The eyes of all the power-drained druids in the cell widened at the sight of Galdus at her hip when Deirdre entered. Poor things had been trapped here away from nature so long they probably couldn’t even light a fire.

“Aye,” Galdus confirmed in her mind.

Discreetly, when the guards weren't looking, she put her finger to her lips and gave them a stern look, amused to see how long they took getting themselves under control. Even though the situation was nearly dire, she didn't blame them.

Galdus was singing a different tune, though. He was more worked up than she’d ever seen him.

“Ye canna mean these guards honestly believe they could keep druids under their thumbs. Ha! Ye might trick a few intae being trapped in yer man-made prison away from Ma Nature who sustains us. But she lets us talk tae each other in oor dreams. And travel tae each other's rescue across yer limitations o time and distance.”

Deidre engaged in some headstrong exultation at how much power she carried with her on her hip. Distance? Could druids travel distance by magic, not just through time? But then she came back down to earth.

According to the stories Sasha had told her, people would imprison many druids in the future. She consoled herself with the knowledge that many did not mean most and that she had the power to see that those in this room anyway were not among the serpents driven out of Gaelic lands.

Meanwhile, the oblivious guards felt they could gloat.

"’Tis convenient that ye asked tae be shown tae the cell were the druids are kept, lass. I trust ye will find it comfortable here during yer bide."

The winks and nods he gave to his fellow guards upon saying this were so obvious. They didn’t know that Galdus could store energy away from the trees, unlike those of them still stuck in bodies of flesh and blood. Deirdre had to resist the urge to laugh out loud. Shaking her head to avoid this, she touched the knee or arm of all seven other druids in the cell before she sat down, enabling Galdus to help her to converse with them silently, mind to mind. Amid their cacophony of conversation, she caught a warning and heeded it.

“Hide that blade from them, lass!”

That was easy. All she had to do was ask Galdus to hide himself.

"That is already done, my dear," said Galdus in a reproving tone, "and a good thing tae. Had I waited for yer command tae hide, the guards would certainly have tried tae take me away. Yer new friend Talorac would na get the chance tae propose his military alliance."

"Thank ye, Galdus. Ye are my one true friend. Say ye wull bide with me forever."

"Ye rescued me from a life o solitude, and I am grateful. After ye pass intae the next waurld howsoever, I wull go tae whom I choose. It is important tae yer happiness that ye dinna try tae change this."

“Are ye saying my last days are upon me?” Deirdre asked, trying to change the subject.

“Nay, lass. Dinna fash,” said Galdus, allowing her to.

Deirdre’s mind was whirling. He'd never told her this before. The implications made a mess of her mind for a moment before she got ahold of herself and applied all of her wits to the situation at hand, which was after all the whole reason Alasdair had sent her to this time. Talorac's cause was a good one, though, and she felt glad at being able to help him by the wayside along the road she was on.

The insufferable guards were making themselves as annoying as possible, probably hoping to provoke resistance so that they could beat the poor druids down. It made Deirdre angry, but she didn't take the bait.

"How does it feel, being sae self-important and having yer sad little sack o bones locked up in a cell like a common criminal?"

“Ye all made my childhood a drudgery with all those names and places tae memorize. I never expected tae be able tae return the favor, though I would wager ye wish ye were learning."

Cringing on cue against the cold stone benches so that the guards remained oblivious to the interaction inside their minds, the druid leader introduced them all.

“Thank ye sae much for coming! I’m Kael and this is Aart. Maaike and Bahar and Nelda hae been here the shortest time, Neil and Landry the longest, five months. Ye hae come tae rescue us, aye?”

Galdus spoke for the two of them, him being the actual druid.

“Aye, howsoever, ye are a strong bunch, in numbers at the verra least. How did ye come tae be trapped here?”

It was highly inappropriate in this circumstance, but again Deirdre had to resist the urge to laugh while the druids told their tale of woe about how their laird had converted to a new religion and now persecuted them.

The thing was, it sounded almost exactly like one of Sasha’s bedtime stories, about a druid who was the Merlin. These druids’ story brought to mind something the Merlin said to his apprentice Morgana about how one god had come to drive out the many gods and it being a time for the ways of men.

Even in her more innocent youth, Deirdre had been convinced the Merlin was a druid, though Sasha never mentioned that he was. The solidifying fact had been the namesake of Sasha’s tale: a sword that could keep itself buried in a stone until the person it desired to be joined with tugged on its pommel.