Without thinking, he gasped. He did not understand. Why was her hair gold now when before it had been black? Was it the Ellyl waters, and was his own hair gold now as well? He reached up and touched his head in confusion.
Brie laughed. "Do not worry. Your hair is as it was," she said, smiling. "Mine has always been yellow. I used black walnut leaves to color it, to make me look more like a boy. The Ellyl water washed all the stain away. My eyes and lashes were always dark, like my mother's."
Collun gazed at her without speaking. She was still gaunt and pale from her ordeal, but her eyes were her own again. She looked young. And beautiful. She wore a simple white shift that fell almost to the ground. He had not seen her in women's clothing before. He stood, feeling suddenly shy.
"How is your arm?" Brie asked.
"It is healed."
"I am glad." A strained silence came up between them.
"Talisen must be pleased beyond measure to be here in Tir a Ceol," Brie said with a smile. "Perhaps he will finally learn an Ellyl song."
Collun nodded, his mind searching for words.
"Is something wrong, Collun?" Brie asked abruptly.
"No. Nothing," Collun mumbled, his eyes averted.
"You are angry with me. For the way I behaved to you..."
Collun blushed. "No, it's just—it's your hair," he blurted out.
Brie looked startled. And then they both burst into laughter. Collun's confusion drained away.
"Are you well, Brie?"
"Yes. The white water healed me."
"What was it like before? Your eyes were so empty, but I kept wondering if you could see or hear us."
"I could hear voices, yours in particular, but it was distorted, and I could not always understand the words. I was cold all the time, and I saw everything through a cloud of gray. Then toward the end the gray began to turn black, and I heard a hollow voice calling to me. I did not want to listen, but it kept calling and calling and pulling me toward it." She shuddered. "Then suddenly it stopped. I began to feel a warmth growing in my body. It started in my toes and worked its way up. It felt ... wonderful." She closed her eyes and smiled. Then she swayed and abruptly sat down on the bed.
"I still feel shaky," she said.
"Of course." He sat beside her. She looked so frail. Collun had a strong urge to wrap the feather quilt around her and to rub her thin arms with his hands to warm her. But suddenly that same feeling of shyness washed over him again and all he could do was say stiffly, "Can I get you something?"
Brie opened her mouth to answer, but the door opened and Ebba, the Ellyl woman with the calm eyes and brindled hair, came into the room.
"That's enough talking for now. You need your rest, especially you," she added with a stern look at Brie.
Brie rose and began to follow, but then turned back toward Collun. "I came to apologize. I have acted unfairly toward you since we left Temair. There is more I would tell you—that I would have told you if the creature, Nemian, had not come when it did. But Crann has asked me to wait." And then she was gone. The door swung shut behind them. Collun sank back on his soft bed, his thoughts racing.
***
During the next two days they slept, ate, and slept some more, as they recovered their health and strength. Collun, Brie, and Talisen each had a separate room, but the rooms were joined by a common one where they met for meals. The food they were given was different from the food they knew, but they soon developed a taste for it. A particular delicacy of the Ellylon, brisgein, was made of stalks of heather and silverwood. They found it to be surprisingly delicious. Fish was also a staple of the Ellyl diet and was prepared in a variety of ways.
They often heard music coming from other rooms. Whenever it began, Talisen would grab his harp and try to pick out the melodies. He asked Ebba if she would teach him a song, but she told him she did not have the gift for music.
Ebba was the only Ellyl they saw at first, except for an occasional visit from Silien, who told them that Crann and the king were deep in discussion, barely pausing for meals.
Ebba was an artist who worked with an unusual white clay with streaks of light blue running through it. She showed them samples of her work, and they were impressed by the grace of form and line she had achieved. The subjects of her art were from nature: a fish with unusual, trailing fins; a plate depicting the sky after a summer storm; a puffball bending in the wind.
"How do you know of plants and clouds, Ebba, when you live below the ground?" Talisen asked at the evening meal on their second day in Tir a Ceol.
She laughed. "Ellylon move freely between land and water. We have devised many ways over the years of obscuring our presence from you."
"How?" queried Talisen in some disbelief.
"Dense fogs, hidden valleys, unscalable mountains, to name only a few," she replied placidly as she heaped more brisgein on his plate. "Silien is one of the few Ellylon in many hundreds of years to move undisguised among humans." She paused. "Though there are many young Ellylon with the same curiosity. Silien is merely the first to have the courage to risk the wrath of the elders."
Crann came to their quarters just as they were finishing the meal.
"You look well," he said, gazing at them. "Better, at least, than the last time I saw you," he added with a brief smile in Brie's direction.
"When do we leave here?" asked Collun.
"We have only just arrived, spriosan."
"But Nessa..."
"I know. But what I am speaking of with the Ellyl king affects you and your sister, Collun."
An Ellyl appeared in the doorway. "A message from Midir, wizard. He says to come immediately. There is news from the north."
"Very well." The wizard turned to go.
"Crann...," began Collun, his voice edged with worry.
"Be patient, spriosan. By evening of the third day from today, I will return. Then we will make plans. In the meantime, gather your strength." And the wizard was gone.
The next morning Ebba took the three of them out of their quarters and guided them through some of the caverns of Tir a Ceol. Fara came with them. The Ellylon they saw looked at them with curiosity but stayed aloof from the human visitors.
Ebba told them they were free to explore as long as they did not disturb the Ellylon and were back in time for the evening meal. Talisen immediately headed toward the nearest cavern from which music emanated. Fara reached up a paw and batted Brie's leg. Then the faol set off. "I think I am meant to follow. Would you like to join us?" Brie asked Collun. The boy shook his head. He stood irresolutely as he watched them disappear into the next cavern. Ebba walked up to him.
"There is a cavern near here that might interest you." The Ellyl woman led him silently through a series of caverns. "Here," she said, entering one that was much larger than any Collun had yet seen.
In the center lay a long oval pool of silvery water, and ranged around it was a herd of Ellyl horses.
Collun had heard stories of Ellyl horses—that they were unmatchable in power and speed and too wild to be ridden by humans; though it was said that the hero Cuillean rode an Ellyl horse.
Many of the horses were grazing on a soft green-and-white carpet of something that Collun had at first thought to be dappled moss. When he bent to get a closer look, he found it was made up of millions of tiny green-and-white flowers. The delicate flowers grew in the shape of trefoil and smelled sweet, almost like honey.
"It is seamir, their favorite food. It grows very quickly so there is always plenty for them to eat. Now I must return to my work." Ebba left the cavern.
Collun continued to gaze about him in awe. The animals resembled Eirrenian horses but were shorter and leaner and somehow more graceful. Their tails were long, almost brushing the ground, and there was a sheen to their coats like the surface of the silvery pool.