by Niabh » Mon Jun 24, 2019 4:46 pm
The silence went on long enough to wonder if perhaps she had said nothing at all—sitting there like a stone with the speech composed in her head and not a word spoken aloud. Long enough to realize she had trying to hold her breath along with him so as not to break the quiet. The fluttery panic in her chest could have been her lungs straining for air or pure anxiousness as she waited, waited.
But he broke it first. She, too, let out a softer sigh, eyelids lowering in relief.
Still she kept watch on him, peeking through her feathered lashes. It did not do to take one’s eye off Catch.
“Oh, godmothers are lovely. They give her blessings to protect her, and take her on secret outings, and fill her up with too many sweets, and show her how to ride, and find her the best tutors to teach her her law and her letters. When she’s a little older, a godmother makes sure she has beautiful clothes and jewels, and helps find her a good match.”
When her eyes lifted at last, they fixed on his mismatched ones with unfathomable intensity. Her own greed caught in her mouth, mixed with the taste of almonds, and she swallowed back saliva. The ganconner’s gaze. The one that emptied the rest of the world and put the two of them in the very center of a turning wheel that need not concern them. The heat of the day dissipated, and the finch’s song became faint.
“I am Queen, Catch. If I were her godmother, she’d have me and every person sworn to me, all my ladies and their armies. And we live so much longer than any human that for the rest of her life, whenever she had need, she could call on us. She would never be alone. And when—” if “—I have a daughter of my own, they’d be like sisters.”
Finally she blinked, as if waking from a dream. The world slowly gathered around them once more. Her bright head bowed, and she clutched her hands together in her lap.
“And because I want to do something for you, too, mo leannan. She is yours. No one will ever treat her as you’ve been treated. Not if I have anything to say about it.”
Put that way, it seemed such an innocent thing that for a moment, she even believed her own intentions. A child who could be given every advantage Fionn could command. A child who would be safe from tultharian eyes that would see only strangeness and danger. A little girl upon whom she could lavish all the affection Fionn could never give him.
Anything can be magic if you're gullible enough.