The Legends That Remain

by Cecilia Randell

Finn and Mell exchanged a look. “I have no reason not to trust my fellow guardi,” Finn started. “But as you said, evil is insidious. Plus, this is not really a place to sleep. I would offer my home, but it has one bedroom, and is only a little larger than the room we are currently in.”

  Flash. An old house, surrounded by green fields. Its paint was peeling, and the porch sagged. Two windows were boarded up. Beyond the house sat a stone building. Smoke billowed from a large chimney flue spearing up through the middle of the roof. The steady roar of fire and rhythmic clanging of metal on metal came from within.

  Bat blinked and turned to Dub. “I think it’s time you showed me your forge. You can’t keep avoiding taking me to see it.”

  Dub frowned. “I wasn’t avoiding it. I just haven’t had a chance to go there. These last couple months have been busy. But you are correct, it’s the best option right now.” His eyes widened. “You said the second spear hadn’t been made yet.”

  Mell thrust a fist in the air. “Yes! Time to take The Smith out of the closet and dust him off.”

  Dub flinched. “Watch yer words, Mell. You know he doesn’t like anyone else using that title.”

  Mell rolled his eyes. “Just because ya studied under him doesn’t mean he’s better than ya. Besides, he’s not been seen in a millennium or more.”

  “And you throwing around his moniker is bound to bring him out.”

  Bat leaned into Shar. “Who are they talking about?”

  “Goibniu. He’s not a god, but he’s nearly as powerful as one. And best left alone. Dub studied smithing under him for a bit.”

  “Oh.”

  The other two brothers had stopped arguing and now stared at her. She tilted her head. “Are you done arguing? Would this forge really be a good place to go? The house did not look in very good repair…”

  Dub grunted. “It will do. Won’t take too much to make it livable.”

  “We have a plan then,” Finn said.

  They did? When had they made a plan? Her brows drew together.

  “We need to stop being wankers and tell the goddess the plan, guys,” Mell said.

  “We finish questioning those captured and removing any spells or glamours placed on our belongings,” Dub said.

  “Then we investigate the invitation, attempt to track the spell back to its caster and see what else we can learn—” Finn continued.

  “While Oisin and the men of ba continue their efforts to track the cauldron,” Dub took back over.

  “Then we get out to the forge, set up wards, blah, blah, blah,” Mell added.

  “And when Dub is working, you can do your thing and peer into the hearts of those around us. We will bring only Ailis and Oisin at first. We’ll need him for the wards. After, you can check everyone as they come through them,” Shar rumbled.

  “And then—” Mell swallowed.

  “We need to call Da,” the three brothers said together.

  “My team will continue to investigate any leads from the prisoners,” Finn said. “And then we go from there. If we really do need to allow Balor to return in order to kill him fully, then our concentration must be on preparing for when he is back. Which means identifying the players and what his ultimate goal is, as well as prepping the spear. Locating the artifacts, while important, is secondary to those other steps. In fact, identifying the main players will most likely tell us where he is. And if we know where Balor is, that’s half the work done right there.”

  “What about Tir Hudi?”

  “A mythical island,” Finn said.

  “There has to be more to it than that. Why this place?”

  “Puchi is the only one who has mentioned it, yes?” Shar asked, his tone musing.

  Bat nodded.

  “It could be he assumed it was Tir Hudi and not another lost island. Or he knew something about it we do not. Or Balor knows something, and Puchi picked up on that.”

  “Or the megalomaniac wanted to hang out on a magical island that is only rumored of, even among the immortals, and thought it would be a good hideout.” Mell shrugged then shot her a grin. “I mean, if I were going to turn into a megalomaniac, I would want my hideout on a mystical island.”

  “And all of this is just more speculation.” Finn stood. “We have our plan. When we’ve accomplished what we can, we’ll reassess.” He strode for the door, radiating an energy he’d been lacking up to this point.

  Bat studied the other three men. They sat with easy poses, but that stillness was an act. Under it was the same energy and eagerness Finn held.

