Excerpts, Serials, and Out-of-Print

Without looking at him, Medb replied, "It gives me no pleasure." She was taller than T'lingit, but only by half a head. She was, however, more massive. She had wide shoulders and hips, with thick arms and thighs, and large, firm, well-rounded breasts and buttocks, but also a narrow waste and a hard, flat stomach. Her long, oval face with its sharp features was more handsome than beautiful, but her amber-colored skin was smooth and perfect, and her emerald-green eyes mesmerizing. She wore her gold-tinted, bronze-colored hair long, straight, and loose, except for two braids that hung from either side of her head down her front to her waist. She secured it with a band of silvered bronze around her head just above her brow, and she wore a neckring made of heavy twisted gold, open at her throat, with the ends capped with two large, uncut red gems. Her own armament consisted of a dirk with a thick foot-long blade and a sword with a narrow three-foot blade secured to a belt woven from leather strips; an oblong wooden shield reinforced with a metal rim, spokes, and a large central boss; six four-foot javelins secured in a special harness attached to the backside of the shield behind the arm holds; and two eight-foot spears with large, serrated metal blades. However, except for the cloak she wore from her native Erin, secured at one shoulder with a brooch of bronze, and the fact that she went bareheaded, she had adopted the dress of her native hosts.

"Nonetheless," T'lingit persisted, "you seem to understand the Crusher better than we do." The "we" referred to his tribe, among whom Medb had been living for the past six years.

"I have intimate knowledge of the Otherworld and its inhabitants, and I do not exaggerate. Though your culture is foreign to mine, our myths and legends seem to follow the same path."

The warrior shook his head. "What you say goes beyond my understanding, but that matters little. It is more important that we have found it, and that you know its habits, or at least can accurately guess at them. How do you suggest we proceed?"

"You said there was a hunting lodge nearby?"

"Yes," he confirmed, pointing down the slope to their right, "at the base of the ridge, built into the side of the hill." When he realized her purpose in asking, he added, "Surely you do not mean to spend the night there. Why delay? Let us go after it now, while we can still track it."

Medb looked up at the sky. "No, it is getting late," she objected, and indeed the sky was rapidly darkening. "We could not reach the moor before nightfall, and I have no desire to navigate it in the dark, do you? Besides, we need food and rest, and a plan of attack; we need time to prepare."

"Very well," he conceded, "the lodge is this way," and they walked down the slope. Once at the foot of the ridge they turned right and followed its length until they came to a wooden structure protruding from a particularly steep section of its face. Like the houses of T'lingit's village, it was square-shaped, built from wooden planks supported by a frame of log poles, with a low, gabled roof and no windows. The only entrance was round and slightly shorter than either of them, but covered by a thick, reinforced door. Inside was a single, small room, the floor covered in wood planks except for the central firepit. Around the perimeter was a raised platform, for sitting and sleeping on. Above the firepit was a smoke hole, but the roof continued on into the hillside, along with the wooden walls, and a wooden wall formed the rear of the lodge. Despite the shape, interior design, and construction material, it reminded Medb of the dwellings in her native Erin, and she felt immediately comfortable.

She started a fire while T'lingit went hunting. She considered it an unnecessary risk, what with the Crusher prowling nearby; they had brought food with them, but he wanted fresh game. Medb relented mostly because she believed the creature would spend the night in the moor, waiting to see if they were foolish enough to follow it in after dark. Even so, what with the gloom of approaching dusk, the warrior did not go far, so that he returned with only three rabbits, which he had already gutted and skinned. Nonetheless, Medb was able to turn them into a splendid stew.

With the fire burning well, the small space heated up quickly, so T'lingit stripped down to his loincloth. Medb did the same, except she wore nothing else under her shirt. He was neither disturbed nor aroused by her nakedness, since she had frequently gone nude in the house of his clan in the village. In this she was not alone; though the women seldom did so, the men often went naked when comfort and circumstances permitted. That Medb emulated the men rather than the women was simply one of her many eccentricities that his tribe had learned to accept. That evening though, as they sat after eating and discussed how best to find and kill the beast on its home ground, he found that things were different. Perhaps it was the camaraderie of their mutual pursuit; perhaps it was the closeness brought on by being in this cramped, warm space, or the fact that they were alone for the first time in six years. But now he found himself being attracted to her, as he would if she was his wife. As they talked, sitting close enough to catch each other's scent and feel each other's warmth, he could not resist finally touching and caressing her. Rather than be offended, she responded in kind, and it wasn't long before all thoughts of what they had come to do were banished in favor of other more lustful meditations. They spent the night in each other's arms, and had the Crusher itself come to rip down the lodge they wouldn't have cared.

