The beauty and wonder had Breen slowing, and listening to the echo of young laughter.
The mermaid turned her head, and after a moment, lifted her hand in an easy wave.
Blessings on you, Daughter of the Fey.
Breen’s heart tripped as she heard the words in her mind. And her own formed a response.
And on you, Daughter of the Sea.
Full of the beauty and the wonder, she rode on to where Keegan had stopped to wait.
“Are they her children?”
“Two are, three are cousins. You can make their acquaintance another day. We’ve still far to go.”
“Boy would run his heart out, and it’s as big as Merlin’s. But he doesn’t have his stamina.”
“Right enough.” Keegan continued in an easy trot.
“I’ve only seen one mermaid before. A young girl. Ala. Bollocks likes to play with her.”
“If you bring him there, other young will come.”
“I’ll do that. When Marco feels confident enough riding, I want to take him to my father’s grave. He loved him, too. And he’d have a chance to see the Mers.”
“I saw him ride yesterday. He doesn’t lack for confidence. But when you take him, take a sword as well. The days grow shorter,” he said before she could speak. “He strikes for battle on Samhain, and we’ll be ready. But between now and then, spies and scouts slip through.”
“How will we be ready?” When he hesitated, she shifted. “How can I be so important to stopping Odran if I don’t know how we stop an attack I saw coming? Felt,” she corrected.
“Mahon and I flew south with some troops last night. He remains there for now with them. We have scouts and spies as well, and those who’ll watch and report on what this faction of the Pious plan.”
“If you’re massing troops, won’t they see, and catch on that we know?”
“They’ll see what we want them to see. Some fresh novitiates who wish for religious life, others who drink too much ale in the pubs or flirt along the shore, sail on the water, and so on.”
He shrugged as if speaking of war was just another conversation.
“My mother travels from the Capital, and some who come with her will veer south. We have barracks there, and this will appear as a troop exchange, but none will leave but to take to the woods or the caves or the fields, where they wait.”
“When will you go?”
“Mahon returns for Finian’s birthday. We fly south before sunset on Samhain. There’s a point,” he continued after a moment. “Tactics, you see. Crushing this attack swiftly, completely, taking as many of those who break the treaty or have turned on their own alive, and to the Capital for judgment, shows strength and resolve.”
“It won’t end it,” she murmured.
“It won’t end it, no, but it serves to demoralize Odran’s faithful, and to lift morale for the Fey.”
“You don’t want me there.”
“You have no place there. I don’t insult you. You’re not ready for such things, as well you know.”
“Will I be?”
“You must be, so you will.”
He glanced up, so she followed his gaze. She saw Cróga gliding like a ship over the sea. And with him a dragon of ruby and sapphire, and the rider on it.
“It is— That’s Nan! I didn’t know she had a dragon, that she rode a dragon. I mean, I did—I saw her in the fire, but what I saw happened years ago.”
“Sure she rides. Her dragon is Dilis, and has birthed more than a dozen young. Cróga is from her. A great—no, two greats—grandson.”
“She’s beautiful. They’re beautiful.” Then it struck her. “She won’t go south, so into this battle? Nan.”
“No. There’s no need. When there is, if and when there is, she’ll fly, and she’ll fight. Come, he’s rested enough. We have near an hour, then another for the climb to the post.”
This time Merlin adjusted his pace to match Boy’s, and the way stayed smooth and steady for a time even when the road climbed.
Keegan slowed when they wound through woods, under trees where leaves tumbled down as the air shook them free. Still so much color remained it was like riding within a kaleidoscope with the sun sparkling through.
Testing herself, Breen opened. She felt the heartbeats—deer, a foraging bear. Elves—three on a hunt. Then her own heart slammed as Merlin simply leaped from one bank of a stream to the other.
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Boy does. I won’t let you fall. Ask him.”
“I could just go down, through, and up again.”
“Ask him,” Keegan repeated. “I said you won’t fall.”
Since she’d never known him to lie, she held her breath. She had only to think Jump and Boy sailed. Maybe the sound she made edged too close to a squeal, but she held her seat.
“Did you help?”
“Only a bit. You’re a better rider than you think. And you’ll soon need to be.”
It didn’t take long for her to understand the truth of that. The trail climbed steeper, grew rougher until it was more like the rubble from a small avalanche than a trail at all.
The woods gave way to the open and a kind of skinny, rutted road where the wind kicked higher.
She looked up, farther up, and her mouth went dry. Yes, the green of pines stacked up the hillside, but the way, switchbacks, ledges, seemed more suited to goats than horses.
“You’ve done this before, right?”
“Sure I have. Boy’s surefooted.” He turned in the saddle to look back at her. “And I won’t let you fall.”
She decided the very best way to handle it would be to keep her eyes directly ahead. Not to look down, or up, or sideways. Just trust her horse to put one sure foot in front of the other.
And following her own advice, would have missed it. But Keegan stopped, turned again, and this time turned Merlin as well.
“We call this God’s Palm. You rest in it, and from it you see Talamh.” He gestured out. “All the way to the south and the Sea of Sorrows.”
When she looked, her heart thudded. Not from fear, but from the sheer beauty.
Miles and miles, hills and fields, the patchwork of greens, the brilliance of fall woods, the gray of stone walls and old buildings, of cottages and villages, and under the clear sky to the stunning blue of the water.
“You brought fortune with you to have such a clear day. Often Talamh hides in the mists.”
“It’s like a painting, but a painting caught in crystal. So sharp and perfect. It doesn’t seem like anything so perfect could be real. But I can see movement. Life. Where’s the Capital?”
“East, but the mountain blocks it from here, as here is the edge of the west.” He put a hand on her shoulder to turn her. “You can see there, where the hills rise and the forest where game runs thick so none ever need know hunger. The high cliffs that slice down to the West Sea, and the sea that rides to the end of the world.
“Your world, as much as mine.”
“You needed me to see it, like this, the peace of it.” A painting captured in crystal, she thought again—and thought of how she’d wished to hold a moment in a misty morning cupped in her hands.
“The peace you’ll fight to hold,” she added. “I came back, Keegan.”
“No, no. Bloody hell, I don’t mean that at all, and I’m damned if I’ll apologize yet again. I wanted you to see it like this—which is different from need. I wanted you to see what you protect, as I do.”
“I think it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, or will see. And I feel whatever I’ve forgotten, whatever I remember I’ve forgotten, I’m tied to it. And always will be.”
She looked at him. “What god holds us here?”