If you read further, beware of spoilers. Also, don’t expect my language to be pure as the driven snow, as Atticus’ is not! Index to the reread is here. We begin after the jump.
Summary
Chapter Three
Atticus fully expects the day to get worse so after the Morrigan’s exit, he closes up shot a couple hours early and hurries home on his bike. He approaches his house warily, and sure enough, his wards have been disturbed. Someone, presumably Tuatha Dé Dannan—no mere mortal or lesser Fae could get through is wards—is there.
So he checks with his Oberon, his Irish wolfhound, who tells him a not unfriendly female is inside. Atticus collects Oberon and they enter the house together to find Flidais, goddess of the hunt, fooling with his blender.
Chapter Four
After some discussion of how she discovered the joy of smoothies, Flidais reveals in addition to Aenghus Óg knowing his location and sending Fir Bolgs, Bres, the dim-witted god of agriculture is also coming. His purpose is unknown, but Aenghus Óg probably used something to entice him to kill Atticus.
Oberon helps convince Flidais of the novelty of hunting big horn sheep in the desert hills. To pass the time until they can hunt after dark, Atticus and Flidais retire to get it on.
Chapter Five
Flidais’ idea of pillow talk is to ask Atticus about Fragarach, the ancient sword that can pierce any armor. Atticus hedges, not revealing if he still has it or not. He does reveal that he stole it from Conn of the Hundred Battles when the man lost his bloody grip on it in the middle of a battle.
This conflicts with what Flidais had heard, tales of sneaky and cowardly means, so Atticus elaborates. Conn was being manipulated by the Tuatha Dé, as were his opponents. Only the magical sword had allowed him to conquer so much of Ireland. Once the sword fell at Atticus’ feet, the Morrigan whispered at him to take it and exit the field. There was opposition to that, but the Morrigan helped him escape and has been helping him since.
Flidais still doesn’t get him to reveal if or where he has the sword, but they do digress onto the subject of Atticus’ Viking lawyer who is up to sparring with him since he is a real Viking and a vampire. His lawyer partners are werewolves, united by their mutual hatred of Thor.
She reminds him that Aenghus Óg thinks the sword his birthright even though Atticus has possessed it longer than anyone. Eventually, he will come after Atticus himself. Atticus resolves to stay in one place for one and let him.
Commentary
Hearne has a great talent for mentioning things in passing that will be important later on, thus keeping them in the reader’s mind without overwhelming the main story. Leif Helgarson, his vampire lawyer and his werewolf partners and their joint enmity of Thor are treated in this way. As is another mention of Coyote.
We get some hefty foreshadowing in Chapter Three. Atticus begins the chapter expounding on superstitions and how the only one eh subscribes to is “bad juju comes in threes” or as the ancient Irish used to say, “Storm clouds are thrice cursed.” Which is why he expects the day to get worse after the Morrigan’s departure.
The not alarming and practically pleasant discovery of Flidais in his kitchen basically makes him forget about his worries, but we do get this warning:
But you know that old saying about storm clouds being thrice cursed: Flidais brought the second one rolling behind her, and I never saw it coming.
Wrapping the chapter with his old saying/superstition was very effective, I thought. I don’t really remember what it turns out to be, but I am looking forward to finding out. And reading the first time, the reader won’t forget like Atticus does, and will wonder what will happen until something does.
Which brings us to Flidais, apparently one of the most pleasant of the Tuatha Dé to find in your kitchen. While Atticus respects her, he certainly doesn’t fear her as much as the Morrigan. While Flidais might not be as magically powerful as the Morrigan, she is still goddess of the hunt. She would have killed those two stoners in the right—or wrong—circumstances as quickly as the Morrigan wanted to. She does kill a man for poaching a deer. On this front, she and the Morrigan do not seem that different, but Atticus doesn’t take her as seriously, even though she’s trying to manipulate him the entire time.
Her face exploded in a smile and she laughed in delight—I would almost call it a giggle, but that would be beneath the dignity of a goddess.
He sees her a more human than the Morrigan, easier to relate to.
I noticed she had a few freckles underneath her eyes, high on her cheeks. She was comfortably pink all over and slightly bronzed from the sun, not the marble white of the Morrigan.
It makes her real enough, or makes her enough on his level for him to have sex with her, while he doesn’t think of the Morrigan that way, although he is attracted to her. I don’t remember what Flidais ends up doing (later in this book or in a future book), but I remember that this is a mistake. Eventually, even though he knows that Flidais is capable of manipulation, he lets his guard down too much. Even he realizes he can’t trust her fully:
Her fingers began to trace curling patterns on my chest, and I stopped her by covering her hand with mine, with seeming affection. It wouldn’t do to have her put a binding on me. Not that I thought she would; it was merely my customary paranoia.
The Morrigan, by comparison, seems to be a straight shooter and very correct about his weakness.
The conclusion of Chapter Five leads to some interesting questions. When Atticus comments that Aenghus Óg hasn’t cared enough for the sword to come after it himself, Flidais responds that Atticus hasn’t stayed still long enough. “Is that all it takes to make this finally end?” Atticus asks. After he defeats all of Aenghus Óg’s surrogates, the god would have no choice but to come himself. “I will stay still, then,” Atticus concludes.
There are various lines that indicate Atticus is afraid of Aenghus Óg, but he’s also tired of running, as this last portion of conversation and earlier comments to the Morrigan indicate.
Atticus has lived a long time.
From the history in this chapter, we know he’s fathered at least on child. In later books we learn of more. How many lifetimes of love and loss has he lived? How tired is he? And at this point, what is he living for?