The Battle for Ulidia

This story was originally written for a fantasy romance competition, and took 3rd place.

Shanna Murchison is the author of The Druid's Woman, The Wizard Woman, and The Druids of Destiny Series.

As the howling storm raged outside, eerie whispers echoed through the cavern where a lone inhabitant, tall, with ebony hair, pale gold skin, and jade green eyes the colour of Ulidia's sky, huddled over his small fire for warmth. Ruadan nearly didn't here the soft footfall behind him.
Swivelling rapidly on his haunches, he pounced, bringing the intruder to the ground with a crash. He grabbed the thin neck and began to squeeze.
Ruadan soon noticed that the muffled stranger was not putting up any resistance. He eased his grip on the soft throat. Straddling the body around the middle, he tugged the hood back from the pale blue face.
Then he began to laugh sourly. "Dunla! Did you father not have any better assassin available? Or did he think I would once again fall prey to your charms?"
Tearing a strip off his already ragged woollen cloak, he bound her hands in front of her before rising. She lay there stunned, not struggling in the least, and after watching her warily for a time, he impatiently tugged her nearer to the warmth of the fire.
Would-be assassin or no, he couldn't help remembering he had once loved her. Even if she had been sent by Cilleen, she was just another a victim of her father's insane ambition, as he himself had been.
Now he ran down the passageway leading to the frozen wasteland of Marenn outside, and scanned the purple landscape for the slightest movement. But all he could see was a coinin, its long ears twitching as it searched for food.
Satisfied he was not about to be attacked, he returned to his dark-haired companion, who silently studied him with her golden eyes.
She had by now caught her breath. "I am not an assassin, Ruadan. Nor does my father, Cilleen the god, know I am here."
The word 'god' was uttered with such contempt, Ruadan felt his heart lurch in his bosom. Joy and fear mingled. But no, it had to be a trick. If Cilleen had proclaimed himself god, it would be all the more reason for him to send an assassin after Ruadan. The prophecies regarding the young prince one day getting revenge for his father's murder were too explicit. Ruadan would never be allowed home to the rich red lands of Sibban.
"Then why are you here? No one has visted Marenn since your father cursed the land and doomed my entire muintir to a lingering death."
"It was foolish for you to remain here. Cilleen might come for you."
"Why should he seek me after all this time?"
"Because the court astrologers have said the portents are all in place. At the end of ten lae, the four gealachs circling Ulidia will align just as Parthalan the great sagart predicted. Then it will be time for you to claim the throne."
Ruadan shook his head angrily. "The second half of Parthalan's prophecy claimed that one of Cilleen's offspring would kill him. Cilleen is so superstitious, he would have killed you long ago rather than let that prophecy be fulfilled. Let us speak even more plainly. You are here to murder me. So don't waste my time with talk of portents. Just turn the spit."
As she helped prepare the scanty repast, she insisted, "The four gealach will line up. I have seen them myself.
"All of my brothers were sacrificed to the gods. I only escaped death by pretending to have lost my wits. Look at me, Ruadan. Are these the hands of a pampered young ardban?" She held out her pale blue hands, full of warts, blisters and callouses.
He stared for a moment despite himself, then shook his head. "They could simply be illusions to trick me."
"Aye, but illusions cannot be touched." Dunla grasped his hand firmly in her own, pressing her coarse flesh into his hardened palm.
"The mad are blessed by the gods. Even so, I have been forced to work in the psill mines."
Ruadan laughed bitterly, and shook his head in disbelief once again. "My younger brothers all died in the mines. No one can survive there."
Dunla sat up proudly. She raised both her bound hands, and parted her sheeata-fur garment. Though her hands and face were still blue, Ruadan could quite clearly see her skin glowing green through her filmy shirt. Through the emerald skin he could see her bones glimmering.
He sat back on his heels at the evidence of her impending doom. "Gods above! The end cannot be long for you!"
