Nothing could defeat Crom Cruach.
Aisling knows this for certain.
Crom destroyed all of her people, one by one. He killed her father. He slaughtered her mother.
Their screams still echo in Aisling's dreams.
And now this human child, this little boy, stands before her—planning to confront Crom without even a weapon. Convinced that he can take the Eye of Crom for his precious work.
How can she let him do this? He's her only friend. There's no way he could survive.
"No, Brendan, it's tricking you! You should have stayed in your tower." She shudders, folding in on herself, trying to keep the memories back. "Crom Cruach took my people. It took my mother. It takes everything. You will die!"
Brendan doesn't flinch. "Aisling, if I don't try, the book will never be complete."
"The book…" Aisling had never heard of books before she met Brendan. It's a magic unlike anything she's ever seen… Words captured for all time and passed to generations not yet born. Pictures—images of life, and growth, and beauty, captured by liquid color on a page.
Brendan says the book will turn darkness into light. The hope it carries helps his people carry on, even as dark shadows from the North try to silence them.
So many people depend on the book. And maybe… just maybe… It will even be powerful enough to destroy a darkness like Crom.
"All right then, I will help you."
She wouldn't have helped him if she didn't think there was a chance he could succeed.
Still, when she wakes outside Crom's cave, she's frightened. Is he gone forever? What has she done?
But the air around her is different. Sun shines through the trees where before nothing could get through. The great statue before Crom's door is broken in half.
That little human boy did what no Tuath De Danann could. Aisling wonders if she's been underestimating the humans all along. If only Brendan had come sooner…
Nothing could defeat the Northmen.
Brendan knows this for certain.
They killed his parents when he was only a baby. His whole village burned, and only he survived.
They destroyed Iona and killed Aidan's brothers.
They travel across Ireland, pillaging and burning as they go. Every day more refugees come into Kells, their eyes haunted and their stories bleak, filled with flames and shadows.
No one talks of fighting the Northmen. It can't be done. They can't be defeated. Uncle Cellach labors on the wall because he can only hope to keep them out. Brother Aidan says even the wall will fail—when the Vikings come, all you can do is run and hope you are fast enough.
None of the stories prepare Brendan for the day the Northmen come. The terrible screams that cut off one by one, or worse, all at once. The sight of his uncle limp and bleeding in the snow, dead or dying. The smell of smoke as Kells is transformed into an inferno.
Aidan takes him, and they run. It's all they can do. But Brendan hesitates. He needs to go back. Maybe they can still save Uncle Cellach. His uncle would never, ever leave Brendan behind like this, even if it meant dying to try to help him.
That's what he did. He was coming to save you.
No. Maybe he wasn't dead… Brendan stops, turning back towards Kells.
And so the Vikings catch up with them.
They've already destroyed Kells, they've murdered his friends and his family. Now they rip apart the book.
Soon, they'll rip apart Aidan and Brendan.
Brendan takes Pangur in his arms, protecting her as best he can. Aidan shields Brendan with his body.
Then, the wolves come… and rip apart the Northmen.
Brendan should have realized then… but he didn't. They gather the scattered pages from the book. One page blows away, tossed by the wind. It's not until a white wolf helps him catch it that he realizes. The wolves didn't save them. It was Aisling. Human Northmen are no match for a fairy.
Why didn't he think of that before? Uncle Cellach thought fairies were imaginary things, but Aisling was stronger than any wall.
He only wishes she'd come sooner.