap my tunic for your dress just yet, milady. It’s not a bad idea to teach you archery, but not tomorrow. You’ll need a bow of your own and I’m the fool who’ll have to find one for you.”

“Can’t I use yours?”

“You’re not strong enough to pull it. Trust me on that. But
wait a moment—” He fished in the pouch at his belt and produced a piece of leather with two thongs attached. “I could teach you how to use the sling instead.”

I felt a cold wind rush through me. I was at the crannog again, watching Master Íobar use just such a weapon to slaughter the animals Odran and I had nursed so carefully. Once again I saw a slingstone strike my Ea in midflight and send her plummeting to the earth.

“No, not that.” I held my hands up, palms forward, pushing away the very idea of touching such an accursed thing. “Never.”

“Why not?” Kian was honestly perplexed. “It’s small, handy, and effective.”

I know
, I thought bitterly. “I’d rather learn how to use the bow,” I said. My voice came out as hoarse as a raven’s croak.

“Suit yourself. But if that’s what you want, it’ll take time for me to find or make one you can handle; maybe too much time. We’re on the brink of losing many days from these meetings. Samhain will soon be here and I’ll be called away to oversee the cattle. You girls will have more duties as well, working on our winter food supplies. If we lose more days while I get you a bow—” His lips twisted into a look of resignation. “Perhaps we should just admit we’re done with this until next spring.” He began to put the sling away.

I hadn’t come so far from home to sink into being just another one of Dún Beithe’s fosterlings. I had no clear vision of who I was going to become. I didn’t know what I was going to do to make my life into something more than what everyone else presumed it had to be. I was only certain of where I
didn’t
want to end up, and that wasn’t good enough to carry me to the destination I
would
want to reach.

If I let the sorrows of my past rule me, they’d bind my wings. If I allowed cruel memories of Master Íobar’s crime to limit my choices now, he’d always hold my future hostage.

I seized Kian’s wrist with all my power. “Teach me.”

C
HAPTER
S
IX

Samhain Shadows

I
DID WELL
that first day of sling lessons, so well that Kian wound up scratching his head as he asked, “Are you sure you’ve never done this before?”

“What are you talking about, Lord Kian?” I asked. “I haven’t hit the mark even once.” I waved across the field at the target he’d chosen, one of the oldest, broadest oaks at the woodland’s edge.

“No, but you
have
launched your shot every time,” he said. “When I was starting out, I’d cradle the stone in the strap, twirl it by the thongs, and hear the other lads laughing at me for spinning an empty sling. It took days before I ‘improved.’ ” His wry face matched the sarcasm in his voice. “I managed to keep the stone spinning in the sling long enough for it to drop out and knock me on the head.”

I couldn’t help it: I snickered.

Kian pretended I’d devastated him. “That’s right, make fun of the poor boy who lost his brains in a slingstone accident.”

“Several times,” I reminded him blithely.

“Hmph. And lucky for you. Only a man with a scrambled brain would’ve let the time slip away like this.”

“What?” He was right: I’d been concentrating so hard on acquiring this new skill and he’d been so fascinated by my flair for using the sling that we hadn’t noticed the dimming daylight.

He mistook my surprise for panic. “Don’t worry, Lady Maeve, I’ll make sure you get back to Dún Beithe safely.” He fetched Ea from the tree where he’d tethered her.

I picked up my still-empty basket. “I was supposed to be picking berries but there’s no time now. Tongues will wag over this when we’re seen coming home together.”

“I’ll let you reach the gate alone once Dún Beithe’s in view,” Kian offered. “And if you’ll carry the kestrel, I’ll scare up enough berries and mushrooms and the like to give you a basket full of excuses for having been in the forest.”

A chance to hold Ea! Once again the urge to thank him with a kiss overtook me and once again I pushed it away, though the effort made me blush. Why did I feel so compelled to offer him my gratitude with more than words alone?

A disturbing thought crossed my mind:
Do I want to kiss him because I’m grateful or … do I just want to give him a kiss?
I swept the question aside at once, furious with myself.
How can I want such a thing? What is Kian to me? He may be handsome and strong, a battle-proven warrior, but he’s not Odran.

No, he’s not Odran.
A small, insinuating whisper stirred dangerously within me.
But aren’t you just a little curious to discover what he
could
be?

Those words and the unwelcome heat they kindled in my
blood made me walk fast—too fast—and preoccupied me so much that I lost track of my surroundings. I broke from the forest and was well up the path to Dún Beithe, Ea on my arm and Kian in my wake, before I realized it. We were already within the gate guard’s sight, and bad luck for us, this one was fully alert and paying close attention. We’d also stirred the interest of the sentry atop the wall.

Now there are
two
tongues ready to wag about seeing us together
, I thought bitterly, only to spy my final fate: tall and elegant in the fine red cloak that was her pride, Ula stared down at us from her interrupted pacing around the ringfort ramparts.

Kian was by my side, the basket at his feet while he carefully took charge of Ea, sliding the leather sleeve from my arm to his, kestrel and all. “Lady Maeve, didn’t we agree to split up before—?”

“I wasn’t thinking,” I replied wearily, when the truth was I’d been thinking too much. “I’m sorry, Lord Kian, but it looks like we’re both doomed. And what a way to die: death by gossip.” I tried to smile.

His jaw set and all of his dismay transformed itself into determination. “I won’t allow it. If anyone speaks disrespectfully about you, my sword will teach them better manners.”

“Poor Ula,” I murmured. “She won’t stand a chance. And after you’ve killed her, and Gormlaith, and Dairine, what then?”

“Who?”

“No one.” Now I could truly smile at him, my bold defender. His grand, heroic desire to protect me gave me back my spine. I didn’t need anyone else to fight my battles. I laid
one hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry if I’ve dragged you into an awkward situation, but I can weather it if you can. There’ll be no need for challenges or duels.”

“But if they claim that you and I—”

“I don’t care. Dogs bark at anything. Besides, this gives me a fine excuse to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

His eyes widened. Was that apprehension I saw in them or expectancy? “What’s that?”

“To stop calling each other lord and lady when we should be only Kian and Maeve.” I picked up the basket. “Above all, to ask that you call me your friend.” I popped a ripe berry into my mouth and another between his lips before he could react. “Now let anyone who’s watching chew on
that
,” I declared, and entered Dún Beithe like a conqueror.