Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

WREN

Wren didn't mean to let go. She couldn't help it. That offer, that suggestion, startled her and she was lost. Finn was dying. Somewhere, in her helpless arms, Finn was dying. His blood burned on her skin and his eyes stared sightlessly at her face. And she was going to lose him forever, before they had even begun to discover what they might really have.

Another voice reached Wren, distant and faint, no more than a sigh, so different from the Nox's insidious whisper. A voice she knew…

‘ It's a trick, my love. A lie. Hold on. Just a little longer. '

It sounded almost like Elodie. But that was impossible. Elodie was out there – somewhere – on her knees, in chains, helpless and in Leander's power.

Some tiny part of Wren that still remained reached out to the voice and found a sliver of light still cutting through the shadows. No more than a glimmer, but it was there.

Her mother.

Only Elodie had never called herself that.

It didn't really matter one way or the other if Elodie had actually given birth to her. She had raised her, taught her to walk, to read, to reason, to think for herself. She had been there when Wren had taken ill and nursed her through it. She'd been there when Pol first broke her heart. She had always been there. Caustic and fierce, short-tempered sometimes, but still there. Holding her, helping her, guiding her to the light. Always to the light.

We are witchkind. We will live free or die.

‘Elodie,' Wren sobbed and felt ghostly hands touch her face, stroke her skin with love and care. The same hands she had known all her life. The ones that brought her through fever, and pulled her out of nightmare, that drew her in for a kiss, that brushed her hair so gently…

She heard a whisper. Little more than a breath. But it was there.

‘ Just a little longer. Look to the sky, little bird. Look to the east. Now. '

Wren's eyes snapped open. Everything was dark and cold. But she was back, the stones looming over her, the shadows pressing close. Finn lay too still, staring at the sky overhead without seeing it.

Look to the east?

Wren turned her head, fighting to do so as the Nox tried to stop her, forcing her own body to obey her. She looked over her shoulder, as above the treeline, above the distant hills, the first light of dawn began to stain the sky.

Light. New light. A fresh day. It spilled over the treetops like liquid gold, its honeyed tones illuminating the world as the sky turned a kaleidoscope of colours. And with light came power. Elodie's power, tied so intimately to the light of the Aurum.

‘Now, Wren!' Elodie shouted out loud and her voice shook the sky.

She'd been biding her time, Wren realised, waiting for that light and the surge of magic it would bring. Elodie had always been powerful, but Elodie with something to fight for could not be contained.

Except by one thing.

The manacles still held her, dampening her magic. It was the only thing keeping her in check.

Wren could see the threads of the Nox's magic that permeated the metal. That was how they made such things, wasn't it? It had to be. She could see it, feel it, sense it. It made sense. The Aurum's blessed steel such as Finn's sword was its opposite, its counterpoint. This metal had been blessed by a dark power now lost to the Ilanthians. The manacles, the chains, Leander's sword… they all stood out to her now and she could see their function and their purpose, could see the things that made them what they were.

It was so easy to reach out with her mind, with the magic buried deep in her blood, and pull those threads. It took almost no effort at all. The shadows embedded in the metal so long ago answered her, just as the shadows had always answered her. Willingly, immediately, like well-trained dogs.

Wren reached out and pulled away the power of the Nox threaded through the chains.

Elodie, bathed in the light of a new day, lifted her head, and met Wren's gaze. She smiled. Wren couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Elodie smile like that.

‘Stay where you are, my love,' she said without raising her voice, but Wren still heard her. They were connected. They always had been. ‘I'll just be a minute.'

And a pillar of light blazed in the place where Elodie had been.

Leander yelled orders at his men as the shadow kin recoiled. Elodie, or the figure made of living fire that had been Elodie, rose to her feet. The manacles still swung from her hand, open now, just pieces of metal. As Wren watched, Elodie ran her hand down the length of steel. The othertongue that spilled out of her was a song, triumphant and terrible. A blessing. Beneath her touch the metal transformed, flowing like water, illuminated from within like a flame, and became a sword.

She moved like a dancer, and any who danced with her died.

‘Come then,' Elodie shouted at Leander. ‘This is what you've wanted. Isn't it, you stupid boy?'

Leander raised his own dark sword and stepped into the stone circle, bearing down on Wren instead.

‘I'll kill her,' he warned. ‘It might just as well release the Nox. We don't know. And then what will you do, your majesty?'

‘I'll kill you all,' Elodie promised grimly in return. It was no threat. More like a promise. ‘Make no mistake, Leander. I'll kill everyone here for her. It will not even be the first time.'

His remaining guards threw themselves towards her, trying to stop her advancing, to protect their prince.

‘Wren?' Finn whispered. She pulled him against her chest, holding him close. He was still alive. There was that. She had that much. Finn was somehow still alive. She just had to keep him that way.

‘Close your eyes,' she told him. She needed to protect him from this. It was all she could do for him now. But Finn didn't obey her this time. Instead she felt him move, even though moving had to be an agony. She wrapped herself around him, but he just pressed something hard and cold into her hand.

His sword.

Wren moved based on instincts alone, or perhaps guided by the magic that filled her. She brought the blade up before she could think about what she was doing. It intercepted Leander's blow, turning it aside. The impact sent shudders down her arm and she almost lost her grip entirely.

Still trying to hold Finn and keep him clinging to life, or at least force him not to die, Wren couldn't keep control of everything. Leander came at her again and, this time, othertongue spilled from her lips, in an attempt to drive him back. The sword in her hand grew bright and terrible.

Another roll of thunder sounded, nearer this time, and she smelled the sweet sting of the oncoming storm, crackling in the air. The sword raised on high, she reached for the light. Light had always defied her. Always so difficult to control, always a trial, but now she realised it was just the opposite of the darkness.

And if she could command the darkness to go, light took its place.

Leander staggered back as light like a beacon burst from the stone circle, far brighter than anything she had seen before. It didn't hurt this time. It was just the other side of her power. Not something to fight but to embrace. And to use. She knew what she had to do. The light flowed over her skin, but it drenched the man in her arms like a summer rain storm, illuminating Finn inside and out. It threaded its way along his veins and rippled through his skin, seeking out his wounds and forcing him back to life.

The earth shook. Wren felt it as the light subsided, trembling beneath her, as the Knights of the Aurum rode into the clearing to join the fight.

The sword was too heavy, the strain too much. She let it fall and wrapped herself around Finn, holding him close, filling him with what light she could still muster, drawing out the darkness that had threatened to take him. It had nowhere to go but into her, but that was all right. She could deal with it. She could keep it safe.

But she couldn't fight anymore. She had to hold on and hope someone else would save them both.

What else could she do? Her strength was gone and it was taking everything she had to keep Finn alive.

The Nox laughed in the back of her mind and pressed its advantage again. She had forgotten it. And now she had nothing left to defend herself with from its renewed assault. It flung itself at her with a vengeance.