Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Duncan was on the phone with Laura as soon as they got back in the car, so by the time they reached the house, everyone was ready and waiting to go.
“Where is the goat man?” Cadell scanned the car. “Did he remain in Annwn?” The dragon leaned into Carys’s neck and hissed. “Which god has branded you?”
“Okay, the sniffing thing is weird; please don’t do that.” Carys knew Cadell had trouble with boundaries, but she hated when he smelled her.
“Nêrys.”
“The Mothers, okay?” She pulled back her shirt so Cadell could see the gold embedded in her skin.
His eyes softened. “A gold collar from D?n. My lady—”
“Don’t start with the ‘my lady’ thing, okay?” She blinked back tears. “I’ve already seen my mom today, heard the hounds of Arawn, and lost Angus. I need to focus.”
Laura nearly fell out of the van. “You saw your mom?”
“Yes, and I’m still cold, I’ve got sand in my underwear, and I’m emotional, but we need to get to Cley Hill.”
“No.” Duncan turned off the van. “Go inside,” he said. “Take a shower and get warm. Change your clothes.”
“Duncan—”
“It’s going to be a long fucking day. It’s a three-hour drive from Swansea to Warminster. There’s no point in your being miserable the entire drive.”
“He’s right.” Lachlan opened Carys’s door. “Carys, you need to take care of yourself. Battles are lost because of boots.”
“I don’t know what that means.” And she was tired again.
Go to Hogg’s Well, take the water in your left hand, and put it in your right eye.
Do not drink it. Do not put it in both eyes. Only in one.
“It means,” Godrik added, “that a warrior whose feet are sore will fail in battle even if he is the greater power.”
“Okay, that makes sense.”
“They are right,” Naida said. “You didn’t sleep well last night. I could hear you pacing. We’ll get the car ready. It’s not even noon, and you’re already exhausted.”
She was going to cry, and she didn’t want to break down in front of her friends.
Laura got out of the car and helped Carys down from the passenger’s seat.
“Come on, dummy, listen to them. Take a breath. And take a shower. You smell kind of weird. Like realm-of-the-dead weird, which is its own special kind of funk, and I don’t think we want it getting into the upholstery of your boyfriend’s nice new van. ”
Carys burst out laughing and crying at the same time.
“Oh.” Laura laughed. “I think I saw a snot bubble. Yeah, you’re going inside for a shower. Come on.”
Carys nodded and let Laura and Cadell lead her back into the house.
Her best friend started a shower that was so hot steam was billowing out of the bathroom when Carys walked in.
When Laura closed the door, Carys stripped off her clothes and let them fall to the ground. Sand was gritty beneath her feet.
She walked to the mirror and swept a hand over the glass so she could see her reflection, only to find a black-haired woman with a bleeding right eye staring at her from the corner of the shower.
Carys screamed, and a second later Cadell burst into the room.
She looked again, and the woman was gone.
She collapsed into her dragon’s arms, and he eased her to the ground. Cadell held her in an iron embrace and let her cry.
“Nêrys, she is not here.”
“She was in the mirror.”
“I do not doubt your vision. D?n’s collar has opened your mind in a way that most Brightkin never experience. You have traveled to a realm of the dead. You will see things that other humans cannot.”
She clutched his arm and felt his skin pebbling beneath her fingers. “Are you going to shift?”
“No, but your perceptions have.” He brushed the hair back from her forehead. “Clean up and eat something.”
“Find Hogg’s Well and take the water in your left hand,” she whispered. “Put it in your right eye. Don’t drink it. Don’t put it in both eyes.”
“Is that what your mother told you?”
Carys nodded.
“Then that is what you will do.” His voice was grim. “Did she tell you anything else?”
“I’ve already wounded her,” Carys said. “The sea monster. The bear. The bison. All of them were her.”
“So with each battle, you wounded the Morrígan.” Cadell nodded. “You have already won, but you must understand how.”
“But I have to see the wounds to understand how to defeat her.”
“The collar has opened your mind,” Cadell said. “The water from the holy well will open your eye.”
Carys looked up into the dragon’s warm gold eyes. “Cadell, I don’t think I want to see.”
“I know.” He frowned. “But you are a nêrys ddraig of the Cymric throne. You are the Brightkin of Princess Seren of Cymru. You wear the mother goddess’s collar. You will do what you must.”
The traffic started at the roundabout north of Cley Hill, a stop-and-go mess of cars, vans, and a few small trucks, all of it leading into the city and none of it coming out.
“What the hell is this?” Duncan muttered from the driver’s seat.
