“I understand you have an agreement with my father,” Fergal said, “but I can handle myself in a fight, you know.”

  Maeve slowed Scáth so the porter could pull even with her and scanned him from head to toe.

  “You find yourself in a lot of fights?” she asked.

  “More than you’d think. My dad’s not a young man anymore and someone needs to keep the peace when tempers flare.”

  “We may find ourselves in situations that can’t be solved by slugging local drunks,” Maeve said.

  “Are you any good with a weapon or a bow?” Brigid asked.

  Fergal beamed his brightest smile of the day.

  “Put something heavy in my hand and I can make many things fall over, hai.”

  Brigid smiled.

  “Works for me.”

  Maeve cleared her throat.

  “Say, Fergal, can you lead the way for a bit? I need to work on a plan with my friends here.”

  Fergal’s eyes bounced around the forest on their right.

  “Of course,” he said. “Just don’t get lost in conversation. Haven’t heard of much activity during the day, but we can’t take it for granted.”

  Maeve hoped her deep nod concealed her amusement.

  “Of course. Lead on.”

  The twins fell in line and flanked her.

  “What do you make of our guide?” she asked.

  “I like him,” Brendan said.

  “Care to elaborate?” Maeve asked.

  Brendan shrugged.

  “He’s big and willing to help out a bunch of outsiders based on one conversation,” Brendan said. “What’s not to like?”

  Maeve squinted and wobbled her head. She didn’t disagree with him, but she had hoped—in spite of her many conversations with Brendan—that he’d offer something more solid to go on.

  “There’s something more about him,” Brigid said. “At first glance he seems like some big stump working for his dad, but you heard how he convinced his father to help us.”

  “I did,” Maeve said. “But surely his family isn’t sílrad, right?”

  “I didn’t sense anything coming from them,” Brendan said. “If they are, it’s been dormant in their line for ages.”

  “Say that we do have to bring him into a fight,” Maeve said. “We may have to use all of our abilities. How do you think he’ll react?”

  Brigid frowned and pointed to her brother.

  “Well, this one was ready to tell them last night,” she said. “I cannot believe you were going to do that!”

  “Oi, I wanted to move things along, and it didn’t feel like they were fully on board yet,” he said. “I was going to put it out there and force them to choose. Either way, we’d have an answer.”

  “You were an eejit,” Brigid said. “And if I thought it wouldn’t have drawn more attention to it, I would have clattered you on the spot. As for your man up there, he seems sound. We should try and feel him out while things are quiet.”

  “Agreed on all points,” Maeve said. “Especially the need to clatter your eejit brother.”

  Brendan hung his head and sighed.

  “How would we go about it?” Brigid asked.

  “Well, it would have to be subtle,” Maeve said. “So that rules out Brendan. And if I attempted more than a few questions at a time it would sound like an interrogation. You’re in charge of that bit.”

  “She’s right,” Brendan said. “Get up there.”

  Brigid eased her mount forward until she was next to Fergal. They were close enough that Maeve could eavesdrop on their conversation if she so desired but Maeve trusted Brigid with the task at hand.

  Besides, there was another conversation to be had—even if Brendan wouldn’t let her start it.

  “Why aren’t we checking these woods first?” Brendan asked.

  “It’s as Fergal said: we’re not likely to find much during the day,” she said. “We’ll go all the way to Ballykenny Point first and suss out why the people are singling out that place. My guess is that we’ll be back through here by evening. We’ll have a much better chance of finding something useful.”

  “It’s possible you and I have different definitions of the word ‘useful.’”

  “We also have different definitions of ‘discretion.’”

  Brendan hung his head.

  “This again?” he asked.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She slowed her horse and turned her whole face toward him.

  “It’ll be ‘this again’ as many times as it takes you to understand why we don’t share our world with strangers—in the common room of an inn, no less.”

  “I understand it fine, thanks.”

  “I don’t think you do. We’ve got the Normans running around rewriting our history to match the Bible and labeling anything they don’t like as devilish. Start in with sorcery in the wrong place and you’re as likely to get yourself burned alive for witchcraft as you are assistance from the townsfolk.”

  “Oi!”

  They both spun their heads down the road to check whether or not Brendan’s outburst caught the attention of pair in front. Judging from the smiles and nods, Maeve and Brendan could have returned to Rathmullan by the time Fergal or Brigid would have noticed they were gone.

  “I know I shouldn’t have done it,” Brendan said.

  “Then why did you?” Maeve asked.

  “I—I don’t have a good reason. Definitely not one good enough for you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Brendan paused to consider his words. He gauged Maeve’s facial expression and blinked slowly.

  “I get it. You’re Maeve O’Connor. You can track anything. Hunt anything. You won’t shut up about all these skills of observation you honed while being on your own. But I think that’s really a cover. You’ve fallen out of practice with your sílrad abilities and you’re too proud to admit it. Instead, you lean even further into—”

  He circled her with his hand.

  “—this, and act like it’s all by design.”

  Maeve felt her cheeks warm and a vein throb above her temple. She clenched her teeth as she spoke.

  “You going somewhere with this? Other than to a surgeon to fix your broken jaw?”

  Brendan surveyed Maeve’s face once again. He took a deep breath that cooled the fire behind his eyes.

  “Sorry. I took it too far.”

  “I should say so.”

  “But not as far as you think. C’mere to me, you’re not the only one capable of judging someone’s character, nor are you flawless in your own dealings with others. You were close to getting us thrown out by the innkeeper before I stepped in, and then where would we be?”

