The elf looked her up and down then waved his hand in the air. “There’s another way in.”
“Oh?”
“Hmmm. Tunnel access by a door in the side of a hillen. ‘Tis well-concealed.”
“Oh.”
He smiled. “Does no’ sound as glamorous or dangerous as a hermit scalin’ the cliffs with meager stores for his inhospitable seaside cave?”
“Well, no. It doesn’t.”
“Exactly right.”
“I see.”
“So tell me why that old rat catcher sent you ‘round here?”
Glen cleared his throat. “I’m on an errand for a knight of The Order of the Black Swan. Puddephatt said for me to tell you that.” Finrar licked his bottom lip and nodded. “I’m to learn why the elves and fae are at war. No one seems to know. Every time I think I’m headed in the direction of a promising theory, it proves misleading. Puddephatt says that, if anyone knows, it’s you.”
The elf’s eyes flicked to Rosie.
“I’m Glendennon Catch, by the way. I work for The Order. This is Rosie Storm. Her dad is a knight emeritus. Her mom is still on the payroll. Magick.”
“Well, Rosie. I do no’ have crumpets, but I could fire a pot of tea. As to you, Catch, what I have to give ye is the tale of how the Great War came to be. I can no’ say ‘tis fact. I can only say that, like most thin’s called historical, ‘tis a good measure of truth to be found within. If ye will have what I offer, I will give it.”
“The words life and death were not used to describe the importance of my mission, but it was impressed upon me that the outcome is urgent. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Lady Laiken needs us to return with anything we can learn. Whatever you have is treasure.”
“Aye. Well, my experience with knights of The Order is that they have a leanin’ towards the drama, as you may have noticed yourselves.”
Glen’s mouth fell open and he started to rise up in defense of all Black Swan knights, but Rosie grasped him by the arm with both hands and kept him sitting.
CHAPTER 3
In a short time, Finrar brought her tea made from leaves in a cup that appeared to be old hammered pewter. He handed her a small cloth to use for grasping the handle so she wouldn’t burn herself and took a seat across from them.
“Does no’ take long to tell ‘cause very little of the detail is still known. ‘Twas a long time ago. There were annals o’course, but nothin’ remains of them.
“Have you ever heard of the Danu?”
Glen looked at Rosie. She shook her head. Glen turned back to Finrar and shook his head no.
“The children of Danu had migrated to this world and set up a colony in what is now the north of Wales. The country was rough and tumble, but that suited the Dana fine. They liked roasted meat and liquid spirits and they were right handy with song and dance, but they could also be a fierce bunch and were ready to fight at the blink of an eye.
“There was a place of witches in the Britons in those days. You might even say it was an Order. Some of those witches took a likin’ to the Dana, thought we were magical or some such.” He gave Rosie his boyish smile, so fetching, as if to say he knew full well why those witches thought they were magical. He was making a halfhearted attempt at pretending humility for courtesy’s sake.
“When stories about Romans began to reach the western lands, the Dana paid no mind. Enemies are a fact of life like bugs and the occasional limp cock, so I hear, but the witches were alarmed and kept insistin’ that the Romans were a great plague runnin’ deep and wide. After a time they convinced the Dana to move the colony to an island in the middle of the Irish Sea where the witches could keep them safe. Once there, the ladies brought up a mist to shield the island from discovery.
“As the story goes, the mist provided an ideal hidin’ place for creatures such as Dana and practices such as sorcery. But it also formed a sort of shield against inclement weather, like a sort of insular dome, good for growin’ all manner of food, particularly apples.
“The Dana made good use of their time there. They learned Anglish.” He smiled. “Even if they put their own stamp on it by retainin’ the cadence of the old language. They shared their games and festivals and sacred observances with the witches, and the witches taught the females healin’ and sight . Life was simple, quiet, and good.
“Within a few years the chief’s mate bore twin sons. Twins were unheard of among the children of Danu, but no one thought anythin’ of it except to see it as twice blessed.
“The boys, princes, were named Galfine and Galfae. Beautiful as the sun with eyes the color of the sea and hair shot through with streaks of rust and copper. They got on well with the other young ones and were everythin’ the royal pair could ever have wished for.
“All was well until the boys were in the late part of their twenty-fourth year. They were struck by the matin’ instinct at the same time. Now, normally, ‘tis an occasion for rejoicin’, but…”
“It was a woman,” Glen said. “It’s always a woman.”