She nodded, then bundled up once more against the dank chill of the cave. "Which is why I am here, and we have no time to argue. We have but ten lae. We must go. Your destiny awaits. If I am to die, I wish to know that my life had some purpose. I have longed to free Ulidia from Cilleen's oppression ever since your banishment."
Ruadan nodded grimly. "I must confess, I too have longed to help. I should not have remained here letting my people suffer."
"It was not time," she said simply. "You would have thrown your life away for naught. But now all the signs are in place. But come, I can tell you more along the way." She began to rise to her feet, pain etched in every line of her face. "I have two eacha waiting. Even with them, we shall have to ride hard to reach Sibban in time."
"What am I meant to do once the four gealach are aligned?" he asked, finishing the last mouthful of food so as to not let it go to waste.
"I'm not sure. Parthalan was never that precise."
Ruadan rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I'm convinced he was vague on purpose, so everyone would think him wise."
They both laughed at their shared memories of the sagart, who had served the kings of Ulidia for eons.
Ruadan hastily looked around the cave for any provisions they could take, then put out the fire. "Are you well enough to—"
She gave a rueful smile. "It will be the journey of a lifetime, but I must complete it. Come."
Ruadan, ever on the alert. followed as she made her way through the frozen boulders in the direction of the now-setting sun, which glowed against the emerald sky, casting long shadows as they trudged through the purple snow.
"And your mother, Eiver. Is she still the wise woman?" he asked as they plodded along in the face of the biting wind.
"Cilleen killed her. He fed her to the earc at the Earra games last seachtain, as part of the fertility rites."
"Gods above! No wonder you are so willing to betray him!"
She shook her head. "Revenge and betrayal have nothing to do with it. It is justice. I have a destiny to fulfil, as do you. If I am to have any hope of reaching the afterlife at Bandralla, I must kill Cilleen, send him to the frozen wastes of Larentae for all eternity."
"My home. Is it still the same after all this time?"
She shook her head and sighed. "No one lives there any more except his guards. He is building a huge tower you see, packed with psill to make it the most splendid building on Ulidia. He says it will soon be so tall he will be able to reach Bandralla just by climbing the stairs."
"He must be mad! How can he live in a poisoned tower?"
Dunla shrugged one painfully thin shoulder. "If Father is convinced he is truly a god, he must believe that nothing can harm him."
Over the next hill two eacha were waiting. Swinging onto their backs, they headed for Sibban. Whenever Ruadan protested that she ought to rest, Dunla would simply shake her head.
"We must press on. Though the alignment will not be for another eight lae, I am not sure how we are to proceed. We need help."
"No one will help. They are all too afraid of Cilleen's tyranny."
"I have come to help, have I not?"
Late in the second oiche of their journey Dunla led Ruadan to a secluded gleann. A small stream flowed through it, and she let the eacha drink their fill while she opened her bag of food.
"Mas! My favorite." He bit hungrily into the smoked meat. "You remembered."
"I remember everything." She turned her head away to avoid his piercing gaze.
Ruadan's skin flushed more golden. He had tried to block out his memories of the one romantic time they had spent together before he had fled. He had been but sixteen blian, Dunla only ten, but he had known then he had wanted her for his.
The four gealach had glowed as Ruadan and Dunla came back from hunting, tired but too ennervated to sleep. They had sat on the lush red lawn in front of Natira, overlooking the jade ocean. Their hearts had thundered in their chests in unison, as though they were already joined as one. But a shout from Eiver had forced them to separate.
Ruadan had paced his chamber floor throughout that night rehearsing his request to Cilleen for Dunla to be his. He had left his room at the break of la, so eager had he been to ask for Cilleen's permission.
Running along the long echoing corridors to Cilleen's suite, he had overheard the plot to kill his father, and fled. Rousing Caland, he had hurried him out to the stables.
But Caland had decided to turn and fight, and had been mown down like a blade of greassa.
Ruadan had gone back to awaken the rest of his family, and then run to find Dunla.
Ruadan couldn't help but worry for Dunla's safety. If what Parthalan had said about Caland's murder and civil war coming to Ulidia were true, then the prediction that Cilleen' offspring would one day bring about his destruction meant his beloved was in danger.
