Andrew Offutt - The Sign of the Moonbow

“Cormac: ye wear Her sign. Ye have my blessing. The Door will ope to ye, when ye arrive before it. More than that I cannot say with surety; we are gone long and long from Eirrin. It is nigh onto five centuries since the founding of the city of the people of Danu and Eiru-Daneira.”

Smiles flashed among the visitors, for a world that had gone dark with the presence of Thulsa Doom now brightened with the prospect of his removal. No matter what was required of him, Cormac mac Art knew that he must journey with the mage to Long-ford’s hill, and find the Door to the Tuatha de Danann. Sinshi shared his excitement and his happiness, but he hardly noted, for he was grinning at Samaire like a boy.

After a time it was thoughtful Bas who was gaining Cathbadh’s attention.

“It is little pride I swallow, Servant of Danu the Mother, to say to ye that ye possess knowledge and powers I would beg to know of.”

Cathbadh gazed upon the druid in his snowy dinner robe, a man whose hair was black and whose eyes were blue. “It is the moon goddess I serve in truth, and the sungod ye do. It has never been the way of the sun to share its daily brilliance with the moon that illumines the night, Servant of Behl and Crom… nor for the moon to share its silver with the sun’s god.”

There was silence for a time then, for Bas’s request had been rejected and the brains of Cormac and his companions churned with thoughts of Eirrin, and the land beneath and within Eirrin… and Thulsa Doom.

In his white robe purfled with yellow, King Uaisaer rose at the long table’s head, and in this wise he differed not from other monarchs. His rising signaled, the meal’s end. His people began to depart, taking their leave of king and guests. But Sinshi stayed, and Findhu, and soon there were but they, and Cathbadh and Uaisaer, and Cormac and his companions-and the maids whose names he could not remember, who hovered bright-faced about Wulfhere and Brian.

“Our hospitality is open here,” the king said, and he was looking at the young son of Eirrin and the thick-bearded Dane.

Wulfhere took his cue for behaviour from those words. Sitting back, he wrapped an arm about the young woman on either side of him and snuggled them close. Willingly they accepted such twofold embrace, and Cormac saw that the king looked pleased. The younger Brian was less demonstrative-it was just that his hands and those of the Daneiran maidens flanking him were all out of sight beneath the board.

King Uaisaer said, “We would have converse with you, Cormac mac Art na Gaedhel.”

As Cormac nodded, Sinshi pressed close, though already her hip had long warmed his. She squeezed his hand beneath the board, and leaned close to murmur for his ears alone.

“I know what words he’d have with you, Cormac. Please, please, dear Cormac… agree, agree!”

His companions were bade tarry or wend their way to the quarters assigned them, as they would. With Uaisaer and Cathbadh, Cormac adjourned privily to another and smaller room.

“Friend Cormac,” the king quietly said, “ye’ve noted how few we of Daneira are-and how alike.”

“Aye.”

“It was but two smallish tribes of the Danans left Eirrin five centuries agone. We survive today only because this is but the second ‘invasion’ of our isle.”

The king paused, glancing at Cathbadh; the wizard-priest spoke.

“I should not have slain all those Norsemen this day, Cormac. The people of Daneira are weak. We suffer no menaces, but are prey to illness and debilities that worsen as they are passed from parent to child again and again. Many die young, very young. Many women never bear. They cannot; some because the fault is in themselves, others because-we think-the answer lies in the weak seed of our men. We linger , but we do not thrive. Daneira may not survive another hundred years. All for lack of a new strain of blood and strength in us.”

Cormac nodded, thoughtfully.

“We… have great need of you, Cormac of the Gaels,” Cathbadh said most quietly indeed. “And of the handsome lad, Brian, and that gigantic friend of yours, he who is neither Gael nor Danan.”

Cormac mac Art understood. He knew now why earlier Cathbadh had not mentioned the slain man and boy, but had mourned the potential childbearers dead of the encounter with the Norse. And mayhap there had been hope as well as fear with Sinshi, on yester day out there in the forest with Thorleif fighting his way betwixt her legs. Aye, and he understood why he had been thanked by wizard-priest and then king in the same manner: for having saved a nubile maid. Her parents had borne three, and she and her brothers were valuable to the future of Daneira.

Children were the lifeblood of any people.

The blood of relentlessly, helplessly endogamic Daneira was running thin.

And here among them for but a night were three strapping males from outside, of entirely different blood and even race! Aye, Cormac knew why he and Wulfhere and Brian were so welcome here… and perhaps why Sinshi was so extremely, nigh-unconscionably attentive. At that thought his ego suffered a little.

“It’s our seed ye want-and direly.”

King and priest nodded. “Aye.”

Cormac glanced at the closed door behind him. “My lords, this need not have been said. Maidens attend both Brian and Wulfhere, who are men, and long without women. The normal course of nature will see to the sowing of their seed in Daneira, and I hold hope for ye that it falls into rich and fertile soil. An we’re to be a bit… cold about it-”

“As we are,” Cathbadh said; “as we must be.”

“-a fertile plot once seeded need only lie and be tended with care, whilst the gardener moves to another part of the garden. In this wise, my lords, the gardens need only depart to be replaced in the gardener’s chamber by another fertile plot…”

The king nodded. Cathbadh smiled.

“So much for Wulfhere and the lad,” Cormac went on. “As for myself-it’s with my woman I’ve come among ye, and her a weapon-companion as well. With her this night for the first time in so long and with privacy available to us through your kindness, no desire is on me for others. Nay-let there be no argument among us, and us friends, for that is the way of it.”

Their faces had fallen, but his last words and raised hand stilled any pleas or demurrers.

“Methinks Sinshi’s heart will hardly be broke,” Cormac said, with in truth a bit of bitterness, for certainly she had turned his head, and now he knew not her motive. “But it’s a coward Art’s son is in some matters, and this is one. I’ll not be going back into the hall where she sits waiting.” He nodded to indicate a deep red curtain beyond them. “That portal I remember takes me to the sleeping rooms ye’ve offered, lord king of Daneira, and it’s through it I go now, not back to say Sinshi nay.”

And he did.

The two men stared at the drapes that had fallen together behind him, and they knew that with such a man they were unopenable.

“I must… have meeting with Sinshi Duach’s daughter,” Cathbadh said quietly and with thought upon him. “Where are the clothes of the strangers?.”

“They will be brought to you,” Uaisaer said. “But-what of the woman of Eirrin?”

“Mmm.” Cathbadh nodded. “I must have meeting with both Sinshi and Findhu!”

That meeting was swiftly held, ere the guests could act to spoil the plan of the wizard-priest. In the darkness of a most private room of that king’s house Cormac prepared for bed, while to another went Samaire, knowing he had rejected the little Daneiran and would soon come to her, and in a third such private room three people stood while only a candle burned. Above, Danu, Mother and Huntress, rode the sky in Her silver chariot. In the dim-lit room stood Her servant with his staff bearing Her sign, and with his robe of lacquered leaves on him. The candle flickered and lit fleetingly the two who stood before him, Sinshi and Findhu, entirely naked though not quite as the day they were born. And he spoke, and intoned, and muttered and made gestures, speaking to his goddess. And he did place upon them garments that fit them ill, being too large, whereupon lo! Sinshi assumed of a sudden the likeness of Samaire of Leinster and Findhu seemed to become Cormac mac Art.