Mac Tire � Son of the EarthPart 29 � KismetCormac hurried as fast as he could with Lij in his arms, up the stairs from the dungeons into the vestibule by the front doors. Gronya and Orla accompanied by Ayveen walked in at that same moment. Ayveen, quicker than the older woman, covered Orla's eyes with her hands. Cormac bore so gently the man he carried in his arms, that Ayveen asked who it was. "Egypt," Cormac breathed. Ayveen shuddered as he was so bruised she had not known him. "Take the child to the solar and keep her there!" Gronya ordered one of the maidservants, then the women joined Cormac as he entered a large guest chamber. Ayveen stripped off the heavy coverlet leaving only the soft white sheet on the bed as Cormac laid Lij upon it. Gronya hurried to the bedside, staring at the abused man with horror in her eyes. "Who did this?..." she demanded, as she issued orders for hot water and cloths of the servants hurrying into help. Cormac sat on a chair by the bedside. "It was Ede..." but he could say no more. Ayveen reached for a sheet and softly placed it over Lij's injured form. Dignity he would have. His battered naked body was not for every common eye. A short while later Morne came rushing in, loud and demanding. "Quiet man!" hissed Cormac, "or I'll silence you myself." "Aye!" the tall man answered, trembling with anger and distress. "I am sure you will. After all, you were there when the king silenced his wife, were you not? I was watching beyond the door. I saw her, just now, being lifted and carried away from that place by Cassawn and the Captain of the Guard. Lying there, as she was, dead, in the blood and dirt...." His voice tailed away as he realised what he had just revealed. Cormac raised his eyes to look at Morne's face. "And how did you know where to find her, Torna? How did you know where to stand in order to spy on her doings?" His voice was deadly in the silence of the room. Morne's expression told its own tale. "Get him out!" Dom said quietly from the doorway, but no-one there underestimated the authority or the danger in his soft voice. "Confine him securely," he said to the guards outside. "And ensure no-one leaves the keep until I allow it. And find Neeve and constrain her, too. I will sift all this later. I have more pressing matters to claim me, now." The guards grabbed Morne's arm and dragged him, protesting, from the room. Dom's attention, however, could not be spared. He returned his gaze to his loved one. Gronya had poured some liquid from a phial she produced from her basket into a bowl of warm water and, removing the sheet, began washing Lij. After she had cleansed his entire body, she gently picked up his penis and examined the damage there. He was bruised and swollen from Ede's rough handling, as well as the cut, but she smiled up at Dom. "It is well. He will be sore for a few days, but it will not bother him as much as some of his other hurts. He has a few cracked ribs, Dom, and I hope none of them has punctured anything vital." She ran her hands carefully but firmly over Lij's inert form. "I think he is safe. He will mend, given time." Dom's strength gave way at last and Cormac jumped up and guided his friend to a chair. Dom sat, his hands covering his eyes until the moment passed. A movement from the bed drove all other thoughts from his mind, and he leapt up and rushed to it, taking Lij's hand gently in his. "Dom?" a quavering whisper filled Dom's heart with joy. "I am here, a hashkeh - I am here." Lij could not open his swollen eyelids, but he smiled at the sound of the voice which, above all, he loved. "I am hurt, Dom. She has hurt me...she..." Dom kissed Lij's brow. "Shh! Sleep now, my love. She is gone. She will trouble the earth no longer." "I know," softer than a breath. "He told me." Dom did not need to ask who he was. Lij's hand fluttered about his groin. �I ...am ...not�whole.