+ + + + +

Medb had been living with a tribe in the interior plateau region when T'lingit had arrived in the area carrying a hundred pound pack of trade goods. She along with the rest of the tribe saw his smoke signal announcing his presence, and out of curiosity she followed them to a traditional meeting place along the trade trail where he had set up. She liked the look of him and when the others had left she remained behind and tried to seduce him. He rejected her, but he did so with such grace and good humor that she respected and admired him rather than became angry. They spent the night talking, and in the morning when he continued on, he consented to have her accompany him.

She proved a valuable asset: not only did she provide him with company, but she hunted for him and helped him carry his wares. He soon came to appreciate her talents—she was as strong as the moose, as swift as the deer, as sharp as the fox, and as agile as the otter—as well as her courage, especially after she faced down a grizzly bear that had surprised them early one morning. She had stood toe-to-toe with it, nude except for her neckring (which was how she slept), brandishing one of her spears and screaming curses at it in her native tongue while he pelted it with rocks from behind. The poor animal was so consternated at the unexpected resistance that it finally turned tail and ran. After that episode he treated her with awe, respect, and even a small bit of trepidation. Though a great warrior in his own right, with the heads of a dozen enemies to his credit, he hoped he would never have to fight her.

She also helped him with his trading, and in this she was especially valuable, for she had the cunning of coyote. By the time he returned home, he had made a greater profit than in earlier years, earning more wealth for his house and himself and, what was more important, greater honor and glory. In gratitude for all the help she had given him, he invited Medb to come to his village, and he presented her to the chief of his house as an honored guest. She was accepted as such, and the clan feasted her for three days, at the end of which time the chief invited her to stay as long as she liked; he even gave her space for her own sleeping quarters.

In due course, however, it became obvious to her that, guest though she was, the clan expected her to pull her own weight. Despite being a woman, she would not do those chores that were their responsibility: cooking, weaving, basket-making, or child-rearing. Instead she performed those tasks that the men were trained for, such as hunting, fishing, and woodworking. This perplexed the people of the house and the rest of the tribe, yet they quickly grew accustomed to it when she proved herself the equal of any man in the village, and her activities improved the wealth of the house that sheltered her.

Then too there were other things she did that ingratiated herself to the tribe. When the village's chief harpooner was injured in an accident and the yearly whale hunt was put in jeopardy, Medb volunteered to act in his stead. Standing naked, except for the harpooner's hat, in the prow of her house's canoe, she expertly guided the villagers to the kill in rapid time. Then there was the autumn a grizzly bear began raiding the village's food stocks, threatening the tribe with starvation that winter, until she tracked it alone through a blizzard to its lair and slew it. The son of Nootka, a wealthy member of a large and powerful neighboring tribe, tried to rape T'lingit's sister, but Medb pursued and captured him, and then forced his father to pay a crippling ransom for his return. And a little girl became sick with a disease the shaman could not cure, so she cured her with an application of herbal medicine. This earned her an invitation to join the Cannibal Dancers, the strongest of the shaman societies, which she accepted.

Yet the greatest act she performed for the tribe and her house was when the village of Nootka mounted a raid on her village for revenge. Her sleeping compartment was beside the great round door of the house, a position of lowest rank, but still an honor for one not a member of the clan. Thus, when one of the warriors entered the house, though he tried to be stealthy, Medb heard him and awoke, and when she discovered him she killed him without making a sound. Then, as T'lingit led the other men of the house to find and slay the remaining raiders, Medb donned the dead man's armor of wooden slats as a disguise and went looking for their leader, whom she subdued and captured. She was not surprised when she discovered it was Nootka himself. She interrogated him thoroughly, after which she turned him over to the villagers, who tortured him to death. She then devised a plan whereby, under the guise of accepting a ransom for his return, she was able to slip T'lingit and a band of warriors into the other village for a surprise attack. Her plan succeeded brilliantly; she and the warriors slaughtered all the men, looted the village, and burned it to the ground, and the women and children not killed or taken as slaves fled into the wilderness.

