All the anger, all the frustration and pain and fear of what might be coming and what was already here surged to the front and found a target. “Let me down,” she said to Shar, and the power leaking from her must have gotten through to him, because he slowly lowered her to her feet.
She spun and glared up at the bald man. “I have told you to behave. I have told you to maintain some respect around me.” She stepped forward and Shar’s warm hand brushed against her back in a gentle warning that she ignored. “Now I will tell you. I do not care about your Morrigan, or your gods, or your legends or myths or claim of this land. I do not care about what you may or may not have accomplished in your past.”
Cuchi stepped back and she continued to close the distance between them, step by step. “You will not speak unless it is to offer something constructive. You will not speak at all to the O’Loinsigh brothers.” As the words flowed from her, she wove her anger and frustration into them, twined it all together into something the Egyptians had always been very good at—a curse. “If you violate these strictures, there will be no second chances, and… you will not be able to lift your sword.”
He opened his mouth and she held up her hand, cutting him off.
“No second chances,” she said again, as the power settled in place and bound around his arm.
His eyes widened and he backed up another step. He opened his mouth again, closed it, and nodded. “I will patrol the bounds of the grove.” Then he spun and stomped off.
Dub, his lapis eyes shining, appeared before her, grinning widely. “That was glorious, goddess.”
Bat’s cheeks heated. “You may call me storeen, if you truly want to,” she muttered.
His grin slid away and his pupils dilated. “Storeen.”
She swayed toward him, allowing the chaos and horror that surrounded them to be swept away for a moment by the lapis of his eyes. Then she pulled herself back. “Take me to the elder.”
Dub held out a hand and she took it. As they passed him, she grabbed Shar’s hand with her other and gave it a squeeze. “Let us resolve this. And then there are other things to discuss.”
“About the invitation. I’m sorr—”
“No. Well, yes, but not about the secrets, though we will need to talk about those too.” Now that she had let some of her anger out it no longer clouded her thoughts so extremely. “I am not sure the bar is secure. That is what we need to discuss.” She paused. “Are you able to call Mell?”
Dub pulled his mobile from his back pocket and checked the screen. “No signal.”
“Then we will need to fast indeed, and return to the pub as soon as possible.” She sped her steps.
The two brothers allowed her to pull them along and soon they stood at the edge of the grove, the three of them lined up just inside the rowan trees. Ailis hovered over Ari and an older, gray-skinned ba man who lay propped in his arms. Finn prowled the edges of the clearing, kneeling occasionally to check on a crumpled figure. At the far edge of the clearing huddled a small group of the men of ba.
Ailis looked up and spotted them. She waved, urging them over. “Oh, thank the gods.” She bit her lip. “The cauldron’s gone. And…” She waved her hand around the clearing.
Fallen bodies and twisted limbs, crushed grass and broken tree branches met Bat’s gaze. And… that was all she saw. “The vessel of creation is gone?” A hollow feeling opened in her chest as her stomach dropped. These bodies… there were so many. And that meant there was at least one more blade out there, and the creature who wielded it was ferocious enough to take on the men of ba, with their needle teeth and razor talons.
“Goddess.” The gray-skinned ba man raised a hand toward her.
She knelt beside the older immortal and took his hand.
“We fought, but the shadows…”
She brushed a hand over the wrinkled brow and smiled. “I can see you fought very well.”
“Puchi, you must tell her what you saw, what you know.” Ari leaned in, his red eyes shining.
Puchi’s eyes slid closed and he nodded. “I do not have much time. The vessel must be restored, and the shadows defeated. He comes, he of the evil-eye, and he seeks vengeance and restoration.” His breathing grew ragged. “He wields the shining blade of Nuada, that may slay even the gods.”
Shar shifted behind her and she held up a hand, stalling whatever he would say. Now was not the time. “Who is he?”
Red eyes dimmed as the older man of ba struggled to focus on her. “Balor. Find Tir Hudi.” The red dimmed and the too-long fingers went slack in her grip.
The pieces of his soul separated from his body and she wasted no time in gathering them to her, enveloping them in comfort, and the idea of a job well done. If she understood correctly, this not-man had guarded the vessel of creation for longer than she had been in existence. And an accomplishment such as that deserved a true reward and acknowledgment.
She held those pieces to her heart, and whispered to them of the Otherworld, the Land of Reeds, where the sun would always shine upon him, and the other gods would welcome him with open arms. The pieces danced in her hands, then fused together and sped away. She sent a silent plea to Nephthys and Anubis, to ask for mercy for this soul, and to ensure Puchi found his rightful place.
Her eyes slid closed and pressure built against her lids. She’d sensed the man of ba’s longing for his home, one he had held all these years. And yet he’d stayed here, doing his duty. But, now, he could rest.
She opened her eyes to find her hands resting on his abdomen, just above a wide gash. Leaving one of them where it lay, she brought the other to Ari’s shoulder. “He is going home, my friend.”
Ari nodded, then stood, shrugging off her hand. “He held on as long as he could, and did not let the blade claim him. Now we must carry forward, and recover the vessel.”
