Book two of Blind Love
After being saved from the Saxons and brought back to the man she loves, Ailbe has grown far less naive. Still a gentle soul with a heart of gold, Ailbe begins to find the balance between compassion and subservience. She becom...
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Ailbe could see her life flashing before her like some hazy kaleidoscopic dream. Hours, days, weeks, months, years; all molded into mere seconds.
From the moment of her birth to the moment of her death, she could see it all.
She was unaware of the people that fussed around her, the yelling and threats made by both sides as they discovered what had happened. At first it was thought that her old injury was to blame, but the healers soon disagreed.
Wolf's Bane. She'd been poisoned.
The fact she wasn't dead was a miracle as the plant often caused heart attacks and death. The doctor had given her a strange salt in the hopes that it might fix her but it seemed that she was lucky enough to have an incompetent assassin as they'd given her a nonlethal dosage.
Everyone quickly began to blame eachother, but the true culprit was one that they would never have guessed.
Each of them decided to sit with her individually and privately while Ivar had his men prepare the boats. As soon as she was awake they'd leave as in Kattegat he knew he could protect her. In the meantime, he'd discover who'd hurt her and burn them. That much was certain.
"My daughter," The old Queen whispered, gently brushing strands of hair from her face. "I have not always been as good to you as I should have been. I have made you feel worthless because of my own pride, and my fear of one day losing you. But you are my most beautiful gem, and I could not live with myself knowing that the last time we saw eachother was in the circumstances that we did." For what felt like hours she wept at her daughter's side, kissing her and begging her to return to her.
Next in the room was Eavann. She sat beside her sister, eyes stained with tears, and looked to her silently. "I'm not sure what to say." She whispered, mournfully. "I don't know how to tell you everything I feel right now, even if I wish I could. I just know that I love you, that I am proud of you, and that the only peace you will receive from dying will be temporary as I've already agreed to help kill whoever did this to you."
Brian clambered up his mother's leg before gently poking his aunt's face with a worried expression. When she didn't move, he poked again - this time squishing her cheek. Still nothing. "Please wake up Auntie Ailbe." He whispered sadly, hugging her. "You can't go to sleep yet. What about Clíodhna and Ciabhan?"
"Auntie Ailbe!" Brian laughed in the grass as the two sat together, listening to the birds. "Tell me a story."
Ailbe thought for a while, her mind wandering to many topics before finally she recalled a tale that her mother had often told her as a child. "Do you know about Clíodhna Brian?"
He nodded with a sweet smile. "The Banshee Goddess!" He cheered.
Ailbe nodded, laughing at his enthusiasm. "Well Clíodhna was a goddess until one day she met a man, a man who was just like you and I, called Ciabhan. Now Clíodhna wasn't allowed to love Ciabhan because he was human and because he would live and die just like grandad and your little sister."
"The long sleep?" He asked with a little confusion.
Ailbe nodded with a small smile. "The long sleep." Which made the little boy nod again in understanding. "Now, you see, Clíodhna loved Ciabhan so much that she didn't want anything to come between them, so she came to our world and made herself human too. She gave up her immortality so that she could live just a single life with Ciabhan. Because one life with him was worth an eternity without him. But when the other Gods found out, they were furious. They lured Clíodhna to sleep while she waited for her love and then made the waves swallow her up. Ciabhan never saw her again because she'd already made herself mortal."
"Is she sleeping forever now?" Brian asked.
"Forever." Ailbe answered. "But she is sleeping knowing that she spent her time with a man that she loved."
"You should see her, brother." Hvitserk told his little brother with a concerned expression.
"Why should I see her? Hm? What use am I now? Are you worried she'll be poisoned again?" Ivar questioned agitated by his brother's comment.
"Because you're going to marry her! Do you not think you should be there to look after the woman you're marrying?" Hvitserk explained in infuriation.
"I can't look after her!" Ivar yelled, making everyone around them fall silent. "She's already been poisoned. I let it happen in England, and now I let it happen here. What use am I to her now?"
"Is that what this is about?" Hvitserk asked. "Your guilt?"
But there was no answer.
"Please don't leave." Ailbe spoke in barely a whisper. Her voice filled with so much dread and fear.
"I'm not leaving." Ivar answered, pulling her closer protectively, so gently that he scarcely resembled himself. "I shouldn't have left you in the first place."
"It's not your fault." She whispered, gently kissing him, her hand resting on his heart. "None of this is your fault."
"They beat me." He told her, eyes filled with electric blue rage. But as he looked to her beaten face, her vacant eyes full of concern for him, he softened slightly, hand holding her cheek. "And they took the only thing that I couldn't bare losing."
She smiled brightly, kissing him again. "Well, I'm here now and you're not getting rid of me."
He sighed a breathy chuckle, holding her closer again. "I promise, I'll never let anyone hurt you again."
