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keep up his flippant air. "If you're trying to
confuse me with it, you'll fail. I couldn't be grandson to such a
monstrous thing as you. It's impossible!"
"What I tell you is true," Balor replied. "Your father was the de
Danann Champion, Cian, but your mother was of this Tower. He stole her
from here and carried her to Eire. When she was finally returned, she
had a child. That child was
you."
Lugh reeled. If this was true, it explained the dream of the Glass
Tower that had come often to him in childhood. It also explained why
Manannan had always avoided telling him much about his mother.
And with this realization came another. He turned his head and met the
astonished, searching gaze of Bres, Again he felt that peculiar linking
between them and, for the first time, understood its source. In the
blending of two bloods within them, they were alike. For all their
differences., they shared this single characteristic, and it gave each
a unique insight into the other's soul.
But even as he was forced to accept the truth of the Commander's words,
he found a new resolve not to be shaken by it.
"And if I do believe this, why should it change my feelings toward
you?" he retorted, his pretense at nonchalance abandoned in favor of
open defiance. "It was still you who killed my mother and father!"
"I killed your father, yes. He came again to take both of you. This
time I fought him on the rocks below us. He managed to take away the
power of my legs. I managed to take his life. But while we fought,
Manannan MacLir was able to spirit you away. Your mother died of grief
over her lost child."
"You lie!" Lugh accused. "She died because you kept her a prisoner
here."
"You were told that by MacLir," Balor countered. "She loved the Tower.
It was against her will that Cian took her away. She wanted her son to
take his rightful place as a leader of the Tower. For many years I
searched for you to bring you back, but that treacherous 'sea-god' had
hidden you away too well with Taillta and her clan to guard you."
"You meant to destroy me as you destroyed all of TailltaY people and
the home where they raised me," Lugh said vehemently.
"It was not meant that you should be harmed," Balor
160
MASTER OF THE SIDHE
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BALOB'S STORY
161
explained. "Our intent was only to rescue you and keep MacLir from
using you."
"Using me?" Lugh said sharply. "What do you mean? He helped me!"
"He controlled you," the giant rapped out. "He knew the Prophecy that
only the son of Cian could lead the de Dananns and destroy the Fomor
power. He meant to see that you fulfilled that Prophecy. So he hid you
away until you were grown. He kept you safely out of my reach, isolated
and ignorant of the truth."
"But why?" asked Lugh, fighting to keep a skeptical tone against such a
devastating notion. "What would he gain?"
"Control of you. Because the son of Cian might fulfill the Prophecy
only if he chose freely to do so. Don't you see? Manannan feared that
if you knew about your Fomor blood, you would choose to join us instead
of helping the de Dananns. That he and his Queen Danu could not allow.
No, They needed you to be their instrument for destroying us."
Could that be true? Since his first meeting with the Master of the
Sidhe, he had felt manipulated. Often he had thought Manannan too much
in control. Was it possible the being had tricked him and turned him to
some end against his will? And what about Aine? His beloved Aine! Was
she capable of condoning such an act? The image of her ruthless-ness in
summoning the rats returned to him and he recalled her saying that she
would do whatever necessary to achieve
success.
His instincts and experience told him to reject such ideas. Even so,
his former assurance was weakened by a nagging doubt. When he launched
another argument, it lacked much of the force of his earlier attempts.
"Even if Manannan did keep this secret from me, you can't convince me
that it was for evil ends. He let me see conditions in Eire for myself
before asking me to make my choice. I know how brutal you were to the
de Dananns. The decision to help them teas freely made by me, and I
would make it again!"
"We in the Tower had no intention of causing suffering to the de
Dananns," Balor told him. "We did not know what savages our poor exiles
had become. It was Bres who was meant to keep them in control. My only
intent was to keep the de Dananns from challenging us. We might have
taken all
our forces to Eire long ago and annihilated them as Bres wanted. I was
against that."
Bres was clearly not pleased by the direction of this conversation. He
cast a hostile glance up at the towering figure.
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"I want you to understand clearly that there is no good or evil here,"
Balor continued. "That's why it was important for you to see the Tower.
You had to be convinced that we are not out to destroy the de Dananns,
that we are only trying to survive, as they are. We could be at peace
with them."
"And what do you want from me?" Lugh asked cautiously.
"You know the whole truth now. You know that you are as much Fomor as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]