The Fifth Beast (ManxMan Chinese/Celtic Fantasy Story)

Chapter 32

After seeing Niall's new appearance, Daire Mac Cormac raised his thick eyebrows and walked around his guest a couple of times, blatantly looking him up and down. Naturally, he couldn't fail to recognize Niall even in the guise of Finn the slave; the Elemental Lords could feel each other's presence at a distance of a hundred steps, sometimes even further. Unless, of course, they were temporarily deprived of magical power, like Niall. Chills went down his spine not only from Daire's predatory gaze, but also from the fact that he didn't feel the all-too-familiar aura of the Lord of Forest.

One shouldn't show fear to a wild beast, it was something Daire himself once taught Niall. So Niall turned around and in his turn cast an appraising glance at the Keeper of the North. There was something to look at: Daire's right arm was covered with intriguing blue curls up to the shoulder. They continued on the neck, on the right side of his face, and dove under the collar of his leather sleeveless jacket.

"Wow, the latest fashion? Is it tattoos or war paint?"

"Like it?" Daire unbuttoned and opened his jacket, demonstrating that the right side of his torso was also decorated.

Niall nodded. Barbaric, but beautiful.

"Woad paint," Daire explained. He spread out his arms, and the paint suddenly came to life, snaked over the skin, curling into a different pattern. Niall wasn't surprised; he had long known that Daire Mac Cormac, Lord of Forest, could drink water through his fingers, like a tree through its roots. Also he could cover his arm with tree bark or grow leaves on it. He often entertained his retinue and guests with such tricks during feasts.

However, not all of Daire's tricks were as harmless. With a single touch, he could incite lust in a mortal, and even a Tuatha Dé Lord was not completely immune to such a spell. Daire could turn the water in a bowl into an aphrodisiac (something Niall had witnessed more than once). It was easy for him to absorb paint into his skin and make it form any pattern he wanted.

"My hunters have to paint each other. And the paint dries for ten minutes. They compete with each other, which would paint his lover's body the best without smearing the pattern. Many go around covered up to their ears in paint!" Daire chuckled. "Thank the Dagda, they brightened up a little, after Ruel. Oh, demons take me, Niall, I haven't sent you a message! I only received yours only a month ago. Just before you sent it, we had found Ruel and hadn't got out of the woods for a month at least, trying to hunt the perpetrator down. My first thought was a demon too. Say, your peasant could've been killed by a bear, but my Ruel was an excellent hunter, used to hunting bears alone. Everything was as you described: torn to pieces, never took out his weapons. True, there was no snow, but we found him only two days later. Come on, let's have some wine, and you'll tell me the details. Have you visited Cumal? Learned anything?"

Niall opened his mouth, closed it and ran a hand over his face in confusion. He almost forgot how it all had started. The message to Daire was a mere formality, he had never expected something similar to happen in Ath Luain. And to whom – to a trained warrior-hunter from Daire's retinue, who wielded weapons probably no worse than a Kirinch barbarian!

He didn't remember Ruel, but that was no surprise: it had been twenty years since he'd lived in Daire's castle. Over the years, Niall hadn't been to Ath Luain very often, and even less often had he taken part in the feasts and amusements of the warriors-hunters. Also Niall wasn't that anxious to learn the names of all three times seven hunters, especially since there were sometimes more of them. They didn't change that often, but every year someone would marry and go live in his own house, and a young, inexperienced newcomer would take his place.

But they died extremely rarely — after all, any young man from Daire's retinue really could kill a bear single-handedly. It also didn't hurt that Daire knew healing magic and used it sometimes to pull a wounded hunter almost from the death's door.