“You ask the most difficult of all the questions. Clodagh believes that to stay here, to remain forever within the safe margin, is allowing Mac Dara to govern your existence. Keeping out of your father’s reach is living in a kind of prison. That’s what she implied. A druid might debate that issue at considerable length and not reach a conclusion one way or another. But that is the pattern of Clodagh’s thinking, and who is to say she’s wrong?”

“We’ve talked about this already. Endlessly. We’ve gone through all the arguments.”

“She says that at a certain point you stopped listening to her.”

Cathal picked up a handful of small stones and threw them into the pool with some violence. The calm surface shivered under the impact. “What she wants feels wrong,” he said. “How can I leave them? But it also feels right. There is indeed a part of me that wants to go. I cannot make a choice. I came here to scry one last time before Liadan sails, and I can’t do it, Sibeal. I came prepared with several appropriate questions relating to the likelihood of Otherworld interference on the journey. But Clodagh and the child fill all my thoughts. Sibeal, how can I go away? The baby might be born any day now.”

“If your mind is made up, why are you here?”

He glanced at me. “You’re a druid today,” he said, making it sound like something bad.

“I only ask the questions that must be asked. Does Gareth know there’s a possibility you may go? Does Johnny?”

“I suppose my state of mind has been easy to read, these last days. I was relieved of responsibility for training the Connacht men soon after the crew was named, even though my name was not on the list.” He thought for a moment, then added, “Sibeal, I understand that much of druidic lore and teaching is secret. It would help me if you could explain the extent of your own abilities. I know Ciarán has a certain facility with magic, born as much of his lineage as of his druidic training. I know he is your mentor. And Felix said you did something with the fire, that night when Knut attacked him.”

“I have learned the rudiments of natural magic. I’m a beginner, Cathal. I might be able to make a fire flare up, or conjure a momentary breeze. No more than that. I would not be much help to you, though of course I would try. I do have the ear of the gods.” Of recent times there had been some cause to doubt that. “And the ability to find answers to problems. We’re trained to do so.”

“You have much more,” Cathal said, “for it seems you can hear Svala’s voice, a voice silent to the rest of us. For that alone, your presence on the voyage must be of great value.”