Chapter 5 #2
“I don’t know.” Lachlan shrugged. “Perhaps it’s because she led an old god into the Brightlands and now the Morrígan is attacking the fae gates and trying to break them open from the other side.”
Carys’s stomach dropped.
Nêrys? Cadell spoke into her mind. I feel you. What is wrong?
The knot in her stomach loosened as soon as she heard Cadell’s voice. Dru—King Diarmuid—wants to see me in Temris. He wants to see all of us.
Laura said, “She’s talking to Cadell. She gets that look on her face when they’re talking.”
I’m coming now. I’ll fill you in on what the others told me when I return.
“Cadell is coming back.” Carys refocused on the group. “How far are we from the fort?”
The unicorn said, “Maybe forty minutes?”
Cadell, forty minutes to the gate. She had a sudden picture in her mind. Wait. Have you been to Temris before?
Yes. I know it.
Then don’t come here.
Why not?
Because I want you to make an entrance.
The gate through the fae fort was nothing at all like the gates the dark fae opened to the Brightlands.
After descending into an immaculate earthen structure, they entered a passage lit by blue fae torches and lined with intricately carved and dressed stone.
Painted columns held up the ceiling, and the portal itself felt like walking through a soft, shimmering curtain.
When Carys reached the other side, she was greeted by the scent of rosemary and the sound of trickling water in the distance. Naida and the unicorn led the way up from the earth and into the open air through another passage carved with even more intricate stonework.
Night was turning to day, and though the Shadowlands did not see the sun, a pearlescent dawn touched the edges of the horizon as they emerged from the earth. The light was a wash of pink in a deep blue sky.
Carys looked around her and knew this portal to the fae capital was intended to make a statement.
“Wow,” Laura said. “Just… wow.”
The unicorn turned and faced them. “Welcome to Temris, guests of High King Diarmuid mac Lir, ruler of the aes sídhe, son of Aíne the Wise.”
It was a greeting designed to impress, and it worked.
They were on a rise overlooking a glittering city, and rolling green hills surrounded them. Narrow spires pierced the sky, and the city, built from stone and wood, was trimmed in gold and silver that made buildings and towers shine in the low light.
There was a spring flowing down from the hill, channeled via a stone canal that carried springwater into the city center.
Laura stepped closer. “So like… Tolkien’s books—”
“Not that far off.” Carys shook her head. “I’m starting to wonder if he’d been here.”
Lachlan asked, “Are you talking about the English professor?”
Carys turned to him. “Maybe?”
“Frequent visitor.” Lachlan took a deep breath. “Obsessed with languages, apparently. Gods, the air is so much better here.”
It was true. The air around them was sweet in a way that Carys had never smelled in her life. A delicate perfume wafted on the breeze, but nothing about the scent was false or chemical. It was herbaceous and refreshing.
The unicorn shifted to her true form and lifted her head in a high whinny, a call that was answered by a bright, echoing sound in the distance. Naida started walking after their escort, and Carys noticed that the ellyllon hadn’t said a word from the moment they stepped into the fae fort in Anglia.
Carys loosened her hand from Duncan’s and walked over to Naida.
“Sut wyt ti?” she asked in a soft voice.
The sound of Carys’s very rudimentary Welsh brought a fleeting smile to Naida’s face. “How am I?” She shrugged one shoulder. “I’m wishing I was home. But I can’t hide from him there either.”
“Yeah, I remember.” Naida had told her how Dru—when he was still Prince Diarmuid—had raised a barrow in the valley in Cymru where Naida came from and parked himself for a decade until she agreed to let him court her. “Do you love him?”
“Yes,” Naida said simply. “Or maybe no. I love who he was. I don’t know who he is now.”
“You think he’s changed that much?”
“He has always hated the court, and now he is king of it. And a fae king does not die.” She glanced at Carys. “Especially one who is also the son of a god.”
“He could give up the crown someday.”
Naida nodded. “He could.”
“Or you could join him,” she said softly.
Naida looked at Carys with a smile. “Your men were both right, and they were both wrong. Lachlan is not wrong to try to negotiate and make peace with the high fae. That has been the policy of my own people for as long as I can remember.”
The ellyllon of Cymru were what the high fae considered “wild fae.” They didn’t recognize a king or a queen, neither human nor magical. They were connected to the earth and rarely left the place where they were born. Naida was most definitely an exception among her people.
“That said, Duncan was right too. They do think they’re better than everyone else,” Naida said. “They consider me inferior, and they would never accept me as a consort to their king. The moment Dru accepted that crown, I knew any hope of a future with him was gone.”
The ellyllon were simple fae and decidedly nonpolitical. Shorter than the tall children of the Tuatha Dé Danann, they usually had curly hair and darker skin. Carys hadn’t ever been to Temris, but if the high fae she’d seen in Anglia were any indication, Naida would not blend in.
“So stick with me.” Carys bumped her shoulder against Naida’s. “You’re our friend, and we’re not going to let a jumped-up bartender from Scone push you around.”
Naida threw her head back and laughed. It was far better than the morose expression she was wearing before, so Carys didn’t care if both Lachlan and their unicorn escort looked at Naida with slight disapproval.
Moments after they entered the outskirts of the city, the day was dawning and the citizens of Temris began to wake.
It was far more diverse than Carys had anticipated from her previous interactions with the high fae of Briton. There were short, dwarflike fae and stocky creatures that looked like trolls. There were tiny sprites flying around and putting out the streetlamps still burning from their night watch.
And yes, there were tall, beautiful, otherworldly creatures who looked like supermodels from a fantasy convention. There was very little metal other than hints of gold or silver. Carys saw no weapons and nothing that looked like it was smuggled from the Brightlands.
“I’m guessing no grey market for Brightlands stuff around here,” Laura said.
Duncan let out a low grumble. “That means no coffee.”
“But we’re not staying long,” Carys said. “Remember? We’ll survive without coffee for a few hours.”
“At least our bodies think it’s nighttime,” Laura said.
“Speak for yourself.” Duncan pointed at the sky. “My brain may know it’s night in England, but my eyes say it’s dawn. I know which one my stomach is going to listen to.”
As if on cue, Carys’s stomach rumbled.
A second later, Duncan was shoving a bag of trail mix into her hands. “Eat.”
Carys smiled at him and lifted on her toes to kiss his cheek. “I love you.”
Duncan’s cheeks grew ruddy, and Carys tried not to notice when Lachlan lost a step on the path.
Nêrys.
“Cadell is here.” She smiled. “Perfect timing.”
No fire, she said to him in her mind, but you can yell a little bit. Circle the city. Make a show.
Carys stuffed the trail mix in her pocket and jogged up to Naida. “Cadell is here.”
The ellyllon looked confused. “Okay.”
“Hey.” She took Naida’s hand. “Duncan told me something when I first came here that I think you need to remember.”
“What’s that?”
Carys looked up when the first thunderous roar sounded from behind a grey bank of clouds. “In the Shadowlands, nobody messes with Cymru.”
Cadell burst through the clouds, his emerald-green wings spread wide as he soared into the valley of Temris. He banked to the right and followed the hills surrounding the city before he let out another roar, sending residents running back to their houses as they gasped and cried out.
“Remember that.” Carys squeezed Naida’s hand. “No one messes with Cymru or her people.”
Naida smiled. “Because we have dragons?”
“That’s right.” Carys nodded. “Because we have fucking dragons.”