Earlier in the Andersons' King of Ys tetralogy, Niall had forbidden that the destruction of Ys be listed among his achievements or indeed that his and Ys' names be in any way associated with one another. Thus, the Andersons are able to place Niall at the center of the story of Ys and yet can also account for his absence from that legend.
All of the Scotian forebodings about Niall are now fulfilled. En route to his death, he has an extraordinary dialogue with the mermaid Dahut. The words of the exchange are printed without inverted commas, showing that they are not spoken aloud. Yet they are many and quite specific.
"In a way unknown to him he heard: I have said that never will my love let go of you, nor will it ever, Niall, my Niall." (p. 343)
He replies in the same way. They converse and she confirms that she is the vengeance of the Gods. Why does she not hate him for his betrayal? Are her emotions locked at the point where they were before her death - if it was death? She says that to love him is her doom. She controls the elements in his favor, wishes him a long life and does not (seem to) know of his imminent death.
The Andersons endow Eochaid with the ability to invent imaginative curses:
" 'May the winds of winter toss his homeless soul for a thousand years.' " (p. 347)
There are others. In fact, Eochaid condemns Niall to be reborn and die as a stag, a salmon and a child and Uail laments Niall by comparing him to a stag, a salmon and a child.
A sound as of winter wind though in unmoving air is a keening at sea. The invasion fleet that had been led by Niall turns back so I am bound to say that his assassination was a good thing.
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