“Are you telling me it never crossed your mind?” Donal asked.

  “Why would it?” Maura asked.

  “Because it’s curious,” he said. He pointed over his shoulder to the east. “On one side of that bridge, people age—kind of. On the other side, people don’t. Is it the bridge? Is it the ground?” He turned to Caitlín and rested his hand on her shoulder. “What happens if we throw some dirt from Tír na mBeo in a sack and carry it with us?”

  Donal’s nudge shook Caitlín from her thousand-foot stare. “Sorry? Oh, I… hadn’t thought about it.” She grasped Donal’s hand and smiled. “I think there’s something to be said for a little mystery, don’t you?”

  Brendan perked up and pointed at Donal. “Or, what if we carry some dirt from Tír Tairnigire into Tír na mBeo?” he said. “Will that stop us from aging?”

  “That’s a question!” Donal said. He caught Siobhan eyeing him with a faint smile and inverted eyebrows. “What?”

  Siobhan scratched the back of her head. “It’s nothing.”

  Donal waited for her to elaborate.

  “You reminded me of your brother just now,” she said. “It caught me by surprise.”

  “It’s fine,” Donal said. “I miss him, too.”

  Siobhan’s eyes widened.

  “You heard me right.”

  “Aren’t you worried about him?” she asked.

  “I can’t be,” Donal said. “I’ve been fighting off that melter in my head every time things around me get quiet. If I allow myself to worry I may as well throw open the doors for him.”

  Siobhan’s upper body drooped as she sighed. “Donal, I’m sorry. We should have spoken more about it.”

  Donal squished his face. “I thought I just explained why we shouldn’t.” He pointed to Brigid. “Maybe you two should talk?”

  Brigid shook her head. “Naw. Fergal’s been proving people wrong longer than I’ve known him. He’s running with good people. Worrying about him right now merely borrows trouble that I can’t fix.”

  Siobhan nodded.

  The group entered Derglocha paused at the crossing nearest the river. Sorcha disappeared down a side street for several minutes and returned with a bag full of roasted venison.

  “It’s not the freshest, but it will do fine for a lunch on the move,” she said.

  “We should just eat it now before it spoils,” Ciara said.

  Sorcha grinned. “It takes a long time for food to spoil here,” she said. “The fresh taste doesn’t last, sadly.”

  “That’s enough for me,” Donal said. He looked at Caitlín. “Don’t you need to get supplies from home before we go?”

  Caitlín’s smile dropped. “Donal, I don’t think I’m going to go with you,” she said.

  Donal twisted his head. “Why not?”

  “Even if I were into this business, I’d be of no use to you. I don’t fight. I don’t have any of the Tuatha Dé in me. All of this isn’t me.”

  In the periphery of his vision, Donal caught Siobhan ushering the others away from himself and Caitlín.

  “I was hoping you’d come along with your cousin,” Donal said. “It would make wandering around this place bearable, even interesting.”

  She stepped toward him and held his hands. Her smile spread wide but it did not crease the top half of her face. “You’re a lovely lad, and I’m glad to have met you,” she said. “You must visit me whenever you come back through town.”

  She leaned against Donal, forcing him to catch her, and gave him a much more deliberate kiss than the one she had given last night. When she finally pulled away, she smiled once more. “Good luck to you. Bring Maura back in one piece, would you?”

  “Does that pay extra?” Donal asked.

  “I can scrounge something up.” She rested a hand on his cheek and then turned to head home, pausing for a last wave to the group. “Good luck to you all.”

  Sorcha hugged Maura. “Please be safe.”

  “Have you ever known me not to be?” Maura asked.

  Sorcha smiled. “Don’t make this the first time, then.”

  The group started west toward the river. Donal caught up with them and stepped into the space between Brendan and Siobhan.

  “Sorry, Donal,” Brendan said. “That’s a shame.”

  Donal jerked his head back. “A ‘shame?’ Did you not see us shifting back there? Did you not hear her tell me to come visit her?”

  Brendan cinched his mouth and looked at Siobhan with raised eyebrows. Siobhan threw an arm around Donal. “Sometimes splashing looks like swimming, too.”