  Mell must have noted her curiosity. “Despite what you may have seen of us, or our… reactions to some things, we are warriors. And this promises to be a very grand battle.”

  And just like that, the day caught up to her. She yawned and her stomach growled. “Do any of you realize that it is already the middle of the night? When did we plan to have this ‘secure location’ ready?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dearest Bastie,

  I am going to keep sending these, and eventually you will answer me again.

  I admit I am starting to worry. Are you in a pickle? (A new phrase!)

  I have decided to be selfish. I can imagine your response—“It is about time!” you will say.

  Yes, it is.

  - Bat, the goddess who is not going to let doubt slow her down anymore

  BAT

  Finn’s apartment was small, as he’d said, but it was well kept. The bed had those neat corner folds in the sheets and blanket, everything was put away, books and a few figurines lined the shelves of a bookcase in precise rows, and there wasn’t a speck of dirt or grain of dust in sight.

  The door shut behind her and Finn locked the door. “I’ve set the wards to recognize you. Take the bed. When we’re done at headquarters, I’ll come for you. Only me. And don’t open the door.” Then he contradicted himself. “If whoever is on the other side of the door says I sent for you, and they are not entering the apartment, they are lying. If I cannot come, it will be one of the brothers. Again, wait for them to come in, do not go to them, whatever they may say.”

  He looked around the apartment, much as she had. Was he trying to see it as she did? It was a little bare, but very nice all the same. “I like the painting over the bed,” she offered.

  It was a watercolor of gray cliffs falling into a blue ocean, waves crashing against a slim stretch of rocky beach.

  Finn came to her side as Killer sniffed around the edges of the room. There really wasn’t much for him to investigate.

  “The Cliffs of Moher,” Finn said, his tone stiff.

  “Is there a story behind this one as well?”

  “There is a story anywhere you step in Ireland.”

  She leaned into him, keeping the contact light. She was greedy for touch now that she’d begun to receive it, finally. “I am beginning to learn that.”

  “But, no, to answer your question.” He shifted, accepting a bit more of her weight. “No story here for me. I simply liked it. An artist down in Ennis painted it.”

  “I like that. Sometimes there isn’t a deep reason for wanting something, other than ‘I liked it’. I think having those things is just as important as the ones with some sort of sentimentality or history.”

  “I need to get back now.” But he didn’t move.

  Bolstered by her success with Shar, and Dub’s kisses, she plunged in. “I do want you, you know.”

  “Even with the idiot brothers beginning to come to their senses?”

  “Yes.”

  They continued to stare at the painting. Then Finn sucked in a breath and released it in a controlled exhalation.

  “Shar said you deserved some happiness,” she continued. “I am thinking I do too. I am going to be selfish, as long as I can. I want all of you.” He had been the one to come after her in the garden, after all.

  “And if they don’t agree?”

  A new certainty settled over her. It was a decision not far off from her original
conviction to not approach the brothers in a sexual way, but the difference was like that of a slavering cur and a well-trained hound.

  “Then that is their loss, is it not?” she answered. If the brothers truly could not accept her forming a sexual attachment to more than one of them, and to Finn, she could pull back. And she would pull back from them all. She would not put one of them above the others. She would not leave them, this was her home now, but she would shut that portion of herself away. It wouldn’t be gone, simply dormant. And if they ever changed their minds… She had already stated that she would give them as many chances as they needed, hadn’t she? “And it would be your loss as well,” she warned.

  When you’d lived millennia starved for affection, two months or two years or two centuries, it didn’t matter, it was a very long time to wait. It wouldn’t come to that, though. Or, she hoped it didn’t.

  Some of the surety she’d gained in the library drained away, showing her the hollow place inside herself once more. It was a strange thing, that place. It didn’t exist in the physical, but in her spirit. A place where something should have been, and now nothing existed. Had it always been there and she was only now noticing it? And why would it not stay filled?

  “You would do that for me?” Finn asked, gaze still trained on the painting.

