Shadows and Light

bit of deciding among themselves about who might be courting the fair ewes. And she told us if we were going to act like rams in most ways, we could settle things by butting heads the same way the rams did, and leave the rest of the village out of it. ‘Twas a sobering moment, I can tell you, when the other fellow and I looked at each other and decided the fair lady really wasn’t worth a cracked head. And she wasn’t worth it. While we’d been busy strutting and bragging, what did she do but go and fall in love with a quiet merchant’s son who lived in another village. So the other fellow and I went to the tavern one night and drowned our mutual sorrow with a few too many tankards of ale. And I can tell you, those rams never had a headache like the ones we had the next morning.”

    “And what about the fair lady?” Aiden asked.
    “Oh, she married her quiet merchant’s son, and they’ve been happy ever since.”
    Lyrra’s eyes narrowed as she turned her head to study Skelly’s face. “You made that up. All of it. From the fair lady to the rams, right down to your sweet granny.”
    “Ah, no,” Skelly protested. “I’ve got a sweet granny. Indeed I do. And if I’d ever been so foolish, she would have done just what I’d said.”
    “But you made it up,” Lyrra insisted.
    Skelly smiled at her. “I’ve been known to tell a tale or two on a winter’s night. Or a summer one, if you’
    re counting. There are some among every kind of people who hold the tales close to their hearts. And whether the Muse whispers so that I have to listen close or shouts in my ear, I still listen. And I tell the tales that come to me.”
    Lyrra looked as stunned as Aiden felt. Did Skelly know who they were? Did he know who Lyrra was?
    Had Breanna managed somehow to convey that in her message on the wind?
    “So it’s glad I am that cousin Breanna set you on this path. Your packhorse carries instruments, and since the Muse hasn’t been whispering much lately, I’m hoping you have a few new stories and songs you’d be willing to share.”
    Lyrra looked down at her mare’s neck. “The Muse has been whispering—and shouting for all the good it
    ’s done— but perhaps those stories aren’t meant for you. Perhaps you don’t need them, and that’s why you don’t hear them.”
    “Perhaps. But how can anyone know if a story is needed until it’s heard?” Skelly shrugged. Looked a little uncomfortable. “I’m thinking ... I apologize for teasing you. The stories about the Fae always make them seem so ...”
    “So much like rams?” Aiden finished dryly.
    “Well,” Skelly hedged. “Just more outspoken, you could say, about... earthier matters.”
    What kind of stories did witches tell about the Fae? Aiden wondered. And how many tankards of ale would we have to tip before I could coax a couple out of him?
    “Perhaps we could trade a story for a story,” Lyrra said, echoing Aiden’s thought.
    Skelly grinned. “There’s some that will have to wait until the children are put to bed before they’re told.”
    “I know a few of those.”
    “I’ll hold you to that, storyteller,” Skelly said. “But we’re here, and it’s news the family will be wanting.”
    “We’ve news to give,” Aiden said, realizing how much his mood had lightened in the past few minutes now that it was once more shadowed by what was happening in the east beyond the Mother’s Hills. And he hoped that, when the letters Nuala and Breanna had written to their kin and sent along with him were opened and read, there would be no one in the small village they rode into who would be grieving for lost kin.

    They’d been given the guest room in a house that belonged to one of Nuala’s cousins. After they’d done what everyone seemed to assume the Fae did almost every waking minute, Lyrra sighed contentedly, stretched her arms over her head—and started giggling.
    “What?” Aiden said, turning his head to look at her.
    “This picture of two men in a pasture, pawing the ground with their feet before running toward each other to crack their heads together just popped into my head.”
    “Are they naked men?” Aiden asked, rolling over to prop himself up on one elbow.
    She looked thoughtful. “They should be, shouldn’t they? But I can’t quite seem to get them there.”
    “I won’t say I’m disappointed.”
    “You would never do anything so foolish, would you?”
    “I think it’s safe to say I’ll never try to crack another