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Treoir Castle in the Treoir realm

Daegan teleported into Treoir Castle with plans of tracking down Garwyli. He’d barely seen the old druid since taking over this realm. At the last minute, Daegan changed his direction and terminated his teleporting in the sunroom.

He expected to find his niece, Brina, which he did.

She and Tzader, her fiancé, were wrapped up in each other’s arms.

“Have you two been locked from your bedchamber?” Daegan asked dryly.

Brina stepped back from Tzader, smiling like a young woman in love who deserved to be happy, but Daegan was in a hurry.

She said, “No, Daegan. We simply have not seen each other much today and slipped in here for a moment of privacy.” She gave him a censuring look, then gave up. “What ails you, Uncle?”

“I’m huntin’ Garwyli.”

She asked Tzader, “Have you seen him?”

“No.” Tzader suggested, “I can ask the guards to find him.”

“That won’t be necessary. I will find him sooner than they can.”  While Daegan was there, he reminded these two, “You were to be married by now. What’s the delay?”

Brina lifted her hands in exasperation. “I’m waitin’ for you to tell me our people are no longer under threat. Until then, I doubt we can have our friends stop what they’re doin’ for a weddin’.”  She frowned hard this time.

Daegan couldn’t help laughing.

Tzader murmured, “Oh, hell.”

“And what’s so blasted funny, Daegan?” she scowled.

“You, niece.”

Tzader put a hand over his eyes. “Not making it better, dragon.”

Scratching his chin, Daegan said, “I’m only imaginin’ the fierce warrior you two will have soon.”

Dropping his hand, Tzader smiled. “Nice save, but it might be a girl.”

Brina had been smiling at what Daegan said, but now whirled on Tzader. “What makes ya think she won’t be a warrior if she’s a lass?”

“That’s not what I meant, muirnin.”

“Don’t try to wiggle out by callin’ me muirnin.”

“I thought you liked that.”

Brina opened her mouth and closed it.

“Carry on,” Daegan called out and got a terse look from Tzader right before teleporting out.  

After zipping from spot to spot, Daegan lost patience and stood with his hands on his hips in the middle of an arched hallway.

He bellowed, “Garwyli!”

The old guy turned a corner up ahead and meandered down the wide passage toward Daegan. With white hair falling past his shoulders and a matching beard that reached his waist, the druid wore a simple robe and carried books as he puttered along.

When Garwyli got closer, he said, “Don’t be hurryin’ me, dragon. I’m an old man.”

“You’re a powerful old druid who can teleport within these walls,” Daegan chided him. “Maybe even beyond, but I have yet to determine what all you can do.”

Garwyli waved that off with a wrinkled hand. “I find it takes more out of me to teleport these days.”

The sincerity in the druid’s voice bothered Daegan. He liked the old guy and anticipated having him around for a long time. There was no replacing the knowledge of centuries and all the wisdom that ran through Garwyli’s veins. Plus, Brina and Tzader had spoken highly of the druid’s confronting Macha when she’d ruled this realm, even though the goddess held the strong hand of power.

Evalle idolized the druid as well and now Daegan knew why. He’d asked Evalle about it before leaving her at home after their trip to VIPER. She went all starry-eyed when she explained about how Garwyli had returned Storm’s soul. It didn’t take much to realize that many of his closest round-table advisors considered Garwyli an ally. He did, too.

“I’m here now, dragon. What do you want?”

“Are you so senile you’ve forgotten my name, druid?” Daegan countered, wanting to poke at him a bit.

Garwyli’s snow-white beard hid most of his smile, but his eyes twinkled enough to give life to his humor. “Perhaps. Of course, if that is the case then you’re wastin’ your time lookin’ for answers from me.”

Well done, druid. Daegan chuckled then turned serious. “I need your advice. We’re losin’ human children belongin’ to Belador warrior families. We’ve retrieved some, but for every one we find, we lose two. I think Queen Maeve has her coven members in the human world workin’ with trolls to steal the children, and I’m pretty sure she wants to use them to get to me.”

“That would fit from what I know of her and the Medb.”

“I’m concerned that she’s usin’ this to pull me away from Treoir so she can attack the island. I’ve had our guard beefin’ up our security and I’ve repaired the areas breached when she sent the gryphons in to attack.”

“Then we should be fine here.”

“I hope so,” Daegan said. “But I also worry about some Belador warriors who have packed up their families and moved in the middle of the night. That means they don’t believe I can protect my people. I’m not sure what I should do about them.”

Giving Daegan a long look, Garwyli asked, “Are you intendin’ to sanction them?”

“No. I would do the same to protect my family, but ... you’ve been here far longer than I. Do you feel that once I stop the Medb from harmin’ our children, the families who left will return?”

“I think they’ll wait to see if it is indeed safe, then, yes.  Why would they stay alone when they would be safer with Beladors they know?”

“That’s what I think, but we have no castle in their world for protectin’ them.”

“You want another castle?”

“To tell you the truth, yes, but it’s not so easy to do these days. I have not had enough time to prove myself to them or they wouldn’t leave. I know I can build a formidable force if we can show the Belador families that we stopped the Medb attacks.”

Garwyli said, “Then that is the answer to your question. A warrior will follow the leader he or she respects. Prove yourself by stoppin’ this attack and I think you’ll be fine.”

