Chapter 35

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

A isling ran to the table, grabbed Seren's journal, and ran back to Carys, stuffing the journal back in Carys's pocket. "Don't let Regan see it."

The grinding sound of stone ricocheted through the chamber, and an arched doorway appeared in the wall. Through it swept Regan, dressed in dark trousers, a leather vest, and a long royal-blue cloak that covered her head.

"What are you doing?" She stood at the mouth of the archway, her eyes fixed on Aisling, who was standing near the cauldron. "I told you to get rid of her. Can't you do anything right?"

"People will ask questions if we kill her." Aisling held up her hands. "If she forgets all this, it can all go back to how it was." She pointed to the fire. "I'm making a spell to erase her memories, Regan. You can take her back through the gate. You told me you could do that."

Regan shook her head sadly. "You silly little girl. Don't you understand what's happening? There is more at stake here than your lovesick mewling and stupid guilt."

She walked over to Aisling's cauldron and swung the rack away from the fire. Her skin sizzled where it touched the burning metal, but Regan didn't flinch.

Aisling covered her mouth as the steam died on the surface of the bubbling mass.

"And you." Regan turned to Carys. "The fae should have eaten you in the forest before you ever set foot in this realm." She cocked her head. "I might know one or two who would eat you now." She smirked. "And not in any pleasant way."

She turned away from Carys and walked to the table where Aisling's grimoire was sitting. "Where is the spell you wrote to blind the dragon?"

"What are you talking about?" Aisling's voice was small.

"You blinded that beast when you poisoned his mistress the first time, or he would have come back when she got sicker."

"What?" Carys looked at Aisling again and saw the truth written all over her manic face.

Of course. Of course she'd have to blind Cadell or block him in some way.

Aisling looked at Carys, her eyes glittering. "I had to. He would have felt Seren dying, and I couldn't have that."

Regan yelled at Aisling. "How did you do it? He's breaking though my wards."

Aisling had sense enough to look frightened. "Regan, if he's breaking through the wards, we should run. That spell isn't strong enough to?—"

"Absolutely not." Regan snorted. "Not until I find that bitch's maps. If the kings see them, it's all over."

"I told you." Aisling's voice was brusque. "I looked through her things after she died. None of the maps in Seren's papers had anything about the western islands. They were property boundaries for local lords and one map of the Northern Sea. None of the western islands were on there."

Regan glanced over her shoulder at Carys. "Well, now you definitely have to kill her. She can't know any of that. "

Aisling's eyes narrowed on Carys, but she said nothing.

"How about you?" Regan walked over and bent down, getting in Carys's face. "Do you know where your sister's maps are?"

Carys closed her eyes. "I think I'm going to throw up."

Regan heaved a sigh. "Seren was so superior to you. Despite the dragon, you're… nothing. Very boring."

"I don't have any maps," Carys said. "I'm going to puke."

"I think you're lying." Regan ran a finger down her cheek, scraping Carys's skin with a clawed nail. "Hand them over and maybe I'll feed you to the kelpie instead of taking you back to the forest. The kelpie will give you a quick death."

Carys kept her eyes wide and woozy. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Regan's eyes lit up and she stood up straight. "You're lying! How intriguing."

Carys was lying. She knew exactly what Regan was talking about. She was looking for the maps Seren had drawn into her journals, the ones that had been sitting in the old crates for years, not neatly drawn out on large scrolls like Aisling had been looking for but scrawled in a journal among crop reports and banquet menus. "I don't think Seren had any maps with her stuff. Not that I saw."

"You're a bad liar. If I wasn't going to kill you, I'd say you should work on that." Regan leaned down again, inches from Carys's face. "Your nosy sister was always taking off to snoop with that beast. She knew what was happening. I'm so glad Aisling killed her. It's the one smart thing my niece has ever done."

"Regan!" Aisling sputtered.

"Calm down." Regan's green eyes never left Carys's stoic gaze. "This one knows what I'm speaking of, don't you?"

"No idea," Carys whispered. "I do feel Cadell getting closer though. Might be a good idea to run. Dragons can be… burny."

