Page 25 of The Shadow Path (Shadowlands #2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

T wo hours later Carys was freshly bathed, her hair was braided, and she was sitting at Dafydd’s table in the main hall with the king on one end, Winnie and Godrik flanking him, and Lachlan sitting right across from her.

“The king is horrified.” Winnie was speaking. “Shocked. They’re counting on the shock for us to freeze, but we’ve already pushed past that.” She looked to her right. “Godrik’s people were the first to surround the fae forts and gates that are known. And Carys and Cadell—along with other surveying pairs—have identified the new fae gates that were reported, those that we didn’t have record of.”

“What are the king’s plans to get the children back?” Duncan was sitting beside Carys and definitely not looking at Lachlan.

“Right now we’re waiting.” She sighed, and her professional mask slipped. “We’re waiting for word. Now that we’ve contained the fae, all we can do is wait.”

“Is there any sign of the children?” Carys asked. “Has anyone been able to?—”

“If the dragons can’t find their own young” —Lachlan’s face was drawn, and it looked like he hadn’t shaved in two days— “it’s highly likely that they’re in heavily warded locations. Barrows. Forts. Judging from the way the attacks occurred, they were likely dispersed.” He glanced at Carys, then looked at Dafydd. “The human children could be glamoured and sleeping under fae mounds we know nothing about and not emerge for a century.”

Carys felt powerless.

That is how they want you to feel. Cadell spoke to her mind.

A moment later, he and two other dragons strode into the hall. “Your Majesty.” He nodded at Dafydd. “Demelza has sensed her young.”

Dafydd rose to his feet. “Where?”

Winnie was still on her feet. “Are there any human children with the dragons? Any wolves?”

“Where?” Dafydd repeated.

Cadell’s gaze was steady. “A fae fort that appeared near Maen Llia.”

“Go. Mared and I will return to Caernarfon. Let Anwyn and Demelza command the wing.”

Cadell’s eyes were burning. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You and Carys will join her.” Dafydd locked his eyes on Carys. “Gather your things now.”

Lachlan and Duncan both rose to their feet.

“She’s not ready,” Lachlan said.

Duncan said, “I’m going with her.”

“Sit down, both of you,” Dafydd roared. “My niece is nêr ddraig, and she has more magic than both of you. Sit your bloody arses in your chairs.” He glared at Carys. “Leave this world now or join your dragon.”

Carys felt a shivering and terrifying sense of purpose. She’d been training for this. She hadn’t imagined she’d ever be called to actually shoot arrows from a dangling wooden boat in the sky, but she could. In theory.

But more, Cadell had lived his entire life to protect his people, and there was no way she was taking him from this battle. Carys stood. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Thank you, Nêrys.

She met Duncan’s eyes for a brief moment before she walked to Cadell’s side.

Laura was sitting next to Lachlan. She gave Carys a short nod. “Be careful.”

“I will.”

One last glance at Lachlan, then at Duncan.

Carys looked up at Cadell and nodded. “Let’s go.”

The wind was freezing, but all communication was mental. Carys was seated in a small coracle with high sides and strategically placed arrowslits as Cadell’s massive wings surged west toward the southern Cymric Mountains.

She was dressed in leather armor and carrying the bow she’d trained with back in California, but she had a short Cymric bow in reserve.

Two dragons had flown with them from London, and another joined them ten minutes into their journey.

Then another.

And another.

Now there were thirty dragons with them and at least two dozen nêr ddraig who had joined them en route to Maen Llia, an abandoned stone fortress in the southern valleys of Cymru.

As they approached the mountains, the clouds grew heavier. The sky was pregnant with mist and fog, and Carys’s teeth chattered from the cold.

She tilted her leather helmet back and peeked out of an arrowslit at the silent flock of dragons who flew with them.

Who are they?

Dragons from Eryri mostly. But a few who heard the call and joined us. There are solitary dragons in Southern Anglia.

The dragons must have been speaking to each other with their mental voices because Carys could hear nothing but Cadell.

I’m scared.

