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I was terribly nervous Fragarach was his sword, you know, and he had ht to feel affronted that I had stolen it than Aenghus Óg ever did It turned out I didn’t need to be afraid at all

When the Morrigan introduced us, Manannan pointed at the hilt peeking over my shoulder and said in a slow, sonorous voice, "Heard you’re keeping that away frory?"

"Angry? Wave and tide, hus is a whiny tit, and everybody with a lick of sense in their head knows it Ye have rinned at me He was taller than me, blue-eyed, with black hair and a full beard and a kind face suggested by laugh lines around his eyes He wore a watery blue cloak swirled with patterns of lighter blue, fastened at his right shoulder with a silver brooch "Come on, then, let’s have soe of a cliff overlooking the Irish Sea It didn’t look like the dwelling place of a god The doorway, however, shimmered at his co, which was er than the interior of the hut and far richer than anything I had ever seen to that point Lush woven rugs on wooden floors, exquisitely carved furniture, statues in bronze and glass and polished hardwoods displayed in niches and on shelves We were served by faeries, for at that time I did not have my amulet and my reputation as the Iron Druid was still centuries in the future Faeries actually liked hus Óg did These faeries owed their allegiance to Fand, Manannan’s wife, who is often referred to as Queen of the Faeries Manannan tended to prefer selkies and kelpies--go figure--but Fand loved them all

We sat at a broad oaken table with ale and bread in front of us "The Morrigan tells ood while," Manannan said to me

"Yes, that would be nice Preferably out of a certain love god’s sphere of influence"

Manannan’s eyes glinted with amusement "Yes, I understand I have a proposition for you I will take ye out of Aenghus Óg’s easy reach if ye do so for me Should keep ye busy for a couple of centuries, anyway"

"I am ready to hear it," I said

Manannan took a contean "Those sacred groves the Romans burned down--that was a lot of our work destroyed Those bindings were crafted by the Tuatha Dé Danann long ago Ogan did a feell"--he paused while she nodded confirland There are still plenty of other ways to get to Tír na nÓg, doorways through caves and paths through forest thickets, but they are ht them to Druids before; some of them cannot be walked by Druids at all But we have beco out, and it’s becoainst Christianity is hopeless You are a to have a chance at surviving, you need a reliable way to escape when the Christians coan that the best way to make sure this happens is to teach you how to reed to do this But I want you toyour pardon?" I said "Where is that?"

"Far across this ocean there is another continent, vast and unspoiled and green, where the ele, the people sense their connection to the land, and not a single Christian walks upon it They do not know it exists We have discovered it ourselves only recently I will take you there and leave you, and you will explore it, binding it to Tír na nÓg as you go Thus you will allow the Fae to cross the oceans and provide yourself and other Druids a powerful refuge You can find apprentices there, no doubt, and train them without interference Meanwhile, the Tuatha Dé Danann will undertake a si project here, so that when you do return to Europe someday, you will have options available to you that currently do not exist"

"The New World sounds fascinating," I allowed, "but I have sos to Tír na nÓg, won’t Aenghus Óg’s spawn be able to follow me there?"

"Yes, there is no way around the necessity; ant the Fae to be able to travel there But you can s and restrict that travel to your advantage," Manannan explained "Just as Druids can currently only use sacred groves to enter Tír na nÓg, you can limit Fae entry to the New World to certain areas Then you can create s that only Druids s would you want?"

"For the Fae? Say, only one every hundred miles For Druids, make as many as you wish"

It sounded like a splendid opportunity to ether that the Fae could travel only in places with oak, ash, and thorn; where these places did not exist, it would be my task to introduce the proper trees, if the climate allowed Where it did not, then the Fae had no business roaan took her leave and I prepared a few things for the journey-- the same for a knife, a set of clothes, and plenty of acorns, ash, and thorn seed pods

When ready, we stepped back through Manannan’s door-cu the sea We shifted to our bird forreat shearwater for Manannan--and then the god of the sea dove off the cliff He plunged beneath the waves and shifted to his lided down, carryingin my talons I dropped it over his dorsal fin, and then I shifted to my otter form I rode on Manannan’s back all the way to the New World

Manannan is unique a able to draer froiven to him alone by Gaia, and his tattoos reflect this He can sithout tiring We took the shorter distance, heading north up to Iceland, where we spent a few days experis Iceland was unbound at the time and the various elementals were sot the hang of it and we had shifted planes successfully fro and back, we continued our journey

We landed in Newfoundland andin the New World there Once that was completed, Manannan Mac Lir bidBefore he left, he suggested I do all the coasts first and tackle the interior later So that is what I did; I kept the Atlantic Ocean tothe east coast with Tír na nÓg I nificent eleain; it was like F Scott Fitzgerald said, a "fresh, green breast of the neorld"

It was not a week, however, before I grew lonely I met an animal that was new to me, and only much later did people come to call them wolverines But I bound my consciousness to his--like I have bound myself to Oberon--and called him Faolan, after the , for the wolverine Faolan was not naturally disposed to loyalty, but he was outstanding at warningfaeries and unafraid of taking theanrelationship with the iron elemental Ferris, who follows me around North and Central America whenever I’ adventures I had on that initial trip of exploration happened years later in thesouth of Lake Okeechobee was a swalades The life there made the elemental quite powerful, and once I arrived, it warned ators and poisonous snakes--but then it alsothere, albeit in very small numbers When I ran into a native tribe and stayed with the to learn a feords and coiant hairytheht, usually taking so one of their wohts after they told me this story, I akened by screaht vision--I had no charm for it yet--and then I followed the noise withnative wo over their shoulders The men were anxious to help, but they couldn’t see well and they didn’t want to hurl spears blindly toward the screaarach and gave chase, Faolan keeping pace beside ht vision, but it was not quite as good as ht; one of them stumbled on a fallen branch he should have seen and bore his captive roughly to the ground Her screaot knocked out of her His co with the other woiant was claoods, I caught up and delivered soh his neck, and his head plopped wetly onto the native wo, because if I stopped to check on her I’d lose the other one

Faolan, will you lead her back to camp if you can? I asked

"How a noises at her

"Like the ones she’s