Regan narrowed her eyes. "Some fae magic is breaking through mine, and I don't like it. I was given assurances that they wouldn't interfere. "

"You got me there." Carys kept her eyes wide and innocent. "I don't really know any fae the way that you do."

When she'd first woken and realized where she was, she had been resigned to dying. But the more Regan talked, the angrier Carys became.

Fuck this sorceress. She wasn't going to die at her hand. Or at least if she was going to go, she'd make sure Cadell could take Regan with her. She felt his magic coming closer, like heat from a distant fire.

She reached out. She didn't know how, but she concentrated on that hot thread of anger, wrapping it around the tie she felt to Cadell… then she yanked on it in her mind.

Carys heard a distant roar of dragon fire. "He's coming."

Seren's journal lay heavy in the pocket on her right, but Carys tried not to think about it.

"Fine. If you don't know anything, you're no use to me." Regan drew a long bone knife from a scabbard at her waist. "Goodbye, lesser Seren."

"Wait." Carys needed to buy time. "I think there were maps in my sister's journals, nothing nicely drawn but sketches mixed in with a bunch of other stuff. I didn't really understand why she drew them, but they were there."

"What?" Aisling frowned.

"Her journals." Regan pressed the bone knife to Carys's neck. "Where are they?"

"They were in the library for years." Carys smiled a little. "Right under your nose."

Regan spun and stalked toward Aisling. "What have you been hiding from me?"

"I don't know." Aisling raised her hands. "You asked me for maps. I looked through everything. I gave you everything she had, and you said it was worthless."

"They're just sketches really." Carys spoke softly. "They were in her journals all the time."

Regan turned back to Carys and put the knife at her throat again. " You're more clever than I gave you credit for. I thought you were a lovesick idiot like this one. Where are the journals? Never mind—they'll be at the castle. I'll find them."

The knife pressed closer, and Carys felt her skin break open.

"They're not there!" The pain nearly made her cry out, but Carys controlled it. "I hid them, and you won't find them without me." Tears fell from her eyes, but she forced her gaze to Regan's. "But others will."

The sting from Regan's knife broke through the rest of the fog. Her legs felt light and quick again. Carys could feel her toes, her ankles, the pain from the bindings around her wrists.

"Tell me where."

"And have you kill me? I'm not an idiot. Take me to the fae gate and I'll tell you where to find them. I'll go back to my world, and all of you here in the Shadowlands can go to hell for all I care. All I want is to go home."

Was there any way that Regan would believe her?

The woman stepped back and lowered the knife. Then she lunged forward, the knife raised.

Carys couldn't stop the flinch, but Regan halted inches from her face and laughed. Then she bent over, slid the knife between the bindings holding Carys's legs to the chair, and sliced through them. She stared at Carys, her eyes narrowing. "What is that smell?"

"Probably onions."

"At least you're funnier than Seren." Regan rose and motioned to Aisling. "Get her arms. She won't hurt you ." She kept her eyes on Carys as Aisling came over and sliced through the bonds holding Carys's wrists behind her back.

Regan turned to the right, staring into the distance. "The dragon isn't alone anymore. Others have come."

Carys could feel the growing power. The fire was burning hotter. There was a magic surrounding them and the faint sound of feathers flapping in the darkness. She stretched her arms in front of her, and in the distance, she heard the faint call of a crow and Naida's voice whispering in her memory .

You smell of the Crow Mother.

Only other fae will sense it.

…they will leave you alone.

No fae would harm you with Branwen's mark on your skin.

"You should run." She touched the slice on her neck as she rose and stretched her legs. "They're coming for me right now. And you probably didn't hear the news, but I struck a bargain with the Crow Mother."

Regan's eyes went wide. "What did you say?"

"I owe her a favor, so unless you want to piss her off, you're not going to hurt me."

"You're lying."

"Am I?"

Regan clearly couldn't tell if Carys was telling the truth or not. The tension in her jaw told Carys that she was carefully considering the situation.

Dragon breaking though fae wards with unknown reinforcements with him.

A human protected by a powerful fae.

Dragon. Really big, really pissed-off dragon.

Regan was out of options, and by the anger burning in her eyes, she knew it.