As a reward for this service, T'lingit's clan adopted her and gave her a place of honor in their house. The village in turn enrolled her into the Raven moiety so that she might be able to marry if she wished. She did not, yet she respected the tribe's puritanical traditions. In the interior, the tribes she had encountered tolerated her promiscuity even if they did not encourage it, and so she was always able to find a man or sometimes even a woman who was willing to share her bed. Among her adopted people, however, personal and family honor meant more than wealth, and promiscuity brought shame on the transgressor and his or her house. Thus, out of deference to their traditions and loyalty to her new house, she restrained her normal lascivious tendencies. In turn, the tribe recognized her sacrifice and honored her for it.

As time went by, and her personal wealth as well as that of her house grew, so did her prestige and glory. She became the house chief's primary advisor, in status second only to him, and as T'lingit's ad hoc brother, he and his family shared in her glory. She had quickly learned the clan's songs, dances, and legends, its totem animals and special names, and most importantly its territorial privileges—hunting and fishing grounds and trade routes—and though a woman she accepted willingly the duty of teaching these to T'lingit's sons when they came of age, since he had no real brothers to do it for him.

+ + + + +

The Crusher came the sixth night of a potlatch, in the early morning hours when the hosts and guests were sleeping off the previous evening's feast. The house chief was celebrating the marriage of his eldest daughter to the son of a neighboring village, a match that Medb had arranged as much to benefit the whole tribe as her clan. The other village had wealth and power, and while they had always been friends, this marriage would now make them kin, which would strengthen the bond between the two tribes.

Medb, as usual, could barely sleep. She was not affected by overindulgence the way the natives were and she was suffering from a gradual increase in agitation, which she believed was due to her lack of sexual activity. It had been six years since she last made love with anyone and while the villagers honored her for it, it merely made her more frustrated. The days were bearable, even considering the sight of naked male flesh parading before her eyes, but the nights were becoming intolerable. She could not relieve herself with one of the house slaves, since promiscuity with a person of lower rank was considered even more grievous than with an equal, and pleasuring herself in private provided only temporary relief at best. She had started seriously considering getting married, since it would offer other advantages as well, not the least of which were the ability to choose her own husband, and the chance to increase her wealth. And she could marry beneath her station, as long as it wasn't too far; a number of the adolescent boys she had known when she first arrived were coming into young manhood.

As such, she was awake, sitting beside the dying fire, idly stirring the embers and contemplating her options, when the first impact occurred.

Though thankfully uncommon, it was not unusual for a grizzly bear to try to break into a house, especially in the spring just after awakening from hibernation, when it was famished from its long sleep, or in the fall just before hibernation, when it needed to build up its fat reserves. The reinforced circular door was not designed to keep it out, just delay it long enough for the house members and their neighbors to assemble to drive it away. Medb had witnessed a couple such attacks during her stay in the village, so she knew what to expect. This was different. For one thing, it sounded like nothing so much as a giant fist being pounded on the wood. For another, not just the door shook, but so did the whole wall; indeed, the whole structure trembled as dust drifted down from the roof and the support timbers creaked and groaned.

Medb leapt to her feet and shouted a warning, then ran to her compartment for her spears, while the house members and the guests stirred and tried to force themselves awake. Before she made it, however, a second blow splintered the door and broke its frame, while a third blow, coming immediately upon the heels of the one before, demolished the wall surrounding what was left of the frame. Medb was stunned by planks that fell on top of her from the ceiling, but she did not lose consciousness; as such, she could see a huge figure enter the house. Roaring in rage, it rushed past the slaves sleeping by the door and attacked the guests, who were just now starting to get up. Struggling to free herself, Medb watched helplessly as it snatched up two people, one in each hand-like paw, raise them to its massive ursine head, and crush their skulls in its great jaws. It then discarded the bodies and reached for two more victims, dispatching them as it had done the first pair. It moved so quickly that a dozen people were dead in only a few moments. Now fully awake, the guests, who were unarmed as tradition demanded, panicked, the women screaming, the children crying, the men shouting curses and prayers. They ran in all directions, creating so much confusion that most could not find the exit or avoid the beast, which was now wading among them, killing three and four at a time with mighty sweeps of its paws. Those who fell were trampled underfoot, either by the beast or their kinsmen. Some in desperation threw themselves at it in mad fury; these it merely enfolded in its arms and crushed against its body.