  “I knew it,” Ciara said. “We followed the wrong fork.”

  “You didn’t know that,” Donal said, “and you don’t know it now.”

  She wasn’t helping his mood. Donal had never been a fan of doubling back or revisions, and the first stretch along the River Flúidorus merely retraced their earliest moments in Tír Tairnigire. The river turned north once it passed the trail leading to the portal.

  A pristine forest blanketed their side of the river. Dense, unkempt grassland sprawled eastward from the river’s other bank, a massive grazing field waiting for its first cow or sheep.

  The group happened upon a fork two miles north of the portal trail. The wider branch turned west toward a thinner part of the forest. A smaller branch continued north.

  Indeed, Ciara was the only one to suggest following the northern branch. She told Siobhan it was “too early” to change course. She had no evidence to support her instinct, however, and she failed to sway even Brendan.

  Siobhan clenched her jaw as she spun slowly in place, surveying the area. If the tall foothills to the north, west and south weren’t enough to stop the group’s progress, the mountains peering over those hills surely would stop them.

  The river ended in front of them with not even a pond as its headwater, just a narrow field of bright green upon which runoff from the nearby mountains collected.

  More backtracking, Shadow told Donal. Your friends don’t have a clue.

  “Stop it,” Donal muttered. “Not another word.”

  “I said nothing,” Ciara said. “I don’t have to say anything, do I?”

  Donal scoured the back of his head. “I wasn’t talking to you.”

  Ciara wrinkled her brow and the bridge of her nose. “Fine.” She shook her head and turned to face east, the only visible exit available to them.

  “Ciara, wait,” Brendan said. “Let me confirm there’s nothing here before we leave.” He rotated his hands. “Sellaid druíde?t.” He shook his head and dropped his hands. “I sense nothing.”

  “From here it looked and felt like you called no magic at all,” Siobhan said. She stepped to the side and pushed her hand forward. “Gáe?.” She tried twice more. “This is a problem.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Maura’s eyes darted between Siobhan and Brendan. “What is?”

  “Our magic still isn’t working properly,” Siobhan said. She squinted at Brendan. “How did you work that scrying spell when we arrived?”

  “I had to take Ciara’s staff and spin it around mine,” he said.

  “Grand!” Maura said. “You can use your staves to conjure magic until—”

  “—They don’t ‘conjure’ magic from nothing,” Donal said. “It involves a trade between other planes of being.”

  Maura nodded. “I know—”

  “—Maura raises a fine point,” Donal said, wrinkling his nose at Siobhan. “What’s wrong with relying on your staves?”

  “That’s not how it’s supposed to work,” Siobhan said. She shook her staff. “These aren’t the source of our magic. It’s our abilities that allow us to exchange energy between the planes. We’re the source of our staves’ magic. We should take care not to use magic until we can sort the reason for this difficulty. The results may not match our expectations.”

  Maura raised a hand. “I think that’s—”

  “What about Donal and I?” Brigid asked.

  Maura twisted Donal toward her. “You have magic?”

  “Brigid and I don’t cast spells,” Donal said. “It’s more to strengthen our fighting and physical skills. It’s called—”

  “—Imbáulad magic,” Maura said.

  “You knew that?” Brendan asked.

  Maura groaned to the sky and pulled back her sword. “Fuip fíniúna.” She swung her weapon forward and a vine formed of semi-opaque amber light extended from the tip of her blade. The vine struck the ground between the other members of the group, its one-inch thorns gouging the ground before ultimately fading.

  Ciara and the twins stood silently and looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Siobhan and Donal turned to Maura.

  “My apologies,” Maura said, “but it is quite tough to get a word in between you people. I have my own magic, and I don’t need a staff or a weapon to cast it—unless I’m holding a weapon, of course. It seems to me that you folk are trying too hard, like you’re trying to drag the magic by its hair out into the world. It’s all around you here.”

  Siobhan, Brendan and Ciara exchanged confused expressions and looked at their hands.

