Tir Alainn - The House Of Gaian - Tir Alainn - The House of Gaian Part 25
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Tir Alainn - The House of Gaian Part 25

"I imagine that twisted the Fae's tail in a knot when she ascended and took the old Lord's place." "The Fae outside the west don't know," Gwynith said quickly. "If they had known, the Lords of the Woods outside the west would have refused to accept that she'd ascended and would have kept challenging her. And after she'd married Baron Padrick and was heavy with their first child, she couldn't safely accept a challenge, could she? So she stayed in the west, and ... the Clans in the west listen to Ashk."

Selena held up a hand to stop Gwynith. "Wait. The Hunter is a woman who, somehow, hid the fact that she was a woman from the rest of the Fae because she married a gentry baron and had his child?"

"Children," Gwynith said, sounding sulky. "They have two. And it's not as strange as it sounds because Baron Padrick is also Fae." Selena laughed. She couldn't help it. "I'm sorry," she gasped between giggles. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to offend, but... Mother's tits, Gwynith, even a storyteller couldn't come up with something like that and expect to be believed."

Gwynith tried to look offended, but ended up smiling. "I know."

Selena realized she no longer felt any heat beneath her skin. Good. The laughter had banked the last bit of temper. Now she could deal with the rest.

"What happens to the Fae will be decided at the full moon. But I don't think

the western Clans need to worry. However, it might be in everyone's best interest if the Hunter and I can meet before then."

"I'm not sure if she was headed straight to Willowsbrook," Gwynith said.

"But one of the escorts may have been told her direction since she would want news about the Lady of the Moon. I could send an escort with a letter, asking her to meet you at Willowsbrook before the full moon, if that is acceptable to you."

"That is acceptable." Selena walked over to the bed, tucked her comb and brush in the saddlebag, and secured the straps. She reached to lift the saddlebags, then let her hand drop. "Didn't the Fae in the west disapprove of the Hunter taking a gentry baron for a mate, even if he is Fae?"

Gwynith gave her an odd look. "No, we didn't disapprove. But then, we know Ashk."

The bards, storytellers, the Ladies of the Moon, and their escorts stood between Selena and the stables where Mistrunner pawed the ground. Any moment now, he would charge through the people to reach her.

"Easy," she said.

His only response was an angry snort, but he stopped pawing the ground.

The three bards took a step forward, more pale and frightened than when

she'd summoned the storm.

"Huntress," one bard said, raising his hand in a plea. "You're leaving Tir Alainn?"

"I am," Selena replied.

"But... how will we let you know that the Clans have obeyed your

command? How will we send word? And ... when the huntsmen come down

to the human world, where are they supposed to go?""And where is the Bard supposed to meet you?" another bard asked. "We've already sent word that you want to see him, but we couldn't tell him where."

Wondering how coherent a message three frightened bards could shape, Selena said, "He can find me at the Old Place closest to Willowsbrook. As for the huntsmen ..." She thought a moment. There would be losses when the Inquisitors' army marched across Sylvalan. Villages would burn. People would die. She wasn't going to be able to prevent all of it. She wasn't going to be able to prevent the deaths of any witches in the path of that army. But if she could block the Black Coats enough, she could force them onto a battleground that could not only be defended but could defend itself. There were reasons why no one with intent to do harm dared enter the Mother's Hills. "The Fae huntsmen should gather at the northern and southern ends of the Mother's Hills, blocking the way into the midlands. Hold those roads and we can keep them out."

"Block the roads and it's easy enough to go cross-country," one of

Gwynith's escorts said.

"Easy for the Fae," Selena agreed. "But the Inquisitors and the eastern barons will have a human army. They'll use the roads. It's too easy to get lost in unfamiliar land. And angry land can be quite dangerous to travel through," she added softly.

She felt the tension crackle in the air as the people in front of her realized once again that the earth magic they'd thought of as useful but harmless could be deadly.

"The western coast is already being protected," she continued, looking at Gwynith, who nodded. "The Clans nearest the midland coastline should be on guard for any ships that enter the harbors there. If the Inquisitors can't come in by land, they may try to come in by sea."

One of the other western Ladies lifted her hand. "I come from a Clan near the coast, almost at the border between the midlands and the west. Any ships trying to reach the west would have to pass between the mainland and Selkie Island. If the Lord of the Selkies was warned ... Well, it's been said that no ship passes Selkie Island unless it pleases Lord Murtagh to allow it to pass."

"Will you send the message to him?" Selena asked.

"I will, Lady."

"Huntress," Gwynith's escort said, "if the coast is blocked as well as the

north and south ... Well, I'd try to drive an army right through the center."

"Exactly," Selena agreed.

"But... the Mother's Hills would be in the way."

"Yes, the Mother's Hills-and the House of Gaian-would be in the way."

They all stared at her.

"You would send the Black Coats' army against your own people?"

Gwynith asked, sounding horrified.

Selena smiled. "They have to reach the Mother's Hills first."

"Roads," Gwynith's escort said.

Selena opened the branch of water, found the well near the stables, and

called a thin stream of water to her. The water found its way up through the earth near her left foot. "Earth and water. Mud." Calling air and earth, she circled her right hand until a swirling wind picked up some earth and rose waist high. "Earth and air."

She wanted to laugh at the way they stared at her little dust whirl. When they were children, she and Rhyann used to make these little whirls and have races-until the day the dust whirls got away from them and collided with the laundry their mother had just hung out to dry.

She banked the connection with water so the water would remain in the well.

She slowly banked the wind until the earth it had gathered once more rested with the rest of the land.

"You all have tasks to perform," she said. "And so do I."

Before Gwynith could join the other western Ladies, Selena touched her arm

to indicate she wanted to speak to her and walked far enough away to keep the conversation private from the other Fae.

"Where will you go now?" Selena asked.

"Home," Gwynith replied.

"Are you needed there right now?"

Gwynith gave her a wary look. "I hope I always have something to offer my

Clan."

"I wasn't questioning your value to your Clan." Selena looked away.

Sometimes pride could chafe. "I'd like you to travel with me for a while."

Gwynith's eyes widened in surprise. 'Travel with you? Me? Why?"

"Because you understand the Fae, you understand how to travel in Tir

Alainn-and because I'm comfortable with you."

A gleam came into Gwynith's eyes. "If I go with you, would you teach me the moon dance?"

Selena smiled. "I can try. Come on, then. Let's get your saddlebags packed. I

want to leave as soon as possible." She heard a loud snort. "And I'd better explain to Mistrunner that he needs to be patient a bit longer." "If you want to stay with him, I'll run back to the Clan house and pack."

Snort. Stamp.

"That's probably wise," Selena said dryly.

Gwynith rushed toward the Clan house, then rushed back. "Huntress?"

"Selena."

Gwynith smiled. "Selena. I'm really wiccanfae?"

"Yes, you're really wiccanfae." Selena shrugged. "Perhaps in other parts of

Sylvalan, the word no longer means the same thing as it does in the Mother's Hills."