The house slaves had fled at the first sign of trouble, all but an adolescent boy not yet a warrior when captured. He ran to Medb, pulled the planks off her, and helped her to her feet, then went to fetch her spears. She took one and left him the other, and gave him a ferocious grin which he returned, then together they charged the beast. By this time the warriors of the house had emerged from the other compartments, their own weapons in hand. T'lingit took charge, ordering half the men to evacuate the guests and the women and children, while he led the rest against the monster. Medb and the slave reached it first, followed quickly by the others, but it was to no avail. The beast's fur was too dense and matted, its skin too thick and flabby, for the razor-sharp mussel shell blades to penetrate; even Medb's cruel serrated metal blades were useless. Arrows fired from snipers standing on the roofs of the compartments stuck, but could not penetrate to reach the vital organs beneath the hide. For its part, the monster simply waded into the warriors as it had the guests, splintering spears and killing anyone who came too close trying to stab it with a dagger or beat it with a war club. Soon the dead lay piled around it, and only Medb, T'lingit, and the slave survived. Yet they had accomplished their goal; the remaining guests and house members had been safely gotten away.

However, the beast blocked their own escape. Feigning a charge, they then dodged around it, stabbing at it with their spears. Medb and the slave managed to get past, but T'lingit caught a glancing blow from a paw swat and was thrown to one side. He fell to the ground and lay still as the beast advanced on him. Medb and the slave turned and went back for him, but whereas she interposed herself between him and the beast, the slave threw himself at it, screaming a battle cry of furious defiance. As Medb flung T'lingit over her shoulder, the slave jabbed and slashed insanely and turned the beast away from its intended prey. Medb then rushed for the door; when she got clear she called for the slave to break off and run. Yet as he turned he dropped his guard, and the beast was on him a flash. It knocked the spear from his grasp, then caught him and bore him up to its mouth, ripping his head from his shoulders.

Spitting out the grisly mouthful and tossing the body aside, it then leapt after Medb. She knew she could not escape carrying her burden, so she turned to confront it, holding the spear before her to ward it off. And it did halt just in front of its point, and stared down at her, snarling in barely suppressed rage. Undaunted, Medb stared back up at it, straight into its human eyes, and in that instance she recognized it as a creature of the Otherworld. She understood then that mere force of arms would not be enough to stop it, no matter how many spears were arrayed against it. She realized as well that it had been sent to kill her, summoned by someone seeking revenge against her for some wrong she had done to him.

She determined now not to make the village the battleground or its people the victims. In her native tongue she addressed it, saying, "I know you, and why you have come this night." Its only response was to narrow its eyes and issue a throaty growl. "I grant you the victory," she went on, "only allow me this one small concession. Also, if you leave this village in peace, you may go to a ground of your own choosing and I shall confront you there. Let no more innocent blood be shed on my account. Grant me this boon, and I shall come to you freely."

The beast responded by tilting back its head and roaring towards the sky beyond the roof, shaking its arms in triumph. It then turned and strode towards the back of the house. Ripping its way through the cedar-panel screen that shielded the chief's compartment from the rest of the house, it celebrated in an orgy of destruction before finally smashing through the back wall and departing into the forest. But Medb did not watch. As soon as it turned away from her she dashed out the ruined doorway to where the rest of the tribe waited for her.

In the morning, she informed the house chiefs of her bargain with the monster to keep them safe from further attack. They praised her courage and offered her many fine gifts for her sacrifice, but she refused them, asking instead that they be given to her adopted house instead. This in turn elicited even more cries of praise, and the chiefs offered their solemn oath that the house of her adopted clan would be restored to its former glory and better in her honor. Thanking them, she then left, the sound of song following her for some distance into the woods.

She had not told them that she would not be returning. Of course, she knew that they did not expect her to survive, but if she did she also knew they expected her to come back to them and tell them her tale so that they might further glorify her. That she would not want to would never have occurred to them, but as long as she lived among them she knew she would be a danger to them, for there would always be someone willing to loose the power of the Otherworld against her for revenge. Besides, she would realize far more glory from a "posthumous" song of her great deeds, especially this last one, and she smiled at that thought.

