Mac Tire � Sun of the Earth

Part 11 - The King's Guard - (part 2)

"...I shall slay you all!"

Lij tried to rise from the bed and failed. The old woman pummelled Cass with her tiny fists. It was a flea assaulting a horse. Lij knew what he must do, even if it caused their deaths, but he had no breath for it. He coughed.

"Remember the oath you swore to protect the king, Guard of Tara!" Gronya cried, tugging at his arm frantically. Cass's eyes still bored into Dom's, the knife biting deeper into his skin.

"I swore that oath to protect Sean-Adomnan, and he is gone, old woman - and Colm is dead who came after him! I owe no living man my allegiance!" he snarled, not taking his eyes from Dom's face. Dom said not a word. If he was to die, he would die like a king. He would not plead for his life, like a coward.

"Then you are forsworn!" she cried, letting go of Cass's arm. "Oathbreaker!" She knelt at Dom's feet, shaking with fear for him, and frantic. "I do not know the words...Dhia!...the titles...it has been too long..."

Quietly from the bed came a soft voice that, though not strong, cut through the air like the knife that was pressing into the flesh of Dom's neck. Cass moved his arm slightly to deliver the fatal cut, when the sound arrested his motion.

"Bend the knee and pay homage before your rightful king, the Ard-Ri Sean-Adomnan O' Monaghan the Merciful, High King of Erin... Lord and King of the five kingdoms... High King of Tara...

King of Thomond, Leinster and Ossory, Lord of the four septs ...Heir of Fionn ...mac Cumhaill. Lord of the Mountains... Keeper of Justice... Taioseach and ...Ollamh.... Of all his lands ...and his domains... in perpetuity... King and Lor..." Lij's voice broke with emotion, and besides, he had no breath to speak more.

Cass withdrew the knife. Dom stood where he was, his neck bleeding from the wound Cass had inflicted, looking Cass straight in the eye. The former Guard stared back at Dom in horror.

"Do you tell me truth?" he said, his voice unsteady, not looking at Lij or the woman, but at Dom. "Is this truly the king that was lost?" He shook his head in denial. "No! It cannot be!"

Nekeb had entered the door as Cass uttered these words. Lij was lying on the bed, helpless and desperate for Dom's safely, sobbing for breath. Nekeb ran to him and raised him on the pillow.

"It is truth," he said, holding Lij in one strong arm but Lij refused his comfort. �Tell him all �titles�home,� he gasped.

Nekeb removed his arm and knelt on the floor beside the bed. "Dom is also dear to me, and of high estate in my country. I prostrate myself before the Lord Prince Payankhi-Ankh-Aton of Thebes.

Prince and Guardian of Kishlan and Hivara. Lord of Bislar and Phatkept, of Tolan and Memphis. Lord and Master of Per-Ramses.

Guardian and Chosen Father of the Royal Children. Most Beloved Great Royal Spouse of The Mighty Bull of Ma'at, Knefer-Lijedefer, Living Forever. Master Harpist Sen-Adom; First Bard of Osian. The Beloved of Pharaoh."

Cass's voice was barely a whisper. He had not understood much of what Nekeb had been saying. He grasped only the words that meant something to him.

"First Bard of Osian? There is only one who ever bore that title. One King who achieved the high rank of Ollave. You are truly Dom of Monaghan?"

Dom nodded gravely, standing straight against the wall. "I am, so," he said evenly.

Cass fell to his knees at Dom's feet and bowed his head. "Then I am indeed forsworn, my king. My life is forfeit. Do with me as you will." He offered Dom the knife and Dom, shaking his head, pushed it away gently with the side of his hand.

The old woman, seeing that Dom was out of danger, hurried to Lij who was still gasping for breath against the pillows. "Swear!" he heaved, twisting in her hands. "Swear it again...the oath!"

Cass looked up into Dom's cool grey eyes. He saw no anger there, only sorrow.

"Is my poor land so divided now, that even the Guard is no longer faithful?" Dom said quietly.

