Etain didn’t sleep for long after Brigid left and I settled in. She stayed quiet and watched me like a suspicious stray to somebody holding out a scrap of food. I introduced myself and explained how I was stepping in for Brigid for a bit, then turned some basic questions on her. She kept her answers to universal small talk while she studied me. It wasn’t until I asked about her family that she got chatty.

She jumped around in her stories and it took a few before I got the characters straight. When Etain talked about Daire as a kid, his growing up seemed ideal: devoted mom, uncle like a big brother, aunt like a father. It gave him room to turn into anyone he wanted. I got a real good idea why Rio hated his guts.

Sometimes she slipped, though, where she talked about her only kid like she was describing someone else. One minute she had a special son, obsessed with gardening and mommy’s attention. The next, she got a headstrong daughter who loved history and wanted to be a queen. As we talked longer, the way she saw me shifted where I went from some temporary guard to that nameless daughter she had to fuss over.

“You should find a sweetheart of your own.” Etain rubbed her skirt in her lap. “It’s not good for a maid of your age to go without companionship.”

“I don’t have time for one,” I said, though Rio flashed through my mind as a prospect. “I tried a couple times, but it never got serious. Too busy working, taking care of Mom and Abuela.”

“Your father would do that, were he here.” Etain got a grumpy pout. So far, she’d made that face when she forgot something. “What happened to him? Did he die in a war?”

“No.” I shrugged. “My dad died in an accident when I was born. We did pretty good on our own, though. Abuela cut hair and Mom tried a lot of different jobs until I was old enough to take over her last gig waiting tables.”

“Your lord must have been very generous to allow the three of you to live so well without demanding that you marry.”

“Our world has changed a lot since your day, that’s for sure.” My knee bounced as I looked around the empty room. The only light came from one single tiny window. “Sure hope Brigid gets back before night hits. I bet it gets spooky here when it’s dark.”

“Brigid gives me light until I fall asleep.” Etain kept playing with her skirt, rubbing back and forth, back and forth, like knitting. Mom fidgeted like that on the bus when we had to go places, one of her anxious tics. “I need it to work, but I sometimes wish I didn’t. I like the dark.”

“Me too. Sometimes, if I’m stressing harder than normal, I’ll close my eyes and try to empty my head so it matches what I see. No bills, no customers, no worries, just peaceful nothing.”

“Yes.” Etain copied what I described as I talked, pressing her eyes shut. Her hands relaxed in her lap. “Sweet nothing.”

I let the quiet stay. She seemed like she needed to soak in some peace from someone neutral.

While my mom and Daire’s had some things in common, mine wasn’t Etain. Mom’s happy place was when she had the naked sun shining on her face.

A couple winters ago, both Abuela and I had one of those rare days off at the same time, and us and Mom could go out to do something special. Mom was pretty stable at the time and hadn’t had an episode for a few months. Abuela put on a t-shirt and packed some sandwiches while Mom and I put on our bathing suits. I covered mine with some shorts while Mom wore a floral sundress. The three of us headed out in Abuela’s car back before it broke down and drove all the way past Nico’s Tavern to the beach. Any crowds were thin that time of year and the water was pretty cold, but Mom and I swam for most of the day until our skin pruned. Abuela sat on shore, guarding the sandwiches while watching the waves lap back and forth. Mom had laughed so much.

Not anymore, though, not with Abuela gone and Mom forgetting everything. What if Brigid and Daire couldn’t get Rio back? Would I lose her too?

“What’s the matter?” Etain blinked at me and leaned over like she wanted to come closer.

I must’ve made a noise. I muscled through a smile. “I’m just thinking about my mom back home.”

“I miss my parents.” The daze over Etain broke for a second, her knuckles twitching. “Though I’m not quite sure who they were.”

Was that a bad subject? Did that tic mean Brigid’s magic sedation was wearing off?

The door handle rattled.

“More company?” Etain’s face lit up in a childlike smile.

“Lady Brigid, I must ask if you have seen Lord Daire and a young woman pass by here,” a deep, familiar voice asked. It reminded me of snakes but I couldn’t place the face.

“Brigid had to step out,” Etain replied. “A good day to you, Fergal.”

