Donaill the Celtic warrior rides out one winter night with
friends to fetch a midwife. He's determined to face the
dark forest and rumoured home of the Sidhe, the fairy
folk. In the side of a fairy mound is the cave where
Rioghan (pronounced Regan) lives, protected by hounds.
Donaill is surprised to see that this woman is young and
fair, having imagined a crone. He asks her to visit the
troubled girl Sabha in the ring fort of Cahir Cullen.
KEEPER OF THE LIGHT shows Rioghan learning from the
distressed girl that her husband Airt slept with another
woman. Rioghan determines that black arts were used to
induce Airt to forget his vows, the outsider hoping that
Sabha would divorce Airt and she could wed him. Airt sees
nothing wrong in taking a second wife now that he is rising
in status, but Sabha has made it clear that she won't
accept this custom. Rioghan gives Sabha the strength to
talk it out with her husband and leaves... and Donaill
escorts her home, keen to see more of this solitary lady.
Soon after however the word has spread that Rioghan keeps
golden trinkets in her cave, and violent thieves armed with
swords, spears and nets come to rob and maim. Rioghan
escapes with her life, but clearly the men of Cahir Cullen
cannot be trusted, and Donaill will have a hard job
persuading her otherwise.
I always enjoy Janeen O'Kerry's reconstructions of ancient
Irish daily life. The Breton laws are debated, by which a
first wife was immune from punishment if she harmed a
second wife or her husband in the first three days of the
new arrangement, murder excluded. A man could only keep a
second wife if he could support her and the first wife
agreed. These laws were introduced by the Celts, and their
predecessors the small dark Milesian settlers called Fir
Bolg - in this tale referred to as the Sidhe - had not
developed such a complex way of life. The people eat oaten
flatbread with butter, honey, cheese and apple sauce, and
wear woollen cloaks and tunics woven on large communal
looms. A wild boar brought in from the hunt is cause for a
feast, for in winter dried food is all too common. The
ladies of every status want to help Rioghan, knowing her
value as a midwife.
Dark arts, earth magic and greed are a volatile combination
and make a powerful romantic adventure in KEEPER OF THE
LIGHT.
When an enchantress finds her life and all the secrets she
guards threatened, only a Champion of Men can save her.
In ancient Ireland, the woman known as Rioghan keeps a
fragile peace with the nearby settlement of Men by serving
as a midwife and healer. She has met the King’s Champion,
the handsome Donaill, more than once, and finds him to be
one of the few to deal fairly with the Sidhe—or Little
People, as the Men derisively call them.
But when some of the Men learn that Rioghan guards more than
just secrets, and indeed knows the whereabouts of the
Sidhe’s golden treasure, she will have to place her trust in
Donaill in order to save her own people and, perhaps, find a
future for herself beyond the loneliness of the forest.
This Retro Romance reprint was originally published in
January 2003 by Leisure Books.
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