Sevenwaters: Seer Of Sevenwaters Part 1

Seer of Sevenwaters.

Juliet Marillier.

To my granddaughter Isobel.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

My thanks to Gaye G.o.dfrey-Nicholls for lending me her reference books on runes and divination; to Glyn Marillier for answering my sailing queries; and to Elly Marillier for advice on medical matters, including how early medieval healers might have dealt with a serious kidney problem. The members of my writers' group provided their usual excellent advice and encouragement. My agent, Russ Galen, is a source of ongoing support.

I consulted a number of reference books before writing the runic divination scenes in this novel. Two were especially useful: The Secret Lore of Runes and Other Ancient Alphabets by Nigel Pennick (Rider, 1991) and Rune Magic by Donald Tyson (Llewellyn, 1992).

I wrote much of Seer of Sevenwaters while undergoing cancer treatment in 2009. During that period I received wonderful personal support from my family and friends, and also from my readers all around the world. Readers, your encouragement helped me to meet my own challenge as bravely as my characters do theirs, and I salute you.

Observant readers will notice two characters in the Sevenwaters Family Tree who do not appear in this novel. Conri and Aisha are introduced in my novella 'Twixt Firelight and Water, which appears in Legends of Australian Fantasy, a collection of stories by well-known fantasy writers. The anthology was published by Voyager Australia in June 2010. It was edited by Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan.

CHARACTER LIST.

the heirs of seven waters.

PROLOGUE.

Pull! In the name of all the G.o.ds, pull!

I haul on my oar, every muscle straining. Cold sweat shivers on my skin. Salt spray blinds me. Or do I weep? We're going to die. We're going to perish in the chill of the sea, far from home. Pull! Pull! We haul with our guts, with our hearts, with our last strength. We seventeen, we survivors, exhausted, sick at heart-how can we prevail against such seas? Freyja shudders a moment, balanced between muscle and swell, then plunges broadside toward the rocks. The waves s.n.a.t.c.h up the ship, and with a surge and a decisive smack, hurl her down on the reef.

A jagged spear of rock splits the prow. Splinters fly. The fine oak disintegrates like kindling under the axe. Fragments fall on the deck, a momentary pattern of augury, gone almost before I can read the signs: Eolh: protection; Eoh: comfort; Nyd: courage in the face of death. The sea surges in, erasing the runic shapes in a heartbeat. The air fills with screaming; abandoned oars fly everywhere. Struck on the temple, a man falls. Another lies limp over his bench, a red stain spreading across his tunic. Others stagger along the boat, pushing, shouting. My heart thunders. I struggle to my feet. The purchase is perilous. The shuddering deck has a tilt like a church roof. The reef is opening Freyja as a hunter's knife opens the carca.s.s of a deer.

"Felix! The rope, quick!"

Paul, G.o.ds, Paul with his feet still tied . . . I stagger over to where he lies half on, half off the bench, clutching a broken oar. The rope around his ankles is caught on a jagged length of split wood. A wave washes over me, drenching me to the chest and submerging him. The water recedes. Paul chokes and wheezes, sucking in air. Freyja's timbers groan, grind, shatter. The ship is in her death throes. Crewmen fall, shrieking, into the maelstrom. Nowhere to climb to. Nowhere to shelter. No surface broad enough, flat enough, high enough for even one man to balance on and wait for rescue. There's land not far off; smoke rising. This storm will drown us before anyone can come.

"Here."

I crouch down, fumbling for the rope. It's underwater, the knots impossibly tight, the strands snagged fast in the broken wood. Too slow. A knife, I need a knife . . . There's a crewman dead, his corpse washing about in the narrow gap between benches. I s.n.a.t.c.h the weapon from his belt-G.o.ds, let me do this in time, let the two of us live.

I hear Paul speak behind me. "Save yourself, Felix."

As I turn back toward him a monstrous wave engulfs me. It's in my nose, my ears, my mouth. Its surging song drowns everything. Iron bands close around my chest. The sea bears me away.

CHAPTER 1.

*Sibeal*

I had been just one day on Inis Eala when a ship was wrecked on the reef north of the island. I was on the cliffs, heading out with a basket over my arm to gather seaweed, when I heard the men shouting down near the settlement. As I looked out over the sea the vessel struck the rocks.

"Manannan be merciful," I murmured, horror clenching my belly tight. The waves were monstrous around that reef. It was as if a malevolent hand stirred the water, reaching up to destroy any man so foolish as to come near. The day was windy-I had kept a cautious distance from the cliff's edge, for it was a long way down-but here on the island there was no storm. A freakish turn of weather stirred the seas in one particular place out there. Did that ship bear someone who had angered the G.o.ds?

