Usna and Deirdre, the wife of Nathos, toward the bay where their black
galley was harboured. It was not till night, when on the high ridge of a
hill, that they looked backward, and there in the far valley below, where
stood the castle of the sons of Usna, they beheld a column of flame.

And Nathos' brow grew dark. 'The fire that ye see in the valley below
devours the castle of the sons of Usna. The hand that lit the fire is none
other than the hand of Concobar the King.'

Then they rode on and rested not until they reached the black galley in
the golden bay. The scent of the sea and the gleam of its blue waters and
dancing waves made them strong and glad and free.

As for Deirdre, who had never beheld the sea and its great wonders, she
laughed with joy and sang a song of the ocean which Lavarcam had taught
her long since and when its meaning was dark.

At sundown the galley came to the shores of Mull, and because the wind
fell they put into a bay, and as they gazed across the waters to the rocky
headlands of Alba, they talked long as to whither they should sail on the
morrow. Should it be to crave protection of the King, or should it be to
where their father's castle had stood before it had been destroyed?

But that night there came a galley from the long island to the north. In
it sailed twenty men with their chief. And with the chief came a
richly-clad stranger, but so hooded that none might look upon his face.

Steadfastly did the stranger gaze upon Deirdre, as the chief urged the
sons of Usna to cross the sea to Alba, and journey inland to the palace of
the King.