  She looked at the road for an answer and found none among the dirt and rocks.

  “I can’t give you any better reason for what I did other than I had a strong feeling I could trust them. Or Fergal, at least.”

  She met his eyes once more.

  “Brigid and I came all this way on just a summons because we trusted you and your reasons for doing so. The question you have to ask yourself now is whether you trust me, trust the both of us. Because if you don’t, it makes me wonder why I’m even here.”

  They were several miles out of Rathmullan when at last the woods on their right retreated to the middle distance. Their overall visibility worsened, however, as they merely traded thick forest for obscured meadow on their right as the road diverted from the shore on their left.

  “Not to be that person,” Maeve said, “but I’m struggling to get my bearings in all this cover. How much farther until Ballykenny Point?”

  Brendan placed a hand on his chest and feigned shock. His face eventually cracked and he turned his grin toward his sister.

  Maeve raised her eyebrows and flattened her expression. Without a word she told Brendan that it was still too soon after their confrontation for light-hearted mockery.

  “Hai, maybe a mile until we turn south off the main road,” Fergal said. “Then another mile after that—though the going slows after the turn.”

  Maeve grunted her thanks and frowned at the flinty sky above. Even a broken sky would lighten the fields behind the trees and undergrowth that lined the road. She didn’t need much to surveil the world around her.

  The road rejoined the lough after another quarter mile.

  “There’s the Swilly,” Brigid said. “At least we have something to look at other than more trees.”

  “That’s actually Drongawn Lough down in this area,” Fergal said.

  “Don’t care what you call it,” Brendan said. “My sister’s right.”

  By the time the road departed the water’s edge, sparsely-defined meadows sprawled in both directions, punctuated by single homes at uneven intervals.

  “Doesn’t inspire much dread during the day,” Brendan said.

  Maeve shook her head in agreement, as much as it annoyed her to do so.

  “Our turn’s up ahead on the left,” Fergal said.

  She scanned the horizon to the south and noted the forest that started half of a mile from the main road. Its trees didn’t reach as high as the woods they had followed that morning yet they seemed just as dark within.

  “Brigid, look there,” she said. “Dya’think about it?”

  Brigid narrowed her eyes tilted her head.

  “Doesn’t seem right. Can’t put my finger on why.”

  Brendan smiled.

  “It would appear we’re on the right trail, then.”

  Brigid turned to their guide.

  “Are the people around here approachable?”

  “Normally, yes,” Fergal said. “So long as you’re straight with ‘em and don’t keep ‘em too long. Lately, though? Everybody here is more on edge. You can try it but don’t expect better luck than you had near Knockalla.”

  “How about that man up there?” Maeve asked.

  She pointed a large man pulling a cart from the opposite direction.

  “Let’s go,” Brendan said.

  “Now hang on,” Fergal said. “I don’t care how big a man is. No one is going to stop and chat on the side of a road with with well-armed strangers that approach him for no reason.”

  “He’s right,” Maeve said. “I’ll go talk to him.”

  Brendan lifted his eyebrows halfway up his forehead.

  “You really think you’re the one that will put him at ease?” he asked.

  Their earlier conversation never left the back of her mind. What’s worse, the look in his eye told her that he knew as much. She glared at him to force his gaze elsewhere; his face instead softened into a silent plea. She closed her eyes, exhaled sharply and flung her hand upward towards him.

  “Go on, then,” she said.

  “Oh, no,” he said. “Not me. We need someone better equipped for the job.”

  He smiled at his sister. When she couldn’t shake him off with a knitted brow, she looked to Fergal in appeal and was met with a single lifted shoulder. She rolled her eyes at her brother and drew back the corners of her mouth into a broad smile, ready for her performance.

  In truth Brigid did not need much preparation. She was gregarious with a talent for finding the shortest route to mirth. She possessed an inner light which subverted her stout, unrefined exterior. If her heart was in it, her smile could attract and ensnare a crowd of all types.

  Brendan was right; Brigid would fare better than her brash brother or her gruff friend.

  The traveler had set the handles of his cart on the ground less than half a minute after introductions. Fergal’s back stiffened as the distant conversation continued. The stranger and Brigid took turns pointing both to the group and in the opposite direction from which the man came. Brigid pointed to the forest and the traveler shook his head several times. Only after she rested her hand on the man’s elbow—causing Fergal to squirm in his saddle—did the man’s posture loosen and a lengthy conversation ensued.

  The man followed Brigid as she returned to the group and greeted them all with a smile and a single nod.

  “I think you lot are foolish to try, but I wish you luck,” he said. “We all would be glad to be rid of the unease.”

  “Thank you, Rónán,” Brigid said with a wave and wiggle of her fingers.

  The traveler continued east and the group approached their turn.

  “He says he used to hear animals—he wouldn’t say wolves—around here a month or two ago,” Brigid said. “Not lately, however. People here remain cautious as if they could come back.”

  “What about those men spotted in Rathmullan?” Brendan asked.

  “He remembers seeing men coming and going down this road around the time the ‘animals’ arrived,” Brigid said. “He knows most of the people on it, so these strangers stood out. He says he was never close enough to get a good look but, honestly, I’m not sure if I believe that part.”

  “Any particular reason?” Maeve asked.

  “That was the only time in our talk where he got… itchy.”

  Maeve nodded.

  “Let’s keep moving then,” she said. “Even if they’re not here now, they clearly hid out around here earlier.”