Free Waves in the Wind by Wade McMahan

merely…” Her voice trailed away.
    “Merely what? Thinking of Laoidheach?”
    “Well what if I was?” Her hands moved to her hips and she glared back at me. “He is quite easily the handsomest man I’ve ever seen and he filled my eyes for a moment. That is all.”
    “All? Was it your eyes that were filled or your heart?”
    Again she flushed. “My heart? What manner of foolish question is that? I do not even know the man!”
    My friend devoured women like most folk would a tasty bowl of porridge, though I would not speak of it. “No, but I do and I know he will bear watching.”
    “Hah.” Aine tossed her hair. “You make a big thing out of nothing. I doubt he scarce noticed me.”
    “Oh, I assure you he noticed you.” I rocked back and forth from heels to toes, my arms still crossed, and smirked. “Laoidheach never missed noticing a pretty girl in his life. He’s…well, never mind that, but good friend though he is, I’ll thump him hard if he attempts to trifle with you.”
    She tilted her nose, wagged a finger at me and sassed, “It is you who should never mind, brother. If a man deserves thumping, I’ll be doing it myself.”
    I groaned aloud. As if there wasn’t trouble enough already, here was something new. If Laoidheach wasn’t cautious, my father would take his head.
    * * *
    We ducked through the door of the King’s longhouse and removed our shoes so as not to track dust across the reed mats carpeting the floor. Laoidheach and I stood by the door in our stocking feet. My father walked to the mid-point in the dimly lit room where King Domhnall and three landholders sat in chairs by the fireplace discussing the status of the kingdom’s cattle herds.
    Laoidheach muttered in my ear. “Is this a king’s chambers or a hunting lodge?”
    I leaned upon the death’s head staff, shrugged at his question and smiled. Memories of past visits here filled my mind as I glanced at the many trophy heads of deer and boar hanging upon the walls alongside tapestries depicting hunting scenes.
    My heart saddened to see the King’s white hair and beard. The good man’s lined face had aged greatly during the years I had been away to school. In short order he dismissed the landholders, who bowed to me on their way out the door.
    Then we were sitting beside the King while I described the events at Dún Ailinne. My attention was captured by the flames within the fireplace as I spoke of the burning of the school, how my friends were slain and the martyrdom of Master Tóla.
    “One question.” My father relaxed beside me. “The attack occurred late at night. Why were you and Laoidheach not asleep within the dormitories along with the others?”
    I cleared my throat, but Laoidheach spoke up. “We were visiting friends in Kilcullen that night. Ossian heard the movement of men in the darkness and insisted we investigate.”
    My father’s hands remained folded in his lap as he cocked an eybrow. “I see. Thank you, Laoidheach. You were very fortunate. It seems little has changed since I was a student there.” With a wink, he added, “I too occasionally visited friends in Kilcullen.”
    “The men who attacked Dún Ailinne, who were they?” The King’s calm voice was little more than a whisper.
    “I don’t know, Your Majesty,” I shrugged. “One hundred or more faceless men. In the night I could see no colors or banners to identify them or their tribes. Yet there was one man, their leader, wearing the unmistakable robe of a Christian monk or priest. Perhaps he was the only man among them who knew precisely why he was there—to rid the land of all who speak for the Lords of the Sidhe.”
    “You are certain they were Christians?”
    “Yes, Your Majesty. I’m certain.”
    “Why do you say the leader’s robe was unmistakable in the darkness?”
    “I knew the robe by the cut of it and rope cincture about the waist. There became no doubt about what he was when I saw him as a silhouette in the fiery darkness as