Oonagh immediately protested, but she was caught. She couldn't go against Emery, her Lady, now, not after she'd promised to answer any question. And though Emery did feel a little guilty exploiting her position (or, at least, the superiority Oonagh and everyone else seemed to think she had), she did tell her new friend that she didn't have to go with her and Tess, that she could just fall asleep and pretend she hadn't told them anything. Oonagh, however, was adamantly opposed to such a plan.

"You'll get lost, for sure! I wouldn't have you go out alone for anything! But Lady, please reconsider. Why not go tomorrow, in daylight?"

"Because we'll be seen!" Emery stated the obvious. "The whole point now is that we look like anyone else. And it's so dark no one will think otherwise."

Shaking her head, Oonagh reasoned, "Do you think they just let ladies beyond the walls at all hours of the night? Nobody comes and goes except herders bringing the animals in late and occasional travelers. We'll be stopped."

Emery shivered as she thought of the severed heads hanging over the gate and wondered to whom they belonged. They couldn't possibly be Cullen's own people . . . could they? Violators of his orders? The thought was rather harrowing, and yet, it angered her as well. Why should that man have so much authority over everyone, just because he could swing a sword and brood? She wanted so badly to see Cathbad outside of this settlement, and why shouldn't she? The druid hadn't been able to speak freely when he'd visited them, likely because he was scared of being overheard. Emery missed his ridiculous banter and cleverness, and she had a million questions for him. Why did Cullen's presence seem to dampen everything?

"Oh, Emery, don't look so sad for it!" cried Oonagh in dismay. She pouted. "Lady, I can't bear the sight of your disappointment." The girl's freckles seemed to glow in the firelight along with a sudden devilish gleam in her eyes as, against her better judgment, she began to change her mind. "I do happen to know a man who's guarding the gate tonight, though. And I do happen to know he'd be like to do me a favor, if I asked in the right way . . ."

Tess clapped her hands together in delight, probably even more excited at the thought of seeing Cathbad than Emery was. Emery's heart warmed at the sight of Tess's joy. She turned to Oonagh. "Let's go, then."

The settlement was huge. While it might have sounded easy to just head to the front gate, it took them about forty-five minutes to get to it. First of all, their roundhouse was situated as far away from the gate as possible (which irritated Emery--how could Cullen, who was supposed to protect them all--be the farthest away from potential danger?). Second, many people were still milling about, and they had to do their best to avoid them for fear of being questioned. There were children penning up and feeding animals, women calling in their families for meals, men still working in a variety of positions . . . the smithy alone seemed to burn all night long. But eventually, Oonagh having easily deflected a few nosy conversationalists, the three girls approached the gate.

It was more intimidating than Emery recalled it being when they'd entered. Perhaps her mind had been on the heads at the time, or maybe the current darkness intensified its formidableness. The entrance to the hillfort consisted of two towers built of stone and, higher up, timber, just like the main fortification walls that encircled the entire fort. The towers each housed men atop them, though, and then in between them, over the double-doored gate itself, was a triangular building, where more guards could reside and keep watch. The two doors below opened into a sort of passageway that ran around the settlement's circumference, and then there was another set of double doors that led to the outside. Multiple guards roamed--not just one--and their presence along with the whole set-up of the gate itself suddenly clarified why Oonagh had feared such an expedition.

Nevertheless, even as Emery and Tess stood aside to quietly murmur their reservations, Oonagh proceeded with all the bluster she could manage. She approached one young guard in particular, and, although Tess and Emery couldn't quite hear her words, proceeded to flirt something terrible with him. The evidence was in his laughter and her gestures. Even under the glow of torchlight, the girls could make out the man's expressions, which told them Oonagh must've been saying some outrageous things.

At length, the guard motioned awkwardly to Tess and Emery, and he led the three girls through the first set of doors and into the middle passageway, where he then proceeded to open a very small side door that, when they crouched through it, they could see was practically invisible from the outside, the way it blended into the construction. Before leaving the guard, Oonagh turned to him and must've made an obscene sign of some kind, because the man looked scandalized, though he smiled at the same time before closing the door behind them.

"What did you say to him?" Emery asked.

"Oh." Oonagh became suddenly coy. "I don't think I'd better tell you, exactly." She took hold of Tess's and Emery's hands and began to skip down the road away from the hilltop, adding, "Truly, he thinks we're sneaking off to dance naked with the faeries!" Laughing, the three girls ran the rest of the way down the road, reveling in the moonlight and the fresh air and the freedom of being beyond the wall. A twenty-minute walk led them well away from Dun-Dealgan and across some grassy fields, and by the time they reached the edge of the forest below the hillfort, they were fully exhilarated.

