A River Enchanted

Sidra grinds herbs to make salves for Torin’s wounds. The shoulder wound that made him afraid is healing well, but the festering wound on his forearm that took his voice is still oozing, despite magical wounds being faster to heal than normal wounds. Sidra is afraid, as she cannot understand why his wound won’t heal. She worries her lack of faith in the spirits following Maisie’s kidnapping is what won’t let her heal him. She touches the figurine of Lady Whin for a moment, then falls asleep. She wakes to the sound of the guard dog barking and goes to the door to see Mirin and Frae. Mirin gives Sidra the enchanted plaid that Torin commissioned for her and Frae gives her a pie she baked. As the women leave and Sidra wraps the plaid around herself, she wonders how to find her faith again.

Torin dreams of the men he killed asking why he killed them and why he left their families to starve. He dreams that the ghosts are at his wedding to Sidra, telling him that they will haunt him and Sidra both and that Sidra couldn’t possibly love him with the blood on his hands. When Sidra approaches him at the altar, he has blood on his hands that won’t wash off. He wakes up and realizes he’s at home. He sees Sidra in the plaid and gets out of bed to fasten it correctly on her. Adaira arrives and is relieved to see Torin out of bed. She has taken control of the guard in Torin’s absence and shows Torin a letter she received from Innes Breccan, the laird of the West, apologizing for the raid and offering to return the stolen goods at a meeting on the clan line. Torin is suspicious but offers to go with Adaira and Jack to the meeting. Adaira then tells him about Eliza Elliot’s return.

Jack continues to work on his ballad. Mirin gives him her dirk. She reveals that it was not her dirk, but a gift for Jack from his father when he came of age. She still won’t tell Jack who his father is, only that she loved him. Jack wants to study the blade to learn his father’s identity.

Sidra wakes to an empty bed but finds Torin in the garden, holding a kitten and weeding. Though he cannot speak, they communicate through words and gestures and eat breakfast together. Sidra loves him but is afraid to tell him. Donella’s ghost appears and tells her that Torin loves her but is afraid of losing her. Donella says their spirits are tied together, and if Sidra dies, Torin will soon follow, so Sidra must heal herself before she can heal Torin. To find her faith again, Sidra walks with Yirr the guard dog into the valley.

Adaira and Jack wait for Innes Breccan at the appointed meeting spot. Adaira wonders what she would do if her people were starving but knows she would never kidnap girls. Innes arrives with her retinue and brings what was stolen during the raid and gold in place of the stolen livestock, which couldn’t be found. Adaira asks about Moray, and Innes tells her that he is disciplining the rogue Breccans who completed the raid. Adaira also asks about the Oreanna flower. Innes knows of it and agrees to bring a basket of it in exchange for goods from the east. Adaira now knows that Moray lied to her about his ignorance of the flower.

On the way home, Jack stops at Una’s forge and asks about the dirk, but she didn’t forge it. In his castle chambers, he cuts himself to see what the blade does. Adaira asks him what he’s doing, and they realize it’s a truth blade, as he cannot lie to her. Adaira cuts herself with the dirk, and they share secrets with each other. Jack says that he was bitter at being sent away from Cadence, but music helped him find his sense of self-worth. Adaira tells him that her mother tried to give her harp lessons, but it made her full of resentment, as she didn’t like music and wanted to be part of the guard. She regrets wasting her time with her mother. Adaira also tells him she’s scared he’ll return to the mainland after a year and a day; Jack says he thinks they are two halves of a whole and their vows run deep, and his heart does not yearn for the mainland. They kiss. Adaira then tells Jack she wants him to eat an Oreanna flower before he plays his ballad for the wind the next day. Jack agrees and returns home, realizing that his father never claimed him because he was a Breccan, and perhaps the Breccan Frae saw in their yard was protecting them, not attacking them.

Torin looks for Sidra. He can’t find her in the croft or at Graeme’s, so he realizes she’s gone back to the Vale of Stonehaven, where she grew up. In the Vale, Sidra kneels at her grandmother’s grave, talking to the soil, before returning to the cottage where her grandmother raised her after her mother’s early death. She aches with the realization that, though she grew up there, it’s not her home anymore. She tends to the kailyard (vegetable garden), sinking her fingers into the soil and releasing the grief and anger she’s kept pent up inside her. As she experiences emotional catharsis, her brother finds her and invites her inside.

Torin soon arrives, and he and Sidra head to the orchard to talk, though Torin is still voiceless. Sidra confesses her feelings of shame, grief, and anger at losing Maisie, as well as the crack in her faith that she’s carried all her life. She tells him that even if they never recover Maisie, she wants to stay with Torin, implicitly expressing her love for him. Torin embraces her and brings her home. They make love and fall asleep.

Sidra wakes from a dream of a hidden path. She goes out and finds a path of gorse that leads her to a hidden grove. In the grove are fire spurge plants, which burn when uprooted. When Sidra attempts to follow the path past the spurge, the gorse wilts, indicating she must pick the spurge with her bare hands. She harvests the spurge with her hands, crying out at the pain but finding comfort in her love for Torin and the healing she seeks to provide him.

Jack is ready to play his ballad for the wind, though he’s concerned they can’t trust the wind spirits. They climb Tilting Thom together, stopping halfway up to get a glimpse of the west, covered in clouds. Jack eats the Oreanna flower and begins to play his ballad. He feels invigorated and powerful while he plays, as if his voice is one with the wind. The southern wind manifests as a group of fire-haired men and women, then the east wind manifests as people with hair of gold, then the west wind as people with hair of midnight. The spirits once again recognize Adaira, but Jack continues to play the verse for the northern wind. It storms as the spirits of the northern wind arrive, led by Bane, king of the northern wind. He allows Adaira to ask him about the missing girls and says that the Breccans have taken them, but they are safe. He also tells Adaira that the dark-eyed weaver at the edge of the east knows where the girls are, clearly alluding to Mirin, Jack’s mother. Adaira is shocked and nearly accepts Bane’s offer to take her on the wind to where the girls are, but Jack stops her. Bane tells Jack never to play the ballad again, then knocks him unconscious with his magic, warping Jack’s harp.