“Danhoul, place your hand upon her belly, and will her to be healed!”
Danhoul did as instructed and it was clear he nearly lost his concentration when he heard Alainn scream as loudly and painfully as she had previously when the old woman had been using her sharpened tools.
It was then the dark shadow of a disturbing image appeared upon the wall. It was a despicable being Danhoul and Alainn had both seen before, the demon that had been unrelentingly pursuing Alainn for some time. He clearly had come to prevent them from ending her time with child, to ensure the child was eventually born.
As soon as the shadow transformed into an actual being of a most hideously grotesque appearance, Aine’s sword and shield appeared in her hands once more. She thrust the sword toward the demon and he lashed back at her with an unusual black smoke and fire that flowed from his clawed fingertips.
Danhoul stared at the demon and imagined the creature being tossed against the wall and it happened without fail. When he pulled his own sword from its scabbard, Alainn threw out her hands and caused a lightning bolt to appear and touch Danhoul’s sword, charming it with her powers, yet again. The entire weapon magically glowed and was brightly illuminated. When he lunged toward the demon, he backed away with fear in his cold eyes.
“Lugh!” Alainn beckoned loudly.
Suddenly an immense Celtic god appeared within the chamber and he, too, was armed with godly weaponry. Danhoul looked away for a moment, distracted by the guardian god who was not always capable of entering the human realm, and, at that very time, the demon sent a ball of fire toward Danhoul. Alainn glanced toward the fire and with a mere nod of her head the fireball flew to the ground at the demon’s feet. Lugh hurled his spear at the demon and he managed to toss it back toward the god without touching it.
With all four of the magical beings uniting their powers against the demon, he seemed aware he had little hope of battling so many. He became consumed in a thick black smoke and then disappeared.
While Alainn was breathing a deep sigh of relief, the others criticized the god.
“Why did you not come earlier?” both Aine and Danhoul accusingly questioned Lugh.
He did not respond, for only then he seemed to notice Alainn’s pale complexion and the bloody cloths upon the table.
“What the hell has happened to her?”
“If you had come when you were summoned, you would know why your presence would have been welcomed earlier. Why does she have a god for a guardian if you don’t come to her aid when she needs you?” Danhoul bristled as he drew nearer to the imposing figure.
Alainn noted how tall the young man had become. He was surely almost as tall as Killian now, and few men were of Killian’s height. In actuality, he was now only a head shorter than Lugh, the enormous Celtic god.
“Tis doubtful your criticisms will benefit your charge,” Aine offered.
“Aye, well, they benefit me for it makes me feel considerably better to direct my frustration toward someone.” Danhoul growled.
“It appears you have developed a temper to go along with your lusting and your frustration, Danhoul. It is true, Lugh has been marginally negligent in his assistance of my great-granddaughter, but once more I inform you, oftentimes gods are not allowed to simply alleviate a situation. How then are humans to learn from their mistakes if they are simply undone by the higher powers? If no consequences befall a human, what then will prevent them from making the same mistake on another occasion or in another life?”
“Well put, Aine! If I simply make this unpleasantness disappear, what will keep the young witch from fornicating with any man she so desires?”
Alainn had kept silent through the entire exchange for she was intent on trying to decide what could be attempted in dealing with her situation, but Lugh’s words angered her beyond a simmering rage. She moved from her position upon the table, straightened her skirts once more and glowered furiously at the god. Soon the entire chamber was shaking as a result of her fury.
“Sure you must calm down, Alainn!” Danhoul urged.
Alainn continued to stare openly at her godly guardian and when she glanced at the bloodied rags upon the table they burst into flames which were then hurled in the entity’s direction. He placed his shield before him to protect himself, but was startled when the fire passed through the shield and touched his skin. He jumped at the painful sensation.
“Why the hell would you attempt to harm me when I am necessary to keepin’ you safe? And, moreover, how is it you can cause me pain when I both invincible and immortal?” He fumed.
“You dare suggest I desired to be bedded by the vile king? You believe for even one moment I longed to be bedded by that perverse, deplorable man? I would have as soon mated with the demon now pursuing me, and I speak the truth openly in that regard. Now, if you cannot assist me in this predicament I find myself in, then be gone with you, to another realm again if you so desire, for sure you’d desire millennia of imprisonment as readily as I desired to be shagged and impregnated by a man who is not my husband!”
“Shagged?” The male god squinted and glanced at the others for clarification.
“A term used by humans in the future,” Danhoul begrudgingly replied.
Alainn felt the fiery glare in her eyes as she glared at Lugh’s face. He actually cringed at the intensity of her gaze. He turned away from her clearly despising the fact that a human woman could make him quake. She had once sent him to another realm with no way for him to be returned until she lifted the spell of banishment. Since then, he admitted she had unusual abilities even he could not match, but she seemed unable to manage this womanly dilemma she now faced.
“Why do you not simply go back in time and change the outcome? You possess the powers within you to do so. Don’t lie with the king for, in the end, it was not advantageous in seeing your husband saved from the tower at any rate, and in the pandemonium in that crowded city on that fateful day the decree was not required nor looked upon.”
