Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Carys recuperated in King Dafydd’s castle for a week, nursed by Eamer and Laura, guarded by Duncan and Cadell.
And by the third day, she was going stir-crazy.
“I’m fine!” She threw off the covers and unwrapped the scarf from around her neck. “I feel fine. I’m not injured. My legs are still a little weak because of the goddess-collar thing, but I’m only going to get used to it if I get up and walk around.”
Laura looked at Eamer. The maid looked at the queen.
Queen Eamer wore a pinched expression. “Carys.”
“Aunt Eamer.”
“You came to Briton expecting to attend a coronation in your uncle’s company,” she started. “And instead, you spent months navigating treacherous court politics.”
“Which I was happy to do. After all—”
“Then you fought in a battle against my own niece.”
“The point was that we avoided a war and made peace with your niece, which I hope—”
“Then you disappeared from your uncle’s house and went on a quest with only a dragon, a wolf, a fae, and a few humans to help you.”
Laura piped up. “We got help from some gods and druids too.”
Eamer ignored her. “Weeks in the Brightlands, fighting battles against the Morrígan. No word to your uncle—who only heard rumors about your whereabouts from various dragons—and then we find out you sacrificed months of your life to heal the same goddess who was trying to kill you.”
Carys opened her mouth, then closed it.
Eamer leaned closer. “I don’t care if you carry the collar of the Dagda himself around your neck—you can give your body and your spirit time to rest.”
Laura pursed her lips, and her eyebrows went up. She shook her head vigorously behind Eamer’s back.
“Yes, Aunt,” Carys said quietly.
Eamer nodded firmly, then strode out of the room, pointing at Carys’s maid. “She doesn’t leave this room.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Carys wrapped the scarf back around her neck, took the warm broth the maid handed her, and pulled the blanket up.
“It’s so hard when people love you,” Laura said.
“Shut up.”
She slept in a warm chamber at the castle with Duncan holding her every night, and every day she felt a little more like herself.
Carys leaned against his chest one night. She’d been unable to sleep, and Duncan had woken up too. He pulled her closer and stroked her hair.
“Your eyes still bothering you?”
She pulled the eye patch more securely over her right eye. “I’m getting used to it.”
“The minute you really get used to it, it’ll be gone,” Duncan said. “That’s usually the way of it, right?”
“Right.”
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Why are you sad, lass? You did it. You saved the Brightlands and the Shadowlands too. You kept another war from happening.”
Carys blinked away tears. “It’s really hard to explain.”
Duncan was silent for a long time. “I’m here when you want to try.”
“I feel… this hollow in my mind. There’s this space where Seren was. And even though it was just for a little bit, when she was with me, I felt…”
“Whole?”
Carys turned and looked up at him. “Yes.”
He frowned. “It’s an annoying, shitty thing to feel like half of yourself lives in another person. Especially someone you don’t always like.”
She let out a long breath. “Is this how you feel about Lachlan? Like, all the time?”
“Something like that, yes.”
“I’m sorry.” She laughed a little bit. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh. It’s not funny.”
Duncan’s mouth turned up at the corner. “No, but it is a bit.”
She swallowed hard and laid her head over his heart. “I felt it,” she said. “What Seren felt for Lachlan. When she was with me, I could feel their love.”
His voice was rough. “What’s that like? To feel someone else’s love?”
“It was overwhelming,” she whispered. “And… clarifying. Years of memories. Years of loving him. This fierce devotion burning in the center of my chest.”
Duncan’s heart was racing under her ear. “Carys—”
“It’s the way I feel about you, Duncan.” She lifted her face to his. “It was the way I know I’m going to feel about you in ten years. Twenty years. That fire never left her even when she died.”
“That’s it then,” Duncan said. “You’re stuck with me, Carys Morgan. Even after we leave this life.”
“If the past three weeks have taught me anything” —she settled her head against his chest again— “it’s that there is way more than one world. And death isn’t an ending at all.”
It was her last day of imprisonment. Or what her aunt graciously called her recovery.
Carys had been pacing around her room, eager to leave and explore her uncle’s castle. Dafydd had assured her that all their travel arrangements back to Baywood were taken care of by his man in Cardiff and that when they were ready to go home, a plane would be waiting.
For the first time since she’d returned to the Shadowlands after her first journey there, she actually felt like she was enjoying a holiday.
Someone tapped on the door. Nêrys?
“Come in, Cadell.”
She was alone in her room and sitting by the window, looking at the kitchen garden where workers were cutting branches, harvesting late summer crops, and enjoying a warm breeze.
She turned when she heard the dragon enter her room.
Cadell wasn’t alone.
“Hey!” She smiled at the little girl in his arms. She couldn’t have been more than three or four, and she bounced in Cadell’s arms, speaking rapidly in Cymric.
“Yes,” he said in English. “This is my nêrys.” He smiled at Carys. “This is Mared’s youngest. She’s been very eager to meet you, but she doesn’t speak any Anglian, so I will translate for her. Her name is Eleri.”
The little girl perked up when she heard her name and smiled at Carys.
Carys had no idea her father’s dragon had a child so young. “She’s adorable!”
Mared had a dark complexion and tight, curly hair, and Eleri shared her features. Her curls were pulled into two high buns that made it look like she had mouse ears.
“Oh my god,” Carys said with a gasp. “She’s a baby dragon.”
The corner of Cadell’s mouth turned up. “Yes,” he said carefully. “She is.”
