Brighid’s Quest

CHAPTER FIFTY

The deadly sound of Cuchulai

Cuchulai

The warrior closed on Ma

“I won’t be so easy to kill,” Gorman said, hefting the long sword he’d retrieved while the man had been kept busy with Gorman’s comrades.

Cuchulai

Gorman hissed in pain and stumbled back-and right into the wolf’s path. Fand wasn’t as silent a warrior, but she was just as deadly. Thunder blanketed Gorman’s scream and, in turn, lightning illuminated the torn flesh that dangled from his rear hamstring. He collapsed and Cuchulai

“No!” Brighid yelled.

Cuchulai

“Cut me free,” she said.

“Fand! Watch him,” Cuchulai

Cuchulai

Without asking, Brighid pulled his sword free, and then, bare-chested and holding the bloody blade before her she approached Gorman.

He looked up at her, eyes glazed with pain and fear.

“Don’t kill me! I’ll do anything!” he pleaded.

“Don’t speak to me,” she ground between her teeth. Without looking at the warrior who was standing beside her she said. “Cuchulai

She heard his sharp intake of breath and knew that this was the first moment he had used the gift newly given to him by the Goddess.

“I see rot and darkness.”

With no hesitation, Brighid plunged her husband’s sword into the centaur’s heart. In almost the same motion, she jerked it free and handed it back to Cuchulai

“I have to get out of here,” she said.

Cuchulai

“Fand! Come,” he said.

The warrior and wolf walked out into the night to find that Brighid had stumbled several steps from the tent. She had dropped to her knees and was being violently sick. Fand lay close by, whining worriedly. Cuchulai

“There’s no rain,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

“No, love,” he said gently. “There is no rain.”

The Huntress drew in several deep breaths. “I can smell no rain in the air, either. It’s a dry storm. By the Goddess, I’ve always hated the damned things! Dangerous-they bring deadly lightning and the chance of…” With a look of horror, she stood. Orienting herself quickly, she turned so that the wind was blowing directly into her face while she looked southward out across the length of the Centaur Plains. “Oh, Goddess, no!” she cried.

Cuchulai

“We have to get off the plains. Now,” she said, slipping on her vest and strapping the bow and quiver in their proper place over her back. “A grassfire is deceptive. In no time it can engulf you.”

“The gelding isn’t far from here.”

“Wait,” Brighid said before Cuchulai

He didn’t question her, but went to the tent and began to slice through the thick hide.

“Big enough to cover us,” she said, grasping the torn edge and pulling it so that it would tear more quickly.

“Cover us?” His cutting faltered.

“If we can’t outrun the fire we have to find a gully, or better, cross-timbers with a stream. We get in the streambed and cover ourselves with the hides. If we’re lucky the fire will pass over us.”

“If we’re not lucky?” he said.

“We suffocate or burn to death.”

He grunted and began cutting the sections from the side of the tent with renewed energy. When the two pieces of the tent fell free, neither Brighid nor Cuchulai

The gelding was hobbled not far from the tent. Cuchulai

Cuchulai

“You came in time,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

He couldn’t speak. He could only kiss her with an intensity that edged on violence. She met his passion with her own, wrapping her arms around him and drinking him in.

Lightning streaked across the sky, breaking their kiss.

“We have to ride hard. The wind is with the fire,” Brighid said.

“Back to the tors?”

“No. There’s not enough water there to stop the fire, and we couldn’t climb fast enough to get away from it.”

“East, then. The tributaries of the Calman River finger into the plains between the tors and Woulff Castle. My father and I fished there often in my youth.”

Brighid nodded. “Let’s hope the drought hasn’t dried them up.”

“If it has then we’ll just have to make it to the river itself,” Cuchulai

He might be able to make it. The gelding is fresh and well-rested. I won’t.

“Brighid,” Cuchulai