Consorts of Heaven by Jaine Fenn

say, he indicated he could speak again.
    ‘Even if he is not unholy, he has brought the falling fire! Better rid ourselves of him and not take the risk.’
    ‘Wait.’ Sais was listening in horrified disbelief, his arms clamped over his chest, as if to ward off a blow. ‘Please - you can’t mean that. I don’t even know what the falling fire is!’
    Aghast faces turned to him. Sais could not speak up like this! He was doubly bound to silence, by am-annwn and by the rules of council. But of course he did not know that. Kerin put a hand out to him and whispered, ‘You cannot—’
    He shook her off. ‘Listen, please! You have to understand, I don’t mean you any harm. I don’t even know how I came to be here!’
    His words were drowned out as chaos erupted. Bodfan, pointing at Sais, though still without looking directly at him, started to shout, ‘Am-annwn! Am-annwn!’ Fychan was haranguing Arthen, and several others, both councillors and observers, had turned to their neighbours in shock and dismay. Many made gestures to ward off ill luck. Old Lorar got up, knocking his stool over, and began to back off unsteadily.
    Sais turned to flee, but found his way blocked by Gwilym and his spear.
    ‘ I will have silence! ’ Arthen rarely raised his voice, but when he did, people listened. He backed up his words by holding up his skymetal disc.
    The hubbub fell away at once, and Arthen addressed Sais directly. ‘Stranger, you are talking yourself into your own death. If you have any sense you will remain silent.’
    Sais gave a tiny, sharp nod, and swallowed convulsively.
    Arthen sighed and looked at his council. ‘If this man were a demon of the Abyss or some unquiet spirit sent to beguile us, I put it to you that he would use cannier tricks than fighting like an inexperienced boy and then feigning terror. I believe he is merely a mortal man.’
    Howen, always a stickler for detail, raised a hand cautiously. When Arthen nodded permission, he said, ‘Yet was he not found at the mere, the place where the horrors of the Abyss come closest to the Skymothers’ Creation?’
    More agreement, though muted; the men knew they had already made fools of themselves.
    Kerin held up a hand and Arthen gave her leave to speak. Though fear still thrummed through her, it brought with it a strange exhilaration, and her voice did not quaver. ‘It is true he was found at the mere. But I did not find him. Damaru did.’ From the expressions on the faces of some of the men, that news made them reconsider. For the benefit of the slower-witted councillors and watchers she added, ‘I humbly suggest that it would be strange indeed if one blessed by the sky were to have dealings with a creature of the Abyss.’
    Though most of the councillors obviously agreed, Bodfan still sought leave to speak. ‘Flesh and blood the stranger may be, but he attacked one of our own.’
    ‘I suspect,’ said Arthen, ‘that he acted in fear.’
    ‘Yet it cannot be denied that within a day of his arrival, the falling fire was among us. Can that be mere chance?’ Bodfan looked around the circle for support.
    Arthen said, ‘If I am not mistaken, the return of the winnowing times should not be so great a surprise.’ He turned to the council’s oldest member. ‘Lorar, how many years is it since the falling fire was last amongst us?’
    Lorar was still settling himself back on his stool and the question had to be repeated before he responded. ‘Oh, tis true,’ he rasped, ‘we are due the judgment of Heaven.’
    Fychan raised his hand. ‘Yet as Bodfan says, to have this man arrive the day before my brother is struck down surely cannot be chance!’
    ‘I do not think any of us can presume to know the will of Heaven,’ said Arthen.
    This comment got several nods, though other hands were going up. Kerin raised hers. Somewhat to her surprise Arthen turned to her first. ‘Did you wish to add something, Kerin?’
    ‘Masters,’ she said, ‘I believe the