Chapter Fourteen
'Something has happened,' Kosala said. 'The air is different.' He looked toward Sathuragiri. 'Bradan! Look at the sacred mountain!'
Torn between watching Melcorka and following the direction of Kosala's gaze, Bradan spared only a second to glance at Sathuragiri. The cloud around the base had dissipated, and a golden glow diffused from the square slopes. It did not last long, perhaps three seconds, yet there was sufficient time for Bradan to see ten huge figures standing in a circle. For one instant, he experienced that same sensation of peace that he had found on his previous visit to Sathuragiri.
Bradan saw nine of the figures merge into the mountain, while the tenth rose into the air, to soar toward him in the form of the black-and-white miasma. As it moved, it changed shape into a bird that fluttered around Melcorka, piped through its orange beak and landed on a rock.
It was an oystercatcher, the black-and-white bird of the shores of Alba; Melcorka's totem bird and the physical manifestation of Bearnas, Melcorka's dead mother.
Bearnas, Bradan said. That mist was Bearnas. The Norse had killed Bearnas years before and ever since then, she had appeared to help Melcorka in times of her most desperate need. All this time, Bearnas has been watching over her daughter.
When the first of the Thiruzha saw that only a woman opposed him, he splashed carelessly forward. Melcorka barely shifted her stance as she unsheathed Defender and sliced off his head in the same movement. The second Thiruzha's hesitation cost him both legs. He fell, screaming, into the rapids. Balancing Defender on her right shoulder, Melcorka surged forward, silent save for the splash of her legs through the water.
One Thiruzha threw a spear at her; Melcorka sliced it in half. Another crouched behind a rock to thrust his spear at her. Melcorka chopped the shaft in two and cut off the warrior's right arm, leaving him shocked and bleeding to death.
While the braver of the Thiruzhas bunched together to attack, the majority realised that they were facing something beyond their experience. They began to edge away. Melcorka heightened their fear by sweeping Defender waist high, cutting a man in half, recovering her blade and killing a second. After that display, none of the Thiruzhas chose to oppose her. They fled, with Melcorka chasing them, fleet as a deer and dangerous as any leopard that haunted the forests.
Bradan sat on a rock, breathing hard. He closed his eyes. The nine Siddhars were back where they belonged. That meant that the world must have been restored to balance and, more importantly for him, Melcorka was undoubtedly back to normal. Now he had to feed her up, get her back to full strength, and regain Catriona. He had had enough of this place with its rakshasas and slavers and Siddhars, however intelligent and knowledgeable the latter might be.
'Who is that woman?' Kosala had bound up the wound in his side and was pressing leaves on the gash in his face.
'That is Melcorka,' Bradan said.
Kosala shook his head. 'No. I've seen Melcorka these past few days. She is an imbecile, a woman without a brain. That must be her double.'
'You are wrong.' Bradan shook his head. 'A demon cursed Melcorka and reduced her to the shell you saw. The Siddhars must have managed to lift the curse. The world is back in balance again.'
Kosala hefted his sword. 'I will help your Melcorka.' His grin reopened his facial wound so that blood dribbled down his chin. 'She is a woman I could learn to like.'
'She's mine,' Bradan said.
Kosala spun his sword around his hand, threw it in the air and caught it again. 'A woman like that would prefer a warrior to a man who only wants to wander.'
'Go and help her if you wish,' Bradan said. 'You still cannot have her.' He swayed, as the mental trauma and physical exhaustion of the past weeks caught up with him once more. The rocks seemed to rise up toward him as he slumped down. The sound of the rapids and the calls of birds were the only things he heard.
* * *
Bradan woke to find the nine Siddhars surrounding him, serene and unsmiling. The atmosphere of tranquillity was so overwhelming that he had no desire to be anywhere else. He smiled up to them.
'He needs information,' one of the Siddhars said.
'He is not yet ready,' said another.
Bradan wished to remain in this place of peace and wisdom forever. There was no lust here, no desire for power or conquest, no overriding ambition for material gain, no hidden motivation to dominate or control. There was only acceptance, wisdom and a connection with Creation that Bradan did not fully understand.
'Bradan.' The Siddhars spoke as one unit. 'With our reunion, the world is more whole, yet there is more danger.'
'There is always danger,' Bradan said.
'We cannot tell him all…' The voices shifted within Bradan's mind. He tried to listen, to pick out the words and phrases that could help him, yet he knew that if he opened his mind to everything that was there, madness would consume him. His brain could not yet digest this vast volume of knowledge, although he knew that each encounter and experience helped it to expand.
One voice stood out amongst the rest. 'Tell him what he needs to know. Tell him what he needs to know, or the rakshasas will be victorious despite all we can do.'
'The war between Good and Evil is fought on two levels.' The words were clear in Bradan's mind. 'It is fought on the spiritual level and the physical level.'
'I understand that,' Bradan said.
'You and Melcorka are the two levels,' the voices said, 'although the links are shared and the elements mixed.'
'I do not understand.' Bradan tried to grasp the concept. He could see the truths floating around his head, yet, when he reached for them, the words and the wisdom slipped from his grasp, leaving him only a residue,
