Another week came and went with no sign of Rio leaving. After I woke up each day, while I washed, Bodb’s mirror glowed on and off like a flashing strobe behind its curtain. Rio sat with her legs folded under her and her hands resting in her lap, still and serene as a Buddhist statue. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me that instead of sleep, all Aos Si needed to recharge was to meditate sometimes. Apparently even though she could sleep, without a connection to the mortal world she couldn’t dream, so it wasn’t worth it. Her quiet sessions always ended when Bodb’s mirror went dark.
I went through my exercises out of habit, and she watched like when she pretended to be Queenie. Near the end of the week, she offered to give me a few combat lessons. We went through how to dodge and roll away from attacks. She took one of her bracelets, stretched it into a string of links, then swung it around like a whip. From there we alternated between cards and a chess-like board game she called fidchell. We ate dinner outside like she said and made every evening a little picnic.
It was when I went to sleep, tired and laying in my cot, that I remembered I couldn’t get too comfortable. Our dynamic had turned from kidnapper and prisoner to two people stuck together making the best of a bad situation. But I had to find my way back to Daire. I had to figure out a way to get those three sacred items so he could find the next part of his spell. Then I could get home, leaving the whole mess of old Irish gods, magic, and parallel worlds behind.
Although, I might miss Rio when it was all over. A little.
***
Before I knew it, the first part of the day was over and my stomach growled for dinner. Rio rolled away the heavy boulder at the entrance with one hand while cradling a basket full of food from her magic pantry. We ate in a clearing nearby. The forest was quiet except for the cool breeze trailing through the trees, making leaves swish together above our heads. There wasn’t ever a squirrel skittering through the branches or any bugs crawling around between the grass. Not one hooting owl or chirping cricket broke up the nighttime silence. All the thick foliage and crowded trees were prettier than any parks back home, but it felt hollow without small noises to give it life.
“Still ducking calls from Bodb?” I popped a red berry in my mouth from the basket. When I bit down, the sweet juice exploded over my tongue.
“I talked to him while you were asleep, actually.” Rio peeled a strip of tender pork off for herself. “I told him I had other plans.”
“Do you think we could see places other than your forest?” Guilt gnawed at my gut. The deadline to see Daire had come and gone. God knew how much time had passed back in my world in the rough month and a half that had passed in Tir Na Nog. I had to start being proactive. “I know Bodb doesn’t want other people seeing me, but maybe you could hide me using your glamour magic or something.”
“Oh, no need for that.” She paused to chew and swallow. Her mouth went tight at the corners like she was holding back a grin. “What sorts of formal wear do you prefer?”
“Depends on what I need it for, I guess.” I shrugged. “I have a pantsuit my Abuela gave me for when I interviewed at Nico’s, but that’s buried in my closet.”
“What are your feelings on dresses?”
“I like having something on my legs.”
“I’ll have to produce some more masculine garb for you to try then.”
“Why?” I pinched my eyebrows together. “Is there something special going on?”
“An impromptu festival at Tara. It’s one of those affairs where the High King requires everyone’s attendance.” A glint of trouble flared in her eyes. “I want you to escort me.”
“You’re asking me to be your date?”
“That word isn’t quite coming through the spell,” Rio said, her head quirking to one side. “Are you asking about a desert fruit or implying that we would be romantic companions?”
“Neither.” I tugged on my v-neck’s collar as I got hot. “I mean us going somewhere together, but as friends.”
“Ah.” Rio snickered. “Then yes, I am.”
“I thought you weren’t allowed to show me to other people.”
“Oh don’t worry. I finally found a way around that.”
“Without pissing Bodb off?”
“Why should that matter? I’ll protect you.” Rio jangled her bracelet. “Besides, he’s hosting the event. He’ll be too distracted for it to matter. There will be dancing, mead, all of the succulent food you can eat. I can show you some of our animals. There’s a boar and a bear who chase each other around and around.”
