“Hell,” he cursed under his breath when he headed into a cottage and found one of his best warriors lying on a cot, struggling to breathe. His skin was pale and drawn. Blood trickled down his face. Soothing him the best he could, Liam held his head in his lap, his eyes fierce when he looked Cian’s way.
He closed the distance, crouched, and held his warrior’s hand. “My friend.” He bit back tears at what the enemy had done to him. “I am here, and yewillbe all right.”
His soldier, someone he had broken bread with too many times to count, tried to speak, but took his last breath moments later. Cian pressed his forehead to his man’s forehead and murmured a prayer before he sank down with his back to the wall beside his brother.
Out of respect to the dead, they remained silent for a time until Liam finally ground out, “I will kill them all for this. Every last one who answers to Raghnall and Siobhán.” He shook his head. “Then I will end our enemy and his sorceress if ‘tis the last thing I do.”
Agreeing entirely but not able to find his voice quite yet, he clasped his brother’s shoulder and nodded.
“This is too much.” Liam rested his head back and waited for Cian to deal with his grief. The enemy had taken out a dozen of his men, friends all, and every last one had suffered horrible deaths. He had felt it the moment he touched this warrior.
Saw what he saw.
Felt what he felt.
Eventually, after many long minutes, he found his voice because he had to. Because he was the eldest brother, and Liam, whether he admitted it or not, looked up to him.
“Thisistoo much,” he finally managed. “And theywillsuffer. Him. Her.Bothof them. I will see to it personally.”
“As will I,” Liam ground out. “My warriors and I will be by your side every step of the way.”
He nodded and took a few minutes before he told Liam something he would not like.
“We need to talk, brother.” He knew this wouldn’t go over well, but it had to be said. Now rather than later. “About Madison and her sisters.”
“What of them?”
He told him what had happened in the armory. What he learned about Madison. The unbelievable gift,gifts, they had been given by the gods.
“It cannot be.” Liam sat up a little straighter. His brows swept up. “Surely ye jest?”
He shook his head. “I do not. ‘Tis true. Madison is an Unnamed One. So there can be no doubt her sisters are too, for ‘tis told such druidesses can only ever arise if they are amongst their own.”
“Ta, ‘tis told, but ‘twasfolklore,” Liam exclaimed. “Surely four of them were not born into the twenty-first century? Nearly a thousand years in our future?”
“I’m telling ye just that.” He told Liam again how Madison was drawn to the sword, then how it shrunk. How the emerald glow had bonded them. “Which means I need your help now more than ever.”
“Anything.” Liam nodded. “Name it.”
So he did, praying his brother saw the wisdom in it. Understood that it was the most important thing he had ever done. More so, that if he did not, then they, the unknown kings, would very likely fail in the eyes of the gods.
Simply put, Ireland would be lost forever.
