I knew we were heading the right direction when I almost stepped in bird feces.

I don’t know how I almost did that since it was a very stark contrast between the ebony stone and the white bird poop. Also it was pie-sized.

We made our way through dark halls littered with grime and crap and eventually arrived at the cages. Some cages had skeletons of humans in them, and others skeletons of Sluagh picked clean. And others skeletons of hybrid creatures that I couldn’t quite place. The other cages held human and Sluagh corpses in various stages of decay. Feathers littered every foot of floor. Sometimes a limb here, sometimes a skull there. There was really no rhyme or reason to it except for that some cages still had living prisoners in them.

The prisoners that noticed us had various reactions. Some cowered, moving to the far end of their cage. Others stood and came closer to us to get a better look.

My eyes locked on a familiar face and I saw her, my girlfriend Charice. Instantly we were grasping each other’s arms through the bars finding comfort in one another. Sweat and blood caked her bangs to her forehead. “Sean!” she said, then burst into tears.

I grabbed the bars of the cage in both hands and rattled it as hard as I could. “It’s okay. I’m here now.”

Charice nodded, sniffling. “After the second day I figured I was a goner. I didn’t expect anyone to come for me.”

“Second day?”

I recalled Nehemiah’s words.

Time can move differently in Tir na nOg. It could have only been an hour for the girl, or a day. A week even.

I looked up and down the cage bars. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”

Charice wiped the tears from her eyes. “Not just me Sean all of them,” she motioned to the captives in the cages around her. “Some of them have been in here for weeks. They’ve seen things, terrible things,” said Charice. She shuddered.

I was scared to ask but I had to. “What kind of things?”

She swallowed, then said, “They take some of the captives away and feed them to the birds.”

She got choked up again. “Sometimes the people are taken away and we hear terrible screams followed by the screeches the birds make almost as if—”

“The people are being turned into Sluagh.” I would have thrown up, but we didn’t have time. “We’ll get you out of here, all of you.”

She shook her head. “It’s impossible Sean. Some of us tried to escape. She knows, they know. We’ll never make it out.”

“Who knows? Donn the Red? The Dullahan?”

“All of them Sean. And the pale woman.”

When she said “pale woman” my stomach dropped. My thoughts instantly went to the Banshee I fought last week. Could it be her? I killed her.

“Everything’s going to be okay Charice. I killed the Banshee last week. We’re leaving right now.”

I turned to Nehemiah. “The Sluagh, they’re—”

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Once Chaos gets ‘em, they’re gone. There’s no coming back from that. They died the moment they were changed.” Nehemiah left me standing there while he and Rob were fumbling with the other locks.

Tain, ever faithful at my side, began to growl.

I heard the impact of feet landing on the stone floor behind me. I expected to see Donn the Red or even the Dullahan off of his mount. I did not expect to see a Banshee.

Our eyes locked, both staring at each other in recognition. I knew pretty quickly that I had never seen this Banshee before, but she looked awfully a lot like the one I had fought last week. She was in the form of a young woman, as beautiful as a Forever 21 model, and as pale as a corpse.

She hissed at me. “You’re the mortal who killed my sister. I can sense her mark on you, her death scream.”

I was about to take her head off with my sword when a purple orb formed around her.

Nehemiah called out, “Stop wasting time Sean. Let’s get these people out of here.”

He was right, we needed to get going. I hefted my shotgun, placing it point-blank on the nearest locked cage. “Step back Charice,” I said. I knew that once I pulled the trigger all bets were off. The sound would alert anyone and everything that something was going down.

I pulled the trigger and the lock fell to the ground. The shot echoed way louder than normal. I rushed to the next few cages, opening as many as I could. While that was happening, the Banshee gasped and grunted, trying to break free of Nehemiah’s own magical cage.

I heard the distinct muffled shriek that only a Banshee could make. Nehemiah’s magical orb thrummed like a car blasting bass through subwoofers, but it held fast. She began to claw at the magical prison with more fervor until she completely broke free.

In a split second she sprinted at me, full speed, eating up the ground between us. I raised my Mossberg but she ran into another magical orb placed by my friend and was knocked to the ground. She screamed again, this time more in fury than an actual attack.

I took Charice by the arm, motioned for all the freed captives to follow me. “This way. Hurry!”

Nehemiah strained to contain the Banshee. Crackling sparks showered down from the wound on his staff.

The Banshee broke free again.

She made it only several more steps before a third orb was placed around her, like some sick lethal game of red-light-green-light.

I couldn’t take the tension anymore. “Enough of this crap.”

