Chapter 22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

D afydd met her on the hill where the dragons rested during the lightest part of the day. On one side of the ridge was Sgàin Castle, the village, and the Borderlands beyond, dark even in the pale light of the Shadowlands midday. Beyond that forest was a dim suggestion of rolling hills and green fields dappled by forests and multiple rivers and streams.

On the other side of Tower Ridge, the land sloped down to the silver-blue loch and the unicorn's forest, more wilderness than settled land. Beyond the forest was a sea of green, rolling hills, and higher peaks in the distance, covered with snow.

The whole of the Shadowlands was washed in blues and greens, more suggestions of color than a punch of it. It made her soul yearn for light.

Dafydd was the first one to speak. "I feel questions churning inside you like too much wine on an empty stomach."

"That's a vivid mental picture."

Dafydd chuckled a little. "Ask anything you wish. I'll do my best to answer."

"I was just thinking that I miss the sun." She stared at the watercolor land in front of her, as beautiful as it was distant. "The light touches this place, but I can't see the source. It's like…"

"Living in a shadow?"

She turned to him. "I guess that's the point, isn't it?"

His smile was wry. "Your sun is a powerful thing. It burns the skin, but it makes flowers bloom with such vibrance it made me want to weep." Dafydd stood next to Carys, turning his head to look at the four dragons who rested at the top of the ridge in their natural form. "I wish Mared could bathe her scales in its heat, but it's not possible."

"Why not?"

"Ah, the questions begin." Dafydd began to walk along the ridge. "Dragons can travel to the Brightlands, but they cannot take their natural form there. They must remain human. But they crave heat. It's one of the reasons they tend to hide their young near volcanos and other rips in the earth."

Mared opened one golden eye and peered at Dafydd.

"I'm not revealing secrets, Mared. She's nêrys ddraig. If she'd been raised here, she would already know these things." He smiled at Carys. "All dragons are secretive, but the females most of all since they lay the eggs. Though the males brood them, so maybe it's just Mared."

"Have you seen a baby dragon before?" Carys glanced at Cadell.

He has not, the dragon whispered in her head. Stop poking, Nêrys.

Dafydd shook his head. "No one sees them until they're roughly the size of a small elephant."

"You've seen an elephant ?"

Dafydd grinned. "I actually saw my first elephant when I went to your realm. Being on an airplane was a new experience. Mared hated it with a passion."

"I'm surprised she went with you."

"I was too, but she loved the sun. We both did." Dafydd's expression was bright. "We took an expedition there with the help of a Brightkin I trust. Not my own, obviously, but the twin of my steward. He's quite a wealthy man on the other side. We do have some connections in the Brightlands. Maintaining them is of strategic importance. "

Carys poked a little bit. "Did Eamer go with you?"

"No, she has no desire for it." He looked out over the landscape. "I'm sure you've heard she and Seren weren't close. But they got along well enough for my sake."

"What about the fae? Do they have connections in the Brightlands?"

"You saw them at the banquet last night." His eyes narrowed. "What do you think?"

"I have a hard time imagining that they blend in like you could."

"Very true. And they lose almost all their magic. What is a fae without their magic?" He looked at her from the corner of his eye. "Did you notice their attention last night?"

"Yes."

"They were fascinated by you, weren't they? I noticed that as well." His expression was grim. "Fae gates were created by… No one knows really. The oldest gods probably. Fair folk who no longer exist perhaps? Magic itself? There are many theories."

"But no one knows."

"Not really." Dafydd turned and looked across the valley and the dark forest beyond. "On this side, the fae and others of their kind control everything. Our mining. Our farms. The weather. Our children, more than anything else. But when it comes to entering the Brightlands, they have their limits."

Carys followed Dafydd's eyes, watching the forest and the murky landscape beyond. "So fae can't go into my world without help?"

"It works the same way as you coming here. Once the gates recognize you, you can travel somewhat freely. I understand it was fae mercenaries who… fetched Lachlan from your world."

Carys nodded. "That's what he tells me."

"But if you've never been into the Brightlands as a magical creature, you need an escort who is native to that realm." Dafydd's eyes drilled into her. "So on this side of the gates, you hold a particular kind of magic, Carys Morgan. Be cautious of who tries to befriend you."

