“Oh.” That made sense then. It only took her a few seconds to spot it. “This one.” Even without the color of the stone, the tilt of the serpent’s head was distinct. And Oisin was right, many of the blades had a similar look, and at least three others had a serpent.
“Thank you.”
They waited as he returned the tome to its resting place.
“It is the same one,” he said as he sat. “Finn, Mell is right. If you do not, we will need to.”
Finn’s fists clenched, the knuckles white. Bat could not see his expression, Dub blocked much of the view of the other man, but those hands told a story in themselves. “Grainne. The woman you are seeing. Her name was Grainne.”
“Was?” Bat was careful to keep her voice even, not insensitive to those hands and their tale.
“Is. Was. I do not know.”
She nodded, though he couldn’t see her. “Is the deer also involved in this?”
Oisin grabbed her hand. “You’ve seen a deer?” His brown gaze drilled into her and his fingers would have left bruises if she had not been a goddess.
Flash. A doe, her eyes wide as she warily watched a little red-haired child approach, his clothes a rough and homespun linen.
Flash. A woman, with hair to match the boy’s, fleeing across the fields below the half mountain of Benbulben. But she was not a woman, she was the doe, and she had been enchanted.
Oisin’s hand sprang open and he snatched it way.
Ailis snorted. “No one really told her about your mother, but you just did.”
“Sadb.” Warmth infused Finn’s voice, and his clenched hands eased. “No, Sadb is not involved in this. And Oisin, you need to let her go. I have.”
Oisin made no answer, and again the guardi captain fell silent.
Ugh. This was like… like… like getting Bastet to do something she didn’t want to do. What usually worked with the cat?
Bribery.
“I will share my strawberries with you if you will just tell me what happened.” That should be sufficient.
Finn snorted and leaned forward to peer at her, one brow raised.
Maybe not. He did not understand the significance of strawberries obviously.
But his lips had quirked up and his hands were still relaxed.
“Enough.” Shar shoved out his chair and rose. “A right bastard, was Diarmuid. He was Finn’s nephew. Ran off with his fiancée. Or she ran off with him, in truth. Her father had arranged the match with Finn. Finn was going to let them go, Diarmuid had paid the price demanded by the Brehon, but then there were rumors of a new god haunting the forests.” He hesitated, and something like shame clouded his expression. “I had a run in with him, in the Dubros. I was keeping the trees then, after...” He shrugged his shoulders. “Anyway, I was set to guard the Rowan, but he bested me, and destroyed it. And Grainne helped him. She...”
Bat could guess this one from his tone. “She seduced you.” She also found it of note that no one refuted Shar’s claim that Diarmuid was a bastard.
The big not-man lowered his gaze to the floor and gave the slightest nod.
“So, a pair of the wicked.” Bat licked her lips. “She was beautiful?” She’d seen the visions of course, but the question slipped out. She didn’t like the way her giant wouldn’t meet her gaze.
“The loveliest creature born in twelve centuries, or since.” Mell’s voice was soft.
“You too?” Jealousy crept into her and nestled in, making itself at home.
Mell eyed her, then skimmed his gaze down her sweater covered body. “Well, maybe not the loveliest,” he said, not answering. Then he sent her a wink, startling a laugh from her. “But, yes, she was lovely. I think most were half in love with her, though she was promised to Finn.” His brown eyes glazed over, looking at something she hadn’t seen yet. “In the end, she wanted Diarmuid. And he was a good kid, for all that. I don’t know what happened, but he... twisted somewhere along the way.”
Finn’s hands clenched then flattened out. “Grainne happened to him.”
The full picture was coming to her. “And no one knows what became of her?”
“I just wanted to forget,” Finn said.
“We all did.” Dub used his free hand to clasp the other man’s shoulder. “And, no. No one knows what happened to her. Some say she decided to fade, to move on now that her love had gone. Some say they still see her on cold nights under Benbulben, others that she became a baobhan sith, and drinks of wicked men. But they are all rumors…”
“So, she could have had the blade, and given it to them.” Bat kept her voice even. It had been right there. Right beside the woman. And if she would support a man who wielded a soul blade, she could also certainly be the type to use it herself. “And she could very well be here. I don’t think my visions were simply trying to tell me one of the baboon sivs were using the soul blade, or they would have stopped after the first. No, I am seeing Benbulben for a reason. And her, I see her for a reason. She is here.”
Finn rose, nodded to Oisin, and then strode from the room.
“He’ll be back in a moment,” Oisin offered. “More procedural things. He’s got a portrait of her, so we can verify this is who you saw in your… visions.”
There was so much wrong with that statement. Was Finn a danger to them, to the investigation? After all the woman had done, why would he keep a picture of her?
The air in the room thickened as they waited. Even Ailis held her words. Bat started piecing together what she’d seen in the visions and what she had been told, especially of the woman. There were things the men hadn’t told her, she was sure, but she had enough to build that picture.
