Read The Well of Shades for Free Online Page B

have to endure theconstant clutch of dread, nor the terror that, one day, she would no longer be able to keep Saraid safe.
Father, oh Father, why couldn’t you have come home?
    Eile took a step outside the door and saw that someone had brought a small load of logs up from the saturated woodpile and placed them in a neat stack beside the doorway, where the overhanging thatch sheltered a dryish patch. The wood wasstill damp, but perhaps she could coax it to burn. A kindness; she wondered what Faolan had been after in return. She wondered if he had heard her crying, after she thought he was gone. She loaded the basket, heaved it inside, and was crouching to stir up last night’s embers when Dalach strode in, Anda a meek shadow in his wake.
    “What, no fire? Get moving, you scrawny sluggard, I’ve come a longway and I’m frozen to the marrow. Where’s my breakfast?”
    He expected, perhaps, that she would conjure it from nothing.
    “You didn’t leave us much, and it’s all gone, all but a handful of oats.”
And please, please let Saraid have that, she needs it.
Eile was shivering; it was a walk on eggshells whenever he was home, a constant guessing game. She felt anger, but could not let it show, for thechild’s sake. If not for Saraid, she’d have done the man serious harm long ago and taken the consequences.
    “You should have managed better.” Anda put downher bundle and stood with her hands on the small of her back. She looked worn out, but Eile could not find a shred of sympathy. It seemed to her a person who stood by and let evil things happen was as guilty as the person who performed them.“You should have made it last.”
    Eile thought of the times she had not eaten, so that Saraid could be adequately fed. She said nothing.
    “You’re a slut and a wastrel,” Dalach said, walking over. He was a big man, tall and broad. Strong as an ox; Eile knew just how strong. She felt his fingers in her hair, then a fierce pain as he jerked her upright. She put her teeth through her lip, so as notto cry out. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “Just as well there’s one thing you’re good for,” Dalach went on, “or you’d be out on your ear, and no two ways about it.” As abruptly as he had seized her, he let go, and she collapsed back beside the hearth. “That supposed to be a fire? Get on with it, wretch. I’m wet through.” He turned toward his wife. “You’ll have to go down to the settlement.See what you can scrounge. Here.” He took a handful of coppers from his pouch and gave them to Anda. “Don’t rush home.”
    His eyes were back on Eile; she felt his gaze on her as she fanned the embers and fed on the last sticks of kindling.
Burn, please burn.
“I can go, if you want,” she said, heart thudding. “I can take Saraid. The rain’s stopped. You’ve already had a long walk, Aunt Anda.”
    “Whoasked you for your opinion?” snarled Dalach. “Go on, Anda, I’m hungry.”
    “There was a man here yesterday.” Eile had not planned to tell them until later, but the words came out in a rush. She so much didn’t want to be left with Dalach, especially not when Saraid was awake. The child was in the inner doorway now, a little shadow, staring. “He brought news of Father.”
    Instantly she had their attention.

    “A man?” asked Dalach, glowering. “What man?”
    “What news?” Anda’s voice was hesitant.
    Eile chanced a bigger branch on the fire; it hissed asthe flames licked it. “Bad news. He’s not coming back. He was killed not long ago in some place over the water. A heroic death, that’s what the man said.”
    Anda sank down on a bench. She said not a word.
    “So he’s not coming back for you,” Dalach said heavily,subsiding on the bench, eyes fixed on Eile. “He’s leaving it to us to provide for you. Typical. He always was a fellow who walked out on his responsibilities. He’s left us with you and the brat both.” The eyes flicked across to the silent Saraid, and