"I didn't think I had that kind of magical power here. I mean, other than talking with Cadell, but I can't say spells or anything." Carys felt powerless and stupid much of the time. "Dafydd, why didn't you and Eamer have more children? Did the fae ever tell you?"

"No. They don't answer questions about that." A flicker of darkness in his blue eyes, and he stared at the ground. "We hoped for more, and I admit I was surprised when we did not receive another child. Eamer is of éire, and her mother a consort in the fae court there. Most of her people are blessed with many children. It's one of the reasons Queen Orla has always been able to marry off the women of her family in powerful unions. My own father met Eamer and assumed we would welcome many children into our court."

"But it didn't happen?"

Dafydd's great shoulders lifted and fell. "We are given only what we are given. For me, Seren was always enough. Do you know if your parents ever wanted more children?"

She smiled sadly. "I always felt like they wanted more, but maybe it just didn't happen, you know?"

He nodded. "So perhaps the same fate was for us. And while Eamer and I were never blessed with another child" —Dafydd's eyes creased in pleasure— "we have fostered many and taken great joy in raising them as our own."

Carys looked to the castle in the distance. "It must have been hard letting her go."

Dafydd's smile fell. "The Queens' Pact demands it even when a king only has one child. Most regents have more than one and keep their oldest at home, but I only had Seren. So when she was only five, I sent her to be fostered here. Robb and I have always had a close relationship. I trusted him the most. His son Rory was raised in Cymru with us, but Seren could only spend a few months at home each year until Cadell was called to her."

Carys couldn't imagine the pain of having a child and then being forced to give that child to another family. "I wasn't raised in Wales either. "

Dafydd frowned. "Yes, I was told your parents moved away. Do you know why?"

"There was some kind of fight in their family, I think. They didn't talk about it much." She gripped her hands as they walked, resisting the urge to throw her arms around a stranger with her father's face. "We moved to North America. A place called California. Do you… know where that is? There's a Shadowlands California, right?"

Dafydd's eyes twinkled, reminding Carys of her father again. "There is, and I have visited the place. The nêr ddraig travel broadly, often to visit other dragon territories. It's one of the reasons Cymru has been so successful maintaining our independence despite the Anglian wolves."

"Are the English here as imperialistic as they were in the Brightlands?"

Dafydd smiled. "Pay no attention to our good-natured jokes. King Edgar is an ally and a peaceful man. He believes in conquest through trade, not war. He desires Cymric maps more than our land."

Okay, that answered one question. Apparently someone named Edgar ruled Anglia. "What's so special about Cymric maps?"

"Anglia is a seafaring country, and Cymric maps are some of the most extensive in the Shadowlands. Far better than the fae's, though they'll never admit it."

Carys's eyebrows went up. "Of course. Because of the dragons." She glanced over at the four beasts who had silently shifted, still bathing in the milky light. "But if people can go back and forth between the fae gates, why not just steal maps from the human world to use here?"

Dafydd let out a great laugh. "Now you're sounding like Seren." He cleared his throat, but a smile stayed on his face. "That becomes complicated. It's a mirror world, but things aren't quite as exact as you might think. The magic does what it wants at times. Borders shift. Islands rise or disappear. The Shadowlands shift in ways that the Brightlands do not."

"I hadn't thought about that." Carys continued walking toward the old stone tower, remembering Lachlan's story and imagining the child Seren reaching out for the fire-breathing beast when other children would have hidden. "She was never afraid of him. Cadell, I mean."

"Were you when he found you?" Dafydd's eyes were intent on her face. "Did you feel any fear?"

"Not even a hint." The corner of her mouth inched up. "Do you have any idea why he came to me?"

"None." Dafydd shook his head. "As Lachlan and Duncan know each other, twins from opposite sides do meet. In some places the fae gates appear to be a little…" He pursed his lips. "Thinner. More fluid. But none of those Brightkin have ever shown any ability to use magic. Not that I've ever heard of."

"So you have no idea why I can speak to Cadell?"

"None, Carys Morgan." He reached out his hand and she took it. He lowered his voice and glanced at Mared, Cadell, and the other two dragons. "I would take you back to Caernarfon with me, but Robb seems determined to find out more about you. What do you want?"

