Chapter 45 Non
Non
The undisclosed location turned out to be a dank wood.
Nightfall had come quickly and added another layer of complexity to this trial. Like it wasn't difficult enough anyway.
I found myself squinting into the dark so much that, lately, I prayed to the god that chose me to pass on some night vision powers. From what little I could see, I guessed I was alone in the small valley I'd been dropped in.
I treaded lightly as the frost coating the floor meant every sound could be heard in the silent woodland.
After wandering for a while with very little excitement, I came across a rhododendron bush with someone kneeling beside it.
Her arms were bound behind her back, and the small whimpers she made were muffled by the rope in her mouth.
I approached her warily and tapped her lightly on the shoulder.
A middle-aged woman with grey and blonde hair sobbed as she knelt on the ground. She wasn’t wearing anything that connected her to a specific Coven.
Nothing about this woman seemed like a threat, so I moved closer, crouching beside her and freeing her from her gag.
“My Mared,” she sobbed. “Where's my Mared?”
Facially, they did look similar; the only mention I'd heard of Mared's mother was when Aeron declared she was too unwell to vote.
Placing a hand on her shoulder, I tried my best to soothe her. “Mared won't be long, she's doing her best to find you.”
She continued to sob despite my best efforts. “I want Mared and I want to go home.”
I explained to her that staying well-hidden and quiet gave her the best chance of being found by Mared.
Turning her back to me, she hung her head, but did seem to stop sobbing.
End her. The voice inside me reared its head.
One less problem to deal with.
Absolutely not, I fired back.
As you wish.
Since when did you start doing what you were told?
Since you stopped putting all that horrible poison in your blood to shut me out.
It was talking about the foxglove.
When it was silent again, I focused on hacking a path through some brambles that blocked the way. When the final branch hit the ground, a scream echoed across the clearing.
At first, I froze, waiting to see what would happen. Would anyone come bursting through the bushes, slashing a weapon at me?
When nothing happened, I pressed forward with no real idea where I was heading.
I entered a part of the woods that was densely populated by towering redwoods, and as I wove between the trees, the scream rang out again.
This time it was much, much closer.
The deeper I moved into the woods, the clearer the voice became.
“Please, someone help—help us, please!”
As I rounded a tree trunk, I saw the figure of Alaw looking up at one of the giant redwoods.
High Healer Sioned was insistent she should miss this trial out, but considering I nearly died and the Cyngor Blaen hadn't excused me from the Anoethau, I doubted Alaw would be any luckier.
“Alaw!” I called, and as she turned around, her face crumpled.
“Non! Thank Amaethon it's you.” She flung her arms around me.
A strangled cry made us pull apart, looking up to the impossibly tall branches of the redwood.
Dressed in a Southern habit, a middle-aged man hung from the branch by his neck.
“How did that happen, Alaw?”
“I don't know. I was scouting this area, and I found him like this! I think he might have been trying to get to higher ground, but he slipped and the gag in his mouth caught on a branch.”
“Where's your Arf? Have you tried throwing it to cut him down?”
Alaw pulled her sickle free from its sheath at her back.
“Here, but the blade is so curved, I'm terrified I'll take his whole head off if I try.”
He needed to be cut down; his face was the colour of a bruise as the rope cut off his windpipe.
If Alaw didn't feel comfortable trying to cut him down, then I was the only option.
I readied Carnwennan in my hands and prayed to Amaethon, the god of the Harvest. Seeing as Alaw's family were his vassals, I hoped he'd sprinkle some luck my way.
Flinging Carnwennan, I focused on the rope and the rope alone. Carnwennan nicked a small cut in the noose, with the weight of the male hanging from it, it began to fray. In the few seconds it took for the rope to snap, Alaw instructed her father to use his power to break his fall.
As he tumbled to the ground, gold vines burst from the earth. They created a cradle for Alaw's father to fall into and brought him to the ground in one piece. Alaw sobbed as she untied the restraints around his hands.
“I'll never be able to repay you.”
“Don't mention it. Any idea where the centre of the trial is?”
Alaw nodded towards a steep incline at the edge of the redwoods. As her father struggled to stand, we each hooked one of his arms over our shoulders. He was only able to manage a couple of steps before his ankle gave out.
“I think it's broken.”
The longer we hung around in these woods, the higher the chance we were sliced and diced by another competitor. “How long till we get to the summoning circle?” I asked Alaw as her father tripped again.