It was nearing sunset by the time they arrived, and this time Duncan didn’t have a rich friend with a country house nearby, but he had secured lodging at a swanky mansion turned hotel on the south end of town.
“It’s her.” Laura was staring at her phone. “Cley Hill is trending. There are millions of hits.”
“Millions?” Godrik’s jaw dropped.
“Even if only a fraction of them come to her in person,” Naida said, “that is an enormous show of worship.”
Carys looked out her window, and it appeared that they were stuck in traffic headed to a music festival or something like that.
There were cars decorated with red ribbons and white flags. Every type of bumper sticker from Earth First to Save Gorne Wood to Vegan and Proud. There were also bumper stickers from primary schools and local churches. Plenty of Dog Moms and Cat Dads were represented too.
“It’s like a Grateful Dead festival,” Laura said. “Remember those, Carys?”
The Grateful Dead fans loved Baywood for some reason. Probably had to do with lax marijuana laws back in the day, but the spooky forests and Bigfoot rumors likely helped.
“If this is what the traffic is like from here to the city,” Duncan said. “It’s going to take hours to get through.”
“We should walk,” Godrik said.
“What?” Carys turned to look. “It’s miles from here.”
“It’ll still be faster than sitting though this,” the wolf said. “Lachlan, what do you think?”
“I would tend to agree, but Carys has another task before we meet Macha again, does she not?”
Go to Hogg’s Well, take the water in your left hand, and put it in your right eye. Do not drink it. Do not put it in both eyes. Only in one.
“I have to find a place called Hogg’s Well,” she said. “But Laura can’t find anything definite online. There are a couple of theories but—”
“I wonder if it’s the same Hogg’s Well as in the Shadowlands,” Naida said.
Every eye save Duncan’s turned to her.
“There is a Hogg’s Well at the base of Cley Hill in the Shadowlands,” Naida said. “It’s an underground river that empties into a sort of pond, but it might be different here. The water is not good.”
“It might not be that different though.” Laura turned to Carys.
“New plan. Duncan takes the van to the hotel whatever way he can find through this traffic. Lachlan and Godrik scope out Macha’s gang.
They’re tall. They can walk faster.” She pointed to Naida and Cadell.
“You and me and the dragon find the nearest fae gate.”
Naida perked up. “There is one not far from here.”
“Your mum didn’t say anything about going to the Shadowlands,” Duncan said.
“No, but she also didn’t say not to,” Laura said. “And if it’s the same water, maybe it works either way.”
“I think I’ll know pretty quickly,” Carys said. “It’s supposed to give me magical vision.”
Naida’s face was solemn. “There are stories about humans with magical vision, but I’m sure you’ll live longer than they do.”
“That is not helpful, Naida!” Duncan was fuming.
“Pull over.” She put a hand on Duncan’s arm. “Do you really think my mom is going to have me do something that might result in my death?”
“Your mum is dead,” Duncan said. “Maybe she thinks having both versions of her daughter in Annwn is not such a bad idea.”
“It’s not my time.” Fear had been riding her since the cave, but the moment she thought about going through the gate, she felt calm again. “It’s not my time, Duncan.”
He clenched his jaw but pulled the van over to a wide spot on the side of the road while massive honks and whoops sounded from the cars around them.
Lachlan and Godrik jumped out of the van, helping Naida and Laura out as well before they crossed the road and trotted off into the woods that bordered the motorway.
“They don’t have phones,” Duncan said. “How the hell do they think they’re going to figure out where they’re going?”
“They’ll follow the crowd,” Cadell said.
It wasn’t a bad strategy. They were far from the first people who had decided to walk. Carys could see small groups of travelers dressed in everything from festive clothing to business suits walking along the road, and a few of them had wandered into the forest just as Lachlan and Godrik had done.
“Her power is growing,” the dragon said. “I feel the urge to shift into my natural form even now.”
“The gate is in those woods.” Naida pointed across the road where Lachlan and Godrik had already disappeared. “It’s small, but it’s old. I don’t think anyone is guarding it.”
Cadell climbed out of the car and slid the door shut before he opened Carys’s door. “Blacksmith, I have charge of these women, and I will bring them back safely.”
Laura raised both her eyebrows. “You have charge of us?”
Cadell straightened to his full height and looked down his nose. “You have another protector in mind?”
Laura’s cheeks turned red. “No, you’re fine.” She grabbed Carys and Naida by the hand. “Duncan, call me when you get to the hotel.”
“You’re going to lose your phone when you go through the gate,” he said.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, those freaking fairies!” She threw her phone on the passenger seat.
“Ludlow House,” Duncan said. “Southwest end of town. Good luck.”