Chapter 75: 74. Discerned

"How is the leg holding up, Lady Tegan?" Colm asked softly, as the five of us quietly made our way through the woods.

The underbrush was thinner here, in fact the forest itself seemed thinner. I was certain we'd emerge from the woods today. It felt like people had been here, picking the area over for firewood.

It was the morning of our third day here, and happily things had been quiet and boring so far.

I glanced back at the knight and replied quietly, "It's good, thanks. Kelly did the healing spell last night, so today should be fine. And I think for the moment you can relax a bit with the titles and stuff? Just call me Tegan. All this 'Lady' stuff feels kind of unnecessary when we're all out here doing the same stuff together."

I didn't bother to mention that while my leg was ok, my back wasn't. Neither was my mood. After a lifetime of cosy beds and comfy pillows, sleeping on a blanket on the ground completely exposed in the woods was not doing me any favours. And having nothing to eat but tough chewy meat and washing that down with sour watery wine wasn't making me any happier.

So far the highlight of the trip was yesterday when Feichin had us camp near some bushes with edible berries. Me and the twins spent an hour or so picking every last berry we could find, then the five of us enjoyed a nice sweet treat after our meal of salty meat and sour wine.

Feichin brought my thoughts back to the present as he confirmed my suspicions. He stated "Enough talk. These woods are well travelled. Eyes and ears open, mouths shut."

Same as the past two days, the huntsman was in the lead and Colm was at the back. I was fairly certain Keira was in front of me, following Feichin. And Kelly was behind me, ahead of the knight.

I still hadn't learned to tell them apart, but I'd been paying attention. Like how I noticed Kelly was always on my left if the three of us were side-by-side with me in the middle, when we were in single file Keira always seemed to take the lead.

If I wasn't between them though, I had no idea how to tell which was which. I was sure there was a pattern, they'd hinted as much. I just had to figure it out.

Our progress slowed as we became more cautious, my four companions had their bows ready and I had defensive spells on the tip of my tongue.

Our guide finally motioned us all to stop. He whispered, "Hold here, stay wary. I'll be back."

Feichin moved off to scout ahead. Colm and the twins spread out slightly, so instead of the four of us being in a line it was more like a triangle, with an archer at each corner and me in the middle.

The huntsman returned after about ten minutes, and motioned us to follow. He took us a little ways to the left, which would bring us even closer to the border. Not that the border was a tangible thing, it's not like there was going to be a fence or a line. It just meant we were a little further south, a little closer to the wildlands.

I soon realized why he picked this route. The forest extended nearer to the castle here. Further north there was more cleared land. We might actually have crossed the 'border', or maybe the map I'd studied was out of date. Either way we were able to stick to the cover of trees and still approach to within a couple hundred meters of the castle.

Feichin brought us to a halt just inside the tree-line. "We can observe from here, but we must remain wary. If they have patrols we'll run into them soon enough."

"We didn't come all this way just to spy on them," Colm stated. "We're here to confront captain Eamon. Let's go introduce ourselves."

The huntsman gave the knight a dark look, "I understand you're the one who insisted on a small group so we could move quickly. If you were at the head of column of soldiers then I'd say go bang on the door and do whatever you pleased sir knight. But while there's only the five of us, including three girls of which one is my Lady's daughter, we'll be doing things cautiously and carefully."

I glanced back and forth between them as the two men sort of glared at each other for a few moments. Not that I wanted to learn the answer, but I suddenly wondered which of them would win if the two ever came to blows.

After a moment I decided Colm would win in a fair fight, but something told me Feichin wouldn't fight fair. And as long as we were in the woods, we were in his domain. Maybe in a clearing, or indoors the knight would come out ontop. But here in the forest, surrounded by brush and trees, I was fairly certain Feichin would be the victor.

I also knew if I ever had to pick sides, I'd be siding with the one who was sworn to protect me, and had already done so once. Colm might be honourable, but his loyalties lay elsewhere.

Fortunately the knight backed down and he nodded, "Very well. It's barely midday, we have plenty of daylight left with which to observe before we move ahead."

So the five of us kind of hunkered down inside the tree-line to watch for a while. I wasn't sure what specifically we were looking for, but I figured if anything unusual came up either Colm or Feichin would point it out.

The castle itself looked like something out of a medieval movie. Where castle Brádaigh was huge and imposing, all white stonework and towers that seemed to reach the sky, this place was sort of squat, square, and looked more like it was built to see regular action rather than being built to impress.

The walls stood about seven or eight meters high and were made of rough dark grey stones. There were four towers, one at each corner, and they weren't much higher than the walls. Maybe ten meters. The outer edges of the walls were all castellated. There was no moat, and the main gate was to the north so it was out of view from the south-east where we were all hiding.

