Chapter 3
HER FATHER WAS angry.
Deidre should have expected as much; she should have told him where she was going. But it had all sounded just too . . . unbelievable.
For once she was thankful Kylin was with her.
As soon as they returned to her village they had sought out her father.
They stood before Eamon while Kylin explained about the sword, the cauldron and the spear, how whatever they might be, ancient Tuatha Dé Danann or angels, they seemed to be trying everything in their power to help, to give them the strength they were going to need,
Her father called a council. Aidan, of course, was there. Kylin’s father and his advisors were asked to attend, and Sigurd arrived with not just his council, but with his wife, Bridget, and daughters, Maureen and Maeve.
Their village priest, Father Mark, also came, and while Deidre did some of the speaking, Kylin did the most, explaining the strangeness of her sword, their dreams, and the discoveries that day of the cauldron and the spear.
She was afraid that Father Mark would think that they were determined to fall back to their old Druid ways, or that they were seeking something even older, looking to usurp all that had come to the isle.
But Father Mark, an aging man with snow-white hair and beard, listened gravely to all and, as Kylin had suggested, agreed that there were many ways to look at such gifts, and if they had been given to them, then something was coming, and they could be seen as gifts from the angels.
In fact, in the elderly priest’s mind, the entire race of the Tuatha Dé Danann might have been one of angels, come first to rid the land of monsters before the coming of man.
The meeting seemed long.
But when it ended, it had been determined that something was happening, that there would, indeed, be an attack, and that it might well be imminent. They needed to spread across the land to warn the various areas and kings, with hopes that they could give a united front.
Legends of the Tuatha Dé Danaan spoke of them retreating into the earth among the fairy folk; since the time of Patrick, as she so well knew, most people thought of the ancients as a way for angels to appear, to help when needed.
And remembering tales from her childhood, Deidre thought there had been a story about the return of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, and that they would restore the gifts they had once given the island people when they might be needed for a great defense of the realm.
It had been a story, just a story.
Or, it had been oral history.
They had to prepare; they had to fight. Kylin, son of Sigurd, might seem to be an unlikely warrior for this mission, but . . . had the Tuatha Dé Danaan chosen him?
She snapped herself back to attention. Their discussion was still going on!
“But we cannot be undefended here. Our people have already suffered enough,” Eamon declared.
“Father, I will lead here, as is right, and—” Aidan began.
Sigurd cut in. “And as is right, my men and I will fight with you, Aidan, as is our sworn promise.”
“Because,” Eamon continued, “as it appears that Kylin and Deidre have been chosen for the greatest part of the mission upon which we must embark, they will choose a small company of warriors to travel with them.”
“Father, first, we should ride alone,” Deidre argued. “Two riders will not appear as any threat. And it’s most important first that we head less than a day’s good ride north.”
“Because as all men are not to be trusted,” Kylin said quietly, “we must start with Declan McGinn, the ard-rí sitting at Tara, for he will not be part of any enemy to come upon the land.”
“Aye, as it must be,” Eamon agreed. “Aidan—” he began, looking to his son.
“Father, I already have men watching the shore for the arrival of ships for here by the sea we are most vulnerable. We are the place where even the Romans came to trade. As we have been taught by those who came before us, we will be ever vigilant, and I will send couriers to the settlements just north and south on the water.”
“And they must take great care,” Kylin said. “For though we fear that there are those here who might band with them, they need the numbers from foreign lands if they wish to create an army large enough to come upon us and sweep throughout éire.”
“I believe that the attack yesterday was but an advance,” Deidre put in.
“It isn’t something that I wish to believe, and yet it is something that we must fear,” Eamon said sagely. He looked at Sigurd.
Kylin’s father was a man from the northern isles, and he had the look of one: his hair was a fading gold, rich and thick still, and his beard was golden as well, just shaded by a bit of red.
He was a tall man, a big man, aging, but Deidre knew, still capable of being a formidable warrior.
He was younger by a decade than her own father, and she wanted to believe that he meant his every word, that he would fight by her brother’s side, obeying him as commander of their forces.
But as the meeting ended, she saw that her father and Sigurd were in conversation and that Kylin had gone to speak with his sisters.