"I want to stay here."

"Why?"

Carys didn't know what to say. Dafydd probably thought his daughter had died of a fever like everyone else.

"Carys?"

"Someone killed Seren," she blurted. "And I want to know who."

Dafydd's eyes flashed with anger, and he turned away.

"Dafydd?" She walked in front of him. "You're not surprised by what I said, are you? You knew—you suspected anyway."

"Of course I did." His voice was rough, but he finally looked at her. "When Robb told me my daughter had died, he said it was from a fever. And she had been ill. I knew that."

"But?"

"Mared and I always suspected we were not getting the full story. Seren had been ill with an infection. That's why she sent Cadell away when his children needed him even though she normally would have gone with him. But she was recovering and she was strong. Then when she died… "

"Why didn't you pursue it?"

Dafydd took a slow breath and let it out. "We could never know for sure."

"Do people just die here for no reason?"

"Yes." He looked at her. "Not for no reason, but life here is much more precarious than life in the Brightlands. We don't have hospitals. We don't have the same medicine. Healers are very skilled, and magic is powerful, but people can die very young." He lifted his chin. "Why are you certain?"

"Because of the way that everyone reacted when Duncan said it," Carys said. "Whatever happened to Seren, there's more than they're letting on. Why hide anything if it was natural causes?"

Dafydd turned and looked at the castle behind them. "Eamer thought that pursuing the truth might endanger our relationship with the Alban court. She didn't…" He frowned. "She cared for Seren, but she never loved her as I did. I thought she was thinking more rationally and I was blinded by grief, so I let it go. Now I see that I should have pursued it more."

"We can find the truth." Carys lifted her eyes to meet his stoic gaze. "I think we can figure it out."

Dafydd said nothing. He didn't agree. He didn't disagree.

He has many lives more than his to consider.

She turned to look at Cadell and realized that Dafydd's quiet might mean that he was speaking with Mared in his mind the same way she was talking to Cadell.

Dafydd is a king, Cadell continued. Keeping peace means saving lives.

Carys turned to Dafydd. "Was it true that Lachlan was planning to give up the seat of power here and leave Alba for Cymru?"

"Yes." Dafydd kept his voice low. "Seren told me that was their ultimate plan when she asked permission to marry him. They wanted to put Lachlan's brother Rory on the throne. It was a good plan, otherwise I could have never allowed her to marry him."

"They had to ask permission to get married?"

"Lachlan and Seren weren't farmers in the village. Those of our station do not marry for affection; we marry for alliance and political purpose. For Lachlan and Seren to wed, there were many meetings between me and Robb, between Elanor and Eamer. In the end, it was only the threat of them running away—and the knowledge that they could both disappear into the Brightlands—that made us allow it."

Carys nodded. "They'd both been across the gates before."

"And they had connections via Duncan," Dafydd said. "Robb has always resented Duncan for existing , but he knows that if he alienates Lachlan's twin, he'll lose his oldest son. And Duncan…" Dafydd frowned. "He has something over Robb, but I don't know what it is. Some power."

Carys tucked that away to ask Duncan about later. "Did Robb know that was their plan?"

"No, he was convinced I would pick another heir, and I let him think I was considering it." Dafydd shook his head. "It was the one secret I kept from Robb because Seren asked me to, and I still regret it."

"I think that maybe that secret might be what killed her."

"You think someone killed her so Lachlan wouldn't leave?" He stepped back. "But who would?—"

"Maybe it wasn't because Lachlan was going to leave." Carys was quick to jump in because she could tell that Dafydd didn't want to suspect Robb of his daughter's death. "Maybe not telling people their plans made others think that Alba and Cymru would join kingdoms under Seren and Lachlan."

Dafydd's face grew pale. "And no one would want a united Alba and Cymru. The power imbalance would be too great."

"That's what I was thinking too."

Dafydd stepped back, clasping his hands behind his back as he walked toward Mared and Cadell. He walked in silence for a long time, staring at Mared in a way that made Carys think they were having some kind of conversation. A few moments later, he walked back.

"Mared and I will help you. I cannot question my daughter's death openly without risking the peace, but we will help you find who killed my daughter."