Chapter 45 Non #2
I needed him alive if I wanted to win.
“This looks like a set-up.”
“One that has your cousin written all over it,” Dylan agreed.
Looking at the problem in front of us, I couldn't come up with any way to get around this trap. I needed Elis, and there he was in the middle of this field like a honeytrap.
I looked at Dylan, who seemed to understand the predicament I was in. He pulled Caledfwlch from his back and gestured for me to go first.
“I'll cover you.”
We got close to Elis before he even noticed us. His face was bloodied and bruised, and my power snickered at the sight. He didn't say anything to us; he just lolled his head back down.
Serves him right.
As my outstretched arm reached for his gag, a shield whipped towards us and nearly severed my thumb.
I dropped to my knees as the blinding pain radiated up my arm. Dylan swung Caledfwlch at the shield in an attempt to knock it off course.
With Dylan preoccupied, someone jumped on my back and we rolled down one of the smaller hills in the meadow.
With each roll, Lleucu landed a punch to my face. My hand-to-hand combat was appalling, and with a nearly severed thumb, it only left me with one good arm to do any damage with.
Dylan was able to pull her off after she landed at least four more blows to my face. Her anger made her punches messy; they hurt, but weren't as lethal as they could have been.
“Stay out of this, Dyl. This is between me and her!”
“What are you fucking playing at, Lleucu? She's not a threat to you.”
“Not a threat?” She scoffed as she dusted herself off. “Because of her father and her fucking Cychwyniad. I'm left with nothing!” The final word echoed through the meadow.
Dylan reached out a hand to help me off the ground. When I was upright, he used his sleeve to wipe the blood that dripped from the hefty gash at my temple. When Lleucu scoffed at his act of intimacy, Dylan shoved me behind him as he pointed his axe in her direction.
“Do you see this?” Lleucu jabbed a finger at the scar on her face. “That was given to me by your father as he pressed my face into hot coals until I turned over my parents to him.”
“Lleucu, I’m sorry—”
“No! You don't get to apologise!”
She shot a dart of shadows at Dylan's chest that made him waver, giving her an opening to lunge for me. Swinging her shielded arm, it connected with the underside of my chin, and I was thrown backwards.
Dylan slashed at Lleucu with his axe, but she met every one with her shield.
As the two Western Coven competitors were interlocked in battle, someone had managed to run right up to us without being noticed. Zenn sprinted from the woods towards us. On his heels and running so quickly it didn't seem natural, was Seren.
With their attention now on the oncoming attack, Lleucu shoved away from Dylan and braced, lifting her shield higher.
Seren hurled her staff like a javelin, the leather whip at its end trailing behind it, quivering through the air like a kite's tail. It arced high before diving down, aimed squarely at Zenn's back. With a second to spare, Zenn tucked into a forward roll, moving out of the trajectory of the spear.
But it didn't land in the earth like I expected it to. Instead, Seren redirected its focus and landed the tapered end in Elis's chest.
He slouched forward into the grass as Seren came up beside him. Placing a boot on his chest, she yanked her spear free. “Looks like you won't be able to take your loved one to the Cyngor Blaen after all.”
Lleucu hurled Manawydan at Seren, but the cry she let out as the shield left her grip was a dead giveaway for someone as quick as Seren. She sidestepped the shield, and it sliced cleanly through Elis's neck.
As his head tumbled to the ground, I was immediately reminded of how Dylan had done the same to Guto.
Dylan, Zenn, and Lleucu circled Seren. With it being three to one, I didn't like my cousin's odds. But the whip at the end of her Arf kept the others a good distance from her.
As I watched the bloodshed unfold, Seren's words kept playing over in my mind.
Your loved one.
Your loved one.
Your loved one.
My gaze instinctively found Dylan's, and I mouthed the next words at him.
Do you trust me?
He nodded.
Run.
I wasn't able to look over my shoulder as I navigated around the pine trees, but I prayed Dylan was close behind.
A ball of wind exploded against a tree only inches from my head. Clearly, we weren't alone. In the distance, I could see the habits of the South, North, West, and Pen Arwr Aeron.
I pumped my legs as hard as I could. When I passed the two final pine trees, I came to a skidding stop.
Commotion from behind me and the clatter of weapons meant whoever was chasing us had also made it here.
“Cyngor Blaen, I believe I'm the first one to arrive back in the clearing with the person I love.”
Granny scoffed, and the others all looked to Aeron.
“Unfortunately, you are mistaken; none of these people is your assigned loved one,” he sneered.
“Remind me what the single rule of this trial is, Pen Arwr?”
He froze but didn't answer.
So I repeated myself. “Remind me—”
“The winner is the first to return to the Cyngor Blaen with someone they love.”
I took a deep, steadying breath before turning around and reaching my hand out to Dylan.
He looked at it with wide eyes, and for a second, I thought he would refuse.
But he clasped my hand and stepped to my side.
“Cyngor Blaen.” I dipped my head. “Pen Arwr Aeron. My name is Non Meredith, a Witch of Llyr, and I have returned to you with the one I love.”
Dylan had stopped breathing next to me, his usual tight grasp on my hand was limp.
Aeron looked at us with such disgust that I was convinced he would overrule my win.
He glanced at each member of the Cyngor Blaen. When none of them met his stare, he turned back to us, his face unreadable.
“Congratulations to the winner of all three trials.”
The Carnyx all sounded in unison, and in that moment, I don't think I'd ever heard a better sound.