The Fifth Beast (ManxMan Chinese/Celtic Fantasy Story)

Chapter 56

Constant interior monologue was one of Niall's bad habits that he couldn't get rid of (and didn't really want to). Thoughts raced through his mind like lightning bolts while he was engaged in any activities, for example conversing at court, or reporting to his superiors. He was thinking about all that while describing to the Queen's Steward briefly all the events of the last two seasons.

Roigh offered him the chair that usually stood at the far end of a huge table inlaid with semi-precious stones, but now was moved much closer — no doubt for Curoi. Niall smirked to himself and gently, imperceptibly pushed it even closer while Roigh personally poured him honey ale (the hour was still too early to drink wine; not that it stopped Niall at all during his last week at Sliabh Mis). Then, gracefully, Roigh sank into his high-backed chair (which also, frankly, had an immodest resemblance to a throne), and became all ears. He was also an amazing listener. Niall almost let slip something he had no intention of sharing.

He told Roigh an abridged version, starting with the dead hunter in the forest of Cruithne Corann. He added to it all the other incidents that Daire had told him about later, including his dead fennid. With a troubled face, Roigh confirmed that yes, the former Keeper of the North, Diarmuid Mac Bres, had been killed in the forest of Cruithne Corann, and yes, deep enough in the forest, not somewhere on its very edge.

"Niall, you should mark all the known incidents' sites on a map!" Roigh suggested, and Niall once again admired the sharpness of his mind.

Truth be told, he also had the same thought, but not in the first five minutes after hearing about those cases. The only difficulty was that Daire didn't have maps — he had no need for them, because he knew the forest of Cruithne Corann as a palm of his own hand. Niall was just planning to get a map from Roigh. In Emain Macha there was one huge relief map of Mag Tuired, in the Hall of the Red Branch, laid out on the floor with different types of stones and metals. But the forest of Cruithne Corann was just a heap of small trees made of malachite, with no details other than the main roads. In Ath Luain, a detailed map of the North was painted on the wall of the feasting hall, but Daire hang his bearskins and stuffed wolf heads all over it. Even on that painted map, the scale was too small. A detailed map of the Cruithne Corann Forest was needed — no way hadn't such a map been made at least once over a thousand years.

Roigh suggested rummaging through the library of Emain Macha, where thousands of scrolls and maps were kept.

"Are Diarmuid's notes in there?" Niall asked when it suddenly dawned on him. "Cumal said that he was interested in kirins, barbarian culture, wrote a lot of notes. He was practically a scholar, Lord of Light and all that, it can't be that he didn't explore his own lands and didn't make any maps."

Roigh's face didn't change, but he looked away for a moment. Thought for a bit and answered, "No, hardly. You were too young, you don't remember how much Her Majesty was grieving after his death. No one would've ever dared to mention his things and notes. And no one would've dared to bring them to Emain Macha, even to the library which Her Majesty didn't visit much. She even burned his letters, because it was painful for her to see his beautiful handwriting. Most likely, Daire Mac Cormac used all Diarmuid's notes to kindle the fireplace when he settled in Ath Luain. You know how little respect he has for reading and writing."

Niall made a mental note to ask Daire about those notes. It was unlikely that Daire could have brought himself to burn something that was written by his former lord. Most likely, he ordered to put it in a storeroom somewhere. Pity if the parchment had rotten during the last hundred years.

Then Niall told Roigh about his trip to Airenn, his conversations with Cumal, the new knowledge about kirins, including the last pieces of it that were obtained much later, during his trip to Khanbaliq. He was absolutely not going to mention that trip, hoping that Elatha wouldn't let even a peep to anyone about disguising Niall as a mortal slave and sending him to the North. And Niall was not going to mention losing his braid, so the story with Fao came out very short: Niall quarreled with the barbarian in the tavern, taught him a lesson during their fight, and then the barbarian led his army to Mag Tuired and attacked Sliabh Mis.