“That leaves three of us here to continue to work and train and prepare.” Moira nodded. “This would be best. Would you think Tynan should lead those first troops, Larkin?”

“Do you ask as a sop to my wounded pride, or because you want my opinion of it?”

“Both.”

She charmed a reluctant laugh out of him. “Then, aye, he’d be the one for it.”

“We should get started.” Blair glanced around the table. “With the time Larkin can make in the air, we’d be able to set up the first base, maybe the first two, before nightfall.”

“Take whatever you need,” Moira told them. “I’ll speak to Tynan, and have him lead the first troops out at dawn.”

“She’ll be expecting you.” Cian spoke for the first time since Moira had entered. “If Lilith hasn’t thought of this move, one of her advisors would have. She’ll have troops posted to intercept and ambush.”

Blair nodded. “Figured that. It’s why we’re better with three, and coming from the air. They won’t take us by surprise, but we might just take them.”

“Better chance of that if you come from this direction.” He got up to come around to the map and illustrate. “Circle around, come at the first location from the east or the north. More time, of course, but they’d likely be watching for you from this direction.”

“Good point,” Blair acknowledged, then gave Larkin a considering frown. “Hoyt and I could put down, out of sight, and send our boy here to get the lay. Maybe as a bird, or some animal they wouldn’t think twice about seeing in the area. Have to take extra provisions,” she added, “the way he burns up the fuel with the changes, but better safe than otherwise.”

“Keep it small,” Cian warned Larkin. “If you go as a deer or any sort of game, they might shoot you for sport or an extra meal. They’ll be bored by this time, I’d imagine. If the weather there’s as it’s been here today, they’ll likely be inside or under shelter. We don’t care to be drenched any more than humans do.”

“Okay, we’ll work it out.” Blair got to her feet. “Any magic tricks up your sleeve,” she said to Hoyt, “don’t forget to pack them.”

“B e careful.” Glenna fussed with Hoyt’s cloak as they stood at the gates.

“Don’t worry.”

“Goes with the territory.” She held both hands on his cloak as she looked up into his eyes. “We’ve stuck pretty tight together since this started, you and I. I wish I were going with you.”

“You’re needed here.” He touched her cross, then his own. “You’ll know where I am, and how I am. Two days, at most. I’ll come back to you.”

“Make damn sure of it.” She pulled him to her, kissed him hard and long while her heart trembled. “I love you. Be safe.”

“I love you. Be strong. Now go inside, out of the rain.”

But she waited while Larkin shimmered into the dragon, then Hoyt and Blair loaded on the packs and weapons. She waited while they vaulted on the dragon’s back, and rose up, flying through the gray curtain of rain.

“It’s hard,” Moira said from behind her, “to be the one who waits.”

“Horrible.” She reached back, took a strong grip on Moira’s hand. “So keep me busy. We’ll go in, have our first lesson.” They turned, walked away from the gates. “Do you remember when you first knew you had power?”

“No. It wasn’t definite, as it was with Larkin. It was more that I sometimes knew things. Where to find something that was lost. Or where someone was hiding if we were playing a game. But it always seemed it could have been as much luck, or just good sense as anything else.”

“Was your mother gifted?”

“She was. But softly, if you understand me. A kind of empathy, you could say. A gift for growing things.” Idly she tossed her braid behind her shoulder. “You’ve seen the gardens here, and those were her doing. If she was able to attend a birth or help at a sick bed, she could bring comfort and ease. I thought of what she had, and what I have, as a kind of woman’s magic. Empathy, intuition, healing.”

They stepped through the archway, moved to the stairs. “But since I began to work with you and Hoyt, I felt more. Like a stirring. It seemed to me it was a kind of echo, or reflection of the stronger power both of you have. Then I took hold of the sword.”

“A talisman, or conduit,” Glenna speculated. “Or more simply a key that opened a door to what was already in you.”

She led the way into the room where she and Hoyt worked. It wasn’t so different from the tower room in Ireland. Bigger, Moira thought, and with an arched doorway that led to one of the castle’s many balconies.

But the scents were the same, herbs and ash and something that was a mix of floral and metallic. A number of Glenna’s crystals were set around on tables and chests. As much Moira supposed for aesthetics as for magical purposes.

There were bowls and vials and books.

And crosses—silver, wood, stone, copper—hung at every opening to the outside.

“Damp and chilly in here,” Glenna commented. “Why don’t you light the fire?”

“Oh, of course.” But when Moira started across to the wide stone hearth, Glenna laughed and grabbed her hand.

“No, not like that. Fire. It’s elemental, one of the basic skills. To practice magic, we utilize the elements, nature. We respect them. Light the fire from here, with me.”

“I wouldn’t know how to begin.”

“With yourself. Mind, heart, belly, bone and blood. See the fire, its colors and shapes. Feel the heat of it, smell the smoke and burning turf. Take that from your mind, from inside you, and put it in the hearth.”

Moira did as she was told, and though she felt something ripple along her skin, the turf remained quiet and cold.

“I’m sorry.”

“No. It takes time, energy and focus. And it takes faith. You don’t remember taking your first steps, pulling yourself up with your mother’s skirts or on a table, or how many times you fell before you stood. Take your first step, Moira. Hold out your right hand. Imagine the fire lighting inside you, hot, bright. It flows out, up from your belly, through your heart, down your arm to your fingertips. See it, feel it. Send it where you will.”