Did not let the blade claim him…
Bat surveyed the clearing once more, and opened her senses wider. There were souls lingering. She had not expected it because of the methods needed to slay an immortal, but—though their bodies held no life—many of the ba men had managed to avoid that fate. Though the number of souls did not match the number of bodies, a handful had remained free to move on. She stood and walked to the closest body and gathered the ba of the fallen warrior. She called out, pulling the not-man’s ka to her from where it had fled to and, as she had with Puchi, tethered the pieces together and sent them on their journey.
She had no doubt the pieces would have eventually found their way to each other, but it was the least she could do for the fallen, to speed them on their way.
Body after body was gathered and brought to her. The other men of ba, who had stayed huddled at the far end of the clearing, slowly crept closer as they saw what she was doing. Ari encouraged them, waving them to his side. Finn and Dub brought the fallen, and Shar stayed steady at her other side. Eventually, Cuchi returned from his patrol and waited at the edge of the trees.
Finally, she’d moved on all she could, and she rose, dusting off the knees of her jeans where damp leaves and grass clung. The gathered immortals stared at her with wide eyes as she slumped against Shar, her limbs heavy, as though she’d been toiling away in the garden.
The moment hung there, no one willing to break the silence. Could Dub and Cuchi and Ailis tell what she had been doing? She had assumed so, but they also didn’t really have a connection to emotions or the spirit… or she didn’t think they did. What was Ailis’s power exactly, and Cuchi’s?
A cutting wind blasted through the clearing, as though the world had let out a heaving sigh of impatience, and she shivered.
Why didn’t I pull on my coat? And how is May still so chilly?
Dub shifted. “We need to get back to the pub, and Mell, and regroup.”
He was correct. She had lingered here too long already, distracted from her suspicions that the brother’s protections on the bar had been compromised. Bat nodded then looked to the ba men—some of whom were women, she now
saw. “I am sorry I could not provide them the proper rituals. Will you be well here?”
Most of them nodded. A few bowed their heads, hiding their red eyes, and three stepped forward, including Ari. “We are coming with you,” he said in ancient Egyptian. “The vessel is our responsibility.”
Bat almost nodded, then froze.
Flash. A familiar alleyway. Dark had fallen. A small body lay there, blood seeping from multiple wounds, limbs bent at weird angles. Beyond that was a trail of blood leading to a hunched figure, a patch covering one of his eyes. He gripped a hand… whose arm ended at the elbow. A piercing scream sounded.
Her chest tightened. She couldn’t let that come to pass. “No.”
Ari’s shoulders hunched up and he bared his teeth. “It is our duty, goddess.”
“If you come with us to the pub, you will die. And at least one of your companions will die with you. Others will be injured.” She didn’t know how else to put it.
He crossed his arms. “And how do you know that my presence, my death, does not prevent even more from coming to come to pass?”
She had no answer to that and shook her head. He had a point. But her visions showed her what she needed to know, not what needed to happen. Maybe that particular one would still not come to pass. If she kept Shar away from the men of ba, or kept them from the pub… Maybe—
“Bat, I found something.” Ailis’s voice cut through her thoughts.
Chapter Seven
Bastet,
Why are you not answering? This is why we began to use the texting, and why I signed up for the international usage you told me about. So we could communicate in this rapid manner.
I suppose I will email you later, when I have time.
But… I held a piece of creation in my palm, Bastie. Creation.
Imagine.
- Bat, who was the clueless goddess
BAT
Ailis knelt a few meters behind where Bat and the others stood, her gaze focused on a patch of muddy and churned ground. Her hand hovered over a stone and her fingers twitched, as though she wanted to touch it but didn’t quite dare.
Flash. A spear, plainer than the other and wrought from wood and iron and strips of fresh leather. Its head was made of a dark and opalescent stone tipped in shining steel. It rested on a stone anvil in a small forge.
Bat blinked and came back to herself. Though it had been but a moment for her, this particular vision must have taken longer. Most of the men were now gathered around Ailis, only Shar still stood beside her.
Anticipation thrilled through her. She knew what Ailis had found. Taking a breath, she brought her pounding heart under control. Excitement would not be appropriate in such a setting… But she couldn’t suppress a slight bounce as she stepped forward.
She reached the circle of men, and Dub and Finn parted to allow her to see exactly what they and the others still stared at. A shard, shining and dark, protruded from the ground. Bat fell to her knees, matching Ailis, and extended her hand. She hesitated for the barest moment, then ran a finger along a protruding edge. There was a brief pain, and then the shard flared.
It reached for her. That was the only way she could define what happened. It reached for her, like a child seeking its mother, which was strange, as this was a piece of the egg that birthed creation.
Ari was right. There was something wrong with the vessel. She plucked the shard up and studied the way the light played over it. It was as though the heavens lived in that small piece of stone.
Transferring the shard to her left hand, she turned her right over and watched as the cut along the pad of her finger closed. Gentle waves of reassurance and worry came at her, and she realized that the shard was less like a child and more like a mother, who’d finally found a lost child of its own.
“Is that…?” Cu Chulainn shifted where he stood, a little apart from the others, just to the side of Ari.
