Twice Upon A Time by Lisa Ann Verge

Author:Lisa Ann Verge
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Medieval
Published: 2013-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

Eleven

Her passing would be honored like that of a king.

Conor threw upon the pyre everything within Dún Conor: Spindles, baskets, the bolt of fine blue linen, the bed they’d shared and all its coverings, pails and baskets, and even the loom he’d carved from wood boated over from the mainland. When that was done, he yanked the thatching off the roof with his bare hands until blood stained the hay. That, too, joined the pyre.

He carried up the cliff the curragh he’d built for her and settled it upon the mound. He climbed up the pyre with her cradled in his arms, and placed her form within it. He covered her with a woolen cloak and tucked it around the edges.

Gazing upon her face, he thought: May the Christians be right. Let there be peace in death, which we have not in this life.

When the sun set, he touched his lips to hers. Then he climbed down the wreckage of his life, and set the pyre afire.

The flames hesitated, then caught, then caught some more, and then blazed with a violent leap to the sky, shooting sparks at the stars. His throat tightened, for the keening came next, the lamentation, the singing of great deeds, but his ears rang with an inner screeching that could not penetrate the dry walls of his throat. Her greatest deed was staying with the man whose folly had caused her so much anguish. Her bravest deed was in surviving so long pretending a joy which could never have touched her broken heart. He watched the flames devour the pyre, basking in the last heat he’d ever feel from his wife.

In the orange glow, he worked his way down the side of the cliff to where his curragh waited in the lee of a boulder. The blaze of the fire filled the night and the crackling drowned out the sound of the sea and wind. Let the priests on the north island think it a pagan rite. It would make Brigid laugh to think she’d confounded them to the end.

Conor stood with one foot in the curragh, and the other on the sands of Inishmaan, his head tilted to the pyre, with the heat of tears running down his throat.

Forgive me, my heart.

There would never be another who would know who he was and understand. There would never be another heart so open, so brave, and so full.

Within him, something cracked.

Good night, my love.

Good night.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.