“Not for certain, and if I’d known she was even thinking of such a thing, I’d have found a way to stop her, for her own sake. I swear it.”
“The fault’s not yours.” He kissed her forehead. “You did all that was right. Go and rest.”
Minga put an arm around her waist to lead her out, and as she did, she reached out to grip Breen’s hand. “I’ll never forget.”
Rubbing the back of his neck as they went out, Keegan turned to Breen. “Sit.”
“I’d really just like to go get some air.”
He swiped a free hand to his window so it flew up. “Now you have it. Sit. You’re pale as the moons.”
“And of course the way to fix that is barking at her. Get her some wine, boy, and three drops—three’s enough—of a restorative,” Tarryn said.
“I have to … She needs to be found. I have to send a few, quiet as I can, to do that.”
“Gods. Aye, go on then. I’ll see to Breen.”
“Stay,” Keegan ordered Breen before he strode out.
“He’s angry.” Tarryn walked to a cabinet, and opening it chose a small bottle. “My boy’s patience runs thin at the best of times, but it vanishes like mist in the sun when he’s angry.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed that.” Because she didn’t want to sit, and did want the air, Breen stepped over to the window. It looked out, she saw, on the gardens, the fountain, the river, the village, and the hills and fields beyond.
“Drink this, just a few drops of restorative in some lovely wine from our own vineyards. He’ll be less angry when you’ve color back in your cheeks. I’m after some wine myself with all this.”
She poured her own. “How bad was she hurt, our Kiara?”
“I’m not really sure. I’m still learning, and I’ve never healed a head wound like that. I had to try. She was on the floor, in Shana’s room. Bollocks sensed it first.”
His tail thumped as he sat by the fire.
“And I sensed it through him. A lot of blood—head wounds bleed so much. I’m guessing a concussion because her vision was blurry when she started to come out of it, and she felt queasy, dizzy. There was a vase—crystal, I think—on the floor, and the water from it, and the flowers strewn. The door was locked. She’d locked the door and left Kiara bleeding.”
“It would have been worse for her if you hadn’t found her. I blame myself for some of this.”
Now Breen turned. “How? Why?”
“Because I knew some of what she was, the ambition so raw, so deep. The slyness in her. But I’m fond of her mother, and her father, and they love her so. Indulge her far too much, but from love.”
“She had a choice; she made it. That’s not on you, or Kiara, or her parents or anyone but her.”
Tarryn studied her as she drank some wine. “So Keegan would say, and just as firm—even as he holds some of the blame inside himself.”
“Then he’s stupid.”
Tarryn threw back her head and laughed. “Oh, I like you. I do like you.”
“What happens when they find Shana?”
“Judgment,” Tarryn said simply. “And there I worry about my boy, as whatever he does will weigh heavy on him.” She walked over to pour a third cup of wine as Keegan came back.
“I’ve three elves combing the castle itself, as it’s dead easy for an elf to hide—though she couldn’t for long. A couple of faeries will take the grounds, the woods, the village. I’ve had to send for Loren—and they’ll look in his cottage and the woods there as well. She might go to him for help. She might have gotten the spell from him, and I need to know.”
He drank, looked at Breen. “Tell me what you know.”
Precious little, she thought, but told him.
“You weren’t going to drink it,” she added. “When we came in to warn you, you already knew.”
“I did. What did you call it once? Body language. The way she turned to pour wine, insisting we had to have it to seal her apology to me. And I thought, why, she’s putting something in the wine, and wondered if she meant to sicken me before the Welcome, as her apology rang as false as a cracked bell.”
He picked up the cup he’d sealed. “But then she used a bit too much oil of cinnamon, and I caught that scent, and the rest as well, as she’s no hand with mixing potions.”
He sat, looked as weary as Breen had ever seen him. “I’d have sent her away. Her father has family in the north, and I’d have sent her there for a year, I think. If it had been just between her and me, I would have felt that enough. But I didn’t know about Kiara. So now there’ll be a Judgment, and her parents shamed.”