  She shook her head. “I would do that for me.” She didn’t think they would balk, though. Or, not much. Mell had to have seen this coming, and Shar had already assured her they would make it work. Dub was the one she was unsure of.

  Her hands trembled and she gripped the edge of her sweater, using it to hold herself steady. Finn reached down and pried her fingers from the lightly woven hem, folding them in his own warm hand.

  She’d held off from the brothers for fear of upsetting not just their balance, but them. But wasn’t she allowed to reach for what she wanted? Wasn’t she allowed to at least try? She needed to stop assuming the weight of decisions that were not hers to make. And she needed to overcome her fear of losing them, once and for all.

  They weren’t Horus, and they weren’t Seth. They weren’t any of the other Egyptian deities who’d left her on her own.

  They weren’t walking away. And she would repeat these truths until the last shadows of doubt were erased, and the hollow place filled.

  The scene portrayed in the landscape really was beautiful. “Will you take me there?” she asked.

  Finn brought her hand to his lips. “If we survive this.”

  “Well. Then I will have to make sure that you do.” Bat turned to him. His profile was strong, the nose straight. A lock of red-gold hair flopped over his brow, and his lips had a slight curl to them. She’d thought, once, that he reminded her of Seth. He didn’t, not in any way. There was too much… contentment in him. It wasn’t quite the right word, but it was the closest she could find. Finn, though he maybe wanted more, was not dissatisfied with his life.

  He turned his head to look down at her right at that moment. “I would like to kiss you now.”

  Her mouth went dry and she nodded. “Pl— please. I mean, maybe it will be horrible.”

  He bent a few inches closer to her. “And then we won’t need to be worrying over nothing.”

  “Exactly,” she whispered.

  His lips hovered just over hers. Why didn’t he close that distance? “I thought I’d simply offer you the physical. Sex, plain and simple. Goddess or not, you are a beautiful woman, Bat Sitru. And I’ve had a great, and true, love in my life already. It would be selfish to want another.”

  She pulled in a breath and her stomach dipped.

  “I think,” he continued, “like you, I will be selfish.”

  Then he closed that distance. He didn’t dive as Dub had, but he also didn’t linger. His good arm went around her and slid down to her butt, pulling her into him. He groaned, rocking a little, just enough to tease her. The muscles of his back bunched under her hands.

  Then he was… gone.

  A pinging sounded, and it took Bat a moment to come back to herself. She’d been getting far too many kisses, and not nearly enough satisfaction today.

  The pinging continued until she found her phone in her pocket and answered. “’Lo?”

  A soft chuckle. “I had to leave, or I wasn’t going to. And as much as I am willing to embrace a bit of selfishness, things back here at headquarters still take precedence.”

  “Yes, of course. Yes.” She blew out a breath as Killer jumped onto the bed, circled, and curled into himself. He was obviously ready to sleep.

  “I’m sending over Aeden. He’ll keep guard outside the wards. If anyone wants you to open the door—”

  “Do not. I know.”

  “Good.” He hung up.

  Her phone rang again.

  “Hello?”

  “I… will see you soon.”

  Not a declaration of love, but his earlier words had been close enough. At least he had called back to give her a proper farewell. “I look forward to that time.”

  He hung up again.

  Bat fell back onto the bed. She twisted her head to where Killer lay, not even stirring at the disturbance. “Well, that either went beautifully, or we are both such awkward beings after all this time that it could not have gone worse?”

  Killer let out a soft snore. She was sure the pup was faking.

  “Fine. I’ll get ready to sleep. Of course, no one bothered to give me anything to sleep in.”

  Bedtime preparations didn’t take long. She found a shirt in one of Finn’s drawers and donned that in lieu of sleepwear. She also used his toothbrush. That was the kind of thing people in a relationship did, right? And besides, his tongue had just been in her mouth. There was nothing unsanitary about it.

