The Fifth Beast (ManxMan Chinese/Celtic Fantasy Story)

Chapter 39

Niall Mac Nechtan sincerely wanted to immediately set in motion some new plans. He could have gone to the North himself, or sent spies there. He could have at least sat down and thought properly about what exactly he was going to do about the Yuizhen. But somehow several days, or even a whole week, had sunk into the abyss without him doing anything of the sort.

It wasn't that Niall had been lazy and idle. Well, yes, he had been, a little. He would often stay in bed till lunch, especially if Sencha stayed there with him and didn't sneak out in the morning to prepare a bath for the lord and serve breakfast. But he was also involved in the castle affairs, and even personally oversaw the repair of the stable roof.

It was a pleasure to spend time with Sencha. The boy was cute and playful, like a kitten. Thank Danu, he no longer cried at night, although Niall sometimes noticed Sencha sighing, staring at the wall with unseeing eyes. In bed, he pleased the lord with due diligence, but precisely with diligence, as he performed all the other duties of a body servant. In another time, Niall might have found this lack of love and adoration offensive. But the fact that the master and the servant had almost the same experience on the same night, unexpectedly and strongly brought them closer. And Niall himself didn't feel guilty about having sex with Sencha while thinking of Fao.

He really should have hurried with his plans. An immortal lord of the Tuatha Dé did not pay much attention to the passage of time, because his life in peaceful times was almost endless. It was very easy to get stuck in a routine, fill your day with little things and put off something important indefinitely. A bad habit when it came to mortals.

There was an anecdote at the Queen's court, maybe not exactly a true story, but very similar to the truth. Supposedly Ailill Mac Rossa, passing through his lands, met a pretty mortal youth, spent the night with him, and left in the morning, as was his habit. However, the youth was so pretty that even the sophisticated Lord of Fire could not forget him. He decided to visit his lover again, mounted a horse, rode to the latter's house... and discovered that the pretty youth had long ago turned into a bearded middle-aged man with a wife and a bunch of children.

Niall laughed like crazy over this story when Cumal told him. He probably shouldn't make the same mistake as Ailill. While he was lying in bed until lunch and listened to reports about how much grain was harvested, Faolan could have done anything! Like going and finding himself a steady lover, going to some local war and dying. Or, worst of all, catching some hideous human disease and getting disfigured!

He again reread Cumal's long letter, which had been sent by a messenger via Ath Luain Castle during his absence. His friend painstakingly listed every detail he knew about the kirins for the full ten pages. Now he remembered to mention that the kirins were much faster than ordinary horses, that they could be injured only by cold steel, that they were not afraid of magical fire (however, they were not afraid of ordinary fire either). He also briefly retold the song "The Second Beast", and Niall could not help grinning: "Thanks, buddy, you are three months late with your exciting information!"

Cumal wrote that the mysterious yutao spent some time in Airenn after Niall's hasty departure, and then disappeared in an unknown direction with his whole retinue. Cumal never had a chance to learn his name. Niall couldn't help but chuckle again. It was nice to feel smarter and more knowledgeable than Cumal Mac Ruadh, because it had usually been the other way around. Hmm, how would he explain to Cumal his knowledge of Mengyu and all sorts of barbaric customs? It was really necessary to buy a Kirinch slave, preferably one that had been taken captive as an adult, so he would tell Niall about the life in the North-Beyond-the-Shield.

Niall suddenly realized that he did not know what the country of the Kirinches was called. Once Fao mentioned the Orda (so much similar to the word 'horde' in Gaelic), but it seemed to Niall that he meant the army, and not the country as a whole. Surprisingly, during the trip, Niall never heard anyone say anything other than "the lands of the Kirinches", even in Mengyu, much less in Gaelic.

Basically, Niall Mac Nechtan had formed many vague plans that he couldn't quite get to set in motion. Somehow, it had never even once occurred to him that the Yuizhen of the Kirinches might have plans of his own. But, oh boy, it should have.

One fine morning, at some ungodly hour, when the sun had not yet risen, Matha cautiously knocked on the bedroom door and said that a peasant from a nearby village had ridden up with a wild story, probably invented or seen in a hangover delirium, and the lord needed to punish the said peasant, so that no one would come again to Sliabh Mis with such nonsense. Niall yawned, threw on some clothes and went down to the main hall of the castle to sort things out.

"Barbarians, m'lord!" yelled the peasant, falling to his knees. "Thousands of them, all armed, and their faces painted all black, it's so scary!"

Niall froze, engulfed by conflicting emotions, the main of which was, oddly enough, pleasure. This was what the future Steward of the North was preparing for at Emain Macha, studying military strategy, the tactics of laying siege to a fortified castle or defending it, the methods of training and deploying various military units, and everything else that Cumal Mac Ruadh found unbearably boring. Not surprising that Niall lost in a vulgar fight with a leader of savages — it's just not his calling to fight personally. Niall Mac Nechtan was definitely born to command from the high walls of his castle and send fresh troops into battle with a wave of his hand.

Niall had discussed with Daire Mac Cormac many times and in great detail their joint actions in the event of another barbarian invasion. By the way, it was Daire who infected him with contempt for the military abilities of the Kirinches, describing them as a crowd of savages unable to act as a disciplined army, and their fighting skill as inferior to that of even the youngest and dumbest fennid of Ath Luain, not to mention an Elemental Lord. Well, Daire last fought the Kirinches three hundred years ago, so Niall had some bad news for him. Although, given how the Keeper of the North liked fighting, maybe that would be the good news.

"Who is their leader, what does he look like? Have you seen him?" Niall asked with eager interest.

The peasant blinked a few times, afraid of displeasing the lord. "Sorry, m'lord, they all look the same to me! They all have armor on, shields and spears, all on horseback. Their horses' hooves are wrapped in rags. They rode out of the forest silently, like demons; no one in the village even woke up! Me myself was returning from Mugh Tair, that's a neighboring village, from my sister's wedding. As soon as I saw them, I turned my horse around and rode straight here!"

"So, Matha, wake up the weapon master, if he hasn't woken up yet, tell him to arm the garrison," Niall ordered. "The guards at the gate should be tripled, and they should search everyone who will seek refuge in the castle. Everyone who comes with livestock, food, and weapons, should be let in first. Anyone who even slightly resembles a barbarian, by complexion or face features, should be turned around and kicked in the ass for speed. You, Matha, will now personally inspect how much food is left in the pantries, and lock everything up. It's possible that we'll have to temporarily close the gate and sit inside the castle walls for a bit. I'm climbing the wall, let's see if this village near Cruithne Corann is already on fire, what's its name?" he asked the peasant.

"But, m'lord..." he hesitated. "It's called Slaine, but the thing is, the barbarians didn't burn it, they just rode by. Well, I didn't come here straight away, I have a wife, and three kids, and two dairy cows, I watched from a grove, and the barbarians were going straight for the castle!"

Seeing how terrible Niall's face became, the peasant turned pale and thumped his forehead on the floor. "Have mercy, m'lord!"

Niall accelerated with magic and darted towards the gate, which, he suspected, was left wide open. Usually the gate was opened at dawn to let in servants, peasants with fresh village products, and so on. Oh my, what a cunning plan: riding straight for Sliabh Mis, without wasting time on pillage and plunder in the villages! The barbarians were obviously hoping to catch the castle owner by surprise, with the drawbridge down and the gate unlocked!