  “May we continue on our journey?” Maura asked.

  “Grand,” Siobhan said. “We’ll need all the help that we can get.”

  Brigid pointed to a small saddle between two hills to the north. “If we have to go north, let’s start there.”

  “We’ve got enough of a journey without adding all that up and down,” Siobhan said. Let’s get out of this small valley and look for shortcuts on more favorable ground.”

  The group followed the river out of the small valley, past the gentler hills and back into the forest.

  “Keep an eye out for anything,” Siobhan said, eyes scanning the trees on her left. “I’m not expecting a city street, but if she’s made several trips through this part of the forest, there must be some trace of her path, some landmark she’d use.”

  Ciara tapped Brendan on the shoulder and pointed. “That hazel tree,” she said. “Does it seem rare to you?”

  Brendan narrowed his eyes and stepped toward the tree. “That it does.”

  The forest to the north parted to form a meandering trail no wider than six feet at any point. A lone hazel tree stood in the clearing before the trail. Six main boughs extended one foot from a short, clumpy trunk at equal intervals before each curved to its left. The result was a cyclonic spiral extending twenty feet above their heads before each bow fanned into leafy branches.

  “You know, if I needed a landmark,” Brendan said, bouncing a finger in the tree’s direction, “I’d be inclined to use this tree.”

  Siobhan turned down the right side of her mouth. “A fine thought, except for the part where every member of our group missed it on our first time through the area.”

  “What now?” Brigid asked as she circled around the tree.

  “Let’s touch it,” Ciara said. “Each of us places a hand on it at the same time.” She nodded at Siobhan. “Count it out for us.”

  Siobhan counted down from three, and each member of the party placed a hand on a different bough. They traded uncertain glances after ten seconds of inaction.

  “I imagine it would have happened by now,” Brigid said, her voice soft. “Perhaps it’s nothing more than a marker for the trail ahead of us.”

  “Likely,” Siobhan said. “Does anyone have another idea before we leave?”

  Donal scratched his chin. What would Finn do if he were standing here?

  He’d tell you the name of the tree, Shadow told him. Then he’d tell you the name of the nut from which it grew. He’d tell you everyone from the tales who’s ever slept under it or answered the call of nature on it.

  Donal stepped away from the tree.

  In the end, though, you’d all be no further than you are now, because none of that helps you. Just Finn showing off for no reason at all.

  Donal’s new mission was to find something—anything—worth attempting.

  “What if we all sat on that stumpy part?” Donal asked. “Each of us sits in a gap, back to back.”

  Brigid gave Siobhan a slight head shake. “I don’t see what that would do when touching it did nothing.”

  Ciara shrugged. “It costs us nothing but a few minutes to try,” she said.

  “I know the look you’re going to give me,” Brendan said, “but she’s right.”

  Brigid sighed and blinked slowly. Her focus was on Brendan before her lids parted.

  “That’s the look,” he said.

  “Sit down, everyone,” Siobhan said. “Back to back, as the man said.”

  Each member hopped into a gap in the trunk and shifted so that all could fit inside.

  “And?” Brigid asked over her shoulder.

  “Just, take a moment of quiet,” Donal said. “Try to sense an answer. Especially you magic three.”

  That sounded very Finn-like, he thought.

  And it will get you the same amount of nothing that he’d get, Shadow told him.

  Donal suppressed an outburst but it manifested as a twitch of his neck instead.

  “What is it?” Brendan asked. “Dya’have something?”

  “Nothing. Sorry.”

  The group bumped and fidgeted for a few minutes.

  You wasted everyone’s time, Shadow told him.

  Donal slid down. “Thanks for trying.”

  Brendan hopped down and clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Not at all. It was worth a lash.”

  “Let’s move ahead,” Siobhan said. “Single file, after me.”

  Branches in this section of the woods intermingled with those of other trees. The trunks weren’t uniform in distance, but the entire area had the feel of an orchard that was planned several centuries ago and left to grow untended. As deliberate as the trail appeared, the turf under them was thick and unbent.