I stood frozen as the vessel smashed and twisted and broke up. Men were tossed into the water like dolls. Then, as the shouting from the settlement turned into an orderly series of commands, followed by a disciplined pattern of activity-men running to the anchorage, a flotilla of small boats being launched and heading out to the rescue, women suddenly busy between infirmary and kitchen-I was able to move again, and headed back down the hill. Inis Eala was full of capable folk, but at a time like this another pair of hands could always be put to good use.

I reached the infirmary to find it full of quiet activity: women putting sheets on pallets, sweeping the stone floor, clearing s.p.a.ce. My eldest sister, Muirrin, stood at the workbench preparing poultices while a young helper checked the supply of bandages. A pot steamed on the fire; a fragrant smell of healing herbs filled the air.

"What can I do?" I asked.

"Nothing here until they start bringing in the survivors," said Muirrin. Her black hair was sc.r.a.ped back under a neat head-cloth; a capacious homespun ap.r.o.n protected her gown. She was a picture of orderly calm.

"Where's Evan?" I asked, not seeing the tall, dark-skinned figure of her husband among the helpers.

"He went out in one of the boats. It helps to have a skilled healer there as soon as they pick the survivors up."

It had looked a substantial ship, with many oars. Norse, I guessed. Such a vessel would require a big crew. Each of the island boats had capacity for only a few pa.s.sengers. The work of bringing back the survivors might take some time.

I headed for the kitchen, where my sister Clodagh was helping Biddy, cook and matriarch of the island establishment, to prepare food. A great cauldron bubbled on an iron trivet. Biddy was kneading a large lump of dough, her hands pummeling and punching with a violence that suggested her attention, like mine, was on those poor souls out there in the water. Clodagh had been chopping vegetables, but she had laid down her knife and was staring out between open shutters. The breeze caught strands of her fiery hair, tossing them around her face. One hand rested on the swell of her belly. Her child, and Cathal's, would be born within two turnings of the moon.

"Can I help?" I asked Biddy.

"You could talk to your sister," Biddy said, glancing in Clodagh's direction.

I walked over to the window. "Clodagh? Are you all right?" I followed her gaze. There was a view from here down the track to the anchorage. Across the water, the small boats were making steady progress toward the reef. The stricken ship looked almost submerged. I thought I could make out dots in the water, men swimming or floating, but the wash of the waves around those rocks made it hard to be sure.

My dreams had not shown me this. I had been weary from my long journey. Last night I had slept soundly. Now I wished I had resisted sleep and made use of my scrying bowl. But then, if I had been granted a vision of the storm, the wreck, what could I have done to prevent it? A seer was not a G.o.d, only a hapless mortal with her eyes wider open than most. Too wide, sometimes. Even as I stood here beside my sister, there was a cacophony of voices in my mind, folk shouting, screaming, praying to the G.o.ds for salvation, crying out as lost children might. It happened sometimes, my seer's gift spilling over into chaos as the thoughts and feelings of other folk rushed into my mind. It was one of the reasons my mentor, Ciaran, had sent me here to Inis Eala.

"Cathal's down there on the jetty," Clodagh said. "I know exactly what he's thinking. A freak storm, a boat wrecked so close to our sh.o.r.e . . . He believes it's his father stirring things up, trying to make him leave the island."

I could see the black-clad figure of Cathal, his cloak whipped by the wind, his eyes trained on the flotilla moving out across the bay. He could not go with them; everyone understood that. There was a powerful ward over Inis Eala, something ancient and good that held the whole island in its protective embrace. Here Cathal was safe from the clutches of his father, a devious prince of the Otherworld.

"What could he have done that Johnny and the others can't?" I asked, ignoring the clamor of voices in my mind.

"He could have calmed the waters, Sibeal. Maybe. But he can't even try. If he performed a feat like that beyond the confines of the island, his father would soon know about it. That man has spies everywhere. It's hard for Cathal, standing there watching men drown, knowing he could save people if it weren't for the need to protect me and the child."

"Don't blame yourself," I said, putting an arm around my sister's shoulders. "You and Cathal came here so you would be safe, and you are safe. Ask Cathal, and I'm sure he'll say that matters more to him than anything else. Besides, the storm seems to be over-the water's much calmer already. And look, they're picking someone up."

The sharp rocks jutted from the water like the toothed jaws of some ancient sea creature. Around them the waves had subsided and the ferocious gale had dwindled to a stiff breeze. Two men were leaning over the side of Johnny's boat to haul someone in. The other vessels had spread out to cover the area all around the reef.