"If you want a chance at finding Seren's maps, you better leave now. I may not know who that fae woman is, but you clearly do. Think she'll be pissed at you if you kill the Brightkin who owes her a favor? Take off, Regan. Leave me alone."

Regan's rage was clear when she screamed. The walls shook with anger, and the stones surrounding them shifted in their mortar. "I should kill us all now!"

"That seems counterproductive," Carys said.

"Regan, stop!" Aisling ran to her aunt. "She's right. We need to run. We have to leave now. Cadell will have raised the Northern Guard. Lachlan and his men are probably already outside. "

"No." Regan grabbed for her niece, flipped her to face Carys, and pulled her to her chest. A second later, the tip of the bone knife was at Aisling's throat.

Aisling cried out, "What are you doing?"

Regan backed toward the archway, still holding the knife at Aisling's throat. "You're soft like Seren." She kept her eyes on Carys. "You won't want me to kill her."

"You think I care?" Carys shook her hands and slowly flexed her feet, which tingled and burned. "Aisling killed my sister. She tried to kill me."

Regan flipped the knife around with a quick hand, swung her arm forward, and sank the knife into Aisling's belly.

"Guh." Aisling's cry was soft and guttural.

"No!" Carys lunged forward but stopped when Regan dragged Aisling back.

"See? You're soft." Regan pushed the knife deeper. "Even though she did kill your sister. Tell me where the maps are or I will gut her in front of you."

Aisling clutched her abdomen with both hands, blood seeping between her fingers. Her eyes rose to Carys's. "Seren…"

"You're not leaving this mound with me, Brightkin. So tell me where the journals are or I gut Aisling like a fish."

Carys's mind flew in a hundred different directions at once. Aisling was bleeding in front of her, but she wasn't dead. Cadell was coming, but maybe not fast enough to save Aisling.

"Carys!" Someone in the distance was shouting her name, and there was the sound of stone and scraping metal. "Carys, where are you?"

Regan pressed the knife deeper, and Aisling's face drained of color. "Tell me, Brightkin." She whispered something under her breath, but Carys couldn't hear it.

"Seren?" Aisling's eyes had gone watery and blank. "Seren, help."

No matter what Aisling had done, Carys couldn't sit and watch her die under Regan's knife .

"The journals are at Duncan's cottage." Carys kept her eyes on Aisling's. "I hid them in an apple crate he keeps in the rafters. Now go and leave her with me."

Regan smiled and pulled the knife from her niece, letting the woman fall to the ground. "You're not a bad bargainer after all." She took a step toward Carys, but just then a crow flew through the black stone archway and perched on the table, angling its black beady eye at Regan.

"Caw!"

"Damn you to the deep," Regan hissed a second before she threw up a hand. The stone wall folded in on itself, creating a new passageway, and she fled through it, closing the wall behind her.

Carys rushed to the bleeding woman. With Regan's knife removed, her blood was pouring from her belly to the earthen floor. "Aisling?"

"I deserve this." The woman's lips were pale, nearly blue. "I know I do. Tell Seren I'm sorry."

"Seren's dead." Carys pushed her arm around Aisling's body. "But you aren't. Don't die, Aisling. Help me out here."

Bits of stone and moss were falling overhead, as if Regan's and Aisling's magic had been the only things holding up the chamber. Mushrooms grew up around Aisling's body, feeding on the dark red blood pouring from her wound.

"The fort is going to collapse." Aisling whispered a spell and tried to lift her hand, but it fell limp at her side. "I don't want to die in the earth. Can you take me… I want to see the sea. I miss the sea."

The crow cawed again, louder this time, and Carys felt a surge of power in her limbs. The bird flew out of the dark passageway where it had come.

"You're not dying!" Carys managed to get Aisling to her feet, dragging the woman toward the arch where the crow had flown.

She didn't stop even though the walls around her were pitch-black. She could see faint blue lights overhead and a dull white glow in the distance. She headed toward it, ignoring the wild shouting in her mind .

Nêrys!

"I'm coming out. Regan stabbed Aisling, and she's going to Duncan's cottage to find Seren's journals. Get me a doctor or a healer or… whatever you can find, Cadell. We need to save Aisling and stop Regan before she gets there."

