Morag glanced at Padrick. It was clear by the expression on his face that he didn’t know the man and wasn’t pleased to be interrupted before he’d completed what he considered his duty toward her. But she’d seen this Fae Lord before, so she gave Padrick’s arm a quick squeeze of warning.

The Fae Lord gave her a quick, dismissive look before turning his attention fully on Padrick. “My apologies if I’m intruding at an inconvenient time, Baron, but the magistrate pointed you out to me. I don’t know how the message got to you so fast, even going through Tir Alainn, but I’m glad you made it here in such good time.”

“Message?” Padrick raised one hand to forestall further explanation. “If you’ll tell me where to find you, I’ll join you as soon as—”

The Fae Lord wasn’t listening to him. He was staring at her in an almost comic doubletake. “Lady Morag?”

She smiled. “Blessings of the day to you, Lord Murtagh. Padrick, this is Murtagh, Lord of the Selkies. Murtagh, this is Padrick, the Baron of Breton.”

“I didn’t recognize you,” Murtagh blurted out. “You look like—I thought—Mother’s tits.” He raked a hand through his hair. “The last time I saw you, you looked Fae and you were with the Hunter.”

“I had to return to the west. Now I’m on my way back east to join the Hunter.”

“A long way to travel,” Murtagh said.

There was something calculating in the way he looked at her now, but she couldn’t figure out what he wanted. “The Light-bringer is dead.”

“You came all the way back to take his spirit to the Shadowed Veil?”

“I came back to gather him.”

It only took Murtagh a moment to understand the difference. The smile he gave her was sharp and feral. “Then you might want to postpone your journey for a short while and take a look at the prisoners I want Baron Padrick to see.”

“Prisoners?” Padrick said.

Murtagh nodded. “Survivors of the warships the Inquisitors had sent to deal with the west. They were attacking a convoy of ships that had fled out of Seahaven. The baron here does well by his people, but he’s young and didn’t feel easy about passing judgment when the attack hadn’t occurred in waters that are under his rule and the people harmed weren’t his people. So a message was sent to you, asking that you come here and offer your advice.”

“There are other experienced barons that could have offered advice,” Padrick said.