Idril and Deo exchanged glances. “My father, I believe, will be sailing down the coast. I sent him a message as soon as we heard you were spotted heading eastward along the Great East Road, and he planned to raise whatever company he could and follow.”
“And the queen?” I asked, pushing down the sorrow that threatened to swamp me. Later, I promised myself, I would send prayers to Kiriah for Sandor. But I knew the priestess would not welcome dramatic professions of grief. I could almost hear her telling me not to lose focus, and get on with what was important.
Another glance was exchanged, but this time Quinn and Ella were in on it, as well.
“Why do I have the feeling that you are about to impart something that, while not nearly as devastating as your news of Lady Sandor, will be almost as shocking?” Hallow asked in a voice that was both weary and yet resigned.
“The queen is…indisposed,” Deo finally said, abruptly getting to his feet and moving over to peer out the window, his hands clasped behind his back.
Silence fell as we all waited for him to continue.
He didn’t.
“Indisposed how?” Hallow asked, turning to Idril for the answer.
She made an indefinable gesture. “It’s difficult to say. She is…much changed. I thought at first it was because she was amongst her kin, but later, I thought it was because of Deo obliterating half of Deeptide.”
“It was neither of those,” Deo said, turning to face us. His expression was as grim as his voice. “She has been bewitched.”
The silence that followed that statement was so thick, it could have been cut with my eating dagger.
“Bewitched how?” I asked, moving when Hallow shifted uncomfortably. I was mindful that although he might want the comfort of us snuggling together, his wounds meant he needed a little extra care. Accordingly, I slid off his lap to return to the wooden stool, my gaze on Deo.
“And by whom?” Hallow asked, giving me a sad little look at our separation.
Deo was silent for a few minutes before he made a disgusted noise in his throat and reclaimed his chair. “Her own kin. How, I know not. I am not wise in the ways of the water talkers. But Idril is correct in that she’s changed since she went there to recruit her kin to help her retake Starfall. She refused to leave when my father would have come with us to find you and help you free Allegria. Have you ever heard of my mother refusing a fight?” He shook his head, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees while he stared into the fire. Idril scooted her chair closer, placing one hand on his arm.
“Your mother is the greatest warrior of this age,” Hallow said simply.
Deo nodded.
“For her to spurn a cause that directly affects her is…” Hallow stopped, clearly trying to find the words.
“Odd,” Idril said.
“Sinister,” I suggested.
“Indicative of something unprecedented,” Hallow finished. “A spell, you say. Hmm.”
“Know you something of these waterwalkers?” I asked.
“Water talkers, my heart,” he answered, his gaze shifted inward. It was obvious that he was sorting through his prodigious memory. “Some call them water witches, but although Master Wix had met some, he knew little about them. They do not share their magic with outsiders.”
I rubbed my head, the strain of the last few hours pressing down on me like a leaden weight. “I don’t want to sound callous, but does the loss of the queen and her army affect our ability to remove Nezu from Alba? Obviously, Deo will want her de-spelled, and back in Starfall, where she is away from the influence of the water talkers, but I don’t see that the loss of her sword arm will directly impact us here and now.”
“Perhaps not,” Hallow said slowly, still obviously thinking things through. His ability to weigh situations was one of the things I admired most in him. Where I leaped in without thinking, he much preferred to study situations from all angles before committing himself to a course of action. Suddenly, he looked up and leveled a gaze at Deo. “When you left Kelos, you said you were anxious to retake Starfall in your mother’s name. What has happened to change that—your mother’s current situation? Or something else?”
“I had Darius,” Deo answered with a shrug. “I took him to my mother. I did not know at the time that another remained in Starfall, manipulating appearances to hide his true intentions.”
I got lost a bit in the pronouns, but decided Deo was referring to Lyl.
“And now Lyl has slipped away,” Hallow said slowly, his eyelids drooping even more. I wanted badly to tuck him into bed, where his body could rest and allow Eva’s herbs to heal the worst of his hurts, but knew he would not be willing to sleep until a plan of action had been made.