"Thank the G.o.ds," Clodagh said quietly. She squared her shoulders and turned to walk briskly over to the cook fire. "Biddy, I'll start another batch of bread."

I wanted to help, but the voices were crowding my mind, and if I stayed here I was in danger of fainting on the floor and giving these already busy women still more work to do. I excused myself and headed out into the vegetable garden, which spread between kitchen and infirmary, protected from the prevailing winds by a dry-stone wall. I sat down with my back to the stones and bowed my head onto my knees. My body was tight with terror, the wrenching fear of men at the last extreme. I struggled to catch my breath. My vision blurred. My head was bursting. I whispered a prayer, fighting for control. "Danu hold us in your hand. Manannan be merciful."

I breathed slowly, repeating the words over and over to steady myself. The air was full of the sweet scents of thyme and calamint. The stones at my back held the sun's warmth, anchoring me in the here and now. High overhead, gulls called. Closer to hand, the island dog, Fang, appeared from a corner where she had been digging and approached me, rolling onto her back to demand attention. I reached out my hand to stroke her, glad that she was in one of her good moods, for the diminutive creature had not earned her fearsome name for nothing. I waited, my fingers keeping up a slow pattern against the dog's warm belly, and the voices screamed on. Perhaps they would not hush until all were dead.

It was some time before the cries died down sufficiently to let me move. I stretched and rose to my feet. The little dog scampered off to investigate something under a comfrey bush. Beyond the garden wall the settlement seemed near deserted, but I could hear voices from the communal dining hall that adjoined the kitchen. n.o.body near the infirmary, though the door stood open. No movement near the practice yard where the main work of Inis Eala-the training of fighting men-was carried out. Everyone must be busy indoors or out on the rescue boats. But surely the small craft should be back by now. In my mind one last voice called-Mother, help me!-and fell silent.

Inis Eala's sheltered bay housed the long wooden jetty and an old cottage where a fisherman had once lived. I walked to the top of the steep path and looked down to see a good number of folk standing on the sh.o.r.e in silent cl.u.s.ters. Among them were Clodagh and Cathal, his arm around her shoulders, hers around his waist. I did not go down, but settled to wait on a flat rock beside the path.

Johnny's boat had turned for home. The others pa.s.sed and pa.s.sed again around the rocks. A few timbers floated on the swell, but the ship was gone. "Danu hold you in her hand and bring you safe to sh.o.r.e," I murmured. "And if it is your time to go, Morrigan guide you through the gateway. May light shine on your path; may you walk on without fear."

After a while Fang crept up beside me and settled, nose on paws, keeping her own vigil. Dogs were not allowed on Inis Eala. For this unlikely creature an exception had been made. The story went that she had been brought back from a mission by the intimidating Snake, a man whom one would expect to see accompanied by a fearsome wolfhound or barrel-chested fighting dog, not a tiny, temperamental ball of white fluff. I hoped I would hear the full tale of how it had happened before my visit here was over.

"You're a lucky girl, Fang," I murmured, scratching her behind the ears. A subterranean growl rumbled through her small form, and I drew my fingers away. Fang's moods were legendary, as changeable as spring weather. "You fell on your feet, from the sound of it."

Snake was away, along with a party of fifteen men, undertaking a mission for a chieftain in the south. They had taken the largest of the Inis Eala boats, which made today's rescue effort slower than it might have been. Johnny's boat was halfway back now. Four men were rowing, my cousin among them, while Evan was in the stern, his arm around a man swathed in a big cloak. Only one. And now another of the island boats had turned for home. The crew had raised a rudimentary sail. I could not see whether this vessel carried survivors. The others maintained their pattern, searching.

I slowed my breathing, calming my wayward thoughts. I tried to set aside those anguished voices. I told myself that the rescue effort had got under way quickly, that the crew of such a ship would be fit, capable men, that many would be saved. More folk were heading down to the sh.o.r.e now, carrying stretchers, blankets. Johnny's boat came in to the jetty. Johnny threw a rope to Cathal, who secured the craft. The man in the cloak was helped onto the jetty. He refused a stretcher and began to climb the path with Evan on one side and Cathal on the other. The survivor was a strong-looking person of middle height, squarely built, with hair that would be fair when dry. His skin was ashen, and despite the courage that saw him attempt the path on foot, he was plainly exhausted.

They were almost at the top of the pathway when the second boat came in. The fair-haired man turned his head to look, started violently and began shouting. He seemed intent on hurling himself headlong down the path, but the combined strength of Evan and Cathal held him back.