He raised his hand again, pressing his thumb to flatten the second finger, and leaving it there . This was the King's secret signal for "I am in dangerous company. Come to my aid!" Cass responded automatically with the same sign. Then bowed his head, saying firmly...

"I am your liege-man of life and limb and of earthly worship. Faith and truth will I bear unto you, to live and to die against all manner of folks who seek thy life or thy throne. To be with thee in joy and in sorrow. In times of plenty and times of loss. To hold your life as sacred as my own, to love and protect those whom you love and to scatter your enemies as chaff. And this I solemnly swear I will do until thy life or my life is ended."

Dom held out his hand to be kissed, and indicated that Cass rise. He didn�t wait to see if Cass responded but went swiftly to the bed. He sat behind Lij, who rested gratefully on Dom's chest. "Calm yourself, Lij. All is well with me. You did well to remember those titles. It was, after all, a long time ago. But you have a most prodigious memory, a stor."

Lij's breathing was slowing down. He managed a smile. "I shall never forget it... my spouse. Never, as long... as I live. It was a ...joyous day. So happy...."

"Here!" said Gronya, thrusting a cup into his shaking hands."Drink this, Mighty Bull! That, I suppose is you?" Lij nodded gravely. "It is indeed... lady. Will you tell me... that this is... not more of your... fiery water before... I drink it? For I swear ...I shall not do so... if it is."

She reassured him, and he drank. Then he saw Dom's neck. "You are hurt, Dom!"

Dom smoothed his spouse's arm. "It is a scratch. Cass will see to it, Lij. Don't fret." He looked over at Cass. "Will you not? And tell us what this has all been about, although I can guess."

Cass raised his head and there were tears standing in his eyes. "Yes, Lord."

"Lord me no lords - there is enough of that in Egypt. Here I will be, in private at least, just Dom."

"Yes, Dom. I will tell my story; but first...your neck."

***

Dom sat on the fallen log a few yards from the empty houses, deep in thought. The past hour had been very enlightening, but tiring for Lij who was now asleep.

They had all listened carefully whilst a repentant Cassawn had explained why he was trying to kill them. He knelt at Lij's feet and asked forgiveness for endangering his life by thrusting him into the frozen water.

Knefer-Lijedefer, King of Kings answered him, not Lij, beloved of Dom. "I too would have done as you did if I thought my country was in danger. All is well, now you are our friend. Rise!"

Dom smiled at the memory. Lij, short of inches as he was, was every one of those inches a king. Cass who had never seen him like this, was awestruck.

Then as Gronya explained how she came to be living in a shack in the woods, Dom's temper rose. Her son by her first husband, who lived with her in the great house where she and Dom's grandfather Trasach had settled, allied himself with Sowrawn. He was greedy for her lands and properties, so had declared the old woman a witch, and sentenced her to death.

Faithful servants and some nearby lordlings shocked by his behaviour helped her escape, and settled her here with as many comforts as they could gather for her - well away from her son�s evil grasp.

Dom rose, and paced the floor. "My land has become a den of thieves!" he said, anger apparent in every limb. "When an old and helpless woman..."

Gronya interrupted him with a smile. "Ard-Ri, I am far from helpless here."

"Dom," Dom corrected with a smile. "And I had that worked out, Lady Gronya." To Lij's puzzled stare he answered. "Cass and Nekeb will tell you there is enough food gathered in the empty houses to feed a small army. Is that not what it is for, dear lady?"

"It is, so. Ultan, Lord of the Briocha is gathering an army to battle against the evil that is Tara, but it is a long and difficult task. People are frightened..."

After Gronya had prised from Lij exactly how he had learned her name before she had given it, and all had nodded wisely at the wisdom from the Other World, Lij began coughing again, and Gronya and Nekeb saw to him whilst Dom spoke with Cass about Tara and its defences. He could hear Nekeb answering Gronya's not too delicate questions about his physical condition as they tended Lij together. Dom sighed. A eunuch in a strange land would always have this problem. Nekeb, however, was a strong minded man. He would cope.

*

Dom breathed in deeply. There was much to be done if Sowrawn was to be overthrown. Suddenly there was a noise amidst the trees and a man rode into the small clearing. He reined in and challenged the seated man.

