FENROTHER

I open my eyes to find I am not in the hermitage anymore.

The residual warmth of the fire and the food ebbs away.

I do, however, have something around my neck and I pull at it.

My claws catch in the loops, and I pull at it, and it slithers from my scales.

It’s a scarf. One Meg was knitting earlier.

I stare at it for a while.

The only garment I like to carry with me are the knickers of my mate.

If I had my way, I wouldn’t bother with any clothing.

Only the Duegar insist.

I am out on the edge of the moors, close to the river valley, my scales glistening with dew.

It’s been an entire night, and my sweet mate is not in my arms.

I am not in my castle.

Meg has tricked me, and I want to kill her.

“?” I’m rolling onto my front, clutching at my head when a voice drops into my ears like a hot poker.

I sit up and see Warden as he trots slowly along an animal track which follows the contour of the fell.

“Have you been licking mushrooms again?” he asks as he gets closer.

“It was one time,” I grumble.

“And no, I haven’t been licking mushrooms again ,” I mimic him.

“Meg of Maldon did something to me.”

“How is Meg?” Warden asks.

“She’s creating a stew which sends you to sleep before evicting you from your own hermitage,” I reply.

“Did the stew have mushrooms in it?” Warden’s back legs dance from side to side, his head inclined, and his dark eyes filled with the ferality of his kind.

I glare at him.

“What are you doing here anyway?” I say finally, after he’s folded his arms and stamped a front hoof a few times.

“I was at a loose end, and I thought, why not go bother and get my arse bitten again.”

“I did not bite your arse.” I rub the back of my neck, knowing I was more concerned about keeping Warden away from Alice than where I put my teeth.

“Look, I got a message you wanted to see me,” Warden says with growing irritation.

“An annoying raven which kept cawing in my ear.” He flaps a hand at his head, catching one of his short horns and tugging it.

“Why would I want to see you?” I stick out my tongue, which feels like it’s been in my armpit.

I could do with a drink, so I get gingerly to my feet, and ignoring Warden, I make my way over to a small spring half hidden in the heather and surrounded by flat blue stones.

It bubbles up globs of cold water which I hastily suck down.

“So, you didn’t want to speak.” Warden is standing over me.

“No,” I growl, wiping my mouth with the scarf.

“I have to find my mate. That’s all that matters.”

Warden backs up a couple of paces.

“What happened to Alice?” he says.

The growl I release is one which would be at home in the Night Lands.

“You don’t get to say her name.”

“What happened to your mate?” Warden snarls back, planting his back hooves in a way I know from experience means he isn’t going to be moved.

“The queen took her. But I’d already…” I shake my head, wishing I hadn’t as my vision blurs.

“I hadn’t told her about the curse. She was cross with me.”

“Curse?”

“Only one Wyrm can survive at any one time in the Yeavering. When my young is born, I die.” I raise my head to the sky.

“But the curse isn’t what concerns me. It is whether my sweet Alice will survive a birthing. My mother didn’t. The queen says she will ensure she does if I pledge my loyalty to her.”

I fist the heather next to the spring, careful not to pull it up but at the same time, clutching it hard enough my claws dig into my flesh through the twisted branches.

I can’t, I won’t let Warden show how much this means to me.

It is a weakness.

And the Lambton Wyrm is not weak.

“Then you need to get her back and force the queen to break the curse,” he says, simply.

I laugh, or at least I make a noise like laughter, rasping from my throat.

“You make it sound easy. She’s a Faerie queen. She’s the Faerie queen. My earth magic is no match for her elementals.”

“You don’t need to match her magic,” Warden snorts.

“You need to offer her something she can’t refuse.”

“She has my mate. I have nothing else to give.”

“, you are the Lambton Wyrm. Queen Mab cannot have you, and she cannot control you. It’s the reason she sends you, me, the Barghest, the Bluecap, and all the others to the Night Lands. She wants control. You have to show her she cannot have it at any price. Instead you need to give her your rebellion.”

I wipe my bloodied hands on my trousers without a care.

“Then I will go to the Faerie hills and take her back,” I growl.

Warden dances from one side to another.

“And how do you propose to attack and beat all the Faerie within?” he says.

“I’ll deal with that problem when I come to it. I am the Lambton Wyrm.” I roar at the sky.

“I take back that which belongs to me.”

Warden lets out a short, harsh breath.

“Let me come with you. It’s about time I spilt Faerie blood.” His front hoof beats out a regular pattern on the ground, each hit hollow like an ancient drum.

“And I know others who will join you too.”

“I don’t need others .”

Warden stops moving, thankfully, or I might have had to do him some damage.

“You do. If you’re to stand a chance of getting through the elemental defences.” He’s suddenly making far more sense.

“So, I take you.” I give him a long stare.

“And you’re my distraction.”

“We need others,” he growls.

“We? Who is this we?” I respond, getting to my feet and making a mental note never to accept food or drink from Meg of Maldon again.

“Me.” Warden looks affronted.

“And the Barghest, provided we break him out of Lord Guyzance’s dungeons first.”

“I don’t want to do that.” I sniff.

“Last time I released a Barghest, he bit me.”

Warden shrugs.

“Get used to it. I have.” He turns and trots down the path into the river valley.

I suspect, other than the tiniest shred of dignity remaining in me, there is nothing left to lose in doing as Warden suggests.

But I have everything to gain if there’s even a hint of a possibility the wild plan might help me get Alice back and lift the curse.

Getting her back in my arms is my only aim, the only mission, the only end point in all of this.

The Faerie thought they could take my life.

They were wrong. If they think they can take my mate, then I have to bring the battle to their door.

And it appears I need a monstrous army to do it.