My throat felt constricted. I made myself sit down again, the baby in my arms now, and forced my breathing to steady as I dipped the cloth, ready to feed him. “Do you know the way in?” I asked her. “I mean, the Lady of the Forest comes to talk to you sometimes, doesn’t she?”

Sibeal looked down at her hands, interlinked on her lap. “The Lady hasn’t come for a long time,” she said. “That old woman, Willow, was right. Something’s changed in the world of the Tuatha De. As for a way in . . . I don’t know. In the tales, people usually stumble on them by accident.”

Becan’s twiggy mouth stretched open. His lips fastened around the soaked cloth and he began to suck. I hummed under my breath. “Oo-roo, little dove . . .”

Sibeal was looking at me strangely. After a bit, she said, “Ciarán might know.”

“Ciarán? Why?”

“Because his mother was one of them. He doesn’t like to talk about it.”

“We can’t ask him,” I said, dipping the cloth again. “The forest is full of men searching for Finbar or hunting for Cathal. There would be no way to get to the nemetons unseen. Conor’s coming, but he’ll probably share Father’s view.”

“Hunting for Cathal? Where’s he supposed to have gone?”

I explained what had happened.

My sister turned her big, clear eyes on me. “It does look as if you’ll have to do this, Clodagh,” she said. “You’ll have to take Becan back and try to swap him for Finbar. I don’t see any other way out of this. Maybe when you’re in the forest a doorway to the Otherworld will reveal itself to you. That’s if you’re the one who is meant to bring Finbar home.”

My heart did a flip in my chest. My mind shied away from a notion that seemed foolish, ridiculous, misguided in the extreme. And yet I knew she was right. My instincts had been telling me this since last night, when I had held Becan in my arms and felt his desperate need for love. But I was afraid.

“I suppose it must be possible,” I said shakily. “If it’s in the tales it must have been done once, at least.”

“I think so, Clodagh.” My sister squared her narrow shoulders.

“I’ll cover for you for as long as I can. Once you’re safely away I can tell Father what you’re doing. Otherwise he’s going to think you’ve run off to warn Cathal, or that you’ve been abducted yourself. You’ll have to go first thing in the morning. That’s the only time you’re likely to get out unseen. I’ve already told Doran and Nuala that I’ll be sleeping up here tonight to keep you company.”

“You’ve—you mean you knew this already, Sibeal? You anticipated it?”