The Legends That Remain Page 6

  Her mind whirled with the images Ari’s tale had conjured. She’d seen a few battles in her time, but nothing on that scale. And how had she never learned of the immortals that had been sent away? She kept coming back to that fact, and the kernel of anger in her chest grew into a bag full of popped rage. The older gods had a lot to answer, especially Seth, and Bastet.

  Maybe it’s like the brothers? Or my time as the Unifier? An era long done, that has no bearing on the current existence, something to be put away and not contemplated or discussed? She wanted to make sense of what she could only see as her friends’ betrayal. It does have bearing, though. I’m being led to the very vessel Chaos has been seeking, and it is apparently broken.

  Ari couldn’t tell her why it wasn’t working properly, only that the Fomoiri had lost it to the Fir Bolg, then taken it back, then lost it again to the Tuatha, this time for a few centuries. They regained it, and kept it for quite a while, then once more lost it in the same battle where their leader, Balor, had been killed.

  After that, the men of ba had stolen away with the vessel and hidden it.

  Ahead of them Ari drew to a halt. He twisted and held a hand out to her. “I need to take you across this one. We are very skilled with twisting the points of the spirit, and while I am sure you could navigate the pathways eventually, goddess, I am just as sure you do not want to take the time.” He spoke in wonderfully fluid Egyptian, the words themselves music to her.

  She took his hand. “Take me.” The words were harsher than the creature deserved, but anger still rode her hard.

  “A stor.” Shar stepped up to her, one hand outstretched as though to stop her, and she twisted to glare.

  “Do not.” She held back her power, but he halted nevertheless, palms facing her. “Not yet, not right now.” Pressure built within her, and she needed to move, to get to the vessel. “We will talk later, but you need to not ‘protect’ me right now.”

  He gave her a slow nod and took a step back. His expression was neutral, oh so carefully arranged, and her chest tightened in something other than anger.

  We will fix it later. Right now there is something much more important. She gave Ari’s hand a gentle squeeze, and he pulled her forward.

  Chapter Six

  Dearest Bastet,

  There is too much to tell you. So much has happened today, and I have learned so many things. Things you did not tell me, yes, but also things I only thought legend and myth myself.

  If you get this, please answer. I… need to talk to someone.

  Please.

  - Bat, your friend

  p.s. – I laid a curse today! It was upon a very annoying not-man. He definitely deserved it.

  BAT

  Ari was correct—the men of ba were very good at twisting the paths of the soul. In the step it took to cross the threshold of their protections, she caught a glimpse of shining roads and beacons, each tugging at a part of her.

  Where she ended when they crossed the wards was… beautiful. She could think of no other word. Ari dropped her hand and stepped back, leaving her to stare in wonder at his home.

  The trees were massive, larger than any she had ever seen outside of photographs. Some bore rough, dark brown bark, and others had smooth silver. There were dark green leaves and feathered fronds. The prettiest sported fluffy white flowers that were so numerous the branches seemed to be pulled down.

  Built into the sides of these trees were small huts. They blended so well it took Bat a few seconds to spot them, and even then she wasn’t sure if she was seeing them correctly. A stream glinted in the distance, and the gentle sound of water acted as a soothing music. Shadows and sun played a game of chase on the path before her… It really was quite pretty… A patch of sunlit grass caught her eye. It looked like the perfect place for a nap… and she was so tired…

  “Do not be fooled.” Shar stepped up beside her as Ari disappeared once more.

  Bat shook her head, and the forest became once more just a forest, the enticement fading away. “It is a very good trick.” She took a breath and looked up to study her giant. He gazed at the flower-adorned trees, his good eye wide and shining.

  “The rowans…” he breathed. “I thought they were lost.”

  “No. Just hidden from the bunglings of men like you.” Ari popped up beside them, Finn in tow. “I’m bringing the bald one over next, he’s started poking at the frowning one, and the green haired fae is not helping matters.” He disappeared once more.

  Shar barely acknowledged those words, his gaze still trained on the trees. Bat took his hand, her earlier anger forgotten for the moment. “Are you becoming lost in them as well?”

  He shook his head. “No. But they are a beautiful sight, are they not?”

  She squeezed his fingers and Killer leaned into him. “They are.”

  Finn stepped up beside her, not touching, but close enough to tell her he was there. In another minute, Ari had crossed everyone over the wards. He started out once more, leading the way over a barely-there path.

  “Why do you say the vessel is broken? Not, what broke it, I know you do not have that answer, but why? What is it doing, or not doing?” she finally asked. She had been letting instinct guide her up to this point, but if she was to truly fix it, she would need more than a vision and a few pieces of vague information.

  Ari partially twisted back to peer at her without even pausing on the path. “It no longer offers true life. Those who come from it no longer have their full soul, but are mere shadows of themselves.”

  That fit with her vision.