You are scared because you’re not an idiot. His voice was softer. Nothing will happen to you.

Carys blinked back frosty tears from the wind. And I’m scared for the children.

Dragon children are not without their defenses. Cadell’s voice was grim. Not even babies.

She felt when the wing began to descend.

Listen for my command and my direction. You remember your arrow positions?

The arrowslits were built into the war coracle at forty-five-degree intervals, and Carys’s job was to listen for Cadell’s command to fire arrows. He told her which position and what angle from the horizon, and Carys fired. She couldn’t see the ground; she had to depend entirely on Cadell’s targeting.

Fae archers on the hill at two o’clock.

Her heart began to race. “What do I do?”

Don’t speak aloud. They might be able to hear you even from the ground.

Okay fine, what do I do?

Wait.

There was a deep rumbling and a high scream, and then Carys saw the gloaming lit up by a burst of orange-and-red light to her right.

Position six. One fifty degrees. Wait.

Carys’s movements were automatic. She moved to the sixth arrowslit, nocked an arrow, and mentally aligned herself with the center post of the coracle, angling her bow down one hundred and fifty degrees toward the ground.

She called back to Cadell, In position.

Fae archers. Fire on my word.

Ready.

Now.

Carys nocked another arrow from the quiver at her waist, shooting one, then another, then another in rapid succession.

Hold .

As she was shooting, she felt the response under her feet. Rapid thunks against wood as arrows hit the bottom of the coracle, and one sped past the coracle and pierced Cadell’s wing.

Carys felt it in her own body, but she said nothing. Heat filled her chest as she felt Cadell’s magic rush to the wound, but there was nothing she could do in that moment.

Going back for another pass.

How many archers?

I am following orders. So should you.

It went against everything in Carys’s being to act as an automaton commanded by someone else, but she could see very little, and she had to trust Cadell’s eyes and the eyes of every dragon in the air that night.

Turning . Cadell wheeled around, throwing Carys back against the wall of the coracle. Position three. One hundred and ten degrees.

Carys fought her way into position and braced her legs as the coracle rocked and rolled with the wind. She kept her back parallel to the center post and leaned her shoulder on the wall of the coracle.

Just then a shower of arrows hit the wall of the coracle where Carys was leaning, and the tip of one pierced just far enough through the wood to jab into her arm.

“Shit!”

Silent!

“Fuck that! They can’t hear me down there, and why the hell aren’t we just razing this entire field with fire, Cadell?”

There are wild fae in the trees, Nêrys. There are unicorns in the valley. Should we kill all of them to retrieve the small ones? That is what Demelza would like to do.

Carys closed her eyes and leaned against the center post, positioning herself again.

In position.

Fire in three… two… now.

Carys let loose with another volley of rapid-fire arrows from her quiver. She had two more quivers waiting in the coracle, ready to go. The arrows that Anwyn had given to her were massive things—long, thick, and designed to pierce fae armor. She felt clumsy with them, but she hoped that anything she could do would help.

Anything?

The archers have run back to Maen Llia. The dragon began to descend. Demelza has heard her daughter’s voice . There was a shot of joy through her bond with Cadell. I can hear her too.

There was a fierce scream and another rumbling roar before Carys saw the night light up with fire.

She ran to the other side of the coracle, peering out the arrowslit to see a dragon strafing the valley below them with a river of fire.

It was eerily silent as a squad of dragons descended, Carys and Cadell among them.

What’s happening?

Demelza knows where the children are. We are landing. Brace and arm yourself.

Carys grabbed her bow, nocked an arrow, then steadied herself against the back wall of the coracle as they descended. Moments later, the round-bottomed coracle scraped along the ground before Cadell let go, rocking the unit forward and back until the door burst open and braced the coracle on the ground.

Carys aimed her arrow at the foggy night, waiting for the signal to come out of the vessel and wary of anything that might come through the narrow door.

“Carys!” She heard Dylan’s voice, but she waited. The fae could imitate voices. It was only when the young man marched toward the coracle and Carys could see his face that she lowered her arrow and stood.

