“We kept watch,” Tarryn repeated. “Throughout. Breen opened the Samhain fire, and all kept watch. Sit. You’ll have a whiskey. We’ll save the tea for this round.”
He sat. “You haven’t slept.”
“Nor have you,” Harken said. “I spoke with Mahon and Sedric not two hours ago. Our dead are home. Tomorrow at sunset we’ll send them on, as you will send the dead on from the Capital. As all of Talamh will. This I’ll see to.”
Painfully grateful, Keegan nodded before he lifted the cup his mother poured. “We’ll drink to those we lost, and the light that takes them in.”
When they had, Tarryn pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Now you’ll eat.”
When she got a skillet, Harken started to rise. “I’ll fix a meal, Ma.”
She sent him a cool stare. “Are you thinking I can’t manage some eggs and bacon for my boys?”
“I’m thinking you don’t do much cooking in the Capital.”
“Sit your arse back down. You’ll eat what I give you, and like it.”
Then she set the skillet on the stove, turned to put an arm around each of them. “My boys,” she said again, and this time kissed both of them. “And after you’ve eaten, Keegan, you’ll scrub and well. You reek.”
“As I’ve been living with myself, I’m more than aware.” As he leaned into her, he closed a hand over Harken’s. “I’m having the Prayer House razed, the ground sanctified, and a memorial to the dead built in its place. They’ve betrayed us twice,” he went on when Harken simply watched him and his mother said nothing. “I won’t give them the chance to betray us a third time.”
Tarryn turned, put slabs of bacon in the skillet to sizzle. “Some on the council will object, as will others, on the grounds of freedom and of choice.”
“Will you?”
She shook her head as she selected eggs. “The child they stole and would have sacrificed would be enough. The plotting with Odran would be enough. But Mahon told us they killed three boys who’d come to serve and study.”
“And others who’d had no part in the plot, no knowledge of the blood sacrifices done under Toric’s orders.”
“Empaths can confirm all of this,” Harken said. “If you sent three, to walk and feel and look, no argument would hold.”
“I saw the young boys myself,” Keegan began, then held up a hand. “You’ve the right of it, and I’ll have that done. And there will be no more shelter and serving and secrecy for those who would spill our blood to honor Odran, or any god.”
“I, time and again, urge you to temper your anger with diplomacy,” Tarryn commented as she cooked. “But in this, let your anger lead. Will the child they stole and her family come to the Capital for the Judgment?”
“Aye, it’s arranged.”
“Good. Let them see and be seen. Let them know and be known.”
She piled food on plates, set them on the table. “Now eat. Then we’ll rest—well, you’ll scrub off the battle stink, then rest. There’s more work to be done.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
With what she’d seen in the fire haunting her, Breen slept poorly. She’d already packed what she hoped would see her through this trip east—kept it light as ordered. But she’d included the paper and pen her grandmother had conjured for her so she could continue to write.
Should the opportunity arise.
She went down before sunrise for coffee, to let Bollocks out. And worried about the dog, afraid if she tried to leave him behind with Marg, he’d somehow follow her—scent and mind.
The alternative, as she saw it, was for him to ride with her, at least for stretches of the journey. He’d gotten so big, she thought as she watched him swim in the bay. But she’d manage.
Marco came down for coffee of his own. “You’re sure about Brian, right? He’s okay.”
“He’s fine, and already back at the Capital.” Because he’d led the transport of the dead, Breen thought, but didn’t say. “You’ll see for yourself in a few hours.”
“I’ll feel better when I do. I’m going to make us a hot breakfast. It’s a long ride.”
Five to six hours on horseback, Marg had told her, depending on the pace. A fraction of that, of course, on dragon or faerie wing.
She ate, she dressed, she added food and treats for Bollocks to her packing when she admitted to herself she wanted him with her as much as he wanted to go with her.