Carolyn blinked, looking between me and Neve for a moment. She shook her head after a moment. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d I said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even know parts of the tale if not for…well. For the whole reborn souls thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight.\u201d Her gaze shifted fully to Neve. \u201cSo…the story?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah.\u201d Neve cleared her throat. \u201cUnderstand that I know about half of the tale secondhand\u2014most of it I wasn\u2019t allowed to be a part of, and I\u2019ll explain that in the telling. Phelan was more involved than any of us, though we all helped in the hunt for him as best we could.<\/p>\n
\u201cWar was looming even then, and Brigh\u00edd and Ciar\u2014twins, you know\u2014would be seventeen the following autumn when it all began. The druids had claimed Ciar when he was a boy, and despite his being the elder, he demurred leadership of the clan early in favor of his sister. She was raised to lead the Imbolg. It had been early that past winter when their father had been killed during a hunt and the mantle of chieftain fell onto Brigh\u00edd\u2019s shoulders. She was already promised to the heir to the Fianna, Finn, who was about a year her senior but hadn\u2019t yet come into his inheritance. Father was negotiating with the Southron clans to marry off Teague to one of them and completely ignoring the fact that he was in love with another. Maybe if he hadn\u2019t been\u2014if my father hadn\u2019t been negotiating with the Southrons\u2014things would have been different.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrigh\u00edd was summoned to attend a great hunt called by my father on the border of Imbolg lands. My father had called it and my brothers and Phelan had gone with him. Aoife and I didn\u2019t attend\u2014very few women did that time\u2014but Brigh\u00edd was one of the most skiled boar-hunters in old Ireland and nothing would stop her from being there. She rode with Finn and Phelan out into the woods after a boar and so she wasn\u2019t there when it happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cCiar had come along with his sister to the hunt to meet with the druid contingent that was sure to be in attendance, but he ended up mildly disappointed by the turnout\u2014that\u2019s what Seamus told me later. There were only two or three druids, none of them known to Ciar, but he trusted them as his brothers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat trust was sadly misplaced.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carolyn blinked, looking between me and Neve for a moment. She shook her head after a moment. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize.\u201d \u201cI know,\u201d I said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t even know parts of the tale if not for…well. For the whole reborn souls … Continue reading