Tir Alainn - The House Of Gaian - Tir Alainn - The House of Gaian Part 28
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Tir Alainn - The House of Gaian Part 28

sounded lame.

"You'll learn." Murtagh smiled at her. "Let's walk."

After a few minutes, warmed by the sun and the exercise, Jenny pulled off

her cloak. Murtagh took it from her and slung it over his shoulder.

Since Murtagh didn't seem inclined to break the silence, Jenny asked, "You have no witches on the island?"

"We have a few. This whole island is an Old Place, so some have found their

way here over the years. There's two hedge witches-sisters-who grow herbs and make medicines for the healers. There's my sister- "Your sister?" "-who lives in a dell at the center of the island because the sea can't compete with the feel of earth beneath her hands. And there's my grandmother, who has danced with the sea since she was a young maid who was lured here by a selkie Lord. His affection was about as constant as the tide, but I've always suspected she knew that and the island was more of a lure for her than he was. Of course, she might have returned to the mainland after a while if another selkie Lord hadn't been waiting for a chance to take his rival's place."

"How convenient," Jenny muttered, understanding much better the ship captain's comments about maids being lured by moonlight and the sea.

"I think so," Murtagh replied. "A persistent lover can be a powerful force in the world, and he was everything his rival was not."

"And how long did he stay?""They were together until a few years ago, when one of Death's Servants took his spirit to the Shadowed Veil."

"Was your father as constant?" She was sorry she'd asked, because he

stopped walking and just stared at the sea.

"It's hard to say," Murtagh finally said. "Even for a selkie, there are dangers in the sea. He went out one day and never came back. Now my mother was another story. She was from a southern Clan. He must have cared for her, because he stayed with her-and stayed away from the sea-until my sister was born two years after I was. The southern Fae don't allow half-breeds in their precious pieces of Tir Alainn. She didn't know my father wasn't pure Fae until my sister was born-a babe who didn't look Fae. She demanded that my father take the two of us down to the human world and abandon us.

Instead he abandoned her and brought us back here. He disappeared a few months later. My grandparents raised me and my sister."

"Why did you tell me this?" Jenny asked softly.

Murtagh turned away from the sea and looked at her. "So you would know I understand about family. I'm keeping watch for your brother's ship."

"I know. Cordell said you would. But..."

"What favor do you want from the Lord of the Selkies?"

"I'd like to stay here for a few days." Jenny raised her hands, then let them

fall to her sides. "Foolish, I know, but-"

"But once he passes this island, he'll have clear sailing back to Sealand ...

and safe harbor. The sooner you know that, the easier you'll feel."

"Yes."

"Then stay. Gran will be pleased to have company."

"Gran?"

Murtagh grinned. "You're welcome to stay with me, but I think you'd be

more comfortable guesting with my grandmother."

"Yes," Jenny murmured, feeling flustered. She didn't want to stay with him.

She really didn't. But she hadn't expected him to anticipate that and provide the solution.

His expression serious now, Murtagh brushed his fingertips down one side

of her face. "You're easy on the eyes, Lady Jennyfer, and if times were different, I would have given considerable thought to courting you by moonlight and the songs of the sea. But I think, right now, you need a friend more than a lover. So I'm offering a friend's hand rather than a lover's kiss.

Is that all right with you?"

She clasped the hand he held out to her. "Yes."

He studied her. "Is there something else?"

"I wish-" She pressed her lips together.

"You wish ...?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing. It's foolish."

Keeping her hand in his, he started walking back to the harbor. "Wishes may

not be granted, but they're never foolish. What is it you wish?"

"I have kin who live near the Mother's Hills. Some of the family was heading there overland so that not all of us would be together in case... in

case we couldn't get past the eastern barons. My cousin Breanna ... I wish I could send her a letter, letting her know where I am."

"She holds a special place in your heart," Murtagh said after a small silence.

"Yes." Jenny smiled, remembering a summer when the two of them had

changed a storm by celebrating it.

"Then write your letter."

Her smile faded. "I couldn't risk it. If the letter was confiscated by a baron

or magistrate controlled by the Inquisitors, they would know about her,

know where to find her-and my other kin as well."

Murtagh snorted. "This is an Old Place, and you're among the Fae. I'll send your letter by messenger. He'll travel through Tir Alainn. Your letter will get to your cousin safely, that I can promise you." He smiled at her as he led her toward the cottage closest to the sea. "You see? It wasn't such a foolish wish after all."

Chapter 16.

waxing moon "But I thought we were going north!" Gwynith almost wailed as she hastily

closed her canteen.

"We were. Now we're not." Selena attached her own canteen to Mistrunner's saddle and mounted. While Gwynith and the two escorts who had remained with them scrambled to mount their horses, she studied the Mother's Hills rising up in the distance. A hard day's ride would take them to the foothills. By midday tomorrow, she would reach her destination.

Written on water. Whispered on the wind. How long had the Crones been sending the messages? Should she take the time to call up a wind and send back an answer? No. Best to get there as quickly as she could.

Written on water. Whispered on the wind. But not in Tir Alainn. Barren air.

Barren water. Barren earth in another generation if the Fae didn't come to understand the reality of their land hidden above the world.

She shouldn't have gone back to the Fair Land after she went down to the Old Place and guested with Ella's family overnight. She shouldn't have listened to Gwynith's argument that they could travel north faster by using the bridges between the Clan territories-and also that it would be wise to let other Clans meet the new Huntress. Had Gwynith known staying in Tir Alainn would isolate her, would keep her from the information she could draw from the Mother's four branches?

She looked at the woman anxiously waiting beside her. No, Gwynith hadn't known, and her arguments for continuing to travel through Tir Alainn had been sound. Hopefully the Crones would see it the same way.

"Huntress?" There was a hint of wariness in Gwynith's voice. "If we're not

going north, where are we going?"Selena pointed. "There." She looked back and saw the tension in the escorts' faces. She looked at Gwynith and noticed how pale the other woman had become.

"We're- We're going into the Mother's Hills?" Gwynith asked, her voice

barely above a whisper."That's where I have to go," Selena replied. "It's not something you have to do." She didn't understand the Fae's reaction to the Mother's Hills, but she'd quickly realized where she came from had frightened the Clans who had been her reluctant hosts as much as what she could do. "It's just land," she added soothingly. Which wasn't quite true. Not after so many generations of witches had lived there, loved there, danced there, taken their last breaths there.

"It's the House of Gaian," Gwynith said.

"Yes, it is. Why does that bother you? You live with witches in your own

Old Place."

"Not so many. And-" Gwynith faltered. "What if they object to Fae being in their land?"

"Do no harm, and you'll come to no harm." Selena gathered Mistrunner's