CHAPTER 41
Dagdar, full of grief and guilt, suddenly grabbed his axe, and jumped on one of the stags. As the stag took off in chase, he screamed; ‘I will avenge all those who I have wrongly killed, you will pay Witch, you will pay with your life!’
After that, was a bit of a blur. The witch could not be killed, even through all she had done, she was needed to keep the balance true. She was the bringer of Winter, without her, many other species would die, and the human race would inevitably suffer.
I felt myself being lifted into the air, it was Oswald, he knew also that we had to stop Dagdar. As we flew behind we could see the two of them riding down the hill, Cailleach Bheur well ahead. All of a sudden, something went wrong. We couldn’t tell if the mare lost its footing or slipped on ice, but it went down throwing Cailleach Bheur to the ground.
Dagdar closed the gap and we had to hurry, we knew he wasn’t thinking straight, he was clouded with the need for vengeance, for all those he had been made to slay. We swooped down as he was getting off the stag. All I could do was shout for him to stop. Oswald put me down and we both ran up to Dagdar as he was raising his Axe.
‘Stop this Dagdar, she will be punished.’ I begged. ‘She doesn’t deserve to live, we will all be better off without her,’ He raged. I had to get him to see sense. ‘We may be, but what of all those who need the winter? You will be signing their death warrants also. Why give this Witch an easy way out. Let the Royalty choose her punishment so she may endure it for eternity.’ These words got through to him and he lowered his axe.
Cailleach Bheur, in a last stupid attempt, began to say chants to hurt Dagdar, but he had been protected from her by the Royalty, and this eventually, was what brought him back to reality, and he laughed at her. ‘You are right Intercessor, look at her. She is nothing without my power and I will not sully my blade with her blood.’
Relief flooded through me, I turned to see the leaders coming down the hill to join us. Then the Royalty appeared, and the Witch, once mighty, curled up in fear. They must have been using their telepathy again, for one at a time they nodded. Ilbhreac stepped forward and spoke, as he did so, the rest of the group fell to their knees, so I thought I should follow, and I saw him smile slightly at my actions.
‘Cailleach Bheur, you have dared to go against the noble laws. We would finish you now, as you deserve, but the mortal world would suffer greatly. We have decided your fate and will bind you, from herein, you will have no choice but to do our bidding. You can use your full power for a few days at a time, then you must give respite. No more will the winters be so severe. From this time forward, your might and power has been taken away, you will never again be feared.’ Then they all moved forward and chanted over the Witch;
We call upon our joint powers,
To bind Cailleach Bheur, forever more,
Only our bidding will now be done,
She will live to uphold the Noble law.
Never again will she let lose her might,
Her power now mild, her anger restrained,
From herein she will live within our binds,
This, our will, we here now proclaim,
By the power of three times three,
As it is said, so mote it be.
With this over, he turned to the Witch and said, ‘Now lay down your staff, your reign is over.’ We thought for one moment, it had not worked, as anger flashed in her eyes. The moment passed, however, and as she laid the staff on the ground, another woman appeared.
Queen Grian walked over to her, ‘Brigit, take over your reign, and bring the spring. Make the snow go quickly, but no floods, the mortals have had enough devastation. We will give you aid in this task, do not worry.’ Brigit smiled and agreed. Immediately we felt the temperature rise, and the chill began to wear off us.
Ilbhreac turned to Dagdar, and shocked us all, by hugging him, ‘My dear friend, don’t dwell on things you had no control of. Redeem yourself by helping, mortals and Fairy folk alike, come back from this and rebuild their lives. The only blame you have, is not choosing your lover wisely.’ He laughed as he said the last part and Dagdar smiled but looked sheepish.
It was my turn next, as Queen Aine addressed me; ‘Intercessor, you have done your job well, you have intrigued us with your imagination and versatility. That is why we agreed to help. We will say to you now, we will take greater interest in what happens on this plane. You made us see we have neglected our duties for too long. That does not mean you can call on us any time, you must deal with things yourself, but we will be watching.’
With the word said they disappeared in a golden light. All that was left, was our group, and Dagdar. We officially introduced ourselves, and began to make our way down the rest of the hill. We chatted as we travelled, and Dagdar, turned out to be a nice and interesting being, when he wasn’t trying to kill us.
As we reached the bottom, the changelings came up to us to say they had found another abandoned house we could spend the night in. We settled down in the house, once again we shared a meal, but the difference to the last time was so obvious. We laughed and chatted, with no lack of conversation, it was well in to the early hours of the morning, we eventually decided to sleep.
With nothing of any urgency to take care of, we all slept late and it was almost noon when we were ready to begin our journey home.