26. YOU SMELL OF AUTUMN TOO
Chapter twenty-six
YOU SMELL OF AUTUMN TOO
Ornella
T he strips of cotton from Sage’s undershirt had boiled long enough to disinfect them, so I wrapped my hands in my cloak and took the pot off the fire. Ignoring Ciaran’s watchful gaze, I went to Sage and knelt behind him.
“Tend to Serafin first,” Sage requested, but I shook my head immediately.
“I am sorry,” I added apologetically to Serafin, but the vargr seemed to agree with me and nudged his rider hard as if to chastise him.
“Summer—” Sage tried to protest.
“You might be better at handling hot water,” I guessed, glancing at Ciaran who agreed more readily than expected and rose from his place at the fire. Ciaran might not like or trust me, but he wanted to help his brother rider.
He still kept a careful distance from me as he knelt and used those seemingly fireproof hands to wring out some of the rags. He twisted them with a technique that let me know he’d done this many times before.
“Do aes sídhe not feel heat at all?” I couldn’t help but ask as I watched him handle the steaming cloth.
“We feel the heat, we just have better resistance to it,” answered Sage, looking over his left shoulder. He seemed to have finally resigned himself to being treated first.
Ciaran handed me one of the hot strips which I had to juggle back and forth between my hands until it cooled enough for me to handle it comfortably.
“It’s a handy gift,” I muttered as I began to drape the strips over Sage’s shoulder. Once they were all wrung out and ready for use, Ciaran dumped some of the water that was infused with Ichor of Airmid over Sage’s back.
My anam hissed, but he remained still as much of his blood was washed away from the wounds.
“Ready?” I asked him, gripping the shaft of an arrow, and he nodded as his hands braced on his knees.
I began to pull, making sure to move at the angle at which the missile had pierced him. I also went slow so as not to cause any more damage than necessary. His breath came harder, and it hurt my heart to cause him such pain, but I kept going until the arrow was freed from his flesh, and then I threw it away in disgust.
Ciaran had been chewing more of the Ichor of Airmid into a gummy paste. He splashed some water on the wound to wash away the freshly welling blood, and then pressed the paste into the wound to stop it from bleeding. He also boiled Sage’s outer shirt to cleanse the blood from it while I was removing the other arrows and dried it by heating it in his hands without setting fire to it. So I had a clean, warm shirt to tug over Sage’s head once the arrows were removed and his wounds were tended.
“Better?” I asked him, but I could already tell that he was more comfortable by the fluid way he was moving.
“Much, thank you,” he said, offering me a warm smile, but he was preoccupied with Serafin and his wounds.
Soon, both rider and mount were free of arrows and properly bandaged. Sage might not heal as quickly as me, but by the time we had finished tending to Serafin, he was already moving much easier.
“You really do look good in the armour,” Sage told me, and I glanced back to see he had watched me squat over his saddle to put away our supplies.
“It fits really well,” I admitted as I stood and pivoted, twisting to look down at myself. Particularly the way the suit had molded so perfectly to my ample bottom.
“It changes to suit the shape of the rider,” he explained with a smirk when he saw me checking myself out.
“Hmm. What was it you said before about me walking around in tight armour? It would be too distracting?”
Sage’s eyes widened at me before he glanced at Ciaran who merely rolled his eyes.
“We will portal back to camp,” declared the other rider with a glance at the night sky.
Sage froze, looking reluctant as if he understood there was more meaning in Ciaran’s words.
“I need to go back and tell my mother about the village and the Fuath first,” he responded finally before he bent down with a wince to collect his saddle.
“I have it,” I assured him and seized it before he could, lifting it over my shoulder.
“Then we go straight to Rian,” Ciaran insisted.
Sage glanced at me in reluctance, and I remembered what Ciaran said about all of them knowing who I was. My anam had been trying to be patient to garner my trust by granting me the time and space to feel comfortable and safe enough to share the truth with him myself. And now Rian was about to close in around my throat and force me to confront my past.
“She is not merely your anam , she will also be a rider under Rian’s command, and a valuable instrument in our endeavours to protect feykind,” Ciaran maintained.
Sage bristled, and I knew they were about to get into an argument, so I stepped between them quickly.
“I don’t have the luxury to avoid Rian indefinitely with threats converging on Ahnnaòin, and you shouldn’t have to either! He’s your family, and he needs you right now.”
