“One of the lessons I’ve learned. There have been so many of them. You’d be worried about Larkin, I know. And about Tynan now. He has feelings for you.”
Moira understood Glenna didn’t mean Larkin. “I know. Our mothers hoped we might make a match of it.”
“But?”
“Whatever needs to be there isn’t there for me. And he’s too much a friend. Maybe having no lover to wait for, no lover to lose, makes it easier for me to bear all of this.”
Glenna waited a beat. “But.”
“But,” Moira said with a half laugh. “I envy you the torture of waiting for yours.”
From where she stood Moira saw Cian, the shape of him coming through the gloom. From the stables, she noted. Rather than the cloak the men of Geall would wear against the chill and rain, he wore a coat similar to Blair’s. Long and black and leather.
It billowed in the mists as he crossed to them with barely a sound of his boots against the wet stones.
“They won’t come any sooner for you standing in the damp,” he commented.
“They’re nearly home.” Glenna stared up at the sky as if she could will it to open and send Hoyt down to her. “He’ll know I’m waiting.”
“If you were waiting for me, Red, I wouldn’t have left in the first place.”
With a smile, she tipped her head so it leaned against his shoulder. When he put his arm around Glenna, Moira saw in the gesture the same affection she herself had with Larkin, the kind that came from the heart, through family.
“There,” Cian said softly. “Dead east.”
“You see them?” Glenna strained forward. “You can see them?”
“Give it a minute, and so will you.”
The moment she did, her hand squeezed Moira’s. “Thank God. Oh, thank God.”
The dragon soared through the thick air, a glimmer of gold with riders on its back. Even as it touched down, Glenna was sprinting over the stones. When he dismounted, Hoyt’s arms opened to catch her.
“That’s lovely to see.” Moira spoke quietly as Hoyt and Glenna embraced. “So many said goodbye today, and will tomorrow. It’s lovely to see someone come home to waiting arms.”
“Before her, he’d most often prefer coming back to solitude. Women change things.”
She glanced up at him. “Only women?”
“People then. But women? They alter universes just by being women.”
“For better or worse?”
“Depends on the woman, doesn’t it?”
“And the prize, or the man, she’s set her sights on.” With this, she left his side to rush toward Larkin.
Despite the fact that he was dripping, she hugged him hard. “I have food, drink, hot water, all you could wish. I’m so glad to see you. All of you.” But when she would have turned from Larkin to welcome the others, he gripped her hard.
Moira felt her relief spin on its head to fear.
“What? What happened?”
“We should go in.” Hoyt’s voice was quiet, and tight. “We should go in out of the wet.”
“Tell me what happened.” Moira drew away from Larkin.
“Tynan’s troop was set upon, at the near halfway point.”