She knew that he was concerned, and she smiled because she assumed it was his nature to worry about anyone he saw as vulnerable.
When she saw that her brother walked up to join that group, she realized that Aidan knew and liked both girls.
“You needn’t fear, Kylin,” Aidan said. “I will protect these two as if they were my own family, I swear by all that is holy.”
“I’m not afraid with you leading the men here,” Kylin assured him. “And of course, I give my solemn word to you that I will protect your sister—”
Deidre had known where he was going with his words, and she couldn’t resist hurrying over to interrupt. “Maeve, Maureen, I promise that I will protect your brother!”
She liked Maeve and Maureen as well. They were all about the same age, Maeve and Maureen being just a year apart and Deidre born just months after Maureen.
As children, they had played together.
The girls laughed before growing serious.
“It’s in the very air, isn’t it?” Maureen asked.
“And you mustn’t fear that Aidan has been given too much to bear, leading forces and vowing to watch over our safety as well.
Deidre, I don’t think that we have your prowess, but neither was our father ever a fool.
We have also been taught to wield knives and swords, and though the enemy was beaten back yesterday before falling upon the villages themselves, well, when we must, trust this—we will fight. ”
“We have our honor!” Maeve agreed.
“And you will need a horse in the morning. We will want to move very quickly,” Kylin told Deidre.
She smiled at that. “I have a horse.”
“As good a horse as Darragh?” he asked her.
“I do admit that you have quite a mount in Darragh!” she conceded. “But I have my own horse and he moves as quickly as any might desire.”
“I’ve not seen you riding,” he said.
She shrugged. “I felt my mission today best taken on foot.”
“And it might have been better if you had mentioned it to me!” her brother told her sternly.
“Well, we found one another,” Kylin said lightly.
“And the spear and the cauldron, just as we were . . . instructed in our dreams,” he added, shaking his head as if he still couldn’t quite grasp what seemed to be happening.
“But two men did set out after Deidre. We don’t know where they came from, but they didn’t come from the sea. ”
“And they weren’t men that you knew?” Aidan asked, looking from Kylin to Deidre. “Any idea who they were or where they might have come from?” At her annoyed look, he said, “Right, you didn’t know them, but did anything suggest a place, or . . .” He shook his head. “I guess I’m reaching at straws.”
Kylin shook his head, looking at Deidre.
“No. They weren’t from our villages. And in our determination to return here, we couldn’t take the time to try to drag back the bodies to see if anyone did know them, or perhaps know where they had come from,” Deidre said.
“But you said that they spoke?” Aidan asked, though he had heard them explain all that had happened during the meeting. “I realize we’re going over this again, but we have so little else to go on.”
“The one called back to the other. They were after Deidre and her sword,” Kylin repeated from the council.
“But the one man, dying, referred to Kylin as a traitor and son of a traitor,” Deidre reminded them.
“The point here is that they knew Deidre was out, that she had ridden from the village headed somewhere—and they knew you, Kylin,” Aidan said.
“And thus, points toward what we fear and expect. An attack on the island, and yesterday they tried an initial invasion here, I believe. Perhaps even a test, an exploration. But as they were soundly beaten, perhaps they will try just south or north of here. More reason that the ard-rí must know what has happened and may happen as soon as possible.”
“We had planned to start by morning’s light,” Kylin said thoughtfully. “Perhaps we should hope that the moon will guide the way.”
He looked at Deidre.
“I will speak with Father,” Deidre murmured, leaving them to make her way through those who lingered.
He was still in conversation with Sigurd and his Irish wife, Bridget, who had joined them. She greeted Deidre gently, with a hug and a kiss upon the cheek. She remained an attractive woman, an older version of her daughters.
“Ah, lass! You must take the gravest care!” Bridget told her. “We’ve heard how valiantly you met the enemy. Few warriors can claim such prowess.”
“My thanks, lady,” Deidre murmured politely. Sigurd studied her without speaking and she launched into what she hoped came across as a statement and not a request.
“Kylin and Aidan think that Kylin and I should start out for Tara tonight, that we need to reach Ard-rí Declan as quickly as possible,” she said.
“Travel by night could be treacherous,” Eamon told her.