Day 13 of Midwinter, Nightfall

Fortress of the Blind, Brú na Dallta

Annwn

“Bet you didn’t see that coming,” I said to Tadg through the wall of our adjoining cells. We had a nice view of the second story of the Fortress of the Blind. Across the hall from my cell door, I could see the lights of the boats flickering on and off in the harbor.

Tadg sighed grumpily. “What was the purpose of antagonizing father? Did you really think that he, of all people, would respond well to terms that contained private family information and were incredibly disrespectful?"

“Wait,” I said. “Which part was the private family information?”

“The part about the king locking up the former queen. Do you think that was public knowledge? Brigid is, after all, the god who inspires all who meet her.”

I shrugged. “Smug people don’t bring out the best in me, I guess.”

“Don’t play stupid on this one. You planned this…or Cai did. But either way, now we are both locked up, and I genuinely fear for your safety.”

He had a point there. Nuada couldn’t let what I knew out of the proverbial bag. “It’s worse than you know.”

“How could it possibly be worse?” Tadg asked, clearly still thinking about Brigid.

“Cai was right. Your father is a murderer. I scanned his power rank. He has Bres’ former domain as well as his own.”

Tadg didn’t say anything at first. Based on the fact that our cells were side-by-side, I couldn’t actually see him. After a few moments, his voice echoed through the bars on the front of our matching cell doors. “Then you won’t survive to see the sunrise.”

“Neither of us will… That's why I've already started phase two of our plan.”

Tadg laughed. “This is YOUR plan. For the record, when it fails, I had nothing to do with it.”

“Not you. Cai has been remotely monitoring me for hours. He now knows that the king did not accept his terms.”

“So Cai intended to taunt my father.” I could hear Tadg shaking his head.

“No. But it was clear that your father wasn’t going to agree to their terms, no matter what they were. That little gem at the end was my idea.”

“Bren, you forget that my father CAN actually kill you.”

I thought about that. Had my plan been to weather whatever torture method Nuada preferred, it would have been short-sighted. One stroke of The Sword of Light, and I would be DEAD dead.

“I’ve got something else up my sleeve,” I said, looking around the room.

Tadg must have heard me begin dismantling the bed in the back of my cell. “What are you doing? I hope you know that there is no way, no matter what new boons you have, that you can fight your way out of here. There are too many guards and naval officers.”

“I’m counting on it,” I said. A few moments later, I slid the longsword I had forged from my bed frame through the bars of my window, waving it in front of Tadg's.

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There was a long-suffering sigh, but he took the blade, pulling it into his cell. “You are crazy. You know that, right? I am not going to kill my fellow changelings.”

“That blade isn't for changelings or Ellyllon,” I said, beginning the work on a second blade. I channeled the magic of my class and selected the option to Forge a new blade. The swords might be crude, but they would still be capable of killing.

“What are you planning?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you…and if you did believe me, you'd ask me not to do it. Just know that you are going to have to fight.” I paused and thought about Tadg’s condition. “Are you able to swing the sword?”

He scoffed. “This isn’t a sword. It’s more like a sharp pole.”

“Can you lift it or not?” I said, feeling the stress of what I was planning starting to get the better of me.

He sighed. “If I need to, yes. But we would both be better served if you just told me what is going to happen.”

I grabbed the sheets from my bed and began twisting them into a makeshift rope. “First, I want you to know that I brought you back here because I didn’t want you to die in a Fomorian cell. We both know that your father wouldn't have traded your life for his war.”

There was silence from Tadg's cell, so I continued. “I’m going to toss you the end of my sheets. I need you to catch them.” I fed the long line of bed sheets through the bars in my cell and swung them back and forth until I felt them pull tight. I tied the other end to my wrist and sat, leaning my back against the bars.

“Okay,” I said, letting out my nervousness in a long exhale. “I wasn’t meditating by the fire back in your camp by the Pool. I was in a fairy trance.”

“But…”

“I know, I know. Only fairies can go into a trance. Let’s put that aside for the moment. The reason I had to learn how to trance was because I contracted a rather... unfortunate mark.”

“The Mark of the Bodach,” he said, realization creeping into his voice.

“Exactly. But what you probably don’t know is that the Bodach is a hive mind. There are thousands of him all around the realm. The last time I went to sleep, they sent five after me.”

“Five Bodach!”

“Yes, but stay with me here. The Dagda told me that each time I went to sleep, more and more Bodach would come to claim me for their hive. I have a sneaking suspicion that the next time I go to sleep, it will be very, very bad.” I paused, giving him a minute to digest and make the connection. It didn't take long.

“You are going to go to sleep now, aren’t you?” I could hear the fear in his voice.

“Yes, and I need to know if I can trust you to wake me up when the cell block doors start to open. I won’t be able to wake myself up once I’m under.”

I felt the sheets pull tight again and my hand lifted into the air. “So, you want me to pull on the sheets when someone is coming?”

“It’s a simple task. Think you can manage it?” I held my breath, knowing the rest of my plan hinged on Tadg’s response. If he wouldn’t do it, we would be dead. The king would send his assassins before the morning. I needed the Bodach to come and stir up a little bit of chaos among the hundreds of soldiers.

“How many Bodach will come?”

“Tadg!” I yelled. “Will you wake me up or not? Because, if you don’t, I'll likely become one of them.”

“If you do this, you sentence countless of my soldiers to their death.”

He wasn't wrong, but he also wasn't seeing the whole picture clearly. He was still thinking like a prince. “And if I don’t, those same soldiers will come here to kill us in a matter of hours.”

Silence stretched between us. I just sat there, waiting for Tadg to decide our fate. It was a major gamble I was taking. There had been a lot of unknowns in this little gambit. I had delivered myself unto the king and awaited his judgment. But I was also executing my own plan to thwart the king and his so-called judgment. It felt good--really good--to finally be taking a proactive role in my own fate.

“Why would you trust me with this?” Tadg said, his voice harsh. “After everything that has happened?”

I chose my words carefully, but they were from the heart. “Because I know you are a good man. It sounds so stupidly cliché to say it out loud, but I have always thought you were a good man. That’s why it hurts so much when you omit certain truths."

When Tadg's voice came again, it was stronger, more sure of itself. “I will not let you get taken by the Bodach, Bren Búachaill. But after tonight, no matter what happens here, we are even.”

That sounded an awful lot like a breakup, but maybe we did need some time apart. A trial separation. I smiled weakly to myself and let my head fall back against the door. I could feel the sheets tied to my hand and hoped it would be enough to shake me out of whatever magic-induced hypnosis the Bodach put his victims in.

My days without rest caught up with me and I could feel my eyelids grow heavy almost at once. I held tight to the end of my newly crafted sword, closed my eyes, and wished Tadg a good night.