94. Delivered

Our arrival back in the south forest was about as inelegant as possible, and also completely unexpected. The usual group of archers wasn't on duty yet, nobody expected anyone to arrive outside of dawn. So there was no-one around to see the lot of us come tumbling back into reality like someone spitting out a mouthful of sunflower seeds.

We wound up scattered around the meadow. I was nauseous and had a headache, and I knew I was probably the most well-off out of all of us. I dragged myself upright and called towards the garrison, "Guards! We need help!"

Kelly was slowly sitting up a few meters to my left, but I was more worried about Keira who was laying motionless on the grass a few meters beyond her sister. I stumbled past Kelly and dropped to my knees next to Keira to check on her.

Six or seven meters behind me, I heard Feichin groan as he started stirring. And I finally heard troops emerging from the garrison. I turned and shouted at them "Hurry it up! We need a healer over here!"

As usual Feichin buggered off the moment he'd recovered enough to walk. Shackles and a metal collar were locked on our prisoner's unconscious body. But there was no healer in the garrison. So I left the prisoner with the soldiers and teleported Keira and Kelly and myself straight into the castle courtyard, where I started shouting for someone to get a healer.

About ninety frantic minutes later, we were finally back in our suite in the castle. Keira was resting safely in bed while Kelly and I were sitting slumped at the table by the window.

We'd got out of our travel clothes and into some comfy nightshirts. We were both mentally and physically exhausted, but neither of us was ready to try and sleep yet. There was fresh food and drink on the table between Kelly and I, but apart from some juice neither of us had touched it yet.

I'd given Maeve and Siobhan a very brief report but my mother realized I wasn't in the mood for a full debriefing, or much of a conversation at all for that matter. Kelly and I were both too worried about Keira, and we watched while Muireann carefully tended to the injured redhead.

The good news was, Keira would be fine in a couple days. The healing I'd given her in the gully had got her out of immediate danger, but she was still weak. Then our rough landing back in Brádaigh territory had undone some of those repairs and left her bleeding again, until she was patched up once more. That was all behind us now, Keira was safe, she was resting, and she was going to be ok.

The other good news of course was all four of us survived, and we'd been successful at our mission. I was honestly surprised at that, when I thought back at how many unexpected obstacles we'd faced.

I finally reached out and picked up a pastry, and had a few bites of it. Then I looked at Kelly and asked quietly, "I didn't know you'd learned that spell. The thousand-blades one."

She had a few gulps of her juice then shrugged, "I didn't. Keira learned it, I just borrowed it from her."

That left me silent for another minute or two as I realized what she was telling me. Their link let them share more than just thoughts and emotions and physical senses. It obviously let them share knowledge and skills too.

Before I could ask the next question, she added "And I did it because there were so many of them down there you couldn't sleep-spell them all. Every time you knocked a couple down there'd have been more behind them ready to take their place. We needed to clear them out so we'd have enough time to escape."

There wasn't anything else for me to say about that. I wouldn't try and argue it with her, and I had a feeling she already felt bad about it. But she clearly figured it was the right decision at the time, and the fact that we both got away safely was what mattered most.

I ate the rest of my pastry in silence, then finally asked "After we got to the gully, why couldn't you heal Keira? I know you know the spell."

"It's because of our connection," Kelly explained quietly. "Our auras are linked right? Healing her is like healing me. We can't heal each other any more than we could heal ourselves."

"Huh," I sighed. "That makes sense, I never thought of that before."

Kelly eventually had a piece of toast and some jam, and I had some more juice. Then the two of us finally got into bed to get some sleep.

• • • • •

The next week or so went by without much fanfare. Kelly and I spent most of our time in our room watching over Keira. She was up and about after two days, but she was still a little weak from the whole ordeal so we were in no rush to do anything else. In a way we were actually, finally, having some quiet vacation time.

Once Keira was out of bed the three of us visited Kaitlyn once a day, but we all teleported up to see her rather than using the stairs. Kelly thought it was important to be social with her, she said it would help towards her eventual rehabilitation.

I also used that tracking spell to check in on Connor every day, but I gave up on my idea of rushing out there to meet him and the column of soldiers. I'd honestly had enough adventure and excitement to last me a good long while.

And anyways, things worked out ok without me. One afternoon I did the tracking spell, and saw Connor was on horseback with our soldiers. They'd already made the exchange and left the Ceallaigh stronghold, now they were on the way back home again.

I let Maeve know right away, and told the twins I wanted to stay in Otherworld until my father was safely back at home. Kelly and Keira understood, of course.

With that, it seemed like the threats and problems were all done and over with now.

Eamon was dead, the twins' grandfather was neutralized, and Aengus was locked in our dungeon. Oisín Ceallaigh had his gold as compensation for the loss of his son, and soon enough Connor would be home. All that was left was for Maeve to collect the ransom for Aengus.

