I shook my head, for he was only half right.

No. Not evil. This is the way. You must let me do this. I can save you.

“Here,” said Padriac from behind me. I had not noticed him going into the cave, but now he emerged with my spindle in one hand and a length of the telltale thread dangling, sharp and brittle. The firelight glowed on its deceptive, delicate strands. There was a general intake of breath, and Padriac sat down among the others, the spindle balanced between his capable hands.

“What is this?” asked Liam, outraged, as his fingers touched the fiber. “This thread is full of fine needles. No wonder her hands are ruined. This thread is—”

“It’s starwort,” said Padriac. “Sorcha has the fiber ready for spinning, and the start of a woven square.”

“Spinning with starwort!” exclaimed Cormack. “Who ever heard of such a thing?”

“You yourself mentioned tasks,” Conor reminded his twin. “It looks as if you were right.”

“You don’t need to sound so surprised,” said Cormack with a trace of his old grin.

“Six brothers.” Finbar had been very quiet, and now his voice was constrained, as if he spoke only because he must. “Six brothers, six garments, maybe?”

“Garments of starwort? I would not gladly wear such a rough shirt,” commented Diarmid.

Conor’s level gaze went around them all, appraising. “You might be glad to wear it,” he said slowly, “if it had the power to undo the spell.” It had not taken him long to work it out.

For a moment, as they looked at one another across the fire, it seemed to me that there was some communication between my brothers which needed no words, and that this time I was shut out. It dazzled me, that this puzzle had been solved so quickly; it hurt me, to know my brothers’ cleverness, their insight, their very love and concern for me would be gone again the moment the light of dawn touched their troubled faces. I was learning the nature of magic; it seemed to work according to a strict set of rules. And yet, somehow, it never worked in quite the way you expected. Like the Fair Folk themselves, it had twists and turns that always took you by surprise.

I looked around the circle, sensing my brothers were closer now than they had ever been, and then I met Finbar’s eyes where he sat a little aside, watching me. There was a wariness in his expression that I had never seen before, an uncertainty that concerned me, for of them all, he had always been the one surest of his way. I tried to reach him with my mind.

What is it, Finbar?

But it was Conor who replied.

“It is hard to come back, Sorcha, and harder for some than others.”

“We may have little time here,” Liam said, getting to his feet. “If what Conor suggests is correct, we may have only until dawn. We must do what we can to provide for our sister.”