The surprise came when, on the first evening after she made camp, T'lingit caught up with her. In the brief moment he appeared at the edge of the firelight, her emotions warred within her, her joy at seeing him in conflict with her anger that he would disrespect her this way. Her good practical sense won out in the end. She understood that of all the villagers he had the strongest claim to revenge against the Crusher, so she could say nothing that would convince him to go back, especially if doing so would bring dishonor upon him. The fact that he had left abruptly, without performing the usual physical and spiritual preparations and with little more than the shaman's blessing, if even that, demonstrated just how dedicated he was to being with her when she confronted the beast. That meant her only choices were to kill him, tie him up (which would amount to the same thing if she left him here helpless), or accept his help, so she did the last. Besides, he could tell the tribe of her triumph, assuming he lived to tell the tale.

+ + + + +

The sky above the mountains beyond the lake was rapidly brightening when Medb awoke the next morning. Careful not to disturb T'lingit, she rose and went outside to relieve herself. After she finished she stood looking down at the moors, wondering not for the first time whether her germ of a plan would work. Had she been alone, she would have had no doubts, but T'lingit's presence changed things greatly. He was a factor she could not control, yet now the success of her plan depended upon his strength, courage, and wits.

A low, throaty croaking sounded behind her, and when she turned she saw a large raven sitting on the edge of the roof over the door. To the local native peoples, the raven was creator and trickster, famous for his cunning and wisdom, but also celebrated for his gluttony, lechery, and clownish ways. To the peoples of Erin, however, the raven represented death, a malicious spirit that satisfied its lust for destruction through battle carnage, and its thirst for blood by consuming the bodies of the slain. It was also prophetic, and its croak was feared as the voice of doom. Medb had no personal fear for its portents, but she believed its appearance here and now was no accident.

And as if to accentuate that certainty, at the same moment the sun rose above the mountains behind her and flooded the front of the lodge in its light, T'lingit stepped through the doorway. Standing before the darkened interior, his naked body illuminated in the strong dawn radiance, he seemed to glow as if his skin was living fire, and reflections flashed through his hair like lightning. At that moment he seemed to her to be the living embodiment of his people's great cultural hero and deliverer, the Transformer. The raven croaked again and took off, flying over Medb and on into the climbing sun. And Medb's spine tingled as one of her infrequent prescient insights washed over her conscious perceptions.

Medb fixed a simple breakfast and as they ate she asked T'lingit to tell her of the Crusher. "He is one of the sons of Bear Mother," was all he said, but Medb understood the reference. Among the tribe there was a story told of a haughty and vain young woman, who was captured by a grizzly bear and taken back to his den to be his wife. She bore him two cubs, both boys, before her brothers found her and killed the bear. Upon their return to the village, however, she and her sons turned into bears and killed her brothers in revenge for slaying her husband, after which they reverted back to human form. The rest of her family and her neighbors feared her, but she and her sons lived among them in peace, using the knowledge the bear had taught her for their benefit. Her eldest son grew to be a great warrior and a wise chief, and he founded the clans of the tribe Medb lived with.

Her youngest son, however, preferred the life of a bear, and he spent more and more time in the wilds living as a bear. One day, he spied a maiden bathing in a forest stream. Desiring her, he kidnapped her and forced himself upon her against her will. In punishment, his brother cursed him to live as a spirit, half man and half bear, forever at the edge of civilization, a personification of the destructive forces of nature surrounding it. Its true name was lost as it became know as the Crusher, for its strength was great enough to crush buildings as easily as it could tear men apart.

When they had finished eating they readied their weapons. T'lingit left his bow and arrows in the lodge, but took time to sharpen the mussel-shell heads of his spears and polish the stone head of his club. They donned their boots, but T'lingit wore only his loincloth and hat while Medb put on only her belt with its sword and dirk. Before they starting off towards the moor, T'lingit made obeisance to the Great Mystery Power of Heaven. Medb waited for him out of respect for his beliefs, but she did not join him. She had met too many personages who falsely called themselves gods to believe that such an entity actually existed in any form.

