“Did she?”
Éibhear walked around his idiot friends and headed toward Izzy and her family. “You ready?” he asked.
“What’s going on?” Maskini asked.
“Well,” Izzy said, “I beat up my grandmother, which was weird because she looked just like Mum, but she did start it, and I found out that all the times I’ve used a shield to protect myself from Magicks was apparently a vast waste of effort. I also met my great grandmother who said she’d help my sister but only if Éibhear does something incredibly stupid, but it seems he won’t listen to me about it. Plus, Brannie, it looks like Macsen is descended from battle dogs, and as far as Éibhear’s concerned, tea can soothe anything.”
Aidan smiled. “Now aren’t you glad you asked?”
“Gods,” Layla sighed, “you really are like your mother.”
Chapter 39
Éibhear held up a map that Zachariah had dug up for them. Normally, they’d place a map on a table, but at the moment, there wasn’t enough room around the table for that. There was Izzy, Izzy’s family, Éibhear’s comrades, and Brannie all packed into this small, fourth-floor family room.
“Are you just going to hold that?” Maskini asked him.
“Unless you have a better option.”
Maskini took the map from Éibhear’s hands and walked over to the far wall. She held it up against the cool brick. “Layla.”
Layla walked over to her mother and pulled out two blades from her boot. Lifting the daggers, she rammed one in each of the top two corners. “There,” she said, pleased with herself. Her smile just like Izzy’s.
Stepping back, Éibhear studied the map.
“What did the witch tell you?” Aidan asked.
“That they’ll have Vateria near a source of power. Most likely here,” he said, pointing to a mountainous terrain less than a half day’s flight outside the city walls.
“They weren’t more specific?”
“They never are.”
Éibhear felt a tug on the back of his shirt and he saw that it was Izzy sitting on the table behind him. He stepped back until his ass rested against the table and she handed him something. He stared at it.
“What is this?”
“I got it from Zarah. She took two slices of bread and put meat in the middle. It’s good and you can eat it without a knife.”
Éibhear took a bite.
“It’s good, yeah?”
He nodded his head in approval while Uther sidled up next to him. “What’s that you got there?”
Éibhear glared at his comrade. “It’s mine. That’s what it is.”
“You can’t share?”
“No.”
“Are you two done?” Maskini demanded. She pointed at the map. “We’ve got work to do.”
“But we’re hungry,” Uther replied.
“Are you whining?”“Maybe. A little.”
Rolling her eyes, Maskini pushed past her family and walked out.
“Maybe?” Izzy teased Uther.
“I’m hungry!”
“Okay!”
Éibhear stared at the map and ate his meat and bread.
“All right,” Izzy said next to him, her voice low. “What’s bothering you?”
“Who says something’s bothering me?”
“I do. I can see it on your face.”
“Know me so well now, do you?”
“I’ve always known you well, dragon. You just never wanted to see it. Now what’s bothering you?”
“Can witches be lied to?”
“Anybody can be lied to. The question is whether they believe the lie or the liar. Why?”
“How many converted does this cult have?”
“Heru didn’t say. Enough for him to be nervous and for them to feel confident enough to attack your mother’s troops at the salt mines.”
“Right. But they didn’t strike right at us. They came under cover of dark, nice and quiet. If you hadn’t alerted us, they would have had you and been gone long before we’d realized you were missing.”
“Which means what to you?”
“That they’re not at full army strength yet, and they’re not ready for direct attacks.”
“So?”
“Then why would they put themselves here”—he pointed at the map again—“out in the open, where they’d be unable to stop a full onslaught?”
“Because they need the power that’s there.”
“According to my mother, there are power sources everywhere. She can get power from a bloody vegetable patch if she needs to.” Éibhear walked closer to the map, studied it. “There has to be a place of power that makes more strategic sense.”
“Who says they’re strategic?” Uther asked, grinning when Maskini handed him, Caswyn, and Uther two slices of bread each, with big chunks of meat in the middle. “Ta.”
“Just because they’re zealots doesn’t mean they’re stupid.”
Izzy studied him for a moment, then asked, “What would you do?”
“What would I do about what?”
“If it was you.”
“You mean if I was a crazed zealot?”
Izzy chuckled. “Right. How would crazed-zealot Éibhear handle this?”