  “It is true. Near the end of the last true war between the immortals, those revived by the cauldron were no more than animated corpses, used as meat and fodder for the fields of battle.” Finn’s quiet voice echoed with remembered horror. “When the final fight against Balor was won, we had to use the daggers…”

  Bat stopped and dropped Shar’s hand. The others stopped around her, and even the air stilled, holding itself in anticipation of her reaction. But as with the gold embossed card that still lay on the island in the pub’s kitchen, she did not know how she felt about this news. To kill someone in battle was different from murdering them to steal power that did not belong to you, true. And the blades had a purpose other than to kill. But using them in such a manner did not sit well with her. Nor did reviving a corpse without true life. Her stomach churned with both anger and disgust. Those blades… She needed to ask the Morrigan about them. All those lives lost, those souls unable to move on…

  She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath as her power surged in response to her roiling anger, seeking an outlet. No one moved, not even Cuchi, and for that at least she was grateful. Another breath. It was centuries past, there was nothing she could do about it now. A breath. She had ensured the one still at large in the world had been confiscated and locked away. And another inhale. She was about to do what she could to restore the vessel. One more breath.

  Bat opened her eyes and locked her gaze on Finn, the last one to speak. “We will see what we can do about fixing the vessel.” She turned her head and pinned Cuchi with a glare. “And then the men of ba will hide it away once more. It will not be used. Is that understood?”

  Each of them nodded, eyes wide. Ailis, of course, wore a savage grin. The fae bounded over to Bat and took her hand. “If they use it, will you smite them?”

  Bat relaxed and allowed a small smile to pull up her lips. Her friend was trying to lighten the tension, and she could appreciate it, to a degree. But Bat also wanted to make her wishes, and her opinion, very clear on this subject. “I will. I do not care what the Morrigan, or the other deities have to say. This is not a thing to be played with, or used for the whims of power. That it was abused so…” She shook her head as her power surged, pressing against them all. She pulled it in again, not wanting to waste it on something as simple as making a point.

  “We understand, goddess.” Finn bowed to her, a gesture of respect and even reverence. “I will en
sure your words are carried to the Morrigan.”

  “I am here as her messenger, Cumhaill.” Cu Chulainn crossed his arms and glared at the other guardi, though Bat noted he was careful to avoid her gaze.

  “Then please act like it,” Bat said.

  Cu Chulainn opened his mouth, paused, then closed it again and nodded.

  Hmmm… maybe he could be managed.

  “Goddess, please.” Ari darted a glance back over his shoulder, the direction they’d been going. “We must hurry.” His long fingers clenched then uncurled, then clenched again.

  She took a step forward then stopped. This man of ba had come into the pub and refused to leave. Then he had insisted they must go right that instant, only relenting briefly, and she herself had been swept up in the urge, but with no visions. Now, he was once more hurrying them along. The vessel had been hidden and broken for centuries. Why did one more day make a difference?

  And why am I only now thinking of this? Some of her urgency eased at the thought and she narrowed her eyes at the man of ba. “What do you know that you have not told us, Ari?” And how have you clouded my mind so effectively?

  Ari slumped. “You figured it out, didn’t you? I told Puchi it would not work, that we should not attempt to trick a goddess so, but he insisted…”

  “Tell me the rest. Now, Ari.” She kept her voice gentle on the last. There was something more than guilt lurking in his darting gaze and hunched shoulders. There was fear as well, but not of her.

  “There is not much more. Puchi woke this morning and said something was coming. That we had to be ready and the vessel needed to be fixed before it arrived. But he didn’t know what it was, exactly, or when it would come, so he insisted we had to bring you right away.” Ari kicked at the ground in front of him and lowered his gaze, for all the world like the child he cloaked himself as at the pub.

  Killer went to the ba man and sniffed at his neck, whining a little. The pup twisted back, looking up at Bat with the big begging-eyes he loved to use, and her heart melted.

  “I understand,” she said. Then she held up a finger. “But you will not do it again.”

  Ari nodded rapidly. “Yes, goddess. Of course. Not again.” He hunched further, so that his too-many-knuckled hands nearly dragged on the forest floor.

  Dub’s fists curled. “You forgive too easily.”

  She glanced at him from the corner of her eye. “And you will be glad for it, I suspect.”

  Dub grunted but didn’t say anything else.

  “Who is Puchi?” Finn asked, bringing them back to the topic. His arms were crossed over his chest and feet planted at shoulder width. He didn’t look to be moving any time soon.

  Had they all been taken in by this trick of glamour? Bat caught Ailis’s gaze, and the fae shrugged then gave her a small grin as if to say, I was just along for the ride. The others shifted, and Shar moved close to her once more, as they waited for Ari’s answer.

  “He is the chief of our band. He was chosen because he has the gift of future-seeing, though it is not a reliable ability. But we always listen.”

  Bat nodded. “Yes, you should always listen to those with the gift of the future, and of the past. I will accept this. Is there anything else we should know?”

  Ari shook his head.

  “Then—”

  “Bat, storeen, I do not trust—”

  She spun to face Dub, the anger that had waned a moment ago boiling up once more. “I am not your little treasure—” She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. She knew better than to speak out in senseless anger, for it always twisted the mind and poisoned words. And her swings of emotion were too hectic to be anything but senseless.

