The Dog Roses: Na Feirdhriseacha

"You have no weapons, striapach."

"I am the weapon, tuilí."

It is 400 B.C. The mist clears and three triremes glide into the calm waters of the bay in Southern Ériu. On a grass-topped dune, a young girl dances gleefully at the Goddess's gift. Two warrior princesses, the twins Brighid and Danu, leap over the vessels' sides into the cold waters and look north towards their ancestral home. The clanging of steel from the fort of Ráth Na Conall is not a good omen.

Seated on his throne in Caher Conr...