Irian was gravely injured. I just had totakeit. He wouldn’t be able to chase me, let alone catch me.
I just had torun.
So why did my feet feel like stones?
My eyes flicked to Irian, half-collapsed on the strand. He was watching me closely, despite the pain glazing his silver eyes. He cocked his head, a tiny motion that never failed to ice my blood. I tensed, shifting the blade into guard position.
Movement by the edge of the forest startled me. Swan maidens spilled from between the trees, dressed in silver and white. They glowed through the prowling mist like fallen stars as they hastened toward me and Irian. Eala led them, elegant and exquisite in her shining gown. She held out her hands as she approached, like she wanted to embrace me. But she was reaching for the Sky-Sword.
Some instinct pushed me back from her. She paused.
“Brava, Sister!” She laughed, a sound like quicksilver. “You’ve done it. You’ve taken the Treasure. And so speedily!”
My gaze slashed back to Irian. If he was shocked by Eala’s revelation, he barely showed it. The bloodstained plane of his jaw merely tightened perilously. “It was not as difficult as anticipated.”
“That is good news.” Again, she lifted her hands, palms up—almost a supplication. “May I hold it?”
“Colleen.” Irian’s eyes slid liquid along the blade in my hands; his voice knelled with warning. “That is not a good idea.”
My hand tightened on the Sky-Sword’s hilt. Indecision burgeoned within me.
“Come, Sister.” Eala’s pale blue eyes glittered. “We discussed this, did we not? The Treasure lends us power we otherwise do not have. With it, we stand as his equals. At long last, we will be able to break the geas upon us—to unbind us from his Sept.”
“Even if you were able to use it—which you are not—you could not break the geas.” Irian’s husky voice carried little inflection.“Do you think I have not tried? But I did not bind you with its magic.”
“He’s lying.” Eala’s gaze never left my face, but Irian’s words stole mine.
“What do you mean?” I demanded. “Why can’t we use it?”
“Shecannot.” His voice dropped even lower. “The Treasures… were not forged for human hands.”
His words sent another shiver of energy sizzling up my forearm, speeding my green-dark pulse. The implications swept through me like a gale: if humans could not wield Treasures, then Mother’s plans were for nothing. As were Eala’s. And as for me—
“She is not human?” Eala’s shrewd words echoed my own racing thoughts.
“Apparently not.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Eala turned back to me. “It is still a weapon. Kill him for us, Sister, and perhaps that will be the thing that sets us free.”
“My death will not set you free.” Irian’s voice was unwaveringly composed, even as his limbs visibly sagged beneath him. “Had the geas bound you to my Sept as I intended, my death might have released it—for with my death my Sept ends forever. But I did not bind you to my Sept. I bound you tome.”
“I fail to see the difference.”
Irian’s eyes were jagged, but his voice was even. “If I die, you die. All of you.”
His words rippled shock through the swan maidens, followed swiftly by a wave of visceral fear. A jumble of denials and protests and recriminations wafted angrily through the fog.
Eala’s eyes widened, her brows winging upward. But her surprise swiftly flattened toward frustration, then outright fury. She slashed out an imperious palm, and her maidens fell silent.
“He islying,” Eala said sharply. “Why wouldn’t he have told us this before? It is a manipulation—a falsehood to save his own skin. The Sky-Sword is still the most powerful magic left in Tír na nÓg.Between the two of us, Sister, we will find a way to break the geas.” She beckoned to me. “Let us take it and go.”
“Perhaps I am lying to save my own life. Perhaps I am not.” Irian’s head lolled. His eyes were stars against the shadows writhing at his back. “But are you truly willing to take the risk? If you take the Sky-Sword now, I will die. And imminently.”
That, at least, I was inclined to believe. But everything else seemed suddenly less certain. If Irian was lying, then Eala was right—with the sword, perhaps we could still find a way to break their geas. Whatever Folk blood lurked in my veins allowed me to wield it—I would return to Fódla with the magic the realm needed. Without his powerful Treasure, Irian would no longer be a threat to anyone.
But if he was telling the truth—
“Fia,” Irian said.
