Page 9 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

Tears pricked her eyes and I reached up, ready to brush them away. I didn’t want this. I wanted my mother. Sweet and gentle, soft as the down on a bird’s breast. But when I reached up, I saw just how far away she was from me. Distant as a goddess, and just as remote, she stared down at me now, a picture of maternal suffering.

“I didn’t want this for you, Darcy. I begged, pleaded with her for another way, but…” Her lip trembled as she bit back a sob, something she would have mastered living under my father’s tyranny. “You’ll know when it comes, my love, and when it does, know that I love you. I will always love you.”

Of course, that’s when she began to fade, whisking away everything I’d ever wanted, needed. I got to my feet then, striding after her, then running. But no matter how hard I tried, I got no closer, every moment of trying, needing, wanting, longing putting her further and further away.

“Mother!” I shouted as she began to fray like a well worn piece of cloth. “Mother!”

I jerked awake and so did my mates at the sound of my cry cutting through the air.

“Darcy?” Dane rasped, his voice corroded with sleep, but I couldn’t answer him. My eyes filled with tears and as they slid down my cheeks, my throat closed over.

“She had a nightmare,” Gael explained, wedging me in tighter against him, but it was his hands in my hair that killed me because they felt just like hers. “Shh, love. You’re safe here, with us.”

I wanted to believe that. Gods, how I wanted to. But as I shook off the remnants of the dream, coming back to a strange room, the sun much lower in the sky now, I heard the harsh caw of a raven outside the slender window.

5

“We can start moving people into the citadel,” Dane told Pepin.

After we’d eaten and dressed again, he’d suggested we check in with her to find out what kind of impact the news of the Reavers had had. So now we sat around one of the tables inside the strange complex within her house, but my focus wasn’t on her response. She talked to Dane, the others, about the rush of support, the beginnings of a movement to demand the king deal with the issue. My attention was on her, tracing the narrow shape of her face and seeing another overlaid over it. She noticed this, winking at me, before explaining further and that’s when I straightened up.

“Are you going to tell them or am I?” I asked, and that’s when the world stopped.

It was the quiet that got to me first, forcing my eyes to flick around the room to work out why, and it became immediately apparent. Pep grinned, her teeth way sharper and shinier than I remembered. Perhaps because now there appeared to be a shadow across her eyes, even though she wasn’t wearing a headdress.

“What…?” I gasped out the word as I stared at everyone else, frozen still like statues, mid conversation or step. The whole world had paused. Everyone but us. “What did you do?”

“You’ll need to narrow that down,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “I’ve been nursemaiding a future queen, stirring up a rebellion and managing the sudden influx of refugees to the city.” She stopped to take a sip of her beer. “Which ‘what’ do you want first?”

“How about what you are?” I snapped.

“You know,” she said, setting the tankard down.

“The M—” I shook my head definitely, not even able to finish that ridiculous statement, even as I saw evidence of her power around me. “The Maiden?” My voice was flat now, my scorn evident.

“One part of the triple goddess,” she replied. “The one not so tied down with responsibilities. My godhead sits lightly on me, so I can be a lot more… hands on in my interventions.” The smile faded then and the seriousness of her expression made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. “We’re all intervening way too much nowadays, as you know.”

When she stared into my eyes, I wonder if she saw the same golden headed raven, just like I did.

“We’re out of balance, were thrown out of balance when the humans came with their patriarchal pantheon, trying to push out our worship.” Her teeth snapped together then as a low growl trickled between them. “As if we would just lay down and accept that. But it’s not them that is the problem, it’s her.”

“The Morrigan…”

“Granny isn’t exactly the sweet old lady she usually is,” Pepin continued, “ushering people from this life to the next.” Her fingers traced the ring of condensation her tankard had left on the table. “They always liked to tease her, work her up into a frenzy, those Reavers.”

“You knew them from before?” I asked, then realised how stupid that sounded. She was a goddess, right?

“I’ve known everything from before, and the Reavers? They’re tied to this place, just like your pack is. Just like all of the so called two souled are. You’re all on a collision course and only time will tell who comes out on top. I’m hoping it’s you, just quietly.”

I stared at her as she winked, like this was no big thing.

“But how…? Why…?” I swallowed, then drew myself up to my full height, glaring at the other woman. “If you’re a goddess, what the hell do you need me for? Put a bloody stop to this!” My eyes jerked around the room, taking in all the refugees who were sitting at their own tables, nursing beers to assuage their pain. “Stop the Reavers!”

“Granny didn’t elevate the Reavers,” she said, as if that explained anything. “She didn’t draw them out of the primordial ooze to create chaos and mayhem. They brought her forth. With their antics, their sacrifices, their destruction. They feed her power and so, she rises, leading them on to more and more. I get pretty dances and girls running around the city ‘catching’ men they want to fuck.”

She snorted then and shook her head.

“So we elevate you and the Mother. We revive old rites or create new ones…” My suggestions trailed away as Pepin just stared at me.

---