There was a survivor on this boat, too, and it was a woman. She appeared deeply shocked, her eyes huge, her face gray-blue with cold and exhaustion. When she was helped from the boat to the jetty, her knees buckled and she collapsed onto the boards. A woman on a Norse ship. So perhaps this had not been a voyage to raid and plunder, but one of trading or searching for a place to settle. Had there been other women out there in the cold sea? Little children drowning? This woman looked as if she had gazed on h.e.l.l.

Clodagh helped her up. The survivor was much taller than my sister; equal in height to most of the men down there. A blanket concealed much of her form. For a moment she looked straight up the hill toward my perch among the rocks, and a sudden sharp pain went through me, like a knife in the heart. Even as I gasped with the shock of it, the woman dropped her gaze and the pain was gone.

The fair-haired man would not go a step further until they brought the woman to the top of the path. When she reached him, he took her hands in his and kissed her on either cheek. She stood stiffly, staring through him. I thought she hardly knew where she was.

The two of them were escorted away, but I did not move. The piercing pain had unnerved me, and it was some time before my heart slowed to its usual pace. Even then, I stayed where I was. It seemed important to keep watch until the last of the little boats came home. Fang crouched by my feet, rea.s.suring in her small warmth. I prayed. "Danu cradle you gently in her arms . . . Morrigan lead you through the gateway . . . Sleep, dear ones, sleep softly . . . " I hoped I was wrong about the children. What had that woman seen, to turn her face to stone?

When the last boat was tying up at the jetty, Johnny came to find me. The search was over. The stretchers had been used to bear seven dead men up the path to level ground. Two more limp forms lay in this final vessel.

"Sibeal," my cousin said, seating himself on the rocks beside me. "Still keeping vigil?" At his voice, Fang rolled instantly onto her back. Johnny rubbed her belly absently. His tattooed features were grim.

"Only eleven, counting the woman," I said. "It must have needed far more to man a ship that size. So many lost . . . Will the currents bring them back to this sh.o.r.e, Johnny? Or will they drift with the weed and the fish until there is nothing left of them?"

"The waves may wash some in here. We'll keep a watch in the likeliest places. Sibeal, we must conduct some kind of funeral rite. The two we rescued are too distressed to say much as yet, though I'm hoping the man-his name's Knut-may be ready to talk to us later today. Some of us have enough Norse to conduct a conversation, and this fellow knows a word or two of Irish."

"What about the woman?"

"Her name's Svala. Knut's wife, if I understood him right. She's deeply shocked. I haven't heard her say a word so far. It seems the G.o.ds were watching over the two of them. I'd imagine a vessel of that size needs a crew of forty or more. They were gone so quickly."

"Clodagh suspected Mac Dara's hand in it."

"Perhaps." Johnny was noncommittal.

"A Norse warrior is buried in a boat. Or a grave in the shape of a boat. I can conduct a ritual for them, something simple. Knut and Svala might add prayers of their own. When do you want to do it?"

Johnny was a leader of men. Though still young, he headed the community of Inis Eala and its school of warcraft. He was skilled at reading people. "Something's troubling you, Sibeal," he said now. "Something beyond being witness to what's unfolded here today."

"I'm all right." I would not confess to him that a very small part of me was still disturbed that Ciaran had insisted I come here to spend the summer with my sisters before I made my final pledge as a druid. That I could hold on to such a personal concern in the face of today's tragedy was selfish. "I'll be ready to help as soon as you've decided where and when to conduct the ritual. I did not expect to be performing a druid's duties here so quickly. Are they all men, the drowned ones you brought in?"

Johnny nodded. "As one would expect on such a vessel. It seems quite odd that Svala was among them. If this was a voyage of settlement there should have been more women, surely."

"They may have been first to drown."

"We'll find out in due course. I won't tax the survivors with questions yet. Come." He rose and held out his hand. "You need food, warmth and company. I'm under orders to see you're well looked after during your stay with us."

I took his arm and we walked toward the dining hall. "Whose orders?" I asked.

"Ciaran's. Didn't you wonder what was in that message he gave you to bring me?"

I grimaced. "I'd a.s.sumed it was something complicated and strategic, not an order to make sure I ate properly and got plenty of sleep."

My cousin smiled. "There was some of both in it, to tell the truth. I understand he's coming here in person to collect you at the end of summer."

A whole summer. Why had Ciaran thought it necessary to send me away for so long? I was ready to make my promise now; I had been ready for some time. True, sometimes the thoughts and feelings of others did crowd into my mind, as if I were a receptacle for anything too powerful for their own selves to encompa.s.s. But in the nemetons, as a druid, I could work on controlling that. I could learn to make it a gift, not a burden. Here on Inis Eala all I would be doing over the summer was wait. Wait until it was time to go back to Sevenwaters; wait until it was time to fulfill my vocation at last. I had known since I was six years old that the life of the spirit was my destiny. I had known since the first time the Lady of the Forest had appeared to me, a majestic, blue-cloaked figure manifesting before me unsought by a still pool under the oaks. She had recognized me as a seer; she had offered me her grave counsel. What did Ciaran think I would do here at Inis Eala? Fall in love with some strapping young warrior and allow my life to veer off its long-intended course? I would never let that happen.