Ruadan had run to rescue Dunla, only to find her unwilling to go with him. He had gazed at her in astonishment, then suspicion.
"Last oiche....You wanted me to think you cared for me, while all the time you knew that your father...."
He had flung her to the floor with a strangled cry of grief, and run back to the royal apartments. But the shrieks and howls had told him he was too late. Hidden behind the door, he had watched as his brothers had had their eyes plucked out.
He had told himself then that the other prophecies would one day come true, and had fled back to Marenn, his father's homeland. But had this seeming trust in the gods simply been an excuse for his own cowardice? He should have tried to save them!
Dunla said now, "I never knew until it was too late. We could have done nothing to save them. Mother did not wish to destroy Marenn. Cilleen lied, said he would keep the boys alive if she did.
"But you will have a new muintir soon. It won't replace the old one, but it will be greater than before. You and your descendants will reign here for all time."
"How can you be so sure?"
"I do not have the power myself, but Mother wrote it all down before she was fed to the earc. There has been much bitterness caused by civil war. You are Marennan, and I am Sibban. Mother was Dranna. She took me to her home, Straea. There, she wrote it all down. I must stop Cilleen, and we must bring down the sacred book of Eiver, so that all may know you are the chosen of the gods."
Ruadan studied her face, now nearly green. Soon the skull would start to show through. "Dunla, my love, you cannot go."
"I will go. Promise me."
He nodded wordlessly, and pulled her into his arms.
After a short, bllissful interlude, seeking the warmth, comfort and love they had been denied for so long, they rose reluctantly, and rode on, stopping only for short rests, until finally on the eighth la they could see the glowing palace of Natira.
Ruadan stared at the magnificent structure which towered high above the massive crystal palace.
Dunla gasped,"The tower! Cilleen isn't going to try to kill you! He wants to alter the entire universe. He is going to destroy one of the gealach to prevent the prophecy from being fulfilled."
"But how?"
"The power of the psill. It isn't a tower to touch the heavens, it's a weapon!"
Ruadan spurred the eacha then, and rode toward the palace at a breakneck pace.
Dunla and Ruadan leapt to the ground and drew the swords from their scabbards. They cut, hacked, and slashed their way through the palace guards. Dunla, her bones now gleaming white through her emerald skin, was like a vengeful skeleton. She fought with the strength of ten as she struggled to reach the spiral staircase which led to the top of the tower.
She could hear her father intoning magical incantations. The whole palace began to quake and tremble.
"Come, we must hurry!" she urged Ruadan, still battling with the guards.
"Stop him! If he destroys the nearest gealach, Ulidia will become a cinder."
She charged up the stairs, ascending until she saw an opening in the side of the tower. Inside she faced her father.
Cilleen's black eyes glittered madly. "I might have known it would be you. You were always disobedient. But the first gealach will be destroyed. There will be no alignment of four, and I shall hunt down Ruadan and kill him like a dog."
Dunla grabbed the door handle and tugged it inwards, locking them into the tower.
Then she swung her sword at him then.
"Stop this at once!" He drew his own weapon and locked blades with her.
Though Dunla was an excellent warrior, she knew it would take more than her flagging strength to defeat Cilleen. She backed away from him as though she had given up.
Grasping the cross-handle of the hilt firmly, she rammed into the wall behind her with all her might, piercing the transparent crystal compartment which contained the powerful psill and prevented its radiation from contaminating the tower and palace.
Then Dunla flew to the other side of the room, rammed her dagger into the door handle, and sheared it off.
Cilleen began to scrape his fingers against the broken handle like a demented sheeata, shredding his skin against the crystal shards.
Glowing golden gas now began to creep up Cilleen's legs. Dunla could see his feet turning green.
On the other side, Ruadan began to hammer at the portal to free Dunla as Cilleen wildly began to beg for his life.
But Dunla dragged her father out of the way and shouted through the thick crystal, "Don't open the door, I beg you. This is the only way."
"How can I give you up now when we have only just found each other again!"