She pressed her hands together, forcing herself not to grab the little girl. “Oh my god, she’s a baby dragon!” she whispered.
“Eleri.” Cadell lifted the little girl up and whispered in her ear.
She giggled and climbed down Cadell’s legs, running across the room as her body erupted in a bright red shower of sparks.
The baby dragon nearly ran into Carys’s legs before she could stop.
Carys immediately sat on the floor, and Eleri turned in circles, waving her tail and flapping her wings. She was roughly the size of a spaniel and made a chirruping sound as she showed off her beauty.
“Am I dreaming?” Carys whispered.
“You will never speak of this,” Cadell murmured. “And as far as Mared is concerned, her daughter was never here.”
Carys gasped and looked up. “Are you the bad-influence uncle?”
He lifted one shoulder. “My children are more mature. I can spoil the little ones.”
“Oh my god, Cadell is a bad influence,” she whispered at Eleri, who promptly shoved her spiky head under Carys’s hand. “Yes, you’re very beautiful, Eleri.”
The little red dragon turned her head to Cadell.
Cadell spoke to her in Cymric.
Eleri made a clicking noise in the back of her throat, then turned in more circles and puffed out a small stream of fire.
Carys pretended to be shocked. She sucked in a breath and put a hand over her chest. “Oh no!”
“Gofal!” Cadell barked.
The chirping sound was back, but this time it had the timbre of a giggle.
“Oh Eleri, you’re very scary.” Carys nodded. “Very beautiful but very scary too.”
The little dragon rolled on the ground, curling into a ball and rocking back and forth with her tail.
“They do that when they’re happy.” Cadell walked over. “I better get her back to her sire or Mared will hear of it.”
Carys stuck out her lower lip, but Cadell shook his head.
“Most humans never get to see the younglings ever,” he whispered. “Don’t complain.”
She ran a hand over Eleri’s head a moment before the little girl transformed again. She immediately started babbling something in Cymric.
Cadell answered her, then turned to Carys. “She wants to come visit you again, but I said you are only here for a short time.”
“Tell her I’ll be back though.”
“I will.” Cadell lifted the little girl to his shoulder and pulled open the chamber door, ducking under it as Eleri continued to babble.
“Cadell!” Carys scrambled to her feet.
He paused in the corridor. “Nêrys.”
“Thank you for showing me a baby dragon,” she whispered.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He shut the door behind him.
“Our riders have gone out to survey,” Dafydd said. “There is no evidence of the Morrígan on Saris Plain. What has happened in the Brightlands, I have no idea.”
Duncan said, “Lachlan and I walked through the Ynys M?n fae gate yesterday. We looked at the papers, but the only mention of a dragon in England was in the tabloids, and most people think it was some kind of prank.”
“Someone called it the best drone show they’ve ever seen.” Lachlan glanced at Cadell with half a smile.
Laura stifled a laugh.
Cadell grimaced. “I will try not to be offended.”
Lachlan was smiling more. Not fully back to himself, but partway there. There was a peace in his eyes that had been missing for a long time.
Carys looked around the cozy library where Dafydd was sharing a new barrel of wine with them the day after Eamer had released her from her room. “Any news of Naida and Godrik?”
“Gone,” Laura said. “A couple of days after we got here. You were still sleeping, and they said they needed to get back home, so…”
“I understand completely.” Carys shook her head. “What’s the date back in the UK?”
“August third,” Duncan said.
“I have to go back soon.” She took her uncle’s hand. “I have classes starting in like two weeks, and I’m completely unprepared.” She laughed.
Duncan said, “If you tell your students you were stopping interdimensional battles in the fae realm, they might cut you some slack.”
“No, I think they’d very kindly call for a psychological intervention,” Laura said. “And I have to say it’s just a good thing that my uncle is my boss and is in the know about all this stuff, otherwise, I would be so fired.”
“So you are returning to the Brightlands,” Dafydd said. “For good?”
She cocked her head. “Uncle, you know I’m not suited to be queen here.”
“On the contrary, you would make an excellent regent,” Dafydd said. “You have negotiated with goddesses, fought in battles, and have the wise counsel of Cadell of Eryri.” He looked at her solemnly. “Added to that, you bear the collar of D?n, our oldest goddess.”
Carys shook her head. “I know. But I don’t want to be queen. Seren did. Seren knew her whole life she was going to be queen. She could prepare for it. Me?” She shook her head. “I’m a teacher. Just a teacher, Uncle Dafydd.”
“There is nothing just about those who shape young minds.” The corner of his mouth turned up. “And remember, whether as teacher or mother, you could shape the future of our kingdom, Carys Morgan.”
She sat back. “What is that supposed to mean?” She looked at Duncan. Then at Cadell. “Hey, as far as I know—”
“We want children, don’t we?” Duncan reached for her hand. “Someday. And when we have them, I think all your uncle is saying is that it might be prudent to be in Scotland.”
Lachlan sat up straight. “Yes.” His expression brightened. “Yes, of course.”
“Any child born to you would be as my own grandchild.” Dafydd glanced at Cadell. “And those of our line do have a very strong affinity for dragons.”
“Of course.” Carys felt tears come to her eyes, but she tried to hide them.
It wasn’t sadness. It wasn’t something she could ever be sad about.
But now she knew. Now she knew that whatever children she and Duncan might have someday, those children would have a shadow twin, another half.
But unlike Carys, those children wouldn’t be strangers to the two realms. Because she was a daughter of two worlds.
And she would have a home and a family in both.