I stayed quiet and listened. Call me paranoid but the “young woman” he was talking about might be me. Why would a stranger be looking for me without Rio around?

“A good day to you as well, Lady Etain,” the visitor said. “Who is with you? Lord Midir wanted a watch on you at all times.”

I waved at Etain and put a finger on my mouth to shush her.

“Your master need not worry about his captive,” Etain said with a sneer. She turned it on me as I flailed around, warning of a whooping if I kept it up—she did it almost as good as Abuela used to. “Someone is here.”

“Who?”

“Brigid sent her. That is all you need know.”

The person behind the door went quiet a long second. “And you haven’t seen Lord Daire?”

“No, not for quite some time. Is that all?”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Yes. Thank you, my lady.” Heavy footsteps headed away from the door until they disappeared altogether.

“Who was that?” I leaned toward Etain and kept my eyes peeled on the door.

“He’s a guard of this household.” She turned up to the window, her perfect posture slumping. “He often patrols nearby, keeping out the little swan.”

“A swan?” I hadn’t seen any of those birds since I got to Tir Na Nog, but she could be talking about something I didn’t know. “Let’s think of a better lie for next time. How about you say Brigid’s here and she’s too busy to talk.”

“No one can lie in Tir Na Nog.”

“You can if you’re human. I’ve done it tons since I got here.”

Etain mulled over that one for a good minute.

A long shadow flashed over Etain’s face, interrupting the sunlight pouring in. I moved to the door while my paranoia turned to panic.

“What was that at the window?” Etain wrinkled her nose. “Yet another visitor?”

“It could’ve been a bird, right?”

“Not unless someone flies over.”

“A cloud?”

“Skies are always clear in Bri Leith.”

I tested the door handle. It didn’t budge.

“Your caregiver locked us in.” It was probably more magic so neither of us could try to pick it. I practiced those breathing exercises Mom’s latest therapist gave her for anxiety attacks. In, count to four, hold, count to four, out, count to four. “Let’s sit on the bed together, away from the window. What do you think?”

Etain scooted over and made room for me on the edge of the mattress.

I sat next to her and watched the window. The too blue sky was clear, and the grass peeking in around the edges of the slit only swayed. No more shadows or weird noises.

My heart rate dialed down a bit. Etain started trying to knit her skirt again. She must’ve picked up on my nerves.

“I’m getting a drink.” I pointed over at the brass water pitcher. It was for a distraction more than being thirsty. “You want any?”

Etain shook her head as I walked to the pitcher and its bowl. Compared to the wood set Rio had left for me, the copper one had a lot more heft to it. Someone had polished it enough that it reminded me of the mirrors in Rio’s hole. I squinted into the copper and picked out Etain’s reflection.

She sat there, watching me. The covers around her jerked. A blonde man with a scaly, pale green cape appeared behind her.

It’s then I remembered where I heard the voice at the door from. He was the guard that almost caught Daire and I spying on Etain.

He covered Etain’s mouth, and white smoke came out of his fingers. His attention stayed on Daire’s mom, checking her silent gasp as she clawed at his arm.

I had a fraction of a second to make a plan and even less to react. The pitcher seemed heavier in the moment. I switched the handle from my left hand to my right. The room had as much space as a ritzy walk-in closet. It wasn’t that far between me and the bed.

Please hit him, not Etain. I spun around and rushed the bed, swinging the pitcher at the guard’s skull. Clang!

The guard collapsed onto the bed. Blood oozed from under his hair. The pitcher had a baseball sized dent in the bottom.

Daire’s mom scrambled away, her hair drenched from all the water that had splashed on her.

“We’ve gotta get out of here before he wakes up.” The door and the window were our only options. Two teen-sized girls blowing out their shoulders wouldn’t cut it against a door made of solid wood and with a locked latch. But the slit was set too high on the wall for someone to climb by themselves. Two people, though…

“Fergal?” Etain leaned over the unconscious man. “Why would he…?”

“Don’t touch him.” I flapped at her to follow along as I went to the gap. “Come on.”

She edged over to me, checking over her shoulder at the guard.

I stood across from her and put my hand up to the top of my forehead, then slid it across to hers. Our heights came out even, give or take a centimeter.

