Chapter 16 Non
Non
Breaking your nose hurts like a bitch. I should know—I’d done it three pissing times in the last few days.
And instead of being able to go see a doctor for pain relief, I was told to report to my grandmother immediately.
It was an understatement to say I felt out of place at Llwyn Onn, even now as I wore my purple training clothes. But standing in a small library covered in blood and drenched to the bone in front of Granny, Ail Llew, and two other Wielders from the North, I felt like an alien with six heads.
Seren had gone to stand guard at the door of the library after handing Granny the vial of my blood. I still hadn’t worked out how the bleeding was my fault when that prick of a Wielder clearly meant to hit me in the face, but I guess I was about to find out.
The four elderly Wielders sat in plush armchairs, all facing a low table where an ornate tray sat. A steaming pot of tea, cups, and a plate of unusual-looking biscuits told me I had interrupted their morning tea break. Clearly, this is what the day-to-day of leading a Coven consisted of.
Granny opened her mouth to speak, but as she did, the library door flew open, causing the ornate teacups on the tray to rattle. Seren strode in first, followed by a middle-aged Northern Wielder.
Seren bowed at the waist, like actually fucking bowed at Granny. “Ledr Bronwen, please forgive the intrusion, but Cadoc has returned from patrolling the border. He has concerning news I think you should see.”
Cadoc was panting like he’d just run here, and the front of his Northern habit was stained with a dark liquid. His eyes darted around the room wildly before landing on me.
His voice was hoarse when he finally spoke. “The matter I’m here to discuss is a sensitive one, Ledr Bronwen.”
Granny gave him a shallow nod as if understanding his ambiguous suggestion. “You can share what you saw with everyone in this room, Cadoc.” She nodded towards me. “Especially her. It’s high time she saw what the man who sired her is really like.”
I jolted at the mention of my father. Granny hadn’t spoken about him once since my arrival. Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember the last time she’d mentioned him.
Cadoc shifted on his feet nervously before opening his arms out and lifting his palms to the ceiling, closing his eyes.
He took a deep breath as silver mist began pouring from his palms onto the floor.
Soon, the whole room was filled with it, and I found my chest tightening in panic as it rose up and engulfed me.
A hand grabbed my upper arm as Ail Llew’s voice spoke in my ear. “Cadoc is a vassal of Arianrhod, Goddess of the Moon. He can plant images in people’s minds. This is just him showing us his memory. Take a deep breath; it will be over soon.”
I did as Ail Llew commanded as my vision fogged. I felt lighter somehow, like I wasn’t even standing in the library anymore. When I opened my eyes again, a completely different scene was in front of me.
I stood in a damp and dark wood, thick with twisting branches and gnarled roots. My Arf was strapped against my back, and I could feel it thrumming with power.
He was close.
We moved together in an offensive line of attack; we couldn’t give them an inch, or we’d be overpowered. A twig snapping pulled my attention to the left, and the rest of my Coven turned towards the noise.
Tessie, the Wielder who was leading us today, nodded for us all to head in the direction of the noise, taking us deeper into the wood. I drew my Arf from across my back; it began vibrating with the need to protect. He was getting closer.
We continued with no incidents for a short while before my foot snagged on what felt like a loose root. Looking down to free my boot, I was instead met with strands of what looked like hair caught around my shoe.
I glanced up at Tessie, who was now stood in front of me, her face ashen as her breaths sawed in and out of her. She gestured for me to take a slow step backwards, and I did as commanded. The rest of the Coven formed a tight huddle around us.
Tessie knelt in the damp leaves and began pushing them aside. Eventually, she uncovered exactly what we had dreaded finding today.
The face of a young woman, no older than her late twenties, looked up at us. Her skin was grey and covered in small nicks all over her arms and neck. Milky white eyes stared off into nothing, her lips chapped and turning a light shade of blue.
I had to turn my head away, burying my nose in my sleeve. The stench of her decomposing body was unbearable.
“Get her up and cleaned off to the best of your abilities,” Tessie barked at the Wielders who stood closest to her. “Cadoc, take the others and scan the area for any more signs he was here. She won’t be the only one.” Tessie nodded to the corpse now being slung over a Wielder’s shoulder.
Despite the mud covering her habit, a small square of dark green fabric was visible at the collar, indicating she’d belonged to the Central Coven.
I gestured for the remainder of the Coven to follow as we began scouring the area for any other signs of the Orddu.
A shout sounded from behind.
Sion, a young Wielder who had only completed his Anoethau last year, stood in front of a tree trunk.
He waved frantically at us. “Here, another one! She’s inside the tree, Cadoc!”
The remainder of the Coven and I rushed over to the dried tree base. It was as tall as my waist and completely hollowed out.
What awaited me inside was far worse than the blonde Wielder we had found only moments ago. This body was in a considerably worse state of decomposition, and only thin strands of black hair remained on her head. Shards of bone peeked through gashes in her collarbone.
Young Sion turned away from the base of the tree, bringing up the contents of his stomach at the sight. This one was one of the worst I’d seen, but I had become accustomed to the smell over the years.
“Over here!” someone shouted to Tessie. And the others joined us in pulling her out of the tree, careful not to damage her body further.
Eventually, we laid both girls side by side on the ground. Tessie was able to confirm they both matched the physical descriptions Pen Arwr Aeron had given us a few weeks prior, when two Wielders from the Central Coven had gone missing.
