Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Julianna

Alyse knocked politely on Seer Murtagh's door. “Ah, yes. You're the seamstress. I need a new shirt.”

She stepped into the room closing the door behind her with a sharp click.

“ . . . I'd prefer the shirt to be of wool and lined with linen—”

“I'm not here to make you a shirt. I'm here to talk about your sister.”

His voice took on an edge. “What would you know about my sister?”

Alyse sat in Murtagh's chair, her chin raised, her eyes staring boldly into his. “I know that you almost let your sister burn for a crime you committed.”

Every muscle in his body was rigid with anger. Arm outstretched, he pointed one finger at the door. “Get out!”

“I know where she is.”

He grabbed her, pulling her out of the chair, but she twisted out of his grasp. Slap! Her hand stung as it hit him hard in the face. When he raised his arm to return the slap, Alyse said, “She forgave you.”

“What?”

“When Nana put her on the boat, she said, 'Tell Nat that I understand. Please tell him I forgive him.'“

“How do you know this?” Again, he grabbed her shoulders.

“You'll be letting me go, or I'll go straight to the guild and tell them who took the ancient Letter of Malta.”

“They won't believe you.”

“Really? You don't, even now, have it with you? I think you prize your books, your learning, too much to ever part with it. Fancy being whipped again? After you up and ran on him, Lord Togair trusts you even less. He will search this room if I tell 'em what I know. Would you like that?”

His eyes full of venom, Murtagh released her. Easy as you please, she settled herself back into his chair and put her feet on the hearth to warm them.

Murtagh voice was filled with arrogant loathing. “I'm waiting. What do you know of my sister?”

“She lives in Gilmarsh. She married well. Her husband owns a small farm, they have six children, three are married.”

He bent down slightly, to put his mouth near her ear. “Good. Now get out.”

“Now, we will be negotiating.”

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“Or what?”

“Are you daft? Or . . . I'll be going to Lord Togair, or the guild, and I'll tell them the truth. I'll tell them how you were addicted to magic. How you stole the Letter of Malta for a mage—a mage they burned—so he'd give you another sweet taste of the magic you craved. And how, when the sheriff suspected you, you panicked and blamed your sister. You claimed that she was the one who was addicted.”

His hands balled into fists. “What do you want?”

“You will keep Saoirse's secret. You will never tell anyone that she is magic.” When he thrust his hands into the air and turned his back to her, she hurried on, “And you will teach her. You will use those twelve books of the seers to actually train a seer.”

“Why?” he shouted, whirling back around to look at her. “Why, would I do that?”

“Because you betrayed someone you loved.” Alyse closed her eyes trying to shut out the memory of her betrayal of Saoirse. “And this is your one chance to redeem yourself.” She stood up, furious more at herself than at Murtagh. “Because Saoirse is ten years old just like your sister was when they tied her screaming to that stake and stacked thatch around her. Because she's scared, and she needs you.”

Murtagh wilted as if his bones were made of butter. He collapsed onto the floor. “It won't matter. No one can stop a dragon. It's out there, and it will come for her.”

“Get up! I'm not talking to some ruin of a man sitting on the floor.” She stood over him, her hands on her hips. “I said get up!” She swung her foot, kicking him. “Up!” Again, she kicked him. “Get up!” She pointed to the stool in front of his writing desk. “Sit there.”

Obediently, he rose and sat at his desk, his shoulders rounded, head down, fiddling with a quill, like a whipped schoolboy. Alyse chided him, “You'll be getting no sympathy from me. Get your head up.”

His words were a dirge. “No one can stop a dragon.”

“Really?” She rolled her eyes and lifted her nose into the air. “I've heard a lot of those ‘no one’ and ‘always’ sayings in my life. No one can stop a dragon. It always rains on the autumn solstice. And what is that other one? Yes, once addicted to magic, always addicted to magic. But you aren't addicted now, are you?”

“No.” He looked down at the quill in his hand. “Seeing her tied to that stake. . . . I never wanted anything to do with magic, ever again. I left. I'd traveled three days’ walk from the village when they found me.” He raised his head with a look of disgust on his face. “Those great Guild Masters fawned over me. They admired me for turning in my sister.” He waved his hand at his books. “How do you think I came by them? The old masters, more than one addicted, begged me to come into the guild. They taught me, and when I left, they honored me with the books. I betrayed my own sister, and they called me noble.” He turned bitter angry eyes on her. “Evidently, I'm a great man!”

She took a letter from a deep pocket in her apron. “Julianna longs to see you.”

He took the parchment from Alyse with reverent hands as if it was sacred. Turning away from her, he read it. She pretended she didn't hear him sniff or see him wipe his tears away. The fire had burned down, and Alyse had put another log on when he folded the letter and put it in his own pocket. “Please go. Whatever you want, I can't do it.”

“What I want is a good man.”

“Training her won't help.”

“You don't know that. All I ask is that you try. Return to Julianna a redeemed man. Train Saoirse. Give her a fighting chance. She is your penance, Nat.”

 

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