“Okay, we’ve got to climb out this window,” I said. On cue, Etain tilted her chin up toward it. I gave her a second, then redirected her to look at me again. “I’ve got a plan for doing that. Just do what I say, alright?”

“What first?”

“That a girl.” I laced my fingers together like a stirrup and bent low enough that she could step into them. “Put your foot here. Then I’ll lift you up.”

Etain gathered her skirt high as she followed my directions.

“Now climb out.” I boosted her to the window ledge.

She reached, tugging on tufts of grass until she pulled herself out half way. Her dress smacked me in the face, and I dodged a flailing leg as she shimmied the rest of herself up.

Good. One down. The next part would be tricky if she didn’t have enough upper body strength to lift me.

The guard groaned.

“He’s waking up!” I didn’t bother whispering as I grabbed for the folding chair I’d sat in earlier and propped it against the wall. It wobbled when I climbed onto it. I stretched toward Etain anyways. Inches from the window. So close.

“Etain, you’ve got to grab me and pull me up,” I said my every word having a shrill pitch as panic bubbled up in me.

“But you’re larger than me.”

“Just… Just grab my arms.” I glanced behind me at the guard. He’d sat up and started massaging his head, still woozy. “Hurry.”

Etain knelt and took hold of me, but her cow-eyed calm wavered. Sitting on the bed, she’d been in a haze like she was going along with a weird dream. Her grip spasmed and she squinted down at me as if struggling to focus, someone half asleep trying to wake up. Brigid’s happy spell was wearing off.

“You’re doing good, Etain.” I clamped down on her elbows. She had to snap out of it, but how? “Stay with me. What if I was Daire and I was in trouble? Your little boy, remember?”

“But you’re not… He’s not…”

The guard shouted something that didn’t make it through Daire’s translation spell. It sounded like a cuss word.

From Etain’s stories, she’d had another child, but something tragic happened that meant she wasn’t around anymore. “What about your other kid? Your daughter?”

Daire’s mom went stiff, her pupils narrowing. The last of Brigid’s magic fog cleared away.

The guard’s boots pattered against the stone floor behind me.

“Pull me up!”

Etain braced herself and dragged me forward.

A pair of arms yanked on my legs.

I kicked back. My foot connected and something cracked under it.

The guard grunted and recoiled, holding his nose.

I thrashed at the wall, and my toe got caught on a wide crack between its blocks. My foot stayed put as I pushed off. Etain heaved me the rest of the way.

Both of us breathed hard as I crawled over the edge. Etain didn’t let go.

“They’re coming for you, Tainy.” Etain hauled me to my feet, squeezing tight. “We have to run.”

There was a wall of trees over the hill not too far away. Rio’s woods. If we made it there, maybe I could find my way back to Rio’s burrow.

“I know somewhere.” I started toward the forest.

Etain bolted ahead of me like it was a track meet. Even though she acted like a sedated old lady with dementia, she had the same build as a cheerleader. She led us up a steep slope through knee-high grass. I sprinted as far as the top before my adrenaline induced endurance gave out.

“We mustn’t tarry.” She scanned the empty sky. “Midir’s men could be upon us any moment.”

She was looking up? Wait. Those guys could transform into animals. That meant birds, flying.

I found my second wind and pumped my legs harder. My chest burned with every gasp for breath and a stabbing pain pulsed in my side. We got to the next incline and my knee buckled, sending me rolling.

“To your feet!” Etain skidded to a stop. “They mustn’t catch us.”

I hacked on my own spit as I got to my knees. Excess pollen sent me into a sneezing fit.

Ahead of us, I could pick out minuscule breaks in the tree line. Behind us were the rainbow clusters of flowers and artfully arched trees surrounding Daire’s home. The unmowed meadow swayed like the waves of a green ocean.

I had to keep moving. It wasn’t that much further. I pushed myself upright.

A skinny shadow rose from the rustling grass.

Etain tackled me and shielded my body with hers. I landed on my back and stared into the slit eyes of the threat.

A giant snake head undulated over us, its body as thick as five pythons. Its scales had the same gray-green pattern as the guard’s cape.

“They can’t take you.” Etain held onto me and wrapped her arms tight. “Not again.”

The grass flattened under the snake’s body as it coiled around us.