Daegan hoped so. He found it frustrating to rule from Treoir when the bulk of his forces were in the human realm. “There is one more thing. I must protect Brina. I haven’t told anyone except Tristan that I’ve been hunting the gravesite of my sister. It has to be on this island.”

Garwyli stroked his beard. His wrinkled eyes almost closed when he narrowed them. “Are you sure her body is buried here?”

“It has to be for Macha to have retained power. She and Maeve made pacts with my father that involved my two sisters. Macha’s pact was to protect the sister who came to live here, which she did a poor job of, and to take over protectin’ future generations when my sister passed. My father made it clear that my sister had to be buried on Treoir for Macha to hold that power.”

Cocking his head to the side, Garwyli said, “Why do you need your sister’s body?”

“I need a ring my sister wore that increased her power as long as she was on the island. I want to give it to Brina.” He held in his pain at talking about that sister. She had been his favorite, because the other one ... well, that one had been a disappointment. Even so, if Maeve had delivered the body of the sister given into her care, Daegan could have removed that ring.

He loved his father, but those had been terrible agreements. His father had even said so, which was why Daegan had been conceived with the plan for a Treoir dragon who could protect the land and his family.

Daegan had failed everyone when he allowed Queen Maeve to capture and curse him.

“You misunderstand me, Daegan. I’m askin’ if you know for sure your sister is buried here, as in ... are you sure she’s dead?”

Daegan took a step back. “I heard of her death when I was trapped in TÅμr Medb, cursed as the queen’s dragon throne. Where would my sister be if she had not died?”

“Perhaps that is the question you should be askin’.”

This was no help at all. “Thank you, Garwyli.”

“I was not here when all of that took place, Daegan. I came later at Macha’s request.”

Impatient to get back to his other problems, Daegan said, “I understand. You can’t help me find her body.”

Sighing long and loud, the druid said, “I’m not a crystal ball to spout answers at will, but I do see more with my eyes open than others do with their minds made up.”

Daegan knew when he was being reprimanded for dismissing the old druid’s question. “I’m not ignorin’ what you say, Garwyli, but how could she still be alive?”

“’Tis a good question. I would ask how is it that you are still alive?”

“I’m a dragon.”

“She inherited your father’s dragon blood as well.”

“You think she’s still here? Somewhere on the island?”

“I have no idea where she is, but accordin’ to what you’ve told me I think we should consider all possibilities, though I also don’t want to get your hopes up only to have you be hurt again later.”

Poor old Garwyli was doing his best to give Daegan reason to hope. If he told the druid what someone had said recently, would Garwyli be just as encouraging or finally tell him to stop chasing dreams?

Instead, Daegan joked, “While we’re at it, maybe we’ll find another dragon or two.”

“Why would you think you are the only one to survive this long? You are immortal.”

You don’t even know about the others, murmured through Daegan’s mind.

Those words had haunted him for over a month. Just talking to the druid raised a powerful longing for there to still be dragons.

Then reality set in.

The dragons were all killed because Daegan had not been there to fight alongside them.

Garwyli had a gift of bringing cheer into everyone’s life and was trying to do that for Daegan, but some things had to be accepted.

“Weren’t you around durin’ the great dragon slaughters?” Daegan asked, bitter every time he thought of how he could have saved his father and their allies if he had not walked into Maeve’s trap and ended up a throne.

“Yes, I was around. It was a dark time for all of us.” Garwyli sighed with great sadness. “That was one reason I went away for a while, to find peace. But here I am today, talkin’ to you when we both should not be. It is a puzzle of sorts to work out. But you can’t solve a puzzle unless you believe an answer can be found.”

Those words eating at Daegan pushed him to ask this so he could convince himself to let it go and get back to caring for his people. “One more thing, Garwyli. Did you hear of the battle we fought in the human world six weeks ago to keep Kizira’s body from the Medb?”

“Tristan did inform me. He was quite proud to shift into his gryphon form to fight at your side.”

“I was proud of him as well. He’s turnin’ out to be an excellent Rí Dtús. I couldn’t ask for a better second in command. When we slew our enemies, we discovered the warriors had Belador abilities. They were Laochra Fola.”

That surprised Garwyli. “Weren’t those the warriors Belatucadros kept for himself after endowin’ Beladors with powers?”

“Yes, but when we found them in Atlanta, they were being led by Lorwerth, a bastard brother to my father. He was condemned to live in the Anwynn underworld for eternity, but someone freed him. I did not find out who negotiated his freedom, but as Lorwerth died he said somethin’ about ‘you don’t even know about the others.’ I pressed him for more, but he only said blood kin and she.” Daegan felt ridiculous for clinging to the words of a man like Lorwerth, but he wanted a straight answer. “A moment ago you challenged me to think beyond myself when I dismissed the possibility of my sisters or any other dragon being alive. Please, no puzzles or cryptic words. Do you think there could truly be more ... dragons?”

Pondering a moment, Garwyli said, “You must always realize that in our world of nonhumans, anythin’ is possible. Before you returned, no one believed dragons still existed. The best answer I can give you is that it’s possible.”

Daegan was a fool to wish for this, but he couldn’t stop wondering. The only way he could mate would be with one who possessed dragon blood.