The cursed towers 245
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"Aye, but can ye always see that? What if the only choice is to submit your will to others or die? What if
ye had been trained since birth to obey without question and that the slightest hesitation resulted in the
crudest o' punishments? What choice do ye have then?"
Isabeau remembered the queen-dragon's words. Fate is woven together of will and the force of
circumstances. It is one thread spun of many strands.
"Is that how it was for ye?" she asked hesitantly.
Maya nodded. "Aye. I was naught but a half-breed daughter, less important to my father than a good
dinner o' fish. I had to struggle and fight to stay alive even as a babe, and once the Priestesses o' Jor
knew I had Talent, they took me into the sisterhood. The priestesses are no' like your weak, soft witches,
they are hard and cruel and relentless. I was a tool to be honed and sharpened and they made o' my life a
grindstone. It never occurred to me that it could be any different. I did as I was told and thought I was
happy to submit my will and my life to the god o' the seas."
There were tears in her eyes and in her husky voice. Isabeau was overwhelmed with pity, thinking of her
own happy, carefree childhood.
"But why?" she asked. "Why did they make ye a tool? What for? All this death and persecution, all these
years o' witch-burnings and uile-bheistean hunts. Why?"
"Ye took our lands and our seas," Maya replied simply. "Your people came from somewhere far away
and just took what was ours. When we protested we were killed. Ye befouled the rivers and the sea with
your towns and cities and your filthy animals; ye hunted the whales and sea stirks and left us hungry; ye
took sport in killing our people, ye even made a fashion o' wearing our skins!" Her lip curled in distaste.
"We were driven from our winter homes on the coast o' Carraig and your witches built their Tower
above the king's own sea cavern, which was blasphemous! The sea caverns are royal, and sacred, yet ye
humans used it to moor your ships as if it were some kind o' stable! My people were driven away, only
surviving by building rafts to cling to in the icy, stormy seas. The only islands left to us were those so bare
and wild that even birds could not roost there. 'Why?' ye ask. Ye wonder why we hate ye and plot for
your downfall, aye, even for your annihilation. That is why!"
Isaboau was silent. She knew what Maya said was true. She was ashamed and embarrassed, not
knowing what to say. Words of both regret and indignant justification jostled in her mind. That was a long
time ago, she wanted to say, and it's no' our fault what our ancestors did. But she knew even the smallest
action could have a great consequence, like the turning over of a pair of dice.
At last she said, "But did Aedan Whitelock no' try and reach a settlement with the Fairgean king? At the
end o' the Second Fairgean Wars?"
"Pah!" Maya made a sound of disgust. "Humans steal our lands and then think they are merciful and kind
by offering us the right to pay for the use o' our own beaches and rivers! My grandfather swore he would
never bow his head before a human king and my father was made to swear the same before he inherited
the black pearl scepter and crown."
She sat back and took a deep breath, then said in a softer voice, "Ye see I was taught to think all humans
were evil and arrogant and that they deserved to suffer for what they did to the Fairgean. I was glad that
I had been chosen to perform this great deed for my people and that I, an unworthy half-breed daughter,
had a chance to justify their mercy in allowing me to live. It was only later, when I came to realize that no'
all humans were evil, that I began to doubt what I had been taught and to wonder ..."
Isabeau waited but Maya had fallen into a reverie, her face sad and weary. "Wonder what?" she
