From Silver and Chaos

Ren

Chapter 18: Ren.

The foyer was deathly silent.

Mahon, wide-eyed and stricken stared up at Fidelma Ainthoch who was bathed in the light of coloured glass. Ainthoch himself was rigid, his chest seemingly unmoving. The Lady's smile was iridescent, glowing and her eyes were as bright and warm.

You are Ren.

"Ren," Fidelma breathed, a frail hand on the banister. She moved to him slowly, scouring his face as her eyes filled with tears. "I knew it was you. I knew it."

Her skirts rustled on the stairs. Outside, a horse whinnied. A servant's laugh echoed through the halls in the distance, followed by a quick hush. Our bubble was twisted by silence. She was a tiny woman and as she stopped, two steps above of him, she could look him in his eyes.

Mahon did not move for a long moment. Not as she raised a hand, softly tracing over a taunt brow and then tuck those errant curls behind his ear.

He caught her wrist. His hold was gentle, his voice firm. "You are mistaken."

Only when he stepped away from Fidelma, his gaze darkening as he looked down at Regan, did his voice twist in anger. "Is this some kind of trick?"

"Mahon," there was no defence in Regan's body, even as Mahon's body hummed with raging aggression. "You need to sit and listen to what I have to say."

"I don't need to do anything."

"You had always been a stubborn boy." Fidelma murmured.

Mahon's lip curled, his voice low. "I am not a boy."

"You are not helping." I told the lady firmly. "None of this is helping."

Even if Mahon was Ren, they didn't know him. They didn't know how this would twist him up and knot him tight.

Kohen's ears were flat and he moved quickly, stepping between Regan and Mahon. He faced the Lord. "You are close to losing all that you wish to gain."

"What is going on here?" Aging Royce Ainthoch stepped past my barrier of silence, his face set into a deep scowl. Mahon's wariness deepened even further as the old Lord limped in from the outside, his cane clicking on the floor.

"It's Ren." Fidelma told him softly.

Royce's face tightened. "My dear, you need to rest. Let me take you upstairs."

Softly, I guided Mahon way from the stairs and he let me slip ahead of him. He watched them over the top of my head, a hand on my arm.

"This is ridiculous," He muttered. "This house is full of fools."

"Father, she's right." Regan pressed. "Tell me, where did Ren have his birthmark?"

Royce Ainthoch stared at his son. "Why are you mentioning him? We don't – we don't talk about Ren."

Kohen's attention flickered over everyone in the foyer, his face knotting as he felt the weight of the emotions that cloyed in the foyer. Mahon smoothened his fingers up my arm. I glanced up at him, watching as his expression set into something hard and unyielding.

"Father..." Regan paused, seemingly unable to find the words. "Please, just answer the question."

Louder, Mahon spoke firmly. "Only for the fact that you have aided the Legion and Seeker Birchwood before, will I let this insult slide. Regan. Lord Royce. Lady Fidelma. Thank you for welcoming me into your home, but matters outside this estate call my attention. I will go."