“Summer, you don’t understand—” Sage began.
“I do. I know ,” I admitted significantly.
Sage searched my eyes, looking to see if I really did realize what awaited me when we faced Rian. Seeing that I did, I could tell he had many things he wanted to say, but he refrained while Ciaran was in hearing distance.
“I still need to go and inform my mother about the fate of our village,” Sage maintained. “The Fuath did not need to return to their warded cave in the daylight which means they could move for Aes Mirr sooner than expected.”
“Then let’s move quickly,” said Ciaran, and he opened a portal behind me. “I need a hot meal and my bed.”
Something we could actually agree on.
Once back at the village, the six of us weaved quickly between the yurts toward Sage’s teine . I was flabbergasted by the number of families just sitting around campfires, singing and sharing food. I knew I would much rather be soaking in a hot bath or asleep in my bed if I could.
Although… I realized that might not be true anymore. Because if I had asked to stay behind earlier, Sage would have allowed me to do so, but it had not even occurred to me to let him go back to the village alone.
“Sage!” gasped Asha in relief, springing up to her feet when she saw us approaching her and Verin at their fire. Her face fell just as quickly once she saw our expressions and dirty, bloody appearances. “The village is lost.”
“It is wholly destroyed, along with much of the forest around it,” Sage confirmed regretfully.
“What about the standing stones?” asked Verin as Sage released my hand to hug his distraught mother.
“We were not able to get close enough to verify what has become of them,” he admitted. “The Fuath did not retreat to their cave but stayed in the remains of our home and burrowed under the ash behind another ward.”
Asha slowly raised her head from his chest to look up at him in horror.
“They did not retreat? We must warn Eive right away! They could come for Aes Mirr in a matter of days!”
“We will,” Sage reassured her.
“The Aes Mirr are safe for tonight. We will go to them after we have seen Rian and gotten some food and rest,” Ciaran interjected calmly.
“Of course!” Asha conceded as she looked at each of us more closely again with sympathy and appreciation. Her eyes especially lingered on me in her son’s armour.
“You are returning to the encampment?” asked Verin, his doubt and concern evident in his tone.
“Just for the night. This place is safe now. And I very much doubt there is room for the six of us in your yurt,” Sage pointed out with that gentle smile of his that I was sure could set anyone at ease.
“There is barely enough room for the five of us as it is. Any word on your father?” Asha asked.
“He is still with Rian, but I will bring him home soon,” Sage assured her. He sounded confident despite the fact he was not communicating directly with his cousin.
“Will he offer us aid? Send his army?” asked Verin.
“The Fuath will answer for all that they have done,” Sage swore to his sister’s mate. “One way or another.”
“Go and rest,” Asha interrupted before Verin could ask anything more of Sage, and then she touched my cheek affectionately. “You are worn out and need rest but allow me to get you a clean change of clothes.”
I was so exhausted, and it felt like it took forever as we maneuvered through the yurts to the clearing where Sage had erected the portal that brought everyone to the ravine. It was the only place that seemed to have enough space for one of the riders to create another portal without going up the stairs and out of the ravine altogether.
“You have got an hour,” said Ciaran abruptly before he opened a portal, stepped through it with his vargr, and closed it again right behind him.
I looked up at Sage who drew in a deep breath through his nostrils and then released it in a slow, heavy exhale.
“Are you alright?” I asked him worriedly.
“I… No,” he admitted, shocking me with the bluntness of his honesty as he shook his head, and then he turned to me determinedly. “I know that you are the lost princess of the Ruadhán, and Rian will know it too, which means—”
“You never said anything,” I interrupted him. I tried to keep calm even though there was a part of me that was so overwhelmed with gratitude for his sensitivity that I had a sudden urge to kiss him. Something I had not felt about someone in a very, very long time.
“You did not want to talk about it, and I wanted to respect that, but Rian—”
“I know he will probably think I can just go home to take my place as queen and deliver him an army, but it is not that simple, and I am not going back there,” I insisted. Too anxious to even wait for him to speak.
“I know that,” Sage reassured me quickly, but then he hesitated as his face filled with pure astonishment. At first I did not understand, but then I realized that even though he had already figured out who I was, it was still shocking to hear it said aloud. Perhaps he had even expected me to deny it or disprove his theory.
