The cursed towers 277
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emptiness. Isabeau searched desperately for ways to keep Bronwen with her but the black bag was a
palpable presence between them, hot and sinister.
Isabeau had seen her sister's distress as the months passed by and Lachlan still did not recover, and she
knew how difficult it was for Iseult to try and rule while her husband lay under such an odd affliction.
Isabeau knew she had to give Bronwen up if that would lift the curse, but the decision had rushed too
suddenly upon her, it was too great for her to make easily.
"I will have a care for her, I promise," Maya said gently.
"Only because ye want to regain power through her," Isabeau said bitterly, pressing her cheek against
Bronwen's.
"No' only," Maya said rather haughtily. "She is my daughter."
Bronwen had been following the conversation intently and now she flung herself on Isabeau, sobbing,
"No, no, stay wi' Is'beau, stay wi' Is'beau!"
Reluctantly, tears so thick in her throat she could hardly speak, Isabeau held Bronwen away from her.
"Ye must go with your mam, dearling. I wish I could go with ye but I canna, I must stay here with my
mam and my dai-dein. Ye must be good, and mind your mam and remember what I've taught ye, and
hopefully the Spinners will bring our threads together again very soon."
"No!" the little girl wailed. "I dinna want to go! Stay wi' ye!"
Isabeau crouched down beside her and said, "Remember, my Bronny, that I love ye very, very much and
that ye can always come back to me if ye need me. But now ye must go with your mam. She loves ye
too and it is time for ye to be with her. Do ye understand? Remember what I have told ye—everything in
its rightful time and place."
The little girl nodded tearfully, though her grip on Isabeau did not lessen. Through her tears Isabeau
looked up at Maya, saying, "Ye must remove the curse now! And ye must burn it all so ye canna cast
such a hex again. Do ye promise?"
Maya nodded. "I do no' ken how to do it, though," she said. "Shannagh o' the Swamp cast the actual
curse, using my blood. I do no' know how to break it. I am no' a witch."
Although Isabeau bristled up at the Fairge's contemptuous tone she did not protest, toying with the wet
straggles of Bronwen's hair and murmuring, "If we only had The Book o' Shadowsl That would tell us
how to break the curse." She looked back up at Maya and said, "Ye must return with me to the valley. I
canna break the curse here. I need to read Meghan's books and find out the right time and method. I
need to know the best phase o' the moon, and to make some candles scented with angelica and St.
John's Wort, with clover perhaps, or rosemary. And Meghan has some dragon's blood, powerful indeed
for spell-making ..."
"So do I," said Maya surprisingly. "And other things too, I'm no' sure what." She indicated the chest,
saying with an odd fluctuation of color, "It belonged to a wizard I kent . . ."
"Please, will ye no' come home with me? I promise to let ye go again if only ye'11 let me cast off this
curse properly. I give ye my word."
Maya nodded. "Very well. But do no' try and trick me for I ken the way out o' the valley now and if I
have to, I will transform ye, I warn ye."
