I smiled. “But I have a special command for the lord of this castle. Do not find your goddess for a lifetime after a lifetime and more. Until then, keep no living company in your castle, not even the company of living, breathing horses with which to ease your loneliness. Live the lives of many men, leaving a mere shadow of each life behind to keep you company and to remind you of how long you have suffered.
“And don’t think that a pretty face will abet you, Your Lordship, in your quest to win your goddess’s heart. All of you men, lord and guards, villagers and tormentors, cover your faces now, cover your faces always, or crumble under the eyes of the women around you and vanish forever as if you had never existed. Find sanctuary from this command only in the blood relations who know you are no more than breeding stock and among all women only once you have earned the love of your goddess, no sooner than when she ages from girl to woman.”
The last words had not yet left my mouth when I saw the tip of the gouge jutting through the lord’s chest. It dripped with blood, spilling drops on the stone floor. Lord Elric fell forward without a sound. Before he could hit the ground, he vanished, and it was the leather clothing, wide-brimmed hat, and golden bangle that broke the silence, clattering like the crash of thunder that would start an avalanche.
Avery stood behind where the lord had been, her mouth contorted into a look of primal lust. She licked her lips, raised both her ax and her bloody gouge, and shouted out a cry that reverberated across the castle walls. The other women joined in, running forward while shaking their axes, hoes, and pitchforks at the ceiling.
Lord Elric had been stabbed, perhaps dead before I gave my command to the lord of the castle. But I had spoken all of the command aloud before I could stop my wayward tongue.
But this wasn’t what I’d meant to do.
The spell was cast.
The castle roared to life. A halo of violet light spread across the land and the ground shook.
As I fought to stand steady, my eyes darted about the entryway frantically, falling at last upon the small figure peeking through the crack in the door to the garden. The dark eye that locked on to mine was wide and frightened.
Ailill. Who I could see so clearly now would grow up to be striking—perhaps more striking than his brother. Who was now the lord of the village and had been the moment Avery’s gouge had struck the killing blow to their brother Elric. Who would now bear the brunt of my curse.
Who would one day love me.
No, he already loved me, in his childlike way. And that was all the more reason why my words would hold him prisoner, now and forever.
A flicker and then a flame burst to life in that small dark eye.
I felt ill.
I sheathed Elgar, knowing I would never draw blood with the blade. It was no more meant for slaying monsters than the tree branch I had once called by the same name. Full of pride at myself and my power, like I had been as a child, I was just pretending at battle. I hadn’t meant for this to happen. The cavern pool had called me to a dismal time, and I was just following the example of the first goddess.
No. The truth was too plain.
I was the first goddess.
I dashed across the short distance between myself and the garden doorway, shoving aside women, dodging spears, watching as the guards screamed and fell and vanished one after another. A man who didn’t fall prey to an ax, a hoe, or a pitchfork melted into thin air with no injury, banished from existence simply by the look of a woman’s eyes upon his face. Goncalo stumbled and turned around to avoid one woman’s stab only to come face to face with my stare. His eyes widened, the newfound flame within snuffed out, and he was gone.
A sour taste rose high within my throat. I ran through where Goncalo had been and ripped the shawl off of my shoulders. I have to cover him. I have to teach him to keep his face from women who don’t love him.
I almost stopped right there, realizing what I was thinking. But I knew I had to move on, that covering him was the right thing to do.
That he would be safe from my eyes, if not safe from the eyes of anyone else but his sisters’.
After a lifetime, I reached the door, my hands running wildly over the coarse wood until I gripped the iron handle. Pulling it open the smallest amount I could afford, I slipped inside and slammed the door shut behind me.
Ailill stepped back from me as I entered, tears flowing freely from his firelit eyes, his hands shoved forward weakly to block me. Ignoring his attempt to keep me from him, I flung the black shawl over his head and dragged him behind the nearest rose bush. Squeezed tightly between the wall and the blooms, we both got pricked and scratched and gouged by the roses’ pointed thorns.
I crouched down to my knees to match Ailill’s small height and shifted the shawl so that I could see his face, which I cupped in both hands with as much force and tenderness as I could inject. His chest expanded and contracted rapidly. The look of terror on his face felt worse than any blow that had been inflicted to my body.