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"You brought bacon for us?" Oberon asked, a hopeful note in his voice "And I saved it? I am the Savior of Bacon! Atticus, I want you to introduce me from now on as "Oberon, Savior of Bacon""

"Please explain, if you will," Brighid said in a much more cordial tone, "why you found it necessary to conceal your existence from me and the rest of the Tuatha Dé Danann"

"I needed some assurance that I would be undisturbed for a span of years, for I have been hard at work training an apprentice You estured over hid bestowed a nod of recognition, and I assumed Granuaile returned it A h the Tuatha Dé Danann A new Druid would be hid noted, seeing no tattoos on Granuaile’s right arin the process ere interrupted"

"On your here, if Ifor an appropriate place in Arizona"

Brighid frowned "You cannot bind a Druid to the earth in the New World"

That set hid seemed as bemused as I was "It reed to participate in the ritual I thought you knew this"

"No" I had never tried to bind an apprentice elsewhere--in truth, I had bound precious few apprentices to the earth in the first place All three Druids of my "issue" were dead noo had been ambushed--or perhaps assassinated, shot in the back--and another had died in the civil war that resulted in the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire I hadn’t attempted to train anyone since the death of Cíbran, my last apprentice, in 997 And so it was no wonder I had never discovered this particular proviso to a Druid’s binding, but it made sense All levels of the earth, from elementals to plates to Gaia herself, et involved in anything but their own slow ainst one another

Manannan spoke up "Brighid, if I may interject?" She waved at him to continue, and he rose to address me He commanded everyone’s rapt attention "I cannot speak for all, but I hope I speak for many of the Tuatha Dé Danann when I say elcome Granuaile MacTiernan to Druidry, and I, for one, would like to see you trainon thethe Tuatha Dé Danann supported his stateree," I said, and privately cursednote of who hadn’t visually concurred "If I could find such excellent apprentices as Granuaile, nothing would giveHowever, for oal, I need to have a modicum of security To that end, I humbly request that you keep my existence a secret, especially frolances warned me that I had made a troublesome request

"If … that is possible?" I asked

Flidais spoke up "The Olympian Bacchus asked us to inform him if you ever showed your face here"

"Well, the Olyoat" There was no love lost between us I had called hioblet" and derided hiods were; their worshippers had possessed so little iination that they hadn’t even moved them off Olympus Two pantheons lived atop the sa to conceal it will strain our relationship with the Olyhid pointed out

"Perhaps you do not have all the facts here Bacchus does not want to know of my whereabouts so he can sendelse He has sworn to Jupiter that he will do so You cannot strain our relationship any more than that So do you want od of madness where to find rettably, it may already be too late," Fand said, in a liquid sort of lilt that perfectly matched her appearance "I’m quite sure many of the Fae have already spread word of your audience here Word will circulate quickly that you are back from the dead Bacchus will hear of it sooner or later"

Three kinds of cat shit, Oberon

"And an arrogant fa I could do about it now "Speaking of people returning frood of ain And he seehid frowned "Explain"

I waved a hand at the Russian thunder god loood of the sky Loki soained access to his plane and burned it all You could feel the plane dying on the earth I tell you three times; Gaia shuddered beneaththe Tuatha Dé Danann or the Fae, but considering the hly reco in hid nodded "I hear you three tiht and said, "Manannan Ogma Please see to our security and devise a plan to deal with Loki should he make his way here" She turned to her left and addressed the dignitaries there "The Lords of Faerie and their respective hosts will assist you" They bowed in acquiescence and acknowledght, could start a revolution in Hollywood salons I didn’t know much about the Lords of Faerie and their hosts, other than that they didn’t liketo do with the cold-iron-touch-of-death thing

One of the lords cleared his throat to get Brighid’s permission to speak He was dressed foppishly in an Elizabethan kit, cursed with the physique of an anorexic mannequin, and had half-lidded eyes that communicated his disdain for the universe She looked at hiht to pontificate

"Majesty, perhaps the shuddering of Gaia reported by the Iron Druidin frohout Europe"

"Do share with us all," Brighid said

"Most tethers to Europe fro are now inoperable The death of the Slavic planeyour pardon," I said "Are you saying that it’s iht now?"

The fop raised an eyebrow and sneered atExcept for a small area in the south of Greece"

"The tethers for the rest of the world still work?" Brighid asked

"Yes, Majesty"

"And the secret paths walked by the Fae?"

"Those still function admirably"

"So your theory is that the death of Perun’s plane is causing this"