“What happens if I refuse?” I asked, trying to move the conversation forward when he was silent for too long.
“I don’t know,” Sage admitted honestly. “Summer…” He hesitated and appeared to rethink his words.
“I will negotiate with Rian. I want… I want to stay here with you and help protect your people from the Fuath and the blight. I want to find a way to communicate better with the Vale and try to avoid conflict with them. But if Rian insists on a Summer alliance, then I’ve been thinking that my brother might be a good ally. Obviously I haven’t seen him since I was exiled from the Rowan Wood when he was just a baby, but he will be at the age now when male heirs start to get ambitious. I would be willing to try and strategize with him, and maybe he will work with us if we make him king. As long as he is more reasonable to speak to than my father is because I will end up killing him if he’s anything like that monster,” I added drolly.
“Your brother,” Sage repeated, and his face fell in a way that made my heart beat faster in fear.
“Do you think that is a bad plan?” I asked in confusion with his expression. He looked like he might be sick.
“You really did not…” he trailed off, eyes dropping to the ground between us as he appeared to think again.
“If you know something then tell me so I can come up with something else,” I insisted in frustration with him. Something about that sombre look in his eyes was making me incredibly anxious, and I hugged the bundle of clothes Asha had given me a bit tighter.
Sage seemed to gather his resolve, and then he faced me squarely, both hands rising to clench on my biceps.
“There is no easy way for me to tell you this, so I am going to be blunt,” he warned me. “Your brother is dead. You… Aodhan was…”
It felt as if my entire world tilted on its end and then sat there for many moments as his words buzzed around my head. Sinking in with gradual, overwhelming horror.
“Aodhan was an Autumn dryad,” I tried to object, shaking my head as if I could reject his words.
“Why would you think that?” Sage asked me.
“He smelled like Autumn!” I explained, my voice high from rising panic.
“He spent all his time here. You smell of Autumn too! But he was a Summer fey. He was your—”
“There are three royal bloodlines, Sage. How do you know he was my brother?”
“His father was Brogan Lann a’Chridhe,” he declared, and I jolted. It had been many centuries since I had met someone brave enough to speak my father’s name outside the Rowan Wood.
“No,” I breathed, shaking my head again as I tried to turn away from my anam , but Sage held me before him.
“He was exiled about a hundred years ago. Rian found him after he—”
“That was why!” I hissed, and the ground suddenly felt like it would fall out from under my feet completely as the full implications of this revelation hit me. I vaguely heard Sage call my name, but my mind had plunged back onto a battlefield drenched in the blood of forest elves.
“That was why they came looking for me after so long. They threw away their coveted male heir. They needed me again, and they attacked the Foraoise because of him ,” I pieced together in a sudden rage.
I distantly felt Sage’s arms envelop me and squeeze tight enough to be painful, but it actually felt really good, grounding, whilst I felt so disconnected from my body.
“First my throne. Cathal’s life. My mother. My people. And then… And now… ”
My claws extended from my fingers, propelled out by my sheer fury and anguish. I felt them poke Sage, but he hardly flinched and refused to release me.
“Now there is no one else to take my place in Sumarra. I thought his birth had taken everything from me, but now with his death…”
I startled, realizing I’d been speaking all my thoughts and feelings aloud, realized how monstrous they must be to someone like Sage who loved his family. I tried to pull away only to have him tighten his hold on me again.
“It’s okay, Summer,” he said softly, tucking my head under his chin to hold me closer. “It’s alright to be angry. But this does not have to change anything,” he attempted to console me. “Those people are not your responsibility now just because your brother is no longer an option.”
“You don’t understand,” I whispered, pushing my head against his chest as if I could hide from the eyes I worried might already be watching in the trees. “I have spilled the blood of Danu, and it would have echoed in every corner of the temple in the Rowan Wood. A challenge not unlike the one you might issue to a rider in the Wild Hunt. Except this one was issued to every eligible descendent of the three royal clans.”
“What… What does that mean, exactly, Summer?” Sage asked me, his voice deepening with concern, but he had already guessed what I would say.
“My people are coming, Sage. Every warlord who has been awaiting the opportunity to take my father’s place will be coming for me. And my father will want to get to me before they do, so he can finally harness me and use my power to defend his place as their wretched king.”