"What are you doing here, stranger? What business can you have with an old woman in the woods?" he barked, dismounting from his horse and fingering the long knife he held, as if he itched to use it.

Dom rose and smiled. The man was tall and thick-set, of middle years, with a mane of black hair cascading down his back and a beard he could lose his dinner in. "Ultan of the Briocha! Well met!" Dom stepped forward, his hands outstretched, showing he held no weapons.

The man stopped, but his knife rose in front of him. "And who is it that knows me when I have never...?" He stared at Dom carefully. "Do I know you, little man? You seem familiar.."

Dom laughed. "Put up, you daft loon! Did you not give me my first bow at Tara? And did you not carry me around the ramparts on your shoulders when I was a child, because I was too small to stare out over the top? I know you well, so I do. I have seen the scar on your backside that was given to you during the tourney at the Feis the year your Una gave birth to your only son. I know you have not set eyes on me for nigh on twenty years - since you left to command the Northern Troops for my Da - but sheathe your knife, man. It is I, Dom, son of Doolatach."

"Dom?" The man rubbed his eyes. "Am I bewitched? Dom of Monaghan?"

Dom laughed and grabbed his friend's hand. "It is. Come inside and meet my spouse." Ultan grinned, drinking in Dom with his eyes. "But where have you been...? I will hear the full story from you whilst I eat. Well, well � young Dom!... The gods have blessed us! Ah! Even as a child you were always one for the pretty faces. Is she beautiful, your spouse?"

They walked to the house that was stabling the horses. "He is," Dom said, proudly, hitching the steed carefully to the leather line. "Passing beautiful, as you will see."

Ultan slapped his thigh. "Is he, now? This I must see. For I have never clapped these eyes on a beautiful man before. Are you sure, now, you do not mean handsome?"

After they had tended the horses they strode arm in arm into the occupied house, Ultan's loud laughter preceding him into the room. Ultan kissed Gronya's hand, bowed slightly to Cass and Nekeb, who returned the courtesy, and went over to the bed where Lij slept peacefully. He lay, pale as moonlight, his dark hair fanning the pillow beneath him, long eyelashes brushing his cheek.

"Here he is," whispered Dom, unnecessarily. Ultan whistled low between his teeth. "He is beautiful, as you said. What ails him?" They went to sit by the table where Nekeb was placing the large pot of stew.

"He has the lung fever. But he is better than he was." Dom said quietly, dipping his bread into his portion of stew. Ultan's face grew serious. "He will get well with Gronya to tend him. She is renowned as a..."

"...witch?" the old woman finished. The big man lowered his head and applied himself to his dinner. "Healer!" he grunted, shovelling mutton into his mouth.

*

They spoke together late into the night, discussing plans and plots and counter plots and making decisions as the candles flickered. Lij woke and Dom rose to feed him the chicken broth Gronya had had simmering all day.

Nekeb frowned mightily. The Great One must be sicker than he knew. Not once did he complain about the clear broth or ask for something more substantial. Dom, holding the horn beaker for Lij to sip from, introduced Ultan to him. The feverish blue eyes met the brown ones over the cup. More than beauty, the renegade thought, staring at Lij in curious amazement.

During the time they stayed in the woods, Ultan introduced Dom to all the soldiers and Lords who had banded with him to fight the evil that stalked Tara. Dom knew these men and women risked their lives by allying with his - Dom's - cause. They were thrilled beyond measure to have their rightful king returned to them, accepting without question that Ultan knew Dom personally, not just by repute. The cause had become his, now...to re-instate the rightful king. Dom could not argue with that, he was the rightful king, so he wisely kept his own counsel.

Hearing of Dom's plan to visit Tara as a potential ollave, they reassured the travellers that there was no one left in the citadel who knew Dom well enough to recognize him. Colm's servants had all been murdered with the family and new ones brought in from wherever Sowrawn had previously lived. Lij and Nekeb would obviously be seen as strangers, so they were safe, too - but what of Cass and his tattoo? That would be recognised immediately.

