Phelan turned away, back toward the barrow where his friends had buried their dead after the end had come. They’d hallowed the ground here months before, back when he’d first arrived on the ruined campus. A shiver crept down his spine as he thought of the night they’d laid the stronger protections over the ground, the night that Vammatar had tried to kill him.
That had been the start of it.
He cleared away a patch of snow with his boot, trying to get down to bare ground. They’d need to renew the protections after the spring melt, well before the summer solstice, but for now there was work he could do even while it was all still buried in snow.
“I take it that I was interrupting,” Cariocecus said, crossing his arms and rocking back against his heels. “Will I foul anything up by staying?”
“I doubt it,” Phelan murmured, shucking off his glove. He closed his eyes as he pressed his bare palm to the ground, taking a slow, deep breath as he cast his senses into the earth of the barrow and its surroundings. He could sense the outline of their protections, lying dormant beneath the snow. They would only activate in the face of an impending threat. His senses raced along those boundaries, looking for cracks, for flaws.
“How does it look?” J.T. asked quietly.
“Still solid,” Phelan answered, brows knitting in concentration. “Better than I expected, really, considering everything that’s happened.”
At least we haven’t had to bury anyone else.
“Seamus wanted to see this.”
“He’ll see it in due time,” Phelan said, setting his jaw and forcing some additional power into those boundaries, shoring them up—just in case.
In case of what, he wasn’t quite certain.
“We can bring them out here tomorrow,” Phelan said.
“Them?” J.T. echoed.
Thordin snorted. “Seamus and Leinth. One won’t come without the other. Trust me on that.”
Phelan smiled. Thordin knew them too well.
Either that, or his cousin was becoming predictable in his old age, and that was a liability that they would need to correct, and fast.
all caught up and still loving it! thanks for this fab story 🙂