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'Captain, would you prepare accommodation for Ace and the Doctor - just for one night? And after that, you could take them around Dinorben.'

'Yes, sir.'

‘And now I shall retire. Farewell, Doctor. Farewell, Ace. I shall not see you tomorrow but may Dagda ride alongside you and the Land Mother support and nourish your footsteps. He disappeared to rejoin his wolf by the fire.

‘So you’ve agreed to the same foolhardy mission, have you?’

‘So it would seem,’ the Doctor answered.

‘Well, you’d better some along with me then. Dagda alone knows why I’ve got to nursemaid you.

I’m a soldier, this should be Caeryon’s job, but the little reptile’s never around when you need him – not that that’s very often.’

‘You don’t get on very well, do you?’ said Ace.

‘What makes you think that? We were close friends when we were young – still are for that matter.’

‘It isn’t always the way,’ commented the Doctor.

‘What’s that? No, I don’t suppose it is. Just because we’ve different opinions, different ways of behaving, different views of life, doesn’t mean we can’t like each other.’

‘Congratulations, Captain. You could start a whole new philosophy, talking like that.’

‘Are we going or what?’ Ace butted in.

‘Ah yes, time and tide wait for no man. Lead on Mac … er, Captain.’

Rhys took them back down to the enormous feasting hall. By bellowing for several minutes he managed to summon a servant whom he dispatched with instructions for the preparation of rooms for the Doctor and Ace. Once this was finished with, he turned back to them.

‘I don't know what you expect me to show you. You do have people, kitchens, bedrooms corridors, staircases where you come from, I assume?'

'This is true.'

'I suppose I could take you up on to the ramparts, give you some idea of where you’ll be going, show you what you’ll be up against.’

'An excellent suggestion Captain,’ the Doctor agreed enthusiastically 'Why don’t you do just that?'

‘Well, come on then.'

The Captain led them through narrow corridors and winding passageways which gradually inched upwards through the solid handiwork of long-dead stone masons. He explained that he was avoiding the main routes to reduce the number of people they would meet. As it was, they saw no one. Their course was interrupted briefly by two spiral staircases, one of which bore a wall exposed to crumbling, soggy soil. Water trickled in multiplicitous rivulets down the steps. The walls along the way were adorned at intervals with lush tapestries which Ace realized fitted into a sort of pattern. They appeared to depict scenes from the lives of a variety of heroes, distinguishable only by the colour of their hair. At the lower levels, the hero was depicted as a young boy, weaponless and relying on his wits to gather the accoutrements of a warrior. As they rose, the tapestries moved on to the hero's wooings and then to his adventures in a world populated by strange creatures - fairies, centaurs and unicorns, Ace would have said. She wondered for a moment how centaurs and unicorns had found their way into a world of ancient Celts, but quickly forgot the thought. Higher still, the hero began a voyage across turbulent seas, encountering many strange islands. The tapestries of each hero inevitably ended with a visit to an isle inhabited by a strange, hooded figure atop a spindly tower, following which the hero's life ended and he was carried away on a burning ship. These were the stuff of legends, Ace thought, but in Tír na n-Óg, the stuff of legends was probably what had actually happened.

Finally they emerged into the open air. The top of the wall was divided into two levels, the higher of which looked over the encamped masses of Dinorben and bore various weapons of war, most of which were unattended. A catapult stood alone amongst its ammunition and next to that was what appeared to be a giant crossbow, its weapons hewn whole from tree trunks. This was the level that they had come out on to and from it Captain Rhys pointed out things in which he thought the Doctor and Ace might be interested.

'The lower level, you see,