His words sounded in me like a song. They were a precious gift, as precious as Felix’s love. They held a wisdom that could keep me strong until the day I died. “But I thought—didn’t you send me here because I couldn’t cope?”

“Sometimes your ability comes close to overwhelming you, yes, and that concerned me. I weighed that in the balance before telling you of the community in Kerry. Certainly, your gifts would be better guarded if you chose to stay in the safety of the nemetons. But with Felix by your side, I know you would be strong enough to live your life in that more open world. Sibeal, my reasons for sending you to Inis Eala were many. Among them was my wish that you spend time with your sisters. I wanted you to reach a fuller understanding of what you would be giving up to become a druid. I did not send you here to have your heart broken, Sibeal. We can’t have that, my dear.” He stepped forward and put his arms around me as a father would, and I held on, feeling his deep strength pass into me, and thinking, not for the first time, how remarkable he was, how selfless and how wise. As was Clodagh. How lucky I was in my family and in my friends.

“Take time to consider this,” Ciarán murmured. “But not too long. I’ve been talking to Johnny. Felix has a great deal of unfinished business to attend to, starting with a trip to accompany the survivors to Munster. Then he should go to Armorica to take the news of his brother’s death home. He’ll most likely be gone a year, Sibeal, and he and Sigurd are leaving in ten days’ time.”

“Ten days?” I lifted my head from his chest and looked up into his mulberry eyes. “So soon?”

“It is perhaps not such a bad thing, if you decide you will go to Kerry. A year provides time for you to speak to your father, and for me to speak to Conor, and then for you and me to travel south so I can introduce you to the Brethren of Brighid. By the time Felix returns, you will be fully informed about what this decision means. Of course, I am assuming he will be amenable to the idea. Have you at any stage suggested to him that he might consider a spiritual life?”

“No, I . . . ” Oh gods, let me not be dreaming. Let me not wake to find myself alone by the scrying pool with my heart still weighed down by sorrow.

“You might put it to him. It seems your Felix never shrinks from a challenge. He may have no religious vocation—that rather depends on how you define vocation—but from Gull’s accounts and Johnny’s, he is a man of good heart and open mind. That, along with his bond with you, would be sufficient to earn him acceptance into the Brethren of Brighid. Sibeal, there’s plenty of time for you and Felix to consider this. The final decision could wait until he comes back from Armorica.”