The Realm of the Sun

An Unlikely Nurse

        The fierce, unforgiving winter stretched far beyond its welcome. Though it was now early spring, it seemed a permanent frost had covered the moors forbidding a single flower to sprout from the earth. Even the weeds withered before forging through the ice to the sun. The shadow of death had been cast over Tara once more.

"Where are we going?" Furbaide whined, leaning against Eirainna's velvet sleeve as their small carriage hobbled on beyond the glen. Sir Niall, who sat opposite them in the tiny wagon, smiled at Eirainna sensitively.

"We are going," she began with an almost grand tone to mask her ambivalence, "to visit with the soldiers." This wasn't entirely true. They were headed to the battery of Tara, which was currently serving as an infirmary for the soldiers and knights wounded in the castle raid. Eirainna was not particularly looking forward to seeing Finn's few companions who had also fallen that fateful evening. However, she had not been to see them since the attack and knew that she must help them any way possible. That Furbaide had to tag along was an oversight, but Eirainna still thought him being with her at the infirmary was better than the alternative. He had been attached to her hip ever since his nightmares started up again and Eirainna knew that poor Grainne would accept any difficult task in the world over having to spend a few hours alone with Furbaide at the castle.

Furbaide was satisfied with Eirainna's white lie of answer, elaborating on what was to happen with his vivid imagination. He entertained the notion that possibly a meeting with the soldiers meant they were knighting him officially, making him the youngest knight in history by thirteen years at least. Niall watched the reflections in Eirainna's eyes as they peered with poise out the carriage window. He noticed first the extension of her swanlike neck as she did so and then saw the reflection in her eyes in such detail, that he could make out the lake in the glen icing over.

"I'm cold," said Furbaide, his pleasant visions of soldiers and knighthood expired. Nothing, not even a child's wildest fantasies could provide ample escape from this dry, brutal winter. Eirainna, stuck in her own valley of grief, could not find any more comforting words for him at the moment. She could only place her arm around him and pull him closer to share in her heavy velvet cloak.

"We'll be there soon," Niall offered, for both the child and Eirainna, seeing discomfort in her face, but not knowing it was because each bump in the rocky path made her stomach heave.

When the carriage came to a halt, Eirainna closed her eyes briefly in slight recovery of the sudden stopping. Niall, ever the gentleman, stepped out of the carriage first. He lifted Furbaide off the seat and high into the air before placing him on the ground. Eirainna managed a small smile at the sound of the boy's laughter, but still it somehow felt inappropriate to do so during her mourning. She noticed Niall's wise, grey eyes as she took his hand. Smiling, he helped her out of the wagon as well.

"Mind the step, Milady," he cautioned her, not releasing her hand until her large, black skirts had cleared it and she was safely on the ground. Once she had safely adjusted her cloak to hide her ever-growing bump, she looked up to find they were standing in front of the battery. It was a wide stone structure that looked like a sister to the main castle, but simpler and perhaps with an added air of gloom. No flags were planted in the rafters; no beautiful oak-crested doors that made the entrance grand with a mote and drawbridge. It was simply a wide iron door, and the only thing that appeared not to be stone on the building. There were no windows. Furbaide ran ahead, anxious for what he falsely anticipated based on Eirainna's vague preface.

"Come here, darling, hold my hand now," she called to him, her voice gruff from not having used it much over the last few days. The little boy in his tiny coat made of wool and furs, turned around obediently and ran back to her to seize her hand as though it were the prize of a race. As soon as he left the door, it opened and Lady Alainne emerged from behind it, fastening the collar of her cloak. Eirainna had not seen her since the night of Finnian's death.