“It was not my fault he ran,” Deo said with another of his scowls. “The man is a coward. I can hardly be blamed for that.”
“Is Lyl going to be a threat to us in the next few days?” I asked Deo.
“I doubt it,” he said, glancing at Hallow, who shook his head.
“If he’s been run off without most of his army, it’s doubtful that he will wish to strike again. Not without more men. He knows Aarav and Tygo…” Hallow stopped, making a choking noise. “He knows Aarav is with me, and I have no doubt he saw Allegria, and of course, he is well aware you are here, Deo. No, he would be foolish beyond belief to attack without some sort of army behind him, and of all the things I can say about him, I would not number foolish among them. We will be safe enough until he gathers a new force.”
“Then I suggest we let go the subject of Lyl, just as we postpone our concerns about the queen right now.” I eyed Idril, who was murmuring soft things in Deo’s ear. “And, for that matter, Jalas. Nezu is the one who poses the greatest threat to the well-being of Alba. Nezu and the Eidolon.”
Idril straightened up and gave me a lofty look, but after a moment, she nodded. “The priestess is right.”
“I’m delighted you recognize that fact,” I told her, more than a little surprised. Idril and I seldom saw eye-to-eye, although I had realized over the last few months that she wasn’t quite the frail, delicate ornament I had first thought her. “And I appreciate the support.”
“The situation with the queen is unfortunate, but I cannot see that it will harm us in any way, and Deo handily defeated Lyl—”
“Hey!” I said, outraged on Hallow’s behalf. “Hallow, his men, and the villagers did the bulk of the work. All Deo did was come along behind and scare everyone half to death.”
Deo adopted a modest expression. “Scaring people is what I do best.”
“That is not even close to being true,” Idril said, giving him a long look that had him doing a double-take.
Ella muttered a rude word that shocked me for a few seconds until I realized she had intended it for Quinn. I made another mental note to have a long talk with her. She wasn’t exactly an apprentice, but I felt a certain amount of responsibility for her, since she was young and untried.
Quinn leaned over to whisper something in her ear. She made a show of ignoring him, caught sight of me watching her, and immediately straightened up, donning an expression of rapt attention while Deo held forth on all of the many and varied things he intended to do to Lyl when he next saw him.
“I particularly applaud the inventiveness of your tortures,” Hallow said, his words coming more slowly now. “The idea of stuffing him into an archery butt before wheeling it over to a training ground so that he could be killed slowly by his own men is particularly bone-chilling. I had no idea your mind ran to such heinous depths.”
Deo nodded toward me. “Allegria gave me that idea last year. It was right after you joined us, and she still had doubts about your intentions.”
When Hallow slid me a long look, I opened my eyes wide, smiling with as many teeth as I could show. “It’s just something that occurred to me one day.”
“Mmhmm. I agree that splitting our focus is going to weaken our ability to banish Nezu, so assuming Deo agrees, perhaps we can move on to making a plan to do just that.”
“Do you propose we all enter the spirit realm?” Quinn asked, frowning when Ella, with quick little worried glances my way, moved off to fetch another ewer of wine. “I will admit to being curious about it, since I’ve yet to be dead long enough to find myself an inhabitant there, but I don’t know that charging in and demanding to see Nezu is going to be the best of ideas.”
“No,” Hallow said, blinking a few times. I had a feeling he was about to fall asleep. “That would not be wise. From what Allegria has said, I don’t believe he suffers a loss of his powers while he’s there, unlike other living beings. We will need to lure him out somehow.”
“How?” Quinn asked, looking at each of us in turn.
“We could simply send in a note that we are waiting for him,” Idril offered, brushing a speck of dirt from Deo’s sleeve. “He seemed to dislike Deo quite a bit. Perhaps he would emerge from his hiding spot to face him.”
