Page 110 of Broken Veil
“You can call me Joshua.” He turned and started climbing down the ladder that was propped against the house.
“Joshua?” Duncan asked. “Joshua.” He nodded slowly. “Oh fu— Uhhh. No.” The tall man seemed bashful. “My… goodness.”
“Oh, I get it!” Laura pointed to him. “Joshua. Yeshua. Jibril. Gabriel. That’s unexpected, but I guess it shouldn’t be.”
Joshua reached the ground and turned, walking over to Jibril as he pulled off the thick leather gloves he’d been wearing to repair the thatch roof. “Welcome, friends.”
“Old gods.” Angus lowered himself from the van and ambled over, his back bent and his eyes keen on the man. He pointed his walking stick at Joshua. “New gods.” He gave Joshua a curt nod. “Builder.”
“Shepherd.” Joshua crossed wiry arms over his chest. He looked at Carys, and his eyes softened. “You visit me with stories in your eyes, Carys Morgan.”
Carys was still wondering at Joshua’s existence in a small cottage on the edge of an old forest outside Canterbury. “How are you… here?”
Joshua glanced at the angel next to Carys. “Jibril and I exist where the faithful exist.”
“But that’s notjusthere,” Carys said. “I mean… Both of you?—”
“Are here because we need to be here,” Joshua said. “And we are elsewhere when we need to be elsewhere.”
Jibril turned to Joshua. “I feel that you must know the Morrígan is loose in the Brightlands.”
Joshua nodded. “I have felt her rising power, but now I see the old gods have given us a hero.” He gestured toward Carys, and his eyes landed on someone behind her. “And she has a dragon. George is turning in his grave, but there you are.” Joshua’s eyes were dancing.
Jibril leaned against the corner of the van. “A dragon’s not much use in the Brightlands, old friend.”
Lachlan and Duncan, Cadell, Laura, Naida, and Angus, all came to stand beside Carys.
Joshua nodded in approval. “Loyalty and love are useful everywhere.” He angled his head toward the open door of his house. “Come. There are seven of you. Seven is a good number.” He started walking to the cottage. “Come, friends. Let’s eat, and we shall speak about many things. Let us see if we can find a way to help the hero the old gods have chosen for this task.”
Laura was craningher neck as they sat in the surprisingly roomy living space in Joshua’s cottage. “It’s bigger on the inside.”
Lachlan stretched his neck from one side to the other. “Pocket world.”
“Is it?” Carys turned to Cadell.Is it?
The dragon stretched out his arm, and just under the surface of his skin, she saw a ripple of green pebbled skin. “It appears that it must be.”
“None of that now.” Joshua handed Cadell a large mug of tea. “I can make the place bigger, but you transforming would really ruin the roof.”
Jibril looked up. “You’re always working on your roof.”
“The work relaxes me.”
Duncan was sitting against the back wall, staring at the man. He kept looking between Carys, then Jibril, then Joshua again.
Joshua nodded at him as he sat across from Carys. “You have a faithful protector in that man. Your father would be pleased.”
Carys couldn’t handle thinking about her father and what he would have thought of Duncan right now. Her emotions were all over the place.
“How does it work?” Carys asked. “I mean, my dad is dead, but you said you know him and?—”
“There are some questions that I cannot answer for you right now. Not because I don’t want to but because the human mind is limited,” Joshua said. “Can you accept that?”
Carys nodded numbly. “I guess I have to.”
“But I can assure you that the gifts you have been given—from your father and your mother—encompass everything you will need to complete your task.” Joshua kept his voice soft. “Do you believe me?”
“No,” she blurted. “Right now I feel like I’m going to fail.” Her cheeks heated.
