"Kled came with me to Temair. He gave me some lessons in swordplay. It helped to pass the winter."
"I see," Brie said.
Collun took the torch from Brie and, lifting it up, scanned the array of swords.
Brie watched him as he moved slowly through the chambers. He lifted an elegant sword with a golden hilt, encased in a golden scabbard. He unsheathed it with a flourish, and the gleaming blade seemed to pulse; rays of gold lit the chamber. Uneasy, he resheathed it.
None of the swords seemed to suit him. Then he crossed to a blade lying on the ground, half obscured by a gilded trunk. He picked it up. It was a plain sword with no carving or precious metal. There was a little nick in the blade near the grip, and faint markings on the blade, but they were too worn down to make out, except for a very dim eight-pointed star. The scabbard was plain dark leather.
"This one looks about right for me," he said. Brie watched as he found a baldric and strapped the sword to his waist. It did look right somehow.
"I'm ready," Collun announced, his voice impersonal again. Brie picked up a small sword for herself, as well as an extra dagger.
When they left Balor's treasure chambers, Brie turned to look at the white marble structure. As she did the marble almost seemed to wrinkle and fold, and spiral shapes began curling across its surface. Then the building evaporated, leaving nothing behind but the single rowan tree in the center of the glade.
***
The first night of their journey to Sedd Brennhin, as Hanna slumbered and Brie restrung her bow, Collun asked, "So how did you do that, I mean, find the rowan tree and make the passage grave appear?"
Brie shook her head. "The fire arrow must have been working through me somehow. All I knew was that my hands were driving me crazy."
"That's some arrow," Collun said.
"Yes."
A silence grew between them. Then Collun abruptly spoke. "You have never answered the question I asked. Did you find your revenge?"
Brie stared sightlessly down at the bow across her lap. A sudden bright image of the bog and the dying men and the blood on her skin came before her eyes, and she began to tremble. She felt the old shame, as if her skin was fouled with blood that could never be washed off. "I cannot...," she breathed.
He was beside her at once. "Tell me, Brie." She could feel his breath warm on her cheek, and his fingers encircled her wrist.
And she did; she told Collun all of it, as she had told Lom on the deck of the Storm Petrel, only this time she let the tears come and Collun's arms went around her as she wept. Brie thought she had never felt so much of pain and of joy all at the same time.
When Hanna woke in the morning she saw Brie and Collun side by side, sharing a laugh at Fara, who greedily was eating oatcakes as fast as Collun could flip them out of the pan. The older woman smiled to herself, but said nothing of it.
That day as they rode ahead of Collun, Hanna asked Brie, "Who is Balor, this black sheep of your family?"
"He is, uh, was consort to Medb." She cast an uneasy glance back at Collun.
"Does he do her bidding?"
"I do not know, but I believe he plays a lone hand."
"To betray the Queen of Ghosts is perhaps imprudent?"
"Fearless, at any rate. Hanna, Balor killed my father."
Hanna reached forward for Brie's hand, holding it hard.
"You told Collun?"
"Yes." But the one thing she had not told him was what Balor had said of Collun's father, Cuillean, and his new abode in Scath.
***
Not being fond of the sea, and perhaps leery of the potential for flood, Prince Durwydd had moved the royal seat of Dungal from its original spot on the coast to a verdant but isolated valley that lay a day's journey from the fishing village of Mira. The old Sedd Brennhin, which Fionna had saved from the great flood and from where she ruled the kingdom of Dungal for many peaceful and prosperous years, lay deserted.
As they journeyed, Hanna told them something of Prince Durwydd. "He has little will for ruling, as I have already told Biri. Indeed it was ill-omened that he should have been the only heir to the throne. His main preoccupations are the stars, their movements and meaning, and Ellylon; he is fascinated by the mysterious kingdom of Tir a Ceol. He has even managed to befriend several Ellylon and, on several occasions, visited the northern reaches of Tir a Ceol with them. To his credit, he keeps several sound advisers around him, but they are not rulers."
It took five days of hard travel to reach Durwydd's fortress. As they entered the valley, Brie spotted a flutter of movement to the north. She was not sure, but thought that just as they entered the valley from the east, a company of men on horseback had left it, heading north. She was too far away to have seen what manner of men they were.
As they came to the dun's entrance, they saw that the portcullis was raised and the large door ajar.
"This bodes ill," said Hanna, peering uneasily about for watchmen or guards. Brie's nose twitched. She smelled goat.
Inside the fortress they found a hideous silence, and the terrible reek of goat-men. The inhabitants of the dun had been slaughtered, and not very long ago. Their bodies lay scattered about the rooms and hallways. Hanna's face was grim, her eyes a burning black.
But as they searched the dun they found no trace of Prince Durwydd, dead or alive. In a corner tower they came across one of his advisers, a grizzled, gray-bearded man called Ralfe, who was sorely injured, yet still alive. He told them that Durwydd, oppressed by his subjects' troubles with drought and sumog, had fled to Tir a Ceol, for a short "vacation," as he called it.
"He left yesterday; today the foul creatures came." Ralfe shuddered violently. As both Hanna and Collun worked to heal him, Brie gazed around the tower room, at the blood and lifeless bodies. Balor had indeed woven his net wide and strong, she thought.
Eventually Ralfe had fallen into an uneasy slumber, and Collun told them the adviser had a good chance of recovering. Further searching led them to several more survivors of the brutal attack, among them a voluble cook called Iryna, who had hidden in the storeroom at the bottom of the fortress, behind barrels of ale. She had some healing skill, so Collun put her in charge of the wounded. Her son, steady-eyed beyond his young years, had hidden with his mother in the storeroom and turned out to be a capable and energetic helper.
"When he returns, we will tell Prince Durwydd of the gabha," said the son.
"And you must tell him, too," said Brie, "of the powerful sorcerer whose bidding they do. Even as we speak, this sorcerer marshals his forces to invade Dungal. The army must be readied—" She broke off. "Has Dungal an army?" asked Brie.
Hanna shook her head. "Not one that is trained or organized. There has been little need of an army in Dungal, not for hundreds of years."
"An army must be mounted now."
"Yes, but—," began Hanna.
"We will mount an army. We will start with Ardara and work our way north, to Sedd Wydyr," said Brie decisively. Hanna's black eyes widened; she and Collun exchanged a glance.
"Yes, let us go to Ardara," Hanna agreed.
They traveled swiftly, pushing the Ellyl horses to their limit. They arrived in Ardara spent and exhausted.
Brie and Hanna decided to split up, while Collun waited with the horses on the outskirts of town. Hanna would go to Farmer Garmon and then on to the village, while Brie would head directly for the harbor and to Sago.
Brie hoped to find Lom first. There was much she wanted to explain to him, though she did not know where she would find the words. But when she arrived at the harbor, it was deserted. And, despite the fact that it was a fair day, perfect for fishing, the boats were all pulled up on the sand. She headed into town and found Lom at the Speckled Trout with Jacan and a knot of other fishermen.
They told Brie that the waters around Ardara continued to be infested with sumog. Several more fishermen had been killed when sumog viciously attacked their boats. A small child had even been dragged to his death when he strayed too close to the water's edge. No one would go out on the water now.