Beyond a Darkened Shore(61)
I bent forward as though punched in the gut, and Leif reached down and hauled me upright. “She has gone mad with grief. Don’t let the poisonous words she spews render you incapacitated,” he said into my ear.
I almost let her walk away. I almost let that be the last thing she said to me, but then I thought of my sisters, and this kingdom, and the fact that I was the true heir of Mide.
I felt the warmth of Leif’s hand on my arm, strong and comforting, and stood tall. I might have been the daughter of the Phantom Queen, but it was that blood that would allow me to defend my kingdom and my world from the real monsters who threatened it.
“No, you’re wrong,” I said, and she turned slowly. “This is my kingdom. Those are my sisters—no matter that I only share half their blood. My father was the king, and for better or worse, I was raised as a princess of Mide.”
Her eyes narrowed. “It’s true. Your father named you his heir, but what good is it now? This kingdom has been claimed by Sigtrygg.”
I thought of not just Sigtrygg, but the greater j?tnar threat. “Then leave with my sisters while you can. Take Branna and Deirdre and flee to another kingdom; we have other allies—”
“I cannot leave your father,” she said in a growl. “Of course I will not abandon him and this clan.”
I glanced at the charred remains of the men surrounding us and swallowed hard. She wasn’t in her right mind, but I still had to try to make her see reason. With Sigtrygg harboring j?tnar under his own roof, Mide could be in very real danger. “Please, Máthair, there are worse things than Sigtrygg that threaten this kingdom. I was given a vision of éirinn—”
“Stop!” Máthair snapped. “I won’t listen to such pagan nonsense. You taint this sacred ground by even uttering such a thing.”
“You’d do well to listen,” Leif warned. “Your daughters’ lives could depend on it.”
“And who are you to say?” Máthair demanded. “By the look of you, you are a Northman. What is the true reason, then, for your alliance with Ciara? Did she seduce you as her mother once did the king?”
I flinched at the implication as Leif drew himself up to his full height. “We owe you no explanation.”
She turned her attention back to me. “You are not welcome here. With Sigtrygg alive, this kingdom is no longer yours.”
It was clear she wouldn’t listen to anything we said. And with Sigtrygg in league with the j?tnar we’d encountered in Dubhlinn, we didn’t have time to make her see reason. I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake sense into her, but there was nothing more important right now than the quest.
“We will need horses,” I said, choking on the last word. There wasn’t a horse in the stables equal to the one I’d lost.
“Take them, then.” She wrapped her cloak tighter around her and walked away without a backward glance.
Leif grabbed my arm. “Sigtrygg is responsible for this, and he will be dealt with.”
Sigtrygg. I thought of what the pagan king had done to my clansmen, to my father—to my kingdom. The rage grew until all I could see was red. I wanted to find the men who had burned the church and slaughter them like pigs. “I want him dead.” Just then my body was filled with an impossible amount of energy, as though I could take on the whole of Sigtrygg’s army. It built and built until my muscles thrummed. I tasted blood on my tongue and wanted more.
Leif took my face in his hands and met my eyes. I hated to think what reflected back at him. “Then we will make it so.”
“Two hundred men, Leif. They died, and for what?”
Leif was quiet, his eyes searching mine. Finally, he said, “Their deaths needn’t be in vain.”
The Sword of the Fallen blazed to life on my back. I felt something inside me rise up to answer. “No. This is what the Morrigan wants, what she wanted all along.”
“The Morrigan wants our quest to succeed.” He took a step back from me. “She told me how to raise the army.”
My hands shook with the need to hurt something. “I knew you weren’t begging her for my life; I should have never trusted you.”
“I told you before that it was your decision. She held me back and told me the ritual in case you had a change of heart.”
“A change of—and what, suddenly decide that yes, I wanted to use the blood of two hundred innocent men? She is no benevolent goddess. What if the ritual damns their souls?” My words lashed him like a whip, but he stood unflinchingly before me.
“Regardless of why I was told, these men are dead. They were slaughtered like animals in a place your people consider sacred. You have the power to make their deaths worthy; they will have given their lives to bring forth an army strong enough to destroy the j?tnar.” His hands curled into fists. “An army strong enough to bring Sigtrygg and his j?tnar allies to their knees.”
Revenge, the darkness born inside me the moment I walked into the chapel seemed to whisper, or perhaps it was my own mind cracking beneath the pressure of so many unbearable losses. Thoughts of storming Dubhlinn with an unstoppable army rose unbidden to the forefront of my mind.
I knew Leif was right. Sigtrygg could be on his way at this very moment—the hideous j?tnar beside him—to finish what he’d started in my kingdom, and I needed an army.