Naamah's Blessing

alive
.
    For the second time in my life, I jerked away from my lady Jehanne’s touch. I found myself on my feet without knowing how I’d gotten there. She sat without moving on the edge of the bed. I stared at her, aghast.
    “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
I shouted at her. “Gods, Jehanne! I could have kept your husband from killing himself! I could have kept your daughter from becoming an orphaned political pawn!”
    She shook her head with regret. “I couldn’t.”
    “
Why
?” I demanded.
    “There are rules, Moirin,” Jehanne said in a gentle tone. “I don’t always understand them, but there are. I wasn’t allowed to know until now. It was his fate. Desirée’s depends on you now.”
    I paced the room in a fury. “Thierry’s alive? You’re sure? You’re
sure
?” She nodded. I fetched up before her, flinging my arms wide. “So what am
I
to do about it?”
    “You’re to cross the sea to Terra Nova, find Thierry, and bring him back,” Jehanne said simply.
    Tears of frustration stung my eyes. “That’s all?”
    “Yes and no.” Her exquisite face was grave. “I don’t know, Moirin. Not all of it. Only what I’m allowed to. But this business with Raphael… that’s where it’s meant to be concluded.”
    That caught me up short, my
diadh-anam
blazing like a bonfire in my chest.
    Raphael de Mereliot.
    He had vanished along with Prince Thierry and the rest of the expedition, and my destiny was bound up with his. It always had been, and it remained unfinished. Of course he was alive, too. In my grief, I hadn’t even thought of it. I sighed and sat beside Jehanne on the bed. “I swore an oath to protect your daughter, my lady,” I murmured. “Would you have me forsworn?”
    “Never.” Jehanne laced her fingers with mine, raising one hand to kiss it. “But you can’t do it from here.”
    “I can try!” I protested. “Better here than afar!”
    “You’ll fail,” she said with candor. “Moirin, you’re a bear-witch of the Maghuin Dhonn. You’ve done well, so very well, to court favor among certain quarters of Terre d’Ange.” She hugged my hand to her breast. “But it’s not going to be enough. There are too many forces arrayed against you, too many folk eager to resent you. If you stay, you will try and fail, and Desirée…” Her voice faltered. “You saw how she’s been since her father’s death? With the spark of life crushed out in her?”
    I nodded.
    “
That
will be her fate, if you do not bring her brother home.”
    I sighed.
    I paced the room.
    “I’m scared,” I admitted at last. “Oh, Jehanne! I’ve already gone so very far, far from home.”
    “I know.” She stood and wrapped her arms around me, leaned her brow against mine. “Gone and returned, my beautiful girl. Can you not do it once more?”
    The memory of the Maghuin Dhonn Herself turning Her face away came to me, Her vast muzzle blotting out the stars. Behind Her oceans beckoned to me through the stone doorway, a multitude of sparkling oceans to cross.
    “I will try,” I promised.
    Jehanne kissed me tenderly, her lips soft and lingering on mine. “That is all I can ask of you.”
    All too soon, I awoke with a gasp, cast out of my dream and into the grey dawn of reality. My
diadh-anam
continued to blaze within me. Bao was awake, staring at me with wide eyes and parted lips, and I knew he felt it, too.
    “Moirin?” he said. “What passes here?”
    “Thierry’s alive,” I whispered.
    “How…?” Bao ran one hand over his disheveled hair, which stuck out in every direction. “Jehanne.” I nodded. He cast an unerring glance toward the west. “And we’re meant to go and fetch him, I suppose.”
    I swallowed hard, fighting tears. “So it seems.”
    “Gods, Moirin!” he grumbled, clambering out of bed with a yawn. “Could your destiny possibly be any more burdensome? And what is it with D’Angeline princes going missing? Didn’t you tell me a long story about another one who couldn’t manage to stay put?”
    It made me laugh through my tears. “Bao…”
    “It’s all right.” He pulled on a pair of breeches and came over to kiss me, strong hands gripping my shoulders. “Moirin, if it is what must be done, it is what we will do. But we can only take one step at a time, and today you’re addressing the members of Parliament.”
    “What’s the point?” I said dully. “Jehanne told me I’m bound to fail.”
    “Does Jehanne know everything?” he asked. “Did she tell