The Islands of the Blessed

Chapter Forty-four THE RUNE OF PROTECTION

“Oh, Ethne,” whispered Jack, shocked to his very core. He saw the door of her cell beyond, chopped open. Someone had used an axe to get inside. Unable to speak, Jack automatically felt the heads of the monks and nuns for fever, and they gazed at him from somewhere far away, as though they couldn’t believe he was real. None of them had a fever. They were going to recover. Next, he touched Ethne and recoiled. Her skin was hot!

“She’s alive,” he cried. Pangur Ban lifted his head and keened his sorrow.

“She is dying,” one of the nuns said.

Thorgil came in, dragging the pot. She went back for the cups and passed them around to the survivors. She squatted next to Ethne and moistened her lips with sweetened cider.

Ethne’s eyes opened. They were a beautiful blue, the blue of Elfland, and her face had the perfection of a white rose. Only the spots of red on her cheeks showed the fever that was raging within.

“I see you managed to comb your hair,” the shield maiden said. “It’s a definite improvement.” Ethne wiped the cider from her lips with one delicate hand. “What’s the matter with you?” Thorgil demanded.

“She has chosen to fast,” the nun said. She paused from wolfing down stew.

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard,” said Thorgil. “I come all this way to save her, and she can’t be bothered to eat?”

“She is giving her life for us,” said the first monk, who had managed to totter from the lych-gate. “It’s how Lady Ethne plans to gain a soul.”

So it’s “Lady Ethne” now, Jack thought. No one at the monastery had been fooled into thinking she was a real nun. He felt angrier than he could ever remember. Father Severus’ foolishness had talked her into this mess, while the Bard had wanted her to go out into the world. Embracing life was the best way to gain a soul, the old man had said.

Now he was dead and his last wish had been for them to rescue his daughter. Well, Jack would do it—by all the gods, he would!—even if he had to cram stew down Ethne’s ungrateful throat. St. Columba’s staff thrummed and the earth trembled. The monks and nuns grabbed one another. “It’s an earthquake!” one of them cried. Pangur Ban rose to his feet, came over to Jack, and sat down in front of him. The cat’s wise blue eyes observed him, and the boy suddenly felt ashamed.

Never use anger to reach the life force, Jack heard in his mind, clear as clear. It always turns on you when you least expect it. And he remembered that Pangur Ban had been at the School of Bards, even though he’d failed the final exam.

Jack sat down on the vermin-infested straw. All the survivors were eating as rapidly as they could, something that might actually kill them. He found he didn’t much care. “Please explain to me why Ethne has to die,” he said.

The monk who’d opened the door was called Brother Sylvus—one of the good ones, according to Sister Wulfhilda. The nun who had said Ethne was dying was Sister Brecca. Between them, they unfolded the tale of what had happened after Sister Wulfhilda had been locked out.

When the ex-felons realized that they were trapped, Brother Sylvus said, they mutinied. They armed themselves with knives and raided the treasure room. Then they took hostages and threatened to kill them if Father Severus didn’t give them the keys.

“They underestimated him,” said Brother Sylvus. “Our abbot was like Samson, who brought down the temple upon the Philistines. He gathered the rest of us together and said that God would welcome us into Heaven if we died. Then he armed us and we fell upon the rebels. Our hearts were as strong as an army splendid with banners. Our blows were as the hooves of warhorses trampling a field. We slew them one and all.” Brother Sylvus’ face was filled with joy.

“I saw angels fighting on either side of Father Severus,” added Sister Brecca, “and when he slew one of the enemy, a tiny imp came out of the man’s mouth.” The other monks and the nun nodded agreement.

“What happened to the hostages?” asked Thorgil.

“The evildoers cut their throats,” said Brother Sylvus. “Father Severus said that was unfortunate, but you have to remember that all who live are doomed to die. Holy martyrs are assured a place in Heaven. He said you could argue that the hostages were actually lucky.”

Jack rubbed his eyes. A sense of unreality crept over him. He could almost be listening to a group of Northmen explaining why it was good to die in battle and go to Valhalla.

“We had a grand funeral,” said Sister Brecca. “The martyrs were buried in consecrated ground, and the evildoers were buried next to the privies.”

“I suppose they’ll go to Hel,” said Thorgil.

“You can count on it,” Sister Brecca said with shining eyes.

But unfortunately, things began to go downhill after the victory. The flying venom spread, and soon the dead outnumbered the living. Father Severus worked to the last, hearing the confessions of the dying and forgiving their sins. Then he, too, became a victim.

“He chose to fall ill so he could show us the proper way to die,” insisted Sister Brecca. “He was always thoughtful. Always. That dear, kindhearted, saintly man.”

Kindhearted except when he made Sister Wulfhilda carry a glowing piece of iron, Jack thought.

“I saw his soul pulled up to Heaven with golden cords,” said the nun.

Brother Sylvus took up the tale. “He gave me the keys, all except the one for Lady Ethne’s cell. He said that was not my concern.”

So he meant her to die, thought Jack, with a return of his former rage.

“Father Severus ordered me to protect the sanctity of the monastery. Gradually, a few of us began to recover. This was not due to any goodness on our part, of course, but to teach us humility. We were not yet worthy of glory.”

