S Farrell - Holder of Lightning

Her hand trembling, Jenna stepped toward the body again and reached out to the hands crossed over the breast. She touched the nearest ring, gasping, then pulled back as the golden band wobbled on the bones. Taking a breath, she reached out again, and this time pulled the ring from the unresisting hand. She held it in her fingers, turning it: the ring was heavy gold, inset with small emerald stones, filigreed and decorated with knotted rope patterns-an uncommon piece of jewelry, crafted by a mas-ter. The ring of someone who was once wealthy or well-rewarded.

She put the ring on her own finger.

At first nothing changed. Then Jenna realized that the hollow seemed brighter, that she could see as if it were full day. A bright fog filled the recess and the sound of the falls receded and died to nothing.

A woman, clad in the green silk that the skeleton had worn, stepped through the mist toward Jenna.

Her hair was long and golden-red like bright, burnished copper, and her skin was fair. Her eyes were summer blue, and she smiled as she came forward, her hands held out to Jenna. The sleeves left her arms bare, and Jenna saw that her right hand was scarred and marked to the elbow with swirling patterns, patterns that matched those on Jenna's own hand and arm.

On one of her fingers sat the same ring Jenna wore.

"Eilis," Jenna breathed, and the woman laughed. Aye," she said. "That was once my name. So you're the new Holder, and so young to be a First. That's a pity." Her hand touched Jenna's, and with the touch, Jenna felt a touch in her head as well, as if somehow Eilis were prowling in her thoughts. "Ah.

Jenna, is it? And you've met Riata."

Jenna nodded. "How. .?" she began.

"You are the Holder," Eilis said again. "This is just one of the gifts and dangers that Lamh Shabhala bestows: the Holders before you-we who held Lamh Shabhala while it was awake and perhaps even some of those who held it while it slept-live within the stone also." Jenna remembered the red-haired man she'd glimpsed when she first picked up the stone. Had he been a Holder, once? "At least," Eilis continued, "some shade of us does. Come to where a Holder's body rests, or touch something that was once theirs, and they can speak with you if you will it. They will also know what is in your mind, if you allow it to be open. Tell me, when you met Riata, did he give you a token?"

Jenna shook her head. "No. He only spoke to me."

Eilis nodded at that, as if it were the answer she expected. "I met him, too. Riata prefers to be left alone in death. He knows that should you need him again, you can find him in the stone or go to where he rests. I went there once, myself. That's how I came to know him-a wise man, wiser than most of us Daoine believed possible of a Bunus Muintir. We're an arrogant people. ." She seemed to sigh, then, and looked past Jenna as if into some hazy distance. "He told me I would die, if I followed my heart. I didn't believe him." Another sigh, and her attention came back to Jenna. "You will meet the

shades of other Holders, inevitably, especially if you go to Lar Bhaile as you intend. And I’ll warn you; some you will not like and they will not like you. Some will smile and seem fair, but their advice will be as rotten as their hearts. The dead, you see, are not always sane." She smiled as she said that, a strange expression on her face. "Be careful."

"Why didn’t Riata tell me this?" Jenna asked. "There’s so much I need to know."

"If he told you all, you would have despaired,"

Eilis answered. "You’re new to Lamh Shabhala, and you are a First besides." She shuddered. "I wouldn’t have wanted to be a First."

"Riata… he said that the stone was a curse, especially for the First."

"He was right."

Jenna shuddered. "That scares me, the way you say the words."

Her gaze was calm. "Then you’re wise."

"Is the cloch evil, then?"

Eilis laughed, a sound like trickling water. "Lamh Shabhala-or any of the clochs na thintri, for that matter-don’t know good or evil, child. They simply are. They give power, and power can be put to whatever use a Holder wishes. Lamh Shabhala is First and Last, and so the power it can lend is also greatest. As to evil. ."A smile. "You bring to the stone what you have inside you, that’s all. In any case, evil depends on which side you stand-what one person calls evil, another calls justice. Let me see it " she said. "Let me see Lamh Shabhala again."

Jenna felt reluctant. She shook her head, the barest motion, and Eilis frowned, taking a step forward. "I mean you no harm, Jenna," she said. "Let me see the cloch I once wielded myself."

Jenna felt for the stone, closing her fingers around it through the cloth that hid it. "If Lamh Shabhala has the greatest power of all the clochs, how was it taken from you?"

Eilis’ laugh was bitter now. "I said its power was greatest, but even the strongest can be overpowered by numbers or make a fatal mistake. Lamh Shabhala is chief among the Clochs Mor, the major clochs, but there are others that are nearly as

powerful. Three of the Clochs Mor were arrayed against me, and I was isolated. Betrayed by. ." She scowled, her face harsh.". . my own stupidity. By listening to my heart, as Riata said it would be. And so I died. He laid me here, the new Holder, the one who had betrayed me: Aodhfin O Liathain. My lover. He placed me here after he killed me and took Lamh Shabhala for himself. He kissed my cold lips with tears in his eyes. If you should happen to meet him through the cloch, tell him that I still curse his name and the night I first gave myself to him." Another step, and Eilis' hand reached out toward Jenna. "My cloch. Let me see it once more."

Shaking her head, Jenna backed up again. She wasn't certain why she felt this reluctance-perhaps the harsh eagerness in Eilis' features, or the way she had referred to the stone as hers. But Jenna felt a compulsion to keep the stone hidden-too many people had asked to see it already. Eilis took another step closer, and again Jenna retreated. There was a strange yet familiar roaring behind her. She glanced quickly over her shoulder, but there was nothing there, only the white-lit, ethereal fog. She could feel Eilis touching her memories again, and she tried to close her mind to the intrusion. The ghost laughed at her effort. "You're indeed young and unpracticed," she said. "So much to learn. ." Her voice was honey and perfume. "I know your mind. You showed Riata the stone, didn't you? And Seancoim and that tiarna with you. Why not me?"

Jenna, reluctantly, reached beneath her clothing and pulled out the stone. "Here," she said to Eilis. "Here it is."

Eilis stared at the cloch, a hand at her breast as if she were having difficulty breathing. "Aye," she whispered. "That is Lamh Shabhala. And you don't know yet how to use it."

Jenna shook her head. "No. Can you tell me?"

"I can't," she answered, but then her eyes narrowed. "Or perhaps I can. Let me hold it. Give it to me. ." She stretched her arm out.

"No." Jenna closed her fingers around the cloch, fisting it in her right hand.

"Give it to me. ." Eilis said again. Her hand came closer, and Jenna took a final step backward.

Cold water hammered at Jenna's head and

shoulders, driving her back-ward. The falls tore her away from the ledge and bore her under even as she screamed. She felt herself flung downward with the water, and she knew she was dead.

In that instant, the cloch burned in her hand, and she felt it open to her, as if she became part of the stone itself, her mind whirling with the patterns on her hand, with the identical patterns of the cloch, with the energy locked within it borrowed from the mage-lights. This was different than when she had unleashed lightning on Knobtop or when she had killed the soldiers. Then, there had been no conscious thought involved. This time, she felt herself will the cloch to release its energy, and it an-swered. The water of the Duan still pounded at her, unrelenting and mer-ciless, but she was no longer falling. .