Chapter Thirty-Six
Edan
Edan entered the hill, clutching Ailith’s hand as she led him down the awkward staircase. The hill screamed, a sound that echoed and vibrated the ground and the stone walls.
“What is happening?” he shouted over the din.
“It’s the claiming spell,” Dyna said, coming down the steps behind them. “It’s pulling at your iron blood, trying to overtake it and take you with it. Don’t let it, keep moving.”
A sudden wail split them apart as soon as they stepped off the bottom stair. A bird flew, hitting him square in the chest, almost knocking him to the ground and breaking his link with Ailith. His blood began to boil, burning him from the inside out, and blood leaked from his ears.
“Edan, grab my hand!” Ailith shouted, the entire area trembling as if it were about to split apart.
He reached for her hand and she clasped it, cooling his blood instantly.
The land warped beneath his feet as they crept past the still-fighting warriors.
Grant stood close to John, both hands on the sapphire sword and lighting up the area.
A thick mist descended on the Dark Hollow, making their visibility difficult.
A burst of thunder crashed through, dropping a tree, knocking Ailith down and pinning her leg. She couldn’t move and their link was broken, her scream making his heart beat so fast that he feared it would explode out of his chest.
Edan grabbed the heavy trunk, trying to lift it off her leg. But they were no longer connected, causing the walls to crack. “I can’t move it. Help me, Dyna.”
The two tried, Edan’s muscles straining enough to make him bellow with a frustration unlike he’d ever felt. He’d come so close to saving his daughter and the woman he was falling in love with was slipping from his grasp, pinned helplessly down.
“Edan, the branches are moving toward me. Please.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the cages. How could he choose? He couldn’t. He had to save Ailith first, then together they’d find her.
A large figure shoved him off to the side. “We’ll do this together.”
Alasdair had the calm he didn’t, bent down and said, “Grab the trunk on the other side of her.” He did as he said, and Alasdair nodded, the two lifting together.
Once they had it lifted a fraction, Dyna came into the middle and the three shoved the tree off with a shout.
Once she was free, Dyna reached under and hauled Ailith out.
Alasdair said, “Get Heilyn and get out. We don’t have much time. More cages are dissolving.”
Edan picked Ailith up and let her test her leg. “Can you walk?”
“Not without help.”
Dyna, her usual take-charge manner intact, said, “We’ll stand on either side of you. That will give you and Edan the contact to stop the hill from collapsing.”
“Which way? I can’t see anything.”
“Over here!” A voice that sounded distinctly like her grandfather called out.
Dyna shouted, “Again, Grandda!”
They moved across tree limbs and roots toward the voice.
“Get your arses over here!”
Dyna smiled. “I love you too, Gwyneth.”
“Where’s Heilyn?” Edan asked as they made their way toward the voices and the back of a cavern that appeared endless.
“Over there,” she pointed as they passed the warriors.
Dyna yelled, “Ailith, your father!”
“Da!” she yelled as a warrior bore down on him from behind.
A blade arced over her sire’s head, ready to split him in two.
She grabbed Edan’s hand, bracing herself against Dyna as she pulled their joined hands to the shadow warrior’s armor.
The otherworldly being recoiled as if struck by a death blow, struggling to pull away.
But Ailith wouldn’t allow it. She forced him back into his cage, the transparent material locking him in place the moment he crossed its threshold.
Edan reached for another warrior and did the same.
Grant said, “Get your daughter, MacRuari. We can handle the rest.”
“Where? I can’t see. Can you see Heilyn, Ailith? Help me!” Warm fluid dribbled down his cheeks, but he refused to turn back.
“To your right, Edan,” Dyna shouted.
A flock of ravens attacked, but Ailith swung her arm at them in a rage, and they disappeared.
When they finally made it to the last caged bairn, he wiped the sweat from his brow and looked up, seeing his dearest daughter frozen in the state she must have been in when she was stolen, her face bearing the same look of fear he had seen whenever a thunderstorm hit.
“Heilyn, it’s Da.” He placed one hand on the clear surface, noting the rise and fall of her chest. He was pleased by the cage’s warmth, but she didn’t move. “Ailith, help me. Use your talents. Free her like you did the others.”
