He strode off, signaling others, snapping out orders.
“That taoiseach stuff,” Marco commented, then huffed out a breath. “Man, she went totally to the dark side.”
“He has her now. Odran has her. I don’t know if she really understands what that means. If she really knows what she’s done.”
“She chose,” Marg said flatly. “Come, I’ll help you pack your things, as I brought little of my own.”
She took the pages she’d written and her notes, her globe and other tools, and packed the rest for Marco.
“I got this for you.” She offered Marg the amethyst candleholder.
“Ah, why, it’s lovely, and clever with it. And full of calm and peace. What a sweet gift. Where did you come by it?”
“A shop in the village here. The woman—she wouldn’t take anything for it, so it’s as much from her. She said to give you her best, and you might remember her. Ninia Colconnan.”
Marg’s smile beamed out. “And sure I remember her very well indeed. How did you find her? Is she well?”
“Yes, and her shop’s wonderful. She was knitting a blanket for a great-grandchild coming soon. Her twelfth, she said.”
“What a fine, full life that is. I’m glad to hear it, and hope to come back and visit her. But now…”
“We have to go.”
When they went outside, where the wind whipped at them and Keegan, Bollocks, and the dragons waited, Breen held on tight to Marco.
“You’ll be all right?”
“I’ve got this. You be careful. I mean it, Breen. You take care of my best girl.”
“I will. Promise. Let’s go, Bollocks. Tomorrow,” she called as she hurried to Keegan. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
At Marg’s call, Bollocks scrambled up to ride with her. Marco watched Keegan lift Breen onto Cróga. And with a thunder of wings, they shot up to fly into the night.
Brian put an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t worry too much now.”
“A year ago she was too nervous to call an Uber, and now she’s riding a dragon.”
“Uber?”
Marco let out a short laugh. “It’s a car thing. I used to push her some to step out of her box, now there’s no box that can hold her.”
“Then be proud.”
“I am. Scared for her, too. Same goes for you.”
Brian turned Marco’s face to his, kissed him. “No worries now. I wear your protection. Come out of the wind and be with me. In a few hours, we ride west.”
* * *
They flew through the night, in and out of clouds, along snapping winds. Below, the world slept even while its rivers wound, its grasses fluttered. She saw the dark silhouettes of mountains rising, the wide, rolling sea, and once an owl, ghost white, its wings spread as it soared into the thick dark of a forest.
Beside her and Keegan, Marg rode, her hooded cloak swirling while Bollocks sat in front of her, his eyes closed in bliss as the wind flapped his ears.
An adventure for him, Breen thought. For her? A mission, and one too vital for her to waste time on nerves.
Instead, she scanned the land, tried to gauge where they were. But it was so different riding on a dragon at night than making the journey on horseback in the sunlight.
“How much damage can she do?” Breen pitched her voice above the roar of wind and wings. “Shana, how much damage can she do against you, against Talamh, now that she’s with Odran?”
“She knows the Capital, the castle, its grounds. She knows the business of the council, as her father discussed such things with her he surely shouldn’t have. If she paid attention, and I trust now she did, she’d know the names of scouts and spies, know their routes and routines. She would know a great deal. And she’s shown herself to be wilier and more ruthless than ever I knew.”
“You’ll fix that. You’ll change routes and routines and strategies.”
“Aye, and that’s begun, but she spent her life in the politics and plannings that brew in the Capital. I can see how she’d be valuable to Odran. And I’m sorry to say I can see clear why she chose him over her family, her friends, her world as, for betraying them, he’ll give her what she wants more.”
“Power. Standing. And the freedom to do what she wants no matter who it hurts.”
“All of that, and the hopes of your blood and mine. My family’s, and I think now all of Talamh, as they refused her.”
“She’s too narcissistic to understand if she doesn’t give him all he wants, or he thinks she’s no longer of use, he’ll kill her without a second thought. I don’t know if…”