Aillinn's Escape
Listen to Henry Cowell's "The Voice of Lir" before reading
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Aillinn took a deep breath and tried to calm herself. She could recall getting into the bathtub and thinking about Baile, but she could not say how Queen Maeve’s white candle was now sitting directly in front of her. She decided to get out of the tub immediately, but when she tried standing up, Aillinn felt a heaviness throughout her entire body and sank back into the tub.
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As soon as she closed her eyes, Aillinn fell into a deep sleep, though in her dream she knew that she needed to wake up. She was once again in the Seven Woods, but it was darker and the leaves of the trees blurred together. Suddenly, a floating face emerged out of the swirling darkness. Although angelic in its features, the playful, shining eyes frightened Aillinn. The face laughed and began speaking in a taunting tone:
I know of the sleepy country, where swans fly round
Coupled with golden chains and sing as they fly.
A king and queen are wandering there, and the sound
Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind
With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by.
Coupled with golden chains and sing as they fly.
A king and queen are wandering there, and the sound
Has made them so happy and hopeless, so deaf and so blind
With wisdom, they wander till all the years have gone by.
The face repeated these words countless times, and the youth thought to herself, “I have to wake up! The candle… Baile… Maeve… This isn’t right at all.” Her mind began slipping further and further into the nightmarish obscurity.
Shaken awake by the young maid with kind eyes, Aillinn shot straight up in the tub. Before Aillinn could express her gratitude, the maid motioned for her not to speak. The maid took Aillinn's arm, helped her out of the tub, and wrapped a towel around her. She then gathered the youth’s clothes and ushered her out of the queen’s chambers.
Pulling Aillinn down a nearby corridor, the maid spoke quickly in hushed tones. “I couldn’t let it happen again, miss. Queen Maeve does these… experiments o’ sorts. She never explains herself, mind ye, but we servants think she’s trying to become young and beautiful once again. I don’t know why ye’d bother trying to be beautiful here… But the girls she hypnotizes are never quite the same after, and they never leave…” The maid looked as if she wanted to explain further, yet didn’t know how.
“It’s alright, love,” said Aillinn. “Really. Thank you for getting me out of there. I was stuck in this dream, and there was this face. He looked like an angel, or maybe a god, but I feel like he’s playing a trick on me.”
“That’d be Master Aengus, miss. This is his world down here. I’ve heard that he likes to play games, especially on young lovers. He’s the Master o’ Love, in fact. Are ye missing someone, then?”
“I am!” Aillinn was hopeful for the first time since waking in the Seven Woods. “I think the Master must have tricked us both to get us to come down here. Do you know the wood well? Perhaps you can help me find my love, Baile.”
The maid looked nervous. “ I don't know it particularly well, no, but I can get ye away from the castle. I wouldn’t be able to come back here, miss. I’d have to go wherever ye’r going.”
Aillinn agreed, and upon hearing a noise from the direction of Queen Maeve’s chambers, the two set off further down the winding corridor.
The twisting path felt endless, and Aillinn was wondering if the maid was leading her into a trap when they finally reached the kitchen and exited the castle by a tiny door. The red sun still sat unmoving on the horizon, and the trees and grass on the grounds were withered.
The maid headed straight for a small opening in the trees leading into the wood. She explained, “I come out here sometimes when I want to be alone.” She kept her fast pace for about twenty minutes until the two arrived at a small clearing. “Well,” the maid said, “this is as far as I’ve ever come.”
The two decided to keep going in the direction away from the castle. Eventually, the sound of trickling water was audible, so the youth and the maid headed towards it. After drinking enough to quench their thirst, Aillinn spotted something out of the corner of her eye. It was a fairy, and the maid warned the girl that it was impossible to guess the temperament of those creatures. “She may lie to ye if she wish, miss.”
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Aillinn went to the fairy and introduced herself. “Hello. My name is Aillinn of Leinster. I was wondering if you could help me, as I am trying to find my love who I believe is also somewhere in this wood. His name is Baile of Ulster. Have you heard of him?”
The fairy giggled and danced around for a moment before pointing to a spot downstream. The girl and the maid set off in that direction and came upon three old men admiring themselves in the water. One man said, “Everything alters, and one by one we drop away.” Another agreed and said, “All that's beautiful drifts away like the waters.”
Aillinn and the maid tried to gain the attention of at least one old man, but it was useless. They continued staring at the stream. “I think ye found a tricky fairy, miss,” said the maid.
The two were about to head back in the direction whence they came when Aillinn thought she spotted a glimpse of Baile among the trees on the opposite bank.
Author's Note: I decided to continue with Aillinn's journey through my storybook before going back to Baile's. I did not want Aillinn to be rescued by Baile in Queen Maeve's castle, as that is a typical plot and I wanted to show Aillinn's own capabilities. Instead, her rescuer is a kind maid and the two quickly make the decision to flee the castle on their own. The poem that Master Aengus speaks in Aillinn's dream is called The Withering of the Boughs from the In the Seven Woods collection, and I have included the first stanza below. Danita Stokes explains that, "Here human emotions are not only linked to the natural world, they overpower it. They cause the boughs to wither." You can access her dissertation on Wind and Eternity of Yeats' poetry below. The fairy in this story was inspired by the Welsh (Emerson) story unit that I read last week in which I learned that Celtic fairies can be both extremely generous or vengeful, depending on their mood. I decided to make this fairy a trickster, similar to Master Aengus. As Hanrahan the Red mentioned fairies to Baile earlier, I wanted either Baile or Aillinn to encounter one. The words that the old men speak is also from the In the Seven Woods compilation, a poem called The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water, which you can read in its entirety below. With this, I wanted to show that things are not quite right in Master Aengus' world and that it is easy to get stuck, in a way.
The Withering of the Bows by W. B. Yeats
I cried when the moon was murmuring to the birds,
'Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will,
I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words,
For the roads are unending and there is no place to my mind.'
The honey-pale Moon lay low on the sleepy hill
And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams;
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind,
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.
'Let peewit call and curlew cry where they will,
I long for your merry and tender and pitiful words,
For the roads are unending and there is no place to my mind.'
The honey-pale Moon lay low on the sleepy hill
And I fell asleep upon lonely Echtge of streams;
No boughs have withered because of the wintry wind,
The boughs have withered because I have told them my dreams.
The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water
'Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away.'
They had hands like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say
'All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.'
To read In the Seven Woods, click here: link.
To read Danita Stokes' article, click here: link.
To read the Welsh (Emerson) story unit, click here: link.
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