The Realm of the Sun

The Sign

                  

          Ten restless days had passed since Diarmiad and his men departed from Tara. Eirainna sat sewing beside Furbaide and Éile in front of the hearth in the west wing common room. The trembling of her hands made for messy needlework, but she persisted. There was nothing she could do at this moment other than mend Furbaide's shirts.

          "You want to know a secret?" Éile asked, looking up at her sister while stitching perfectly. Eirainna looked up at her sister and then back to her own work, which they both knew was a signal to go on.

          "Well, you mustn't tell Maeve I've said it, but I think it's such a shame they've gone to kill Connor mac Nessa," Éile sighed, laying on her back as they waited, "he was so handsome and seemed so kind..."

          Eirainna remained silent, watching the flames in the hearth ruthlessly devour the wood, her fingers quickly and mechanically weaving the thread in and out of Furbaide's little clothes. Éile looked over at her sister, desperately trying to get any response or even a gesture out of her. Their conversations had been mostly one-sided since war was declared and Éile was growing bored.

          "Well, do you feel nothing in regard to the situation, Raina?" Éile eventually asked.

         "Maeve is queen and she knows best," she replied, quietly.

          "Oh, but you seemed to get on with him so well. You even danced together! Did not you think him handsome? Or kind?"

          "I thought him very...amiable," she offered in a small voice. Eirainna closed her eyes.

          "Amiable? Oh, Raina, you are dead inside. Why, I thought you were at the very least going to be a little sad about it. Do you know...I think I was in love with him!"

          "What does it matter what I think of him; they're going to kill him!" Eirainna snapped, causing Furbaide to look up from playing with his toys. By the look on his face, she realized she had never raised her voice in front of him before. Immediately she retreated to her normal, composed manner, sick with guilt that she had lashed out at her sister. But it was beyond guilt. Eirainna was disappointed in herself; she secretly took pride in her strength and had thought herself to be stronger than she apparently was.

          "I'm sorry, Éile, I did not mean—" she began, but was interrupted by the sound of the horn. Éile sat up promptly and she and Eirainna looked at one another tensely.

          "Diarmiad's come back," Éile whispered, as if it needed to be said. She had a habit of blurting things out as she realized them. The sisters fled the room and ran hastily down the corridor.

          "Raina, I come?" Furbaide called, standing perplexed in the doorway of the common room.

          "No, no Furbaide, darling. You must stay here. Una will be right there, okay? She'll be right there..." Eirainna called from the stairs. When the girls reached the drawbridge, panting and red-faced, they noticed that Maeve waited quietly at the door while Diarmiad and his men crossed over the mote. Eirainna stuck her arm out in front of her young and eager sister and they went no further.

          "Were you successful?" Maeve asked, her voice steady and tone even.

          "We were," Diarmiad professed. Eirainna's heart immediately burned in her chest and plummeted like a stone into her stomach.

          "You're lying," Maeve declared, immediately detecting his uneasiness.

          "Well, at least we think we did..." Diarmiad was not a skilled liar for someone so accustomed to it.