Chapter Twenty-Six #2
“Reginald bargained his firstborn away to the Unseelie,” Ailith said.
Her voice was quieter than she intended.
“Before Edan was born. When the bairn came, however, he broke the bargain, wrapped Edan in a plaid, and ran. Gruin and another were chasing him. He reached a horse just as a woman called out to Gruin, telling him to leave the bairn alone. A fierce thunderstorm then drove them back, with lightning striking close by.” Then she glanced at Lia. “Were you there?”
Lia nodded, then glanced over at Dyna with a look Ailith could not interpret.
“That explains the iron blood,” Lia said slowly.
“A broken Unseelie bargain. The fae magic, instead of completing its claim, turned inward within the child’s blood.
The touch. That brief brush of skin turned Edan’s blood protective.
The bairn’s body did what it could to protect itself from the Unseelie, using their power against them in the perfect way.
Iron blood in a bairn with a fierce constitution.
” She stared at her hands. “I had no idea that man I tried to assist was Edan’s father. ”
“There is more.” Ailith made herself say it. “I saw Edan entering the hill. If he goes in—” She stopped, then started again. “The iron blood will kill him. The hill will read him as a stolen child, and the magic will—” She couldn’t finish it cleanly. “He will not come out.”
The silence that followed was heavy.
Sylvi opened her eyes. She had the slightly dazed look of someone returning from a great distance.
“I heard warriors inside the hill. Their thoughts were violent. They appeared controlled and full of raging fury. Soulless. It was a tongue I couldn’t interpret, a foreign tongue.
They guard something they fear.” She jumped to her feet, shivering. “I don’t… it’s not…”
Dyna approached and wrapped her arm around Sylvi’s shoulder. “It’s not going to happen to you. Tell me what you learned.”
Tears flooded her eyes. “Only a true seer’s touch can weaken the walls. Only a seer can free the bairns. But they feel nothing. They are truly frozen in time. How will we free them? Mama, I cannot go in…”
“You’ll not go in. I would enter before I would ask you to go,” Dyna said.
“Nay, Mama. Please say you won’t go in.” Sylvi buried her face in her mother’s shoulder.
A rustle at the cottage door made them all turn. Tora appeared in the opening, wrapped in a blanket despite the warmth, her golden hair loose and sleep-creased. She looked at the circle of them and didn’t hesitate. She crossed the grass and dropped down beside Sylvi without being invited.
“I heard,” she said. “Some of it.” She paused. “I had a dream. I couldn’t sleep because of it, and when I finally did, I dreamed it again.”
“Tell us,” Lia said, her green gown sparkling in the sunlight.
“Evil men inside the hill. Armed. Standing before a row of crystals, great clear stones with the bairns trapped inside each one.” Tora’s voice was flat, reflecting the unwelcome nature of her vision.
“Warriors near the crystals, frozen like statues inside a different cage. They were not dead, I don’t think.
Held. And I saw two people standing together in the center of it all, and the crystals began to crack. ”
“Two people,” Dyna repeated. “Could ye see them clearly?”
Tora shook her head. “I saw shapes. Walls of clear ice. A woman and a man. The man had a blade that caught the light strangely, something about the sword itself.”
John’s voice came back to Ailith without warning. All I need is the sapphire sword, Morgan, and I’ll take them down easily.
She saw Dyna’s eyes go to Lia at the same moment.
“John,” Dyna whispered. “With the sapphire sword.”
Ailith shrugged. “Are you sure it was not Edan? He plans to go inside.”
“Nay. Not Edan but Ailith,” Lia finished. “Ailith is definitely the woman.”
Ailith blinked. “Me? Are you certain?” Her insides churned from the thought of stepping inside the creature’s unknown land. What if they never allowed her to return? What if she were encased in a crystal cage?
“Ye are the fourth seer. The most powerful in yer line.” Lia’s tone left no room for doubt, but it was not unkind.
“The fae crystal responds to the true sight. It always has. A blade that can cut fae bindings, paired with a seer capable of perceiving the binding itself. Aye. That is the pair we need.”
Tora was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “There is something else. Something I did not understand.” She pulled her blanket tighter.
“Before the two reached the crystals, before anyone could touch them, the hill began to come apart. Someone else entered, and everything changed. The walls. The ceiling. Cracks spreading through the stone like it was being torn from the inside.” She looked up.
“And I heard something. Like a heartbeat, but wrong. Too fast. Too hard. And then it stopped, and the fracturing started.”
Lia went very still, her face pale as she paced a small area. She stared at the trees as if lost in thought, taking in all the details, working them about in her mind.
The wee faery usually carried a look of happiness that would switch to a direct focus on whoever was speaking. That was how Ailith always saw her. Smiling, happy, focused.
This Lia was not one she recognized, her eyes changing from frantic to soulless and back again.
“Lia,” Ailith asked, her words prompting the faery to whirl back to face her, that smile now plastered across her face again.
“I was just pondering all the implications. Dyna, what say you?”
“Iron blood,” Dyna said softly.
Tora nodded. “I think so. Aye.”
“If Edan enters the hill,” Lia said, “the iron in his blood will react to the fae enchantment holding the structure. A broken Unseelie bargain, turned inward, that is more than just a man’s affliction.
It is a force. Inside those walls, it would tear the bindings apart before John and Ailith could reach the bairns. ”
“The hill would come down,” Dyna said. “With the children still inside the crystals.”
The silence that followed was absolute.
Ailith stared at the grass between her hands.
She had seen Edan working his sword since dawn.
She had seen him nod at Morgan’s instruction and glance quickly at her before going inside.
She thought of his hands shaking slightly when he spoke of Heilyn.
He would walk into that hill without hesitation, never questioning the command.
“Then he cannot go in,” she said. Her voice cracked as the full meaning of their session settled on her. “It might kill him.” There came an ache in her chest so deep, she coughed, hoping to make it disappear. But it didn’t move.
“Nay,” Lia agreed. “Not on the first entry. Not until we understand more about the iron blood’s effects and timing. It will be difficult, but he must stay back.”
“He will not like it,” Sylvi said, with the practicality of someone who had met Edan twice and already had his measure.
“He doesnae have to like it,” Ailith said. Her voice came out steadier than she felt. “He just has to keep his distance.”
The door opened and Edan stepped outside, looking at the small group and freezing in his place. “What?” His knuckles whitened on the door frame.
Ailith stood and whirled to face him. “Edan, you can’t go in with me. I must go without you.”