“Oh, I have no doubt that he wants his revenge on Deo,” I mused, my hand on Hallow’s. His fingers curled around mine briefly, but he didn’t stroke my hand as he normally did. “But I’m not sure that’s the path to take.”
Hallow glanced at me. “You have an idea?”
I hesitated a moment, assessing him. His eyes were glazed now, and I knew he desperately needed sleep. “Yes. I got it from the Eidolon.”
He blinked a few more times, as if that was helping his mind work. “What, exactly?”
“Nezu made some sort of a pact with the thane to destroy the All-Father if Nezu summoned him. Why Nezu wants the All-Father dead is not clear to me, but what is clear is that if such an act makes Nezu happy, then we must do everything we can to stop it.”
“Then we fight the Eidolon again. I approve of this plan.” Deo looked pleased. “So long as this time, they do not escape into the spirit world.”
“Not fight them, no.” I bit Hallow’s shoulder. He’d been starting to topple over to the side and jerked himself upright, swearing under his breath. “We’re not going to let the thane fulfill Nezu’s deal.”
“How can we stop him?” Idril asked, frowning slightly. “Do you plan to first destroy the thane and his army, and then do the same to Nezu?”
“We won’t have to do either. That’s the beauty of the plan.” I heard an intake of breath next to me. Hallow, quick-witted as he was, no doubt saw where I was headed. Everyone else looked puzzled, so I smiled and added, “We’re going to summon the All-Father ourselves.”
Silence greeted that statement, a silence that I felt did not reflect well on my idea.
“And then?” Deo glanced at the table where the broken moonstone rested.
“What do you think? We’re going to ask him to help us banish his son to somewhere he can’t hurt anyone. If not Eris then…then…well, somewhere. Maybe that island you went to?”
“He would get off that in an instant. The only reason he didn’t escape Eris was because of the protections bound around it,” Quinn pointed out.
I made a face, but agreed it wasn’t a great suggestion. “I’m sure we can think of somewhere safe if we all put our minds to it.”
Deo still frowned at the moonstone pieces. “Why do you think the All-Father would help us? He destroyed the Eidolon, and swore to destroy everyone on Alba.”
“Mayam told me something about that, but it has to be wrong.” I shook my head, unable to believe it. “He created us—or rather, Alba, and the first peoples who lived here before we were brought forth.”
“Those who create often feel justified in destroying that which does not meet their standards,” Idril said softly, her fingers tracing a bit of embroidery on her sleeve.
“He wished to destroy all that existed, yes,” Deo answered me. “That is why the twin goddesses had him banished. I do not see that the All-Father will want to help us save the very same people he wished to eliminate.”
“How do you know this? I heard about it from Mayam, and she called me stupid for not being conversant with the ancient lore of Alba. Does everyone know about the All-Father but me?” Five pairs of eyes looked at me with mild astonishment. I made another noise of irritation. “Kiriah’s blessed knuckles, Sandor has a lot to answer for, keeping us in the—” I stopped speaking, my heart feeling as heavy as lead at her loss.
“While it is true that summoning the All-Father might serve as a lure to bring Nezu out of the spirit world, beyond that, I can see no good coming of such an act,” Hallow said carefully, his eyes on mine. “He is far more dangerous than Nezu, and to have two such gods loose on Alba with destruction on their minds…” He shook his head, listing slightly.
“More importantly, how are we to defeat Nezu with one of the moonstones broken?” Deo asked, pinning me with a pointed look. “We three together are powerful, but I had counted on having my mother’s forces behind us, and now that option is not open to us. If you are no longer blessed by Kiriah, then we are even weaker. We need at least one of the moonstones.”
“Surely there are other ways to defeat Lord Nezu than by means of the moonstones,” Ella said, taking me by surprise. She seldom contributed to group conversations, obviously feeling as if she lacked the experience to offer a comment. She turned now to face me, her brows drawn together. “How was Nezu originally banished to Eris?”
“The twin goddesses joined their powers together to confine him to Eris,” Hallow said tiredly, his shoulders drooping. I swore to myself at the pain etched on his face. This long drawn-out discussion was doing him no good.
