“Will ye sit still for it?”
“What choice have I?”
“Ye should ha’ come to me. Come in secret if need be. We might—”
Brihan shook his head. “He is too powerful. He has eyes. Some o’ my own men, I do no’ doubt, have been bought or threatened. He will know ye ha’ been here. I only hope it does no’ cost Donen’s life.”
Fearghal clapped the man on the shoulder. “Chief Brihan, I do no’ wish to be at war wi’ ye.”
“Nor I wi’ ye.”
“But it, aye, does seem the way the stones are cast.”
Brihan said nothing. An agony lay in his eyes.
“Will ye at least gi’ us safe conduct from your lands?”
“Aye, I will. Go home, Fearghal. Set your defenses. Set them well.”
The meeting at an end, they arose and made their way from the hall, past all the staring faces that waited outside.
It seemed they would get away alive after all.
No one spoke until they had mounted their chariots and ridden off, when Fearghal turned to Ardahl and said, “Who can blame a man for loving his son?”
Who, indeed?
Not until they reached home, when the two chariots rolled into the settlement and they disembarked, did Ardahl find Cathair at his shoulder.
He turned, half startled, to face Cathair’s fierce blue eyes.
“I suppose ye think yoursel’ somewhat to brag of, Ardahl MacCormac, wi’ your place at the chief’s side. But I am here to warn ye. Ye would do well all the same to watch your back.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Dark had begunto gather on the backs of the hills before Fearghal’s party returned. Liadan, who had found excuses to roam around the settlement throughout the day, was near the spring when the first cries came. Despite the chief’s desire for a measure of secrecy, members of the guard had been watching all day. They passed the word ahead of the arriving party, into the settlement.
Though Liadan ran forward, she was not the only one and could not get close—not close enough. Did they come whole, injured, or on their shields? Would she see both chariots?
Aye.When she glimpsed the heads of all four ponies and the men in the carts, she near fell down with the power of her relief.
The chief was there, already giving orders. And aye—Ardahl beside him. She could not glimpse him easily with so many in the way, but he moved briskly. She caught sight of him leaping down, then pausing as a tall man with very fair hair spoke to him.
Cathair.
Despite her glorious happiness at having Ardahl back, a chill went through her.
“They ha’ returned, then?”
Maeve stood beside her, composed and quiet, only the light in her eyes betraying her happiness.
“Aye.”
“We will let him finish wi’ his chief and come to us, eh?”
“Cathair is there. I do no’ trust Cathair.”
Maeve looked at her.
