The moment was only long enough to afford its acknowledgment. Any longer and Donal might have saved Niall. Sounds blurred. Individual thoughts faded into a din.

Finn yelled something at the brute, but Donal didn’t hear the words. The giant man was knocked backwards as he made contact with his mentor’s right arm, but Donal didn’t care how it happened or where he landed.

The black drape around Breaslin turned red, if only in Donal’s eyes. His right hand returned to his spear. He held it parallel to the ground and pulled it behind him. His guttural cry alerted Breaslin to what was coming, but it didn’t matter to Donal.

Donal twisted his body as he heaved the spear. Breaslin brought up his staff and created a purple shield in front of his torso. The spear pushed the magical barrier back into Breaslin, allowing its tip to pierce the right side of its target’s chest—if only for a second—before the overall force of its impact hurled Breaslin against the wall. Donal’s spear fell to the floor where Breaslin’s body had dislodged from it. Breaslin’s walking stick was flung to an unknown location.

With the three biggest threats in the room left reeling, Siobhan and Maeve ran to Niall’s side to check on their elder. Donal ran to Finn’s side as his brother climbed to his feet.

Niall’s arm now ended two inches below his elbow. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t engaging with Siobhan or Maeve. They’d lose him in a matter of minutes to blood loss if without proper help.

Siobhan grimaced as her words came out.

“Mall an fhuiliú.”

Her hand glowed, but the spell had no effect. She held up her leaf blade.

“Finn, you have to heat it.”

“That’s not what the spell is meant for,” Finn said.

Something behind Donal wheezed. One of the undead spearmen was pushing itself up to its feet.

“We talked about this, Finn,” Maeve said. “Do it.”

“This is not one of those times!” Finn said.

He pointed to Siobhan.

“She can barely move her left arm. Now I’m supposed to burn her good hand?”

“If you don’t, Niall dies,” Siobhan said. “I can still use magic with a burned hand. If Maeve did it she wouldn’t be able to loose another arrow until we could stop and rest.”

Finn grabbed the hair on the back of his head and squinted at Siobhan.

“You’d ask us to do the same thing if the roles were switched and you know it,” she said.

Finn shook his head and directed Maeve to back away from Siobhan with a wave.

“Don’t wait for the whole thing to heat up before you start,” he said, “and drop it the second you’re done.”

“I planned on making a run at the big guy with this afterward, but surgeon’s orders.”

“I’m already doing this. You don’t need to ease me into this with jokes.”

Her smile faded.

“The jokes were for me.”

“In that case, I’m really sorry for this. Guirid miotail.”

Siobhan held the blade of her sword against the end of Niall’s right arm. Finn circled his hands slowly to keep the spell going.

An orange glow appeared in the middle of the blade. Niall yelled as the glow expanded to the edges. Donal heard and smelled things that he hoped to forget someday. Niall fell unconscious a few seconds later.

“He’s out!” Donal yelled. “Is that bad? What do we do now?”

“That’s to be expected,” Maeve said. “Too much pain for a body to handle. Let’s just hope this worked for now.”

The orange glow had spread across the blade, and now Siobhan cried out in pain.

“Drop the sword, Siobhan!” Maeve said. “Cut the spell, Finn.”

The cries of pain now quieted to grunts and groans. Sounds of stirring echoed from the cauldron and main chambers. The brute and Dother were coming to.

Donal ran to his spear and grabbed it in time to strike down one of last remaining undead soldiers. Finn stooped by Siobhan and took her sword hand in both of his.

“I don’t know if I can make it better,” he said.

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“It can’t feel any worse,” she said.

“Íccaid.”

Finn’s hand glowed green. Days worth of recovery progressed in a matter of seconds. Siobhan pulled her hand away and flexed her hand.

“That will have to do for now. Where are going, Maeve?”

“If we go back down that passage we won’t have any room to dodge their attacks,” Maeve said. “And it looks like that creepy man just raised another archer from the side room back there. I mean no offense, but after seeing what Donal did to yer man there, I don’t want to risk all of our hides on one magic shield.”

“You got a better option?” Finn asked. “I don’t see another way out.”

“We might have to make our own,” she said. “You checked that side room earlier. Any candles or torches in there?”

“Completely empty. And damp.”

“Something’s making that room brighter than the others. We’re too far away from the entrance.”

Siobhan gingerly tested her sword before she grabbed and sheathed it. She pulled herself up with her staff and looked at Donal.

“Take Niall’s mace and help Maeve get him into that room,” she said. “Finn, get in the doorway and cover us until we’re ready to bring it down.”

“What do you mean, ‘bring it down?’” Donal asked.

“We need to keep them away while we find our way out,” Siobhan said. “If there is one.”

“And if there isn’t one?” Donal asked.

“We’ll need to slow them down in either circumstance,” she said.

Maeve lifted Niall to a seated position and put her head under his maimed arm. Donal followed her example on Niall’s other side and they stood him up and walked him into the side room.