� Dom's heart was cracking. "You will live to make love to me again, my Lij. Never fear it." he whispered for Lij's ears alone. "Dom," a soft voice at his side commanded. �Move now, will you? Lie on the bed with him if you will, but let me get at him." Gronya held Lij's head as she raised a cup to his lips. "He must sleep now, Dom, and heal. Ninus will be here later today...oh, yes, he has been a good friend to us...and he will have more frankincense... and myrrh. That will help him considerably." Dom nodded as Lij finished the drink and laid his head back gratefully on the pillow. Gronya looked at the two men and realised that, as the plant needed water, the one man needed the other. "I will go to Orla, now." said Ayveen, folding a cloth and placing it upon the table. "She must be puzzled and frightened, poor child. And Ede, you say, is dead?" "By my hand, yes, she is." Dom climbed onto the high bed next to his love. Gronya sighed. "The child will be relieved to hear it. It was fear of Ede that drove her away. She has a strange and disturbing tale to tell." Cormac shuddered at the old woman's expression. "It is more dreadful than you know. Ede was her mother...the child is my sister." he said, wonderingly, as if the happenings of the last hour had driven the revelation from his mind. Gronya wisely remained silent, looking at Dom with compassion in her eyes. A child so nearly lost, but found again. Ayveen could fill in many of the gaps. Her story would be heard. Cormac spoke low, but clearly. "I will go to Orla, too, Dom. Shall I tell her that you are her father...?" Dom shook his head. "Let me tell her that news. I have not yet fully taken it in myself. The poor, mistreated child - her own flesh and blood - and mine. My daughter...my child." Lij moved beside him, his bruised hand touching Dom's breast. "And my child, she is..." the stiffened lips breathed. "And mine..." Dom's control over his feelings broke with a ragged sob. Gronya, Ayveen and Cormac left the room quickly, allowing the king privacy. "See they are not disturbed.� Gronya pronounced to the servants �If Maeve herself comes down from the heavens, do not let her enter this room. Do you understand.� "Yes, my lady," they nodded gravely at her and she hurried off after Cormac. Inside the room Dom lay beside his beloved, neither speaking or moving. Occasionally Lij would murmur in his sleep, or cry out in pain, and Dom knew he was re-living the horrors of the past day. He felt for his love, wishing he could remove the anguish - wishing he could change the past. What would he have done differently if he had known? Would he have killed Ede earlier? Could he have stopped her without her finding a way to hurt Lij? He did not know. He was only a man - not a god, like Lij. He smiled at the man slumbering beside him. He kissed the battered face so gently it was as if a feather had landed on it. He could not keep his hands from Lij; he needed to touch him, to assure himself this was not a dream. Then Lij gave a cry and woke, and his hands flying once more to his groin. "Dom...Dom...I cannot feel...my fingers are still numb. Has she taken...?" Dom spoke softly. "No, my love, it is all still there. See?..." He touched Lij, cupping him in a tender hand. "Can you feel me holding you there?" Lij nodded, wearily. "I would not lie to you over such a thing, Lij. I will keep nothing from you again...I swear it by my life...by the lives of my children." Lij smiled, wryly, his eyes still closed. "Do not make promises you cannot keep, onam cora. There will always be secrets while men live. And they are our children, Dom, ours. Titi and Jed, Orla and...and?" "I would call her after you, Great One, the new child, if it pleases you." "Me?" The ghost of a whisper disturbed the air. "I would call her Evgren - "radiance of the sun". There will be Egyptian names and titles aplenty, chosen by the priests. This will be her family name...for us...." Dom stopped as he realised Lij had fallen asleep again. He, too, was weary beyond telling, for he had rested little on the previous night, and the days events had sapped the last of his strength. Settling his head in the crook of Lij's neck, Dom fell at last into a healing sleep. * Several hours later there was a tap at the door. Both Cormac and Gronya stood outside. Cormac carried a tray with some food on it, and a bowl of warm broth for Lij, as he explained, "I don't suppose he's had much to eat or drink..." He stopped when he saw Dom's face. "I'm sorry, my friend, but it must be true and he will have need of this. He needs something warm to drink, Dom. Will he wake if we ask him to take this?" Dom nodded, " I must warn you, he hates broth with a passion." Gronya smiled, "He will drink it for you, I'm sure, lord king." Dom carried the bowl to the bed. "Lij, my love, drink this for me." Lij opened his mouth obediently, and swallowed the liquid. Dom turned in triumph to Cormac, and seeing the longing on his friend's face, beckoned him forward. "Come and speak a few words to him, Cormac. He will be the better for hearing your voice." The young man beamed with delight. "Do you think so?" He moved to Lij's side and