A woman who betrayed her intended. A woman who seduced and twisted and corrupted all for her own gain, and who quite likely enjoyed being adored—and if Bat was honest, who didn’t want to be adored? But she’d also driven a young man to commit murder, then shown real grief over his slain body.
Finn appeared beside her, crowding in on her left. He set a portrait on the table before her. The paint was faded and peeling, but the woman depicted was clear.
“It’s her.”
Finn pulled the canvas away, his gaze lingering on it for a moment. Then he nodded, set the painting on the ground against one of the bookcases and returned to his seat. “So, we have confirmation. But you have not seen her wielding the blade?”
“No.” But I have seen you holding it. She didn’t say the last, an instinct holding her back. The flow of the threads of fate came together, and in the end, it had to be his decision. That was also very clear to her. “I do have one question. Why Dano? Why linger at the farmhouse and bother the pixie, why not simply take her as another victim? If her goal was to harness more power, then she is acting counter to that, unless there is something else in play.” And my earlier speculations that Dano was not the target were correct.
“Vengeance.” The word slipped from three mouths. Dub, Finn, and Shar stared at each other, and then Dub continued, emotion stripped from him. “She would want vengeance on me, for the death of her love.”
Finn snorted. “More like thwarting her plans. That demon never knew love, not truly.”
The words startled Bat. They were something she’d expect from Dub, not the man who could barely utter her name. Or maybe the words were simply coming out now.
“Yet you still love her,” Mell said.
Finn leaned back and rubbed a hand over his face. “I love the idea of her. After Sadh, she was the bright promise. That the promise was a lie…” He shrugged. “I do not…”
“Well, you are going to need to let go of whatever attachment this is.” Bat slammed her hand down on the table. “It is not easy, but you need to do it. You ask if I’ve seen her with the blade in her hands, but did you not track her from the alley after Shar was attacked? Was she not the last to be seen near it? Was she also not… in cahoots with her lover in the taking of lives? How was it she escaped justice the first time around?” Her heart pounded and
her blood surged. She’d been patient, more than patient. She’d been gentle.
It was obviously not what this not-man needed. So, she would provide what he needed.
“Stop being a wanker,” she said. “Stop being deliberately blind.” She stood and placed her palms on the table, twisting to meet Finn’s gaze. “Stop being a coward.”
Finn’s eyes glowed at her once more. It was a much better look for him.
“She destroyed everything she touched,” Dub said, his tone even. He laid a hand on Finn’s shoulder.
Finn didn’t break his gaze from hers. Then he nodded. It was an acknowledgment. Not that he would “let go” as she had told him, but that he heard her, and he would try. “I will do what needs to be done,” he said. “This time.”
She nodded in turn.
Then she sat and focused on Oisin. Finn whispered something that may have been, “farking stars,” but she ignored him.
“Tell me,” she said to the not-man whose territory she was in. “Are there any more of these protocols we must adhere to? Or may we begin the search again?”
Oisin, eyes wide and darting around the room, inclined his head. “All protocols that must be observed for witness have been done. I will record your testimony.”
“Oh goody,” Ailis muttered.
“Yes, goody.” Bat tapped the tabletop, thinking. “You lost the trace. Did you find anything of the babylon sit?”
“Baobhan sith,” whispered Shar from beside her, but she waved him off.
She was on a roll, and not worried about pronunciations. Excitement raced through her, sending her blood pumping. Her senses heightened, ready for the hunt. “I wonder if it was not the blade I have been sensing, but Grainne. I didn’t feel anything the night Dano was killed, but I did at the farm when I was harmed by that rifle.”
Mell leaned forward sharply. “Not the blade?”
“No.” This made sense, much more sense. Objects were not the source of evil or chaos, only beings. “I think it was just her I sensed, the madness and the wrongness of her, outside of the farmhouse, and not the blade.” Bat locked eyes with Finn once more. “She’s a corruptor. Seeps in like poison.”
Finn’s eyes were wide, his face soft with a strange kind of hope. “No argument here. You think you can track her directly...?”
“If I am close enough. The feeling faded quickly. And to stop her, not to kiss her.” Bat still felt that needed to be made clear.
Finn nodded, but that was his only reply. He’d once more gone silent. Bat would keep an eye on him. Once chaos got its claws in you, you had to dig it out, and that was hard work. It was much easier to keep it out in the first place.
Mell pushed back from the table and stood, Shar a beat behind him. “Well then, let’s get this hunt started.” Eagerness and a wild joy radiated from him. He grinned, and it held none of the comfort of his usual smiles. This was the warrior before her.
Beside him, Shar wore a matching expression, very pirate-like. A shift of her head revealed Dub’s frown held the same ferocious eagerness as his brothers’ smiles.
One of her earlier visions came to her, of the brothers at the prow of a ship, hair windblown and bristling with weapons of all kinds.
Her heart pounded, and heat poured through her, both an answering need to hunt this piece of chaos down and eliminate it, and a lower heat.
Then Shar frowned. “I am not getting in that torture device Ailis claims is a car, and we don’t have room in the truck for everyone.”
Ailis stood as well and crossed her arms. “I can take my car on my own, thank you.”