The land between the ridge and the mountains was a study in contrasts. The forest growing to the south sat on a low rise and the lake to the northeast filled a depression. The plain between them was basically flat but with a gentle decline from southwest to northeast, forming a natural flow way for water coming off the ridge and the forested rise down to the lake. It did not drain well, though, and over the centuries erosion had carved numerous pits and depressions into its surface, which then filed with water and detritus. The result was a morass filled with marshy ground and bog holes isolated by mounds and low ridges covered with small shrubs. Risky at any time of the year to cross, it was especially treacherous now that the spring rains and snow melt off had flooded it.

Medb led the way through it, but it was still slow going. The ridges were difficult enough to traverse, being choked with vegetation, but they did not form a continuous thoroughfare and there were times when she and T'lingit had to cross the open fens. Two or three times they nearly stumbled into a deep pit, and in one case Medb would have been sucked down had it not been for T'lingit's sharp eyes and quick thinking. Nor were they the only dangers. Many of the shrubs were brambles with long, wicked thorns, and they harbored ticks and hornets and spiders. Poisonous snakes abounded, and the mosquitoes were so thick they were apt to drive the pair mad. As they neared their destination, Medb began to perceive the passage as a sort of ritualistic ordeal in which they had to prove their worth before being granted the privilege of confronting their prey. Only instead of being strengthened and sanctified by it, it was meant to defile them and break their spirits.

They reached the center in mid afternoon. It proved to be a large, squat mound whose level top was three times the floor area of a clan house. It was bare of shrubs and only covered with short, course grass. Though exhausted from their arduous trek, they nonetheless could not help feeling awed by what they found there. The mound was dominated by a circular stone structure. At its center sat a cairn of boulders that reminded Medb of a dolmen from her native Erin. Further out a concentric ring made of smaller rocks surrounded it. Lines of similar stones radiated out from the cairn to the ring, looking like the spokes of a wheel. Finally, six smaller cairns were scattered in a seemingly haphazard pattern just outside the perimeter of the ring. It seemed to her that it was some sort of burial ground, perhaps for a chief and his family, but when she asked T'lingit about it, he was as mystified as she was.

"I have no knowledge of this structure," he replied; "not even our songs and stories speak of it. It may be a sacred site from the time before our clan ancestors. Perhaps Bear Father built it, or his eldest son."

A harridan's shrill laugh shrieked behind them. When they turned, they were confronted by an old woman, wrinkled, bent, and toothless, emerging from the central cairn. She was naked except for a rag of a loincloth and a soiled blanket over her shoulders. She also wore an elaborate feathered headdress that nonetheless was also aged and battered. Her long, gray, tangled hair trailed on the ground and her eyes were wild, almost insane. In her left hand she carried a rattle in the shape of a stylized figure with the body of a woman but the features of a bear. Both Medb and T'lingit recognized her as a shaman, but only Medb understood she had turned witch.

"You are correct, young warrior," she cackled. Despite her age, her voice was surprisingly strong. "This holy place was made by Bear Father in the spirit time, just after the creation of the world, to honor the Great Mystery Power of Heaven. It is strong with the power of the bear spirit, which is why I had the Crusher lure you here."

"It was you who summoned him from the Otherworld and set him against me," Medb accused.

"Also correct, Mayv of the Friendly Thighs." When Medb started, the witch shrieked anew. "Yes! I know you. The spirits have whispered of you. You are the shaman who is her own guardian spirit. You are the incarnation of drunkenness, lechery, and battlelust. You are the daughter of gods, the conqueror of demons, the consort of spirits, and the queen of men. You cannot be harmed by age, sickness, injury, or any weapon made by the hand of man. So I brought forth a spirit stronger than yours, a creature of magic who can overcome your own and destroy you."

"Why have you done this terrible deed?" T'lingit asked of her.

This time she snarled like a rabid dog. "To avenge the crimes she perpetrated against my own kin. I was the mother of Nootka. He had been the wealthiest man of our tribe, but her outrageous demand for payment broke him. My grandson, out of shame, departed on a quest into the east to redeem himself. My son she killed when he led the raid against your village. It was my village that she destroyed when she led your warriors against it. And it was my clan she exterminated when she killed its men and took its women and children for slaves. For these crimes I will see her dead; I will see your village devastated and your clan obliterated! Nothing less will satisfy me, and you fools have walked into my grasp!"