Dother entered from the cauldron room and unleashed another blast of heat into the doorway. Finn’s shield held, but his counterattack was blocked.

“Back up into the room,” Siobhan said.

Finn did as ordered.

“The big guy’s standing up!” Finn yelled over his shoulder.

Finn created a pale yellow fire in front of Dother using the remains of one of his undead henchmen.

“Donal, shatter the bottom third of each side of the doorway," Siobhan said. "Not too high or it could cause a cave-in.”

Donal grabbed Niall’s mace and stepped in front of Finn. He gave his best attempt to generate an imbáulad strike but the area was too cramped for maximum leverage. He struck each side of the doorway causing the lower sections of the door to crumble and cascade toward the middle of the doorway’s floor. The stones in the middle sections, now unsupported, began to crumble and filled in more of the area at the bottom.

“That will have to do,” Siobhan said. “Help Maeve find what she’s looking for, I’ll try to plug in the rest.”

Siobhan stood behind Finn. She liquefied the loose blocks on the floor to set up her next spell.

“Múr delg.”

She labored to keep her arms moving as thorn-covered vines emerged from the muck and climbed toward the ceiling. The longer she kept her arms moving the thicker the vines grew. Donal could see the brute through the gaps in the vines. He charged at them with sword in hand. Upon reaching the wall, he chopped at the temporary wall, causing the vines to shudder with each blow.

Maeve grabbed the sleeve of Donal’s hauberk and pulled him over to the corner. He held her hand six inches from the wall and showed the faint light in her palm.

“There’s light coming through the other side of this wall,” she said. “These stones, they’re different than the ones a few feet away. Can you knock this down?”

“Knocking a wall down is different than chipping some pebbles away from the edge of it,” Donal said. “And this isn’t exactly a maul.”

“But?”

“I’ll try it, of course.”

Donal landed several strikes in the middle of the wall. An oblong outline roughly three feet wide formed around the grouping of the mace impacts.

“The big guy’s cutting through Siobhan’s wall faster than I’m breaking through mine,” he said.

“Let me try something,” Finn said. “Get ready to carry Niall through. If this works, we may not have much time. Can you cast that from over here, Siobhan?”

“I’m not sure I can hold them off much longer, no matter where I’m standing,” she said. “Wait, are you going to—”

“—Yes. I think I can thunder my way through judging by what he’s done already.”

“You won’t have enough time to shield the whole from the cave-in.”

“What choice do I have?” Finn said.

“Let me thunder through and you have the shield ready.”

“The big man will shred the vines once you stop casting.”

“I can’t keep this up anyway. We’ll just do this quickly.”

Siobhan stood in front of the damaged wall and waited for the rest to get into position. Maeve and Donal propped up Niall two feet behind Siobhan. Finn’s eyes were fixed on the ceiling above the wall.

“Ready, Finn?” Siobhan asked.

“I—”

“Tórann!” Siobhan said.

The middle of the wall collapsed outward.

“Bocóit!”

Finn’s shield protected the new gap in the wall from a downpour of rubble. Each strike of the brute's sword was followed by the sound of vines tearing.

“Go!” he yelled. “Watch his head.”

Donal and Maeve carried Niall over rubble and through the hole and into the new room. Siobhan ran after them. Something heavy and metal struck stone in the general area where Donal last saw his brother standing. Finn ran into the room before Donal could call for him. His shield disappeared and the three feet of ceiling next to the wall crashed to the floor.

The rubble didn’t fill the entire gap they created but it would take their pursuers more than an hour to clear a path to them. Donal felt safe enough to examine his new surroundings. The space was roughly a ten-foot square. Four rows of shelves lined the three remaining walls, save for the gap where a wooden ladder leaned against the far wall. Light pierced through the gaps that surrounded a hatch door in the ceiling.

“A cellar,” Siobhan said. “Donal, Finn, get up that ladder and let’s hope nobody’s standing guard.”

Donal climbed the ladder and took a breath before punching the hatch open and popping his spear upwards. Nothing. He stepped up and stuck his head above the floor of the next level. Finn followed him through the hatch. The upstairs area was empty. He called back down once he was satisfied they were alone.

“Let’s go.”

Donal laid on the ground with his head, shoulders and arms above the cellar entrance. Maeve fed Niall’s uninjured arm up past Donal’s head to Finn. Donal grabbed the front of Niall’s chainmail and pulled as he slid backwards from the hatch. Maeve helped push him up the best that he could. It was a slow process, but eventually the three of them got Niall onto the floor above them.

A voice yelled from the other side of the rubble below.

“How did this happen?”

“I don’t know, Éamon. The boy got off a lucky throw, and it all fell apart from there.”

“Do you hear yourself, Dother? I’ve worked too hard and for too long to let a boy with a knife stop me now. Did you know that these chambers ran next to the abbey cellar?

“We thought it was close, but we didn’t think it was on the other side!”

“The two of you will get your arses up that well and end them. We’ll deal with their allies after Sunday. And Dother—you don’t want to see what happens if I get to them before you do.”