The battle mist overcame Colum now. His knee lifted to drive into Donnan's crotch. As the man bent over in pain, Colum struck him a savage blow across the back of the neck with a closed fist. Donnan dropped like a felled ox and lay still.

But colum wasn't done with him yet. Still cursing, he grabbed a fistful of red hair and raised Donnan's head, meaning to pound it into the ground.

Suddenly, it was Fergus he saw lying under him. This was no contest of champions. It was a blood-feud between the Ard-righ and himself - which could only end with the spilling of blood.

'Stop.'

The word lashed Colum, piercing the red-mists that bound his mind. He lifted his head and saw a tall manshape from whose brow twelve-tined antlers sprung. The eyes that fixed their gaze on Colum were ageless, deep and knowing. Silently they spoke to him.

'Would you break Fair-truce, Colum, Donal's son, and so be outlawed in truth?'

The mist cleared from Colum's gaze - quickly and sudden, like the long grass of Kerry's plains parting before a storm wind.



The Fair in Emain Mancha originally appeared in Space and Time #68 in 1985. It was later released in 1990 as part of an omnibus: Ill Met in Lankhmar/The Fair in Emain Macha