Cathbadh turned to Shea. «You see the trouble we have withhimself. Does your second sight reach farther, slave?»
Brodsky said, «Okay, lug, you asked for it. After Cuchulainn gets rubbed out, there’ll be a war and practically everybody in the act gets knocked off, including you and Ailill and Maev. How do you like it?»
«As little as I like the look of your face,» said Cathbadh. He addressed Shea. «Can this foretelling be trusted?»
«I’ve never known him to be wrong.»
Cathbadh glanced from one to the other till one could almost hear his brains rumbling. Then he said, «I am thinking, Mac Shea, that you will be having business at Ailill’s court.»
«What gives you such an idea?»
«You willbe wanting to see Ollgaeth in this matter of your wife’s geas, of course. A wife with a geas like that is like one with a bad eye, and you can never be happy until it is removed entirely. You will take your man with you, and he will tell his tale and let Maev know that we know of her schemings, and they will be no more use than trying to feed a boar on bracelets.»
Brodsky snapped his fingers and said, «Take him up,» in a heavy whisper, but Shea said, «Look here, I’m not at all sure that I want to go to Ailill’s court. Why should I? And if this Maev is as determined as she seems to be, I don’t think you’ll stop her by telling her you know what she’s up to.»
«On the first point,» said the druid, «there is the matter that Cucuc saved your life and all, and you would be grateful to him, not to mention the geas. And for the second, it is not so much Maev that I would be letting know we see through her planning as Ollgaeth. For he will know as well as yourself, that if we learn of the geas before he lays it, all the druids at Conchobar’s court will chant against him, and he will have no more chance of making it bite than a dog does of eating an apple.»
«Mmm,» said Shea. «Your point about gratitude is a good one, even if I can’t quite see the validity of the other. What we want mostly is to get to our own home, though.» He stifled a yawn. «We can take a night to sleep on it and decide in the morning. Where do we sleep?»