The trees before them were very different than those Emery remembered from the woods near her old home. This forest, though difficult to really see in the night, looked old. The trunks and branches rose black and thick, like twisting giants' arms clawing their way from the depths of the earth. And they were tumultuous, haphazard, as if the roots contested with the limbs over which could gain the upper hand. Emery couldn't help but be a little afraid.

"He's in there?" That was Tess, but Emery had been about to ask the same thing.

Oonagh quieted her voice, became serious. "Yes. Druids and nature and all. But there's a path. As long as we follow it, we'll find him."

"Have you ever been there?" Emery tried to see into the depths of the forest, but there were too many layers, like curtains she couldn't pull back.

"No. Never. Not once."

"Never?" Tess wasn't so sure about this plan, anymore. "You didn't say you'd never gone!"

Oonagh cocked her head. "You didn't ask."

Emery took a deep breath, asked Oonagh where exactly the path began, and started down it, determined. A little voice warned her that she might be making a very poor choice, but she was stubborn when she'd set her mind to something, and if Cathbad was at the other end of that path, she'd find him.

She assumed the other two were behind her, as neither girl called for her to stop, but Emery focused only on what was ahead. The path was peculiarly lit. While there couldn't possibly be enough opening in the canopy above for the moon to find its way in, the moment Emery stepped foot on the narrow walk, the way before her took on a curious, faint green glow. The lighting wasn't enough to illuminate what lay on either side of her (which in the dark appeared to be nothing more than bizarre silhouettes), but it did show her where to step, and that was enough.

Emery moved a little quicker than perhaps she would have under normal circumstances, and as furtive rustles and mysterious twinkles in the deep beyond became more prevalent, she was glad to hear her friends' voices close behind her. The walkway was too narrow to walk three abreast, so Emery kept ahead of the other two, who seemed perfectly content to let her lead.

"It's a safe path," Oonagh revealed. "The druid's protected it."

"How do you know?" Tess asked softly, feeling the same reverence for their surroundings as Emery did.

Oonagh quietly returned, "I wouldn't have brought you to this forest if I didn't know. There are many, many dangers amongst these trees. Those who stray off the path never return. And I even know one girl whose cousin's friend kept to the path but nevertheless encountered some of the fae folk; he went mad and ran off into the fields to eat grass with the cattle."

"Then why did the guard let us out?"

"What do you mean, Lady?"

Emery sighed at the "Lady" but didn't correct Oonagh. It was apparently very difficult for anyone but Tess to see her as a normal person. "If he thought we were going to dance with faeries, and they're so dangerous--"

"I thought faeries were nice," Tess uncharacteristically interrupted. "I have a book about them, and I always loved this necklace my mother gave me, with a pretty faerie with her little wings out, like she's flying."

Oonagh laughed quietly. "I've never seen a pretty one or a winged one. I've never seen one at all, truly. But I've heard never a tale of their being nice. To your question, though, La-er-Emery, the guard, Fionn, he knows how things are, with Samhain approaching. We've all our rituals for preparing. Many a lass claims to steal away to traffic with the fae, but it's more about them wanting to dance naked, and you can be sure it's an envied guard who manages to catch a sight from the watchtowers!" She giggled, as did Tess, and even Emery couldn't hold back a smirk.

"Did you see that?" Tess suddenly interjected.

Emery stopped walking and turned to the other two. The pale light emanating from the path wrapped them in a sort of underwater luminescence. She looked at the wide eyes of her friends but couldn't quite tell what they saw. "What? What is it?"

Tess shook her head. "Nothing, I guess . . . I thought something moved back there, in the trees."

Oonagh took hold of Tess's arm. "There's always things moving here. I'm only surprised you caught sight of one, they being usually more clever." Though she spoke lightly, Oonagh's features betrayed her anxiety.

Emery took a deep breath, gave her two friends an impassive expression, and said, "I'm sure we're almost there. If Cat feels safe enough in here, we'll be fine. I trust him." Then she turned and continued, not mentioning the distant flickers of light she caught sight of whenever she allowed herself to focus on the dark. Just watch the path, she told herself, knowing that she had to feign bravery enough to assure herself she could make this journey again in the future, for this was surely not the last time she'd visit the druid.

