Chapter 28 #2
Carys walked over, squeezing between a slow-moving minivan and a convertible with red streamers flying off the windshield.
“Woo-hoo!” the driver yelled. “The new world is coming!”
There were cheers and shouts from everywhere, and the stopped traffic erupted in cheerful honks.
Duncan had his window rolled down. “You know, people want something to believe in.”
She stood on her toes and kissed him. “Let’s hope we can find something better than an ancient Irish goddess of war.”
Squeezing through the gate in the woods took little more than Cadell scaring off a few angry badgers and lifting some rocks, which the dragon also did with ease.
Then Naida led them through what could only have been the narrowest, dirtiest fae gate in Southern England.
Carys crawled out of the other side to see two spears pointed directly at her face. They were held by two fae with silver sigils on their face, backed by a unicorn.
As soon as they saw Carys, they stepped away.
“The ellyllon tells the truth,” one said. “She is King Dafydd’s niece. I have seen her portrait in the great hall.”
“Okay.” She scooted out from the hole in the ground and brushed off her legs before she reached down and held a hand out for Laura. “I have a friend coming too. She’s a shadow-walker from across the sea, and pointing a spear in her face would probably be like a diplomatic taboo, so please don’t.”
“Of course, my lady.” The two fae spear holders backed off, and the unicorn tossed his head in the air, whinnying as he did.
“Cyrus would like to know your business in the Cley Forest.”
Carys looked at Laura, then Naida. “I need to find a place called Hogg’s Well.”
Cadell climbed out of the hole, and the fae looked up and up until their faces went pale.
“You have a dragon,” one of them said.
“She’s the king’s niece,” Naida said. “I told you she is nêrys ddraig.”
“Hogg’s. Well.” It was the only thing Cadell said.
“Not a mile south, lord dragon,” the fae guard said, pointing in the direction behind them. “Just beyond the woods.”
Carys asked, “Is there any unusual activity around Cley Hill on this side of the gates?”
The unicorn transformed in a shower of silver and gold, and a tall, beautiful man stood before them.
“I am Cyrus of the Blessing of Wor. There is a disturbance. Epona’s daughters have gathered on the plain.
Our seers saw a great rip between the shadow and the light.
A gathering of powers in other realms. It is the only reason I have joined the fae patrols in this area. ”
Unicorns loved peace, but if there was a blessing nearby, they were fiercely protective.
“Smart move,” Laura said. “There’s a conflict, but it’s not on this side.”
“I see the mark of D?n on this one.” Cyrus looked at Carys. “The old mother has given you a hero’s collar. Is war coming?”
“That’s what I’m trying to prevent,” Carys said. “The Morrígan is trying to gain power in the Brightlands. That’s why I need to get to the well.”
Cyrus nodded. “To give you a vision.”
“Something like that.
“Then follow me.” Cyrus looked at Cadell. “Brother Dragon, take your natural form and fly behind. I can see that you have a need to shift. Your ladies will be safe with us. I will vouch for the honor of these fae.”
Cadell looked at Carys. She gave him a nod of approval; then, in the space of a heartbeat, his human body disappeared and he was a beast again, spreading his wings and rising from the forest floor, taking to the predawn sky as Carys watched him fly overhead.
Nêrys!
You’re so relieved.
It feels like weeks, not days.
I know.
Laura was already speaking to the fae guards, one of whom led a horse from behind a copse of chestnut trees.
“I will stay here to guard the gate,” the fae said, “but you may borrow my mare. She is bred of Epona’s blood and as gentle as the moon.”
“I am grateful for the loan,” Laura said.
“Nêrys Ddraig, you must ride with me.” Cyrus transformed back into unicorn form and knelt down so Carys could mount him. It wasn’t the first time she had ridden a unicorn, but the height and power of the animals always gave her pause.
“Come on.” Laura urged her on. “It’s almost sunrise here, which means that the sun is setting in the Brightlands.”
They took off through the forest with the unicorn and the fae as Carys felt Cadell soaring overhead. He swept over the landscape of Saris Plain, narrating what he saw.
The scars of war have been completely healed. I see nothing from Dru and Cian’s battle save for some memorial mounds.
