Pure
Chapter 26: The Maiden’s Story

Maigred shut the door softly and went downstairs to the kitchen. She stirred up the stove and put some wood in it. Her hands were still shaking when she set a teapot of water on the stove to heat. She went to the pantry and got some of the lavender-chamomile tea that she usually made for Cathal when he was going through one of his spells and dropped a generous amount in a mug before sitting to wait for the water to boil.

She hadn’t dreamed of her son for a very long time. She thought of him everyday, but she never spoke of him. No one knew he existed except herself. If Hadeaon knew he had a son, he would use Sinead to hunt the boy down and kill him. Then he would kill Sinead. He was fanatical about not fathering children.

He bit every girl he raped to poison them, so that they wouldn’t get pregnant. His poison hadn’t worked on Maigred. She realized she was pregnant with his children a few weeks after being forced to participate in the presentation ceremony, to keep Hadeaon from torturing Cathal any more than he already had.

Maigred shuddered and shut her eyes, remembering Hadeaon’s men holding her after they had caught her. She was still struggling helplessly, still trying to fight, still trying to get away. Their leader stood in front of her, slowly unwrapping a cloth to reveal Cathal’s severed finger, black and bloody, laying in the palm of his hand. “The lord is carving off another piece of your brother’s body for every hour it takes you to return to the manor.”

Maigred had stopped fighting.

She had gone back willingly. She had gone through the presentation day ceremony without causing any trouble, and finally Cathal had been released from Hadeaon’s custody. But the reminder that it was his own mortality and pain that had brought his sister back to her doom, was carved into his body forever. Some days he couldn’t live with that reminder.

The night Maigred and Cathal been been brought home by their parents, to recover from what Hadeaon had done to them, was the first time Cathal had tried to kill himself.

Maigred had been half out of her wits, her body and the potion made from Finten’s blood was still battling the wyrms poison inside her, but she had gotten up and sewed Cathal’s arm shut the way Caevah had taught her. She knew it was useless, the cut had been too deep, Cathal had lost way too much blood, but she sewed it shut anyway, crying and begging the earth sister to intervene, cursing Hadeaon for stealing her powers away from her. If she still had her powers, she could have stopped Cathal’s bleeding, could have replace the energy he had lost, and saved him.

The earth sister must have heard her prayers, because Cathal had lived.

After that, Maigred hadn’t left Cathal’s side till she realized that she was pregnant. When she realized she was pregnant with Hadeaon’s children. Her first thought had been to go to Alvie and get the herbs she needed to end the pregnancy.

But she couldn’t stand the thought of asking Alvie for help. The thought of ending two innocent lives also didn’t sit well with her. She was a former hearth maiden, ending life was taboo for her. A hearth maiden was someone who protected and nurtured life, they didn’t destroy it. The babies growing inside her were the children of a monster, but every tarasque was related to a monster somehow. They grew up to fight wyrms, to protect their mother’s and sisters. Besides, Hadeaon wanted his children dead. So Maigred decided, mostly out of spite to allow the pregnancy to continue.

She planned everything out carefully. She immediately left home and went to work at Aodh’s tavern as a prostitute to cover the fact that Hadeaon had been the one to get her pregnant. She didn’t count on getting thrown out by him when he realized that she was pregnant and wasn’t going to terminate. But the earth sister intervened again.

Maigred met Aoibh. She brought her home and introduced her to her mother, Cara, who insisted that Maigred stay with them. So that was where Maigred spent the rest of her pregnancy. She brought her brother there to live and work with her. She slowly grew to love the little squirming bodies that grew inside her. It didn’t matter any more who their father was. They were growing inside her, they were her children and she would choose their destiny, not him.

She knew she would have twins, a tarasque boy and a fully human girl, that’s how it always turned out with wyrm or tarasque pregnancies. So, when she went into labor, she went out and gave birth in the wilds so that she could send her son away and keep her children safe.

The next step in her plan had been to live in town a few years to allay suspicion, then smuggle her daughter out of town while she was still a young child so that it would be less likely that Hadeaon would come after them. What she hadn’t counted on was Cara’s sickness that had immobilized her for months, and then even when she was better, never allowed her to walk again. Maigred couldn’t abandon Cara after everything she had done for her.

So Maigred had stayed and stayed. It was getting to the end of when she could stay, she would have to leave in a few years, but hopefully Eoghan would replace his wife before then and the land would be secured to her and the inn would stay in the family.

Maigred realized that the tea water was boiling. She got up off her chair and poured the tea over the leaves in her mug, then she went to sit again, holding the warm cup in her hands, allowing the fragrance to fill and calm her.

She remembered again Caevah’s words: ‘Doom through love, love for his child.’ Maigred squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t live with that, earth sister. You have to replace another way. You can punish me all you want, but please, spare my children.”

There was no answer to her prayer.

She drank her tea, wondering about the part of her dream when Finten had given her wings. Tarasque didn’t have wings, so what could it mean?

She finished her tea and shook her head. It didn’t mean anything. It was just a dream. Finten couldn’t save her or anyone else. He was already giving everything he had just to keep them alive. Their only hope lay in Caevah’s curse, but Maigred would be dammed if she let that come to pass. Hadeaon would never get his hands on her daughter.

She banked the fire and climbed the stairs back up to her room thinking of what Cathal had said. She could never live with herself if she sacrificed her daughter, not even it were to bring about Hadeaon’s downfall. She would replace another way, she would fight like hell. Even if she lost, it would be worth it.

She settled into her bed, but it was a long time before she could sleep. She woke up late the next morning. She hurried through washing and dressing and went downstairs. The breakfast rush was in full swing.

She quickly fell into the familiar work flow of breakfast at the inn. It wasn’t until it the rush was over that Cathal came to her in the kitchen and handed her a pouch.

“What’s this?” She asked, already knowing the answer.

“Finten brought it for you this morning.”

She shook her head and smiled. “How long is he going to keep this up?”

Aoibh crowded in beside Maigred. “What did he bring you this time?” She asked eagerly.

Maigred’s grin widened. “Well, let’s replace out.” She carefully opened the pouch. Cathal and Aoibh leaned in as she peered inside. She froze. Inside was a handful of dried honeysuckle blossoms, perfect for making tea.

Aoibh quickly looked up at Maigred, then took Cathal’s arm and pulled him away to another part of the kitchen.

Honeysuckle tea was known to have a cooling effect on the drinker. It was useful for hot flashes, fevers, and sunstroke. Honeysuckle tea was also known to inspire dreams of love.