Ailish dropped her gaze to the burlap sack in her lap. “Probably stolen by one o’ the sailors afore I got to it. The whole lot be suffering from sticky fingers.”
And sheer brazenness, as someone must have entered the cabin while Justine and I napped before supper. How could I have been so careless? Now either James or Henry would have to kill the wretch, unless I was prepared to die on the spot. But what if I found Deri first? How far was I willing to go? The answer came quick and clear.
Anything to save Nora...
Ailish pulled a withered apple from the sack and tossed it into my lap. Another landed next to the first. I snatched one up, my mouth watering despite the obvious wormhole.
Holding two back, Ailish sank her teeth through the leathery peel. “Might have sniffed around the cabin for scents,” she said around the large bite, “if’n I knew the knife be missing.”
This was the second time she’d mentioned smelling things. The apple dangled in my hand, temporarily forgotten as I darted a glance at Seamus. From the driver’s bench, he was too far away to catch our conversation over the noise from the cart and horse. “Is that part of your gift?” I asked just loud enough for her to hear.
She nodded and scrunched her nose for emphasis. “Every creature’s got its own scent. I can smell them all, and with Cailleach’s power, I can tell how close they be to death.” Another chunk of apple disappeared behind her teeth.
My mouth popped open. “You can smell death?”
“That I can, and when folks are near to dying, I help gentle them to the other side.”
“You mean that you kill them?”
Ailish rolled her eyes at me. “No, Selah. I help them cross if’n they’re ready.” I made to speak but she held up a hand. “Most folks don’t fight leaving when the time comes. Others be fearful to make the journey, and they hang on even when their bodies are half rotted. It’s me gift to bring some peace and gentle them into the next life.”
Peace was precisely what I’d felt earlier this morning when Ailish sang in the rowboat. The serene notes had sounded unearthly, and for a brief time I’d forgotten the misery of being gagged and bound. “Is that why you sing?”
“It helps to soothe folks and makes the crossing easier.”
“What if you’re wrong? What if you gentle someone away who isn’t ready?”
“Me nose is never wrong.” She tapped the tip with her free hand. “And I don’t force anyone who don’t want to go.”
My own experience said otherwise. “You forced me,” I muttered darkly.
“Not so. You wouldn’t have crossed to the Otherworld without some yearning to be there.”
This brought me up short. “I don’t have a death wish, if that’s what you mean.”
Only a stem remained of the first apple. Tossing it aside, she started on the second. “You don’t need one to yearn for what’s gone before.” She took another bite, her molars moving methodically over the fruit. “Every soul alive has a connection o’ some kind or another to the next life. Yours just be particularly strong.”
I looked away, recalling the intense desire to stay in the Otherworld. How only the memory of Henry and Nora had been sufficient to keep me from taking that last step.
“My parents and brother are there,” I admitted.
“Me parents be there, too.”
“Did you see them this time?”
“I did, and a wee sister who took me mam on the birthing bed.” The second stem went the way of the first. Finished with the meager meal, Ailish drew up her knees and pulled the cape close, managing to look even smaller.
“Is that when you fell into Calhoun’s hands?”
She shook her head. “Not until a year later when me da was attacked by cutthroats coming home from the tavern. Calhoun had become acquainted with the two o’ us soon after me mam died, and he took me in once it be known I had nowhere else to go.” The words sounded matter-of-fact, as though all emotion had been separated from the events that had served to shape her life. “I would’ve been for the parish orphanage if’n Calhoun hadn’t known about me gift and decided I’d be useful.”
“How very fortunate,” I said dryly. “Though I can’t see how gentling people away would help his trade.”
A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Calhoun taught me to hold back Cailleach’s power, so to give folks a good tingling in their fingers, or maybe a peek at a loved one who’d died. Other times, he would have me tell fortunes for those who wanted to know when death be near.” She stared down at the tips of her boots poking out from beneath the cape. “We never got along from the start, but he kept me around to cook and clean and for all the silver I could put in his pocket.”
Poor girl. Since her parents’ deaths, she’d been little more than a slave for the man. “I guess Calhoun isn’t the kind of person to act from kindness and a shared bloodline.”
Ailish spit to the side. “He don’t have the kindness to fill a thimble. And from what I’ve felt, he’s got even less o’ Cailleach to him.”