Page 53 of Shadow Master
* * *
The creaturesthey called horses were lower to the ground and bulkier, kind of like fomorian hounds but without the leathery skin and ridges. Athos had opted to take Hyde, who was still recovering from his wounds. The sex probably hadn’t helped, but it was something that we’d both needed. We’d needed to take that step and connect. We’d needed to be together, if only for a few hours.
Balan and the fomorians who’d survived the fir bolg attack had gone their separate way, back toward the mist to await their militia comrades.
We’d been riding for a few minutes now, headed northwest if my internal compass was correct. The terrain was already shifting, becoming less barren and greener. Whatever had happened to the land was localized to the area around the mist, it seemed.
Hyde, Athos, and Harmon were behind me. The liege had insisted I ride up ahead a length behind him, but abreast of Abram. So far, the fomorian hadn’t said a word to me.
I needed answers, and I needed them now. “Why Brady?”
He looked sharply at me. “You wish to speak to me after what I did?”
No, I wanted to throttle him, but, “I need answers.”
He nodded. “Very well, I suppose it is the least I can do. I will tell you what I know.”
“I need to know everything. Why you took Brady and why you put that … that thing in his body.”
Abram sucked in a quick breath. “Hush, you must not speak of our liege in that tone. He is not a man to be trifled with. We must tread carefully.”
He sounded … scared. “You’re afraid of him.”
His throat bobbed. “And so should you be. Lugh was a warrior and a hero, a moral man known for his ruthlessness in later life. He kills with no qualms. He would have slain me if you had not spoken up. I thank you for that.”
“I don’t understand. Why did you bring him back? Why put him in Brady’s body?”
“Because he is the strongest connection to the eye. You see, the eye of Balor was an artifact that belonged to Balor, king of the fomorians, but we were unable to summon his spirit. I fear it has passed far out of our reach. Lugh is his grandson, part Tuatha on his father’s side. We summoned, and he answered. He is the closest connection we had to Balor’s bloodline.”
Bloodlines and summons, what the hell was he talking about? “I’m sorry, I’m confused.”
“Let me start from the beginning,” Abram said. “Legend says the eye was a talisman wielded by Balor. The power inside the eye answered to him and would sweep over his enemies, wiping them out. It was passed down Balor’s royal bloodline but was lost a long time ago, hidden they say. We know not by whom. The league has been searching for the eye for years. We know it could end the war. That we could use it to end Laramir’s reign for good, but until a few months ago, we’d had no luck. And then we stumbled across an ancient journal. It detailed the properties of the eye and revealed that it would be a beacon to Balor’s blood.”
“To his descendants?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, all the royals are long gone … or so we believed. The writer of the journal penned the events of the last war when the fir bolg fought your shadow knights. He tells of the fall of the last king, Mithra. The last descendant of Balor, but it also tells of Mithra’s liaison with a feyblood in the mortal realm. It intimates that the last king left an heir, left a bloodline on the other side of the mist.”
Oh, shit, it was clicking into place now. “Brady…”
“Yes. We found him. We knew a feyblood who carried a royal fomorian gene would eventually find his way into the mist. At first, we simply scouted, watching and gathering information, but the goal was always to capture a shadow knight. We needed fomori-touched blood for the enchantment that would lead us to our salvation.”
“You used Harmon.”
“Yes.”
“What about Venrick, the other knight you took. What happened to him?”
He looked at me blankly.
It hit me. “You didn’t take him, did you?”
He shook his head. “No. I assume the fir bolg did. It would explain their sudden spike in information about the shadow knights’ activities.”
It would explain how they knew about the hobbloods. They used Venrick for intel and then used that intel to infiltrate us. If what I’d seen of the fir bolg was anything to go by, the poor bastard was probably already dead.
“Explain what you did to Harmon. Why alter him?”
“The side effects of the alchemy were unfortunate. The work was performed by Gusta, our most powerful alchemist. He used your friend’s blood to create a beacon that would lead us to the shadow knight who carried the royal blood. Brady is Balor’s descendant, however diluted that blood may be. He has it. He is our salvation.”