It was Gronya who came up with the solution. She made a thick skin-coloured salve that completely covered the offending mark, and would only come off Cass's face with great difficulty. "You will have to take it off with soap and water and the sheep fat I shall give you. It will not just rub off," she assured them, as the group prepared to leave for Tara, packing the salve in a deerskin pouch to keep it fresh and soft. "There is enough there for a year or more if used sparingly."

The four men left Gronya, promising she should be installed at Tara as soon as the crisis was over. No-one asked Dom how long he thought the crisis would take to resolve. No-one so much as hinted that it was irrresolvable. There was always hope.

Cassawn was now as helpful as he had previously been an obstacle. He led them through easier terrain, skirting hills and bypassing lakes. The land was still covered deep in snow, but Lij, wrapped close in extra pelts and swaddled like a babe in the tent at night, grew stronger every day.

Cass, as if to atone for his previous behaviour, always saw to it that Lij had the best morsel of meat and the best of the dried fruits. And as the two other men tended to do the same, Lij was much cosseted on his journey.

A week later, sitting in the hut of the head man of a small settlement they had stopped at for food and shelter during a bad snowstorm, Lij rebelled at being offered the tenderest pieces of fowl for the second day in a row. "Let Nekeb have them," he instructed, in a voice, and with a look that Dom and Nekeb knew well, and Cass was coming to recognize. "I am no invalid to be babied!" From then on, they treated him as one of their company, and Lij was content with sharing their rations and at least some of their hardships.

Then came the glorious day when Dom, his face alight with joy rode over to Lij and said, panting a little from the cold air, "Lij! I know those trees! I played there as a boy! We are not far from Tara, now!"

Lij breathed an inward sigh of relief. Although he was much better, his cough still troubled him a little, and the cold, which he hated, was a severe trial. He longed for a huge fire, a deep fur-covered bed in a house with walls where they had a room to themselves.

He had missed making love with Dom, but it was too cold to do so in the tent outdoors, and Lij was too inhibited to do it when packed in with six or eight others in a hut, even if the others had no such qualms.

As they were nearing their goal, Nekeb carefully rubbed the salve into Cass's face. It would not do to be recognised at this point and have all their plans come to nothing.

They had spent that night in the hut of shepherd and his wife, who lived in a fair sized hut sheltered by some trees. As the couple were very young there were no children yet, and the hut was roomy and fresh-smelling. Dom was just about to say that he did not remember the hut being there, when he realised the folly of uttering that remark, and bedded down to sleep. He resolved to think more carefully in future before opening his mouth.

*

Now they knelt on the top of a small rise, peering up at Tara standing stark in the distance. There were tears in Dom's eyes as he gazed at his home, and Lij, recognising the feeling, put his arms around his mate and held him close.

Lij stared at the hill. It dwarfed the previous hills they had come across during their travels in this land. It was huge. There were seven encampments on it that Cass said were called "duns", and many buildings fashioned of wood and metal stood in each dun. The large houses within them were for the provincial kings and their households and servants to use when they came to Tara for the Great Parliament, a yearly gathering of nobles, which was held on Hallowday.

Just below the top of the hill stood the Mi Cuarta, the Great Hall. This was in the Ard-Ri's own dun, which also housed his residence. This stood proudly on the hill's summit, a huge edifice made of wood and stone and metal that towered above the other buildings, making them look like children's toys. Although not as large as Lij's many palaces, this dominated the skyline and made Nekeb, always impressionable, draw in a deep breath.

Lij broke the silence. "It is a fair place, muh hraw." Dom nodded, too full of emotion to speak. "I am glad to see it again, so I am!" murmured Cass, his eyes fixed on the citadel. "It was my home, and I hope it will be again, when the despoiler has been routed."

Dom sighed, kissing Lij gently on the cheek. "Welcome to my home, my love. We shall live to see it safe again, and fair again, and may the gods help us in our cause - for, by Dhia, we shall need their aid!"

They gazed at it until the sun fell behind the hill, then they remounted, and set out for Tara.




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