I cringed, weighing my options. If everyone was supposed to attend, that meant Daire would be there and I could sneak away to fill him in on why I disappeared. Though riling up Rio’s boyfriend gave him an excuse to give me more bruises. I rubbed my arm where the ghost of his grip still itched. “But if Bodb will be there and you’re showing me off in front of everybody…”
“Please come with me.” Rio picked up my hand in both of hers and batted her long, dark eyelashes. “I have gone to these festivals every year and they always end in me sitting alone for the entire celebration. I want to enjoy myself this time.”
“Alright. I’ll go.” I gulped as I squeezed her on reflex. “But I need this hand to eat.”
Rio let go and I stretched my tingling fingers. My mouth kept busy as I stuffed it with meat and grapes and mulled over the weird tickle running up my stomach. I could be coming down with Stockholm Syndrome again, clinging to the only familiar face I had in a foreign place. Ever since she and I had started things over, she’d shown me a different side. She’d more than made good on her promise to make sure I wasn’t ever too alone. Sometimes, when my thoughts wandered, I’d think that it might be nice to add her in on card nights. Then I remembered what she did. But then she would smile, and getting home wouldn’t seem as urgent as before.
I didn’t bring it up though and rambled about how Nate’s cooking was just as good as the food from her cupboard, even if it had more grease. She reminisced about fresh cream and how she would drink it when Irish people left it out when she was a kid. The moonlight made her hair shine the color of a Macintosh apple’s skin. She leaned back on her elbows and lounged with her long legs stretched out instead of folded so neatly under her.
I caught myself staring. The little space she occupied was all the substance that empty forest needed to come alive.
***
When the day of the feast came, Rio and I must have gone through ten different outfits. Even though I said each one was fine, she found something else wrong with it. What she settled on looked like she took my hair color and made it into a medieval costume. The tunic-dress, pants, and boots were all the same shade of black as my roots. A violet cloak hung across my shoulders. Rio’s finishing touches played off my piercings: a silver pair of cuffs on my biceps and the matching pin holding the cloak in place.
“Hmm, something is still missing.” Rio circled around me like she was an Italian designer and I was the mannequin wearing her next big fashion. “Spirals perhaps?”
“No. I like this. It’s good.” I hiked up the cloak and started toward the mirror that had been flashing in my periphery since the fifth experiment. “If you keep adding stuff, we’re going to miss everything.”
“Very well, if you insist.” She swept her hands over her usual dress, and the sheer, white fabric got an airy blue shimmer. Her bracelets lengthened as she tugged them. She detached sections of them and twisted webs of chains around her fingers, ankles, and hips.
“Why add more?” I asked as I looked her over.
“Is it not flattering?” Rio inspected the new jewelry, turning her wrists and ankles over.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“It looks nice.” The extra iron brought out the steely undertones in her eyes, and those made my chest warm. “But won’t it make you scarier to everybody else?”
“That’s the point.” She draped her arm around my shoulders and pulled the curtain away from our way to the party. The frame had upright rock pillars all around it and shined brighter when we came close.
We stepped through together and the cool underground faded into a breezy evening with the smell of live fire hot on the wind. Rio waited a few steps in front of me while I soaked everything in.
The mirror led to a giant open courtyard surrounded by towering stones and paved with mismatched rock tiles. I’d never been to Stonehenge, but it had to look something like that in its prime. Reflective metal plates were molded into the bases of the monolithic columns, and Aos Si strolled in from them two and three at a time. The party’s centerpiece wasn’t the long table with its spread of roasted meats, piles of fruit, and barrels of tart-smelling wine. Instead, most people mingled around the blazing bonfire that made their long shadows dance with them. Rio’s formal wear was simple compared to the sea of bright jewel tones and animal skins decorating the rest of her people. They loved their shiny ornaments: polished crowns, headpieces, intricate broaches, and open collars with animal heads on both ends.
Once I recovered from the vertigo of color, I chased after Rio before I lost her in the horde of taller people. Before that I’d thought her extreme height was an exception, not the rule. It made Daire easier to pick out, the shortest head of the bunch. He was sitting near the middle of the long table in a sleeveless emerald jacket with gold embroidery. The hunk of pork on his plate sat untouched while he side-eyed the ladies beside him.
