Page 92 of The Shadow Path
“Yank,” the boy muttered. “Whadya want? Yer not allowed here.”
The caw of a crow sounded in the distance along with the faint voice of a young woman singing.
“Oh, the oak and the ash, and the bonny ivy tree. How I wish once again in the west, I could be…”
Cadell stepped forward and nudged the young man’s leg with the toe of his boot. “I believe he is enchanted.”
“He’s high,” Duncan growled. “Look, boy, get out of here. You’re playing with things you can’t even imagine.”
The boy looked up, his pupils dilated and a smirk on his face. “Yer not the boss around here, are ya? She’s the boss.”
“Who?” Carys asked.
“Ma… cha.” He seemed to drift off, staring back into the trees. “Of course.”
A blurry idea in Carys’s mind was taking shape.
A three-faced goddess. The Crow Mother.
Dru’s words in the woods:“You’re speaking nonsense, Badb.”
And now the name Macha.
“Carys,” Laura whispered. “There’s more.”
She took another step into the overgrown bushes and saw more legs sticking out of more brambles. Sneakers and sandals. A pair of black boots and more than one set of bare feet. There were dazed youth everywhere—all but one were young men—and half of them appeared to be smoking something, but there was no lingering smell of smoke.
“This is her.” Carys kept her voice low. “I know it.”
And she was starting to understand just whom they might be dealing with. The possibility was… not great.
“She’s gathered acolytes,” Cadell said. “Deity is looking more accurate than fae.”
They kept to the path, and Carys ducked under the low-hanging branch of an oak tree, looking up and to the right where the song was coming from and a pale leg dangled from the crook of the tree.
The leg swung back and forth in rhythm with the quiet song that a young woman in the gnarled oak was singing.
“While sadly I roam, I regret my dear home, where lads and young lasses are making the hay…”
The song stopped, and the woman leaned forward, her dark red hair falling over her shoulders as she looked down on her new visitors. “Look at that,” she said. “A dragon, a thief, and two halflings have come to visit us.” Her blue eyes twinkled with amusement. “If you think I’m going back to the Shadows, you’re very much mistaken.”
She was stretched naked along the twisted limb of an ancient oak tree, soaking the morning sun into her pale white skin while a small murder of crows kept watch in the branches above her.
Carys looked up and met the goddess’s bright blue eyes. “Hello, Morrigan.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Do you feel clever?” the goddess asked. “You’ve finally got it right.”
“Morrigan?” Cadell’s voice was grim. “You’re a long way from home.”
“Ah-ah.” She shook her finger at the dragon. “Many years ago, I blessed this land by coupling with its king.” She lifted a curl of red hair and held it in the sun. “Even their queens carry my mark.” She lay back and closed her eyes, her leg starting to kick again. “All land I walk upon is mine, dragon. My crows fly everywhere.”
The birds above her laughed in a cackled chorus.
“They even keep ravens in their white tower.” She opened one eye and smiled at Carys. “A small offering, but I will graciously receive it.”
“Morrigan,” Laura said. “Isn’t she…” She seemed to remember that the goddess was right in front of her. “You’re a war god, right? Washing the bloody clothes of the dead or something?”
