Faith is Fallen (Broken Fantasies Series)

Chapter 22

Author's Note: Wattpad's been weird lately.  My reading lists keep disappearing then reappearing, and yesterday Chapter 21 from this book disappeared online.  Then when I reposted it, I had two Chapter 21s suddenly.  Weird, I say.  Anyway, I'm 3k away from winning NaNoWriMo today, and I'm going to try to pull off the win by the end of the day.  I believe I can do it.  I've been hitting 5k on Sundays.  Wish me luck!

Beathan sat idly by, biding his time. Though it had been difficult, far more difficult that he would have ever dreamed possible with Roderick his eternal shadow for decade upon decade, he had set things into motion that would see his plans moving forward once again.

It had been near impossible to meet with and pass messages to the people he needed to in order to put all the pieces into place, but it was nearly there. Soon. Very, very soon his shadow would be too busy watch his every move and he could finally sentence his sister to the fate she'd escaped so many years ago.

#

Cara finally couldn't do it anymore when she buried the last of her grandchildren. She and Valerius stood over Connor's grave, alongside many of her great-grandchildren, and she knew she had to leave. She'd looked over at Valerius, and she'd seen the understanding in his eyes. He'd nodded, offered his arm, and walked her back to the keep.

"You want to go," Valerius said from where they sat around the fireplace.

"Yes. I can't be here for it anymore. Maybe it'll be easier if I don't have to see them every day."

"Of course. I'll come with you."

She jumped in her seat, turning to her longtime friend. "I can't ask that of you. This is your home."

"Cara, this is the longest time I've spent in one place in centuries. It is no hardship to move on. And to move on with such a close friend? I couldn't ask for anything better, anything more."

"Really?"

Valerius shook his head. "Cara, haven't you learned anything about me by now?"

Cara sighed. Yes, of course she had. She knew full well how important companionship was to Valerius. He'd only said so a few million times. He'd only marveled at her ability to love in the face of loss a few million more. "Yes, Valerius. Yes, I have. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It'll get better. I promise."

"Thanks."

"Great-grandmother Cara?" the new Lord McKay said. Ruadh crossed the room in several quick steps, the red hair that was his namesake bouncing on his shoulders from where it had come out of his queue sometime during the funeral.

Cara shook her head. "How many times have I asked you not to call me that? It is a mouthful, and what if someone not of this clan ever heard it? How do you think the outside world would react?"

"I apologize, Lady Cara."

She nodded. "Better."

"Is everything alright?"

She looked over at Valerius, hoping to collect some courage, then turned back to Ruadh. "Valerius and I are leaving."

"What? Why?"

"It's time. It's long past time."

"You can't go! You belong here. It is your home."

"Ruadh, this place holds little resemblance to the home I once knew. And I just cannot bear anymore pain, anymore loss. I'm sorry."

He rushed up to her, kneeling in front of her and holding her hands with his. "You cannot go. What will we ever do without you?"

Cara patted Ruadh's hands, and had an idea. She reached for two stones she'd found just a few days ago. She thought them pretty, and had sat them in a basket by the fireplace, trying to decide what to do with them. They were streaked with black and white, and while fairly large, still small enough to fit in the palm of one's hand.

She held the two stones tightly in her palms, and whispered bespelled words over them. When she opened her palms, they glowed slightly for a moment before the dwindled to nothing, revealing a Celtic symbol etched into each stone. Cara handed one to Ruadh. "This stone will always connect me to my people. If you ever have need of me, simply hold this stone tight and this stone," she held the other aloft, "will answer the call. I will come, no matter how many years, decades or centuries pass, I will come."

He cradled the stone in his hands, the stone dwarfed by his massive palms. "Do you have to?"

She nodded. "Yes, I do."

#

By the next afternoon, they had packed all they wished to keep, all they absolutely needed, and rode through the gates of McKay keep for the last time, even if they did not know then it would be their last.

"So now what do we do, Valerius?" She felt lost, homeless, but not friendless.

"Why, we'll be traveling merchants, of course!"

Cara raised an eyebrow at him. "Traveling merchants?"

"Yes, being a merchant is a respectable profession. After all, the merchant families ruled Italia for quite a few years."

"I don't know anything about being a merchant, Valerius. What will we sell?"

"Why, whatever we can conjure, of course."

"That seems slightly... I don't know... Unethical? Immoral?"

"Nonsense. It's simply the plying of a trade. We are simply selling them magic, even if they don't know that is what they want or need. Do you think magic is immoral, Cara?"

"No, of course not."

"And we're not stealing, or performing any other illegal acts."

"No, I don't suppose we are." She paused. "And you've done this before."

"Oh, yes. Many times before. We can appeal to a unique market. Finding people unique items, and in far less time than any other merchant in existence. I can't imagine that has changed in the decades I've been at McKay."

"No, I don't suppose it has."

"Then it is settled. We will be traveling merchants, brother and sister. What say you?"

"I say onwards to the road ahead, Valerius."