Twilight Siege

7

“Well good morning to you too, sunshine.” “I’m sorry, the last hour was hectic getting over here. You ready to hit the road?” “More than you could know, get me out of here.” We chatted about ex-boyfriends, parents, and places we’d like to see during the hour and a half drive through beautiful Irish countryside. Being on the road with her reminded me of all my childhood travels and amid all the craziness of my life—it was exactly what I needed. In Londonderry we toured the Guildhall, which was an amazing cathedral-like building, and checked out the enormous seventh century stone city walls. We had reservations for a tour of a stone circle in the afternoon, so we had lunch at a local pub before driving out to the megalithic ruins, which was out in the middle of nowhere. The enormous ring of boulders held court in the middle of a grassy field, clear of any trees or obstructions. I parked on the side of the road, along with another car-load of people who also appeared to be there for the tour. It was about a quarter mile walk to the stones and they were larger and more impressive with each step. On average, the stones speckled with moss and age were about my height—a few stood well taller and several were crumbled and worn down to a much less impressive size. “Think about it, Cat, these things have been here since the Bronze Age. How cool is that?” I said with reverence as we approached the stones. “Done your research have you?” she asked teasingly. “It’s probably not as exciting for you since you’ve lived around them your whole life, but we don’t have this kind of thing in the States.” “I’ve seen less of them than you might think. As paranoid as my mum is, we never got out of Belfast much.” “Man that sucks. I’ve traveled so much during my life, I can’t imagine not having the adventure of seeing new places.” “Hello, everyone! I’m so glad you made it out.” We startled at the young man’s voice calling out from just a few feet away. “Sorry didn’t mean to frighten you. I’m Riley, your tour guide. Although it’s not so much a tour as an informational. It looks like we’re all here so I’ll get started. Welcome to our beloved Beltany stone circle. Prevailing theories date the site back to 2,100 to 700 BC and some say it dates back to the Stone Age.” As he spoke we all gathered near the young man, who was tall and lanky with unruly dark hair and laughing eyes. “There are sixty-four stones now, however the original count was eighty with a circumference of one hundred and fifty yards. The circle was part of the Beltane summer celebration, near May 1 st , marking the start of summer and the point halfway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice. The word itself means ‘goodly fire’ and was associated with lighting huge bonfires here on Tops Hill. All household fires would be doused in the surrounding villages and relit with Beltane fires. Smoke and ashes were believed to have protective powers, so the people and cattle would walk through the smoke and piles of ashes would be carried to homes and walked around the property.” My heart started to race at the similarity of the Beltane ritual to Cat’s use of ashes to protect my apartment. “Those practices sound like what you did at my apartment,” I whispered to Cat as Riley continued his talk. “Did the people learn that from your ancestors?” “I told you I’m not talking about that,” she shot back. Her whisper had been less than quiet and a couple of the other guests peered in our direction. I turned back to our guide but my mind raced with questions. Had the ancient inhabitants of Ireland been familiar with the Fae? I knew the Fae roamed Earth freely back then, but I wasn’t sure how much they interacted or shared with the human population. Where had the general public learned these techniques and why were they no longer practiced? Not wanting to miss more valuable information, I drew myself out of my thoughts to focus on his words. “The people would host big feasts and the doors and windows of homes, and even the cattle themselves, would be decorated with yellow May flowers. This ceremonial event marked the time period when the cattle were driven out to summer pastures and a ritual was performed to protect the cattle, as well as to encourage the growth of the crops. If you’ll follow me this way.” He indicated in the direction outside the circle where a single triangular stone sat southeast of the others. “This outlier stone is believed to be related to sunrise and sunset. It’s marked with what appears to be replicated constellations and at sunrise on Beltane, the stone aligns perfectly with the tallest pillar on the westsouthwest portion of the circle. While there may have been an alignment for the Winter Solstice, the deterioration of the stones makes it impossible to say for sure. There’s much we don’t know about the stones, such as the cup marks on this stone along with a few others, and the biggest mystery is who created the circle and how they got them here.” We all followed his lead back inside the large circle. “It’s the common belief of the locals that the stones were put here by the Aos sí—the ‘people of the mounds’. They have many names, the ‘fair folk,’ the ‘Tuatha De Dannann’ and as they are more commonly called, Faeries. Legend says that they warred with the Milesians, another mythical race, and eventually agreed to retreat and dwell underground in the mounds.” He lifted his arm to indicate the rolling hills around us. My eyes raked over the countryside and I wondered just how much truth there was to the legends. The image of Lochlan living like a troll underground was far-fetched, albeit amusing. However, I could see how the legends would have evolved after the disappearance of the magical Fae beings. Movement in a distant cluster of trees caught my eye and I watched as a large white wolf-like dog sat back on his haunches and watched our group. There didn’t appear to be any homes nearby, so I didn’t imagine he was a family pet, but he also didn’t seem skittish enough to be feral. He watched us as if we were as fascinating an attraction to him as the stones were to us. With a quiet chuckle to myself, I turned back to join Cat. After Riley finished his explanatory tour, we made our way back to the car and the dog ambled in the same direction. He wasn’t exactly coming toward us so much as he was keeping tabs on us. I loved animals and his curious personality reminded me how much I had wished as a child to have a pet, but we had always traveled too much for anything more than fish. In the nearby town of Strabane we entertained ourselves sightseeing before checking into our hotel where we ate at the little pub on the lower level. After we had cleaned our plates, we waddled back to our room and watched some television before I proceeded to pass out in a food-induced coma. My body may have been exhausted from the busy day, but my mind had other ideas as it bounced from one odd dream to the next. Somewhere along the line, I passed through a doorway to find Lochlan standing in a small room. His deep blue eyes assessed me questioningly and his short blond hair was tousled in a way that made me want to run my fingers through it.