“Oh.” She looked disappointed, glancing hesitantly at me. “I don’t suppose…if you made entreaties to Kiriah Sunbringer, and perhaps Lord Hallow or Lord Deo did likewise to Bellias…?”
“No,” I said quickly when she let her sentence trail off. “Entreaties made by me will have little effect on Kiriah. She might have listened to Sandor, perhaps, but not me.”
“Not to mention the fact that we are all to blame that Nezu has been released from his prison,” Hallow said, stifling a yawn. “Even if the goddesses were of a mind to hear our pleas—and I agree with Allegria that it’s doubtful they would—it’s up to us to find the solution.”
“There’s my boon…” Deo said slowly, his gaze on Hallow, but I had a feeling he was looking inward.
“Your boon!” I said, sitting up straight. “I forgot all about that! Do you still have it? Where is it? Is it with you? Is it something that we can use? I can’t believe I completely forgot it.”
Deo gave me a look that held both amusement and annoyance. “Are you done?”
“Not quite,” I said, returning his look. “What exactly is your boon?”
“Yes, Deo, tell us about this boon. I don’t believe I’ve seen it,” Idril said, looking thoughtfully at me. “And how is it that the priest knows of it?”
“Everyone at the temple knew about it. It was a gift to Queen Dasa upon Deo’s birth, and given into the care of Sandor when he was a babe and sent to live with Lord Israel,” I answered, my gaze on Deo.
He rose and went to the door, checked to be sure no one was lurking outside it or the open windows before taking up a position in front of the fire, facing all of us. “It is as Allegria says—the boon was a gift to be bestowed when the Fourth Age dawned. It symbolized the peace of Alba, and the joining of the Fireborn and Starborn.”
“But the Fourth Age didn’t happen until last year,” Quinn said, rubbing his chin. “There was a battle in Starfall—we heard about it from a traveling merchant—when the Harborym were driven from Genora.”
“That was Deo’s doing,” Idril told the captain with obvious pride.
I stifled the urge to protest that Hallow and I had had as much to do with it as he did, but I was far too worried about the two pink spot
s that had appeared on Hallow’s cheeks. I badly wanted to get a fever draught into him before I poured him into bed.
“It was not my doing alone,” Deo said, his gaze back on the moonstones. “Without Allegria and Hallow, that battle would have gone much differently.”
“That is old history,” I said, wishing I could hurry him along. “What is the boon, and how can we use it?”
He looked up at me, one shoulder rising and falling in a half-shrug. “It is a gift from Bellias Starsong. The boon is her promise of aid at a time when it is most needed.”
I stared at him in surprise. Even Hallow shook himself awake, gazing at Deo with amazement. “A boon from Bellias herself? You are favored, indeed, Deo. And I agree that using the boon will be exactly what we need. Alone, lacking the moonstones and your mother’s army, we would have difficulty banishing Nezu even if Allegria had Kiriah’s blessing and her full complement of powers. But with Bellias lending her aid…yes, that should just do it.”
“Then we are agreed,” Deo said, nodding. “We will challenge Nezu, and I will invoke Bellias’ aid via my boon. Together, we will banish him to whatever location the goddess feels suitable.”
“Yeees,” I drawled, my mind spinning and flailing like a bumblepig rolling downhill. “But where are we to challenge Nezu?”
Deo gave another half-shrug. “You said yourself he was at the Altar of Day and Night, and that he plans on summoning the All-Father. There is no other place he can do so. We will meet him there, and banish him before he can issue the summons.”
I could think of any number of problems with that scenario, but one look at the love of my life made the decision for me. “Hallow needs to rest,” I said, rising from the stool. “We will continue this discussion in the morning.”
“No,” he said, giving a little shake of his head when I tried to urge him to his feet. “I would that we make our plan tonight. We don’t know how long it will be before Nezu summons the All-Father for the Eidolon. We must have our plans in place before Kiriah rises.”
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