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I stop into lead our people in an attack on the trodairí to freeas to where I anite my people And what better to win over the reluctant ones, those who’ve been listening to me, than a mission of rescue? Because rescue or no, once open war breaks out, all of the Fianna will have no choice but to fight for their lives

The anger that surges up inuntil I can be sureand steady before I call out

"McBride, I’m touched I had no idea you cared soin shock and relief I push my way into the free space in front of McBride’s platfor blankly atfeatures, and he jumps down off the platforh he claps a hand tobut war the worst"

I’ll bet you were

I reach for cal, and I took it No way to get a signal back without risking discovery"

McBride’s brows lift a little "Taking action, Corht look like a smile "Glad to hear it What’d you learn?"

I can’t tell theone a few hours later; they’ll think I’ve lostconcrete yet" I try not to wince at the weight of his hand on ly built If he ever wanted to take me out once and for all, he’d have the upper hand and then soed on the base, we know they’re not co for a way out of this"

McBride squeezes h," he replies, raising his voice a little tothe rip It’s not the time to dance this dance with hier problem in the form of the trodaire in my currach, who I need to move before she wakes up under that tarp andis certain: if McBride’s people find her, Captain Chase will be dead by toy in the crowd has shifted--with one, but they’re slow to come down, not sure where to turn I can’t let them latch on to me, not until the trodaire is stashed soaze toward McBride, who’s regrouping and turning back for the platfor out a way to use h steps forward before he can get there "While we’re all here," he says pleasantly, "perhaps we can talk about the sleeping quarters" He uses that sa new Fianna how to lay tripwires

I ghost back into the crowd, slipping out the back to go in search of my cousin Sean

I find him in the classroos to sit on and a chest containing some toys and a few precious, battered textbooks from a time ere still allowed to barter with traders It’s Sean’s do plan a raid I knew he’d be here, keeping the children away froer and the talk of violence in the main cavern He’s in one corner with his five-year-old nephew, Fergal, in his lap He’s surrounded by a gaggle of children--and a couple of girls far too old for story tie for Sean--faces turned up to hi was the land of eternal youth, whichBut Oisín wasn’t so sure Do you kno many tiirlfriend, Niamh, lived there, and she was the one who’d invited him to stay He’d moved in pretty quickly, and a decision like that, well…He should have asked a few ravball tea laundry"

I recognize the tale, if not Sean’s unique embellishments We were told these stories as kids by our parents, who heard therandparents I bet Jubilee would be surprised to find out we hand down our ends, Scheherazade and Shakespeare and stories from a time before men left Earth The suits from TerraDyn and their trodairí lackeys think we’re all illiterate and uneducated I only have hazycolors of shows on the HV from my childhood, and it pains y We may not have the books and holovids anymore, or the official schools the off-worlders have, but the stories theer in the shadows and listen

But instead, I step forward and catch his eye before tilting my head toward the corridor Wrap it up, I need you

His mouth drops open, the relief clear on his face Even soht be in danger He nods, and I lean against the wall to restwhile I listen to the end of the tale "So Oisín slips away home on a shuttle to Ireland for a quick visit, and Niaround, he can never co he has to do, is round So what does the fool do? He ht be too lazy to pick up his own laundry, but he can’t resist showing off He forgets--or he wasn’t listening, like soht, Cabhan?--and he juuys rass…" He pauses, and the kids lean in, then jerk back when he claps his hands "Bam! Three hundred years catch up with him, and he’s dead as a soldier on a solo patrol So the moral of the story is, never pick up after yourself, and certainly never pick up after anyone else It could be fatal Now, off with the lot of you, before I ask who’s done their hoal up into his arms with casual confidence to wade free of them all He’s had him a year and a half now, since his brother and sister-in-law died in a raid