His Name Means 'Courage':
The life of Swallow born the Rapids
by Dr Bob Rich
Prologue: Happy Cave, Western Ireland, 796 AD
The water is so cold! Liquid ice flows into Heather’s mouth, into her lungs as she gasps from the shock of immersion in freezing fire. Her head is within the black depths, and a terrible thought beats into her mind as she coughs a great bubble: I’m drowning!
She is only seven years old, but she has had a warrior’s training for seven years. Starved of air, chest convulsing, she nevertheless pushes down hard with both hands, kicks her feet like a frog and surges up, her head breaking the surface. And there is the tiny boat, with Toad’s anxious little face half-lit by the two torches on the shore. The torch they had in the boat is gone, an oil-soaked straw bundle floating somewhere on the dark surface. The darkness of the huge Water Room is deepened by the feeble, flickering yellow light.
She is still freezing, still coughing, still distressed, but time slows to normal from the forever-now of an emergency.
"Oh Heather, I’m so sorry!" Toad was obviously stopping himself from crying with difficulty.
She managed a smile for her four-year-old youngerbrother. T-t-the w-w-water’s nice. C’mon in!" she said, teeth chattering. Rather than risk upsetting the boat, she swam the few strokes to the smoothly worn limestone edge of the pond and scrambled out. Three months ago, when Grasshopper was born, the pond had been a great lake that almost filled the expanse of the Water Room. Now, in early summer, it had shrunk, and the underground creek feeding it was a trickle instead of the torrent of March.
The paddle was far too big for Toad, but somehow he wielded it well enough to reach shore. Heather leaned over and pulled the bow of the little wooden boat onto rock. Leaving their fishing gear, hand in hand they went up the steps, through the heavy drapes into the warmth of the Home Room, to face Lichen’s scolding, and her efficient help.
Soon, Heather was in warm dry clothes, huddled near the fire on the soft furs covering the floor. She managed not to pull a face as she dutifully sipped the horrible-tasting herb tea Lichen had brewed up. Oh, I’m so lucky to have such a lovely home, she thought, the sudden terror of death making her see the familiar Home Room with a stranger’s eyes.
This, the entrance room to the enormous cave complex, was almost a circle. Porcupine, her senior parent, could span it in eleven paces, but if a Giant were ever to find it, she’d need no more than eight. The low, domed ceiling was black from the soot of ages, so that the several smoke holes were hard to spot. They led into a higher gallery that cleverly diverted the smoke into a nearby little valley. As Heather had often been told, it was essential to keep Ehvelen homes hidden from Giants, even during times of peace.
Soft, moss-filled mattresses and bolsters on each of the twenty sleeping ledges, even the ones currently unused, were covered by beautiful woven quilts. Dressers holding ceramic crockery and shiny cooking utensils masked parts of the white limestone wall. Giants didn’t know how to make flat glass, but the shelves of the dressers had sliding leadlight fronts. Ehvelen had many secrets like this.
Colorful wall hangings covered much of the remaining wall space, almost glowing in the soft golden light of the lamps burning herb-scented oil.
Old Sweep pushed through the entrance curtain and, sensing Heather’s distress, padded across to her. The large, grey, wolf-like dog touched her nose to Heather’s face, then snuggled around her in an arc. The little girl gratefully cuddled herself into the soft warm fur.
"All right, love, you warm yet?" Lichen asked.
"Yes, Mother."
"Tell me what happened."
Toad spoke first, "It was, it was my fault. I cast the line and lost my balance. Heather saved me from falling in, and..."
"And fell in instead," the girl continued ruefully.
The entrance curtain stirred again and Seal came in on soundless feet, carrying three birds and a rabbit, already skinned and gutted. Shamrock was right behind him, with Porcupine last. They had small game too. All three wore hunting clothes: grey woollen trousers and jacket, with green spots dyed in a random pattern, and were armed with bow and arrows, sling and stones, and a dagger. Shamrock also carried the baby in a cloth sling that could be worn against her chest, or to one side allowing archery.
"Oh, I’m so tired!" Shamrock groaned. She was not yet seventeen, with the strong, broad-shouldered body of Ehvelen women, but this had been her first excursion since Grasshopper’s birth. Her hair, dark with a hint of red, was pulled back into a ponytail, exposing her pointed ears. The lovely pale oval of her face was bedewed with tiny droplets of sweat that caught the light, glistening like golden jewels. Even Shamrock’s body scent spoke to Heather of her exhaustion. She flopped onto the rocking chair Seal had made for her when she’d got pregnant.
Porcupine took her prey from her and deposited the two lots of little carcases onto the copper-lined benchtop of a dresser. "We met the Ceili," he said with a grin on his battered old face. "Seal amused him and his guest with a bit of magic."
"We’ve had some excitement too," Lichen answered in a dry voice. "Heather went for a swim in the pond."
Seal shot his daughter a swift look. "That’d be cold!"
"It was!" Heather answered with feeling, at the same time as Lichen’s "It wasn’t on purpose."
"We were trying out those new silver hooks you taught me to make. I thought it was time for Toad to learn fishing."
Toad chipped in for the first time, "And I mucked it up, and nearly fell in, and Heather saved me, and..."
Moving with economical speed, Seal took a step, stooped, then had Heather in his arms, hugging her to his chest, his brown beard resting on her still-wet dark hair. "And she was a Swallow born The Rapids. I’m proud of you, darling." Heather glowed at the compliment. She lovingly hugged her junior parent, the strongest yet gentlest person she knew.
"They didn’t catch anything, though," Lichen added, still in that dry voice. Everyone but Heather laughed, even Toad appreciating the typical Ehvelen joke. The little girl only managed a smile.