Brenna, don’t let him bait you, Rebecca warned.
Don’t you think he’d look good merged with one of these trees? Brenna responded.
Rebecca and Morrighan cracked up. Jeremy’s eyes widened in alarm.
“Pass me those smoked oysters,” Brenna said to Jeremy. She put one of the oysters on a cracker and ate it.
Andrew tried baiting Jeremy next. “Your girlfriend fucked three men last night. A real man wouldn’t put up with that.”
Jeremy eyed Rebecca. “At the same time?” he said with a grin.
“It was really hot,” Brenna said, reaching for the grapes. Rebecca blushed.
“Oh, I see,” Andrew persisted, “he’s a fancy boy, only interested in men.”
“They weren’t very good,” Liam said. Almost immediately, he began to sway in the saddle, his eyes closed, he slumped, then fell off his horse.
“Delayed succubus reaction,” Brenna told them. “He’s so damn stupid he didn’t realize he’d been drained until now. It happens sometimes.”
Morrighan burst into laughter.
“Bitch! What did you do to him?” Andrew’s face was red, veins standing out in his forehead.
Brenna and her party ignored him. Rebecca picked up the wine bottle and refilled everyone’s glass. Andrew spurred his horse forward, evidently intending to ride through their picnic. His horse bumped against the air shield and stopped.
One of his companions dismounted and knelt over Liam. “He’s drained, Andrew. His life energy is dangerously low.”
Andrew wheeled his horse and charged toward the tied horses. This time his horse hit Brenna’s air shield, stumbled and fell. Andrew hit the ground hard, and lay still after the horse heaved itself back to its feet.
“If I was you,” Brenna looked up at the three men still awake, “I’d cut my losses. Take your asshole buddies and get the hell out of here before I lose my temper.”
It took them some time to hoist Liam over his saddle and to get Andrew up and mounted, but they left, riding back in the direction of the manor.
Grandfather, Brenna sent to Fergus, Andrew and some of his friends attempted to assault us. They’re heading back to the manor now.
How badly did you hurt them? Fergus responded. Brenna appreciated the calmness in his thought.
I drained one of them, and Andrew fell off his horse when it hit my air shield, but we didn’t do anything to them otherwise.
By the time they rode back to the manor, Andrew had been sent off to Dublin and told not to come back until Brenna had left.
~~~
Chapter 2-16
It is always surprising how small a part of life is taken up by meaningful moments. Most often they are over before they start although they cast a light on the future and make the person who originated them unforgettable. - King Chulalongkorn, Anna and the King of Siam
As comfortable as she felt with most of the people, when it came time to take their leave, Brenna was ready to go. As they rode in a luxuriously appointed bus toward the west coast and Limerick, Antonia told her that if she held multiple Clans, she should consider finding trusted stewards to act as her managers.
“Not necessarily locals, Brenna, but people who above all are loyal to you. If they are local and have the respect of the local people, and the power to hold off any insubordination, then all the better. I don’t see that happening here unless you have a violent purge at the beginning. And that also has its dangers. Starting your reign by showing strength is good, but it must be strength with fairness and mercy. Cruelty and retribution only build resentment, and mercy without strength is too often seen as weakness.”
As they crossed Ireland, those who had never been to the country before were fascinated and the bus windows were filled with faces the whole way. They spent one night in Limerick, then traveled up the wild Atlantic coast, past the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher. Finally arriving in Ballyshannon, they took over a small hotel. After a short rest, Siobhan took her friends to a village on the outskirts of the town to meet her mother.
A tall blonde woman of middle age, still beautiful with a voluptuous body, opened the door of the house where they stopped. She smiled at them and gave Siobhan a hug, then stood hands on hips studying Irina.
“You took two turns in the pretty line and missed the height line altogether, didn’t you?” Sinead O’Conner said. “Welcome, niece, I thought I’d lost my sister forever, but here a piece of her shows up on my doorstep.” She shook her head, and then enveloped the young succubus in a hug. “It is so good to see you, come in, all of you come in.”