"And I will see you dead before us," T'lingit vowed as he raised one of his spears.

"No!" Medb warned, but the witch simply shrieked her laughter again and made no move, except to shake her rattle. Even as he poised to hurl his missile, a roar like crashing thunder sounded from the cairn behind the old hag and the Crusher rushed out, charging the two warriors threatening its mistress. Medb and T'lingit broke and ran, but not in retreat. They bolted in opposite directions, confusing the beast. They then turned to face it, one on each side. As T'lingit planted two of his spears in the ground and hefted the third, Medb did the same with her own, then pulled three javelins from her shield harness and threw them in rapid succession; each struck home and lodged in the flabby hide, but could not penetrate to the vital organs.

When it turned to charge her, T'lingit rush at it and rammed his spear into its side as hard as he could. The blade bit deep, but again could not penetrate more than the depth of its head. The Crusher turned, lashed out with its arm, and broke the spear shaft, but T'lingit had already dashed away back to where his two other spears waited. Even as the beast started to pursue, Medb threw her three remaining javelins and snatched up one of her own spears. Once again the Crusher was unharmed, but once again it turned on her, roaring its hate and rage. And once again, T'lingit ran up to it, plunged in his next spear, and sprinted away as it spun around to strike at him.

Now it was Medb's turn. She leapt at the beast and rammed the blade into one of its kidneys. The shaft could not withstand the force of her blow and broke, leaving the blade imbedded. The Crusher rounded on her, swinging a paw; it crashed into her shield, knocking her back, but she stayed on her feet. As she retreat before it, T'lingit struck with his last spear in the same place as Medb, hoping to use her wound to strike deeper, but the brittle shell could not get past the underlying muscle and shattered into four pieces. Surprised, he let his guard down for a moment and barely avoided a blow that would have crushed his head. He blocked it with his spear shaft as he ducked; the wood splintered, but he was able to roll away and regain his feet.

Medb discarded her shield, seized her other spear, and threw herself at the beast to distract it. She jabbed at the back of its neck, hoping to cut through to the major blood vessels beneath, but though they were thinner there, the fur and hide proved no less resilient, and the serrated blade simply skidded off. The Crusher turned and threw itself at her; she planted the spear's butt into the ground, angling the shaft towards its diaphragm, and as she intended it impaled itself onto the blade. The force of the impact traveled down the shaft, cracking it and throwing Medb to the ground. The beast reared back, but even this was not enough to wound it mortally. It merely pulled the blade free with what was left of the shaft; still, there was blood on it, and Medb noted it with satisfaction.

T'lingit ran up to the beast and struck it with his club, giving Medb the chance to regain her feet. She then pulled her sword and rushed it, hacking and slashing and screaming curses at in. She and T'lingit traded blows with it, but it gradually forced them back towards the surrounding moor. All the while, the witch continued shrieking with laughter and shaking her rattle, obviously enjoying the spectacle. Then, just when it seemed the Crusher would push them into one of the open fens, she stopped the rattle, and the beast halted as well.

She hobbled over to where the trio of figures stood and took up a position to one side so she could see each of them clearly. Breathing heavily from the exertion, Medb eyed her in a calculating manner, as she prepared to launch her surprise.

"You have fought well," she cackled, "so I will give you a choice. You may return to the village and await your fate with the tribe. Or you may continue your fight, in which case the Crusher shall drive you into the bog holes. Or you may surrender. Both of you will make fine slaves. You, woman, will be my horse and carry me wherever I wish; as for you, it has been many years since I had a man to warm me at night."

Appalled, T'lingit made to respond, but Medb interrupted in a quiet voice. "There is a fourth choice, badb," she countered, closing her eyes. An moment later, a low chant filled the air around them. It was Medb's voice, in her native tongue, but it did not issue from her throat, though she mouthed the words; instead it seemed to come out of the rocks, the ground, the vegetation, and the water. The witch and T'lingit looked around themselves, confused, but the Crusher tilted its head, rolled its eyes, and grinned.