stared at his former lover's face. He stroked the damp brow, and without turning, said softly but forcibly, "If you had not broken her neck, Dom, I swear I would have. Look at him!" He touched the dark hair fanning the pillow. "Lij? Lij, can you hear me?" Lij's eyelids fluttered. "Dom? My Dom?" Cormac turned then, his face full of sorrow. "He had made his choice, Dom, long ago, and it was never me...I know that. It was always you. Come to him, now..." As Dom walked slowly to the bed he caught Cormac about the shoulders drawing him into his embrace. "I have never met such a generous heart as yours. For I tell you truly, if it was you he had called, I would have fought you to the borders of hell for him, I would as sure as I live and breathe!" "Dom?" the exhausted voice from the bed broke them apart and Dom bent low over Lij. "Yes, Lij, I am here!" Lij coughed, a low damp sound that sent a chill up Gronya's spine. No, not the lung fever again! "Was it cold where he was, Cormac?" she asked as Dom and Lij whispered to each other. Cormac shuddered. "Freezing, so it was! Why?" Gronya poured out a dose from her little flask. "Then I cannot give him much pain medicine, it will harm his breathing. And he sounds distressed to me." Ultan came through the door. "Ayveen says the child wishes to see Lij. She is very upset, Gronya." Gronya stared impatiently at the big man. "She'd be even more upset if she came in and saw him in this state, you big ox!" Ultan's face went a dull grey as he saw Lij for the first time since his ordeal. "Gods above! The woman was an animal! No, you are right to have kept her away from him." "Dom, I mean, my lord king...the court and the minor kings are waiting in the Great Hall to hear what has happened. Rumours are rife but no-one seems to know...and rumours are dangerous if allowed to last." He looked helplessly towards his king, who was sitting behind Lij holding him up as he coughed. Dom shook his head "I cannot come, Briocha �I will not, not yet...Cormac, my friend? Will you go to them? Explain what has happened - all that you saw and heard. The Council of Kings has a right to know. Will you take care of things in my stead until he is...better?" Cormac bowed low. "I will, my king. You may leave it safely with me. And you can be sure I will not spare her in the telling of it. They must know of her evil purposes." "Out!" Gronya whispered. "He needs peace above all. Ultan, send Ninus here as soon as he arrives. We urgently need all he brings us." Ultan nodded and the two men left. Gronya put her hand on Lij's brow and found he was burning with fever. Her heart sank. "We have been at this point with him before, Dom, but I must tell you this time it is not so good. Last time he was stronger. Now he has been weakened by torture, pain and the cold - not to mention lack of food and water. If you have particular gods for sickness in Egypt, I suggest you call on them now, for Maeve and her ilk are not a scrap of use in these cases." Dom thought Khonsu-The-Plan-Maker the most effective god to petition for Lij's recovery, but he also sent a swift message to Anubis, who would surely hear a plea on behalf of Lij. Tell the Great Lord Osiris...ask him to spare him to me, I beg you. The Otherworld sent no reply, either by thought or movement of the wind. Dom hoped fervently that he had been heard. Ayveen came to help Gronya with Lij after Orla had been persuaded, reluctantly to go to bed. They sponged him with warm water scented with fragrant herbs. They held him in fits of the ague. They poured healing draughts down his throat. There was no time to talk, nor any strength either. All their effort was put into caring for one slender man lying still on the linen sheets. Dom lay by his side holding a swollen and discoloured hand, occasionally bringing it to his lips and kissing it, whilst whispering loving words into unhearing ears. Towards dawn, Lij's breathing grew worse. Although he was not awake, his whole frame heaved with the effort of breathing. Ayveen looked helplessly at Gronya, who shook her head. Dom, who had been drowsing, woke up at the rasping sounds coming from his lover's body. "Gronya?" he faltered, looking at the old woman for reassurance. This time there was none. She shook her head. "I am sorry, Dom...so sorry. It is the death gasp." Lij gave one last great struggle for breath, then fell silent. No movement disturbed his bruised chest. His lips were parted on a smile. Gronya spoke through her tears. "Dom, my lovely boy, he has gone." |