Both were familiar, especially the brawny Amazon on the copper side of ginger dressed in all reds and yellows. She was his mom’s guard from the tiny cell. The one sitting between them was a walking skeleton in a lavender gown with a rose gold shade of hair only a high end stylist could make. It wasn’t until I noticed how she viewed the world like a vegetable, through glazed over eyes, that I recognized her. Daire’s mom, Etain.
I followed Rio to the far end of the table and took the cushioned chair beside hers. She twisted both wrists, and two daggers materialized between her fingers out of thin air like when she’d made the food cupboard. I got one, heavy and solid, and followed her lead. We carved off a chunk of meat each and stabbed whatever fruit we wanted from the platters.
While I munched, I got a chance to really study the specific details of the gathering. One man played a jig on a tin whistle that managed to sound like a whole chorus of them. The mess around the bonfire split into couples and coordinated formations. They pranced around each other in the practiced steps of a line dance. Anyone else whispered and laughed to each other in little pockets at the other end of the table. They all kept inside the courtyard, though, leaving plenty of empty space for others to fill in. Hadn’t Rio said the whole population was supposed to attend?
“Is this everybody?” I asked.
“There are a few stragglers who have yet to appear.” Rio cut into a pomegranate and split it open. “The bulk of us have arrived, though.”
“Seriously? It looks more like a big wedding than a whole race of people.”
“There used to be more, not counting the lower castes and the humans we kept.” Rio popped a seed into her mouth and pursed her lips. “I would say there were thousands before certain edicts and the sealing of the walls whittled that number down to hundreds.”
“Several hundred or a couple hundred?”
“The latter.”
“Shit, my senior class was ten times that.”
“Yes, and they will remain that small so long as we’re trapped here. It would be nice to be able to explore the mortal realm again. The things you describe as basic are so different.” Rio huffed and ran her fingers over the edge of my cloak. “Let’s talk of happier matters. Are you certain you wouldn’t want more embellishment?”
“Yeah, it’s fancy enough.” I grabbed her hand and stopped it from tracing any more patterns.
“What about your hair?” Rio ran her other set of fingers through my bangs, smoothing them back while her nails brushed my scalp. “I wish you would have let me braid some of this away from your face.”
I swatted her arm away and my whole face heated up like a pressure cooker.
A large shadow loomed over us. Rio’s attention traveled up and she grinned sweet, like she might to an old friend, but her burnished eyes did nothing but judge.
“Lady Riona, I would like a word,” the shadow said, his deep voice matching his full, braided beard. He crossed his beefy arms over his barrel chest under his fur cloak. His open collar had a bear’s head and a boar’s head on each end. I gulped. King Bodb again, in the flesh.
“Your majesty, what an honor.” Rio bowed her head while I gawked. She applied a gentle pressure to the back of my neck and I bobbed my head once. “What is it you wish to speak about?”
“Withdraw with me and we will continue from there.” Bodb started turning on his heel before Rio even answered.
“Why leave? I already made myself comfortable.” Ignorant friendliness laced her tone. “Also, have you met my changeling yet? She calls herself Maya.”
“Were your grounds not to her liking?” Bodb sighed and ruffled my hair with those sausage fingers full of rings. He tugged it hard enough to make my eyes water. “Surely she would be more comfortable there.”
“I’m comfy right here, thanks for asking.” I scooted my chair closer to Rio as I massaged my scalp. “You ordered everyone to come to this party anyways. I count too.”
“Charming, isn’t she?” Rio wrapped her arm around my shoulders and her bracelet slinked down my arm.
“Haven’t you taught her manners yet?”
“I was under the impression we were treating humans as equals now.” She gestured toward Daire and his mom, Etain. “After all, your own brother calls his ‘wife,’ and she is given a place of high honor at the table with our kin.”
“Etain is an exception. This one has not earned that right.”
“She acts as my escort and personal adviser.” Rio’s grip on me tightened as she raised her voice. Anyone within ear shot, including Daire, turned toward the sound. “I thought you a better host than to insult my guest by refusing her a seat. After all, you permitted her entry.”
“I pointed out the oddity of her presence, nothing more.” The High King shifted between us and the gawkers. He lowered his voice so even I could barely hear it. “And do you not recall the conditions attached to her?”
