“Girl?” Aisling quipped. “She is clearly awoman.”
Madison blinked up into the trees before she finally saw Aisling’s pixie-like face wavering in the sunlit leaves. “Oh,wow. You were in Riona’s pictures right before Cian arrived in New Hampshire.”
“I was,” Aisling confirmed. “I helped him time travel.”
While this should have shocked her, been impossible to believe, it wasn’t. Rather, it felt almost normal. Expected. Like some part of her had known this was coming. From talking to a fairy to Oran speaking within her mind. Even stranger? She somehow understood why they spoke to her in different ways. Oran because he was a raven and her familiar. Aisling because she was a fairy.
“It’s nice to meet you both.” She smiled at Oran. “Especially you, my friend.”
“Indeed.”He bobbed his head once.“I look forward to many conversations now that you can hear me.”
“I look forward to it as well.” She kept smiling, thankful he was here. That beyond Cian, she wasn’t alone in this place so far from home.
“Yet first,” Aisling chimed in, eyeing Oran through the branches. “We must give them time alone so that they might get to know one another beyond dreams,ta? For they have had none of it. No real life together.”
“Yet is it so wise to leave them alone?”Oran wondered.
“On land so close to m’Lord’s castle that I have already ensured is safe?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I dare ye to tell me ‘tis not.”
“Then dare I might.”
“Though I wish you wouldn’t.” Madison gave Oran a thankful look. “I appreciate your protection, but a few minutes alone with Cian and my surroundings wouldn’t be such a bad thing.” Mainly because she suspected Aisling and Oran were determined to argue. “If you don’t mind?”
Oran cocked his head this way and that, considering her before he nodded once and took flight.“I’m but a thought away if you need me, Madison.”
“That was easier than I figured it would be,” she said when Aisling vanished into the wind as well.
Cian chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Aisling argue like that with anyone.”
Though small, his smile took her breath away. The genuine flicker of happiness in his eyes.
“You don’t do that much, do you?” she asked, surprisingly comfortable with him despite being a thousand years back in time with a relative stranger.
“Do what?”
“Smile. Laugh.”
“No more than I suspect you do.”
She liked that he didn’t mince words. She also liked that he held her hand when he led her through the vibrant woodland. His skin was coarser than other hands she had held. Toughened by holding weapons, she realized. By fighting on a regular basis.
“Why?” she asked impulsively, no matter how off-topic. “Why fight hand to hand when you have magic? When you’re a wizard of all things?”
He didn’t seem put off by the question but rather like he expected it. Like he probably even sensed it coming.
“Because that’s not the way of an Irish warrior.” Cian shook his head. “Not the way of a king who asks his men to fight for him.” He steered her down a woodland path off to their right. “My brothers and I have known our fate since we were children. Our sole purpose is to fight for Ireland’s freedom. Her future.” He shook his head again. “That could not be done by throwing magic around that others didn't possess, but by teaching them the power they held in their own two hands. How much they could accomplish with a mere blade.”
“So you don’t use magic when fighting here?”
“We do,” he conceded. “We have no choice against Raghnall. Fortunately, there have been few direct confrontations with him thus far. Mostly just skirmishes with his men who possess no more magic than our warriors.”
“Skirmishes where you don’t just end his men with magic?”
“No.” He steered her down an even narrower path, making sure she avoided several roots. “I,we, fight fair. We would not have it any other way.”
She liked that. Thought it noble. But was it practical? “Fight fair when you and your brothers could take them down easily? Prevent lives lost?”
“’Tis always been the way of Irish wizards.” He helped her down a steep part of the path. “An unspoken pact between friend and foe that magic only be used against magic. Sword against sword.”
