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nodded.
"All right. But Nuada is the challenger. Let him go first."
"I will, gladly," the older man answered.
He strode boldly forward to the mound. The Riders of the Sidhe opened a
way in their ring and he climbed the slope to stand beside the stone.
There he stood a moment, looking at it. He felt a faint tremor of doubt
run through him. This was his final test. Could he pass it?
"Go ahead, Nuada," Lugh urged, understanding his hesitation. "The power
of Danu will not fail her children. I have that fact on the best
authority." He glanced aside at Gilla and Aine, and the girl detected
just the hint of a wink from this stern warrior.
The disguised Manannan leaned close to Aine and Taillta once again and
whispered, "Now well see if this thing really works!"
248
THE RIDERS OF THE SIDHE
THE ANSWERER
249
Aine looked at him in shock. "Don't you know?"
He shrugged. "It's never been used for this. Better wish hard, sister,
just to be certain."
She held her breath as she watched Nuada pull himself onto the stone,
settling on the top.
Almost at once there began a vibration of the ground, as if from some
movement far below. It increased, and a grumbling sound began, growing
louder, like approaching thunder, moving upward, focusing its power on
the knoll, then on the stone itself. A high, clear note sounded from
the Lia Fail with the force of a gale wind blasting across a sharp
cliff. It was a powerful sound, a triumphant sound, the victory clarion
of the earth itself announcing one whose right was to rule over it,
proclaiming a true king.
It died away then into a humming that drifted gently away into the
morning sky. It left behind an atmosphere hushed with expectation,
charged with energy as before a storm breaks. The eyes of every one de
Danann and Fomor alike were on Nuada.
He looked around him, the last remnant of his old doubts gone, a High-
King again in mind and manner. He lowered himself from the stone and
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stood proudly before his people. Then his eyes came slowly around to
rest challengingly on Bres.
"Now you may take your turn!" he offered coldly.
XXX
THE RISING
BRES HAD SENSED the outcome. While attention was focused on Nuada, he
had edged away from the de Danann warriors toward the ranks of the
Fomor.
"Now, you fool," he had muttered to Streng, "I think you'll agree we
have no choice?"
"No," Streng had glumly agreed. "We must use our force to stop this
here and now. If we can."
"You still give too much credit to them," Bres had assured him
confidently. "That will be the simplest thing to do."
Then Nuada's challenge brought the attention back to him. His response
was shouted defiantly.
'Take your kingship, Nuada. I'm happy I no longer have to live with the
pretense." He swept his disdainful gaze across the de Dananns. "Yes,
I'm half-Fomor in blood, and all in mind! I disavow all relationship
with you. You disgust me. You call yourselves people of the mind, of
beauty and of peace, but you use your fine sensibilities to cloak your
weakness." He looked back to the now High-King. "You are welcome to
them, Nuada. It will do you little good. It is too late for them."
"Leave here, Bres," Nuada commanded, striding back from the mound to
the center of the court. "This fortress is yours no longer. Leave Tara
and take your Fomor 'brothers' with you."
Bres laughed aloud at that.
"Leave here? Me?" he asked, vastly amused. "You don't understand yet,
do you? I'm not leaving here." The amusement was suddenly replaced by
deadly chill. "You are! But not alive!"
He pulled his sword. At his move, the Fomor all went on guard as well.
Their massed force now bristled with glinting weaponry.
"Did you seriously think you could challenge me?" asked Bres,
gloatingly. "I don't need to be the king to control you anymore. I have
the Fomor to do that. They'll serve as my power in Eire. And the first
service that they will perform for me is to destroy you, Nuada, and the
rest of your little band of adventurers."
Morrigan stalked forward, her tones crackling with rage.
"The companies serve Nuada now, Bres. If you move against him, you'll
face us as well."
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"Of course you will," Bres said carelessly and shrugged. "That only
means you want to die with them. You haven't enough warriors left to
even give us a good fight."
"There are enough de Dananns here to do much more," said Nuada, waving
his arm across the massed population of Tara behind him. "Think, Bres.
If you choose to have this out here and now, you'll face more than a
few score warriors."
250
THE RIDERS OF THE SIDHE
THE ANSWERER
251
"What, do you mean them?" Bres laughed again. "You are mad, Nuada, to
rely on them. They are finished."
"You said the same about me," Nuada reminded him.
"And it's still true. If they defy me, they'll only provide me with the
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