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And with the power blowing through her like a wind, she, like Keegan, lifted her free hand toward the cauldron and let it fly.
“Ignite,” they said together, “burn bright, eternal light.” It rose up, gold, pure, and strong, smokeless towers of flame. And its terrible beauty brought tears to her eyes.
“Shine forever for all to see,” they said. “As we will, so mote it be.”
On the beaches below, in the dooryards of cottages and the doorways of shops, cheers erupted.
“No tears now.” Keegan took a firmer grip on her hand. “This is not a grieving, but an honoring. A moment of strength, not weeping. Turn now and show them who you are.”
She struggled the tears back and did as he bid.
Keegan lifted his sword, and those below roared as the keen steel of Cosantoir gleamed like the fire behind them.
“For the brave and the innocent,” he shouted. “For Talamh, and for all!”
“I don’t know what to do now.”
“Because it’s already done.” He sheathed his sword. “Call your dragon. It’s time to go home.”
They cheered still as she and Keegan flew over the beach and away. She looked back, back at the fire that had come from her.
No, she wouldn’t forget.
She went to Marg first, and though the air held a chill, the bold blue door of the cottage stood open for her. Bollocks let out a joyful bark and raced inside.
When Breen followed, she found Marg in the kitchen, already getting the dog a treat. The fire crackled, the kettle steamed on the hob, and the scent of baking filled the air.
All her emotions rose up and tangled inside her. She thought: Home. And went into Marg’s arms.
“There now.” Marg held tight.
“I missed you. I’m so glad to see you.”
“And I you. But there’s more here.” Marg drew back to study Breen’s face. “You’ll tell your nan now. Come and sit. We’ll have some tea and ginger biscuits, and you’ll tell me.”
“I didn’t realize, not all the way, until I got here. It’s all been so much. That day—the fighting, the blood, Phelin, and all the rest. Sometimes it’s all a blur, and others every moment is like cut crystal. And the after, all the after. I wonder, Nan, how people go on. But they do. They do, even knowing they’ll have to go through it all again.”
“Sit now and let me pamper you a bit.” Marg heated the teapot with her hands. “When I lost my boy, when Eian fell, I wondered how I could go on. You were on the other side, with no memory ofme, and my son, slain by his own father. How could I live? How could I walk or talk or eat or sleep? But I did.”
Breen sat and watched as Marg put ginger cookies on a plate. She’d bundled her red hair up and wore trousers and a green sweater and boots that told Breen she’d been in the garden.
“You’re so strong.”
“I wasn’t. I was broken, in my heart, in my spirit, and near to it in my mind. I cut my hair,” she murmured, looking back. “Brutal short. In the night I’d wander out, into the forest, over to the bay, anywhere, aimless. Sedric didn’t think I knew he’d followed me in cat form, in case I needed him. We never spoke of it. He grieved, too. Eian was a son to him. For a time I wouldn’t, couldn’t share my grief with him, refused to acknowledge that grief shared is grief lessened, for both of us, Eian’s ma and da. I was selfish with my grief.”
“Nan.”
“I needed to be, for a time. I needed the selfish and the wandering. What’s needed is needed,” she said as she brought the teapot and cups to the table. “And patient, Sedric waited for me to turn to him, for me to let him turn to me. In time I did. So we walked, we talked, we ate, we slept. We lived.”
“I’m glad you had each other.”
“He’s the love of my life, and the love beyond this life we have. Now, tell me.”
Over tea and cookies, Breen talked of trying to offer comfort, helping to bring burned fields back to life, of sitting with Flynn and the storm that followed.
“I think… I wasn’t prepared, not equipped for all of it. When I look back, my life was sheltered and simple. No, I wasn’t happy, not really, but I got up in the morning and went to work, I came home, graded papers or worked on lesson plans. I had Marco, and Sally and Derrick, and I could, and did, just blend into the walls. Go unnoticed.”
“And here you’re not sheltered, and things aren’t so simple. You’re noticed and looked toward. Are you happy,mo stór?”