Tessie stepped up beside me as I stared at the girls in silence.
“If this is too difficult for you, Cadoc, I can check their bodies. You take the rest of the patrol back to Llwyn Onn.”
I appreciated the offer from an old friend, but I knew I needed to see this for myself.
For the last twenty-five years, I had made sure I was the one who checked for the mark.
I owed it to Ffion that I saw each and every one that tainted the skin of these poor women, just like it had hers.
Mechanically, I lifted the blonde-haired Wielder’s habit up, careful not to expose too much skin.
Carved into the skin above her sternum was the exact same symbol that was carved into my Ffion’s and every other young woman we had found like this since.
The mark of the Orddu.
I blinked; the library reappeared before me.
My back connected with one of the shelves and I slid down it, pulling my knees to my chest. I didn’t fight the sobs that broke free.
If they made everyone else in the room uncomfortable, then so be it.
Because he had done that. My father. Although the memory didn’t explicitly say who exactly this Orddu was, deep down I knew it was him.
That was who Granny had been protecting me from most of my life.
As I sobbed on the floor, I heard the faint shuffling of footsteps, then the click of the door shutting. I wiped my tears and runny nose against the already dirty sleeve of my habit.
“Where are they now?” Granny whispered.
I looked up to see only Cadoc and my grandmother left in the room. He stood before her with his arms clasped behind his back as she continued sipping her tea as if we hadn’t just witnessed the discovery of two murdered women by her son’s hand.
Pushing to my feet, I made my way back to the sitting area and slumped down in the chair next to Granny.
She shot me an unamused look, but I didn’t shrink away.
I was fucking exhausted, and my face throbbed from a morning of getting smashed to pieces and now this. My fat arse was staying in the chair.
Cadoc cleared his throat. He still looked a little grey, but his breathing had evened out at least.
“They’re with High Healer Sioned, Ledr Bronwen.”
I huffed out a humourless laugh. “What’s the healer going to do? They’re already dead, even I could see that. Unless you have Wielders who can do necromancy or something.” Granny and Cadoc both shot me an incredulous look but didn’t reply.
“Ail Llew is on his way to inform Pen Arwr Aeron of your discovery. You did a noble thing today, Cadoc. It can’t have been easy after losing Ffion the same way.
I urge you to take the afternoon off. Rest before tonight’s revel.
You’ll want to be in good form if last year’s celebration is anything to go by. ”
Cadoc gave her a shallow nod before exiting through the library door.
As the door clicked shut, Granny set her teacup and saucer down. She turned to face me, and for the first time in my life, I saw empathy on the old hag’s face. Or maybe Cadoc was using his mind powers to make me see things. The latter was more likely.
We both opened our mouths to speak at the same time, but I snapped mine shut and nodded for Granny to continue.
“That must have been difficult for you to see.”
I could only manage a nod in response. Rubbing my eyes with the heels of my palms, I wondered if sharing such a graphic memory was really necessary. Surely Cadoc could have just told us what the Northern Coven discovered.
“Those women were found today?”
Granny nodded. “During their morning border patrol.”
“Border patrol?”
Granny tsked. “Each Coven oversees a region. We have borders in place which define where one Coven’s jurisdiction ends and another begins.”
We sat in silence for a while as I tried and failed to think of the right questions to ask.
Granny wouldn’t be generous with the number of questions she answered, so each one needed to count.
But my brain had turned to soup, and the triple broken nose and gash on my cheek had brought on a headache unlike anything I’d felt before.
“Why did he do that to those girls? I could hear Cadoc’s thoughts when he showed us his memory, and it sounded like this wasn’t the first time he’s done that either.”
Granny’s claw-tipped finger tapped a steady rhythm on the arm of her chair. “He’s looking for you.”
Her words hit me in the chest like one of Seren’s miniature tornadoes.
My lip quivered. “I…I don’t…” But I couldn’t finish my question as the sobs wracked out of me.
Granny lifted the teapot and poured the boiling liquid into the cup on the table in front of me.
I didn’t argue when she gestured for me to drink.
As I took a sip, the flavour that hit my tongue was unusual.
Liquorice with a lavender aftertaste. Despite the boiling temperature, I slurped it down in a few mouthfuls.
The warmth of it settled into my bones, and I managed to stifle my tears once more.
“Better?” she asked.
Wiping my face, I nodded. “What happened to the other girl Cadoc was thinking about during his memory? I think he said her name was Ffion?”
Granny stirred her tea in contemplation. “She was killed a few years ago. Same circumstances as the women this morning. Ffion was Cadoc’s niece; he was the one who found her after she’d been missing for weeks.”
My lip quivered, “I don’t understand why he’s killing other female Wielders to find me. How does killing them lead him to me?”
“I wish for once you would use that brain you were given.” She stood and paced across the room, stopping only a few inches from the chair I sat in. Leaning in, her face level with mine.
“He kills those women in hopes that eventually one of them ends up being you. We’ve been able to keep your identity hidden for a number of years, but he has eyes and ears everywhere, and it was only a matter of time until he caught wind that he’d sired a daughter.
His search for you has been going on for some time, but more recently, he’s been picking off any female Wielder of the same age in hopes that he’ll get lucky and kill his own daughter. ”