Edith Pattou - Hero's Song

She laughed. "Ellylon move freely between land and water. We have devised many ways over the years of obscuring our presence from you."

"How?" queried Talisen in some disbelief.

"Dense fogs, hidden valleys, unscalable mountains, to name only a few," she replied placidly as she heaped more brisgein on his plate. "Silien is one of the few Ellylon in many hundreds of years to move undisguised among humans." She paused. "Though there are many young Ellylon with the same curiosity. Silien is merely the first to have the courage to risk the wrath of the elders."

Crann came to their quarters just as they were finishing the meal.

"You look well," he said, gazing at them. "Better, at least, than the last time I saw you," he added with a brief smile in Brie's direction.

"When do we leave here?" asked Collun.

"We have only just arrived, spriosan."

"But Nessa..."

"I know. But what I am speaking of with the Ellyl king affects you and your sister, Collun."

An Ellyl appeared in the doorway. "A message from Midir, wizard. He says to come immediately. There is news from the north."

"Very well." The wizard turned to go.

"Crann...," began Collun, his voice edged with worry.

"Be patient, spriosan. By evening of the third day from today, I will return. Then we will make plans. In the meantime, gather your strength." And the wizard was gone.

The next morning Ebba took the three of them out of their quarters and guided them through some of the caverns of Tir a Ceol. Fara came with them. The Ellylon they saw looked at them with curiosity but stayed aloof from the human visitors.

Ebba told them they were free to explore as long as they did not disturb the Ellylon and were back in time for the evening meal. Talisen immediately headed toward the nearest cavern from which music emanated. Fara reached up a paw and batted Brie's leg. Then the faol set off. "I think I am meant to follow. Would you like to join us?" Brie asked Collun. The boy shook his head. He stood irresolutely as he watched them disappear into the next cavern. Ebba walked up to him.

"There is a cavern near here that might interest you." The Ellyl woman led him silently through a series of caverns. "Here," she said, entering one that was much larger than any Collun had yet seen.

In the center lay a long oval pool of silvery water, and ranged around it was a herd of Ellyl horses.

Collun had heard stories of Ellyl horses—that they were unmatchable in power and speed and too wild to be ridden by humans; though it was said that the hero Cuillean rode an Ellyl horse.

Many of the horses were grazing on a soft green-and-white carpet of something that Collun had at first thought to be dappled moss. When he bent to get a closer look, he found it was made up of millions of tiny green-and-white flowers. The delicate flowers grew in the shape of trefoil and smelled sweet, almost like honey.

"It is seamir, their favorite food. It grows very quickly so there is always plenty for them to eat. Now I must return to my work." Ebba left the cavern.

Collun continued to gaze about him in awe. The animals resembled Eirrenian horses but were shorter and leaner and somehow more graceful. Their tails were long, almost brushing the ground, and there was a sheen to their coats like the surface of the silvery pool.

As Collun knelt to touch the carpet of tiny flowers, a pair of flared nostrils suddenly appeared by his hand. Hardly daring to breathe, Collun pulled up a clump of seamir and offered it to the horse. The animal nosed the boy's hand and then, giving Collun the sense a great favor was being done him, delicately cropped the clump from his palm.

It was a beautiful animal, white with blue-gray markings. It had hooves that gleamed like silver, and its eyes were large and lit with fire from within. Collun offered up another clump of flowers.

When he told her later of his encounter with the white-and-gray horse, Ebba was astonished.

"The horse you describe is called Fiain, or the Wild One, and it is called so because no Ellyl has ever been able to tame him. I myself am considered one of the most skilled with the horses in Tir a Ceol, and Fiain will not let me within a foot of him. Have you a special way with horses, Collun?"

"Indeed not," the boy replied. "I once had an accident with the old farm horse at Aonarach..." He trailed off under Ebba's skeptical look.

"He speaks the truth," said Talisen, entering their quarters. "But Collun, listen to what has happened to me today." Ebba left the room to finish preparations on their meal. "At first the Ellyon hung back from me. They even stopped playing their music," Talisen said. "But I challenged one of them to a riddling contest, and that broke through their reserve. Ellylon love riddles, even more than I. We played games, danced, ate food, and finally they let me listen to their music. First, though, they explained to me about the different types of music in Tir a Ceol.

"There are two kinds," Talisen explained in an animated voice. "One is the ancient music that works what we humans call magic. The Ellylon call it draiocht. Only a select few have the gift for, and are trained in, draoicht. You see, the Ellylon believe that in the same way all things bear a name, so does each thing bear a song. A song unique only to it. There are songs for rocks, for clouds, for men, and for animals. To learn and be able to sing that song gives power. You remember when Silien kindled the light in his hand in the labyrinth? He used the song of a flame. Even an Ellyl with the gift takes many years of training to learn the songs and to sing them well. Amergin, they told me, was the only non-Ellyl ever to learn draoicht, and he only understood very little.

"The other kind of Ellyl music," Talisen continued, "is like the music we know in Eirren, except that it is more —more beautiful, more wrenching. This kind they call ceol, and it is my belief that ceol is the kind of music the ancient bards of Eirren knew. The kind that can make you weep, laugh, dance, and even sleep. And it is the kind that I am going to learn. One way or another, Collun, I am going to learn this ceol music." The expression on Talisen's face was resolute.

Collun did not see much of Talisen in the next two days. He would return to their quarters only to eat an occasional meal and to sleep, though he seemed to do little of the latter. Every time Collun woke in the night, he could hear harp music coming from Talisen's room.

Ebba was teaching Brie the Ellyl way of carving wood, and Collun watched as she worked on a new bow. Ebba supplied her with a soft, white wood, perfect for carving. And through the curls of wood shavings, a delicate, long-necked bird began to take form. It was a tine-ean, Ebba said, a flame-bird.

Collun felt restless, anxious to resume his search for Nessa. He found himself returning to the cavern of the horses. At each visit he and the white-and-gray horse went through the same ritual. As the horse nibbled the flowers from his hand, Collun couldn't help wondering what it would be like to ride such a magnificent animal. But he could not imagine the proud horse allowing anyone to climb on his back.

On the afternoon of their fifth day in Tir a Ceol, Talisen came to Collun's room and sat wordlessly in front of him. He closed his eyes and let his fingers play over the strings of his harp. Collun listened with pleasure to the delicate, haunting tune, and when Talisen had finished, he complimented him enthusiastically. "You have learned an Ellyl song!"

"Several," Talisen replied carelessly. "But this was not one." And suddenly there was an uncharacteristic shyness in Talisen's manner.

"But that did not sound like a song I have heard. Something you learned in Temair?"

"No. Collun, I made this song myself." Talisen's face glowed.