“Isn’t that a wonder? Is this your work then?” Tarryn asked.
“Some of it, yes, ma’am. It’s for Breen’s book.”
“Marg told me she has a story about her dog.” Tarryn glanced over to where Bollocks, who’d come around at the end of the archery segment, deviled the cows. “She says it’s a fine one.”
“It really is.”
“And with the apples Grandda gave him, he’s going to make an applesauce cake, so he says, to bring to the ceilidh.”
“It will be welcome, as its baker is.”
As he groomed the horse, Marco glanced toward the tents. “We saw the soldiers training on the ride. Ah … do they come to the party?”
“Of course, more than welcome.”
“That’s good.”
“Will you come to the Capital with us, Marco?”
He jolted, blinked at Tarryn. “Me? The Capital?”
“I’m sure Breen would particularly like your company, and so would we all. Sure I’m hoping you’ll join us.”
“Wow, thanks. Thank you. I’d really like to see it.”
“And you, Morena, will you come? I know your mother misses you.”
“I’d be pleased to go for a day or two. That’s about all the time I can handle the noise and the crowds, even for family, but not this time. This one,” she added, wagging a thumb at Marco, “he likes the noise and the crowds.”
“I like the quiet, too. But yeah, I’m a city boy.” He winced when he saw one of the wraiths, one that looked like something out of a horror movie, swipe at Breen with three-inch claws. When she went down, flat on her back, he started to vault over the paddock fence.
“She’s fine, Marco,” Morena told him. “Give her a moment.”
From flat on her back, she shot out what he thought might be sharp darts of ice. Right from her fingers. The wraith screamed, started to leap on her. Then went poof.
“See what she did? You see that! She is awesome!” Marco did a little victory dance as Breen scrambled up and went after the remaining two wraiths with sword, fists, feet, and—jeez!—lightning.
“Awesome!” he repeated. “The only time I ever saw her fight before? We were, like, ten and I was puny. I mean puny, and this asshole—twenty pounds and two years on me—jumped me on the way home from school. Guess he figured I was too gay to live. He’s pounding me into the sidewalk, and my Breen, she comes running. She jumped on his back and started wailing on him. He tried to shake her off, but she latched on, man. He hurt her, bloodied her nose, but she wouldn’t stop.”
He let out a breath. “I always figured she got in a lucky punch that flattened him, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it wasn’t luck at all. Anyway, her house was closer, so we went there. Breen with her bloody nose, me with the nose, a split lip, a black eye, bruises where he’d punched my guts out. Her mom doctored me up and took me home so she could tell my mom what happened. But she grounded Breen for a week for fighting.”
“Grounded?”
Marco looked back at Tarryn. “It’s a punishment, pretty popular with parents where I come from. It means you can’t go anywhere, well, except for school. Just school and home. No hanging out. That wasn’t right. It wasn’t right her getting grounded that way.”
“Where was Eian?” Tarryn asked him.
“On a gig somewhere. No, I guess he was probably here. We didn’t know about here.”
It hurt Tarryn’s heart to think of it. “He didn’t know. If he’d known, he would never have let it pass. He’d never have allowed Breen to be punished for coming to the aid of a friend.”
“What happened to the bullying git?” Morena wondered.
“He never bothered me again. He got his ass whupped by a girl, and for his type? Nothing worse.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know much about gods and all that, but it seems to me this Odran’s pretty much what Morena said. A bullying git. My money’s on Breen.”
“You’re a wise one, Marco.” Tarryn looked back to where Breen took a break, bent over, hands on knees. “And she’ll have the whole of Talamh with her.”
“She’s got me, too.” He lifted his bag of apples. “Hey, Breen! We gotta boogie.”
She nodded, straightened. Then she pushed her sword on Keegan and started toward the paddock.
“You’re not done.” Keegan came after her. “You’ve an hour more.”