There was a rumbling behind her, but Carys didn't turn to look. The crow in the passageway was joined by another, then another, then another until the cacophony of caws and shrieks drowned out the sound of shouting in her mind.

The black birds swirled around the glowing grey entrance to the fae mound, and Carys stumbled through them, falling to her knees as she reached the lush green grass of the meadow, and the birds flew away.

The fae woman Naida was standing at the entrance, her hand held to the ground and her face tight with exertion. Behind Naida stood a company of soldiers from the castle, Lachlan standing at the front, bronze sword at the ready, and beside him, Duncan was ready with a sword of dragon steel in his hand.

"Carys!" they both shouted.

"Thank the gods." Naida let out a breath and stood. "Regan's magic was so strong. If I didn't know better, I would think she's fae."

Carys tried to lay Aisling gently on the grass, but her arms grew weak as soon as the birds flew away and she dropped the dying woman.

Duncan and Lachlan rushed toward them. Lachlan dropped his sword and threw his arms around Carys while Duncan knelt at Aisling's side, driving his sword into the earth.

"Human, take that iron from this ground." Naida's face went pale. "I don't know where you forged that, but unless you want to make me your enemy?—"

"She's dying." Duncan yanked the sword from the earth and slung it over his shoulder, into a leather scabbard. He looked up in supplication. "Naida, she's dying. "

Cadell roared overhead, joined by another dragon carrying a coracle.

Naida looked up at the dragons overhead. "I will try to heal her." She looked at Carys, who was limp in Lachlan's embrace. "Nêrys, calm your dragon before he burns down the forest. He smells your blood."

"You're bleeding?" Lachlan asked.

"Cadell!" Carys pulled away from Lachlan and ran to the center of the meadow, waving both her hands overhead. "I'm here. I'm safe."

Nêrys?

She ran to the edge of the forest and waved her arms. "Cadell!"

The dragon came wheeling down overhead.

"Carys!" Lachlan and Duncan ran after her.

"What are you doing?" Duncan yelled as Cadell's roars came closer.

"Regan is going to your cottage." She held back her hair as it whipped around her face. "We have to keep her from getting Seren's journals. There's something about those maps."

"What are you talking about?" Lachlan yelled. "What maps?"

"I'll explain later."

Cadell landed, his massive wingspread blocking the sky from view.

Nêrys. He bent his head. Bring your wound to me.

"Cadell." She ran to her dragon as he bent his head and threw her arms around him. "I'm so sorry I went without you."

You were betrayed by a friend. Don't move. He breathed out, his exhalation searing her skin.

Carys flinched, but she held still as he'd told her and felt the wound at her neck disappear. "Can you heal Aisling too?"

Naida is tending to her, and I hear the unicorns approaching.

The pain in Carys's neck was a memory when she turned back to Duncan and Lachlan. "It was an accident." It was enough of the truth for the moment. "The potion came from Regan, and Aisling didn't know it would hurt Seren."

Lachlan's face went pale. "Aisling?"

"Regan's going to Duncan's to get Seren's journals. We need to get them before she does. "

Duncan looked up at Cadell. "Can you carry me and Carys both?"

I can carry two humans. He flexed his massive claws. We must go now.

"He says he can take us both." Carys stepped back. "Let's go."

"Don't be ridiculous," Lachlan snapped. "Duncan, you're not trained."

"I have iron." Duncan held up the sword.

"And no training in it and no defense against magic." Lachlan scowled. "This isn't a contest. We have to be smart. Regan is an immensely powerful mage."

Duncan gritted his teeth, and Carys looked up, spotting Mared and Dafydd in the distance. "Both of you can go." She waved her arms at the dragon soaring overhead. "My uncle and Mared can take one of you—the other can go with Cadell and me."

"I'll go with you." Both Duncan and Lachlan spoke at the same time.

"Not the time!" Carys yelled.

Duncan stepped back even though his face was a storm. "Fine, go."

Carys cast one last look at Duncan as Cadell heaved his body into the air, grabbed Carys in one claw and Lachlan in the other.

Then they were flying and everything was wind.