The Bitterbynde Trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton Read Free Book Online

not know what this meant, so he asked a woman what dwelled nearby—she was a carlin—and she said that it were a calf of a water-bull . It were lucky to have such a calf, she said, but it must be kept apart from the other cattle for seven years and fed with the milk from three different cows, each day. This farmer did as how she had told him.
    â€œSome years later, one of his servant-lasses was down by the lake, keeping an eye on the cattle as they grazed. A young man came up to her, a tall, handsome lad with long dark hair and a winsome smile. She had never seen him before, but she was struck by his good looks.”
    The gardener’s listeners nodded wisely.
    â€œâ€˜Fair damsel,’ says he, ‘will you do a favor for me?’ She, very much flattered by his attention, says that she will. ‘My hair is so matted and tangled,’ says he, ‘I thought a charming maid like you might have clever fingers enough to straighten it for me, for surely I am at a loss.’
    â€œâ€˜Of course, good sir,’ says the lass, and she seats herself on the grass with the young man’s head on her lap and proceeds to part and comb his hair with her fingers. But suddenly she freezes with fear, for what does she spy growing amongst his hair but green waterweed! Then she knew that he was no man of Erith but the terrible Each Uisge himself!”
    On cue, the audience gasped.
    â€œWoe the while!” they murmured. “O strange day and night!”
    â€œShe came to her senses at last and did not jump or cry out, but sat very still so as not to disturb him and lulled him to sleep with her combings, all the while craving deliverance. When she saw that he was indeed sleeping, she carefully untied her apron strings and worked her way out from under the head, then swiftly and silently she ran for home as fast as she could go.”
    â€œBut before she reached the gate she heard, hard at her heels, a thundering sound of hooves. The Each Uisge was coming for her, and his rage was dreadful!”
    The servants shuddered.
    â€œâ€˜Loose the water-bull!’ cried the carlin, and the farmer, seeing what was about, did so. Just as the Each Uisge was about to seize the maiden and take her under the lake to be devoured, the water-bull came bellowing and charging between them. The two creatures fought each other all the way back to the lake and under the waters. The Each Uisge was never seen again at that lake, but the mauled body of the faithful water-bull was washed ashore next morning.”
    A sigh swept the servants’ kitchen, like the passing of a Summer breeze.
    â€œWater-bulls be good wights,” boldly squeaked a junior page. “My uncle said there were water-cattle blood in his herd, and there were always milk a-plenty.”
    â€œAye,” said a cellarman knowingly. “’Tis true that seelie wights such as water-bulls do not wantonly injure folk the way unseelie wights do, and they reward anyone who does them a kindness. Some of them be helpful and some be just pranksters, but mark you, they too will readily revenge any insult or injury and can cause great destruction.”
    â€œThem duergars is some of the worst and most malicious order of unseelie things,” said a scullion.
    â€œAye,” echoed old Brand Brinkworth, “a sailor who came here last year on the Pride of Severnesse has a cousin who lives in the hills of northern Severnesse, and he knows of a fellow on his way to Riothbury what lost himself on the hills when the night came on.”
    The servants pricked up their ears. They huddled closer together as the old man conjured a vision of a place far beyond the black-beamed kitchen and the cold stone walls of the Tower. The old man’s voice softly filled the night.
    â€œO viper vile!” cried the scullery maids when the tale was ended, clutching each other in delicious horror.
    At this display of sensibility Rennet Thighbone, a greasy-haired