Page 36 of Queen of the Shadow

Uathach touched her arm. Scáthach blinked the pain from her eyes and fixed her face with a smile when she turned to her daughter.

“It’s okay, Mama. This was my first vision. I didn’t know what to expect. I think much of my reaction to it was—” Uathach had to pause and look away from her mother before she spoke the last word. “Fear.”

Scáthach gently turned her daughter’s chin so she had to meet her mother’s gaze. “It is not shameful that you felt fear. The visions often frightened me.”

“Truly?” Uathach blinked tears from her eyes.

“Truly,” Scáthach said firmly. “You will become accustomed to them, but it will always be frightening to see the possible death of any of your people.”

“Especially your mother,” added Tabiti. “That would frighten me.”

This time Scáthach’s smile was genuine. “And me as well.”

Uathach wiped her eyes as she laughed softly. “Your severed head was completely horrible.”

“Completely? And to think they sing ballads of my beauty,” teased Scáthach.

“Not your severed head’s beauty they don’t,” Tabiti said. “Too much blood. And I don’t believe the expression on your face would be anything but gruesome.”

Scáthach’s brows shot up. “Gruesome? Me?”

Laughing, Tabiti began to nod and then her gaze was caught by something near the beach. She rushed to lean over the balustrade. “Look there!” Tabiti pointed to their left, where the Shadow Guard who had been stationed on the beach was waving a flag back and forth. “It’s the signal a swimmer has been spotted!”

“There! Do you see the reed?” Uathach pointed. “It’s almost parallel to the flag bearer.”

“Yes!” Scáthach smiled. “And look behind it. See, there! Several more reeds follow.”

The three women watched as the reeds moved ever closer to shore until the first one arrived at the shallows and the student warrior stood, shaking off water like a big dog.

“Cuchulainn!” Tabiti nodded appreciatively. “I am not surprised that he leads the group. He trains diligently and is a quick study.”

“And has twice the strength and stamina of a purely mortal student,” Uathach added.

As Cuchulainn surged from the sea, Scáthach asked her daughter, “Do you not like him?”

Uathach shrugged. “I like him fine. And I’ll easily admit he has surprised me with his eagerness to learn and his lack of arrogance.”

Tabiti nodded. “I agree with Uathach. I was not prepared to enjoy training himorto find him likeable. Both are true.”

Scáthach met her daughter’s gaze. “But?”

“But the truth is he has an advantage over all the other students. He’s the son of a god. Weshouldexpect him to outperform the others,” said Uathach.

“What wedidn’texpect was that.” Tabiti jerked her chin at the beach.

Scáthach turned from her daughter to look at the slate-colored water. The reeds were far more numerous and moving toward the rocky shore. Fergal and Unnr had sloughed from the water just a few yards behind Cuchulainn. Unnr ran like a doe, picking her way lithely around the rocks as she sprinted toward the road and the chariots waiting for the next leg of the test. Fergal wasn’t nearly as surefooted or swift as Unnr or Cuchulainn. He made a misstep and fell hard to his knees. When he tried to stand, his ankle buckled and he fell again.

Cuchulainn didn’t hesitate. He raced back to Fergal, pulled him to his feet, and then put his arm around the smaller man’s waist and helped him continue up the bank until Fergal had walked off the slight sprain and was able to continue by himself. Cuchulainn sprinted away then, but fleet Unnr had already raced past him and was the first to reach the chariots. She leaped into a cart and nodded at the guard who held her horse. The guard released the horse and Unnr snapped the reins on his back. Her chariot shot up the road to the castle.

Without looking away from Cuchulainn, Scáthach said, “Perhaps his behaviorisn’t what we expected from the son of Lugh, but it should be.” She smiled at her daughter. “It is how every daughter or son with divine blood should behave.”

Cuchulainn bounded into a chariot, nodded at the guard to release the horse, and then cracked the reins and shouted. From their spot on the parapet, Scáthach had a perfect view of her students as they emerged from the sea, ran to the waiting chariots, and raced up the hard-packed dirt road.

Cuchulainn didn’t try to outrun Unnr’s chariot. Instead he held his horse to a smooth canter about a chariot length behind Unnr. Scáthach noted that Unnr made no attempt to perform the chariot feat, but instead kept glancing over her shoulder to check on Cuchulainn’s progress.

Cuchulainn’s attention was focused on his horse. He stepped into the leather loop attached to the inside front of the cart and made the leap, landing with otherworldly grace on the back of his cantering horse. It took him little time to unsheathe the dagger at his waist and slice through the traces and leather straps holding the cart pole to the horse’s harness. With that done, Cuchulainn then focused on the race, leaning forward and urging the horse from a canter to an all-out run. He thundered past Unnr easily.

“To the sentry platform that looks out over the Bridge of Leaps!” Tabiti called as she sprinted along the parapet toward the entrance to Dunscáith. Scáthach and Uathach followed on her heels. Barking enthusiastically, Leannan joined them on the sentry platform. Many members of the Shadow Guard spread out along the parapet, cheering on the students as they raced to the castle.