She leaned into the crystalline cage, closing her eyes to calm herself, a challenge amidst the cacophony of sounds around her: clashing swords, shrieking birds, and other noises she didn’t recognize.
“Hurry, Ailith!” Edan’s voice, insistent and fragile, forced her to place her arm on the cage.
A bat swooped down at her face, but she held her scream and shooed it away. Interrupted, she pulled back and looked at Edan. “It’s not working.”
“Try again.”
She tugged him forward, leaning him against the cage the same way she had. “Do it with me. What is a favorite memory of hers? What makes her giggle?”
He paused, then said, “She got away from me at the beach and toddled across the sand chasing a bird. She loved having me chase her.”
“Put your head against the cage and your hand over her heart. She needs you, Edan.”
Tears washed away the blood on his cheeks from the ravens. Prayers filled his mind, but he quickly pushed them aside to focus on his dear daughter. He wished to scream at her to get her to look at him, but he knew it was not her fault.
“My sweet girl, Da misses you so. Your laughter, the way you toddle down the path to hug every goat we have. How you love your dear aunties.” He wished to run his fingers through her hair, wipe the smudge of dirt from her chubby cheek, and lift her up to toss her into the air, sending her into a fit of giggles and wiggles.
Every part of him wished to lay his face against the cage and never let go, but he had to stay strong. Stay focused. “Heilyn. Come to Da.”
Still nothing. He interlaced his fingers with Ailith’s and held their intertwined hands over his wee lassie’s heart. “Heilyn, please come meet Ailith.”
A moment later, her cage dissolved and she fell into his arms. “Da!”
Edan hugged her close, sobbing as he hadn’t since the day she was born, and he’d lost Florie.
But the moment didn’t last. The next group of shadow knights awakened, all ten of them, with two coming straight for them.
Her father intercepted them, but then the mist disappeared, and the walls began to crack, threatening to collapse.
Ailith leaned into the next cage where a wee lass remained.
She leaned in, the image of a father setting her on a pony filling her, and the lass fell into her arms. But there was no time.
Dirt fell from above. The entire place was about to collapse. She looked down at the ground beneath the shadow knight.
“There,” she pointed. “Give me Heilyn and hold onto my hand. You have to put your other hand on the root under the knight, the piece that ties him to this land and gave him life.” How she knew this, she’d never know, but visions of Logan Ramsay telling her to trust her instincts overwhelmed her.
The two of them knelt down as she guided Edan’s hand to the root.
Dyna grabbed Heilyn, and Ailith’s gut came through. “Your iron blood. Use it to destroy the roots of this evil place, Edan. Cut your palm again.”
He did as she asked, then grabbed her hand and laid the two together on the root.
“I’ll be right back!” Dyna shouted.
Chaos reigned. The ground shook, the walls cracked, the shadow warriors fell, some back into their cages, others dead on the ground. “Go,” Edan shouted. “We have to go now.”
Grant called out, “What is happening? Is it collapsing?”
Dyna appeared behind her, two other bairns in tow, Heilyn in her arms. “Their cages dissolved.” She handed Heilyn to Edan so they could stand on either side of Ailith, supporting her leg as they hopped toward the staircase, a distance away yet.
The bairns sobbed in their arms, Edan prayed, but they moved along slowly as the ground ruptured under their feet, tripping them as tree roots appeared out of nowhere, rising to meet branches and curling together.
“Ailith, where are you?” her brother called out from ahead of her.
“We’re behind you. Go, John.”
“Nay, I still have my sword.” John came back, lifted Ailith into his arms and handed her the sword. “Hold it over your head.”
Ailith did and the blue weapon lit their way over to the staircase. John stepped back. “Dyna, go first with your two, then Edan.”
Dyna headed toward the stairs but stopped, stepping aside. “Go!”
Edan didn’t wait, going ahead of her while John followed, calling back, “What is it?”
“Naught, I’m coming,” Dyna cried.
Cages crashed and wooden steps exploded behind them as they raced up. When they were about to go out the door, Ailith turned back in time to see Gruin shaking his fist.
“You will see my ire for this!”
Edan clutched his wee daughter to his chest, inhaling her sweet scent.
Heilyn was home.