[COMPLETED] The Vixen and The Thief

Chapter 26

Then through the darkness Beibhinn heard the  splash of horses' hooves. A galloping horse. 

She pushed herself to run faster. Faster. Slipping, stumbling. The night was blurred and distant, like the confusion of a dream. She did not feel the pain in her chest any longer, nor the ragged gasps that tore her throat. She had to escape.

The horse drew nearer, coming from behind, flying past, its hooves cascading mud and water over her.

The black creature wheeled across the path in front of her, blocking flight. On either side thick bushes barred escape into the countryside.

Gasping, shaking with exhaustion, Beibhinn stumbled to a halt and faced the figure who dismounted with a flourish from the animal.

Dawn was approaching,  a silver band  rending the distant dark. But no colour had come with the light. As of yet they faced each other in the gloom of night, both boy and girl grey and colourless as ghosts.

"Vixen," said An Beitheach, but said it gently, as though the name now pleased him. "Would you ever run from me? I will never let you escape."

Beibhinn could barely stop her shakey breaths from becoming sobs. "I will." she said at last.

An Beitheach approached, leading his animal by the reins. "Not for much longer,"  a smirk bent his face. Beibhinn stepped back.

"I have fought Heaven," he said, and his voice was low and intense, with edge in it that she had never heard and did not recognise, "I have dared hell for you. I will not be defied now. I want you Beibhnn. I need you."

"Want," said Beibhinn contemptuously, "Need. It is only but yourself  that you seek to gratify. It  not I whom you care about at all."

"No Beibhinn," protested the young man, his dark eyes opening very wide, "I love you," he reached out a hand to take Beibhinn's but she snatched it away. But she did not step back this time.

"As you told Maebh." she replied, in shuddering, undignified gasps, "As you will tell other girls after me. You have not changed." Her fear was turning to fury, her words to acid. "You never truely will! For once you have me you will return to your old ways. How dare you think that a few soft words would win me, like an óinsín bog ghéílúil! My brother lies in your prison, and you would use him as a hostage to bribe me."

An Beitheach stepped closer, there was no escaping now. Beibhinn's legs shook, but she forced them to hold her, her voice rising higher in the gloaming, shrill with terrified anger.

"The monks are dead by your hand, yet still you think that I will give myself to an unrepentant monster like yourself!" Her words fell and faded in the morning air, and what hope she had had of someone hearing them and coming to her aid, went with them. "Take your soft words," she spat desperately, "and choke on them!"

"Beibhinn! Little vixen! Listen to me!" cried An Beitheach, his shout overlapping with her own, "Le do thoil!" his voice was pleading. "What you say is false. I know that I have said things in the past to - to Meabh - and to others too but...it seems...empty now. As day follows night it is nothing compared to what I now feel towards you. Never have I felt this way about any girl as I do about you."

Beibhinn said nothing. A great weakness had fallen over her, her anger spent. She could run no longer. Raising her head she looked her foe steadily in the face. His fine horse stamped and fidgeted, tired of waiting.

"Come away with me Beibinn," said An Beitheach, "I shall let your brother go. For what greives you is bitter to me. And you shall make me be good."

On the morning air came the smell of smoke curling down from the monastery island.

He had said such things before..he had... But maybe, this time...

The light grew stronger, creeping over the land. Bleeding colour back into grass and trees. His hair, it was black, black..and his face so finely cut. Never had she seen someone so handsome. She admitted as much to herself. 

Could it really be that he thought the same of her? That in the heart of such a one she had stirred admiration? Love, even?

"Vixen?" said An Beitheach, reaching out his had again. Beibhinn took it firmly.

They walked to the horse and the young man lifted her lightly up onto the creature's back. She gathered the reins. An Beitheach laid a hand on the saddle-cloths to jump up behind.

Then with a growling shout, Beibhinn dug her heels into the horse's sides. The animal lunged forwards. An Beitheach seized the reins and dragged the animal around. Beibhinn jabbed the reins up and away from him. Grabbing the mane she aimed a kick at the man, catching the side of his head.

The horse wheeled, bowling him aside, and with a roar Beibhinn sent it straight to a gallop, thundering away up the track.

"Hag!" howled An Beitheach, running after them shaking his fists, "Hag! Vixen! Liar!"

But he was falling behind as they raced away.

"Damn you!" he roared, "Damn, damn, damn..."

But Beibhinn was now riding faster than the breeze could bear his curses, and in a few moments An Beitheach could be neither seen nor heard.

Author's note:

Did you, at any moment, think I was going soft in the head in this chapter? XD

(Actually, I wrote some segments of it in my notebook in code, just in case a family member might stumble across it and get the wrong idea! It made typing it up a bit of a pain though....had to de-code it before I could put it up.)

Le do thoil: Please

Óinsín bog ghéílúil: A soft willed, yielding fool of a woman.

 (One of only two pieces of Irish I learned from that ghastly play 'An Triail' we were forced to do in school. (And the other is a tad vulger and not particularly useful..) Mairéad Ní Ghráda, consider this as part of my revenge for your opus which is the bane of students and an insult to the Irish language. Nyah!