The Realm of the Sun

The Attack

                "Milady, you've not touched your breakfast," Una's voice crept in to Eirainna's room like the draft.

"Ah, yes, Una, I was thinking—I was wondering if you could arrange for it to be delivered to Lady Saoirse?"

Una went pale at the thought of this mission. "We have been asked, Milady, to strip her of her title...when referring..." She swallowed uncomfortably, her little dark eyes darting about as she realized she did not believe in her own words.

"I wish to call her Lady Saoirse," Eirainna said, and her spine straightened with authority. Una nodded her head with equal parts shame and trepidation. "Can that be arranged, Una?"

"I suppose...I will see that she gets it." Una's weighted gaze reached only as high as the hem of Eirainna's skirts.

"I would deliver it myself, only I fear that Maeve...only I fear," she stopped herself there and exhaled. Una nodded again, at a loss for words and action.

"I suppose it won't be much of a problem...at this point."

"What do you mean 'at this point?'" Knowing what she would see if she were to look on her maid's pale countenance, Eirainna fixed her eyes on the embers floating around in the hearth like little stars.

"The e-execution is to be held tomorrow. At dawn." Eirainna's hand unconsciously gripped the oak knob of her bedpost. "I suggest you take Furbaide away for the day," Una offered, solemnly.

"What, now? Now is when I should take caution to shield the boy from the horrors of—" Eirainna stopped her tongue, "I'm sorry, Una. It's not your fault, of course it's not your—"

"I know..." Una smiled sadly, took the untouched meal and left the door slightly ajar on her way out. Eirainna let out a great sigh. Who was this Ultan man, she wondered, that Lady Saoirse had met and fallen for. Or did she love him? Did it matter? She found herself repeating her own words over and over in head: No one asks what it was all for when your head is on the block.

                  Later that afternoon, as she stood on the edge of the mist-covered sea, Eirainna's hand rested protectively on her abdomen four months swollen. A faint splash broke the calm of the surface. She looked down at the water to see a dark figure gliding just beneath the surface. A brown seal emerged from the gently breaking waves on the rocky shore just steps away from her. Its hide was so richly coloured, it emerged so abruptly from the neutral grey sea and sky. Gracefully, it slid through the surface to the edge of the shore, leaving a delicate wake. The beautiful seal looked up at her, its neck wrinkling as its head turned to the side. They shared a strange, majestic connection; the creature was mystical to her, something about it darkly beautiful and otherworldly, its round eyes so dark and shiny, so impossibly human. They seemed to have such a soul behind them...as layered and as melancholy as her own. The seal's penetrating eyes begged her for something, as if they had known she would be there at the sea's edge at that time. The intensity of their plea hypnotized her and brought her to a focused stillness.

Suddenly, Eirainna felt the earth shake ever so faintly beneath her. Having felt the same subtle vibrations in the earth, the seal scurried back into water, making the rippling waves splash as it ducked back under the surface and swam out beyond the shallow water. She turned her head slightly to hear the clapping of hooves against the rocky peat and adjusted the folds of her skirt to sufficiently hide the curve of her stomach. The rhythms of the fast approaching hooves became quicker. Cillian emerged from the wall of fog on his rattled horse.

"Raina," he called to her in a harsh whisper that cut through the haze, "is that you?"

"Yes...I was just out for a walk...is—is everything—" Eirainna wondered why the warhorse seemed so frantic as they drew near.