Another look told Padrec more than he wanted to know about Taixali Picts. Far as they were, he could see the human bodies hanging from a rack at the gate. But then something else caught his attention. A horse and rider trotted out the stockade gate, paused for a moment '*'*'

as the rider searched Ehe high ground in their direction, V then galloped toward the wooded slope. '*

"Who's that coming, I wonder?" ^

"Woman," Cru said. ;:

Lost now in a patch of fir, the rider was too far for definition. "How can you tell?"^

"Talifolk do nae run to meet Prydn unless a need ^ magic," Cru stated with cold amusement. "Oh, then will J promise much and even keep a's promise on a good day.

When Lugh Sun rises in the west. See where a comes, Padrec: woman and bairn."

The rider broke out of the stand of fir trees, much closer now. a woman with a child slung on her back.

Dorelei halted fhain as the woman pulled up the horse at a wary distance, dismounted, and took the child from her back. A red-haired woman with peculiarly protruding eyes and a nervous manner. The kind with humors in her body never far from hysteria, Padrec knew. She would not come close to Dorelei but held up the child, her eyes bulging at Gern-y-fhain.

"Faerie queen, I saw you coming along the ridge."

"Did nae come in night-secret," Dorelei allowed stiffly.

"Why dost stop us?"

"Help my child, Faerie queen. And 1 will pay in good Roman silver." The woman held the coins in one open palm.

Dorelei studied her coldly as the rest of fhain walked their horses to flank her. "How does wealth ail?"

Her questioning was distant, even superior. The woman was on Prydn ground. Here Dorelei was mistress, and the woman must know it. The Taixali mother fumbled at the child's swaddling, no cleaner than her own greasy garment.

"My bairn cannot pass his water. Two days now. Those of my husband's house say an evil spirit followed me when 1 entered the house in marriage. Take it away and the silver is yours."

"What hast done to drive away spirit?"

"A bronze penny in the uisge a chronachadh," the woman answered. She was not much older than Dorelei but already shapeless with child-bearing. "No good did it bring. Take my silver, cure my bairn."

Dorelei motioned to her sister. "Second daughter, will thee drive out this trifling spirit?"

Neniane slid from her pony and approached the woman who instinctively shrank back. "Put no evil on us."

Neniane bit off the words. "Will nae harm it. Have borne wealth of my own like thee. Unwrap the bairn. Lay't on the ground."

Padrec was to see this more than once. As Roman physicians specialized in certain ailments, so did Faerie women. Guenloie dealt in love charms and potions to restore virility, a subject that much interested her. Nemane's magic, as her love, was all for children. But always in the women seeking aid was the same need and fear mixed in r their eyes. Protective as a lioness over a cub, the woman did as she was bidden. Her protruding eyes singled out Padrec, questioned the sight of him. "You are not Faerie."

"Roman. A Christian priest."

The woman's stiff red braids bobbed in understand- ing. "The Jesu-Christ. We have heard of him."

"When I am welcome in your village, I will tell you more." By habit Padrec lifted his hand to sign a blessing

76 Parke Godwin THE LAST RAINBOW 77

over the squirming, miserable child. The woman's warn- ing hand shot out.

insult except fear and habit. Drawing back from Neniane, she deliberately dropped the silver denarii on the ground.

One of them rolled in the puddle of urine. As she turned to mount her horse, a comprehension passed between Neniane and her older sister. Dorelei stiffened in the saddle, her face a mask of contempt.

"Woman."

Even Padrec felt the restraint in the sound, like a hand laid on the Taixali woman. Dorelei's scorn was brit- tle as frost. Neniane passed her the coins- She held them up- "Did not steal these from Roman-men? Then Gern-y- fhain will send them home."

Slender fingers closed over the coins. Dorelei's other hand passed over it, not touching. Both hands danced a moment, then Dorelei opened them, empty. "Gone like evil spirit. Go thee in peace while Lugh still shines for thee."

Her voice was subtle menace. The Taixali woman needed no urging. She hastened the horse away down the dope. Cru hissed the word with an ocean of disgust.

"Tallfolk."

Dorelei's supple left hand closed and opened again.

She passed the coins to Neniane, who flung them away, all her fury in the swing.

"Mother puts wealth in the wrong raths."

"But in yours soon again, sister," Dorelei soothed.

* "Come."

She moved ahead. Fhain followed.

;. They traveled for two days, with one night camped in [a rocky overhang. Early on the second day a thick, chill ^fog blanketed the ridges, and much care had to be taken ,to keep the flocks together. In the animal memories of their half-wild sheep, these high rocks were their earliest

home; they saw no reason not to go off on their own.

The ponies had been climbing steadily since leaving

the old crannog, following trails worn into the high ridges ;for thousands of years. No one could tell Padrec where

they were going, but all seemed to know. Dorelei led them

on with no hesitation. Each fhain knew without need of a .map where the available crannogs would be in any season.

"Do not curse my bairn!"

"I only give him the blessing of my God, who loves children above all else."

"And well a might," Neniane muttered over the baby.

"For do lose so many."

From a pouch at her waist, she took a smaller bag of rabbit skin and laid it beside her as she bent to the child. IE t was cranky and uncomfortable in its soiled swaddling, which the slovenly mother had not thought to change.

The baby's tittle rump was cruelly chafed. Neniane bit her lip at the negligence: those with good fortune did not 33'

always deserve it. The boy's genitals were fiery red, some ^ of it from chafing but mostly with the irritant of a full ^ bladder. Little magic needed here, unless something was -^ blocking the passage. More likely the muscles were con- ^ fused, sometimes unable to hold or at others unable to let go as needed. Truly, one had to work at children.

Irritated from within and without, Ehe small penis stuck straight up in a comic erection. Although the packet contained nothing more than a powder to make the child sleep, the woman expected magic. Neniane passed the medicine three times over the swollen penis, whispering, then three times the other way. She handed the rabbitskin bag to the woman. With her other hand, quick and deft, she pressed three fingers against the small bladder.

The bairn passed with a vengeance, a fountain effect that spurted straight up for two feet or more before Neniane held the child up by its little shoulders and let him urinate normally, which he did for a remarkable length of time. Padrec began to suspect he was connected to a conduit. When the child was finally wrung out, the mother wrapped him again in the carrying sling.