I was the last person to step through the rift. Rob, Charice, and Tain waited on the other side for my lead. In my arms the wizard groaned and I set him down on the ground. Behind us the rift closed by itself.

We were inside of some sort of ancient hall. It was quiet, and nighttime here as well. We were surrounded by weathered stone that comprised some sort of fortress.

Collapsed pillars deteriorated here, a broken wall rotted over there. A massive bone the size of a school bus propped against stone steps taller than myself, the muscles rotted off long ago. An arched medieval window, like one found in a castle, displayed a dark visage outside. I walked up to the glass and saw movement. At first I thought they were birds but then I realized it was a school of fish floundering through black seaweed fleeing from a great shark.

“We’re underwater,” I said.

It wasn’t that surprising. I was hoping to get away from whatever that creature of darkness was in the Between. I’d never tried to use Fragarach to open a rift with the intent to travel through before. This time I had tried to do the thing I thought would be the easiest. Get Fragarach back to it’s home, Tir fo Thuinn, the land beneath the waves on the Otherside.

But at the last moment I had thought of Tethra, the Fomorian king.

The massive structure made me feel small, like Jack after climbing the beanstalk, finding himself in a bone-eating giant’s dwelling.

I’d just been reading up on Tethra, and the name of his fortress was on the tip of my tongue, but try as I might, it didn’t come to mind. “Rob, where does King Tethra reside again? Mac Miller?”

“In Mag Mell,” he said.

“But isn’t Mag Mell a happy-go-lucky wondrous place.” I had been reading up on a little bit of Celtic mythology and I had stumbled across mentions of Mag Mell.

“You been reading Wikipedia again, haven't you. I told you a million times Sean, you can’t trust anything they say about mythology and legends.”

“Crap! I think that’s where Fragarach sent us.”

Rob waved to the fish outside. “Yep. We’re in Mag Mell.”

“Can’t you just use Fragarach to get us back to Earth?” asked Charice.

I tried, but no matter how hard I focused I couldn’t get that same notion of an invisible piece of space-time to slice like in the Between. The sword was close to home now and did not want to go anywhere near Earth.

“Didn’t you tell me about Lir’s horse?” asked Charice. “What about summoning her to help us out?”

I focused and tried to summon up Enbarr, but movement caught the corner of my eye.

The wizard lumbered away from us. I hadn’t heard and get up, or wake up for that matter. I gritted my teeth.

He scaled the tall stair steps with much grunting.

I sheathed Fragarach. “Hey. Where do you think you’re going,” I yelled.

The wizard ignored me.

I ran after him and my companions kept up with me. “I’m talking to you, Lewis.”

“I’m not wanted here obviously. I’m leaving before you decide to fight me again.”

“We need to get out of here,” I gritted my teeth. “Together.”

“And you want my help? Smooth move Sean. What would you do if you had killed me a moment ago?”

“I could have left you in the Between. Our fight can wait.”

I motioned to my friends. “They shouldn’t have to suffer because of what you did. Now help us find a way out.”

He grunted, gathered himself, and kept climbing. I followed after him.

I didn’t want his help, but I needed it. It was awkward, but it was the truth. But before I could start arguing with him again I heard not one, but two familiar voices whose frequencies were so low they were like bass subwoofers, the kind that rattle your teeth in a tricked-out car.

Nehemiah threw his back to the wall of the step he was on and I and my friends did the same. Consistent quakes sent tremors through the ground, which could only be the echoes of massive footsteps as two Fomorians walked side-by-side. They came right towards us. I put one finger over my lips and motioned to Charice and Rob. Tain crouched by my side.

“Rob,” I whispered, “translate for me.”

“Don’t need to,” he tossed a turquoise cap at me.

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“Oh yeah, the cohuleen druith. I forgot.”

The magical cap I obtained from a Merrow allowed me to not only breathe underwater but it magically translated ancient Gaelic speech so that I understood it.

I was thrust midway into a conversation.

“I don’t trust Donn. He’s demanding more and more of me. He holds power over me while he possesses my eye,” said the first Fomorian.

“It’s Balor,” I mouthed to Rob and Charice.

King Tethra replied to Balor. “What do you require from me?”

“Help me get my eye back. With your forces and my strength, together we can overtake Tech Duinn long enough for me to obtain the eye.”

“But then I would risk opposition from both Manann mac Lir and Donn, lords of the sea and of the dead. I would not want two of the Tuatha de Danann on my back. What will you give me in return?”

“Once I get my eye back, I can help you deal with Manann mac Lir. I heard he is without his cursed sea sword now.”

Their footsteps came dreadfully close. They were right on top of us. We all held our breath as the two behemoths descended the staircase stepping right over us.

