The House Of Gaian

to the small harbor that was a day’s hard march away from Breton.
    By tomorrow night, he, the Master Inquisitor, would cross the Una River to lead the Wolfram army and the remaining eastern barons under his control straight to Willowsbrook. He wouldn’t kill Baron Liam, not right away. He would take the time to soften Liam and his family. Liam’s last act would be to offer himself as meat to the gifts that would be left behind to haunt his people for years to come.
    The Sylvalan barons who defied him had no chance. He had the strength of Wolfram and Arktos to throw into the fight, as well as the eastern barons he controlled, while his enemies would have to splinter whatever strength they could gather in order to meet the three arms of his army as well as libel’s attack in the west.
    No, Adolfo thought as he left the cellar and went up to his room, the Sylvalan barons had no chance.
    And once they were eliminated, his armies would come together and crush the Mother’s Hills, destroying the wellspring of magic forever.

 

     
     

Chapter 19

 

     
     

     
    waxing moon
     
    The air was fresh, invigorating, rich with scents. The water tasted sweet and cool. The ground beneath Mistrunner’s hooves hummed with energy and life. She was home. Not her family’s land or the village she grew up in, but as soon as she entered the Mother’s Hills, she was home.
    Almost giddy with the pleasure of being back, Selena looked over her shoulder to see her companion’s reaction to being in the land that belonged to the House of Gaian. After a moment, she returned her attention to the trail in front of her; her pleasure dimmed.
    Gwynith and the escorts were obviously uneasy about traveling through the hills. They rode with their shoulders hunched, as if they expected to be attacked at any moment.
    The trail forked. Selena took the wider branch, then gestured for Gwynith to come up and ride beside her.
    “Why are you so uneasy?” Selena asked. “You live in an Old Place. This can’t be that much different.”
    “It is,” Gwynith said, her voice just above a whisper as she glanced fearfully at the trees around them. “
    There is power in the Old Places. You can feel the difference in the land and the air the moment you cross the boundary and ride out on land that belongs to the humans. But this place ... It’s so potent , Selena. I feel reluctant to touch the land or drink the water for fear I might offend someone—or something —here.”

    Selena looked around. “I suppose it is potent,” she said after some consideration. “There are so many of us who live here, so many generations who have served as the Great Mother’s vessels, taking in that power and giving it back again. I felt the lack of it when I traveled into the midlands, but I never realized other people would fear what they felt here.”
    Gwynith gave her a pale smile. “In a way, it’s not so different from standing before one of the more powerful Fae. One just gives one’s manners an extra polish.”
    “You can still go back,” Selena said gently. She studied the other woman. “Or is staying with me in order to send reports to the Hunter important enough that you’ll ride your fear to the end of the road?”
    “Oh, that’s not the only—” Gwynith looked away, her face losing all color. “I truly did want to help you.”
    “I know. That’s why you’re still with me.” She waited until Gwynith looked at her. “It must be difficult to have your loyalty divided.”
    “It would have been ... if I’d had to make a choice. But you and the Hunter want the same thing, so I haven’t had to make a choice after all.”
    They didn’t talk after that, simply rode until the trail came to one of the main roads. It was tempting to turn south toward friends and family. She hadn’t been gone that long, but she yearned to be a daughter again, just for a day, to regain the sense of who she was and where she came from before resuming the challenge of shaking the Fae out of their complacent way of life.
    Instead, she turned north. The Crones had summoned her.
    An hour later, she and her companions cantered down the lane that led to the sprawl of buildings and gardens where she and Rhyann had spent a summer in order to learn from the Crones, the Grandmothers of the House of Gaian.
    One of them was waiting for her at the edge of the open courtyard, resting lightly on the cane Selena suspected was still carried so that it would be easily at hand