Alainn stared accusingly at Danhoul.
“The decrees signed by the king stating you and Killian were free to leave the city were not of benefit?” she questioned.
Danhoul regrettably replied with the truth for, up till now, he and Killian had kept it from her.
“There was much commotion in the melee on the streets. As you must recall, a crowd of mob proportion had formed. The guards were harshly dealing with the violence and the many fires in the streets. No one had time to ask for the decrees.”
Lugh spoke again. “Go back in time. Go to London, and deny the king’s advances. Capably manage him with your mind as you did in the end!”
Alainn looked at Danhoul and then at Aine with a glimmer of hopefulness in her eyes.
“Could it be as simple as that; do you believe it can be undone in that manner? But sure Lily would not have been protected then.”
“Perhaps!” Aine answered her query, but her face conveyed some reluctance.
Alainn envisioned the fairy goddess’s thoughts within her mind and the clear images came to her. She gasped aloud and glanced accusingly at Aine.
“You would have allowed me to go back in time to attempt this feat knowing if we had stayed even one day longer in London, Killian would have met with death on the king’s block?”
The goddess did not respond, but the expression on her face made Alainn realize the other female had been completely aware of the outcome if she had chosen that path and gone back in time.
“I cannot make the decisions for you, my kin, nor can I allow you to see any future events that you are not already aware of by way of your own powers or premonitory visions. You possess uncommon powers and it is up to you to decide how you employ your magic.”
“But if it is as you claim, and as you have so often stated, if I am allegedly so vitally necessary to the fated battle of good and evil that will one day be fought, perhaps the gods should be more obliging to me. If Killian should lose his life because of an event you know of, a ha
ppening that could have been avoided, or thwarted by a manner either of you are aware of, I will turn my back on all of you, at the risk of angering the council of the gods, I swear it upon my own life. I would gladly take my life before I would do their bidding if they allow Killian to meet his death when it could have been prevented! Force us to live this life again, perhaps hundreds of times, but know this, I will be no more obliging to you in any life I should ever live, for I will hold tight to this memory. Mark my words!”
“Alainn!” Danhoul reached out to touch her arm as the ground beneath them started to violently shake once more. This time the walls of the small stone cottage had begun to buckle. He pulled her out of the door in time for her to see the two gods disappear and the cottage crumble to the ground. Alainn shook with her deep enragement.
*
Danhoul had little time to prevent the inevitable as he saw Alainn disappear into a hazy mist before him. His head began to throb as she was distanced from him. Because he was her guardian it had been a condition placed on him, and though he understood it, he despised it. If he allowed her to be away from him and in possible danger, his head would become so filled with intense pain, he could scarcely bear it. It ensured she stayed close and he kept her well-guarded. Always before, Alainn had seemed empathetic toward his plight and would either allow him to remain in close proximity or at the very least warn him if she planned to be parted from him. Clearly, she was not thinking in a purposeful or usual manner at this time.
Aine and Lugh appeared beside him again.
“Follow her, Danhoul!” Aine warned.
“I cannot!” he admitted. “She has apparently magically ventured to a place I cannot see.”
“Lugh?” the female questioned in a voice now filled with concern.
The guardian-god attempted to use his powers to see where the witch had gone, but his face became filled with puzzlement.
“I, too, am unable to see where she has gone!” he regretfully confessed.
Aine stood stock still, closed her eyes, and was intent on discovering Alainn’s location. Her always proud face grew clouded.
“We must find her husband, for she will not leave him for long. He is what firmly binds her to this world and to a life of goodness. Without him, she may truly choose a path of evil, for as we are all aware, that is often the easiest path and why those who claim magic too often choose to follow the darkness. Killian O’Brien must not learn of his wife’s present circumstances, for if they were to have a parting of ways that, too, may affect her good temperament and whom she sides with.”
“Alainn would never choose evil; she has not an evil bone within her body, even the cursed dagger could not turn her entirely!” Danhoul stated vehemently as he held his hands to his head in obvious agony.
The fairy goddess touched her own hand to his head. He slowly slumped to the ground in a deep sleep.
“Why ever did you do that, Aine? Surely he will be needed.”
“He will be no good to us in his present state of torture in being separated from my great-granddaughter. Now he will sleep until we discover Alainn’s whereabouts. Pick him up and carry him with us now! Ardal will never forgive us if he is harmed.”
“Then Ardal can come assist us with lugging his own boy about the realms!”
Instantly another large and muscular god appeared beside them. This man had long brown hair that hung nearly to his waist. He threw a displeased look at Lugh, hoisted Danhoul effortlessly over his shoulder, and, without a word to either of the other gods, vanished.
Chapter Five
After much discussion and eventually bribing the guard, Killian and Conner had been granted a brief time within the prison and allowed to speak the prisoner they’d requested to see. As they walked down the long dark corridor in the immense prison, Killian listened to the hopeless moans and smelled the putrid scents all around him.
Glancing into the cramped narrow cells, he whispered to Conner. “Are two men really expected to share these small chambers?”
