For the first time, an expression crossed Lir’s porcelain face that could only be described as… regret? Sadness?
“Ah, Rose MacFinnan,” she breathed. “Now we get to it. Now we get to the truth of gods and goddesses. We might seem all-powerful, but we are not. Ye of all people must understand the limits of power. I, like all my kind, am bound by rules, and I did all I could within the limits of those rules.”
Rose narrowed her eyes at the goddess. One of theirruleswas that they couldn’t lie, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t bend the truth to suit their needs or only reveal what they needed to in order to get their own way. There was more to this, she was sure, more that Lir wasn’t telling her. She began to see why Cailean was so mistrustful of gods and goddesses.
She shook her head. “All right. Let’s forget that for now. Lir, I needyour help. I need you to tell me the truth about what’s happening here. I need you to tell me the truth about whatever that being is in the bay near Hemkirk. It’s a god, isn’t it?”
Lir looked away, her expression troubled, and Rose knew she’d guessed right. “Aye,” Lir said softly. “It is one of my brethren.”
Rose’s breathing quickened. “I was told a strange tale. That tale spoke of a god and a goddess who were once lovers. The story said the god grew jealous when the goddess chose her people over him and swore to take revenge. The story says that the stormlights seen in the ocean are his anger. That’s what the story says. But it’s not a story, is it? It’s true.”
Lir did not answer for a long time. Her silver eyes were fixed on the ocean, gazing out at the horizon where the sea met the sky. Her expression was one of such sadness that it stole Rose’s breath. It was strange to see such a human emotion on such an inhuman face.
“Aye,” she whispered at last. “It’s true.”
“And was that goddess yourself? Areyouthe one in the story?”
Lir turned to face her. “Nay,” she said. “It wasnae me. But ye are close to the truth, Rose MacFinnan, so close ye could reach out and touch it.”
Lir sighed. “The goddess who was the sea god’s lover was a goddess of the earth. Of the field and hedgerow. Of the rivers and the mountains. It was she who brought prosperity to the people of Barra. She loved them as they loved her. But aye, the sea god, her lover, grew jealous. He didnae like the fact that she loved her people more than she loved him. He demanded that she forsake them and give herself over wholly to him. But she refused, and they fought. The cataclysm it caused almost broke Barra in two. But the goddess won out, and to safeguard her people, she imprisoned her lover beneath the seabed in an unbreakable prison. So long as she endured, so would the jail. Yet, she loved him still, and without him by her side, she began to wither from grief. Years passed and the goddess’s power began to wane.Finally, worn down by years of loneliness and despair, the goddess faded until she was no more than a whisper on the breeze, less than a memory to her people. And when she finally left the world, her power went with her. The protective magic that had once guarded Barra was gone. As a result, the sea god’s prison began to break, and he was able to touch the world again.”
The silver eyes found Rose’s. “Thatis the curse on Barra. He is breaking free, and his lust for vengeance hasnae dimmed over the centuries. He blames the people of Barra for robbing him of his love. Should he break free, he will destroy them all.”
She fell silent, staring at Rose, awaiting her response. Rose had no words. What was she supposed to say to that? Whatcouldshe say? It was a fantastical tale, the kind of thing told around a flickering fire on a cold winter’s night. And yet, she knew every word of it was true. She felt it in her bones.
Something nagged at her, a suspicion that had been growing as she listened to Lir’s story and saw the expression on the goddess’s face. “The sea god and the earth goddess,” she asked. “Who are they?”
Lir lifted her chin and fixed Rose with an almost defiant expression. Despite her vast age, the goddess suddenly seemed very young.
“My parents,” she said at last. “My mother is gone, but my father remains trapped in his prison. If he escapes, he will wreak his revenge, and everything my mother died for will have been for nothing. Ye mustnotlet that happen, Rose MacFinnan.”
Rose stared. “Me? You expectmeto fix this? I’m a healer, damn it! I cure colds and fix broken bones. I ease people’s arthritis and deliver babies. I don’t have the power for this!” It was her turn to fix Lir with a challenging stare. “Butyoudo. You’re a goddess, for pity’s sake! You have the power. You have to reseal your father’s prison!”
But Lir was already shaking her head. “I canna. Did I not tell ye we have rules? Were I to touch my father’s prison, it would free him instantly. My mother used earth magic to create it but I inherited myfather’s power. I am aligned to the sea. Should I touch the earth magic, it would shatter. In this, Rose MacFinnan, I am as powerless as a newborn babe.”
Lir’s voice shook a little, and Rose blinked in surprise.She’s frightened, she thought.She’s terrified of her father breaking free and what he might do.Lord above, what could be so terrible that it frightens a goddess?
But she already knew the answer to that question. She’d seen it in the countless graves on the outskirts of Hemkirk. She’d seen it in the dark power that had struck her when she’d tried to heal Drew. She’d seen it in Catriona’s twisted expression as she writhed and thrashed.
She closed her eyes, trying to draw strength from somewhere, from anywhere. Who was she to think she was up to so monumental a task?
“Lir,” she said, her voice sounding pitifully weak against the crash of the waves. “What do I do?”
The goddess’s expression softened. She reached out and took Rose’s hand, her touch cool and soothing, like the soft sighing of the sea against a golden shore.
“Ye already know what ye have to do,” she replied softly. “Ye have always known, deep inside.”
Rose stared into those silver eyes and felt something shift inside her. Something loosened. Something floated free. It took Rose a moment to realize what it was.
Acceptance.
Lir was right. From the moment she had discovered that magic was the cause of the sickness she had known, ultimately, what it would take to beat it. Deep down, in some place she never normally went, she had recognized the cost she would have to pay.
And suddenly she knew what she had to do.
With it came an odd kind of peace. She squeezed Lir’s hand and let it go.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
