Page 37

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

C arys, Laura, Duncan, and Cadell were heading out the door, packed and ready to walk through the fae gate, when Godrik and Naida found them.

“I ran into this one in the courtyard.” Naida’s face was blank and her nose wrinkled when she said this one . “He wouldn’t let me pass. As if he has any authority in the Cymric king’s territory.”

“I didn’t say she couldn’t pass,” Godrik growled. “I simply asked her where she had been. No one has seen her for days.”

“That’s none of your business.” Naida looked up at the giant wolf. “Where have you been? Not in London. I smell the sea on you.”

“Because I was in Eskari territory checking on the— You know what?” He crossed muscled arms over his chest. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you either!”

Cadell narrowed his eyes at both of them. “This is a tiresome conversation, and we have things to do.”

Both Naida and Godrik spoke at the same time. “The children were not the sacrifice.”

Carys blinked. “What?”

The small fae woman and the wolf stared at each other with shock.

“How did you know?” Godrik asked.

“It never made any sense,” Naida said. “The children were taken, but honestly, they were not that hard to find. Your average tree sprite could break the wards around them. And taking children like that?”

“And wolves,” Godrik said. “We may not keep company with brownies, but we have good relations with the wild fae in our forests, and we’re better land stewards than the humans. If Orla and Cian had tried to offer them up to a powerful old fae, they wouldn’t have allowed it. Not children.”

“The children were not the sacrifice,” Carys said. “The blood spilled at Saris was the sacrifice. We were all played.”

Naida’s face drained of color. “Dru and Cian?—”

“She played all of us,” Carys said again. “Their rivalry might have inspired it, and Cian’s thirst for power might have made it easier, but the Crow Mother was looking for blood on Saris Plain.” Carys looked at Naida. “The place of offering to the old gods.”

Godrik growled. “She has been starved of the blood of Briton for centuries because of the Queens’ Pact. A war would have fed her power.”

“We stopped the war, but that might not have been enough.” Carys hiked her backpack over her shoulder. “We’re going to the Brightlands right now.”

Naida’s eyes went wide. “Is the Morrigan in the Brightlands?”

“Yes.”

“How did she get there? Epona’s daughters have bound her here in the Shadowlands for centuries,” Naida said.

Carys’s heart sank. “Okay, that’s kind of my fault, but I’m going to try to fix it.” She grabbed Duncan’s hand. “But we have to go now.”

“I’ll go with you.” Godrik glanced at Duncan and Cadell. “Unlike your companions, I am adept at combat with and without magic. The wolves train for times like this.”

Cadell and Duncan both started to speak, but Carys broke in. “Fine. That’s fine. This is not an argument we’re going to have right now, so I’m just going to say that’s fine.”

Duncan grumbled, and Cadell was speaking under his breath in muttered Cymric.

Carys turned to Naida. “I know you can’t go to the Brightlands, but if you could?—”

“I’ll go.” The ellyllon’s face was pale, but her full mouth was set in a line. “The fae started this, and I’ll do what I can to help.”

Cadell spoke softly to her. “It’s possible that nothing has happened,” the dragon said. “It’s possible that we are being overly cautious. We did stop the war. You do not have to do this. I know what going to the Brightlands will do to you.”

“It’s fine.” Naida started marching toward the road. “I’ll be fine.”

She is being fatalistic, Cadell said in her mind. The ellyllon can be reckless.

Her true love is now king of a people who will never accept her. Carys started following Naida. She probably feels like her future is pretty bleak.

The rest of them fell in line behind Carys and Naida.

“You know the gate near the troll market,” Naida said quietly. “But there are other gates all over London. Smaller ones that we should be able to use if you’ll lead the way.”

“Of course.” Carys looked down. “I appreciate it, Naida.”

“I won’t have power there,” she said quietly. “But I’ll still have knowledge that might help.”

“Okay.”

“I might get sick from the iron.” She glanced at Duncan. “If he brought his sword?—”

“Not much use for a sword in Central London,” Carys quickly reassured her. “He left it with my uncle.”

Naida nodded, then glanced over her shoulder at Cadell. “I’m reminded of a joke.”

The dragon laughed under his breath.

“What is it?” Laura asked. “What’s the joke? Or is this magical humor that humans won’t get?”

“A dragon, a wolf, and a fae walk into the Brightlands,” Godrik said.

Carys was waiting for the rest, but the wolf didn’t say anything else.

Duncan finally asked, “So what?”

“Nothing. That’s the joke. We cross into the Brightlands and we all become nothing but humans.”

Laura said, “That’s… not a very good joke.”

Naida nodded. “And every magical creature would agree with you.”

“Huh.” Laura pursed her lips. “Well, I still think being human is pretty great.”

“Thank you, Laura.” Duncan threw his arm around her shoulders. “I would agree with you as well.”

“I think that officially makes you my favorite Scotsman.”

“Good, ’cause I’m the one she’s keeping.”

Carys looked over her shoulder at Duncan, who winked at her.

They walked into Hyde Forest, off the main path and deeper into the dark and twisted old oaks. The ground was soft with new grass, and in the darkness, the nodding white heads of snowdrops sprang up between the trees.

A few moments after leaving the path, Naida led them through a dense patch of brush where a few scattered blue wisps floated in the trees overhead.

“We’re going through.” She turned to Carys. “You have to lead the way.”

Carys looked into a wall of greenery. “Lead where?”

“Just keep walking forward,” Naida said. “Follow the wisps.”

Follow the wisps. Ah yes, exactly what her mother had spent Carys’s childhood warning her not to do.

“Following the wisps,” she muttered.

She felt Duncan take her hand, and she looked over her shoulder.

“I’m right there with you.” He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Whatever happens, I’ll be with you.”

Carys squeezed his hand, turned back to the pathway, and walked into the darkness.

The darkness pressed around her, and laughter echoed in the darkness.

It was Macha’s laughter. The laughter of the war goddess, the destroyer and the mother of crows.

There came a rustling of feathers all around her, as if a flock of crows were flying toward her and around her. For a moment she froze.

Nêrys .

She could still hear her dragon’s voice in her mind.

Yes?

Why did you say Ogwen Valley?

What?

Carys started walking again, focusing on Cadell’s voice in her mind as she pressed through the darkness.

Before the battle, when we were arguing, you said Ogwen Valley. Why?

I don’t know. Wait. She did know. The memory of that still, persistent voice was in her mind. There was a voice in my mind. I think it was Rhiannon maybe? It told me to tell you Ogwen Valley when you wanted to ignore me.

This voice sounded like the goddess?

No, it sounded like my own voice, but isn’t that how the gods speak to you?

Perhaps.

The dragon was quiet after that. Or maybe the magic of the Shadowlands was fading as they pressed through the heavy brush. The laughter and whispers were dying down, as was the sound of feathers.

“Fae?” Godrik’s voice boomed behind her. “You are limping.”

Carys stopped and turned. “Naida?”

“Keep walking,” the ellyllon replied. “I’ll be fine.”

“You are limping,” Godrik said again.

Carys halted, but Duncan urged her on.

“I can see the light in the distance,” he said. “It’s going to be dawn in London. Come on, we need to keep going.”

“Walk.” Naida’s voice was stronger. “Keep walking. I’ll be fine.”

There was a thready quality to her voice, and Carys knew that she was in pain.

“I will carry you.” Godrik’s voice came through the darkness. “Don’t argue.”

There was no arguing from behind her, so Carys kept moving forward.