by C.S. Fanning
believing in. Finally he asked the question that he felt he had to ask. “Are you sure you want to go through with this plan?”
“If it will save as many lives as I believe it will and protect our land from these sorcerous villains who wish to enslave it then I will do what I must” Aeden replied, not at all certain that he was ready, but knowing that it had to be done.
“Very well then, I will do my part and order the retreat as soon as you give the signal” Donegal replied. Privately he thought that Eire could do just fine without its gods, but these foreign ones sounded much worse.
By nightfall Riordan’s group arrived in the camp. They had been forced to fight running battles all day against both the king’s soldiers and the henchmen of the Sorginak. The Sorginak queen herself was staying out of sight for the moment and were it not for the Dagda’s own assurances, Aeden would have had serious doubts about the likelihood of even this plan bringing her to the field.
“I told you that offering yourself up as the Morrighan’s Champion would cost you dearly” Fianna raged as Aeden shared the plan with her and Riordan. Through he had tried to downplay the personal danger in this effort, both of them had seen right through him, just as they always had.
Riordan would normally have interceded to divert some of Fianna’s wrath, but this time he couldn’t do it. As the High Druid of the all of the Gaels, it was his duty to represent and commit to the will of the gods, but those same gods were asking his friend to throw away his life. It made no sense. “Fianna is right, neither the Morrighan nor even the Dagda himself have the right to ask this of you!”
“This is the only way to save Eire. You know what these creatures are capable of; our people will be subjugated as little more than slaves. I have a job to do, one that I was born to do, and so do each of you. Now will you do your job and support me in mine or not?” Aeden demanded, giving each a look to let them understand his determination.
Riordan put his hands up in a placating gesture. “You may rest assured that when you give the signal, I will order my people to retreat as planned” he said.
Aeden looked pointedly at Fianna who had fallen silent and was looking thoughtfully at Riordan. Turning to Aeden finally she said “as I shall order my company to retreat. This may well be the stupidest thing you have ever done, which is saying something, but I will give the order.”
With that, each went their separate way. Aeden sat quietly in his tent for a time, before going to visit Faolan.
“Teagan and I are getting married!” Faolan announced his excitement effusive and contagious. Despite, or perhaps because of, what was expected of him on the morrow, Aeden found the simple joy of spending a few quiet hours alone, talking of the past and Faolan’s future to be the best use of what he believed to be his last day among the living. He didn’t know what happened to a god or half-god when they died, but he was glad of the chance not to spend his hours wondering.
Aeden was surprised at how much his friend had grown in the short weeks they had been apart. There was a time when Aeden would have laughed heartily at the suggestion that Faolan and Teagan would be together, but now he realized what Teagan must have already come to know; Faolan was a man of worth and a boy no longer. Apparently, he had been recruited for some project of the druids when the war was over, which would keep him close to Teagan as she finished her studies as a druid healer.
As he and his oldest and closest friend parted ways for what Aeden was sure was the last time, he felt even more certain that he was making the right choice. Of the companions from the village of Bretharc, all had bright futures just waiting on this crisis to end. Aeden on the other hand had neither planned for nor thought beyond the adventure that he had sought. Though it made him a bit melancholy to consider, he accepted that of his friends, he was the most expendable.
“It is the greatest gift I can give my friends” he thought as he wondered through the soldier’s camp. He was almost back to his tent when a familiar face moved in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. Teagan was wearing a look more stern than he would have thought possible.
“I am holding you accountable for his safety tomorrow” she said in a voice colder than the winter winds on the northern sea.
“I’ll see him returned to you safe” he said, determined to make it so. “After that I’m holding you accountable for taking good care of him.”
As he walked around her and on toward his tent, he could feel Teagan’s calculating stare upon him. The girl he had once thought to be a pretty face with an empty head no longer existed. He knew that she was sorting through what he had said and could only hope that would not make Faolan aware of what his revelation suggested. If she was half as intelligent as he’d come to believe her to be, she wouldn’t.
The Cauldron of Fire
Dawn broke over the land to find two of the largest armies in the history of Eire facing one another across a great bowl of land ringed in hills. Aeden stood ready with Riordan and Fianna flanking him and nearly twelve thousand sons and daughters of Eire at their back. Donegal stood to one side with his senior commanders, and from the looks they were throwing toward Aeden, Donegal must have been explaining what was to occur.
On the other side of them were the druids, at least those that were not among the troops as healers and support. Despite the massacres and the hunt of the past two years, Aeden was pleased to note that even if they had not the additional druids of Caledonia and Albion to swell their numbers, the druids of Eire still counted in the hundreds. When the battle began it was difficult to imagine that they should need the gods intervention, yet as the light fell upon the far hills, Aeden could easily tell they were outnumbered more than two to one.
Lord Donegal mounted his big stallion, and the three companions did the same, falling in to ride for the traditional parley that none among them believed would prevent the coming battle. Across the valley came the king’s representatives and both parties met at a place equidistant from the two armies, which fate had decreed be fertilized with the blood of the fallen.
The king himself had ridden forth to the surprise of everyone. He was a young king, barely into his middle years and Aeden was surprised to see that he looked aged much more than his years. Selling one’s kingdom and people to the scions of some foreign god was evidently hard on one’s constitution Aeden thought.
The other three that trailed the king were of far greater concern. All three wore the robes marking them as Sorginak. Two were men of large and powerful build, but behind them rode a slender built woman, if her delicate hands were any indication. Despite her lack of physical presence Aeden could feel the dark power wrapping her in a cocoon of magic that seemed to be without limit. Aeden had never experienced such a display of force, and he knew that he had finally met the Sorginak queen.
So finally, he faced one of the three he sought, careful not to let his gaze rest on any one of the approaching riders overlong. Glancing at Riordan, he saw the expression of recognition on his friends face and was heartened to know that another besides himself could sense their true enemy.
“Lord Donegal” the king remarked in a tone of feigned good humor, “bit of a large party for a boar hunt isn’t it?”
Lord Donegal was in no mood to bandy works with a man who had betrayed everything he was supposed to protect. “These are our terms, your majesty. Join us, and set right the heinous wrongs of the past few seasons; beginning with running these dogs into the sea” he said, pointing at the robed figures. “Restore the gods of our people and their priests to the position of honor that is their due, or be numbered among the enemies of Eire” he rumbled.
The king rocked back in his saddle as though Donegal had slapped him. He was clearly confused and Aeden wondered if indeed the king had any understanding of what had been done in his name. Perhaps this enemy queen had spelled him in some way. Before the king could form a response to Donegal’s demands, the slender Sorginak pushed her horse t
o the front, placing a hand on the king’s arm and pulling back her dark hood with the other.
The creature under the hood looked to be no more than ten summers old, frail of form yet powerful and exotic of appearance. Milky translucent skin covered a gaunt face and wisps of white hair were knotted in intricate braids on the girls head.
When she spoke the Sorginak’s voice was far too deep and old for the body from whence it issued. “Disband your army Lord Donegal and help your king to drive the druid scourge from this land” she hissed.
It was Donegal’s turn to reel in his saddle as the subtle power that the queen of the Sorginak had laced into her words struck his mind. Aeden was quite certain that Donegal would have followed her instructions without hesitation had not Riordan not placed a steadying hand on the man’s shoulder, calling forth power of his own to shield Donegal from the psychic assault.
“You see Donegal, this one would bewitch you” the Sorginak said redoubling her effort.
Though Riordan’s power was able to ward off the attack on Donegal, it was obviously a strain upon him, and the Sorginak kept up the assault almost effortlessly, smiling knowingly at Riordan. Suddenly she broke off the attack on Donegal, bringing her full power to bear