  Additional ambient light pushed through the canopy on their left side as they approached an opening in the forest. It led westward directly into a gap through the larger hills. The gap was wider than the trail they had followed by a few feet.

  “Are these the Yellow Gates?” Brendan asked. “I’ve been staring up and through the trees at these hills for hours now and, to be honest, they look pear green to me.”

  Brigid groaned. “I could go for a pear right now,” she said.

  “It’s an observation,” Brendan said. “You’ve got a pack full of food.”

  “But no pears.”

  Siobhan spun on her heel and stared down the twins. “How old are you two? My wee nieces and nephews keep their minds on a task better than you two.”

  “Hang on, Siobhan,” Ciara said. “We’ve been at this without rest for hours. Even O’Connor’s focus would fray apart.”

  Siobhan nodded. “You’re right about that,” she said. “Sorry, you two. I keep thinking we’d rest after we reached the gates. I’m surprised that we haven’t crossed them yet.”

  “Well,” Ciara said, raising her arms. “What about now?”

  Siobhan wobbled her head. “May—”

  “—The terrain just changed,” Donal said. “We have to be close. What if we walked another half hour? If we don’t come across the gates in that time, we’ll rest on the spot. Sooner if we come across water or a crossing.” He looked at Ciara and the twins. Can we manage another half hour?”

  “Of course, lad,” Ciara said, baring her eye teeth in a lupine smile. “But if one of us falls over from exhaustion, you’ll have to carry us over that last bit.”

  “You?” he said. “I’ll grab your feet and drag you behind me.”

  “I’d take anything that gets me off of my feet,” she said.

  “Well, we’re wasting that half hour,” Siobhan said. “Let’s get on with it.”

  There was nothing along this stretch of the trail but a dirt floor sprinkled with gravel. The group rounded two bends before they encountered next first landmark. Two hawthorn trees clung to either side of the trail. Several cords of twisted wood wrapped around each other forming thick arboreal ropes. Leaves blanketed every branch save for two. A bare branch from each tree extended across the trail towards its counterpart. Together the two trees framed the pathway and formed a makeshift doorway.

  “Unless any of you have a better idea, we’re going under those trees,” Siobhan said.

  “We’re behind you,” Brigid said.

  Donal fell in behind Siobhan. The air thinned as they crossed under the trees. A spark of grey light appeared ten yards in front of them. It spread wide into the doorway similar to the one they entered back in Iceland. His ears popped as they neared the doorway.

  A woman’s voice called from the other side. “Caragh? Is that you? Where have you been?”

  The woman stepped through the gleaming circle. Her long blonde hair shone as bright as the doorway from which she emerged, and the golden light reflected off her red silken dress.

  “I don’t understand,” Brigid said. “Who are you? Why have you come?”

  “My name is Niamh,” she said. She gestured to the trees behind them. “You summoned me when you walked through the gate.”

  “Hang on,” Ciara said. “You come here whenever someone walks under these Niamh? That would get annoying in a hurry.”

  Niamh canted her head and raised a brow. “It does. Fortunately for myself, I’m only summoned when mortals pass through it—which means I have several questions for you.”

  Brendan stepped forward. “And if you don’t like our answers?”

  She approached Brendan and held his gaze with beryl eyes that glowed sea blue. “I’d ask you to leave.”

  “And if we decline your request?” Ciara asked.

  “Please don’t,” Niamh said. “This is not a place one finds by accident, yet it’s clear to me you’ve come here blindly.”

  Amber light overtook Niamh’s eyes as she lowered her hands. She jerked her hands upward, stopping them at waist level. Seven columns of earth ascended out of the ground in the general shape of a circle, each three feet tall.

  “Sit,” Niamh said, “At the risk of sounding prideful, I have to admit I’m surprised none of you recognize where you are or who I am. You came all this way without learning the tales of old?”

  Donal met Siobhan’s eyes. She flicked her chin in Niamh’s direction. He cleared his throat. “We brought someone who’d have recognized you the moment you stepped through,” he said, “but we don’t know what happened to him and our friends.”

  “I see,” Niamh said. “We have much to discuss.”