DEIRDRE AND THE SONS OF USNA: PART TWO

But Fergus did not die and in time Conor learned of his great distress. Ness had died, some said of a broken heart, and Fergus asked that he might return to Ulster to mourn her. Conor’s own heart had been softened by time and the loss of his mother, and Fergus once had been kind to him, before he took the throne. And so Fergus was welcomed again to the court at Ulster and given high honors, but it soon became apparent that certain of the older chiefs would have been glad enough to see him back on the throne. Privately, Conor began to seethe with anger towards Fergus and to regret that he had ever permitted him back. And Conor bore a cold black anger that caused people to turn away from him.
While Fergus had dwelt in the court of Queen Maeve, the old Ulster custom had been reinstated whereby each chief presented a great banquet for the king and his retinue. At length it became the turn of Felim, Conor's chief story-teller, to hold this feast.
No effort or expense was spared; indeed preparations took the fullness of a year. A great hall of oak was built next to Felim’s castle, with shining inlays of precious stone. Foodstuffs of every sort were laid in: beef and mutton and pork; fowl and venison and fine, firm pink salmon borne on ice from Alba; curds and whey and all else that a dairy might supply; breads and cakes, pies and pasties of every sort; great quantities of wine, honey mead and ale both light and dark. Even wines from far-off Greece and Rome were purchased, and exotic fruits and vegetables never known in Ireland! Dozens of new cooks labored in kitchens built for the occasion, while inside the castle singers, dancers and musicians both foreign and native performed, male and female alike. For Felim was determined that never would his vast entertainment be forgotten.
And he had his wish.