Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Graves grimaced. Out of all of it, it was that Amberdash wanted Kierse as an attendant that irritated him the most.
Lyra nodded. “Quint told me what you looked like when you got out of the party.”
Graves waved that away. “I’m taking care of that.”
“Is it even possible?” Niamh finally asked, bringing it back to the heist.
“If everyone is on board, we can do it,” Graves said.
Lyra leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “Anyone going to tell me what the hell the Stone of Fal is?”
“An ancient Celtic artifact,” Laz said. “Really fucking powerful.”
“Correct,” Graves said. “There are four artifacts of the Tuatha de Danann—the Celtic gods—the Spear of Lugh, the Sword of Truth, the Cauldron of Dagda, and the Stone of Fal. Kierse has the spear. Lorcan has the sword. The cauldron claimed Genesis,” Graves said, nodding at her. “And so the last on the list and the most powerful is the stone.”
“Well, I’m all for powerful artifacts, I suppose,” Lyra said.
“It’s not just powerful,” Schwartz added. “It’s the oldest stone in the world.”
“There’s no way to know that,” Walter argued under his breath.
“Not physically old,” Niamh said softly. “It came from Faerie when the Tuatha de Danann crossed over from the isles. The stone is older than our world, and it is imbued with the magic of our gods. It’s beyond comprehension.”
Gen shifted next to Kierse, reaching for her hand and squeezing.
“So it’s old,” Lyra said. “What does it do? Grants wishes like the cauldron?”
“The cauldron doesn’t grant wishes,” Gen said immediately.
Lyra shrugged. “Sorry. It sort of does, doesn’t it?”
Graves interrupted them. “The stone proclaims the overking of Ireland. The one true leader. But it bolsters the legitimacy of whoever sits on it. In the wrong hands, in Amberdash’s hands, it could be detrimental to the whole city and to the treaty. It is not without merit to say that removing it from him is a matter of national security.”
The room went silent at that proclamation. An eerie stillness that made Kierse’s stomach fumble.
“And it can make and break a geas,” Kierse added.
Eyes went to her, lingering across her features. All of them knew, of course, that she was bound to Lorcan. That it had happened against her will. That she and Graves had fought bitterly over it. None of this was news. And maybe it was a smaller reason than national security, but it was the reason Graves really wanted it in his hands.
“What’s a geas?” Lyra asked.
“A bad fucking idea,” Laz said.
Schwartz pointed at him. “Like the worst idea imaginable.”
“Why?” Gen asked. “I thought it was like a bound promise.”
“Yeah, if you want to die,” Laz said. “Never heard of anyone coming out on a good side of that.”
Graves shrugged. “Most geas are not in anyone’s favor except the person or object that holds the geas.”
Kierse laughed at Lyra’s skeptical face. “A geas is a sort of promise that you swear. When it’s done on the stone, it’s bound by god magic.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad, though.”
“It’s tricky magic,” Niamh added. “As with most of our tales, there’s lots of loopholes. Famously one of our legendary heroes, Cú Chulainn, was under a geas to never eat dog meat and another to never refuse food from a woman. So when a woman offered him dog meat, he had to eat it and died for breaking his geas.”
Lyra made an aghast face. The rest of the room looked disgusted as well.
“Why would he promise that?” Lyra asked.
“It’s a long story,” Niamh said with a shrug. “Most of our legends are pretty gruesome, but they serve a purpose. A geas is to be respected in all ways. You need to be careful who you offer your promises to.”
Walter coughed. “Or don’t make any promises to anyone. Let alone on a magic stone.”
Kierse and Graves exchanged a look. If all went well, she wouldn’t be making any promises but breaking them. She hoped the stone understood that she hadn’t wanted to make the bond in the first place. And that there wouldn’t be any unsavory problems because of it.
“Now you know what we’re doing and what we’re going after and who we’re up against. We have three weeks to set my plan in place. The most important part of this is set pieces,” Graves said. “We’re going to have to get each of you on the grounds of the old UN General Assembly building.”
“Why are they using that building again?” Ethan asked.
“It’s probably the only thing large enough,” Gen said. “Right?”
“It’s not like the UN is coming back to New York,” said Laz with a snort. “Not with their fancy new meeting space in Paris far away from the Monster War problems of the city.”
“It is the largest assembly seat in the city. It can hold eighteen hundred. And it’s going to hold that many between human and monster delegates and their delegations,” Graves told them. He spread a paper down with the blueprints of the tract of land on the East River. “On top of that, each delegate has been given office space in the Secretariat building next door. The other major point of contact is the library. For our benefit, there are above and below ground tunnels that connect each of them.”