Eventually the three of us were asked to join Maeve for dinner in her private quarters. She wanted to hear all the details of our experiences at castle Faoláin, and we couldn't put it off any longer.

So once again the three of us found ourselves sitting at my mother's private dining table. We were at our usual places, I sat at one end across from Maeve, Kelly was on the side to my left, Keira across from her on my right.

Another excellent meal was served, and the three of us took turns telling the story as we all ate dinner.

We'd just got to the part where I decided we should try anyways, despite the revelation that Aengus's private chambers were warded to prevent any of us using magic at all.

"You what?!" Maeve interrupted. She looked and sounded aghast as she said, "Tegan without magic you're defenceless! You don't know how to fight, you weren't even armed! Why in the world did you decide to press on without magic?!"

I shrugged, "You ordered me to bring you Aengus. I figured we were already there, we were already close, and if we left without him we might not get another chance."

She shook her head slowly, "Tegan I only sent you because you made it sound like you could easily accomplish the task with your magic... I never would have let you so much as set foot in county Conchobhair if I'd known you'd be in any real danger!"

"Oh," I blushed. "Well, we were only in actual mortal danger for about thirty or forty minutes. And Kelly and Keira and Feichin all did great jobs!"

We continued with the story, as I told her how we couldn't get past Aengus's door but then he opened it and came out when the alarm sounded. I told her how Feichin shot Aengus in the leg before he could enspell me, then I grabbed Aengus's sword while the huntsman carried our prisoner.

We just got into describing our daring escape when mother interrupted again.

This time she was staring at Keira as she gasped, "You did what?!"

Keira blushed, "They had us trapped just a meter or so away from the edge of the no-magic zone, so I used our height advantage on the stairs. I uh, dove over their heads then fell down the stairs behind them, into where magic worked. Then I used the thousand-blades spell to clear the four guys behind me, so Kelly and Tegan and Feichin could follow."

"Is that how you were injured?" Maeve asked, as she stared wide-eyed at the blushing red-head.

Kelly shook her head, "Not quite. I charged into the guys on the other side of her so Keira could get up, and the two of us wound up hand to hand fighting with four of them."

"The guy in front of me went for his knife so I went for mine," Keira said. She shrugged, "He was quicker, but I think that's just because I was still a little stunned from my stair-dive."

I frowned at her, "Muireann said you had a broken wrist, Keira. I'm astounded you were even trying to grapple that guy in the first place."

Keira shrugged and grinned, "What can I say? Adrenaline's a hell of a drug."

We finally got to the end of the story, with everyone safely teleported out to the gully and me getting the bright idea to pull us all through the veil a couple hours early.

"I thought that was impossible," mother said, shaking her head again.

Kelly grimaced, "It was rough. Really rough. Like ten times rougher than crossing worlds at dusk, which was twice as rough as crossing worlds at dawn."

"It wasn't easy, either." I added. "It felt like I had to rip a hole through reality to get us here."

Keira smiled, "I guess I'm lucky I don't remember that part."

Kelly frowned, "You nearly died sis. Let's never do that again."

I nodded in agreement, "I think we did a lot of things in Conchobhair that we're not eager to repeat."

Maeve was silent for several minutes after that, while she slowly absorbed everything we said.

Finally she asked, "Did you remember to leave my letter, Tegan?"

I nodded, "Yeah. I left it on the floor just outside Aengus's door. I'm sure it would have been found during the clean-up afterwards. So hopefully you'll hear from his sons soon, and you can get your five hundred pounds of gold back."

Maeve smiled as she took a sip of wine. "Five hundred? Please. I've put a price of one thousand pounds on Aengus. And if they want his sword back too, that will cost them an additional five hundred pounds."

Me and the twins all stared at my mother for a few moments after that. I thought five hundred was a fantastic amount. I suppose I wasn't too surprised she'd want more for Aengus, considering how much he screwed with our family and lives over the past century or so. Still, a thousand pounds seemed incredible. And half again for the sword boggled my mind.

I finally asked, "What's the deal with the sword? It looked fancy, but I didn't think it was worth that much?"

Mother smiled, "It's not merely a weapon, Tegan. It's the symbol of Aengus's power. It symbolizes his right to rule the county."

Kelly suggested, "It's like how a king's crown symbolizes his power as king?"

Maeve nodded, "Exactly. When Aengus's father was made Marquess of Conchobhair, he was given that sword by the king. With both Aengus and the sword in my possession it doesn't exactly grant me control of the county, but it does mean neither Caleb or Sean ó Faoláin can take command either. And if they only pay their father's ransom, Aengus will return home without his sword, and that will be just as shameful as being captured in the first place."

She smiled widely at the three of us, "Despite the difficulties and risks, you've all done exceptionally well to bring me both Aengus and his sword. And I will see you're all rewarded."

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