Riley arched her eyebrows at Annika. “If shopping was an Olympic sport, you’d have all the medals. But at some point, she’s going to need some rain gear.”
“Some extras there in the mudroom,” Bran said, “but we’ll want to get out and about. I know the land here, and villages, but I’ve never looked at either with the quest in mind.”
“We’ll need more ammo,” Doyle pointed out.
“Something else I haven’t had in mind while here.”
“I’ve got some contacts.” Riley shrugged. “I’ll make some calls.”
“And that’s as big a surprise as Annika shopping. We lost some bolts in the last battle,” Doyle continued. “And plenty of bullets.”
“I’ll take care of it, and once I unpack my books and maps, I’ll start working on—”
“Can we take a moment?” Sasha interrupted. “I know we can’t let up. I know we need to take advantage of the time we might have before Nerezza comes at us again. But can we take a moment to just be? We’re all here, around this table, in this place, after facing what seemed like almost impossible odds against survival, much less success. But we’re here, and so are two of the stars. That’s a miracle, I think. It was hard won, but still a miracle.”
“You’re right.” Bran met her eyes, then scanned the table. “We’ll take our moment, and be stronger for it.”
“Works for me.” Doyle spoke casually, then glanced at Sasha. “When you’re doing that assignment chart, just make time and room for daily training. Including calisthenics.”
Sasha heaved a sigh. “That’s cruel, Doyle.”
“Hey, I need my moment, too. You’ve toughened up, Blondie, but that was in Sawyer’s island sunshine. Let’s see how you handle fifty squats and push-ups in the rain.”
“I may have an alternative to that. If we’re finished here,” Bran continued, “I can show you all. And the stars as well. KP can wait a bit, I’d think.”
“It can wait for eternity in my world.”
“Your world is eternity,” Sawyer reminded Doyle, but took Annika’s hand and rose. “I vote for full house tour.”
“Let’s start at the top then.” When Bran rose, he held out a hand for Sasha’s. “I’ve a lot to show you.”
They trooped up the back stairs, followed Bran’s lead as he made a turn on the second-floor landing and veered up to the right.
“Access to the roof area,” he explained. “The views are spectacular from there, even on a wet day.”
He wasn’t wrong, Riley thought once Bran opened a thick arched door, and she stepped out into the rain.
The wide, flat area of the roof afforded a three-sixty view.
The angry chop of the steel-gray sea and its violent slap on rock and cliff. The thunder of it boomed and crashed below dense layers of clouds, sluggishly sailing in a brooding wind.
As she turned, she could see the faint shadows of hills curtained behind the gray mist of sky, and around to the forest, deep and shadowed and green. Beyond where she’d run the night before, she saw now a cottage or two, and fields dotted with sheep, the thin plumes of smoke from chimneys where hearths burned on a wet summer day.
“It’s a good situation.” Doyle spoke from behind her. “Even on a day like this, we could spot an attack from a half mile or more. And it’s high ground, with cover close.”
He moved over, looked down from the crenelated wall. “It’ll be useful.”
“I can smell the sea,” Annika murmured.
“And hear it,” Sawyer put in. “Taking a boat out on that’s going to be tricky.”
“I’ll score us a dive boat and the equipment,” Riley said absently. “We’ll handle it. Is that a graveyard? At about ten o’clock? How old do you figure . . .”
She remembered, belatedly. This had been Doyle’s family’s land. Cursing herself, she turned to him. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
“The first would have been my great-grandmother, who died in 1582, in childbirth with her sixth child. So old enough. Though archaeologists usually want to dig deeper than that, don’t they?”
“Depends.”