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Chapter One

Baile Icin, near Dingle, Ciarrai, 1400

"Smith"

Niall kneithout looking up from his anvil that the woers called theht, sticky-sweet stench that humans found irresistible

He kept his head bent over his task Mending a cooking crane for a village wo to a Fae Besides, his name wasn’t Smith, and if she couldn’t call Niall by his real name he saw no need to answer

"Shifter, I command you," she said

Niall continued ha the scent of brine, fish, and clean air, which still could not cover the stench of Fae

"Shifter"

"This forge is filled with iron, lass," Niall cut her off "And Shifters don’t obey Fae anyo?"

"I have a spell that keeps h to deal with you"

She had a voice like clearest water, and Niall finally looked up, curiosity winning over ani silk stood on his threshold, her body haloed by the setting sun Her pale hair hung to her knees in a score of thin braids, and she had the dark eyes and slender, pointed ears common to her kind She was beautiful in an ethereal sort of way But then all Fae were beautiful, the evil bastards

The wind boiling up froh the doorway, and the woht a Fae doing a thing so normal as shiver

He thrust the end of the crane into the fire, sending sparks into the darkness "Co in those flimsy clothes"

"My nairl"

She had to be young if she responded to Niall’s condescension, or at least naïve Fae lived so long and never changed rown that it was difficult to tell what age they were She could be twenty-five or four hundred and fifty

Alanna stepped all the way into the forge, darting nervous glances at the iron--the anvil, his tools, the piece of crane he was ive you a commission"

"You were sent, were you? Poor lass You h up to be handed the thankless task of entering the mortal world to speak to a Shifter"

Her cheeks colored but her tone ree a sword I believe you were once a sword maker of some repute"

"In days gone by Now I’ers here and on the Great Island"