Murmurs outside the stillroom made our conversation cease. A young servant heralded the arrival of Father Pátraic.
“The boat is here. Your bridegroom awaits,” the priest said, his ceremonious air ruined by him addressing one of the hanging herb bundles. Nanny cleared her throat and he turned his myopic gaze to me. “The Lord grant you safe passage over the channel.” He shifted from foot to foot, ill at ease in Nanny’s domain.
I nodded my thanks and swept past him. Of all my father’s people, the priest would be the happiest to see me go. With Nanny’s help, I’d taken my mother’s place as healer and wise woman. I took care not to gainsay any of the priest’s preaching, but my very presence seemed to threaten him. In his narrow world, a woman should not speak her mind, or wield so much power.
Together Nanny and I made our way down to the beach.
“The fog’s still upon us. Do you think Dòmhnall will wait to send the boat for you tomorrow?”
“He did not want to wait, remember? He saw me at the fair and would have no other for his bride.” My lip curled.
“And your father wouldn’t gainsay him.”
“Only because he is the son of a great chieftain who has the High King’s ear. The daughter of a tiny tuatha should be grateful for such a match.”
Nanny sniffed. “You’re the daughter of a chieftain, equal to Dòmhnall. And your mother had great power.” She glanced around but none of my father’s servants were close enough to hear her lowered tone.
“Some power, that it could to save her.” My mother had died when sickness came to the village. “Some power, that it cannot save me.”
“It could…” Nanny began carefully.
“No. I told you I would not. Do not speak of it again,” I snapped. Escape would lead to my father’s ruin, for all it tempted me.
Nanny fell silent, bending to tuck away a loose thread in my cloak. She didn’t chastise me. She didn’t have to.
I rubbed my forehead. “Forgive my short temper. I am already weary of this day.”
“Cheer up, child.” Her efforts to disperse my melancholy were relentless. “Remember the stories your mother told, of the great warrior who’d bear you across the sea? Your mother knew this day would come. That’s why she named you ‘Muireann’.”
“The bullying son of an Uí Néill is hardly a great warrior. And the channel is hardly the boundless sea. Besides, that is only a tale she told me to sleep.”
“The seed of a story is truth. Your mother told many stories and they all bear a truth.”
“You speak of the charm she spoke over me.”
“As a raven flies true, you’ll always find your way home,” Nanny recited.
I twisted to face her.
“That was before my powers had come to be,” I whispered. “She could not have known.”
“She knew. Where do you think your powers came from?”
I straightened, unwilling to speak more about what should be kept secret. My mother’s powers were whispered about in the village, but I took care to limit my gifts to herbs and healing arts. Not even my father knew what I could do.
“There’s the boat,” Father Pátraic caught up with Nanny and I.
A small skiff lay beached next to its oars. One of my father’s men, Danny stood by ready to row me across. Other than him, only two of the men gathered on the beach were unknown to me. They were big, thuggish types, fully armed as if they expected trouble. These must be Dòmhnall’s men, come to ensure his unwilling bride got in the boat.
“Dòmhnall didn’t come himself.” Nanny frowned.
“He knows we dare not disobey him.” Dòmhnall made it clear in the marriage talks with my father. If I did not marry him and give him inheritance rights through my dowry, he’d come with a band of men and take the island by force. By blood or by marriage, he’d possess our island. My sacrifice meant no folk would fall to his fianna’s swords.
“So much for the great warrior bearing me across the sea,” I murmured to Nanny before greeting Danny and giving a nod to my escort. The two thugs ignored me. With any luck, after the formality of the ceremony, their lord would too.
“A moment before you board,” Father Pátraic couldn’t help officiate. “Your father is coming to see you off.”
“Better hurry,” Nanny muttered. “If the weather gets any worse, you’ll have to wait. But at least the wind’s died.”
I strode to the water’s edge, toeing a few rocks with my boots. The fog lay like a grey cloak on the water. I could not see the way across. But as I stared, the dark depths swirled, offering up strange shapes and wraiths. Was that a ship in the mist? The proud curl of a dragon-headed prow?
I caught my breath. Such ships had not been seen on these shores for many years.
“My lady?” Nanny tugged on my arm and I let her pull me back from the shore.
I was Seeing things. Perhaps I should’ve spent the morning trying to scry. Not that I wished to see the future, but if the gods had something to tell me the visions came whether I wanted them or not.
A crowd had gathered on the beach to see me off. The villagers approached me one by one to thank me and bid me safe travel. I murmured my thanks while Father Pátraic looked on sourly. I’d said goodbye to the last when the ranks parted and my father came forward, his new young wife at his side.
“Storm’s coming. Are you sure you should not leave tomorrow?”
“I’m fine, Father. Best not delay.”
He signaled and a maidservant brought forward a gift. A thick cloak lined with fur. Nanny helped wrap me in it.
“Would that your mother were here. She would be proud to see you.”
“Thank you, Father,” I willed my voice not to shake. A sob caught my throat when I saw the brooch Nanny used to secure my new brat. A raven made of heavy silver. As a raven flies true, you’ll always find your way home. The brooch would be a reminder.
“My lady?” Nanny asked when I fingered the shape of a bird in flight.
“I’m fine,” I whispered to her. “I’ll not fly away.” Not yet.
She patted my cheek, tears in her eyes.
“Be good, daughter,” my father kissed me clumsily.
“Goodbye, father,” I said and stepped back to let Nanny draw down my veil. My mother had worn a similar veil when she came across the sea to marry my father. The dark head covering was my one concession to ceremony. “I’ll send word when I am married.”
Danny helped me into the boat. Dòmhnall’s men had already commandeered the prow. I sat straight and proud, looking to sea as Danny rowed away.
The way across the channel was not treacherous as long as we did not lose our way and head for the rocky parts of the shore. The mist made monsters out of the great rocks, turning them into shrouded heads rearing from the sea. I waited for another vision to come, but none did. I turned my thoughts to my bridegroom.
Dòmhnall was son of a powerful chieftain. Both he and his father were rough and fond of battle, and land hungry. Why they thought our island was worth negotiating for, I’d never know. Perhaps the tale that Dòmhnall thought I was the loveliest woman he’d ever seen was true. More likely I had insulted him somehow with my reticence to any man’s claim, and he wished to prove his power by ruling over me.