Holder of Lightning

Today Dwaine walked to the north side of their small beach, to where the waves broke against the rocky feet of the Inishfeirm. The wind was cold; the salt spray wet his hair and made him blink. Mam wouldn't let him stay out long today; he knew she'd be calling him back to help her and his two sisters: there was butter to be churned and the chickens to be fed. He half-slid, half-crawled along the rocky shoreline, wet to his thighs He thought he heard the call of seals just beyond a screen of boulders and he clambered over to them to see. Once his brothers had said they'd seen a family of blue seals on the shore, but Swain hadn't been there that day. Blue seals occasionally visited the island, he knew, and it would be exciting to glimpse them, since they were so rare. Bragging about it after-ward to his brothers would be best, though. . Maybe he could make it sound even more exciting than it was.

Dwaine pulled himself up the surf-slick face of the last boulder. Beyond was another tiny rocky beach. He caught a blurred glimpse of black fur sparkled with blue fire, but then movement at his end of the beach caught his eye. He gasped and nearly fell from his perch.

A young woman was standing there, walking out of the water. She was naked, her black hair hanging in wet, dripping strings, her body sheened with water. She seemed exhausted and her right arm appeared to be in-jured, scarred and hanging limp at her side. She wore a silver chain around her neck, with a pendant swinging between small breasts. To Dwaine, she seemed to be perhaps a little older than his sisters.

A naked lady on the beach was going to be a far better tale than blue seals, but he wondered if anyone was going to believe him.

He must have made a noise, for her head turned and she looked at him. "Don’t be frightened," she said, the words accompanied by a soft smile. Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she hadn’t used it for a long time. She made no attempt to cover herself; she didn’t seem to notice her nudity at all. She cleared her throat. "This is Inishfeirm, isn’t it?"

He nodded, wide-eyed.

"Good. I wasn’t certain, since I couldn’t see the White Keep from this side, but that’s what they said it was. Do you have a cottage near here?"

They? Dwaine wondered who she might mean but decided not to ask. Instead, he nodded solemnly.

"What’s your name?"

"Dwaine." He blinked as the apparition took a few steps toward him. He crouched, ready to jump down from the boulder and run. The woman walked gingerly, the way Dwaine did when he sat too long with his legs under him and they were all tingly and heavy. He decided he could stay where he was. "Dwaine Geraghty. Who are you?"

"My name’s Jenna. I need to go to the White Keep. Do you know it Moister Cleurach has

Dwaine shook his head. He'd heard that name, of course-everyone on Inishfeirm knew it-but his family had little to do with the White Keep and the cloudmages. He'd seen a few of the acolytes, even talked to them a bit when they bought the fish his da brought to the market, but he'd never seen the old Moister, who-his brothers and sisters all told him-was a cross and nasty man who sometimes liked to beat the acolytes with willow branches, just for fun. They told him other more imaginative and awful things about the keep and the Brathairs and their Moister and what happened to the acolytes there, but Dwaine wasn't sure how much to believe since, after all, none of his siblings had ever actually been to the White Keep. Still, some of it might be true and Dwaine couldn't imag-ine why anyone would want to meet Moister Cleurach, who seemed to be part monster.

Of course, this woman could be a monster herself, which might explain her appearance. . But the woman smiled again, and she didn't seem dangerous at all. "Don't worry, it's all right," she said. "How about you-do you have a home near here? Is your mam there?"

"She's back there in the cottage." Dwaine pointed to the whitewashed walls just visible high up in the green hills.

"Will you take me to her?" She seemed to have realized her state for the first time, one hand covering her breasts, her scarred and stiff-looking right hand over the dark fleece at the joining of her legs. "I suppose I need some clothes… "

Being in the White Keep reminded Jenna achingly of Ennis. She almost sobbed, seeing her own tiny room again. But Moister Cleurach arrived not a minute after the wide-eyed acolyte closed the door behind himself.

"I didn't think I would see you again, frankly," he said without pre-amble.

"I'm pleased to see you again, too, Moister."

He sniffed at that. He stared at her, his eyes dark under the white-haired line of his brows. "The rumors are flying through the keep that you've returned from Thall Coill, that you appeared naked on the shore in a blaze of sorcerous light, that you

passed the Scrudu and now under-stand the deepest places within Lamh Shabhala."

One corner of her mouth lifted. "I've returned from Thall Coill. The rest. ." She shrugged.". . are just rumors."