“I swore an oath that would last for as long as I was loyal to you, not that I would be loyal to you for all time,” Rio said in just as soft of a whisper.
“Stop this tantrum. You’re attracting undue attention.”
“I won’t be your shameful secret any longer.” She dropped the sugar, grave as a cemetery. “From here on, my loyalty only belongs to those not afraid to admit the same.”
Bodb’s eyes darkened from a terracotta to a burnt umber. His natural glow brightened, spreading further out with the oppressive pressure of a thunderstorm. The ground shuddered under us. I clung to the arms of my chair and turned to Rio.
“You’re safe,” she mouthed. “Trust me.”
“Key Bearer, come to me!” Bodb bellowed.
Further down the table, the little color in Daire’s face drained. He clenched his jaw as he clawed at his chair, every muscle in his torso tight. Etain never flinched as her guard rubbed her back. The guard did throw an irked scowl Bodb’s way and nudged Daire out of his seat.
The whistles, munching, and dancing all stopped. Everyone’s attention became fixed on Bodb, Rio, and worst of all me.
Daire started to walk over, struggling over each step like he had to yank his feet out of sludge to reach us. I white knuckled my dress under my cloak to keep my hands steady. Rio had better know what she was doing. I wanted to go back to my world, but it was too late for Bodb to send me there in one piece.
“You violated the spirit of our agreement.” Bodb said, back to a barely-there whisper.
“I have broken nothing. Our very nature makes it so. You should have made a better deal.” Rio maintained her doe eyes and pitiful mask, but her answer came out as a hiss. “Take her away from me and I will taint your legacy with the truth of your dalliance with the Fomor-tainted Lady of Irons. That is my oath.”
“Be reasonable.” Bodb held up his hand. Daire froze mid step, halfway to us. “Renounce this nonsense and I will put her on a deserted isle. But if you persist, I will drop her in the ocean.”
“Dear uncle, how can you send her away?” Rio raised her voice and brought her arm around my waist. The chain hanging over my shoulder whipped across me like a seat belt. “Did you not show mercy when I begged for a companion? Will you leave me to my loneliness?”
The hum of murmurs floated over the tension between them. I caught bits and pieces of the crowd’s speculation if I strained. A lot of questions: Why did Bodb allow a human in Tir Na Nog? Why would he give them to the Lady of Irons? Did he favor the Fomor-touched over the rest of his people? Was he showing kindness to an afflicted family member, or something else?
“Very well, poor child,” Bodb said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Keep a muzzle on your hound’s mouth from now on. Remember, even my patience has limits.”
I opened that mouth to say where he could shove his patience.
Rio clapped her hand over it before anything came out. “Of course, your majesty.”
A few disappointed sighs followed his verdict. Some started a slow round of applause.
“Praise be to our High King’s benevolence!” A man sitting next to Daire’s empty place stood, raising his mug high. He’d decked himself in tans and browns, making the gold borders embroidered into his clothes pop. His bright yellow hair had the same distinctive wave to it as Rio’s and his effeminate cheekbones were identical to Daire’s. Could he be their dad?
“Praise be to Bodb Derg!” came the resounding reply of the mass in front of us.
“I promise that I will not cast her back to the mortal realm. But you and I will meet later to finalize this deal, Lady Riona. Alone.” Bodb stomped back to his high-backed chair at the center of the table.
“That was way too close for comfort just so you could break up with someone.” I leaned in closer to Rio, hoping no one would eavesdrop.
“It exposed his hypocrisy and trapped him into an arrangement that keeps you safe.” She sat straighter and beamed at me as her chain bracelet slinked back to her arm.
“Okay, let’s say you had it all under control.” My heart rate started to slow down but I couldn’t shake that gut-twisting suspicion that the trouble was only getting started. “You still embarrassed the most powerful guy in this place in front of everyone he rules. Won’t he want payback?”
“You worry too much. I can handle him.” Rio smoothed my bangs away from my forehead, leaned down, and kissed it. It was a hardly a peck, but my skin sizzled where she touched. “Your concern is always wonderful, though. No one has fussed over me this much since my mother.”
My head reeled at the spontaneous affection, with too many questions about what it meant that I couldn’t answer. It definitely shut me up.