Inside the tidy cottage, Sinead fussed over them, served them tea and sandwiches and finally settling herself made Irina tell her everything she could about her mother and herself.
“You and my grandmother were twins. Did you look alike?” Irina asked. “I’ve never even seen a picture of her.”
Sinead pointed to pictures above the fireplace. “As alike as two peas,” she said. “No one could ever tell us apart, even our mother.”
She pulled some pictures out of a drawer and gave them to Irina. “For you and your mother,” she said.
At one point in the evening, Siobhan asked her mother, “Do you see Da very often?”
“Oh yes, he comes around every month to be drained. He would like to see you Siobhan. You haven’t visited him the last three times you’ve been here.”
Siobhan’s face showed distaste. “He hasn’t made any move to come see me, or write me either. I’m not going to see him under his conditions. It’s humiliating to have him tell people that I’ve come for counseling, as if there’s something wrong with me. He’s the one with the problem.”
Seamus had been born near here and O’Donnell Group ran a factory here as well as two more between Ballyshannon and Donegal. This was part of the traditional O’Donnell holding and the area was full of Clan. The village Sinead lived in was all Clan and there were two more in the area, feeding workers to the factory.
“I’m getting ready to retire,” Sinead told them. “I’ve spent my whole life in this village, and a hundred years is enough. My sister had the wanderlust and wanted to see the world. She saw it and it killed her, but now I also feel restless.”
She went to a cabinet and pulled a double handful of picture postcards from a drawer. Setting them on the table, she waved her hands at them, “Mairead sent me these from everywhere she went, almost every country in Europe. Russia, Turkey, the Middle East, Egypt, over thirty years of post cards. I’m going to take a year or two and go to each of these places and then I’m going to settle down in Paris and become a courtesan to rich old men.”
“You’ve never even been to Paris,” Siobhan protested. “How do you know you’ll like it?”
“It’s close to Ireland, it’s full of rich old men and it’s warmer than Donegal. What’s not to like?”
“Have you considered London?” Irina asked.
Sinead looked at her young niece. “London? Why in the devil’s name would I want to go there? It’s full of English, the worst of all the trash in the world. I might as well go to Dublin and live in the sewer.”
Brenna laughed, “Not a fan of the English, eh?”
“The people who invaded my country, killed, tortured and subjugated my people? Burned innocent Clanswomen at the stake? And their food?” she leaned forward and confided conspiratorially, “I think that’s what makes them so mean. If I had to eat what they do, I’d be angry all the time, too.”
Before they left Siobhan extracted a promise from her mother to come to New York after her retirement and spend a month before embarking on her tour.
On the way back to their hotel, Brenna asked Siobhan about her father. “He’s a Catholic priest. I’m glad she’s getting out of here. He’s been stringing her along for sixty years, telling her he’s in love with her but he’s dedicated his life to God. Well, his vows have never stopped him from warming her bed, or
knocking her up. He can go to hell, which if he’s right about his God, he will.”
~~~
They drove along the coast under gray skies, turning off the highway and then turned again and yet again onto increasingly smaller roads and away from civilization. They came to a gate in a high fence, electrified and topped with razor wire. Rebecca sent out a broadcast that was nothing but letters and numbers, and in less than five minutes two Protectors showed up carrying assault rifles.
“State your business,” one said in a deep brogue.
I am Brenna Aoife O’Donnell, and I have come home.
When she had asked Seamus about her castle, he made a wry face. “Your father always called it The Castle, but Brenna, it’s not like what you’d picture from that description. It’s more of a fortified manor house. Yes, there’s a wall with battlements, but it wouldn’t withstand a two-hour siege, not even in the sixteenth century. The wall is only eighteen feet high, not sixty, and the house is not a castle. It has about forty rooms, two stories tall with a basement.”