From every point on the horizon, a dark cloud formed and quickly spread toward the center of the moor. In moments the sky was filled with ravens and crows; the flock was so thick it blotted out the sun and caste a darkness as from a thunderhead. The noise of their croaking and cawing deafened the witch and T'lingit, but Medb and the Crusher seemed unaffected. It looked at her, with wicked mirth dancing in its eyes, and she grinned back at it with evil glee.

Even as the old hag slowly realized that there was magic in this gathering, Medb pointed at her and shouted, "Fiacha Catha!" The corvids wheeled and descended upon the group, then turned at the last minute and swept toward the witch. Screaming, she tried to flee, but they caught her and surrounded her, pecking at her hands, arms, back, face, and eyes. She swatted at them, tried to beat them off with her rattle, but to no avail, until finally she dropped the instrument, covered her head with her arms, and collapsed face down on the ground.

Seizing the opportunity, Medb rushed forward into the mass of birds, who parted to let her pass. She snatched up the rattle, turned, and threw it to T'lingit. He caught it, ran to the closest cairn, placed it on one of the boulders, and smashed it with his club. As if by a prearranged signal, the corvids exploded into the air and dispersed in all directions. Medb called out after them and they cried back in response, but they kept on going, back to wherever she had summoned them from.

In the ensuing quiet, the Crusher remained motionless for some moments, then it threw back its head and roared as it raised its paws and shook its fists at the sky. It then turned towards the witch. Bellowing in rage, it charged her, but pulled up when Medb abruptly put herself between it and its prey.

"No," she beseeched it, "let her alone; she is no further threat to you, and letting her live would be the worst you could do to her."

The Crusher was clearly torn between its desire for revenge and its gratefulness to its deliverer. At last it seemed to relent, but even as it began to turn away, it whipped back around and rushed the witch, roaring in fury. Surprised, Medb turned, and saw the hag lunge at her with a bone knife in one hand. In the second before she reacted, she saw the blade was coated with a greasy gray goo; then she lashed out, struck the blade aside, and rammed the heel of her hand under the hag's chin. The witch was pitched back off her feet and into the air, to land in the middle of a bog pit. She lay still for a couple of moments, her neck broken, before she sank out of sight.

+ + + + +

The Crusher led them to a pond of clean, clear water at the edge of the moor, where they bathed and Medb cleaned the beast's wounds. It then took its leave of them, simply walking off towards the forest. The two humans returned to the lodge to retrieve their clothes and supplies.

"What a song we shall have for the chiefs when we return," T'lingit laughed, when they were ready to set out.

"I will not be going back with you," Medb said.

The young warrior looked at her with surprise. "What do you mean?"

"It is time I was moving on," she replied.

"I do not understand."

"I have been restless for months. At first I thought it was because I have abstained from sex too long, but after last night I realized I simply had itchy feet. I cannot stay in one place too long; I need adventure, but I will not find it in your village."

"Where will you go?" he asked in a quiet tone.

"Back to the plateau tribes for now; I still need sex and they will be happy to oblige."

"Then perhaps we shall see each other again," he said, hopeful, but she shook her head. "After I have satisfied myself I will head south and east, into the great forest beyond. I may even go as far as the great plains; who can say?"

"Will you not need to get your spears repaired?"

"The plateau tribes can aid me in that, as long as I have the heads," and she patted a bag slung over her shoulder.

"What should I tell the chiefs?"

"You will think of something," she said with a mischievous smile, then added, "Tell them the witch killed me with her poisoned knife and the Crusher bore me away into the spirit world. That should satisfy them nicely."

He smiled back at her. "It is customary for departing friends to give each other gifts, but I have nothing to give you."

She stepped up to him, placed a hand behind his head, and kissed him long and passionately. When she pulled away she said, "Your gift to me was the lust we shared last night." She then stepped back, and as she did so, from out of nowhere a raven landed on her shoulder.

"And this is my gift you," she continued, her voice now oddly sonorous and forceful. "From this day forth you will increase in prestige and glory until your honor is the greatest of all your people. You will become chief of your clan, then of the whole village. You will found your own clan, which in time will become its own tribe, and one day will be its own people, who will honor you and themselves by taking your name for theirs." The raven croaked, as if to punctuate her augury.

And with that she turned and walked away without another word. Too awed to speak, T'lingit let her go, but only when she had passed out of his sight did he finally turn away himself to begin the long journey back to his home.