“I'm sorry my eyebrows disturb you, Seren.” It was dry, but there was a hint of a smile in his tone.
“Oh, sweet Goddess, did you just make a joke?”
“I've been known to do so on occasion.”
“Yes,beforeyou were hit with an emotion-sucking vine.”
Tiernan considered this. “Ah, yes. I think I'm feeling more like myself.” He scowled. “Where is Danu?”
“I don't know.” I looked around as if she might be hiding in the stacks. “Danu? Danu, we need some guidance. Are you there?”
But all that answered me was silence and the rapid beat of my heart.
“Oh, fuck,” I whispered. Then I stood and shouted, “Danu! Danu, where are you?”
Nothing.
Tiernan stood more slowly and took my hand. “Something is not right.”
“No kidding.” I clutched at him. “She always comes, Tiernan. Always. She's not like her brother. She doesn't try to be mysterious. She's always here!”
“I know, my love. But her world is injured.”
“The blight couldn't affect her, could it?”
We both looked at Lady Mariya.
Mariya had gone ghost again, and her eyes, though barely there, widened. “I have never spoken with our Goddess. And I don't know if the land's wounds could affect her.”
“But you're the Head Archivist,” I said. “Could you look through the records and see if this has happened before?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Of course I can. But the problem is that Danu stopped speaking to us for a very long time. It wasn't until you came to Fairy that she returned.”
“She didn't stop speaking to fairies,” I growled. “It's been years since I started telling all of you that she's always been here. It was her children who stopped listening. How do you not know that?”
Mariya floated up, out of her chair, and back. “I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I don't pay much attention to the present. I'm a woman of the past.”
I took a calming breath. “I'm sorry. I'm worried, and I've taken it out on you. Danu is always with us, Lady Mariya. She never stopped speaking to her children. It was the Fey who stoppedhearingher.”
“I understand. You don't have to repeat it.”
“Ugh. Right. Again, I'm sorry.”
“No, it's fine, Queen Seren. I'll search the records. Perhaps in the morning, I'll have something to help.”
“Thank you.”
Lady Mariya bowed, picked up her book—the one about the Garden, not the maps, and left the library.
I looked at Tiernan.
“I know,” he said. “This is not good.”
“Should we tell Raza?”
“I don't think Raza wishes to speak with either of us right now, but maybe we should scry your father.”
“Yes.” I pulled out my scry phone and sat down. “Yes, you're right.”