That was only a month ago.
Yes.
It feels so much longer.
Only a month for the Morrígan to set her plan in motion. But of course, it had been far more than a month. The goddess had probably been looking for an opportunity for centuries.
Carys had just given her one.
I am feeling your guilt again, Cadell said. Stop. You had no way of knowing what she was.
I should have been paying better attention.
Cadell ignored her. There is a large group of women wearing white gathered on top of a hill. I think they must be Epona’s daughters.
What are they doing?
They are in a circle. That is all I can see.
The unicorn slowed and then started walking when they came to a spring that flowed from a small rise of the earth before it tumbled over a pile of rocks and landed in a large round pool lined with cobblestones.
“Beyond those trees is Cley Hill.” The fae pointed to the right. “A giant named Hogg lives under that mound. A long time ago he grew angry that the humans feared him and fled from his territory, so he redirected a stream under the hill to feed the land.”
Carys dismounted from the unicorn, who immediately transformed.
“But it was the blessing of a giant,” Cyrus said, “so the water is bitter. It is useful only for bathing and a few plants that are able to tolerate it.”
The ground around the spring was rocky, and there were only a few plants growing. And while Carys could see the water coming out of the ground, the pool had no outlet.
“The fae dug a deep well here centuries ago,” Naida said. “That way the water can return to the earth and join other springs that will cleanse it.”
“Got it,” Laura said. “So this water here is old.”
Naida nodded and bent down by the edge of the spring. “It’s very, very old.”
Carys approached the well with a pit in her stomach. Cadell?
He circled overhead, then came to land in the clearing beside the well. Do you need me in human form?
“No.” She looked into his great gold eyes. “I just need you here.”
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.
Carys knelt down next to Naida, and for a moment, she felt the heat of D?n’s collar burning around her neck.
Your sister will be with you, and your eye will be opened. Then you will see the wounds you have dealt the crow goddess so you can send her back to the Shadows.
Carys dipped her left hand into the water, bracing herself with her right. Then she carefully brought the bitter water of Hogg’s Well to her right eye, as he mother had told her.
She blinked, letting the water enter her eye, then lifted her head, careful not to let any of it touch her lips.
“Carys?” Laura called out to her, and Carys turned. “What do you see?”
“Whoa.”
It was more than disorienting at first.
When Carys turned to look at her best friend, there were two images laid overtop of each other. Laura in her ceremonial clothing; Laura in her traveling clothes. Laura with her face painted with traditional tattoos. Laura with no tattoos.
And when Carys closed her left eye, she saw a massive bird on Laura’s shoulder, a giant black raven, silent and watching.
“Laura, when you did your initiation as pauwau inwe, what was your personal totem?”
“Honey, you know I can’t tell you that. I can’t tell anyone that.”
“Was it kwe gok?” She used the Yurok word for raven to keep things private.
“Yes.” Laura’s voice was soft. “How did you know that?”
“I can see it.” She covered her right eye. “And now I don’t.”
She turned to Cadell. When she looked through her right eye, she saw a massive green dragon with pebbled skin and a fire burning at his throat.
And when she looked through her left eye… she also saw a massive green dragon with fire at his throat.
“Yeah,” she muttered. “That figures.”
She stood up with Naida’s help and wobbled a little bit. “This is very disorienting.”
“I have an idea.” The ellyllon dug into the pack she carried and quickly ripped some fabric to form a sort of eye patch. “Try this.”
Carys pulled the band over her right eye, and everything looked like it had before. Then she tugged it over and covered her left eye, and the world shifted.
The fae looked as they always did, but the unicorn was covered in scars invisible to her other eye. And when she looked at Cadell, she also saw wounds that had been long healed. A piercing through his wing and a great gash below his neck where he had once bled so Duncan could forge dragon steel.
“Okay.” Carys nodded. “I think I know why my mom wanted me to do this.”
Your vision is now touched by the gods, Cadell said.
Sister.
Carys blinked at the sound of Seren’s voice in her mind.
I’m with you. It’s time.
“I can see magic,” Carys said. “And Seren is with me.” She turned to look at her dragon. “We’re together now. It’s time for me and the Crow Mother to meet face-to-face.”