The House Of Gaian

second.
    “Sometimes,” Gwynith said cautiously. “They need to rest from the labors of the world, too. And one time, when my cousin’s mother got lung fever during a bad winter, she stayed at the Clan house in Tir Alainn for a month to make sure she had recovered. The Clan matriarchs invite her to spend a turn of the moon with them in Tir Alainn every winter to help her stay strong and healthy.”
    And that kindness is why your piece of Tir Alainn remains strong and healthy. A witch’s roots are in the real world. She would draw in the strength from the Mother’s branches and breathe it out again. As Tir Alainn gives her the peace to renew body and heart, she renews Tir Alainn.
    Selena walked around Gwynith again to reach the dressing table. She could have asked Gwynith to move, since the woman had chosen to stand in the one spot in the room that put her in the way no matter what Selena was trying to reach, but Gwynith was so distressed right now, even a simple request might bring on a collapse.
    “You said the western Clans are willing to defend Sylvalan?” Selena asked as she began packing her toiletries in the other saddlebag.
    “They were gathering at the Hunter’s command when I left to come to this Old Place.”
    The Hunter. Did the Fae remember who the Hunter was, or were the Crones in the Mother’s Hills the only ones who still knew the old stories and passed them down to be remembered?
    “The Hunter is in the west?” Selena asked carefully. She went back to the dressing table for her comb and brush. She stayed there, moving her hand idly to look occupied while she watched Gwynith in the mirror.
    ‘The Hunter is traveling east,“ Gwynith said.
    “With Lady Ashk?”
    A hesitation. Too long a hesitation.
    Selena liked Gwynith, but how much she trusted her now depended on this answer.
    “Lady Ashk is the Hunter,” Gwynith said reluctantly. She glanced over, her eyes meeting Selena’s in the mirror.
    Selena sat on die dressing table stool and turned to face Gwynith. “The Green Lord is a woman? ”
    “The Green Lady,” Gwynith said, bristling.
    Quick to defend her, aren’t you ? Selena thought. And proud of her — and wary of her as well. As you should be .
    “I imagine that twisted the Fae’s tail in a knot when she ascended and took the old Lord’s place.”
    “The Fae outside the west don’t know,” Gwynith said quickly. “If they had known, the Lords of the Woods outside the west would have refused to accept that she’d ascended and would have kept challenging her. And after she’d married Baron Padrick and was heavy with their first child, she couldn’t safely accept a challenge, could she? So she stayed in the west, and ... the Clans in the west listen to Ashk.”
    Selena held up a hand to stop Gwynith. “Wait. The Hunter is a woman who, somehow, hid the fact that she was a woman from the rest of the Fae because she married a gentry baron and had his child?”
    “Children,” Gwynith said, sounding sulky. “They have two. And it’s not as strange as it sounds because Baron Padrick is also Fae.”
    Selena laughed. She couldn’t help it. “I’m sorry,” she gasped between giggles. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend, but... Mother’s tits, Gwynith, even a storyteller couldn’t come up with something like that and expect to be believed.”
    Gwynith tried to look offended, but ended up smiling. “I know.”
    Selena realized she no longer felt any heat beneath her skin. Good. The laughter had banked the last bit of temper. Now she could deal with the rest. “What happens to the Fae will be decided at the full moon.
    But I don’t think the western Clans need to worry. However, it might be in everyone’s best interest if the Hunter and I can meet before then.”
    “I’m not sure if she was headed straight to Willowsbrook,” Gwynith said. “But one of the escorts may have been told her direction since she would want news about the Lady of the Moon. I could send an escort with a letter, asking her to meet you at Willowsbrook before the full moon, if that is acceptable to you.”
    “That is acceptable.” Selena walked over to the bed, tucked her comb and brush in the saddlebag, and secured the straps. She reached to lift the saddlebags, then let her hand drop. “Didn’t the Fae in the west disapprove of the Hunter taking a gentry baron for a mate, even if he is Fae?”
    Gwynith gave her an odd look. “No, we didn’t disapprove. But then, we know