There was something wrong with that, something Bat should remember…
“No.” Finn rose as well, so the only one still seated was Oisin. “No, I have a vehicle. None of us should be alone until this is resolved, even you, fairy. Grainne has no doubt seen you with us and will target you if given the opportunity.”
He barely flinched at the use of his former fiancée’s name. Progress.
But there was something new there as well. A different kind of veil. Bat glanced at Mell and raised a brow. He sent back a brief sense of caution. She’d been correct, Finn was not dealing well with this.
Ailis glanced between the three of them then nodded. “Fine. I’ll ride with ya. But you better not try anything tricky with those finger wiggles. Damned Tuatha, meddling in things that should be left alone,” she muttered the last. Then she headed out the door.
Mell and Shar followed. Bat was nearly to the door when she paused and spun around, catching Finn and Dub in mid-stride. There was something else that hadn’t been touched upon in the discussion. And that was the young man she assumed both had once counted as a friend, from the way they spoke of him. “You should know that it could not have ended any other way with Diarmuid,” she said. The words were for both Finn and Dub. A small gift from a goddess, unsolicited, so it fit the rules. “The death. It could not have ended any other way. What you knew of that man would have long been gone, eaten away.” It was not much, but it was something. “He was already dead before the blade ever touched him, before the hunt ever commenced.”
She stayed there, blocking the way until they nodded. She didn’t know if they believed her words, and often what the heart accepted was not the same as what the mind accepted. She made a note to tell them as many times as necessary for all the parts of them to believe her words. For they were true.
She spun on her boots and headed after the others.
There was a hunt to conduct.
Chapter 21
Bastie,
I learned to do something tonight I can guarantee none of the other gods know how to do, even Bes. I now know how to pull a proper pint of Guinness!
Hah!
- Bat, the NEW goddess of beer
BAT
“Maybe we should call the Wild Hunt?”
“Those maniacs? No. Not happening. They’ll just go on a rampage, with no discretion whatsoever. Remember what happened with…”
Bat left Finn and Mell to their discussion in the kitchen and moved to the pub proper. Shar was there behind the counter. Dub had accompanied Ailis back to her shop and the apartment above it so that she could fetch some essentials for the night.
When there had been no further sign of Grainne or the baobhan sith—ha! Got it right—they had come back to the pub to… regroup, Finn had called it. After searching the roads and back trails to and from Carney, and around, each agreed a different strategy was needed. There was nothing efficient about having six people going around together, following trails that ended in circles.
What was frustrating for Bat, was the fact she couldn’t get a sense of Grainne at all. Her range was dismal. Which meant they were relying on Finn to track her. The brothers seemed to take his assurances at face value that he had lost the trail, or where it led them, but Bat wasn’t so sure. Or, not so sure that his own mind wasn’t playing tricks on him.
Ailis had once again started talking about taking another tack—getting a bunch of the fae together to bring offerings and give Bat a boost. Technically, that was within the bounds of what the Morrigan laid out, but it violated the… spirit of the agreement, and Bat was not yet ready to do that. She might be closing a door she wanted kept open.
But if something didn’t happen soon to show them the way to this blade, she would certainly contemplate the strategy with true intention.
It also struck her as strange that the Morrigan was not more involved in the hunt for this blade. Surely this was just the type of thing a deity should become involved in?
“Little goddess, come here and let me show you a few things.” Shar beckoned to her from behind the bar.
Could she be blamed if her mind went to those things of his she would like to be shown? “What wonderful things do you have for me, giant of the forest?” Maybe she had decided to tackle the question of the brothers and her attraction to them after Grainne was dealt with, but a little light teasing had never harmed.
&nb
sp; He blushed. Oh my.
Then he grinned. “Not that. I’m going to show ya how to pull a pint proper.” He grabbed up one of the glasses kept under the counter, the same ones she’d helped clean just last night.
She stepped up beside him. There had been a ritual to Dub’s actions last night, very precise movements. Was it a form of magic in itself to produce the drink so many of the patrons had enjoyed?
“Now just watch this time. Hold the glass just so, at this angle.” He tipped the curved glass to forty-five degrees. “Now, ya pull the tap forward. Not back, mind ya. That comes later.” He grasped the handle to release the beer. “When it gets to… here, start straightening the glass.” It was upright before he even finished speaking. “Now to let it settle. The settling’s important.” He set it down.
She stared at the glass as the cloudy liquid gradually cleared to a deep brown and a white foam formed at the top.
“Now.” Shar picked the glass. “Ya top it off, just so.” He pushed the tap away this time, instead of pulling it toward him.
“That is quite a ritual. But I can do that. I understand about precision in religious practices.” She eyed the glass, then the tap, then how Shar stood, trying to memorize it all.
He laughed. “Oh, it’s not religious, though some may argue. And it’s not magic. But some things are best done with precision and care, do ya not think?” His hand slipped around her waist and drew her in.
“Ahem.”
Shar glanced up and his grin grew. He didn’t let her go, though.
The Forgotten Trilogy Page 16
