Love and Tenacity

Chapter 10

2 Week Later

Ella walked home with a smile on her face. She had just come from another day learning how to fight at Ember and Juvy’s bungalow. She took pleasure in being one of very few sixteen year old girls who were allowed to wear breeches instead of dresses, and who knew more about fighting than manners. The wind lifted her short hair off her neck as she raised her face toward the setting sun, savoring the last bit of warmth before what was sure to be a cool spring night.

The smile dropped as she turned off from the main road to a side path that wound through the dark forest. Her family’s house was set on the outskirts of town, and she had no neighbors. She knew that Seamus was still up at the cottage by the lake; he’d been spending more and more time there as he helped teach Quinn how to ride unaided. Quinn’s demeanor had changed rapidly from tense and reserved to loose and easy-going nearly overnight. Ella wondered about what had caused Quinn’s personality shift, but she decided that it was none of her business and that she was happy that the young woman was more comfortable. She seemed to get along well with Seamus’ casual, friendly personality, and it was amusing for Ella to see her brother slowly come to see Quinn as a friend rather than royalty. She was happy to see them happy.

Still, it would have made her feel safer to have Seamus with her now. She had never encountered trouble along the roads of Levamen, but as the sun slid lower in the sky, dark shadows were cast over the deserted road and she felt suddenly very exposed. Gods knew how her parents were going to be that night. As an adult, Seamus could get away from them whenever he wanted, but he couldn’t always rescue her from their arguments. Sometimes when she got home, they were screaming and throwing things and threatening to leave forever. Other times, they were silent to each other and blamed her individually for holding them together. Other times, and perhaps Ella’s least favorite times, they decided that they needed to be more present in her life and then questioned her about her appearance and the company she kept. She hoped she could slip in unnoticed and scamper off to her room in peace.

Ella had gotten about halfway down the road to her cabin when she stopped dead in her tracks. Head cocked to one side, she held her breath and listened, sure that she had heard something out of place.

There it was again! A low, keening wail was echoing out from the marsh to her right. Ella’s mind immediately filled with stories about dark creatures that Juvenis had told her stories about. It could be a kelpie, a water-dwelling horse that lured young children and women to their death and then ate them, or a Balor, a one-eyed, one-legged demon who was so horrifying that it could kill someone by merely looking them in the eye. Or maybe it was a rogue water nymph, a Naiad, who had wandered into the marsh and gone mad with loneliness.

Ella shook her head and brought her mind back from the darkness. It could be any of those things, or it could be an injured woman or child, she thought, and her sense of duty to help those in pain overcame her fear.

She summoned up her courage, took a deep breath, and followed the cry into the marsh. She wore well-made, calf-skin boots, a gift from Juvenis, but it was still difficult to walk in the soggy ground. She kept to dry patches as well as she could in the dying light and tracked the noise deeper into the marsh.

The wailing seemed closer and closer, and before Ella knew it she had come upon a small, mossy pond. It smelled dank and bugs flew everywhere, but as much as Ella wanted to swat at them and start calling out for the source of the noise, some instinct told her to stay quiet and look before she made herself known. She crept closer to the pond, situating herself behind a tree by its edge before she peered out at her surroundings.

The entire pond was covered with a layer of green vegetation, and the water was so still she almost couldn’t tell where land ended and the pond began. The wailing was very close now, and it made the hair on her arms rise and a shiver sun down her spine. As she peered along the pond’s boundaries, keeping as much of herself hidden as possible, she saw a small ripple spread out from a point almost directly across from her. Then, as she squinted, she saw a figure emerge from the overhanging trees.

It was a woman, and she was young and so impossibly beautiful that Ella was robbed of breath for a moment. Even at a distance, it was clear that her long hair was soft and golden, and her skin pearly white. She was keening lowly, as though in pain, and she kneeled in the shallow water and dipped what looked like a blue dress below the surface. Ella stood transfixed as the woman cried and scrubbed at the dress, hair falling over her shoulders to hide her face. Then movement came back to her, and she stepped out of her hiding place.

