Firebrand Read Free Page A

catchin’ forty winks before we start back.” Sean hunkered down on the ground with his head on a thick fallen branch and pulled his wool tweed cap down over his face.
    Marcus walked to edge of the cliff and looked down. He realized he could zigzag his way down to the water by using the small ledges cut in the limestone layers over time by the water. Slowly he descended until he found sound footing on a small clearing next to the Lough. As he foot touched the soft soil, a breeze rose and tingled through his hair.
    Downstream he could see what was left of a stonewall bridge snaking its way across the water. Although he was losing the moonlight, he crossed.
    On the ridge above, Sean watched Marcus negotiate the boulders, a smile on his face. “My part is done.” He turned back to the trees and waited.
    The light first appeared as a tiny star suspended a few feet above the ground. It gradually grew until a blue bell-shaped aura formed around the core, which now shimmered with the flickering of an assortment of light orbs. The form gelled, the light now concentrated in leaf-shaped adjuncts with shooting arcs along veined pathways. Then he was there.
    “I am Baig, the Retriever, Keeper of Available Wishes. You have done well. One wish given, one to give; one duty done, one yet to come.”
    The moment he parted the brush on the other side Marcus froze mid-step. He didn’t dare move, mostly because he was sure he had lost his mind. Before him sat a woman, with forest green eyes that shimmered and sparkled even in the darkness of the night, and as beautiful as anything he could ever have imagined. With wings. He looked more closely. And a baby.
    He closed his eyes and shook his head. It couldn’t be true, not this apparition. But it was a fairy, something that, only moments before, he dismissed as invention of Sean’s imagination. When he opened his eyes, he was sure she would disappear in a swirl of his own fatigue, but she remained
    A sound came up behind her, a sound like nothing Marcus had ever heard before, or ever wanted to hear again. Fear darkened the small creature’s eyes and she gently withdrew the babe her breast and held it out to him.
    “Azoazo zrto voh!”
    The sound of what had to be her voice slid over his mind like fine silk. “I can’t understand you,” he said to her.
    “
Azoazo, koclho wyz yll zryo
!” She glanced above her, fear deepening in her eyes. She pulled the baby back and held it close to her.
    “Is something wrong with your child?” He tried to communicate to her with his hands. He might not be able to understand her, but he knew sorrow when he saw it, and this lovely creature’s face was filled with it. She held the baby out to him again and everything inside him urged him to take it.
    Suddenly, a male figure stepped out of the wood and the delicate fairy relaxed and cuddled the child back to her bosom. The man was tall, his hair as white as snow and although his face was smooth with not even a hint of a wrinkle, Marcus somehow felt that the being was ancient. When he looked back at the fairy woman, he saw a single tear slide down her cheek.
    “
Ko zyhlkg, si ermgvyoh.”
The woodland man spoke gently to her then looked at Marcus.
    Still frozen on the moment, Marcus found the courage to speak. “My name is Marcus Drake.”
    The being took a step closer. “I am Tolhram, High Mage of the fairies of Gilsparry. We know of you Drakeman. You are the killer of Everwood.”
    Marcus took a step back. “You speak English?”
    “I have made it so you can understand us.”
    “This woman, is she your wife?” he asked.
    The woodland man’s eyes held a sadness that Marcus had seen in Erin’s. “My daughter, Alara.”
    “Is she hurt?” Marcus asked.
    “No, but her heart is in turmoil, for the life of this child is in peril.”
    A shadow passed over them and the small woman stiffened. For a moment the specter seemed to take over casting an evil blackness over them.
    “Dullahan!” she