And, of course, they were very, very hungry. They had water from a well, but no food—unless you counted the rats. Rats they had aplenty, great, swaggering, confident beasts that came within reach of your hand. “But we never considered such unclean food,” Brother Sylvus said hastily.

“Why didn’t you just make a quick trip to the storehouse?” Jack asked wearily.

Oh, no. Never. They would never do that. Father Severus had told them with his dying breath that they were not to go outside until spring. Fortunately, Ethne came to their rescue. She called to them from her cell. She had food enough for all. Brother Sylvus didn’t have the key, but he still managed to open her door.

Jack looked at the door, hacked and chopped in a perfect frenzy.

All the packets of dried meat, cheeses, and Pega’s special scones that Thorgil had smuggled in had gone to feed this lot.

And when these were gone, the monks and nuns had begun to starve again. Ethne had never touched a morsel. She had continued to live on the watery, gray gruel handed through her window, though toward the end she ate nothing at all.

Once outside, she quickly fell ill. She sweetly refused any help, saying that it was her penance to gain a soul. She welcomed suffering. “She’s giving her life for us,” said Sister Brecca, reverently.

“Excuse me!” shouted Thorgil. “Excuse me, but you’re all alive! She’s already saved you! Why does she have to die now?” Jack had rarely seen her in such a towering rage, and he’d seen a lot of rages.

“She’s an elf,” said Brother Sylvus, cowering away from the shield maiden. “Father Severus explained it to us. Elves have to make their souls, and it isn’t easy for them. They have no regard for anyone except themselves. They can see a child drowning and never think to stretch out a hand. Lady Ethne did stretch out her hand.”

“Which you bit, thank you very much,” snarled Thorgil. “I don’t know anything about Christian souls, but I know ingratitude when I see it. She’s proved her worthiness for whatever moldy afterlife you oath-breakers inhabit. I intend to see she inhabits this world.” She bent over Ethne and tried to pry open her mouth. The elf lady turned her head aside.

“Thorgil, don’t,” said Jack.

“I’ll pour cider down her nostrils if I have to!”

Jack grabbed the shield maiden’s arm. “You’ll drown her.”

“Then you hold her jaws open. I can’t do everything.”

“Thorgil,” said Ethne in that beautiful, musical voice only elves had. “I choose this path.” Jack was startled. He hadn’t known she was strong enough to speak, but apparently half-elves could endure starvation better than humans. “Thorgil,” repeated the elf lady, “remember how you used to tell me about Valhalla? You longed to fall in battle so you could go there. This is no different.”

At the mention of Valhalla, the monks and nuns drew away from the shield maiden in horror. They hadn’t realized she was a Northman.

“It is different.” Thorgil faltered. “Let me think why. It’s because we like fighting for Odin.” Jack saw uncertainty in her eyes and knew she was remembering Grim’s Island. “And so, naturally, we want to keep on doing it until Ragnarok is declared.” Except that she wouldn’t be fighting alongside the men, Jack thought. She’d be putting warriors back together and milking goats.

“Dying, for me, is how I will achieve Heaven. Do you understand?” said Ethne gently.

“No, I don’t! I was a berserker once. I wanted to die with a sword in my hand, but I lost that desire after I drank from Mimir’s Well.”

At the word berserker, the monks and nuns scuttled on hands and knees to hide behind Brother Sylvus. He began praying.

“No, that’s not quite right.” Thorgil was struggling to find the right words. “Things changed before I drank from Mimir’s Well. The well grants you knowledge, but only if you sacrifice something of great importance. I offered up my life, but the well rejected me. Apparently, my life wasn’t good enough because I didn’t value it. So in my grief I tried to stab myself anyway, and Jack—”

Jack could see where her argument was going; he wanted to stop her, but he wasn’t fast enough. In a split second she had lifted the rune of protection from around her neck.

It was only visible in that short time when it was passed from one wearer to the next. It was a beautiful, bright gold that gathered light from the air. It was surpassingly lovely and desirable, but it had nothing to do with the sick desire for wealth or power. The rune was life itself made visible. And in the middle of the pendant was the shape of the great tree Yggdrassil.

Thorgil placed it around Ethne’s neck, and it glimmered briefly before it disappeared.

“Oh!” said the elf lady, placing her white hand over it. Her skin deepened in color as blood flowed through her veins. Her breathing, scarcely audible before, became stronger. The fever faded from her cheeks. “What a nice chapel,” murmured Ethne, gazing up at the grim ceiling. “I never noticed how many colors gray comes in. And what a good idea it is to cover the floor with grass,” she said, looking at the filthy, discolored straw.

Ethne had always been a featherbrain, and the rune of protection would do nothing about that. But she was at least recalled to life.

Jack was more concerned about Thorgil, who looked devastated. It was how he’d felt after handing the rune to her. He’d never stopped longing for it, but no one could keep it forever. It had been passed from the Bard to Jack and on to Thorgil. Now it was with the Bard’s daughter. It seemed fitting.

“Feed Ethne the rest of that stew,” growled Thorgil, shoving the pot at Brother Sylvus. “If you don’t, I will go berserk and tack everyone’s hide to the wall.” She stalked out of the chapel.