Candles and torches sprang to life, spreading light into shadows.
“For justice, for peace, we seek to find she who hides from judgment.” As he spoke, Keegan poured water gathered from the day’s rain into the cauldron. “In breaking First Laws, she must face punishment.”
“So potions for clear eyes, clear hearts swim into water mixed by son and daughter.” Marg drained two bottles into the cauldron.
Tarryn moved forward. “Now herbs and crystals for power, for light, into this brew bring knowledge, bring sight.”
Eyes grieving, voice thick, Loren held his hand over the cauldron. “This pin I gave her. I would I could save her.”
The next added a glove, and the next a jeweled brush and comb.
“It is Shana O’Loinsigh we seek to find with this spell we seven wind. Now as the altar goes to flame, seven by seven, we speak the name.”
Beneath the cauldron, flames rose up to encase the dolmen. And from the dolmen, smoke spiraled up, white as the moons.
“Hear her crimes one by one, and grant us sight so justice is done. With this blood she sought to bind me, from my own will she sought to blind me.” Keegan added the blood.
Tarryn poured in pieces of crystal from her cupped hands. “With this vase now broken, she struck a friend to keep truth unspoken.”
Breen heard the dolmen hum under the flames as she lifted the blackened knife over the cauldron. “With this knife she tried to end my life. In her attack, this blade aimed at my back.”
Marg brought the bloodstained rock. “She struck a child with this stone, and left him lying all alone. By her malice, his life hangs in the balance.”
Keegan’s voice rose like the smoke. “At this hour, with joined power, for Talamh and its laws we stand as one. Show us now in flame and smoke so justice can be done.”
And in the smoke, and in the flame, Breen saw.
In the woods of the west where the moss grew thick and the river ran fast and green, Shana slipped through shadows, into trees, out again.
Miles back, she’d let the horse go. It had served its purpose, and even with vicious kicks had no longer managed even a trot. But she’d found her way, a way she’d remembered from a ride with Keegan on her single trip to the valley.
There would be a waterfall up ahead, and in it, the portal to Odran. It would be guarded, no question, and she’d yet to work out how to deal with that, or how to open the bloody portal.
But she’d come this far.
She’d avoided the search—riders, dragons, other elves （traitors!）—so wouldn’t be stopped here. She’d wanted, so badly, to find a torch and set fire to the farm Keegan so loved. But she’d resisted, slipped by even when she spotted his ridiculous brother keeping watch, and the winged whore Morena doing the same by the Welcoming Tree.
She’d outfoxed them, all of them.
Still, she needed to rest again, to settle and think clear. And gods, she wanted something hot and flavorful to eat rather than the raw vegetables she’d pulled from gardens.
Once again she unwrapped her wounded hand, wept a little at the raw blisters, the red shooting up her fingers, fingers she couldn’t completely uncurl without agony.
Stretching out, she lowered her hand into the river, bit back a moan that was both relief and pain.
“Ah, poor thing! Such a mean burn on such soft skin.”
Shana rolled over, prepared to run, but the woman who stood over her simply held out her hands. “Be still.”
And she couldn’t move.
“I haven’t watched and waited for you to have you run off so I have to watch and wait again. You’re a clever one, Shana, more, I confess, than I believed.”
She had bloodred hair in long, perfect waves beyond the shoulders of a gorgeous dress the color of ripe plums with a cloak of gold over it. She smiled from eyes so dark and deep they looked nearly black. Jewels glittered from her ears, around her throat, on her wrists, her fingers.
Even in her fear, Shana envied them.
“Who are you?”
“I’m someone who’s about to become a very dear friend to you. Now then, would you like me to heal that hand for you? Stand and be still, and I will. Run, and I’ll see the ones hunting you find you—as I’ve helped keep them from doing so thus far.”
The woman’s smile went fierce. “You don’t think you managed this journey without some help, do you now?”
“Why would you help me?”
“I’m of a mind we’ll be of help to each other. Stand, girl, and hold out your hand.”