Cuchulainn slid the ring down the table as Laeg returned, firmly gripping the arm of a stocky young man, who seemed to be opposing some resistance to the process. Just as they got in the door Uath flung back his head and emitted a blood-curdling howl. Laeg dragged him forward, howling away. Shea turned to the others. «Now if this magic is going to work, I’ll need a little room. Don’t come too near us while I’m spinning the spell, or you’ll be apt to get caught in it, too.» He arranged a pair of seats well back from the table and attached a thread to the ring.
Laeg pushed Uath into one of the seats. «That’s a bad geas you have there, Uath,» said Shea, «and I want you to cooperate with me in getting rid of it. You’ll do everything I tell you, won’t you?»
The man nodded. Shea lifted the ring, said, «Watch this,» and began twirling the thread back and forth between thumb and forefinger, so that the ring rotated first one way and then the other, sending out a flickering gleam of reflection from the rushlights. Meanwhile Shea talked to Uath in a low voice, saying «sleep» now and then in the process. Behind him he could hear an occasionally caught breath and could almost feel the atmosphere of suspense.
Uath went rigid.
Shea asked in a low voice, «Can you hear me, Uath?»
«That I can.»
«You will do what I say.»
«That I will.»
«When you wake up, you won’t suffer from this howling geas any more.»
«That I will not.»