“Are you alright?” she called tentatively, but the woman didn’t look up. Ella took a deep breath and tried again, louder this time.

“Um, hello? I heard you crying, are you okay? Do you need help?”

The woman stopped her washing, freezing in her hunched over position. Her head suddenly snapped up, and Ella took a quick step back. Something wasn’t right.

The woman stood, still holding the blue dress, and walked straight through the water towards Ella. In a matter of seconds, she was waist deep, but it didn’t seem to be slowing her down. Her golden hair hung over her face in a curtain, and Ella couldn’t see her expression. She took another step back before feeling her muscles lock up, leaving her frozen in place as the woman – 'Is it a woman?' – moved toward her.

She stopped in the exact center of the pond, not ten yards from Ella, and raised a hand to part her golden locks. Ella tried to scream, but all the air had gone from her lungs. The woman did have pale skin, as she had thought, but what she had thought were large, dark eyes were truly holes in her head, deep and fathomless, but somehow gazing imploringly at Ella. Then her mouth stretched open impossibly wide, taking up half her head and distorting her features, and she let out a scream that shattered the air.

Ella’s own scream joined it a moment after.

**************

Ember’s head snapped up and she dropped the dress she was mending.

“Something’s happened,” she said. Juvenis got up from where she sitting by the fire and grabbed her bow and quiver by the door. Desiree and Quinn, who had been reclining on the couches in quiet relaxation, pulled themselves up straight and looked at Ember in alarm. Seamus, who had been stoking the fire, went pale.

“What is it?!” demanded Desiree, but Ember ignored her and turned to Juvenis.

“Ella’s coming this way – something’s frightened her badly.”

“I’ll go and meet her,” replied Juvenis gravely. She turned to Desiree and Quinn. “Stay here with Ember. Don’t leave the cabin, don’t look out the windows, and be prepared to hide in the loft or the cellar. Worst case scenario, Oliver found out where you are and he’s sent men here after you. If that’s so, you do exactly what Ember tells you to do, no arguments, no questions.”

“I’m coming with you,” stated Seamus, and to Desiree and Quinn’s surprise, Juvenis merely nodded and waited for him to grab his sword before following her out into the night.

“Ember, what’s happening and how do you know?” implored Quinn softly. Her body was coiled tightly, ready to spring, all traces of relaxation gone.

Ember just shook her head. “All I know is that something frightened her before she got home and now she’s running here. I can feel her – she’s shaken, but I believe she’s unharmed. She saw something out in the woods. That’s all I know until they get back.”

Ember got up and started pacing the cabin. Quinn wanted to join her, but forced herself to remain still and let some of the tension to bleed out of her muscles. Even if it did come to violence, she wasn’t skilled enough to be useful in a fight yet. Across from her, Desiree worriedly braided and unbraided her hair, face creased in concern. For a moment, Quinn wished Seamus was still there. She had no doubt that Ember could protect them, but something about his presence made her feel more confident.

She was distracted from her thoughts by Ember muttering under her breath. Quinn realized that Ember wasn’t just pacing, she was deliberately circling the living room area and mumbling spells to herself. Quinn could see the air around the outside of Ember’s path begin to shimmer and pulsate slightly. She could sense the energy coming off of Ember in waves and realized that the witch was forming a sphere of magic, protecting from whatever dark forces came their way.

Desiree came and silently sat next to Quinn, still fretting with her hair, and they sat for what seemed like hours before footsteps could be heard outside.

“It’s us, Ember! No one’s following!” called Seamus, but Ember waited until Juvenis echoed the sentiment before lowering the circle and opening the door.

Seamus had his arm around a trembling, pale Ella, pulling her close to his body while Juvenis rested a hand on her back. As soon as Ella saw Ember, she pulled herself free of her brother and squared her shoulders

“I saw a banshee, Ember,” she said. Her voice was shaking, but she spoke with clear determination. There was a moment of silence.

