27
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Killian collected me from my room a day and a half later, the first morning that I rose without a tight tension across my entire body. The first day that I was me again.
“What would you like to do today?” he asked, his voice aimed to sound excited, but the darkness beneath his eyes speaking louder.
“I want to go and see Urram.”
Killian stopped in his path, where we had strolled several minutes beyond the doors of the castle. “What?”
“Urram. I wish to speak with him.”
Frowning, Killian continued his walk. Not towards the village, nor the barn, but in a direction we had yet to travel — deeper into the forest.
“We can’t. The kingdoms are on lockdown. It would be a miracle if we could make it out of Choilltean, and even then we are likely to be shot down flying over Uisge.”
“Lockdown? Until when?”
He pushed his hands deep into his pockets as he looked up to the canopied sky. “Until the battle is over, I guess.”
I had a response prepared to that, but two familiar faces stepped out from behind trees along our path, Niamh and Shea beaming sly grins in our direction.
“Ladies—” Killian mocked a bow to them, earning him two eye rolls and a tight-lipped smile from myself.
“We’ve come to steal Olivia,” Niamh declared, Shea nodding along at her side. Killian cocked a brow as he looked down his side at me.
“I didn’t plan this!” I laughed, stepping forward between the three of them. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere that the ever-lasting reek of male hormones can’t follow us,” Shea said, shooting a sharp glare at Killian who threw his hands up in defeat.
He finally dropped his hands, turning to me. “If you want to go with them, then go.”
I had been looking forward to spending the day with him, but the thought of spending it with Niamh and Shea was far too intriguing to let pass. So with a childish grin I patted Killian on the back, letting Niamh and Shea lead me deeper into the forest.
~
Quite possibly the most useless fact I learned while in Saoghal was that it took the pixies an hour to scale the full height of the elms. It took a human, shrunken down to the size of a pixie, two hours and three breakdowns, not to mention the numerous splinters and handful of hair that got caught on a branch and I had to cut free.
“Why–why are we up here?” My mind was caught between fighting for breath and speaking, but as I finally caught up to them at the very tip of the tree, I let myself ask the question.
“For the view, of course.” Niamh grinned from where she sat, perfectly placed on a large leaf overlooking the ocean beyond Choilltean.
“O-okay,” I huffed, “let me reword that. Why am I here? I was under the impression Shea had a strong dislike for me.”
Shea gasped as she found her position on the leaf above Niamh’s, watching me as I clung to the trunk.
“Shea doesn’t dislike you.”
“On the contrary.” Shea wasn’t doing herself any favours by the way she glared at me. “Of all the females Killian has taken a liking to, I dislike you the least.”
“Thanks… I think?”
I wasn’t going to dare touch on the topic of Killian while the two of them watched me like they were hawks and I was a field mouse.
I crawled across the carpet of green that was the elm leaf Niamh sat on, perching myself at her side as we looked across the ocean. The sun was viscous above us, bringing down a heat that would never reach the ground of Choilltean but was content burning at the tops of their trees.
“What’s that?” My eyes caught on something just to the side of the sea, near the barn that I had already visited several times. It was a large, vast patch of dark objects collecting on the sea-shore, crossing into the woodlands slowly but surely.
“Ah.” Niamh sighed, following the line from my finger to the source. “Preparations, I think.”
“Preparations for what?”
“For–”
“Don’t, Niamh,” Shea growled.
But Niamh ignored Shea. “For the battle, of course.”
I tipped my head upwards, catching Shea’s eyes from where she lay across her leaf, her head dangling towards us. “Why can’t she speak about it?”
“She can, just not to you.”
“Raegan.” I shook my head, sending him a silent slew of curses in my head.
Niamh placed a soft hand on top of mine, squeezing ever so slightly. “What you said to him… that was harsh.”
“And untrue,” Shea added.
My spine snapped straight as I alternated a glare to each of them. “He told you?”
“He didn’t have to. The whole castle heard your argument.” Niamh swung some of her dark hair over her shoulder, looking back out to the sea. “Tell her, Shea.”
“No.”
“Tell me what?”
“She’s not going to let it go until you tell her.”
“She’s right, I won’t.” For extra measure, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Tell me what?”
Silence stretched between the three of us, the absence of noise so damning I was prepared to take to the trunk of the tree just to reach Shea and shake some sense into her. Just as I started to move towards it, she sighed.
She let out three more sighs before she started. “When Killian and Raegan found the Rachainn that day on the tanker, he had been shredded and picked apart. They’re not sure if it was by the hand of one of those from Uisge, or if it had been an animal of sorts. My bet is on a hawk—”
“Shea!”
“Sorry. Anyway, Raegan got him back to the castle. The same healers that tended to you, tended to the Rachainn.”
“Raegan didn’t torture Eoghan?” I let out a much needed breath, one that I had been holding since I saw Eoghan die.
