When I opened the door we were immediately engulfed by mist. We were swimming in it, arms reaching to pull us forward.

 “This is a lot bigger than a throne room,” I said as we progressed.

“It’s because we’re no longer in Afghanistan,” whispered Red.

Since they weren’t helping, I lifted the night goggles from off my head. “We’re in Shi?”

Fiacuil took a step to the side and waved his hand through the air, trying to dissipate the mist. He rubbed his foot on the ground, turning up some of the green vegetation. It was the first time we had seen green in months. “I’ve got to remember to put grass in my toilet back home – if we get back home.”

“I told you,” repeated Red irritably.

“I know, I know,” growled Fiacuil, “we’re in Shi’…deep Shi’.”

Then a blue flame engulfed us, burning away almost all of the mist. We were in the middle of a meadow and a dark figure was standing in front of four men who were staked to the ground. He thrust a leg forward, gave a flourish of his hand and bowed. He was dressed in traditional afghan robes, except they were black. His face was also entirely veiled, but his hands caught my attention; they were blue, the colour of a corpse.

“Welcome, to my Throne Room,” said the Dark Wizard. “You have come to witness the executions of the traitors?”

“Personally, I don’t see any traitors, only terrorists.”

The Dark Wizard chuckled. “Your man here,” he motioned to Goll, “has given you to me.”

Goll and the big bald fellow were the only ones that seemed to be alive. The other two looked like pieces of meat burned to a crisp.

Then I noticed we didn’t have any rifles. Somehow, after entering the throne room, we had been stripped of all our equipment. “Listen, why don’t you give yourself up,” I said.

The figure hissed spasmodically and I realized he was laughing. “I knew the humour of the Great Captain of the Finnan Finn was legendary. Well met.”

“So, I take that as a no?”

“Witness the power of Aillen mac Midan a great man of Shi!” The creature, whatever it was, took the veil from its face and blew. Blue flames shot out of the creature’s mouth, consuming the bald soldier. He screamed. The screaming seemed to go on forever and only stopped when the soldier’s head flopped forward and hung chin on chest. Still, the flames licked up and around the man until he was like the other two, just a hanging piece of crisp.

“You like a show, don’t you?” I said.

Aillen nodded. “I do. I really do. Listen, before I kill all of you, I will give you one last request.”

“Sounds fair, me for the lives of my remaining men, please.”

Aillen scratched his head. “Your audacity amazes me. We are in Shi’, here, I am all powerful, while you have nothing to bargain with. Why should I let any of you go?”

“Because I said, please?”

There was nothing we could do. Goll was going to be next, and then we would join them. One by one we would die. I could see it right before my eyes all variations of death, except one. While all of the possible outcomes involved dying, there was one that limited it.

Then I understood. I understood how my dad had died, and I understood how Goll had gotten the rap for killing him. I knew what dad was going to do, because it was probably something I would do myself.

Aillen took another deep breath, intent on spewing his fire over all of us, but Goll stopped him.

“My eye,” he shouted. “Take my eye.”

Aillen stopped. He leaned in curiously examining Goll’s eye. “Why should I want your eye?” He touched it with a claw like finger. “If I wanted it, I could take it.”

“It would be no good to you. It’s magic, it has to be freely given.”

“A magic eye?” Aillen pondered. “What does it do?”

“It allows you to see what your enemy is going to do.”

“That’s very useful...and what do you want in exchange?”

His eyes darted to me and then back to Aillen. He licked his dry lips. “I want to be Captain of the Finnan Finn.”

“You traitor,” bellowed Fiacuil who made to charge the staked man, but Aillen stopped him with a flick of his hand.

“Considering I was going to kill you all, it seems you just may come out of this. How do you give this to me?”

 “You have to pry it out, with my permission.”

“And do I have your permission?”

“You do.”

I was watching the dialogue between Goll and Aillen carefully. There was something that my dad didn’t believe. Then I knew what my dad was thinking. Goll had honour. He would never have someone do his work for him.

“Take your fingers...”

Goll had intended to kicked the Dark Wizard between the legs, but Aillen moved too fast, his dirty blue hand and claw like nails struck, digging out Goll’s eye. He screamed in pain and kicked. The Dark Wizard folded forward and Goll head butted him.

I was on Aillen, pounding him with all the energy I could muster. Red and Fiacuil cut Goll free and were now in the process of helping him into the mist that was, blessedly, returning.

I knew it was coming, I could feel the heat building, but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Red had managed to take Goll back into the mist, but Fiacuil hesitated and turned back.

“Go,” I shouted. “You are bound to obey me, go, now.”

And with that the blue flames from the Dark Wizard engulfed me, and I died...well, my dad did. The pain was beyond words.

I stood on the clear black floor at the bottom of the cauldron and stared beyond my feet at the glowing loops of light.

“You should have left me there,” I said feeling the tears wet against my face.

Wow touched me tentatively on my shoulder. “What purpose would that have served?”

“It would have felt real.”

“Real?”

I shook my head. “It’s all right. I don’t expect you to understand.” I took a big cleansing breath and tried to rid myself of the shakes. I hardened my resolve. “So, how is this supposed to help me defeat Cliodhna?”

“Cliodhna is going to use the Dark Wizard against those in the Library. You will face both of them.”

I must have looked stunned.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“Are you all right?” asked Wow.