Seamus’ eyes seemed to focus on something far away. “It’s in one of the most beautiful places on earth, but it’s a wild and stark beauty. Donegal is not like most of Ireland. It’s mountainous and rocky and a hard place to live. The population is small and it’s out of the way. We’ve located several factories there, but that’s to provide work for our people. The factories are marginally profitable, but the logistics reduce what we could make if they were located elsewhere.”
His attention shifted back to Brenna. “What I do ask is that you don’t sell it, at least not in my lifetime. If you don’t want it, let me know and I’ll figure out a way to take it off your hands.”
He had shown her pictures, so she knew what to expect. The outer wall did remind one of a castle, though lower and narrower. The house sat at the back of the compound, surrounded by a rough lawn with grazing sheep.
They drove to the house, the Atlantic before them. Pulling in through the main gate, she disembarked and stared up at the house. Several people, mostly Protectors, came out the front door and a man who reminded her of Seamus approached her.
“Good day, mi’ lady. I’m Darwin O’Donnell, steward. Welcome, it’s good to see you and to have people here again.”
While their luggage was carried in, he showed her about. A large two-story foyer formed the entry, with wide curving staircases on either side leading to an open landing. Beyond the foyer, a wide short corridor ended in the main hall, a large room but only a quarter the size of the ballroom at the West Virginia estate. It contained several large tables and Darwin told her that was where her party would dine.
To the right were the kitchen and storerooms, laundry, and other areas for the support of the house and its occupants. He took her down a narrower hall, opening doors to show her first the main parlor, then various rooms used as offices, an entertainment room with a billiards table and wet bar, a small theater and a smaller parlor. The rooms had twelve-foot ceilings and were spacious but not huge. The walls and decorations were elegant and tasteful, the overall impression definitely nineteenth century. It was in this house that Seamus had been born.
Upstairs were twelve bedrooms, the two largest, as in West Virginia, at the opposite ends of the hall. Shown to her room, it was about the size of the room she had shared with Rebecca in Wickford, but the view through the wall of windows took her breath away. Looking over the outer wall, she could see that the house sat on the edge of a cliff falling away to the ocean. The coastline was rugged, but she could see a sandy beach a bit to the north. Black-faced sheep grazed along the edges of the cliffs. The area was spectacular but there was nothing soft about its beauty.
Sitting in the main parlor with Darwin and Rebecca, he explained that he was Seamus’ younger half-brother. The estate was fairly large and he lived in a small village, comprised mostly of his family, about a quarter mile north of the manor. The estate was self-sustaining, raising sheep and cattle and growing grain, mostly for the animals and people living there. The estate also owned two fishing boats that berthed in Killybegs around the bay and some of his family ran those.
She owned it all, but neither Seamus nor her father had ever taken anything out of the place. All the money earned went to sustain the people living there and maintain the estate. Darwin had a fund set aside to support the infrequent visits of his relatives from the States. She told him she had no plans to change any of that, except that she would transfer money to him to pay for their stay. His relief was apparent.
~~~
The next day they toured the area around the bay, going up to Donegal and having lunch at a pub in Killybegs, where she had a chance to see her boats. Fishing mainly for herring and mackerel, they were large enough to venture north at times for the more lucrative white fish in northern waters. Before heading back to the manor, she was given two large coolers full of fresh fish to take back for their night’s dinner.
They spent a week and the sun shone one day. She and Rebecca walked along the cliffs and in the woods, sometimes accompanied by her other friends. She was told the beach was popular with the locals at the height of summer, but Siobhan told her the Irish thought seventy degrees Fahrenheit was a heat wave. Nonetheless, she and Rebecca went swimming that one sunny day, and she was delighted when she discovered gray seals and again had the chance to play with them. This time, however, there was no audience save for a few Protectors and she didn’t have to deal with any weird reactions.
Touring Donegal Castle was fun, but it wasn’t the same structure her family had once held when they ruled Donegal. Red Hugh O’Donnell had razed it to keep it out of the hands of the English and the castle had been rebuilt by later lords after the English conquest.
