Excerpt from "Fleadh de Deux" by Terry McGarry
Full story appears in Blood Muse, edited by Esther M. Friesner and
Martin H. Greenberg
Donald I. Fine, Inc., New York, November 1995
Only the music held his interest now. He had been both oppressor and oppressed,
both rich and poor, landlord and tenant. He had lived one lifetime to the drumbeats
of a hillfort, another to the sound of Druidic chanting, seen the comrades of
still another die of starvation with lips stained green from eating grass. He
had seen battle with iron swords, rebellion with guns. He had heard the music
of war and the music of insurrection; he had been harper to kings and a king
himself.
He knew the genesis of the music these people played as none of them could.
He remembered the rough precursors of the bodhran; he remembered the faodog,
the two-hole birdbone flute. He remembered the oldest of slow airs...and because
of it, he was utterly alone, for no one had been where he had been or seen what
he had seen, and even if he could summon up the words, there was no one he could
say them to.
Now, only the music remained, and the dull ache of limited options: playing
it alone or playing it badly. Tonight, for just a few hours, he would alleviate
that ache, and then face the long stretch of nights that must pass before he
dared do it again.
Copyright © 1995 Terry McGarry
Blood Muse: Timeless Tales of Vampires in the Arts is a collection of stories about
vampires who are artists themselves, or who inspire artists. But that doesn't begin to describe
the variety and quality of the works in the book. Other contributors include Jane Yolen, Christie
Golden, Susan Shwartz, Billie Sue Mosiman, Benjamin Adams, Pamela D. Hodgson, Alexandra
Elizabeth Honigsberg, M. Turville-Heitz, Lyn Nichols, Chuck Rothman, Terry Campbell, Mark
Kreighbaum, and Cynthia L. Ward.
For more information, take a look at the Kirkus review linked to Pam Hodgson's
page, which someday, presumably, will migrate to www.maines.org.
