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A quiet night No attacks The demons think everyone here is dead, so they’ve no reason to bother with the crannog I get a night of deep sleep and so do the others, too exhausted even for night Drust’s already up He’s prepared cold slices of e, which we share in silence in the greyish pre-dawn haze
Fiachna searches the village for a forge, smith’s tools or other weapons like Bran’s knife but he doesn’t find any The rest of us go on a quick search too, for weapons or food We kill the res they’ve laid and some slabs of cured pork But there’s little else hile
We’re ready to go but Drust says he needs to pray first He finds a place where he can face the rising sun, then kneels, closes his eyes andwill he be?" Connla asks me
"Five or ten minutes" Actually, I don’t have a clue but I don’t want to look ignorant in front of Connla
"Ti a bucket ater, he douses his face, takes a small knife, wets the blade and waits for the water to settle Then, studying his reflection, he scrapes the hairs off his cheeks and chin Most of the row beards but Connla prefers the smooth look Goll soirl
Bran-it’s hard not to think of him as Run Fast-watches Connla shave, fascinated Maybe he’s never seen abefore He pays extra close attention as Connla trims around the sides of his upper lip, careful not to disturb the hairs of histhe blade, Bran reaches over, grabs a patch of Connla’s moustache and yanks hard The hairs rip out and Connla hoith pain and surprise
Bran holds the hairs up proudly, grinning He thought Connlato help But Connla doesn’t see it that way He roars at the boy and swings a fist Bran ducks, still holding up the hairs Connla lunges after hi, "Run fast! Run fast!" Connla chases, cursing foully, drawing his sword
The rest of us fall about with laughter We know Connla won’t catch Bran-if he was too fast for demons, a human stands no chance Connla eventually realises this and stops chasing the boy After hurling a few final curses at hiards his ruined moustache with a miserable expression, then scrapes the rest of the hairs away, shaving his lip bare
Bran edges up tothe Goll claps hihter
"I’d keep him out of Connla’s way for a few hours," Fiachna chuckles "He’ll calm down later but he’ll be in a foul rin, squeezing Bran tight "I’ll look after hi the hairs fondly, as if they were petals, ain
Shortly after the sun rises, Drust stops praying and we depart Bran trots along beside us, unaware of the scowling Connla’s dark looks I keep the boy close, in case the surly warrior tries to hurt him I doubt he would, but I’m never sure about Connla He’s a hard one to read Impossible to kno he’ll react to a joke or how deeply to heart he’ll take a light insult
I study Bran as he jogs, s up at the sky and birds, perfectly content I assu, all of whom are dead now, but he doesn’t seem bothered by the loss At first I pity him but the more I think about it, pity turns to envy It must be nice to live like Bran, i what I know-that unless Drust succeeds, this land will be overrun by unstoppable demons-I wish I could be as e due west, we ood tiing Bran out of the way The druid asks lots of questions aboutHe wants to knohat I can do, hoerful I am He sneers when I tell him about my remarkable memory-that doesn’t interest him When he asks about in
"You’ve no idea who your people were?" he presses
"No" I pause "Do you?"
He frowns "Why should I?"
I shrug, not wishing to tell hiht have been sending inal clan
Drust continues asking about ths lie His enquiries fill ician to be interested in the abilities of another But this doesn’t feel like si for weaknesses I recall what he said back in the hut-"You’ll do"-and worry burns in my stomach like a fire
At htly apart fro, he pulls a board out of the bag which he carries on his back A strange board, the surface divided into an equal number of black and white squares It’s the thickness of the length of round, then spills srass When he starts to position the pieces on the board, I realise it’s soame
"Chess," Orna says as Drust erly "You play?"
"No One of the slaves in our tuath had a set but it was only played bybut I don’t know thehs "It’s been a long tiainst"
He concentrates Moves a white piece shaped like a horse’s head, then one of the many simply shaped black pieces Everyone’s interested in this new game We’ve never seen it in our tuath Orna explains about the game while Drust plays but it’s hard to follow the rules, especially as Orna is unsure of the fro taken?" Lorcan asks
"Aye," Orna says
"Why can’t he fight?" Ronan frowns "A king should be a fine warrior, yet the kings in this game seem scared They hide at the back"
"It hails fros don’t fight They send others to battle in their place"
Angry ht!"
"Barbarians!"
"The likes of those wouldn’t last long against denore theer over the pieces Long, slender, uners They move the pieces swiftly, set the sense that he could move us just as easily And maybe already has
After lunch, Drustquestions, he says, "I can teach you if you’re willing to learn"
"Chess?" I reply eagerly
"No Magic"
I come to a halt and stare at him as if he’d slappedto their weapons I start walking again before they ask what’s wrong Drust keeps pace besidefora butterfly My head’s buzzing with conflicting thoughts I’d love to learn ic from a druid-they can do so irls That’s the way it’s always been
"I wouldn’t teach you all the spells I’d teach a hts "There are secrets not fitting for one of your gender, just as you know secrets not suitable for a man But we could work on your technique I could show you where you’re weak, help you improve and teach you some new spells, those which you deeirls it isn’t done," Imy spirit with a man, as I must if I allow hi hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be," Drust says "I’d prefer a boy to ith, just as you’d rather learn from a priestess The fact is we have only each other We can be bold and make the most of this opportunity or we can be prim and let it pass Bec?"
He waits for , dry-lad to learn froers against my forehead "Close your eyes and think of the in, I want to teach you how to clear your head of all the rubbish you’ve let it fill with lately Your mind is too much that of a hu all over My head ic
Four days hts spent in the open We lie down each dusk, singly or in pairs, sheltering beneath trees Drust comes to each of us in turn, touches us and ht, even if we need to empty our insides
"Go where you lie if you have to," Drust says "Just don’t leave the spot where you settle The spell will break if you do"