The House Of Gaian

mountain pass between Sylvalan and Arktos, one of the men said ‘we’ll be waiting for them.’ The barons assumed it was a sign of loyalty. The minstrel heard something different in the words.”
    “They hate their own rulers,” Selena said. “Hate them enough to kill them.”
    Aiden nodded. “The minstrel’s opinion was that the barons might reach the mountain pass, but he doubted any of them would reach home.”
    “I wonder how long the Inquisitors still in Arktos will survive once the army returns home,” Ashk said.
    “Not long.” Aiden carefully folded the letter. He might as well say the rest. “The bard who wrote the message to me witnessed the terms of surrender and said they were fair. But the elders from the House of Gaian told the Arktos men that if another witch in Arktos was harmed simply because she was a witch, they would bring down the mountains and bring in the sea.”
    Another awkward silence as everyone except Ashk avoided looking at Selena.
    “It’s not a bluff,” Selena finally said. “If the Grandmothers gather and bend their will to it, they can do exactly what they said. And Arktos would be no more than a memory of a place.” She looked around. “
    Would you have me lie to you? We are the House of Gaian. We are the Great Mother’s Sons and Daughters. We are the Pillars of the World. It is not just Tir Alainn that answers to our will. This world answers as well. It has always been so. It will always be so. You cannot defeat air or water or earth or fire. As long as they exist, we will exist. And as long as we exist, as we will, so mote it be.”
    Quiet and troubled, the barons said good night. Aiden wondered how easily the barons staying with Liam would sleep, knowing the Huntress was also a guest in his house. He wasn’t surprised that Ashk slipped her arm through Selena’s as the two of them walked away.
    “I’ll say our good-byes to Breanna and find Gwenn,” Lyrra said.
    Donovan’s smile looked a little brittle. Aiden almost asked him what was wrong—then remembered that Donovan was married to a witch.
    “She’s the same woman she was yesterday,” Aiden said.
    “I know,” Donovan replied. “My darling Gwenn.”
    “We don’t own the land,” Liam said quietly. “We’re just its stewards. It’s humbling to be reminded of that.”
    “And it’s troubling to be reminded that they’re different from us,” Donovan said.
    Pricked by anger, Aiden tucked the letter into his sash, next to his pipe. “Are they really so different, Baron Donovan? You’ve never sat beside the bed of a witch whose body was so broken by torture there was no hope of healing. You’ve never listened to her plead with you to let her die. You’ve never buried the rest of her family and then listened to the screams of the ghosts when the nighthunters attacked. They have the power to shatter the world yet they still live by a creed to do no harm.” He paused. “And maybe that does make them different from the rest of us.”

    “Are you saying that message didn’t frighten you?” Donovan asked.
    “Which part? Mother’s tits, man. Do you understand what the Wild Hunt means? Do you understand what happened in that woods? My people did that. And it’s only because I met Ashk and saw the Fae in the west that I’ve come to realize my people are meant to do that. But it still frightens me. And it comforts me, that that can be awakened inside the Fae. Your people have suffered, too, and I’ll not deny that. But your kind wasn’t slaughtered first, and none of your counties—and all the people who lived in them—disappeared when the witches died. You still have the land, and your people have a chance to rebuild their lives. We may never regain the pieces of Tir Alainn that were lost, and no one can bring back the dead. So if it comes to a choice, I would rather face the House of Gaian than the Black Coats.”
    He started to walk away when Liam placed a hand on his arm.
    “You’re forgetting something, Bard,” Liam said. “I’m not just a baron. I’m also a Son of the House of Gaian. I’m still a stranger to myself, still learning to accept this part of me that awakened a few weeks ago. Yes, we’re frightened. Things that have been hidden, or barely glimpsed, are suddenly being revealed, and we can no longer pretend those things don’t exist. In some ways, we’ve all been children.
    We can’t be children anymore.”
    Donovan scrubbed his hands over his face. “Well, if