went with her willingly.
The music and dancing continued after Keegan fulfilled his obligations. Weary, he sat in his rooms, ale in hand, and related the confrontation to Mahon.
“And you don’t seem a bit surprised by any of this.”
“Myself, aye. But Aisling, after but one meeting, claimed this is where Shana was headed, and I should never doubt her instincts. Last spring they met,” he added, “when Shana rode to the west with her parents.”
“She might’ve told me her bloody instincts.”
“Would you have listened?”
He brooded into the fire, then shrugged. “Likely not, as I swear to you Shana was convincing. Not altogether true,” he corrected. “As I’d begun to see, or feel in any case, she was looking for more from me, and I’d intended to step away. But I’d have done a better job of it, I’m thinking.”
“Does it help if Aisling also said that while Shana might have strong feelings for you, she had stronger for the taoiseach?”
“And so I saw, or felt. How could she be reared in the Capital, where her father serves on the council, as dedicated as any could be, and not truly understand what it is to lead? Ah well, she’ll have no lack of choices to fill the vacancy, you could say.”
“And none have what she’d see as your status.”
Keegan gave Mahon a long look. “You didn’t like her at all, did you now?”
“Not true. Well,” he qualified, “not altogether true. She’s a charmer, and from all I’ve seen or heard, does her part, and is a good daughter to her parents as well. But as some do, she thinks more of how she looks or what trinkets she can barter for than things such as duty and the work it demands. So, in that, she’d never have suited such as yourself.”
Mahon rose, stretched. “I’m for bed. Don’t sit brooding too long.”
“I can’t. I need to break my fast down in the village, visit some of the shops and workshops and so on before I come back to sit in the Chair of Justice.”
“Would you want company for the first part of it all?”
“Gods yes.”
“Then I’ll ride down with you. The Smiling Cat does a fine breakfast.”
“Then there’s where we’ll have ours.”
He spent the morning in the village, then the rest of the day hearing complaints, petty bickering, requests for help. Small things—and he could be grateful there—though not small, he knew, for those involved.
He listened to a man who claimed his neighbor’s dog had howled through the night, and the neighbor who said he’d buried the dog, aged and well loved, two nights before the howling.
And the couple who reported they’d found one of their sheep burned black and gutted.
No small things these. He could and did replace the dog with a pup from a new litter, and the sheep out of the castle fields. But he knew the signs.
Dark crept closer.
The time he spent with soothsayers only confirmed what he knew. So he knew he could wait no longer.
At the edge of the deep woods, with the dark broken by starlight, he kissed his mother goodbye.
“I’ll persuade her to come back, as she vowed she would.”
“Tell your dragon to fly west.”
“Why?”
“You’ll want to bring her back there, where she’ll have some of the familiar. The place, the people, Marg. Not here as yet, Keegan. It’s jolt enough, isn’t it?”
“All right then. You’ve a point.”
“Mahon will bring your horse. I’ll come myself, for Samhain if not before. It’s past time I see the rest of my family. You’ve done well here, my dear love.”
He handed her the staff. “Until I return.”
“Until you return. Blessed be, Keegan.”
“Blessed be, Ma.”
Breen shut down her computer when she heard Marco come in. After a glance around the bedroom, she eased the door shut as she went out.
“How’d it go?” she asked him.
“My last day in retail. I can hope that’s forever.”
“No regrets?”
“I’m officially working for two people I care about more than anybody, you and Sally. Feels weird. Good weird. I’m going to take my fine self over to the coffee shop for my day job—that’s you—so you can have the apartment for writing time.”
“You don’t have to do that. We can—”
“Better for both of us.” He wandered to the front window. “And a hell of an easy commute.”
“I hear regret. Marco, everyone loved your web page design. I know they had a few suggestions, but—”
“Good ones. I’m cool there, Breen. It’s a way big step for me. And I’m going to miss the easy access