* * *
In a cold, steady rain, Keegan flew to the Capital. He found his mother in the council room, as he’d asked her. Only the two of them for now.
She rose as he came in, her look somber.
“A wet journey,” she said, and poured him tea.
“Thanks.”
“Uwin and Gwen left an hour ago. I found a cottage in the midlands where they can live. It’s simple, it’s quiet. They have their horses and possessions, and I had the cottage stocked with food and other necessities.
“You were right to send them away.” She laid a hand on his arm. “It was hard for you to do that duty, but you were right. As I’m right to help them make this start in this new life.”
He just nodded, sat. “Sedric?”
“He and Marg are already back in the forest. It’s much ground to cover, Keegan, but they won’t stop. I would have gone to help them, but I knew you were coming and wanted to speak to me. Loren asked to help.”
Now Keegan lifted his gaze.
“He wants to find this portal,” Tarryn continued. “There’s no question of it. And part of him believes he can somehow save Shana. There’s no question of that either. But he wants to find it, and he’s skilled.”
“All right. There’s no one’s judgment I trust more than yours. You look tired.”
“Ah well, that’s what a woman likes to hear.”
“Ma.” He reached for her hand.
“I didn’t get much sleep. I’ll rest better now that I’ve seen Uwin and Gwen on their way. And I’ve three elfin replacements for you to consider for the council.”
“None from the Capital.”
Tarryn raised her eyebrows. “I thought you’d want someone quickly, and with a sense of the protocols.”
“I think we lean too heavy on from here, and those who see too little of the rest. I know someone in the south. She’s young, but a little youth may be a good addition. I need to fly south in any case to see the progress, and I’ll ask her.”
“Nila. The one who took the child the Pious stole back to her family. I know my boy. It’s a fine choice, Keegan, and I hope she agrees.”
“That saves me the time I thought I might need to convince you.”
“I’m your hand, and your ma. You’re taoiseach. And I thought you might bring Breen with you this time, as she could be useful in the forest. And with the spell Marg and I’ve started to plan out.”
“I considered it, but we need to take care not to put all the eggs in the basket, right? There may be a portal, and it may be Odran’s plan to use it. But there are others. The waterfall they’ve used before—and with her close, she may sense or have a vision. The Far West, that gateway Sedric spoke of.
“As it is, I’m thinking you might be more useful there as well.”
“In the valley?” She just smiled at him. “Save your breath for the convincing. As I said, I know my boy. You think to take me from the thick of it, as all logic says this is where he’ll strike. So while you won’t ask me to shirk my duty, you’ll try to make it seem I can do more away than here. No.”
Because he’d known that for a lost cause before he’d begun, he drank more tea. “I have some fine reasoning to wrap around it.”
“Well then, save it for another time. Do you want to call the council?”
“No, bloody hell, I don’t. I’m for the forest and the wet.”
“Then I’m with you.”
“You think I should’ve brought Breen here?”
“I think you’ll have to before it’s done.”
He found Marg first, working with Loren and an elf. He could wish for speed, but Keegan knew being thorough and efficient overruled his impatience.
They’d divided the vast acres of forest into grids, and covering each, he’d learned the previous day, took an hour or more.
“It would take less,” Marg told him, “but there’s so much here. So much energy, so many heartbeats, so many echoes of power.”
They stood in the rain, the air smelling of drenched pine and earth, and gloom thick as a plank. Like his mother, Marg wore a hooded cloak over sturdy trousers, sweater, boots.
Lifting her hands, she spread them, circled them. The grid map formed in the air.
“You see we’ve marked over grids we’ve completed.”
“And made some progress.”
“Some.” Knowing him, Marg smiled a little. “Slow progress. Sedric continues in the north of the forest while we work the south. The others you chose—the empath Glenn with the young Were, ah, Naill, take the east, and Phelin McGill takes the west with another empath. The elves, as our Yoric here, serve as runners.”