Gryffynhall (the Danu Cycle: Fiann Trilogy Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

While the children readied themselves for travel, Eamon and Pearse argued about what road to take back to Tir na nŎg. It was highly unlikely Dwendardien had found his way out of Ironbridge, but if he had, there was no telling where he might have ended up.

"We cannot leave the designated path," Pearse grumbled again.

"If the O'Callaghan girl is supposed to bring Dwendardien out of hiding, there is no point in travelling the traditional route," Eamon countered.

"You will have us lost and travelling through trods for ten times longer than necessary!" Pearse snapped.

The two fiann leaders stared each other down over the map on the table. It was not an easy to read map as it covered multiple realms, overlapping and joining, but Eamon and Pearse had long been used to pouring over them. Donagh shifted behind Pearse and Eamon felt a slight sense of smug satisfaction that his older brother had to sit by and let him and Pearse make the decisions.

"I was led to believe that Father wants to use her to draw Dwendardien out. How are we going to do that if we follow the normal path back into Tir na nŎg?" Eamon pointed at the path on the map. "He is hardly likely to be wandering along it and just hoping his quarry comes travelling by! How will he even know she is on the move?"

"We have taken care of that," Donagh said quietly, and Eamon saw he looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Well, I am glad you have mustered up some hesitancy about using a human girl as Fomorian bait!" Eamon huffed at him, feeling a conflicting sense to shield her and to go ahead and use her as the intended bait.

"Since when do you care about human girls?" Donagh asked, and Eamon knew him well enough to know his scorn hid his own discomfort. "Especially when it could give us the edge in keeping the Fomorians back."

"We have no evidence there are even any Fomorians for him to rally," Eamon replied, falling into one of the chairs around the table.

"That as may be, he will still call wights to him, and they will be able to do enough damage if we do not put a stop to him." Donagh stepped forward and leant over the table towards Eamon.

The two brothers stared at each other. Eamon knew Donah was right, really. The sooner they could either kill Dwendardien or put him back in his prison, the better it would be for all realms and all people. No realm could long withstand another battle between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians. If Niamh was their best shot at stopping a war before it really started, then they would have to make use of that. One life, even one so lovely, was not worth the many that would be lost if they let Dwendardien regain his power. The Fomorians were inherently stronger than the Tuatha Dé. It had taken cunning, strategy, and many bodies to beat them back the last time.

Eamon sighed with frustration and stretched his neck. "Go over your plan one more time, Pearse..."

Donagh nodded and stepped back once more, knowing Eamon was coming around to their plan.

Pearse cleared his throat and began pointing at the map as he spoke. "We will leak information that we have the O'Callaghan girl and are transporting her to Elfhaven along this road. We cannot truly expect anything to happen, Dwendardien is likely to know we want to lure him out. However, it is better than sitting around and twiddling our thumbs. We can hope, at the very least, that Dwendardien concentrates his forces on us rather than elsewhere."

"What about other potential travellers on the road?" Conor asked from behind Eamon. Eamon sat forwards to look at the map, trying to calculate how many other travellers there might be.

Pearse shrugged. "Needs must. We will do what we can to steer clear of others and waypoints, though there will need to be a couple of mandatory stops."