“That understood, you won’t be surprised to hear that Albha went about achieving her goal quite coldly. She had no desire to couple with a mortal, but she knew this was her best chance to have her own baby. So she selected a suitable man, choosing him not for his high birth or wisdom or power in the mortal world, but for his strong body and pleasing features. It was an easy job to persuade him to perform the duty she required of him—like all her kind, Albha had a beauty far beyond that of the most comely of mortal women. She stayed with the fellow as long as she needed to. When she felt her belly beginning to swell, she left her lover and returned to the realm of the Tuatha De. She had what she wanted.”

A brief silence. “What about the man?” I asked. “What happened to him?”

Willow smiled, lifting her brows. “He plays no further part in this story, Clodagh. Albha cared nothing for him beyond his capacity to give her a child. Perhaps he became wiser as a result of his experience and was careful to stay away from fairy women after that. Perhaps, like so many men in the tales, he wore himself to death searching for his Otherworld lover. Maybe he killed himself from grief.” She sounded as if this was of no matter.

“But—” I said, then fell silent. It was only a story, after all. If it seemed unjust, perhaps that was a reflection of real life, especially where dealings with the Fair Folk were concerned.

“In due course the wee girl was born, and she was every bit as lovely and fey as her mother, for all she was half human. Her mother called her Saorla, and loved her as well as the Tuatha De have it in them to love. Time passed. Saorla grew into a beautiful young woman. Up till her fifteenth birthday, she had never asked who her father might be. Indeed, she had always assumed it was Mac Dara, who made no secret of his virility and laid claim to parentage of more children than any man could have had the time or energy to sire, be he human or Tuatha De. But we know Mac Dara’s capacity for mischief. One day he took it into his head to meddle. He told Saorla who her real father was and how Albha had used a mortal man the way a stud bull might be used, solely to engender a healthy child.”

“I thought you said Mac Dara wouldn’t be in this story,” said Coll.

“Don’t interrupt,” Johnny told his little brother. “Mac Dara makes his way into stories whether people want him there or not. I’m sure that’s what Willow would tell you.”