Several more tense moments of silence passed as the girls lost the desire for smalltalk, and it was with great relief that they at last came across a small round dwelling at the end of the path. They practically stumbled onto the cottage, burrowed into the trees and around a sharp turn as it was, and so there was no dashing down the path to its door, for they were at it as soon as they saw it.

The druid's cottage was not unlike the roundhouses of Dun-Dealgan, though it was far smaller and not quite as round. Its roof was thatched, though it was almost flat instead of conical, and a stone chimney rose from its center. No windows peeped out of the walls save for one round opening in the small arched door, and at that moment, it revealed some sort of reddish light coming from the interior, which mirrored the thin, red, glowing thread of smoke arising from the chimney. The trees seemed to know not to get too close to the hut, as there was about a twelve-foot space of flat, mossy ground encircling it, and overhead, the tangling branches receded, leaving a clear opening for the moon to shine down. No noise could be heard from the cottage, though the girls strained to catch any sounds they could, and after whisper-debating for a moment how best to make their appearance without frightening Cathbad, they themselves were startled when a voice called to them:

"Come in, then," it said, a bit tinny but the druid's all the same. "You may as well, as you've made it all this way."

Emery looked at Tess, who appeared strangely agitated, almost jumpy, and then went to the door and pushed it gently inward.

Immediately obvious was the fact that Cathbad had been involved in some sort of magic or, as he would've put it, "communion with the otherworld." The man was sitting half-naked in the middle of the floor, a menagerie of odd items before him, namely animal bones and what looked like stones with etched lines on them. Cathbad himself was shirtless, his rail-thin body showing its ribs, and his swirling blue tattoos seemed almost to shine on his chest. An animal skin of some kind, perhaps a fox, hung over his head, but even more disturbing than the sight of him or his paraphernalia was the dead critter hanging over his bent knee, something like a squirrel or a rabbit, cut open, its innards trailing down onto the ground in a wet black pile.

Tess screamed the moment she caught sight of the dead animal, and Oonagh hastened her back out of the cottage. The druid, who hadn't even looked up when they'd entered, suddenly bolted upright (the carcass falling unceremoniously to the dirt) and cried, "By the Gods, Emery! Why didn't you say something?"

"What are you talking about?" Emery gawked. "You told us to come in!"

"Not I!" he exclaimed. "I said not a word!"

What was he playing at? "We were outside, and you said--"

"Ah!" Cathbad threw the fox skin down over the disemboweled animal and heaved a sigh. He turned to a peg on his wall, grabbed a tunic hanging there, and pulled the garment over his head.

Emery took a quick look around as he dressed himself and was amazed by the tiny interior of the cottage. It held only a pallet of straw for sleeping and a firepit; the rest of the place was stuffed with both natural and bizarre items suspended from the ceiling or cluttering shelves carved into the walls or stacked up in precarious piles.

"Damned familiar," the man huffed, clearly peeved. Stepping past Emery, he went out the door, and she followed him. Once outside, Cathbad muttered a quick apology to the girls before turning and gazing up at his cottage's roof. "Bird! Bird! Show yourself!"

As they watched, an enormous black raven sidestepped out from behind the chimney and shuffled reluctantly over toward the edge of the roof, its movements imparting an air of apology.

"You may not impersonate me without my permission!" Cathbad cried the minute it came near enough, pointing a finger toward it. The raven tucked its large beak under one wing as if ashamed, and the druid grumbled something under his breath before turning his attention to his visitors. "I ask for your forgiveness, if my appearance startled you," he said, pushing back his straight black hair, looking askance. "I so rarely have visitors, especially at night."

Emery was sure he spoke specifically to Tess when he apologized, and that was all fine, but she herself hadn't been startled and wanted to get past the perceived awkwardness. "We're fine," she said, and the druid gazed at her with his glassy gray eyes. "I just--we wanted to see you!" And with that, she threw her arms around him, tears coming to her eyes.

"Lady, Lady . . ." Cathbad accepted her embrace for a moment and then held her at arm's length. His own eyes glistened with moisture, as well. "It is good to have you. Especially as--as I've just interpreted some alarming news concerning you."

That wasn't quite what Emery had expected to hear. She glanced at Tess and Oonagh, who shrugged, and then back to Cathbad. "What are you talking about?"

A frown crossed the druid's features. "I thought to tell my Lord Cuchulain this news first, but as you are here, I think it vital you know that . . . the Dark Man--he seeks you, even now."