Sidhe dueling conventions allowed her to name a shield and sword to assist her in combat. She would still have to enter the dueling ring, making the fight a three versus one contest.

It would seem a lopsided fight, with the challenged having all the advantages. They did have an overwhelming edge, but I, as the challenger, got to set the time and field of battle, and I also got to make one demand, in the event I won.

“I agree and accept Lleu Llaw Gryffes as sword and Duke Nelag as a shield,” I proclaimed formally. “I set as my one condition, truth. When I win, I will spare your life long enough for you to tell me the reason for your attack.

“I would have the Sidhe know the reason for your perfidy, and any [Oaths] you may have to forswear, any [Seals of Silence] that have to be broken, any [Chains that Bind] will be untangled long enough for you to explain the rationale behind today’s ambush.”

All color drained from Diarmuid as I made my demand. She had stacked the deck against me, or at least as much as she could, but as the words of my demand echoed around the chamber, her fear grew. The consequences of this day were made clear. They would either kill me, or whatever they were hiding would be exposed.

“And know this. If I kill all of you before the truth can be revealed, I will part the veil between life and death, open the passage to the Summerlands, and hold your very spirit to this agreement.

“I will know the reason why, I swear as King of the Tuatha de Danann, Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax y Cailleach y Arianrhod.”

My [Oath] sent shock waves echoing across the ether. Waves of supernatural force echoing with my words to create an unbreakable paradigm of fate. A tether between my soul and each of theirs. They could not escape me, the [Oath] given additional [Authority] with that small grace of the Divine that was now mine to call.

I was just as surprised as they were as the Universe responded to my [Oath]. A small tear, in reality, rent a portion of the room—a tear large enough for Gwyn ap Nudd to step through.

“Your [Oath] has been accepted by [Justice]. I will stay the moment of death for the last surviving challenger if you win. That last survivor will be held in limbo until the terms of your [Condition] have been satisfied,” Gwyn intoned.

If before, only Diarmuid was the only one to show even a hint of fear, now even Lleu Llaw was concerned. Gwyn ap Nudd was too powerful to dismiss as inconsequential. That he had taken form to witness a contest between us made clear that what I would learn was important.

“I, Teigh Mac de Beleros y Cyronax y Cailleach y Arianrhod, say that challenge has been given. Let Belisma, Goddess of lakes, crafts, and light, serve as our witness,” I prayed, the prayer necessary to summon the Kelpie arena we would fight in.

The battle sphere began forming slowly. A drop of water coalesced and hovered in place, the water expanding and developing between myself and Diarmuid. As one drop of water after another began to form, the Sphere started to take shape.

The Sithern responded to the growing Sphere, and the council chamber was replaced by field and lake. We had not moved, the Sithern had. It was an ability all Sithern’s enjoyed, a way to adapt and grow as needed.

Older, more established Sitherns seldom made use of the ability. Over time, they had shaped themselves to conform to the lives of their residents. They had settled into a configuration that served the people who lived there.

The Sithern’s decision to move was fortuitous because the Sphere of water that we would be fighting in grew to be the size of a sporting field. A barrier of Divine energy began to crackle with warning as the Sphere was completed, and Belisama engraved her creation with protections against tampering and outside influence.

Diarmuid, Duke Nelag, Lleu Llaw Gryffes, and I were the only people that could enter. An entrance that we had no control over as the Sphere manifested tentacles of water to capture each of us and pull us into the crystal-clear water.

Lleu Llaw’s power was mainly associated with the ocean. His control over the water was so complete that he could drown an entire inland city, one long claimed by even the harshest desert.

The battle sphere should have been the ideal setting for him, but I had dual mastery over fire and ice just as he had complete mastery over water. I intended to deal with him first. That focus was a mistake and allowed Nelag to draw first blood.

I was too sure of my abilities, too confident. I had already suppressed Lleu Llaw and Diarmuid when they became one of the Twelve, and I didn’t think Nelag could be on the same power level as them, so I had dismissed him as trivial.

A mistake, I discovered when he blasted me with a levan bolt, imbued with the Divine. I reacted by flash freezing the water in the entire battle sphere, trapping Lleu Llaw and Diarmuid in ice so complete that neither was able to move.

Nelag should have been just as trapped, but the Divine power he had released when attacking was used when building a shield that surrounded him in a bubble of protection. Protection that managed to leech most of the energy I had used to transform water into ice.

He began chain casting levan bolts in the space between him and Lleu Llaw in an attempt to free him, each bolt chipping away at the ice. I opened a small tunnel between the Nelag and myself. One large enough to allow one of my fire and ice bullets to pass.

I added a rifling pattern to the walls of the tube I had created. And began firing with machine-gun-like speed bullet after bullet. The tunnel I had formed served the same function as the barrel of a gun. It transformed the magical energy that I used and propelled each bullet with enough kinetic energy that I noticed a significant increase in speed and force.

The rifling I had added to the barrel of ice proved impossible to maintain, and as it was destroyed, I found it unnecessary. I wasn’t aiming, so there was no real need for accuracy. The hail of bullets I funneled through that barrel could only land in one place—an exploding symphony of fire and fury.

Nelag’s aura of protection held. For a minute, then another. But as more and more bullets exploded against the walls of his shield, cracks began to form until finally, with one last burst of the Divine it shattered, and the concussive force of each explosion began to wreck damage to his body.

He may have drawn first blood, but I would see him dead. I had recognized the significance of the Divine signature he had been using. The taint of Olympus was obvious. And the only way for him to have a connection with Olympus, a bond powerful enough for him to draw on that Divine, was if a God of Olympus had played a part in his birth.

I could be wrong, but now that I had recognized the taint of Olympus, I believed that Nelag was another of Zeus’ by-blow offspring. I didn’t know if his mother had been raped, Zeus’ standard Operandi modus, or if she had been willing. The ease with which he used the inherited powers could only mean one thing. Nelag had been trained by someone from Olympus and was complicit in that training.

His existence explained so much. Diarmuid and Lleu Llaw must have known, and they acted to keep this secret. It did make me wonder why the Sithern would have accepted them as one of the Twelve until I realized the Sithern ignored issues with morality that was part and parcel of Sidhe.

The Sithern had deemed their actions as acceptable, part of the darkness the Sidhe were known for. Schemes and plots that might never manifest. Their bargain with Zeus balanced against their power level and the trust of the people that followed them. Those variables had been enough for the Sithern to give them a chance.

I realized that this duel might not have been necessary. Diarmuid’s attack on me would have been noticed by the Sithern and judged. But at least this way, once I won, we would learn the complete depth of their betrayal.