The cursed towers 276
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"Ye do no' want her because she's your daughter and ye love her, ye just want her so ye can get the
Throne back!"
"She's my daughter! If ye do no' let her go, I shall turn ye into a toad, I swear it!"
"I do no' believe ye really cursed Lachlan!" Isabeau cried, adroitly distracting the Fairge's attention. "Ye
are just saying that to make me agree to let Bronny go."
Maya rummaged through the bundle of clothes she had dropped on the ground and unwrapped the
wooden chest Isabeau had found beside her on the mountain. Isabeau was filled with consternation.
Although small enough to carry, it was still heavy and unwieldy. She wondered how Maya had managed
to conceal it from her as they had walked through the valley that morning, and then she realized Maya
must have hidden it near the underground loch previously. This then was no impromptu decision—Maya
had been planning this escape for some time.
Maya unlocked the chest and drew out a little black bag made from a square of cloth tied up with black
cord. Isabeau stared at it, conscious of its throbbing, malignant power. Using only the tips of her fingers,
an expression of distaste on her face, Maya held it out for Isabeau to see. "A cursehag cast the curse for
me," she whispered. "It is bound by my own blood. None can break the curse but me."
Although there was nothing to see but a black bag, Isabeau believed her. She said in a low voice, "But
where would ye go? How would ye survive?"
Maya said, "All rivers run to the sea. That is one thing I was taught as a child. All rivers run to the sea,
and so shall we."
"But the Rhyllster is fresh water," Isabeau objected. "Ye need salt."
Maya nodded. "I ken. We shall have to swim fast. Besides, I brought some salt for emergencies." She
lifted a small sack out of the chest and Isabeau recognized it with chagrin. She had carefully gathered that
salt from the hot mineral pools in the Cursed Valley and stored it for Bronwen. It angered her to see it.
"What shall ye eat?" she said tightly. "Did ye steal provisions too?"
Maya looked at her, oddly anxious, and nodded. "Aye. I hope ye do no' mind."
The incongruity of the statement jarred with Isabeau. She frowned, soothing the anxious, questioning
child absent-mindedly and thinking over what Maya had said.
"But where will ye go?" she asked again. "Do ye return to the Fairgean?"
Maya shook her head emphatically. "How can I return there? They will feed me to the sea serpents. Nay,
I will try and find somewhere safe at first. Maybe one o' the islands. I do no' ken what I will do then."
"But ye are safe here," Isabeau objected.
"Ye do no' understand," Maya said. "Swimming in that loch is like being buried underground with dead
things. I want to swim in the open sea where everything is free and alive. I want Bronwen to ken what it
is to swim in the sea. She is three years auld and has never seen the sea!" The tone of Maya's voice
expressed clearly how strange and horrible that was to the Fairge.
"But it will be so dangerous—how can ye take Bronwen into such danger?" Isabeau drew the little girl
closer, her hands shaking. For the last three years she had looked after the banprionnsa as if she were
her own child, and the idea that she might be about to lose her opened up the future as a gaping