"We'll met again in Bandralla!"
"But what of the prophecy, the sacred book at the top of Straea?"
He continued to yank upon the outside handle of the door, which snapped off in his hands. He slammed it against the window with all his might.
"Even if I am already dead, you must take me."
Her father now came at her with his sword, but with one mighty shove she pushed him through the partition. Crystal shards flew in all directions as the wall gave way. The tower trembled, and a blinding flash shot through the control room.
Dunla flattened herself on the floor as the blast erupted. She could hear the shrieks of Cilleen, and smell his charred flesh.
The door exploded open. Ruadan pressed himself up against the wall as the radiation shot out into the sky. Crouching low, he crawled in and grabbed hold of a fistful of Dunla's gown to drag her out of the poisoned room.
But still worse was to come, for the entire edifice began to sway. He slipped as they began to crumble. He ran out of the palace and towards his waiting eacha.
Hearing a huge groaning sound, he turned to see the tower looming over his head as it tumbled downwards, across the lawn where he and Dunla had first kissed, down, into the Frantrech. It landed with a colossal splash and hiss, sending green sea spray flying in all directions.
He spurred the eacha into motion as a vast wave of water and psill surged up onto the lawn, flooding Natira with deadly poison.
Ruadan began to pray to all the gods as he rode on. He was certain Dunla was dead, for there was no longer any beating of her heart in time with his.
Holding back his bitter tears, Ruadan climbed into the foothills of Straea, and went upwards, until the eacha could go no further.
He marched to the summit, with Dunla's body in his arms.
At the top of the mountain, Ruadan recognised Parthalan.
"But how.."
"I have come from Bandralla to help you. Here is the book of Eiver. Live by it always. If you do this, Ulidia will be land of peace and prosperity for all time."
Ruadan's tears began to fall then. "It makes no difference to me without Dunla, can't you see?"
"It is as the gods will! Would you doubt their wisdom?"
Ruadan's back stiffened. "Yes. The three muintir will fight unless I can forge a new alliance, a fourth muintir, with the best aspects of the original three. I can't do this without her."
"Do you love Dunla so much then?"
"I always have. For the past ten blian I have lied to myself, the better to bear all I had lost. Even though I believed she had betrayed me, I still loved her," Ruadan answered honestly.
The old sagart smiled. "Eiver's prophecy states you shall have a muintir great than that which you ever had before. With your Marennan sturdiness, and her Dranna powers and Sibban skills in governing, a muintir of your and Dunla's making would indeed be greater."
With a wave of his hand, Dunla's transparent green flesh now turned back to its former pale opaque blue. Then Parthalan vanished as suddenly as he had come.
"Gods above, where am I?" she groaned.
"At the top of Straea. You did it. You won."
Dunla rose to her feet unsteadily with Ruadan's help, and bowed to him now. "I wish you a long and happy reign, Ruadan, ardri of Ulidia."
"It will be long and happy if you will consent to become my cheile, Dunla," Ruadan pleaded, his jade eyes glowing.
Dunla shook her head. "How can I? It would mean altering the prophecies of the gods!"
"Parthalan gave you back to me. It seems the gods approve."
"Oh, Ruadan," she cried, flinging herself into his arms. He spun her around until she was dizzy, and kissed her breathless. "I do love you."
"And I you, Dunla, now and always."
But now Dunla caught a glimpse of the ruined landscape of Sibban below.
"Ruadan, it's all gone!"
He reached down to stroke the tears from her cheeks. "I am sorry for the guards' misguided loyalty which cost them their lives. But we shall build a new palace together, and a new muintir. The past shall never touch us again. We are the rulers of Ulidia now. Whatever it takes, we shall rebuild together."
"Yes."
Ruadan took Dunla's hand, and led her back down the sacred mountain to their new life together.

Back to The HerStory Books Home Page

© HerStory Books 2008 http://www.herstorybooks.com All Rights Reserved.
This is a secure shopping site powered by PayPal-Shop securely with confidence now.

Custom Search