Chapter 15 #2
“People believe many different things,” Cadell said. “Clearly it was not a point of argument for them.” The dragon leaned forward. “My strategy would have gotten Seren and I through Ogwen Valley too.”
The dragon’s meaning was clear: There was more than one path. More than one belief. And clearly, in this place, more than one god.
Carys said, “Angus told me something strange when I was pulled into his little pocket world.”
Cadell’s eyes narrowed. “You were where?”
“I’ll explain later.” She leaned forward. “He said: ‘There are realms of the old fae and the new, of demigods and demons. Before all this is over, you will learn to walk between them.’”
Cadell nodded. “So perhaps to finish this task and return the Morrígan to the Shadowlands, only a daughter of a Shadowkin and a Brightkin could succeed.”
“Maybe. But what do we do now?”
Cadell cast his eyes at the forge where Angus, Duncan, and Laura were waiting. “I suppose… now we must listen to the goat man.”
“You know you’re thinking the same thing,” Laura muttered.
“I am not. Stop.”
Carys, Duncan, and Laura were walking back toward the gate, following Angus’s loping, stilt-like lead while Cadell went to fetch Naida and Lachlan from the court of the local fae lord. According to the dragon, the meeting had been progressing well when he heard Carys’s call.
With any luck, the gate would be a little less terrifying on the way back to the Brightlands. They were halfway there, traveling through the scattered woods of light fae country, and nearly to the heavier forest where the fae gate loomed.
Carys returned to her debate with Laura. “I’m sure a creature as powerful as Angus will have some way of cloaking his…”
“Hooves. You can say hooves,” Laura said. “It’s not like it’s an offensive word. And okay, but if his magic is sourced from here, can he even use it on the other side? Or are we just picking up another random tall dude who’s going to eat a lot?”
Carys leaped on the conversational tangent. “They do have huge appetites, right?”
Godrik had still not appeared. It was possible that their quest, as much as he’d been dedicated to it, was something he’d had to abandon. It wasn’t like she could text the giant wolf. “Do you think Godrik is maybe waiting by the gate?”
“I have no idea, but I’m wondering if he found a local pack and heard something that made him head home.
” Laura nodded at Angus. “Okay, seriously. Let’s say this dude has a glamour.
Does he still look like he’s walking upright on goat legs when we’re on the other side?
Like if he walked through mud, are there going to be little cloven hoofprints or footprints? ”
“I feel like we’re bordering on body-shaming now,” Carys whispered.
“It’s just his legs.” Laura gestured at Angus and kept her voice at normal volume. “I’m not insulting them. They’re perfectly fine, but we kind of need to know how much attention we’re going to have to fight off.” She looked at Duncan. “You hear me on this, right, grumpy?”
“I have no opinion.” Duncan glanced at Angus. “If he agreed to guide us, he’ll figure out how to blend in once we’re in the Brightlands.”
“I have my ways, human.” Angus lifted his voice. “The imps have been here.” He wrinkled his nose and stopped in the middle of the path. “Nasty creatures.”
Nêrys, we are near.
They were closing in on the dense canopy of the dark forest when she felt Cadell approaching. Angus halted and looked up, watching the dragon circle and descend from the clouds.
Cadell set down on a clear rise a short distance away, and Duncan walked toward the landing party while Carys and Laura waited with Angus.
I am going to tell Lachlan that Seren is speaking from Annwn, Cadell said in her mind.
“So that’s why Duncan walked over,” she muttered.
Laura frowned. “What?”
“My boyfriend and my dragon are both protecting me from however they think Lachlan is going to react to Seren being… alive. Ish. Not completely dead.”
“But she is dead,” Laura said. “Cadell said—”
“Cadell is not hearing her in his mind.” Carys pointed to her head. “Cadell did not hear it from the goat guide—”
“I heard that,” Angus muttered.
“—that he was going to have to figure out how to walk to the otherworld before all this is over. So you can all say that she’s not technically alive, but—”
“Seren is what?” Lachlan’s roar erupted from beyond the trees.
“See?” Carys threw up her hands. “Alive-ish seems accurate.”
Moments later, Lachlan was striding up the path with Duncan walking behind him. Cadell and Naida followed at a distance.
“Did you know?” Lachlan strode right past Carys and put his finger into Angus’s face. “Did you know she was alive, you bastard?”
“She’s not alive; she’s in Annwn,” Angus said.
“And if you’d taken two minutes to think about it instead of rolling around in your own grief after she died, you would have realized it too.
She was a warrior and heir to the throne who died in battle.
” The ùruisg leaned forward. “Just because you didn’t know you were at war doesn’t mean her mother’s gods would have missed it. ”
“Not all humans who die go to Annwn,” Naida said quietly to Carys and Laura. “But it does not surprise me that Seren would have been taken there after her death, considering who your mother was and the circumstances.”
Carys kept her voice low too. “Angus told me ages ago. He asked if Seren had returned from Annwn when he saw me. I just didn’t realize—”
“So she’s alive,” Lachlan said. “Seren is alive. Heroes travel back from Annwn.” His voice was half-desperate. “It is written in the stories that—”
“The living are sometimes granted passage and return,” Cadell said.
“Not the dead.” For once, the dragon’s voice was soft with empathy.
“If there is anyone whose grief is the equal of yours, it is mine, Lachlan of Moray. If I thought there was a way to return Seren to this realm, I would fly to Annwn and drink fire from the cauldron of Caer Sidi myself.” He turned his gaze to Carys.
“Even though I have found peace with a new nêrys.”
Lachlan suddenly turned to Carys and his face went pale. “Carys.”
“It’s fine.” She felt her cheeks burning. “Lachlan, we don’t need to—”
“I love you both. Gods of old, I love you both so much.” He wrapped his arms around her and folded her into a ferocious embrace. “What do we do, Carys? What do we do?”
Lachlan’s shoulders shook with grief and confusion, and Carys felt his hot tears on her neck. She caught Duncan’s glare over his Shadowkin’s shoulders, but she couldn’t find it in her heart to turn Lachlan away.
Seren was alive. Ish.
Lachlan had crossed a world once just to catch a glimpse of Seren’s echo in the Brightlands. He’d abandoned a throne just to see her face.
What would he do now that he knew Seren lived in another realm?
“Enough of your human sentiments,” Angus growled.
“There is a goddess wreaking havoc on the Brightlands at this very moment. I can feel how weak the gates have become.” He planted his staff in the dirt and pointed at Carys.
“You have a task to fulfill, dragon lord. Until it is done, that is your only concern.”