“What’s happening?”

There were screams in the distance and the crackling sound of burning wood.

“Demelza has found the fort, but she can’t break the wards,” Dylan said. “We’re blocked.”

Carys searched the landscape, but the night was fully descended. “Are there woods here? Have you tried calling an ellyllon?”

Dylan’s eyes went wide. “They’re fae.”

“They’re Cymric!” Carys shouted. “We don’t have sorcerers or mages, do we?”

“The fae are the ones who took the children, you idiot.”

“And the fae are the only ones who can open those gates.” Carys started to run toward the sound of screaming. “Dylan, we need their help.”

A rust-skinned wyvern had braced her wings wide and was sweeping fire across the top of the hill. Carys could see blackened bodies scattered on the hillside and others running away.

“This is madness.” Carys turned to Dylan. “We’re never going to get them out without fae help.”

Dylan’s eyes turned hard. “What about you? Do you have fae powers?”

Carys blinked. “Oh my God, is that what people think?”

Dylan shrugged.

“You’re idiots.” Carys ran to the nearest copse of trees she could find and knelt down, pressing her face to the ground. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

She felt the earth move beneath her, as if it were sighing. When she lifted her eyes, she saw the wide, frightened gaze of a tiny tree sprite, her cheek blackened from ashes and her wings drooping. The creature was hiding in the brambles and trying to blend in.

“I’m sorry,” Carys whispered. “I know you didn’t have anything to do with this.”

The sprite clung to the branches of the bush that was shielding her.

“Can you open the gate?” Carys asked. “There are stolen children inside. That is what is making the dragon so angry. She’s frightened for her child.”

The wood sprite crawled to the base of the bush and whispered something into the ground.

The earth beneath the bramble began to rumble and shake, and Carys had a flashback to the forest god that had risen and trapped her foot.

“What did you do?” Dylan shouted.

Cadell called out to her from his position near Demelza. Carys, what is happening?

I asked for help. Whether they got it was going to depend on how much power that little sprite had and how much she could rouse.

Carys had a feeling that the gentle residents of this mountain valley just wanted all these dragons to go away.

A moment later, the ground went quiet and Carys’s heart sank. Maybe the earth was too angry with the dragons. Maybe the fae wards were too strong.

Demelza rose on her back legs and spread her wings, her head turning up as a scream of rage and sorrow erupted from her throat in a feral and gutting cry to the sky.

Moments later, a bright green light erupted under the soil. It arrowed through the valley, turning and twisting around rocks and roots, arrowing toward the fae mound where bodies were scattered and the grass was charred and black.

“What is it?” Dylan’s voice was in awe.

“I don’t know.”

The glowing green power disappeared under the mound, then moments later, the earth yawned open and Carys could hear children’s screams.

“No!” She ran toward the black, gaping hole, but no sooner had she reached it than a dozen children crawled out of the darkness, two of them running straight toward the hovering dragons while the others stumbled and blinked their eyes with confusion.

“Mam?” A little girl rubbed her eyes. “Tad?”

“They’re human!” Carys ran toward them, ignoring the two small human-shaped dragons who were immediately enveloped by a squadron of dragons who hid them from view. A moment later, Demelza took off, a coracle clutched in one foot while Anwyn hung from her other leg.

Dylan let out a sigh. “They’re safe.”

“Tad?” a little boy called. “Jory?”

Carys took the hand of one child and reached for another. “The other children need help.”

Both the little ones who took her hands started speaking in rapid Cymric, far too fast for Carys to understand, but within moments, a dozen dragon riders had run over and picked up the children, explaining where they were.

They spoke hurriedly, cuddling the children against their leather armor and wiping their tears. There were cries and sniffles, but none of the children appeared harmed.

Carys waited for Cadell to reach her in human form before she went to the open, earthen mouth of the fae fort. She took a deep breath before she walked inside, bracing herself to find… whatever it was they might find.

“Are you ready?”

Cadell nodded, and Carys nocked an arrow.

“Let’s go.”