We couldn't tell how thick the walls were, but they were thick enough for soldiers to walk along the tops. I figured they were probably three meters thick at least. And the towers were round, and appeared to be about five meters in diameter.

We could see the area north of the castle held a small farming community, probably there to provide food for the troops. That was a little further away but we could just make out people there too, going about their daily business.

"I don't see anything obviously amiss here," Colm said quietly after about fifteen minutes of watching.

We were near enough to see soldiers walking around on the tops of the castle walls, but we couldn't make out any real details. Just that they appeared to be soldiers, they were dressed in light blue like the soldiers at my mother's castle, and it looked like they carried crossbows rather than longbows.

Feichin shrugged, "Those are Brádaigh pennants flying on the towers, but that doesn't mean the castle's still loyal."

Colm stated "We aren't going to learn anything hiding out here. We have go to in and confront captain Eamon."

"If everyone else there is loyal, they should obey me right?" I asked softly. I didn't like the idea of people 'obeying' me but it was a rank thing, I outranked them all thanks to my mom being their boss.

"Correct," the knight nodded. "Once they know who you are."

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Feichin pointed out, "And if they're all turned traitor, then it could be a death sentence just walking in there. Or at the very least we'd have to fight our way back out again."

Colm frowned "Nevertheless we must go."

Suddenly Keira exclaimed softly, "Oh fuck no!"

I turned to the right, frowning. "What's wrong?"

Then Kelly gasped "What's he doing here?!"

Both of them pointed, and Kelly said "There, on top of the tower!"

Two men were now visible standing atop the nearest tower. One was in the Brádaigh livery, but dressed like an officer rather than one of the rank-and-file. He had dark hair, and he was the shorter of the two. The taller one had short fiery red hair, and it looked for all the world like he was wearing an Earth-style dark blue overcoat.

The two men seemed to be engaged in relaxed, casual conversation with each other.

Colm asked, "Which one are you referring to? Who is he?"

Keira replied quietly "It's our granddad! He's bad news."

"Who is he?" Colm asked again.

I sighed, "Kelly and Keira's grandfather. His name is Keenan ó Conghaile. He's a fairly powerful mage. He can cross worlds. I know he works as a courier sometimes, and he spends most of his time on Earth."

Keira stated, "He knows a lot of dark magic. Mind control, memory manipulation."

"Tegan suspects he worked with another traitor against the clann about twenty-five years ago," Kelly added.

Colm sighed, "Ok. So a dangerous mage who's suspected of collaborating with traitors appears to be friends with captain Eamon, who is also suspected of treachery."

"I assume this changes the plan?" Feichin asked quietly.

Colm frowned, "We still need to accomplish our mission. We need to secure the castle, and the border. We need to remove the traitor."

The huntsman pointed out "We are five against an entire castle."

"We don't know they're all traitors," Colm stated. "It may be only Eamon."

I sighed, "Ok. Colm you wanted a small light group. So the way to handle this isn't a show of military force. Ideally we want to just go in, confirm whether or not Eamon's a traitor, and if he is, find out about the rest of the castle. If they're all against us we're not going to be able to secure it. Our best bet will be to get home as fast as possible, so we can tell Maeve and she can send in an actual army."

He frowned at me, "Then what do you propose?"

I thought for a moment then said, "Colm and me are going to approach the castle. We'll walk up to the front door and tell them we're here to speak with Eamon. Feichin, Kelly, Keira, you three will stay out here where it's safe. Me and Colm will deal with stuff in there, and if it goes badly I'll teleport us both straight back out here and the five us will get clear as fast as we can. If it goes well, we'll let you know and we can all go inside and get a hot meal and a good night's sleep."

The twins both looked like they wanted to protest, but I'm sure they could tell by the tone of my voice and the look on my face, I didn't want them going in there until we knew it was safe.

"So instead of five against an entire castle, it will be two against the castle?" Colm asked as he stared at me.

I shrugged "Sure. You're a knight of the realm. And the spirit of Taralynn Brádaigh lives on in me, or something. We'll be fine."

He actually cracked a smile, and I wondered if my casual bravado might have impressed him. I decided not to mention how nervous I actually was.

Keira warned, "If our granddad's still there when you see Eamon, be extra careful. You know what he's capable of."

I sighed quietly, "I know Keira. I'll be careful."

"Feichin," I fixed my gaze on him. "I'm leaving Kelly and Keira in your protection. Your job is to keep them safe and secure. If you don't hear from me in twenty-four hours, or if soldiers come out here looking for you? Then I want you to take them home. I trust you can get the three of you back to castle Brádaigh the hard way if you must?"

The huntsman nodded, "Aye m'lady. It'll take a few weeks but I'll get the young lasses there if we've no other choice."

"Thank you Feichin," I stated. "I leave them in your care."

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