I cocked my shotgun, and charged her, yelling. I made eye contact with Nehemiah and at the last second he let his magic fizzle out. I leapt into the air and brought my knee up into the Banshee’s face right as the orb disappeared. As she hit the ground I towered over, and let her have it.

As the smoke rose from my gun I said, “Second time’s easier.”

---

I clutched Charice’s hand in mine. We snuck along as best as we could, but it’s hard to manage a group that large and still keep quiet.

At times we had to creep along on the balls of our feet and other times we would full on sprint. After a while of no alarms raised, it seemed all of the the danger was behind us. Despite our predicament I couldn’t help a smile crossing my face. I had butterflies in my stomach.

We had done it. We had broken into the Irish lord of the dead’s fortress and freed my girlfriend Charice as well as some other innocent victims. And aside from the scratches we already have, it looked like we’d make it out okay.

Then Donn the Red stepped out from the shadows.

He seemed to rip away from the darkness as if they were made from one in the same substance. He did not take a fighting stance, or raise a weapon. He simply stood there with his arms folded.

I felt Charice squeeze my hand hard and I did the same. Now that I got a good look at the Irish lord of the dead, he stood tall, gangly still, but with obvious rippling muscles. His eyes were sunken in shadow and he had fists as wide as bricks. While not having a voice as deep as Balor’s, he was no soprano. He spoke in ancient Irish and I couldn’t understand him, but Rob did his best to translate.

“We have uninvited guests I see,” said Donn the Red.

All of us were too dumbstruck to speak except for Rob who was translating.

He looked at Nehemiah and smiled, “You’re using Chaos magic to cloak your presence. Very clever. And if I’m not mistaken you’re a Shepherd. Breaking the rules eh?”

Then he eyed Tain and Rob collectively. “You’re very familiar but I can’t put names to either of you, or say that I even know you.”

Then he turned to me. “A young pupil of Order, and so full of fire.” He stepped closer as if taking me in. His eyes rested on Charice’s hand in mine. Then he stared me down. “I’ve seen those eyes before boy. But they’re not just your eyes.”

While he and Rob were speaking, one by one the massive birds he commanded landed on the walls and ramparts around us. We were no longer just under the scrutiny of Donn the Red’s eyes, but under the eyes of all of the Sluagh. The birds grew quieter than ever. I felt like I stood before a judge and a jury and knew full well what the verdict was even before the gavel struck.

“You freed some of the captives. Of course the aura you emit,” he pointed to me, “is faint but unmistakable.”

Again he looked at my eyes, and then to Rob and Nehemiah, finally resting on Tain and he showed a slight grin exposing sharp teeth.

I thought of all the trouble that I had been through, of all the problems that this lord of the dead had caused. He did not strike fear in me. I gritted my teeth and flashed him a wicked smile in return, the hilt of my katana firm in my grip.

“You’d like to strike me down wouldn’t you boy? You can’t hope to defeat me. But I would be willing to let you try.”

I stepped forward and Nehemiah grabbed me by the shoulder. “Don’t do this Sean. He’s playing you.”

“I don’t care if I’m the underdog, I have to fight him. I have to end him for what he’s done,” I hissed through my teeth.

“No Sean. Let’s do this togeth—” started Nehemiah. But I didn’t let him finish.

“You face me like a man. Just me. Let my friends go.”

“You insinuate that I am no man. And you are right for I am a God. A God of death.”

His blasphemy made my ears ring. I had no words, only my sword. His mouth called for blows.

“I will let your friends go but only if you stand alone.”

“Well don’t just stand there! Run!” I yelled at the group and they fled, Rob leading the way.

Nehemiah stayed and spoke low in my ear. “Don’t try to be a hero Sean.”

I ignored him. Tain wouldn’t budge. “Go boy!” I yelled at him. He did one of those dog circles where they are literally physically conflicted, and obey you but change their mind last second. He barked at me and pawed the ground. “Go Tain! Follow Rob.”

The shriek of the Banshee echoed off the ancient walls, and the screams of the people we’d just helped escape soon followed.

“I killed her!” I said.

Nehemiah shook his head at me while forcefully tugging Tain by the collar. “Banshees require a threefold death, one for each form. We went over this last week.”

Tain submitted and they both ran to help, leaving me alone with Donn.

Donn laughed and raised his arms. His cloak fell beneath him like great black wings.

All of the Sluagh around the courtyard raised their wings in unison, their feathers ruffling and bristling with vile intent. My utter exposure became painfully apparent.

With a rushing of wind the whole host of hundreds of Sluagh descended upon me.