The House Of Gaian

than he’d had an hour ago.

 

     
     

Chapter 27

 

     
     

     
    waxing moon
     
    Despair. Fear. Anger. Determination.
    As Liam stood in front of his family’s home and watched Varden gallop away, those emotions churned inside him, a messy stew of feelings. He turned and hurried back to where Donovan waited near the stables with the horses and guards. If Varden had shown up a few minutes later, they would have already left to check the tenant farms. Of course, one of the huntsmen would have found them, but the delay would have cost them all.
    Maybe it wouldn’t make any difference in the end, considering what Varden had just told him.
    As he closed the distance to where Donovan waited, anger rose to the surface, coating the fear.
    “Mother’s tits, Donovan,” Liam said, his voice sharp. “Why are you still here?”
    Donovan gave him a mild look. “I was waiting for you. Didn’t seem right to visit your tenants without you.”
    “That’s right,” Liam panted. Muscle and bone clamped around his lungs and wouldn’t let him draw a full breath. “They’re my tenants. This is my land. You should have gone home days ago. Why didn’t you go home?” Despair churned up through the anger.
    “Gwenn insists there’s something she needs to do here and won’t leave. And I won’t go without Gwenn.
    ” Donovan stiffened. “What’s wrong, Liam? What did Varden tell you?”
    Liam rubbed his hands over his face. “Armed men, marching this way. Three hundred men. Maybe more.
    Not a whole army ...” But enough. More than enough. “Varden has sent one of his men back to Tir Alainn to warn the Fae ... and to get any other Fae at the Clan house who have any skill with weapons.
    He sent another man to Squire Thurston’s. Thurston’s closer to the village. He’ll have time to get the villagers assembled in case...”
    “In case?” Donovan narrowed his eyes. “Where are those men heading, Liam?”
    “Here. They’re heading right for us.” Liam closed his eyes. Despair would gain nothing. Anger was the better weapon, but the despair kept drowning anger’s fire before it had a chance to kindle. At least his mother and Brooke were at the Old Place. He didn’t have to worry about them being trapped here. And maybe there was a way to keep them safe. “Twenty Fae, your guards, and the two Willowsbrook guards assigned to protect me. Less than thirty men against three hundred.”
    “There are the men at the Old Place,” Donovan countered. “The villagers. The farmers.”
    “And leave those places vulnerable? It’s me they want.” If they take me, if they kill me, maybe it will be enough. Maybe they’ll leave my people, my family, alone .
    “That’s right. Eliminate the baron, eliminate the leader, and the county splinters into each village trying to defend itself instead of joining together into a large-enough force to repel an attack. They won’t stop with you, Liam. Oh, I’ve come to know you well enough during the time I’ve been here to know you’re considering it. A sacrifice offered to appease. But it won’t appease. They’ll keep on killing until they’re stopped—or until there’s nothing and no one left here to destroy.”
    “If you go now, you and Gwenn could stay ahead of them, could reach the Mother’s Hills before ...”
    Liam swallowed hard. Too easy to picture Old Willowsbrook looking like the places he’d thought were fever dreams when Padrick had helped him get home. Too easy to see faces, familiar and loved, on bodies that had been— No. He couldn’t think about it.
    “I don’t want to die here,” Donovan said quietly. “But we’re not fighting just to save Willowsbrook. We’
    re fighting to save Sylvalan. In the end, it doesn’t matter where I pick up the sword ... as long as I pick up the sword.”

    Hoofbeats. Heading toward them.
    The guards whirled, short swords in their hands.
    Breanna and Gwenn reined in—and Liam felt the heat of power under his skin, burning away despair and clearing his mind. He had a weapon at his fingertips that the enemy didn’t know about. A weapon that would help even the odds.
    Calm settled over him, although his heart still beat too fast as he walked over to the sister who had become dear to him.
    “You shouldn’t be here now,” he said, looking at Breanna. Hoping he’d be able to look at her again.
    “You’re not going to stand alone,” Breanna said quietly. “I will not let my brother stand alone.”
    They’d been