  But didn’t she also have the right to be mad at them? Did she always have to be reasonable, and forgiving? They’d been keeping secrets, even after telling her their home was hers.

  It was as though she was on one of those contraptions in the amusement parks. Roller coaster. I am riding a roller coaster of emotions.

  Dub’s expression closed off and he crossed his arms, matching Finn’s stance. “Goddess, then. I still do not trust that we have been told everything. He has led five immortals and one goddess about as though we were humans. Who is to say he is not still doing so with you?”

  She sucked in a breath as Dub’s words found their mark. She was very weak for a goddess.

  Shar hit the back of his brother’s head and Dub twisted to glare at him.

  “You don’t get to talk to her like that.” Shar’s tone was steel. “Nobody gets to talk to her like that.” He switched his glare to Cuchi, then Finn, before settling back on Dub.

  “I didn’t actually say anything,” Cuchi protested.

  Shar took a step toward him and stopped. He pulled in a breath and let it out, rolling his shoulders. “There’s a lot that’s happened today. Let’s just… get this done, then we can go back to the pub and sort out the rest, okay?” He turned his dark eyes on Bat. “Ye’re not the only one angry.”

  With his words, she once more got her own emotions under control. Shar edged closer to her and, after only a brief hesitation, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, careful to keep the touch light. She leaned into him, trying to tell her giant that she still welcomed him. She still welcomed all of them, she was just… frustrated. There was that word again. And the feeling was bleeding out through the holes that Finn and Ari and the brothers had poked in her contentment.

  She focused on Ari. The poor creature didn’t deserve to be admonished for her mess, or her weakness. “Lead on, Ari. Let us see what we can do for the vessel.”

  He turned and headed down the path once more, no longer quite as assured, but still with a speed that told Bat he did not lie about this Puchi’s urgency in sending Ari to get her. Dub fell in just behind her and Shar, and she could feel the weight of his gaze on her back.

  She thought back once again to the day two months ago when the brothers had come to her, and asked her to stay. To make this place her home.

  Home. She latched onto the idea. I am not ready to give this up, nor will I throw it away. She held onto the idea. It was what would steer her through the confusion. She and Dub, and the other brothers, would sort this out.

  After nearly ten minutes of walking, Shar pulled her to a halt. Lost in her thoughts, she’d failed to take full note of her surroundings. A figure lay in a shallow dip in the ground, partially obscured by shadow. Beyond it was another, half hidden in the trees. Blood pooled beneath them both.

  Whimpering reached her ears as Shar swept her into his arms and spun, putting their backs to the bodies.

  “What—?”

  Flash. A man with dark hair bound back in a braid, shadow hounds playing at his feet, bent over a clear bowl of water. In the water was their kitchen, and in the middle of the kitchen was the invitation, and it whispered their own words to the shadow man.

  She was half turned into him, and his broad shoulders prevented her from seeing more than a few tree trunks and tufts of grass. Her giant cupped the side of her head and pressed her cheek to his chest as figures sped past them in near silence.

  “Puchi, Puchi, can you hear me?” Ari’s voice carried to her seemingly from a long distance. “Who did this to you? Who?”

  “Do not look, a stor.” Shar’s heart thundered in her ear.

  “Shar—”

  “No. He said if we came now, then we avoided whatever his elder saw. If you did not see this in your visions, you should not see it now.” His arms tightened on her, lifting her from the ground, and she squeaked at the pressure.

  “Shar, my giant, I cannot breathe. Let me down.” She hugged the arms wrapped around her, making a lie of her order.

  His grip eased, but he did not put her down, and her legs dangled under her. She kicked a little, hoping to make her point gently. He either ignored the movement or did not notice.

  “Brother.” Dub appeared beside them. “Whoever was here has gone. I have searched. Finn has searched, a
s has Killer. All traces lead away.” He placed a hand on Shar’s shoulder. “Let her down, the elder wants to speak to her.”

  “You may come with me if you like,” she offered as she eased up on her own hug.

  “Brother. Goddess, remember?” But the word lacked Dub’s earlier stiff tone.

  Bat twisted her head and met the eldest brother’s lapis gaze. He frowned, yes, but it was the frown of concern, and it was for his brother. This must be something like what happened to Mell when she was shot. What memories did Shar hold inside?

  Half-surprised when there was no flash of vision, Bat turned her attention to calming the giant brother so they could investigate what had happened here. She stroked her hand over his forearm once, then again, setting up a soothing rhythm. “I have been alive for a very long time, my giant not-man. I have seen many things. I am no stranger to death.”

  She’d meant the words to be reassuring, but he stiffened against her, his muscles turning to stone. “We’re going back to the pub.” He shifted his grip, spinning her in his hold so that her front was cradled against him. Shar started down the path, then pulled up short.

  “You are going nowhere until we have determined exactly what happened.” Cu Chulainn’s voice was flat, devoid of his earlier arrogance.

  A low rumble built in Shar’s chest. “Move, ya braggart.”

  “I beat you once before, I can do it again.”

  “Ya beat me because we were trying ta retreat, and I thought the woman had become injured.”

  “So you admit your cowardice.” And the arrogance was back.