Prologue #2
Granny and Ail seemed to have some silent conversation as they glared at each other intensely.
Finally, Ail broke the contact with a nod and grabbed my arm, ushering me out of the sitting area.
We passed Gruff, who was still trembling, and went into the kitchen, where Gruff’s terrified family sat at the table.
“Non, give your shirt to Lleucu,” Ail said, gesturing to the young girl who trembled as much as her father.
Without any arguments, I shrugged off my shirt and handed it to Lleucu, who reluctantly put it on. From the look on her face, her reluctance had more to do with listening to the order than the shirt itself.
The young girl’s mother stood from the table and faced my grandmother and Ail. “What if he finds us, Ail Llew? How are we going—” But her words were drowned out as a horn unlike anything I’d ever heard before bellowed from outside.
“I’m sorry, Nansi,” Ail said with genuine sincerity in his eyes. “We are out of time.”
He took a step closer to Lleucu, who was gripping her mother’s hand within an inch of its life. To my surprise, he gently cupped the girl’s face and brushed away a loose tear streaming down her cheek with his thumb.
“You must be brave, young one. D?n has called upon you to serve and protect.” He reached behind her head and pulled at her hair tie, freeing the mass of wavy hair. He tousled it quickly before pulling us side by side and taking a step back.
Granny assessed us, standing together, before dismissing us with a click of her tongue. “It will have to do.” She left the cottage without so much as a goodbye.
A million questions raced around my mind. These kind people seemed so reluctant to do whatever it was Ail and Granny had tasked them with. And why did he need Lleucu to wear my shirt? Apart from the height and hair colour, there wasn’t much similarity between the two of us.
Ail began pulling me towards the door before I could ask. “We need to get you out of here—immediately.” He shoved me out into the chilly morning before turning back to the terrified family for a final goodbye.
“Did she make it out? Is your sister safe?” he asked Gruff gently.
Gruff only managed a short shake of his head before dipping his chin to his chest. Nansi clung to both her husband and daughter as her sobs echoed across the field.
Tears pooled in my eyes at the sight of these poor people; something in my gut told me this was more than a goodbye between them and us.
“I hope you know what you’re asking us to sacrifice, Ail Llew. And I hope it’s worth the risk.” Gruff slammed the cottage door.
The sky was just starting to turn a pale shade of pink as the sun rose lazily above the trees surrounding us.
My hands were numb from the freezing September air; goosebumps had risen across my arms from my lack of appropriate clothing.
The thin vest I was left wearing after sacrificing my shirt did absolutely nothing to keep the cold out.
Ail and I made our way into the damp field that was opposite the cottage.
During the journey up North, Granny had mentioned that we needed to be outside the wards the family had in place for her to get us to the ceremony.
Something about the father, Gruff, being a vassal of Mabon and that his wards were Iron-Fucking-Clad in so many words.
Unsurprisingly, they hadn’t divulged what a vassal was and what it had to do with a Mabon. I added it to the endless list of questions.
It made no sense to me why such a normal family, Wielders or not, needed to have such vast wards in place.
What threat could possibly be so great out in the countryside?
But after the frosty interaction with my grandmother and her driver in the cottage, I wasn’t going to keep pressing for information.
Ail and Granny eventually stopped walking when we came to a scorched patch of grass in the shape of a circle.
I was warned repeatedly about how the magic would feel when transporting us from one summoning circle to another.
Feeling a bit winded and nauseous was all that my grandmother had said.
What she failed to mention was that I would actually feel like all oxygen had been ripped from my body.
I also didn’t expect to vomit uncontrollably all over my shoes when we landed.
Thankfully, they had picked a small patch of wooded area to one side of the clearing as our landing spot.
We walked in silence for half a mile through a wooded area, eventually passing through a break in the forest. In front of us appeared a large span of dried field with trees lining the outer edge.
Disappointingly, the clearing was completely empty.
No bubbling cauldrons waiting for us, just a whole lot of nothing.
“I’m not sure what I expected, but I didn’t expect this.” Granny and Ail both stared straight ahead, focused on the opposite edge of the clearing.
Granny, dismissing my whining entirely, turned her attention to Ail.
