“He’d be First Brother of the Pious. That’s what they call the one in charge—though they say the gods are and so on. They’ve taken a little girl, and have her spell sleeping, locked away in their round tower. They mean to sacrifice her tomorrow night.”
“Do what?” Stunned, Marco stared. “A kid?”
“They didn’t leave her there.”
“Wait, wait.” Morena tossed up her hands. “They know what they’re about. No harm will come to her, and they have elves watching over her.”
Since the two of them also seemed to know what they were about, Morena boosted herself to sit on the counter and watched them do it.
“Keegan did his own illusion, and walked right into the Prayer House as an old holy man. And as Mahon had already pointed fingers at Toric, Keegan read him, as best he could, while they talked. The Old Father’s invited to spend his final days with the Pious. And Toric plans for those days to end tomorrow night, along with the girl, as sacrifice.”
“But he’s here, so—”
“Oh, he’ll be going back, right enough, and as the Old Father, walking right into what Toric thinks is his death. But Toric will be in for what you’d say is a different turn of events.”
She boosted herself off the counter. “I’m not much of a one for warring. But I think of what Toric and those like him will do, have done, what those like him did all those years back, before any of us living now were born. How they tortured and killed in the name of their twisted faith. I would lift a sword to right that wrong.”
She shook her head, poured herself more wine. “The girl they have, her name is Alanis, Keegan learned, and her family is half-mad searching for her, fearing she’s lost or hurt.”
“And he couldn’t tell them,” Breen murmured. “He couldn’t because they might not hold back another day and we’d lose the advantage.”
“It weighs on him, I’ll tell you that. And I’ll tell you you’ll be seeing more than the shops and craftsmen, the crowds and the dancing at the Welcome. You’ll see justice done at the Capital when Keegan sits in the Chair of Justice and brings down his staff on the likes of Toric.”
* * *
It dragged at her mind, her heart, so Breen’s sleep came in patches. When she gave up before sunrise, she found herself unable to escape into the work. Instead, she walked down to the bay, sat, watched Bollocks’s joyful splashing while the sun rose.
It bloomed pink in the east, a shimmering line over the hills that spread, spread, spread with hints of gold, streaks of scarlet.
Thin columns of mist twined toward the light from the surface of the water, caught glints, tiny sparks of silver that turned the world into a gauzy curtain. The water shooting up from the dog’s happy swim tossed tiny jewels over the curtain.
And the rising sun breathed the night’s shadows away.
When he came out of the water, Bollocks sat beside her, and in the quiet, watched with her as the morning came into full bloom.
He tapped his tail when Marco walked down to them, coffee cups steaming in both hands.
But she didn’t hear him.
“Saw you down here, so I brought coffee. What a sight.” He held out her mug, then saw her eyes. “Hey, girl.”
“Before the sun rises again, before the light breaks as day follows night, death comes. Blood flies, and the storm of battle rips the air. As the veil thins on this Samhain, even the dead weep for innocence lost. But the dragon flies, and its fire purges clean. Innocence lost and innocence saved, and the supplicants of the fallen god will meet their fate.”
When she drew her knees up, rested her forehead on them, Marco sat beside her, rubbed her back as Bollocks leaned against her updrawn legs.
“I’ve tried pushing it away, but I know I have to see it. I have to watch it. Tonight.”
“You aren’t saying you’re going down there?”
“No, I don’t have to be there to watch. I’d just add more risk if I went. Marco, I feel like there’s something I need to find or be or have, that I just can’t see yet. Can’t reach yet. And I don’t know what it’s going to mean if I do see it, do reach it.”
She lifted her head, leaned it on Marco’s shoulder as she put an arm around the dog. “But I do know that in a few more hours people will risk their lives, and some will give them, to protect the rest of us. And I know, in Talamh, a little boy’s probably awake right now, so happy, so excited because today’s his birthday. I know that matters.”