SWORD OF TULKAR by J.P. Reedman

SWORD OF TULKAR
    By J.P Reedman
     
    On a fated day, when the clouds were warped by a storm-wind into the shapes of gods and giants, I stood by the kilns on the hill outside our settlement, working the clay with my hands. Always clumsy, I cursed as the soft beakers crumpled into lumps of mud beneath my fingers. I was no good at such menial chores. I, Ardag h, the chieftain’s daughter was good at naught except being the chieftain’s daughter…. Sighing, I threw the clay aside and lay back, watching the swift passage of the clouds. Perhaps that was all I was good for – dreaming and mooning about the hillsides like one fey-touched...
    My reverie was broken as my ears picked up the sounds of feet on the grass. Sitting upright, I spied Bri, the youngest daughter of Tulkar the smith, sprinting up the hill. I rose as she approached me, lank hair flying in the wind. Thin, dark and dirty, she looked like a beggar, yet no one would ever treat her with anything less than respect for she was a smith’s daughter, and smiths were regarded as wizards, having learned the art of working the fire-metal bronze.
    “Welcome, Bri,” I greeted her. “What brings you here?” I wiped my hands on my corded kilt.
    “My feather has a gift for you.” Bri toyed with her amber necklace. “You must collect it at Haddery Burn Cave.”
    I started. “A gift for me. Why?”
    Bri shrugged. “Ask my father,” she said, and then she dashed away, vanishing into the shrubbery on the hillside.
    For a while I loitered on the hill, unsure if I should seek out Tulkar. His people were different from mine – a mysterious tribe whose customs reached back to the Beginning Time. But at last curiosity overcame me, and I began the journey to Haddery Burn.
    Full darkness had fallen when I reached Tulkar’s cave, which lay several miles outside my sire’s village. The Moon Lady floated high in the heavens, casting a pale, shimmering light over the fields. I paused on the rugged incline below the cave, gazing fearfully at its smoking mouth. Aye, for all manners of the spirits were rumoured to wander here.
     
    Fear gripped my innards and I longed to flee but then a figure emerged from the cave and called out to me. I paused as I recognised Tulkar’s wife, Oulagh.
    “Oulagh !” I cried happily, clambering over the heaps of shale towards her. She turned, smiling. No beauty, Oulagh was thirty summers old, toothless and arthritic, but her face shone with the simple joy of living.
    “Is that you, Ardagh?” she asked , peering into the gloom. “I sent Bri to bring you hither, but the silly child returned alone.”
    I strode over to Oulagh , dwarfing the little woman by more than a head. “I… I was not sure if I should come.”
    “Have no fear,” Oo said, as if reading all my troubled thoughts. “My husband means you no harm. Why would he mean ill to Ardagh, chieftain’s daughter?”
    Taking my hand, she led me into Haddery Burn cave, the secret lair of the smith and before him, another smith, and before him yet another right back to the days when smiths first realized how to forge metal from stone. I stared here and there, wide eyed, while Oulagh’s scruffy brood of children regarded me with amusement. All about in the shadows gleamed valuable objects; swords, shields, cauldrons. The light from the hearth fire made them glow blood-red.
    In a corner Tulkar sat cross-legged, observing me, his sweat-streaked face wizened as old leather, but not unkindly. A naked infant crawled over his knees, playing with an amulet that hung around the smith’s neck.
    “Master Tulkar.” I bowed reverently. Though conquerors of Tulkar’s folk, the People of the Hills, my tribe still treated them with due respect. Their knowledge of earth-magic outstripped all others in our land, and earth magic was necessary to ensure the fertility of the man and beast.
    “Ardagh.” Tulkar dislodged the baby and rose. He was only a slightly taller than I, and bandy-legged from