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“He’s fine. He’s all right. He’s—”
“Is this their blood?” he murmured as he touched her face. “Dragon’s blood?”
She nodded. “Healed,” she began, but tears began with it. “Most, I think, most.”
“What’s this now?” He wiped at her tears, at the blood and soot.
“Sorry. I’m just tired. I should—”
But he gripped her hands again, and the tears wouldn’t stop.
“So many. There were so many. We couldn’t help them all. And I held one, so small, and gone, gone while his mother looked at me, hope dying out of her eyes. And when they cry, when they cry, Brian, it sounds like a thousand hearts breaking.”
He slid down to sit on the floor with her, so they held each other, wept together.
In the Capital, Keegan stood with his mother, his brother, with Mahon, with the council as the sea thrashed below. He’d learned all he needed to learn from the two, a male and female Sidhe, he’d taken alive.
“You lived like vermin in the caves of a world you betrayed. Near to a year now, so you say, stealing from the farms, from the villages. You fought against and killed your own kind in the battle waged here, then slithered off again to your caves to plan and plan what was done this day. Twenty-six dragons, twenty of them not yet grown, slain.”
“Odran commanded it, and Odran is god of all.”
When Keegan flicked a glance at the female, she sneered. It burned in him she had the gall to wear a warrior’s braid.
“He will burn you out as we burned the dragons this day. This glorious day! This is not your Judgment, Taoiseach, but Odran’s. And even this is not the place you sit in your chair and pretend to have power over any.”
“You have confessed your crimes. Though I’d call it bragging. But no, this is not Judgment, this is not the Judgment of the Fey. For there is an older law. The Dragon’s Law.”
The male’s eyes went wide. “We are of the Sidhe, and we demand the Judgment of the Fey. We choose banishment.”
“You are of Odran, and have rejected your tribe. You are no longer recognized as Fey, and your crimes, your sins are against the dragons. We stand by their law on this. We give them this respect.”
He brought down the staff. “So it is done.”
The male dropped to his knees, shouting pleas for mercy while the female spewed curses in a voice that shook with fear.
They’d chosen Hero’s mate. Keegan recognized her as she arrowed down, as his mother reached for his hand.
Hers shook once, then steadied as the dragon shot her fire.
It was quick, and Keegan supposed that was a mercy. From flesh and blood to ash in seconds.
And the dragon let out a cry that still rang with grief before she circled over the sea and flew west.
For a long moment, no one spoke, then Tarryn stepped forward.
“The Dragon’s Law, though not called on in my memory, is sacred. We have held to it. Let it be known Talamh will have a week of mourning, and the banner will fly at half-staff for a fortnight.”
“They earned their fate.” Flynn stared at the charred ash. “Though I hope never to see such a thing again.”
“I’ll take the ash to the Bitter Caves.”
“No.” Harken put a hand on Keegan’s arm. “I’ll do it. It’s enough you’ve dealt with. And I want my own bed tonight. I’ll see to this, then go home. You’ll be needed here, and I’ll see the valley knows what’s been done.”
“All right then. I’ve some arrangements to make. I’ll be sending for any rider who lost their dragon. There must be acknowledgment, and comfort given, such as it is.”
“Safe journey, darling.” Tarryn kissed Harken’s cheek. “Come now, Keegan, come now, the rest of you, come inside. We’ll lift a cup to the lost.”
But Keegan remained a moment longer, looking out at the lash of the night-dark sea.