“Oh, yeah, fine. I’m just great. Not only did I witness my dad die, I felt it, so, yeah, I feel great, top of the morning, is that how you say things in Faerie? So, tell me, how am I supposed to defeat an inter-dimensional terrorist and an insane Queen at the same time?”

Wow shrugged. “Don’t ask me, I just play with the space-time continuum. You will have to ask someone else.”

“Who,” I looked around. “Who…” and then I saw her off in the distance, walking towards us, H.

I couldn’t help but think how similar she and Red looked. Stupidly I said, “Hi.”

“Hi,” she answered back. She had a big, bulky cape about her shoulders and was carrying a very large spear that stank like something that had been decomposing for about a month.

“Thought I lost you,” I said with a dry, cracking voice.

“You did,” she said. “I’m not supposed to be here, you know, visa restrictions.”

“I thought so. So this is it, right, where we say goodbye. I’m surprised your mom let you...”

 “She didn’t, neither my mom nor dad know. Semias let me in.”

I was shocked that the twisted little Formorian would do anything that resembled kindness. “I thought he hated me.”

“Oh, he hates everyone.”

“Then how?”

“I snuck him a piece of cheesecake out of the kitchen,” she explained, “something that is strictly forbidden by my mom.”

“She doesn’t like people eating dessert?”

“He’s lactose intolerant.” She gave me a mischievous smile. “The place will stink for a month.”

“What are you going to do, for a month?” I was avoiding the parting, saying anything I was tossed.

“Birghid and I are going to visit our sister. She’s on some humanitarian effort on the far side of Shi’.”

“Red?”

H looked as though she had been hit over the head with a pole. “Nobody uses her nickname, not since…”

“My dad died. I know, Wow made me live through the entire thing.”

“Wow?”

“Yes.” I felt distinctly uncomfortable beneath H’s gaze, as though I had to explain myself. “She didn’t have a name, so I thought I’d give her one.”

“Wow?”

“Don’t blame me. She picked it.”

The white girl was dancing about the darkness waving her wand and singing, “I am Wow, Wow am I. I am totally, Wow.”

“So,” I said slightly embarrassed. “You’re wearing an oversized cape and carrying a spear that smells like a latrine because…”

“Oh,” said H handing me the spear so that she could unclasp the cape from her shoulders. “They’re gifts.”

I looked at the stinking spear and hefted it. It felt familiar. “I know this spear, although it didn’t stink at the time.”

“It’s the spear you killed Kerry with. It only started to stink because it has reverted to its true nature before Fiacuil’s leprechaun enchanted it.”

“It’s true nature?”

“It stinks.”

“Oh.”

“And here is the cape.”

I took it tentatively in one hand. H made sure it went around my shoulders and fastened it with a circular silver broach whose tongue was shaped in the form of a flame. It felt nice having her so close.

“I never told you this, but I’m really not the super hero type.”

Wow was now entering into the hundredth chorus about being so wonderful.

H gave me a playful slap. “It’s designed to absorb fire. You’ll need it when you face Aillen mac Midna.”

I was a bit stunned. “You know about him?”

“Red told me.”

Suddenly the stench of the spear didn’t bother me anymore. “You knew how my dad died?”

H sensed the change in my mood and stepped back. “I did.”

“And you thought it was something that I was totally uninterested in?”

“It wasn’t my story to tell.”

I felt myself go cold. Suddenly I was unsure of my feelings for H. She was The Morrigan’s daughter, and in crept the suspicion that maybe I shouldn’t trust her. If she had kept this from me what else was there? When The Morrigan called in her IOU with H, would she be asked to kill someone I cared about?

Wow skipped by singing: “Die Tochter felt nicht vom dem baum, Die Tochter, Die Tochter…”

“She’s speaking German now?” I said. I threw my hands up in the air. “Thanks, I mean, thanks a lot for the gifts, but I better get going now…”

H stared at me defiantly. “Listen, I’m not going to apologize for who I am, or what I have to do to survive. I didn’t tell you because you weren’t ready.”

“I’m sorry, really. I don’t mean to fault you. I wish you could renew your visa. But, hey, look at it this way, it’s almost my birthday, so I might be coming to visit.”

She gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Listen, don’t take this personally, but I hope you decide not to.”

“I have a choice in it?”

She nodded. “You have the blood of Shi’ in your veins, but you also have mortal blood.”

“Listen, if I can, I’ll come back and force The Morrigan to renew your visa.”

She just stared at me and shook her head in awe. “I am so glad you don’t really know how things work. It’s kind of ...refreshing.”

“That’s nice. I thought you were going to say, endearingly stupid.”

“I was.”

I turned my back on H and regarded the white girl. “Wow, I’ve decided I’m ready.”

“Ready, steady, freddy…” she reached down through the floor hooked a loop and pulled it up. Waving it above her head she created an undulating tunnel. In the mouth of it I saw the Library. I couldn’t leave without looking back, but when I did H was no longer there.

I hefted the spear feeling murderous. It was time for The Dark Wizard to take his spear back…How did I know that? Someone must have told me that it was Aillen mac Midna, The Dark Wizard’s spear.  Even though I, as my dad, had commanded Fiacuil to leave, something told me he hadn’t. I would have to ask him when I saw him again...if I saw him again.