"Sibeal?"

I snapped out of my reverie. "Yes, Ciaran is planning to come here and escort me home. He wants to talk to Cathal."

"Mm-hm. I'm glad you're here, at any rate. Not only because this far-flung part of the family likes to see you, but also because the island lacks a druid or wise woman. I'm sorry I have to ask you to conduct a ritual so soon after your arrival, but folk will be pleased to see it done with the authority a druid can provide. Those poor fellows died a hard death. We must lay them to rest as well as we can."

"I'm not quite a druid yet," I said. "But I'll do my best."

There were folk in the dining hall, not laughing and talking as they usually did over their meals, but seated in subdued silence. The pots of soup and loaves of fresh-baked bread that might have fed a small army of survivors were a mute testament to the lives lost. Johnny spoke to one or two people-mostly senior members of the island community, those who had been at Inis Eala since his father's time-then came over to tell me the burial rite would take place at dusk next day, if I agreed. It would take some time to choose a suitable spot, excavate the hard island soil, then place stones in the rough shape of a boat.

"It's a while for the dead to lie waiting," I said. "I should say some prayers over them when they've been laid out."

"Thank you, Sibeal. That would be welcome. They've been taken to the net-mending shed."

"I should speak to the survivors first. I'm hoping Knut will give me the names of the dead. They should be spoken aloud, if not now, then certainly as part of tomorrow's ritual. Where are Knut and Svala? In the infirmary?"

"They'll still be there, yes. Our healers are checking what damage they've sustained. You'll find Jouko with them; he's translating for Muirrin and Evan. Sibeal, go carefully with Knut. He seems calm and composed, but these fellows were his crewmates, perhaps friends. Looking on their drowned faces will be hard for him. He speaks very little Irish. Jouko will help you."

For the duration of my stay on the island, I was in fact sleeping in the infirmary. There was scant privacy on Inis Eala, where single women slept in one communal area and single men in another, with a part.i.tioned building for married couples. Only those with children had their own quarters. In recognition of my status as a druid and my personal need for quiet, I had been given a chamber of my own, a narrow s.p.a.ce at one end of the building that more usually housed patients who must for one reason or another be isolated. The first time I had stepped inside this small chamber I had felt the sorrow there, and the kindness. The place was screened from the infirmary proper by a sacking curtain, and had its own door to the outside so it was possible to come in and out-for instance, to visit the privy-without walking across the main chamber. Before sleeping last night, I had marked protective runes on the walls with charcoal. It seemed they had been well chosen, for no bad dreams had visited my slumber. My druidic robe was hanging on a peg there. I would need to change before I said prayers for the fallen.

I took one step inside the infirmary door and halted, staring. I had walked into a silence so charged with unease that it made my skin p.r.i.c.kle. Svala stood by the far wall, clad in an a.s.sortment of wet garments, a shirt, a pair of men's trousers. Her long hair hung over her shoulders and down to her knees. Her eyes were fixed on Muirrin, who stood three paces from her with a cloth in her hands. Every part of Svala was tense; my body felt her urgent need for flight. Before I could say a word Muirrin took a step toward the Norsewoman, and a sound came from Svala that made the hairs on my neck stand on end, a growling noise from deep in the throat, as if she would launch herself at my sister to rend and bite. Muirrin retreated, her face turning pale.

I cleared my throat, unsure if either had seen me come in. Svala's gaze was instantly on me, and my head began to throb. Danu aid me, what was this?

"Sibeal!" The relief in Muirrin's voice was unmistakable. "I was just . . . " She came over to draw me aside, speaking in a murmur. "I can't even get her to take off her wet things. It's as if she wants to attack me. She's cold and shocked; I need to get her warm. She won't let me near her."

"I thought Evan and Jouko were here. And Knut." The place was empty save for the two women.

"I sent them out into the garden so Svala could wash and change. I have some things of Biddy's here for her to put on. We got Knut to explain to her before the men went out. I thought maybe if she was alone with me . . . " She lowered her voice still further. "Something really terrible happened, Sibeal. Their son, Knut's and Svala's, only four years old . . . he was with them on the boat. Knut told us. She must be out of her mind with grief. She hasn't spoken a word. Sibeal, will you try to talk to her?"