Page 43

“It was the major reason, yes, but I also wanted you to know that no matter what the Codex says, the shield cannot be returned to the confluence. It must be destroyed.”

The confluence being the ghostly portal that sat atop Ben Nevis. I frowned. “Something I’d already suspected, but how do you know what the Codex?—”

I stopped. She knew because I used the Eye in conjunction with the Codex, and my Eye was just one half of the pair once belonging to the goddess Eithne, one of the original hags who’d turned to stone. While the hags couldn’t use the visionary power within their Eye, they could and had used it to communicate with Mom. I wasn’t sure why they weren’t using it to communicate with me, but maybe it was simply a matter of me using the Eye in a vastly different manner to Mom.

Mind you, Beira’s liking of a good drop of whiskey might also play a part.

“Indeed,” she was saying, “the echoes of whatever you see in the Eye come through to us.”

“Then I had better not ask it anything too damn personal, had I?”

She cackled. “Not unless you want to scandalize the sensibilities of our more innocent goddesses.”

I snorted. “I suspect there’d be little that could scandalize or shock the sensibilities of goddesses who have been earthbound for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.”

“You might be surprised.”

I certainly would be. “Why would the Codex say it must be returned if that’s not the case? I thought it contained all the knowledge of the old gods?”

“The key there being ‘old.’ This world and its people is not the only one that has changed vastly since the Codex library was created.”

“Meaning it’s outdated?”

“No. What was written still applies. But the weight of time has altered opinions on the best method to deal with the relics of those gods who are, for whatever reason, no longer a part of this world or ours.”

I frowned. “Then going forward, how the hell am I going to know whether to return or destroy? Via you?”

She shook her head. “For the most part, you will have to discover the hard way, by seeking entry into the confluence and either being refused or accepted.”

As had happened when I’d taken the Sword of Darkness up there. “Then what is different with the shield?”

“Sethlans reached out to me?—”

“Sethlans being?”

“A god of fire, the forge, and metalworking who has been bound to Earth.”

Meaning he was one of the three curmudgeons who remained in flesh form here on Earth. “I thought you said they hadn’t been active for hundreds of years?”

“I did, and they weren’t. But your father was active enough to ensure your existence, and now Sethlans has reached out. They’re obviously keeping an eye on things even if they refuse to get involved in other ways.”

“And he’s the one who said the shield couldn’t be taken into the confluence?”

“Yes. The shield is a destruction relic, and therefore would not be accepted.”

“Aren’t most godly relics destructive ones?”

“There are plenty that are not, but let’s be honest here, the destructive ones are more fun. At least for those gods and goddesses who are not trapped in flesh form on this plane.”

“I don’t suppose he mentioned where it might be hidden?”

“He did not.”

Of course not. “Could I use the Eye to seek its location?”

“If you had some point of reference, yes, but it does not work within emptiness.”

I glanced at the time, then finished my drink and rose. “If that’s all, I need to get moving. We have a possible lead on the shield we’re following up.”