~~~
They bid goodbye to the O’Donnells and the castle, heading next to the O’Neill estate in County Tyrone, sightseeing on the way.
At the ring fort at Grianan Ailigh, Brenna had a startling experience. Built by the Tuatha De Danann four thousand years before, it was an impressive structure, perched on the top of a high hill. Legend said it was destroyed in 1101 A.D. and reconstructed in the 1800s. Once it was the seat of power of the Niall, King of Ulster and ancestor of the O’Donnells and O’Neills.
When she first saw it, she had a moment of déjà vu, a slight disorientation. But when she walked inside she felt the world spinning and then she blacked out for an instant. Opening her eyes, she was standing in the middle of the fortress, but it was different. Dark-haired people with blue eyes wore richly colored robes with sparkling metal jewelry. Fine wooden buildings three stories high filled the space. Streets radiated from an open center. A woman in a gauzy white gown that did nothing to hide her body floated – literally floated – across the compound wearing a definite Glow and a smile. Everywhere Brenna looked, the people were using Gifts.
Down one street, two women had a large pot hanging over an open fire, next to two men who were skinning a deer. Naked children ran playing and laughing. In an alcove between two buildings, a young man and woman were making love, in full view of everyone, but no one seemed to notice and the couple didn’t seem to be in any hurry to finish.
Something very hard hit her in the butt, and she found herself sitting on the ground in the present time, Rebecca turning toward her with a startled look on her face.
“What happened? Are you all right?” Confused, Rebecca looked around, then knelt beside her. “Brenna, are you all right? Did you slip?” Her concern deepened, “Did you faint?”
Feeling the vision flee, her mind clearing, Brenna looked up at her friend and said, “Did I go anywhere? Have I been here the whole time?”
“Yes, you’ve been here. We walked through the entrance and I turned around for a moment. When I turned back, you were going down. Good thing you’ve got a lot of padding back there.”
“So as far as you know, I just decided to sit down all of a sudden?”
“Sit down rather hard.”
“Wow, what a trip!
I … I think I just had a postcog vision. Either that or I’ve been out in the sun too long.”
Glancing at the leaden sky and the drizzle that had been their constant companion all day, Rebecca discounted the second explanation. “What did you see?”
“This place on a bright sunny day, but populated by people dressed in fine robes, using Gifts. A priestess, a succubus, was floating along, not touching the ground. They all had black hair and blue eyes.” She brightened, feeling excited about what happened. “I had a feeling of disorientation and then it felt as though I blacked out, just for a second, and I was standing right here. There was a village all around me, inside the walls, people doing things, wooden buildings like row houses, people cooking, kids playing, a couple making love. They were civilized, Rebecca, not savages. Wow! I saw my ancestors!”
~~~
Chapter 2-17
What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are. - Tony Robbins
The O’Neills and O’Donnells shared a common heritage and had been neighbors for thousands of years. Feuding, fighting border skirmishes and raiding each other’s cattle, they weren’t opposed to trading their women in marriage, and were staunch allies against the English. Following the Flight of the Lords in 1607, the O’Donnell Clan had settled in exile in France, Spain and Austria, but after a couple of generations the O’Neill head had returned home, bowed before the English monarch and regained lands and prominence.
Tyrone was now part of English-held Northern Ireland, while bleak and poor Donegal was the only part of Ulster remaining with the Irish Republic. The families had kept their ties, and the alliance they had forged against the English had never wavered.
Brenna’s grandmother O’Byrne was Corwin O’Neill’s younger sister, and Brenna’s mother had been Corwin’s heir. Brenna anticipated another uncomfortable situation such as the one at O’Byrne. Corwin was almost two hundred years old, and had named several heirs over his lifetime. His own legitimate son Hugh was currently heir, but at various times Fergus and Caylin’s son who had died in World War I had been heir, another of Hugh’s sons who was now dead had been named and then Maureen. Hugh had been heir for the past fifteen years.
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