Gryffynhall (the Danu Cycle: Fiann Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter Four

When Niamh returned to the house, her aunt and uncle flew out the door and embraced her tightly. She held the sword out so as not to catch them on it. Her head swam a little and she stumbled.

"Are you all right, dear?" Aunt Amy asked, holding her shoulder tightly and looking her up and down.

Niamh nodded, but that set her head to throbbing. She put her hand up, not realising it was the one with the sword in it.

"Where did you get that?" Uncle John asked.

"Watch that!" a figure came running down the steps.

Niamh blinked. The person was someone she had never seen before. Like the boys, he was dressed in some kind of tight-fitting, dark silver, leathery uniform. At his hip, he had...was that a mace? His hair was brown and he was only a bit taller than she was.

"By Danu, where did she find this?" he muttered, coming up close to her. He looked into her eyes. "Morrigu. Get her inside, will you?"

Aunt Amy and Uncle John stared at him as though they understood him as much as Niamh did. The man muttered some more, picked her up as if she was nothing but a potato and carried her inside. She heard the sword clatter as it fell from her fingers.

"Don't," the man carrying her said. "The boys will get it."

As he took her inside, Niamh noticed the front window looked fixed again. She wondered at how quickly it had been done. She giggled to herself, thinking that surely a builder wouldn't come this late at night.

"Hush. You'll be right as rain soon," the man murmured.

He smelled nice, like the woods in spring. She looked into his face. His hair was light brown and the wrinkles around his brown eyes made him look older than he surely must be. She put a finger out to touch his ears. She swore they had a slight point to them. She laughed and was convinced she was going mad.

The house was fine because there had been no monsters, surely. And this man was either a die-hard fan of 'Lord of the Rings', or she was imagining the point in his ears.

The world behind the man started swirling, the colours of the night sky and the lights swirling together like a giant pinwheel. She watched as the colours crept along the top of the front door, then the roof of the hallway, and then chase each other around the light in the centre of the living room. She smiled as the red of the cornices joined in the fun.

The man lowered her onto the couch. She ignored him as he felt her forehead. He swore and she giggled again.

He turned and spoke to someone behind the couch. She half-listened as she watched the colours making fantastical shapes, mixing up to make different colours and then dividing again.

"What were they?" the man asked.

"Shifters of some kind," Niamh heard a familiar male voice, but she didn't know who it was.

"We didn't really stop to ask their names," another said. Niamh could hear the smile in his voice.

"Shut up, O'Neill," the man snapped.

"Kane, why were they after her?" the first voice asked.

"I expect because she saw them today. They hate to leave loose ends." He muttered again, too low for Niamh to hear this time.

"Do we know why they attacked those mortals in the first place?"

"Nothing for certain."

"The council sent us to save her, surely they have some idea?" the first voice asked.