  Bat lay on the bed, convinced it would be ages before she could sleep. Ailis had gone to her own home, refusing guards and assistance, and then slipped away. Sneaky fae… Ari and the other men of ba were still working with Oisin, and they’d been brought a pot of coffee, or four, before she’d left…

  Her eyes slid closed. She’d have to make sure the brothers rested. Maybe they would need to take turns… Mell had insisted on helping with the interrogations… Dub and Shar were at the forge… Cuchi and his team were scanning the invitation.

  She wasn’t sure she trusted him…

  But the Morrigan did say… and her instincts were to include him…

  He was the one who hurt her giant…

  Who looked like a pirate… Dashing…

  She hadn’t thought she would be able to sleep, but it came swiftly.

  FINN

  Finn settled into the chair across from the sluagh they’d captured at the pub, and licked his lips, attempting to banish the taste of cornflowers and pepper. Mell pulled out the chair beside him, making no comment on the teasing heat that Finn had yet to suppress.

  Get your mind in this game. This is no time for distractions.

  “What are you called?” he asked, pulling in a deep breath and analyzing the sluagh’s scent. Was it one he had encountered before? Mugwort, musk, and the morning breeze over the bogs. Under that was a hint of… apples?

  Shadows shifted, ebbing and flowing over the sluagh. It grinned, revealing teeth darkened with rot and old fluids. Its skin was pitted with scars and dabbed with dried blood.

  “Why were you at the pub?” Mell asked, his tone a lazy contrast to Finn’s.

  Silence. But then, he had not expected the sluagh to answer. No, they would have to find their answers through what he didn’t say. “It’s curious.” Finn leaned forward. “The sluagh are notorious for remaining neutral. You keep to your shadows, and the dark paths in the night. You hunt for the treacherous and lost. What were you offered, that you attacked the Dubros?” Finn tilted his head, peering through the veils of the creature’s shadow. Nothing. He wasn’t yet on the right track. “Or is it that you heard from Faolan about the goddess?”

  The sluagh’s thin red lips twitched.

  Mell tapped the tabletop
. “She really is good with the harp. You’d think it was hers all along, instead of the Dagda’s.”

  Nothing.

  “I’m wondering more about how he heard about that,” Finn mused.

  Mell crossed his legs and bobbed his foot. “Well, we all know how the rumors spread,” he said. “I’m wondering how far they’ve spread, though. What bog did you say you came out of?” Mell tapped his chin. “It’s got to be one of the ones in Connaught, the sluagh aren’t allowed in the other areas of Ireland, now are they?”

  The shadows pulled back then surged forward, masking the creature’s face completely. That was fine, Mell didn’t need to see the immortal’s face to read him, and it was enough of a reaction for Finn to know they were onto something.

  “That’s right. I doubt it’s Keelogyboy, or Faolan’d have known you. Maybe Slieveward?” Finn tapped his chin. “No, I’ve been there, I’d know your scent. In fact, we could rule out Carrane and Easkey for the same reasons.” He turned to Mell. “Where else is there?”

  “He could be from over in County Mayo. The damn place is half-bog, ya know.”

  “Hmmm… true. Wait. What was the name of that place your father’s man liked? He was only half sluagh, but we once had a wonderful conversation about the play of the moon over the lake. He liked the quiet there. It was up north though, so I doubt that’s it.”

  The shadows remained thick, but within them the sluagh jerked.

  Mell tapped the tabletop, the signal to dig deeper.

  There was something there, either with Scath, or with the area mentioned. Or both. So Finn dug. “Illies Hill bog. That was the name.” Finned nodded to himself. “Yeah. That was it.”

  Mell nodded knowingly. “I know the place. Not far from Londonderry.”

  Finn suppressed a grin as the sluagh jerked. “That’s where Alatrom sails from, right?”

  “Yeah, Da says he prefers the port there to the one in Belfast. The customs agents are… well, easier to deal with is how he likes to put it.” Mell shook his head and flashed an easy grin at the seething shadows across from them. “But that’s not what we need to be discussing now. I’m sure this one here wouldn’t go out of his bounds. What was the sentence for that again?”