The House Of Gaian

the natural world. Then again, she’d already known where to find the shining road.
    The Lord of Fire stopped in front of the shining road and turned to face him.
    “Your sister is a fool to challenge the Fae.”
    “My sister is many things, but a fool isn’t one of them,” Liam replied coldly. “If she drew a weapon against you, she had a reason. If she threatened you and your people, she had a reason. And that is reason enough for me to stand with her and stand against you.”
    “We are the Fae,” the man said angrily. “We are the Mother’s Children.”
    “The Mother’s spoiled children,” Liam snapped. “Mother’s mercy! In the next few weeks, we will all, most likely, be embroiled in a war against the Inquisitors and the eastern barons they control, and many good people will die in the fighting. We don’t have time for a race that sits above it all in their lofty world and only comes down to our world to play games and amuse themselves. We don’t have time for the temper tantrums of spoiled, useless children. So go back to your world and stay there. And stay out of our way.”
    The man’s expression changed, his face now full of understanding. He raised his hands in an open, giving gesture. “I understand how it feels to care for a sister. I understand how it feels to want her to be safe and happy.” His voice was deep, smooth, soothing. “Don’t you want your sister to be safe? If she came to Brightwood with me, she would be safe. The Fae would protect her from all harm. She would be cherished .. . and safe.”
    Liam swayed a little as he stared into the Fae Lord’s gray eyes and that voice wrapped around him.
    Safe. Yes, he wanted Breanna to be safe. There were nights when he had nightmares, when he saw again the things he’d thought were fever dreams during the days when Padrick, the Baron of Breton, had helped him get home after the Inquisitors had tried to kill him. There were nights when the nightmares were the same except that the faces belonged to women he knew—Breanna, Nuala, Fiona. Even his mother, Elinore. Yes, he wanted them to be safe. Wanted... With a little help, the Fae Lord could take them someplace safe, someplace ...
    “Don’t you want her to be safe?” the Fae Lord said in that so-persuasive voice.
    Oakdancer suddenly reared. Thrown off balance, Liam struggled to keep his seat. He felt strange, as if the world had been muffled for a moment and now reappeared with painfully sharp intensity.
    That persuasive voice was still talking about safety, still promising to keep Breanna safe.
    Persuasive. Persuasion . Wasn’t that one of the Fae’s gifts, the ability to use persuasion magic to convince people to do what they might not do otherwise? That bastard was using it on him in order to have Breanna, was using his own fear for her safety as a hammer against his will.
    Liam’s temper flashed. Heat flooded through him beneath his skin. He knew what it was now, knew he was drawing power from the Great Mother’s branch of fire. The heat cleared his head, burned clean in his heart. When he looked at the Fae Lord, that voice was no more persuasive than the eastern barons had been at the council meeting when they’d tried to convince the rest of them to follow their example and vote for the decrees that would turn all of Sylvalan into a horror for every woman who lived there.
    “What happened to the other ones?” Liam asked, breaking the Fae Lord’s repetitious assurance of safety.
    The Fae Lord studied Liam’s face and didn’t seem pleased by what he saw. “The other ones?”
    “If Brightwood is an Old Place, what happened to the witches who were there?”
    The man hesitated a moment too long.
    Liam leaned forward, the power filling him becoming uncomfortably hot. “Where were the Fae when the Inquisitors showed up at Brightwood the last time? Where was this protection in the other Old Places where witches have died? If it didn’t inconvenience the precious Fae, you wouldn’t give a damn if they died or not. No, Fae Lord, I wouldn’t trust my sister to a man like you. So go back to Tir Alainn and stay away from us.”
    The man glared at him. Then he disappeared and a black horse, with flickers of fire in its mane and tail, reared, wheeled, and galloped up the shining road.
    Liam took a deep breath and blew it out. He gathered the reins carefully, too aware that if he lost control of the power now, he could burn himself and Oakdancer. He didn’t dare try to