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"Yes," Ash said

"No," Holly said

I smiled at Holly "You both want power, don&039;t you?"

"Yes," Holly said, his voice a little reluctant

"Then each of you take my hands"

"What happens if we do?" Ash asked

I shed, and the scent of roses and the sensation of su to have my eyes see the winter&039;s dark

"I don&039;t knoill happen," I said, and that was the truth

"Then why should we do it?" Ash asked

"Because if you let the smell of summer and autumn fade, if you miss this moment of power, you will alonder ould have happened if you took my hands"

The brothers looked at each other They had a , surviving, all coht," Ash said

"It is a sidhe trick," Holly said

"Probably," he said, then he srinned back at him "This is a bad idea, brother"

"Yes"

Holly reached out, and Ash echoed him They reached out for ers tingled power down my skin, and it must have felt the same for them, because Holly started to draw back

Ash said, "Don&039;t stop, Holly"

"This is a bad idea, brother," he repeated

"This is power," Ash said, "and I want it"

Holly hesitated a heartbeat longer, then his hand moved with his brother&039;s so that they tookmoves "I&039;ve followed you all my life," he said "I won&039;t stop now"

Then the field and the winter&039;s cold were gone, and we stood in a circle of standing stones on a wide plain under a full moon and a su me around so that i faced away from hi my sword to my body Holly drew his oord, and faced the outside of the circle His sword gleaht made solid

"Take us back," Ash hissed inus here"

"Liar," he whispered, and his fingers tightened just a little around ainst my throat,to do anything to e winter to suers squeezed just a littlewas uncomfortable "What do you mean, &039;a different country&039;?"

I spoke evenstones in Ahtened until rip

"Then where are we?" he asked

"A place between," a woman&039;s voice answered

Ash went very still beside lad, but they didn&039;t loosen either My breath still wheezed out froers as he turned slowly toward that voice

Holly said, "Who are you?"

The woman&039;s voice said, "You knoho I am"

Ash turned so that he saw her before I could, but I knee would see, or what I would see She wore a hooded cloak that hid limpse of lips She held a staff, and her hand would be pale one ; slender and not She was the Goddess She was all that was female, all that oman, and all at once

It was Ash who said, "Why have you brought us here?" Holly was still facing the figure with his sword out, as if he meant at any moment to attack

She wasn&039;t flesh and blood, I knew that I didn&039;t think his sword could hurt her, but it seeht have protested except that Ash&039;s hand squeezed too tightly for words

"Take us back or your chosen one dies"

"Harm her and you will never have the power you seek, Ash"

His hand eased a little so that I could breathe without fighting for it "So if I let her go you&039;ll give me power?"

"She is the key to your power Without her there is nothing"

"I do not understand"

Holly lunged toward the figure A sword clanged down the length of his blade, pushing it against the grass, and a body was on the other end of that sword He was tall and short, ht, all men and none He had thrown off the cloak that they wore to save our minds so that you simply had to see all the many forms at once He stood bare in all his beauty and terror, for a long, muscled body can be just for pleasure, but that saht can thrust a sword and spill blood He was the greatest of tenderness and the greatest of destruction all at once The potential was all there in that swirl of ihts

He disaroblin&039;s hand to do it It spoke of Holly&039;s skill or the God&039;s iravel, and the next light and airy as any, all men echoed in his voice "Who am I?"

Holly went to his knees with the sword point at his neck "You are the God"

"Who is my consort?"

"The Goddess," Holly answered

The God stepped back to the cloaked Goddess, but the one, and they stood side by side I don&039;t knohat the goblins saw, but I saw a dizzying swirl of faces and bodies They were all these beings at once, but my mind could not hold it all I finally closed an tous both to kneel on the su the revelation In fact, now the arsince the goblins saw the face of God," Ash said "And Goddess," the Goddess said, and there was chiding in her voice It was the voice of everysister, every aunt, every teacher, all rolled into one echo

"And longer still since the goblins saw the face of the Goddess," Ash said If he resented the chiding, it didn&039;t show in his voice

"Are you goblins?" the God asked

"Yes," Holly answered

Ash was a little sloith "Yes"

"Are you sidhe?" the Goddess asked

"No," Holly answered

"We have no ic," Ash answered, as if that answered the question, and perhaps it did

"What would you give to possess the ," Holly said "I ah"

"She did not say we had to becoic of the sidhe"

"Magic of the sidhe, but still goblin," Holly said "That would be worth oblins," the Goddess said

"Once," the God said, "there was ic frohtened against my shoulder He didn&039;t hurt me, but his body was suddenly tense as it knelt beside hter," the Goddess said, "what say you to this?"

"The sidhe stripped the goblins of their ic to win the last Great War between our peoples"

"Do you think this ell done?" She asked

I thought before I answered, because I could feel the ather around us You would think that in the presence of Deities there would be no rooic to build, that their presence would ht in this place between pressed against the air like the weight of invisible rock, as if a ht at a ti with tension I had aas hard as he could straight ahead I think he was afraid of what I ht see in his eyes

"I&039;ve been told that if we hadn&039;t taken the oblins they would have won the war"

"But your two peoples are no longer at war, are they?" She asked "No," I said Ash had gone utterly still beside ht hioblins, would you?"

"Was it wrong?" I asked

"What do you think?" She asked

I thought again Had we been wrong? I had seen what the sidhe had done with their ic They had used the fact that only we had ic to be tyrants We had won the wars, but in the end, it was the huy who had truly won

"I think on a battle, but not a war, by taking the goblins&039; ainstto do?" the God asked

I started to say yes, then said, "I don&039;t knoas told that our ic froree e did?"

"No one asked us," the Goddess said

Ash startled beside ain, so my eyes and my mortal mind would be able to deal with theo? I couldn&039;t re of You turning frohter, could undo that injustice?" the God asked

"You ood to be clear

"Yes," they said together

"You ive Holly and Ash hands of power," I said Ash had actually dropped his hand, as if it were all tooto fade?

"They are sidhe as well as goblin," I said

"Would you give the voices

If I said no, would the Goddess retreat froain? I looked at Ash, and he would not look atat ht I would deny theer that I saw, it was the reason behind the anger Years of looking in theback at you, and knowing that you would forever be denied It didn&039;t ic, then you weren&039;t real to the sidhe You were si them but not one of them I looked less sidhe than the brothers did At least they were tall, and until you saw their eyes they could have passed I would never pass for pure-blooded sidhe, not with a thousand crowns on ht back?" the voices asked

For politics, I should have said no For the safety of ned treaties for, no But in the end, I gave the only answer that felt right "I will"