“Aye, two and sometimes more, but I assure you it’s better by far than being kept in the common room. It’s verra much worse there, and you’d not care to know what atrocities take place when a hundred or more despairing and often irredeemable men are kept together in close proximity.”
As they passed another room with a larger barred window, Killian presumed this was a chamber of which Conner had mentioned for there were louder guttural sounds coming from within and cries of pain and desperation.
Conner’s hand instinctively went to his sword, his jaw tightened, and he looked straight ahead and began to walk faster.
When they reached the cell, the prisoner appeared stunned to see them as they were shown inside the cell.
“Rough him up if you need to, but don’t kill him. Though it’s certain he wouldna be missed by anyone, it would be too difficult to explain and it would be too much effort to carry his worthless body to the boneyard, otherwise I dinna care what you do to him.” The guard said as he locked the door behind them.
Killian raised his eyebrow at the guard’s cruel apathy, but leaned against the stone wall.
“We wish to discuss the man who once shared this cell with you. Tell us what you know of him.”
Killian glanced about the small dismal chamber and waited for the imprisoned man to answer his question. Conner’s face had changed as soon as they had stepped into the cell. Killian presumed being here in this prison was evoking many unpleasant memories for his friend. He had been held prisoner here for taking the life of his brother, a Scottish chieftain. And although Conner seldom spoke of the ordeals he had faced during his time here, Killian concluded it was an experience that would haunt any man for the rest of his days. Killian had assured Conner he could meet with the imprisoned man alone, that his presence was not necessary, but Conner had insisted in accompanying him.
“I dinna ken much about him. He was a quiet, serious sort not given to flapping his tongue.”
“Why are some prisoners given separate cells and others kept in the common chamber?” Killian had been curious, but hadn’t asked the question of Conner.
The man narrowed his eyes at Killian and seemed to be deciding whether he would answer his inquiry.
“It’s usually because you’ve killed other prisoners.” It was Conner who spoke. “When they get tired of hauling the bodies out, as the guard suggested, then I suppose it’s easier for them to move a man to a different location.”
Killian nodded in understanding and returned to questioning the prisoner. “We have heard it said you believe the man who once shared your cell was from Ireland. The guards apparently don’t clearly recall that he sounded Irish or don’t remember him speaking of coming from Ireland. Did he confide in you? Tell me why you believe he was Irish!” Killian asked once more.
“I told you, he wasna talkative.”
“Just tell me what you know.”
“And what’ll be in it for me?” the belligerent man questioned.
“A fist between the eyes will be what you’ll face if you don’t answer the man!” Conner shouted with authority.
Although the man’s face still held a doubtful sneer, he observed the two large men standing near him and his eyes detected recognition as he glanced at Conner. His tongue soon loosened.
“He did seem to want to hide the fact that he was Irish, and when he did speak, he sounded like he hailed from Scotland like you and me.” He looked at Conner again as he spoke, “But he talked in his sleep occasionally, and then he would mention Ireland with a fondness, and you couldn’t miss the fact he spoke with an Irish lilt! He spoke in Gaelic occasionally, but sometimes in his dreams he called out in a language I’ve never heard tell of before or since. It sounded like gibberish to me.”
Killian recalled the ancient druid language Alainn sometimes used and thought it likely that might be what the prisoner referred to. That might indicate it was Teige O’Rorke who had shared this man’s cell.
“And what d
id the man speak of; did he mention any specific names of places or people?” Killian continued.
“Not places, but, aye, he often spoke a woman’s name in a grievous tone.”
“And what was the name he spoke of?”
“It’s been some time now since I laid eyes on the man! I was half asleep myself when he was rambling on and crying out in his sleep. How am I to remember the name of a woman I never knew?”
“Give it a go!” Conner ordered as he moved one step closer to the man in a threatening manner.
“I don’t know. Maybe it Meera or it might have been Moira, no, that doesna seem entirely correct, but it was something similar.”
“Could it have been Mara?” Killian suggested.
“Aye, that’s it… well, I think that was it.”
“Well, was it Mara, or not?” Killian found himself becoming impatient.
“Aye, it was, for I thought it an odd sounding name, especially in the way he spoke it like it broke his heart to say the verra word.”
“The guard tells us you were with him when he escaped. Can you inform us as to how he managed it?”
“You’ll not connect me to his escape in any manner, for I swear on my verra life I had no knowledge of his intention of escaping for it was not something most people would even believe if I did tell it as I saw it.”
“You can’t be sure of that. So no matter the absurdity of how it happened, simply tell us how he did it,” Killian insisted.
“Now, I canna say as I can tell you how he did it, for it involved some sort of magic or enchantment, but I can tell you what I recall. He spoke that strange language again, and then a large fiery glowing archway appeared on the wall, just here.”
The man pointed to the stone wall and then quickly backed away as though he was still wary of it. “And then he simply walked through the location like it was a doorway to another world, and then the man disappeared before my eyes.”
“Why did ye not go after him? Why would ye not follow him through if it meant you might escape as well?” Conner queried.
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