“We, as in Dad and me, should make it in less than an hour. You, on the other hand, aren't coming with us.”
“Alaw, you can't seriously be considering carrying him yourself?”
“Absolutely. You have as good a chance of winning this trial as the others. Helping us as we hobble across the finish line puts a target on your back.”
It frustrated me that what she was saying made sense.
When Alaw's father insisted, I reluctantly said goodbye and watched as they climbed the incline. Alaw turned around one final time and shouted across the woods.
“Forgot to tell you, I saw Dylan a couple of hundred metres up the valley behind you.”
Blowing her one final kiss goodbye, I made my way towards the mouth of the valley.
When I eventually found Dylan, it was only a couple of hundred metres away from where the summoning circle was.
His shoulder poured blood from two parallel gashes that looked dangerously deep.
We might have been blessed with quicker healing, but that only got us so far.
“Did you find anyone?” he gritted out.
“Mared's mum crying in a bush, and Alaw's dad hanging himself from a tree.”
He laughed, then flinched. “You've had an eventful final trial. No sign of your loved one?”
I shook my head. “You?”
Dylan pushed to his feet, groaning. “Zenn, but your delightful cousin got her hands on him first. She left me this as a parting gift.” He gestured to his wound.
My stomach hollowed out. “She killed Zenn?”
“No, no, not killed. But she is currently using him as a human shield.”
I could only imagine the rage Zenn must have felt at being dragged around as Seren's collateral.
“Where are they now?”
“My best guess is she's somewhere north of here. He's not being very accommodating, so she wouldn't have gotten far.”
We walked for a short while in the direction Dylan had suggested. At one point, we'd come so close to the clearing where the summoning circle lay, I could see the different coloured habits of the Cyngor Blaen through the trees.
I turned around to check on Dylan when a figure burst through the bush. Mared, who ran like a possessed thing, made a beeline for us as she fired dart after dart from the small crossbow fixed to her arm.
I ducked as two flew over my head, and when Dylan let out a grunt of pain, I realised I should have probably warned him about the oncoming threat.
I was at his side in an instant. “My calf,” he ground out as he lifted his skirt.
We had no time to remove the dart protruding from Dylan's calf. Mared released a war cry that had us scrambling to our feet. Dylan only managed a few strides before Mared sank another dart into his opposite leg.
I put all I had into pulling Dylan to his feet again, but I was half his weight soaking wet. Mared skidded to a stop in front of us as she aimed one right between my eyebrows. I summoned Cynddaredd to my hand and angled it towards her neck.
Her eyes darted between us. “I'm not looking for a fight.”
Dylan had managed to get to his feet, drawing Caledfwlch. When Mared pulled the string of her crossbow tighter, Dylan retreated two steps back.
“I'm just trying to find my mum,” she panted.
“We've not seen her,” Dylan bit out.
“I have.”
Both their heads snapped to me. “Tell me where I can find her, and I'll leave you be for the duration of the trial. You have my word.”
Dylan gave me a look of warning, but I ignored it and turned back to Mared.
“Just beyond the cluster of redwoods, there's large rhododendron bushes. She was sitting underneath the pink one.”
Mared watched us both for a long moment before she slowly lowered her crossbow. In a flash, she was sprinting towards the redwood trees.
“Fuck she's quick.” Dylan wrapped his hand around one of the bolts in his leg and pulled, letting out a strangled cry.
“Sorry about your leg!” Mared’s voice echoed from the trees.
“You know, considering she's Aeron's daughter, she isn't half bad.”
Dylan turned his head to me, his jaw hanging open in disbelief. “In the short time you've known me, she's hit me with not one, but two of her darts.”
I lifted a shoulder. “Woman after my own heart.”
By the time we drew near the location where Dylan suspected Seren was with Zenn, his legs had thankfully stopped bleeding.
We broke through a line of pine trees and came upon a meadow covered in wildflowers.
In the dark, the colours were muted. I guessed that during the day, this would be breathtaking.
We skirted the edge quickly; the lack of coverage meant we would be super exposed if anyone tried to attack. As we crested a hill, we saw someone was kneeling in the field up ahead.
Bound and gagged in the middle of the meadow was Elis. Some of his hair partially covered his face, but even in this state, I could tell it was him.
“Is this some kind of sick joke?” I choked out.
Dylan studied the figure on its knees. “Who is that?”
How could I put into a few short words who Elis was? Especially ones that didn't make Dylan maim him.