Part 6
587 Words
SIX
Twilight came, with no sign of Doireann. Rhona had spread a blanket upon the ground, and Sive lay on it, snoring softly. Maeve looked like she wanted to join her, and even Rhona longed for her bed. Nuala was determined to pick berries until the last of the light was gone, but that time was fast approaching.
Finally, Nuala plopped herself down beside Sive. "I wish I'd brought a cloak. I'm cold," she announced.
"I'd prefer a fire," Maeve said. "Much warmer."
Rhona could not magic a cloak into being, but she could build a fire. The warm day meant there was some tinder and a few sticks, but not much. A fallen tree held plenty of timber to burn in its broken branches, but Rhona had not thought to bring anything with which to light the fire.
Nevertheless, she piled up a collection of fuel, then crouched over it so she hid it from her sisters' sight. Only then did she dare bite her lip and unleash the most powerful part of her magic.
The log blazed to life, as though Rhona had added it to a roaring fireplace and not a cold nest of sticks.
Maeve clapped her hands. "Thank you, Rhona!" She stretched out her fingers to the blaze.
Darkness descended, leaving the four of them alone in the woods. Luckily the biggest beasts on Rum Isle were its cows – they would not have wolves to worry about, or bears. "We should probably huddle up together with the blanket by the fire to keep warm, while we wait for Doireann to return," she said. "I'm sure she'll see the light of it, if she is lost, and come back soon." This last was a lie, but her sisters did not need to know this. It was just another burden she would carry alone.
On the morrow, they would return home, and tell Father his wife was missing. He would send men out to search, and they would find her. Rum Isle was too small to hide her for long.
Rhona set several logs beside the campfire, so that she might add fuel through the night if she needed to, before joining her sisters in their blanket bower.
Nuala's eyes drooped, and she soon added her snores to Sive's. Maeve was still awake, though, and her watchful eyes regarded Rhona.
"Is she coming back?" Maeve whispered.
Rhona wet her lips. She didn't want to lie, but... "I hope so. Father would be heartbroken to lose another wife so soon after Mother's death."
An owl screeched in the distance, and Maeve squeaked like she'd been the owl's prey. "What is THAT?"
"Just an owl. You are too big for it to carry, so it is nothing to worry about. It is catching mice."
Maeve shuffled closer to Rhona. "There are mice in the woods?" Her eyes were wide with terror.
Rhona smiled in the dark. She would never understand her sister's fear of the small creatures. "Not while the owls are out hunting. They are running to hide – probably in our barn."
"Good. Then the cat will get them. She has six kittens, you know." Maeve snuggled closer to Rhona. "Mother said you will protect us. It's true, isn't it? You will keep us safe?"
"As long as I draw breath, I will let nothing and no one hurt you, or any of my sisters," Rhona promised her, and every word rang with truth.
Using any means necessary, Rhona added in her head, as she threw another log on the fire. Even magical ones. No one hurt her family.
- Writer