King Tethra rubbed his finger, the place where I had sliced him with Fragarach, the very sword they spoke of. “I know that all too well. It was stolen by a mortal from Earth.”

“Yes. Oddly enough he has been cropping up all sorts of places. He gave Donn a lot of trouble. So I’ve heard.”

“And he gave Manann mac Lir trouble as well,” said Tethra. “Are we sure he is mortal? Is there not more to him?”

“He’s a nuisance and nothing more,” said Balor. “I have yet to see his power for myself.”

Rob threw his pudgy hobgoblin hands over his mouth stifling laughter.

I threw my finger over my mouth, shushing him.

“Of course Balor hasn’t seen you,” whispered Rob. “He doesn’t have an eye.”

“Wizard? Are you hearing this? Wizard?”

But Nehemiah didn’t answer me.

I reached the step above me and pulled myself up. Nehemiah was gone.

“Come on!” I hissed to my friends.

Charice and I helped Tain get up the steps while owl-Rob fluttered up and over.

On the last step I leapt up and grabbed onto it pulling myself up, but I grabbed onto a slab of stone that was cracked. It gave way and I slipped and fell back onto the step beneath.

We all dodged the stone slab just in time as it almost crushed us whole. It tumbled down the remaining steps with a loud crashing bang.

“What was that?” asked King Tethra. He inhaled deep into his Fomorian nostrils, each opening the size of a well. “I smell it, the blade of Manann mac Lir. It’s here in Mag Mell.”

Balor growled. “I sense a servant of Order. The mortal is here.”

With a terrible reverberating shout the Fomorians lumbered towards the steps. Their footfalls shook the very foundations that Mag Mell stood on.

We fled from the giants.

We escaped a death in darkness in exchange for a death underfoot.

I wasn’t too worried about Balor, he was blind after all. As long as we stayed out of his way and didn’t let them step on us we would be okay. I was really worried about King Tethra though. He had a sword the size of a small airplane wing called Orna.

A premonition went off in my mind, my Good Luck warning me ahead of time.

“Duck!” I tackled Charice to the ground. Rob and Tain followed suit. Tethra’s massive slab of a blade swiped through the air right where our bodies had been. Had he been successful the blade would’ve severed us in half. He swung it so hard, Orna got stuck inside of a stone pillar.

“Where are they?” yelled Balor.

“Right there, you blind fool.” The king pointed. But it did no good.

Balor smashed his fist into the ground with wild abandon, like King Kong.

Up and at it, we sprinted, but we were only just ahead of them.

Tethra yanked Orna free and the support pillar collapsed causing a wall and part of the ceiling of that room to cave in.

Chunks of stone the size of SUVs fell around us.

I grabbed Charice by the hand. “Don’t let go.” Following my Good Luck, I managed to guide us safely through the falling debris.

We ran down a large hallway the size of a six lane freeway. It stretched on for some distance, but the end of the hall disappeared in the shadows. Even if we could get out of the fortress, we would be underwater. I still had no idea how to get out of here.

A flare of amethyst light caught my attention in my peripheral vision. We turned into one of the side rooms. It was some sort of weapons armory. Spears as long as subway trains lined the walls along with more blades as big as Orna, but not as intricately designed.

In a corner on the far wall Nehemiah summoned Bad Luck, drawing a circle in the air with his hand, opening his own rift. At the last second he turned, hearing our footsteps and he leapt through the self-made rift.

I don’t know if he intended to shut it and leave us there, but it closed fast.

“Jump!” I yelled at my friends.

Boy, girl, cat, and dog all leapt through the air falling into the closing rift as King Tethra tossed Orna like a spearhead right at us.

We fell through the rift and were airborne for a breath.

Where in the heck had Nehemiah brought us? Had he not known how to use rifts either? Had he sent us into another deathtrap to plummet from some unknown height?

I flailed my limbs trying to keep my balance in the air as we landed on the top of a Vallejo City public transportation bus. We sprawled out on top of the long vehicle near the back end of it. A few feet further and we would’ve plummeted down the side of a stack of rusty old automobiles.

Nehemiah had opened a rift back to the junkyard.

We did it. We were free from those mad monstrosities. But the victory was short lived. Just because we escaped the Fomorians did not mean anything Nehemiah did in the past was undone. Or forgiven.

On the other end of the bus. Nehemiah spread his feet shoulder width apart and rolled his shoulders.

Charice eyed him, then her hands latched onto the sides of my face.

“Let’s go Sean.” She removed the cohuleen druith from my head. Her soft palms cupped my cheeks. She forced me to look into her eyes.

I couldn’t meet Charice’s gaze though. Her eyes had the power to stop me.

But I didn’t want to stop. I had to avenge my father. I couldn’t even speak. I just shook my head and let the emerald light fill me.