“A banshee… like in the stories?” asked Desiree. “I thought those were just stories. They don’t actually exist… right?”
Ella didn’t dignify that with a response, instead turning to Ember who was looking on gravely.

“I heard her from the path to my house, and I followed the sound to a pond in the marshlands. She was right there – she had long blond hair and she was washing a blue dress, moaning under her breath the whole time. When I called out to her, she walked toward me a little, and then she screamed, and it was not the scream of a human! I was paralyzed – I thought she was coming after me.”

“I believe you,” replied Ember coolly, and Desiree looked at her in shock.

“Ember, you may know more about magic and energy than me, but I’ve heard stories of the banshee since I was a child, but I have never run into any or met anyone who has claimed to have seen one.”

“Well, now you have,” interjected Juvenis smoothly. “Three people, in fact, including myself and Ember. And in our experience, when a banshee screams, somebody dies. No exceptions.”

“Ella,” said Quinn, not giving Desiree a chance to respond, “Did you say she only screamed once?” Ella nodded, and Quinn looked askance to Ember.

“Scott used to tell me about banshees when I was younger, but the way he told it, she screams thrice as she washes the clothes of a person who is about to die, and she can only be seen by said person. Ella isn’t wearing a blue dress, and as far as I can see, she’s still in the land of the living. Was I misinformed?”

Ember appeared to think very hard for a moment, and then went to pick up the dress she was mending. She silently held it out to Ella, and Ella’s face paled even more as she took it.

“This is the dress,” she confirmed, and began shaking again. Seamus, whose attention had remained only on his sister throughout the whole exchange, pulled her back into him and rubbed her arms vigorously. Ella sunk gratefully into his protective embrace.

“Is my sister in any danger?” he asked over Ella’s head, and the white witch hesitated before shaking her head.

“I don’t think so,” she said, sinking into a chair. “That dress wasn’t for Ella-“

“It was for me,” Quinn finished. “Then was she screaming for me? Why once? And wasn’t she washing the clothes I’m wearing now?”
Ember threw her hands up in the air. “All I have are guesses! I’ve never known a banshee to break pattern like that; I didn’t even know they were capable of it.”

“If you had to guess?” Quinn queried.

“If I had to guess, then I’d say that it may have been a warning. I’ve never heard of it happening before, but strange things are happening in Artemae. Maybe nature is being affected even more than I thought. Perhaps she was warning us that if we aren’t alert, something bad could happen to you tomorrow, Quinn. After all, I was mending the dress so that you could wear it in the morning. Banshees have a sense of premonition, though I’ve never heard of one acting to save someone’s life. It’s strange, very strange.”

“We’re staying here tonight,” spoke up Seamus, and Ember nodded in agreement.

“Aye, it’s fine by me. I don’t feel at all comfortable with any of you walking through the woods now that it’s dark, not if you don’t have Juvy or me with you.”

Quinn thought somewhat guiltily back to her midnight sojourn. The mere thought of a living, breathing banshee that could make tough little Ella so pale and scared was enough to make her want to stay inside for the foreseeable future. Then again, when she thought back to the way that the forest had felt around her that night, she knew in her bones that nothing could have harmed her. She still decided to keep it to herself; Desiree looked rattled enough by Ella’s news. The poor woman didn’t need any more stress.

They piled a heap of blankets on the floor for Ella and Seamus to curl up in for the night, and Ella fell asleep in them right away, the fire and company seeming to comfort her. Ember and Juvenis offered to let them have the loft, but no one would hear of it, and they retired soon after Ella had drifted off. As the fire grew dimmer and Desiree began to nod off, Quinn and Seamus sat on the remaining couch together in silence. They did not touch and they did not speak, but Quinn found comfort in his company nonetheless. His aura, relaxed and good-humored even under the circumstances, soothed her nerves. As the last embers of the fire cooled, he finally curled up beside his little sister and Quinn stretched out under a warm blanket, content that for that night, her new family was safe and sound.