They both shook their heads.
“Why didn’t he just tell me that?”
Niamh let out a little giggle. “When it comes to the Prince, it’s best not to try and understand his actions.”
“He still made a spectacle of his death,” I grumbled, turning away from the two of them and looking out at the very ocean that had sealed the Rachainn’s demise.
“No one said he was perfect.” Shea shrugged.
Letting that sink in, the three of us returned to staring at the vastness that was the world beyond Saoghal.
The docks off to the north, home to vessels belonging to the humans who docked and undocked as the minutes ticked by.
The small specks on the horizon that signified the beginning of homes and businesses.
The string of dark clouds against that very horizon, not completely natural but there nonetheless.
~
“Has anyone ever tried just… talking to the Rachainn?”
Both Niamh and Shea laughed at me.
“What? Is that so farfetched?”
“Yes,” they both said.
“So humour me for a moment.” Turning, I tried my best to position both Niamh and Shea in my view. “Humour me on this — what do the Rachainn truly want?”
Both of their faces grew grim. Niamh was the one who narrowed her eyes and answered me. “The first of the Rachainn were two pixies; Ivy and Niall. Ivy was of Cluaineach, Niall was… Niall was from Reultan.”
“R-reultan? Where is that?”
Niamh and Shea shared a look, the latter sighing and motioning for Niamh to continue.
“Well, we don’t think it exists anymore.
It was the fifth kingdom. But it’s been centuries since anyone has seen a pixie from there.
Either they are lost to us, or they choose to distance themselves from Saoghal. It’s hard to say.”
“But… where was it?”
Both Shea and Niamh only lifted a pointed finger to the heavens.
“That’s Speur, isn’t it?”
“Beyond Speur. Within the stars themselves.” Shea said, her eyes full of wonder for the first time.
“Anyway—” Niamh repositioned herself on her folded knees, excitement in her voice, “—they were the first known pixies to try to defy the laws of Saoghal. When it became apparent that they were mates, they thought to defy all five kingdoms in the pursuit of remaining together.”
I couldn’t help but frown. “But that’s… that’s not a bad thing.”
“It is to us, Olivia,” Shea warned.
“It was small at first. They stormed the streets of their respective kingdoms, chanting and berating the townsfolk with their nonsense. But then more voices were heard, joining in alongside the two. From there, their movement only grew. Which was fine, for the longest time, until fanatics within their group started to become violent. That was when each of the kingdoms signed their decrees, banishing any who associated themselves with the movement.”
Shea nodded along. “Banished from the kingdoms, they took up new names, dropping any association with Saoghal. They called themselves the Rachainn, peeled their ears from their heads, and decided to start a new life.”
“And the pixies of Saoghal let the Rachainn go,” Niamh sighed, glancing up to the sky above us. “Until their violence spread into the human world. They thought that they could live as the fairies lived — amongst the humans. But they can’t.”
“But I’ve never heard of any violence such as what you speak of.”
“You wouldn’t have,” Shea groaned. “Saoghal worked tirelessly to cover up the Rachainn tracks. The healers have pùdar balgan-buachair, a powdered substance that can clear memories. So we travelled from disaster to disaster, cleaning up their messes. Until several decades ago, when the Rachainn went quiet.”
Niamh looked to Shea with a heavy setting of her brows. “What if… What if this whole time they haven’t been quiet? Would King Ronan have just stopped telling us about them?”
“It’s possible.”
“Why?” I barked.
“Well, because of Queen Aoife.”
I couldn’t help but to gasp. “It was the Rachainn who killed her?”
“Killed?” Shea nearly fell off of her leaf by how quickly her body snapped backwards. “Queen Aoife wasn’t killed by the Rachainn. She became a Rachainn.”
“W-what? But Rory told me she was dead?”
“She is.” Niamh frowned again. “Because King Ronan killed her.”
Shea leaned back, tucking her knees to her chest and hugging them to her body. “I’ve always wondered about that, you know. They say for one mate to kill another is so frowned upon by Cernunnos that he curses them.”
Niamh shrugged at her companion all while chewing at her lower lip. “This is all very doom and gloom,” she sighed, “but to answer your question, Olivia, greater people than you and I have tried to reason with the Rachainn. But they will settle for nothing but the utter downfall of Saoghal.”
“I just don’t understand them,” I admitted, though I wasn’t talking to them but to myself. “For all that they stand for — unity, peace, and acceptance — why are they so violent?”
What if my friends were wrong? What if there was more to the story? And most damning of all, what if my friends knew this and yet still stood firm on their hatred of the Rachainn?
“Well—” Shea slapped her legs before rising to her feet. “Shall we go poke around the preparations?”
With a groan at the thought of somehow descending down the tree, I nodded and let Niamh lift me to my feet.