After a little, Ciarán nodded. “That is what I expected. I will help you by explaining to Lord Sean why it is so important for you to leave. I wish you joy and contentment, and I ask you to be mindful of one thing only. At the present moment, what I suggest seems impossible to you. For many years you have feared and despised the abilities that came with your father’s bloodline. You are beginning to accept, I think, that his heritage is a two-edged sword: it can be employed for good or ill, though it is always perilous. I know that you developed those skills while you were in captivity and that you used them, in the end, to escape Mac Dara’s control. It seems you have a particular facility in water magic. Your father most certainly had no idea of that, or he might have anticipated that you would in time learn how to break the charm that held you in the Otherworld. I do not know if you fully understand what this suggests: that you possess, or could possess, a power as great as his own. With the right allies, perhaps greater. We will speak of this again. I believe your return is inevitable.”

“You’re wrong,” Cathal said. “But we thank you for your help, past, present and future. I have something that is yours.” He untied the cord with its white stone and held it out on his palm. “This served me well,” he said.

“Thank you.” Ciarán’s eyes held a shadow now. He took the little token and tucked it into the pouch at his belt. “She would be happy that it helped reunite lovers parted. She would wish you joy in each other.”

“We were hoping,” I said, “that you might perform the hand-fasting ritual for us.”

A smile of pleasure and surprise appeared on the druid’s somber features, making him look suddenly much younger. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“We’re sure,” Cathal said.

“Then we must ask Lord Sean if he will speak with us tonight. For I concur with your judgment that time is short.”

Poor Father. Only yesterday he had got his little son back. Only today he had persuaded his influential guests to sign the treaty and made a fragile peace with his estranged son-in-law. And tonight, after first Cathal, then Ciarán explained the true situation to him, he was being asked to let his daughter marry and leave home within a few days of her arrival back from a long and perilous journey to the Otherworld. In that series of extraordinary events, the fact that my bridegroom was the son of a dark prince of the Tuatha De loomed less large than it might otherwise have done.