“It is a broken piece of the vessel, yes.” She studied him, but for the moment all she detected was wonder and a good bit of fear. Climbing to her feet, still carefully holding the shard, she stepped over the patch of mud separating them and held out her empty hand. “I would like to try something.”
Killer, coming back from wherever he’d disappeared to, wiggled his way between the various legs and pressed against her thigh. He made not a sound, just stared up at her hand and Cuchi.
Cu Chulainn raised a hand but didn’t give it to her. “What will you do?”
Her head tilted. “Feed the vessel, and reassure it that the children are all right.”
When Cuchi continued to hesitate, Dub stepped to her side and nudged her shoulder. “Let me go first.”
She turned her head and looked into those lapis eyes. Then his gaze fell to the smear of blood on her finger, all that was left of the earlier cut, and those eyes of his narrowed and his frown deepened. But he didn’t say anything, instead holding out his own hand for her to take, and locking his gaze with hers once more.
Her chest swelled. He cared. That particular frown… it showed her he cared. She’d known he did, but… And he trusted her—he’d offered her his hand with no hesitation.
The universe held its breath and then exhaled, changing the direction of its course, just as it had when she stepped over the threshold of the bar for the first time, and then once again when she picked up the Uaithne. This moment was a turning point, for her, for the brothers, and for the trials yet to come their way.
Then the corner of his mouth ticked up. “Why do you hesitate? I would think you’d have been waiting for a chance to slice me open.”
She let out a short laugh. Taking his hand, she pressed the shard to the thick meat just below his thumb, all the while whispering to the piece of creation she held. She needn’t have bothered with the last. The shard recognized Dub—or, recognized the Fomoiri in him—and delicately sipped his blood. The cut was thin, clean, and when the shard had had its fill and reassured herself, a gentle power reached out to close the wound.
Dub’s eyes slid closed and he let out a soft sigh, his expression easing into something she would have called wonder on anyone else.
Killer shifted against her and growled, his attention on a deeper patch of shadow on the edge of the trees. Bat blinked and it disappeared.
It reminded her, though, that they were no longer safe here, despite the many wards and protections the men of ba had put in place. And the pub was not safe. Not yet, not until they determined exactly what her vision meant. Where could they go…?
“I need to check in.” Finn pulled his cell from his back pocket.
Yes. Perfect. Maybe his would have reception. “We will need to get Mell. And then we will need to go somewhere secure. I would also like to view your books of artifacts again.” Shadows stretched across the ground as the sun held onto the last of its time for the day.
Finn grimaced and tucked his phone away. He must not have had reception either. “We can go to the guardi headquarters for now. It’s probably got the best security outside of the Tribunal’s headquarters.”
“I think that is a sound plan,” she said when no one spoke with an alternate idea.
Dub’s gaze was trained on the place she had seen the shadow a moment ago. “I need to check something,” he said, and started toward the spot, not waiting for an answer.
Bat gestured to her pup and Killer went after her not-man, ears forward and tail up. That, more than anything, told her Dub should be well. He disappeared briefly behind a thick trunk.
As soon as he was done, they really did need to leave. No more distraction. Everything that could be done in this place had been. She turned her attention to Ari. “Last chance. I would rather you stayed here, or moved to a new place until this was over.”
Ari, his red eyes narrowed, shook his head. “No. I have a purpose too, goddess. And I will fulfill it.”
A purpose. She understood that. “Very well.” She would not try to convince him again. “Will the rest of you be all right? I
really would recommend locating to another area.”
Ari glanced at the handful of survivors. “They will finish seeing to the bodies of the fallen and then find me. They, too, have a purpose.”
Bat swallowed. “And maybe, when we are done, you may return home.”
Ari turned his large eyes on her, the red glowing like the sun through a film of blood. “I would like that.”
Bat, promising herself she would find a way to make that happen, wrapped the shard in the lower half of her sweater to keep it from cutting anyone else. It was a little awkward holding it there like that, but it would have to do for now. Shar grunted, shrugged out of his jacket, and handed it to her, gesturing to the bundle at her middle. She smiled and slipped the jacket on over her shoulders, knowing that wasn’t what he had intended her to do. It was still toasty with the heat of her giant, though, and she needed that extra bit of warmth now that the sunlight was fading.
His lips twitched and he shrugged, but not before she caught a slight shaking of his shoulders.
Finn rolled his eyes and pulled off his sweater, revealing the t-shirt beneath. “Use it for the shard,” he admonished as he handed it over.
Bat took the sweater, her gaze lingering on the clearly defined muscles of Finn’s arms and chest.
“Right.” Shar slung his arm over her shoulders and steered her to the tree line. “We need to get going. Regroup.” He pulled her into his side, not harshly, but definitely closer than before.
Dub, his lips pressed thin with anger, caught up with them, Killer at his side. He must have found whatever he looked for in the tree line. Something they had missed on the first inspection?
Finally, they wasted no more time in setting out, cramming themselves back in the truck. Ari and his fellows climbed into the back, pulling a strong glamour around themselves.
First stop, the pub to gather Mell and the raven Einin. Second stop, the guardi headquarters. Third stop? She had no idea.
The Legends That Remain Page 7
