Bearers of the Black Staff

She was still holding her sewing, and she walked back across the room and set it down on the chair where she had been sitting, crossed again to a rack that held several cloaks, pulled one off and draped it over her shoulders, and returned to where he stood. “Not here. Pogue will be home soon, and I don’t want to have to explain you.”


She took him back outside and walked him away from the house then down a tiny lane that led through the cluster of homes to a small woodland honeycombed with trails. They walked without speaking, she leading, he following, the night about them silent and dark. They passed deep into the woods, angling this way and that along the trails until they reached an end to one and a wooden bench formed by a split tree trunk mounted horizontally on two stumps.

They sat down next to each other, not touching, but close enough that they could see each other’s faces clearly, even in the darkness. “You’ve come about the breach in the protective wall, haven’t you,” she said.

She got right to the point, as always. Direct, purposeful. He almost smiled, pleased to find her still so much like the girl he had known. “I have. But how did you know?”

“We have friends in common. Panterra Qu and Prue Liss told me about your encounter with the creatures from the outside world and your suspicions that the wall was collapsing. Is it so, then?”

He nodded. “I have just returned through the pass in Declan Reach. The wall is down and may have been so for some time. Those creatures found their way through. I tracked them along the high slopes, killed one, and then tracked the other back out through the pass. But there are more, and many other things. Monsters, mutants, creatures we’ve never seen before. There are humans living in the outside world, too. Lizards, Spiders, and probably Elves, as well. Not so many yet; probably most were destroyed in the time when our ancestors first came into the valley. But enough of them, and they are finding their way to us, Aislinne. We cannot keep them out. Nor can we expect to stay safe within.”

She shook her head in something like disapproval. “So Pan and Prue suggested. But your words—the words you so foolishly told them to carry to our village council—were a mistake. It did nothing to help; instead, it made them enemies. Now Skeal Eile and his minions hunt them.” She was suddenly angry. “Have you no sense at all, Sider? Did you think they would be welcomed for bringing such heretical news?”

He was taken aback. “I did what I thought I had to do. Glensk Wood sits closest to the pass. The people had to be warned. I would have done it myself if I didn’t think it more important to track down the second creature so that it wouldn’t lead others of its kind back into the valley.”

“Very noble of you. But your lack of foresight almost got those young people killed! After the council rejected their tale, Skeal Eile sent an assassin to make certain they never spoke of it again. They barely escaped him. If I had not been with them and foreseen—”

“You were there?” he interrupted, realizing what that meant.

“I was there, yes!” she snapped. “And after the assassin was dispatched, I sent them to the Elves to find safety. They have friends in Arborlon and intend to tell your story to them. Perhaps they will have better luck this time. Perhaps the Elven High Council will be more willing to listen than my own council members were. But if the Elves aren’t better disposed toward them than the people of Glensk Wood, I won’t be there to save them.” She paused. “So tell me this. Will you?”

He hesitated. “I will go directly there after I leave you.”

She nodded. The anger faded from her eyes. She reached out one hand and touched his cheek. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve my anger. You have enough of anger and distrust in your life without my adding to it. I am too hard on you.” Her hand dropped away. “It’s been a difficult road you’ve had to travel, hasn’t it?”

He smiled and shrugged. “I made my choice.” He looked at her anew, taking in the details of her face. Older now, but the girl he remembered was still there. “And you? How is your life?”

She laughed softly. “Not what I had expected it to be. I am married to a good man who looks after me, but I am not his passion as I was yours. Nor is he mine. We live together, childless and estranged in many ways, sharing space but little more. He governs the people of Glensk Wood; he heads the council. It gives him purpose, and I think that is enough for him.”

“But there’s not much of anything for you, is there?”

“I have my work in the community, helping where I can, trying to make things easier for people who don’t have a voice of their own. Being married to the leader of the village doesn’t hurt my efforts. Though Skeal Eile detests me.”

“More so now, if he knows what you’ve done.”

“He suspects but doesn’t know. Not for certain. In any case, Pogue protects me from him.”