“Do you want the honour, or shall I do it?” Granny gestured in my direction.
“The honour would be all mine, Bronwen,” he said, bowing his head with a small smirk tilting his lips up.
I recoiled slightly at hearing someone call my grandmother by her first name.
To my surprise, Granny didn’t threaten to cut off one of his fingers like she had many times before when some poor soul dared to be casual enough to use her name.
The only person who had been stupid enough to call her by her first name had been Catrin.
Granny ignored Ail’s boldness and turned to face the clearing with a wry smirk on her face.
Before my mind could even unpack the borderline-friendly exchange, calloused hands gripped my arms, and I was turned around to face Ail.
Lifting his hand, he pointed his index and pinky finger directly in line with my eyes.
“Keep still, and this will be quick. Your vision will go a little blurry for a few seconds, but it should be back to normal in no time. The key is to not panic.”
“What if my vision doesn’t come—” But before I could get the last of my concerns out, a marble-sized ball of light appeared between his two fingers. It briefly hovered in place before floating through the air and landing at the bridge of my nose.
As warned, my vision completely blurred, and I began stumbling backwards. Ail’s hands grabbed my shoulders and caught me before I could collapse in a heap on the floor. A deafening ring began to distort my ability to hear; I could barely make out the orders my grandmother began barking at me.
“Non! Take a deep breath—you’re hyperventilating!”
I hadn’t noticed how panicked my breathing had become until Granny started screaming. Blackness crept into the edges of my vision, and I was certain that I would pass out at any moment. Squeezing my eyes shut, I begged whatever god could hear me not to let that happen.
Stay conscious, a voice inside me pleaded.
As my knees began to give out, bellowing horns sounded from across the clearing. Like the one we had heard previously had found some friends. The thunderous rumble was so loud, every instinct in my trembling body told me to run.
Nothing good happens when those horns sound, the voice warned in the back of my mind.
“Open your eyes,” someone whispered in my ear, their voice so soft in contrast to the horn. “It’s over, Non. You should be able to see again. Try opening your eyes,” Ail said, his hands still holding me in place.
Peeling back my eyelids could only be compared to the time I opened my bedroom curtains with a blinding hangover the morning after Cat’s sixteenth birthday party. A thought, I quickly realised, my grandmother would, without a doubt, be horrified to hear while she read my mind.
Ail’s cloak was the first thing I saw through the new lens; the muted purple became a vibrant indigo.
“Might take you a while to get used to it. Colours will seem brighter, and you might see a few creatures scuttling around. Try not to panic. Again, they’re just the Gwyllion.
It’s too cold at this time of year for them to be mating, so they won’t bite.
” He waved a dismissive hand in my face and continued towards the clearing where Granny was already waiting.
“A Gwyllion?” I asked, wiping the tears that streamed down my cheeks.
But Ail wasn’t listening. Instead, he was mumbling something to Granny by the time I turned around.
They both walked briskly in front of me, their long cloaks dragging behind them, snagging at times on the dry brush.
I presumed my grandmother had conjured her cloak while I was having a panic attack.
Glad to see she was so concerned for my well-being.
I tried and failed to catch up with them multiple times. I thought I could try and get some questions answered before throwing myself blindly into this ceremony. And find out what the fuck a Gwyllion was.
Just as I started to consider giving up chasing their speedy gait, they both stopped in unison.
My grandmother held up an open palm, her command, I assumed, to get me to stop my lazy jog and pay attention.
I was just able to avoid slamming into her back, my nose stopping only inches from the back of her pointed hood.
“I’ll give you a chance to take it all in before we make our way to the pabell. The last thing we need is you gawping at everything and everyone. You have exactly two minutes and counting,” Granny snapped before turning in the opposite direction and marching a few feet away with Ail following.
The clearing, which only a few minutes ago had been the biggest disappointment of the whole day, was now anything but that.
Filling the entire space stood a huge bell-shaped tent, its luxurious fabric such a vibrant orange, it reminded me of Aunty Glad’s homemade marmalade.
The smoke from the burning bonfires that circled the outside of the tent entrance smelt richer than any burning wood I had ever smelt before. Thirty fires burned in a semi-circle.