Priestess Dreaming (An Otherworld Novel) (31 page)

“Why are you yelling at her?” Mordred tugged at his arm, looking terribly confused. “Father—your sister saved your life. You should be grateful.”

Arturo petulantly waved him off. “
Sister
? You still believe she is your aunt. You mean you did not tell him all of this time?” He turned a cold eye on Morgaine. “Then perhaps you didn’t care as much as you protested.”

Without moving a muscle, without letting Morgaine out of his gaze, Arturo dropped the bomb. “Morgaine is your
mother
, Mordred. She’s the sister of my half brother. She’s not of my blood. In a drunken fit, I spent a night with her and she gave birth to you. I took you in order to give you the upbringing you deserved—after all, you are the son of a king. Morgaine . . .” He turned to her, a snide look filling his eyes. “Morgaine made the mistake of falling in love with me, though I told her it was futile. And . . . apparently, she’s dragged me around the world like a dog on a leash all these years.”

Mordred froze. He turned from Arturo to Morgaine. “Is he telling the truth? Are you my real mother and not Gwenyfyr?”

Morgaine stretched out one hand. “Mordred—how could I tell you when you grew up believing I was your aunt? Arthur refused to let me tell you as you grew up. Didn’t you ever wonder where you got your Fae heritage from?”

“I thought Gwenyfyr had it in her bloodline.” His face cold and devoid of reason, Mordred turned on Arturo. “You took me from my mother to give to another woman? You turned me against her and then let me throw my life on the line for you? And yet you denied me a place in line for the throne? Lancelot was right—you have no honor! Everything I believed about you was a lie.” He drew his sword, fury surrounding him like a cloak.

“Stop—you have to stop now!” Delilah jumped forward, but Tanne grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the way.

“This is between them,” he said.

I had no clue what to do. I whirled on one heel to face Myrddin. “You started this. What do you intend to do about it?”

The High Priest of the Hunter shook his head, an imperturbable look on his face. “This was frozen in time for too long. It must be reconciled for destiny to move forward. I can—and will—do nothing to stop whatever will be.”

Morio slid his arm around me, and I turned to him, feeling helpless. Even Bran, standing next to me, looked alarmed.

Crying, Morgaine crumpled to the floor, her hands pressed against her face. Arturo stared at his son. Mordred was standing tall, his hair streaming back. He held his sword out, waiting.

“Well, then, now you fight for your
mother’s
honor?” Arturo lifted his own sword. “How quickly your allegiance changes. I meet your challenge.”

Mordred hesitated, and the world seemed to pause with him. Then, with one quick thrust, he lunged toward Arturo, who dropped his sword and opened his arms to the blade. Taken by surprise at the sudden surrender, Mordred couldn’t stop. His sword sliced neatly through Arturo’s stomach, emerging from the back.

As Morgaine let out a scream, the blood began to pour, running a river to pool at Arturo’s feet. Mordred stumbled back, leaving his sword embedded in Arturo’s gut. He began to stutter, then turned to Morgaine, who crouched weeping and broken like the stem of a reed. Mordred stuttered out a garbled word that we couldn’t understand as the door of the tomb crashed open, slamming against the back wall. He turned and raced outside.

Arturo stared down at the blade piercing his gut, then, with a look of wonder, let out a croak of laughter, and dropped where he stood. Morgaine scrambled on her hands and knees to hover over him, frantically feeling for a pulse. But there would be no heartbeat. Not even Nectar of Life could heal an attack so deadly. She looked over to the door and whispered, “Mordred,” and then fainted. Outside, the light of the cavern never wavered.

Bran hurried over to the door, but shook his head. “I don’t see him anywhere.”

“The boat!” If he took the boat we were in trouble.

Bran vanished out the door, Tanne following. Delilah crouched beside Morgaine, but she was out cold. With Morio’s help, my sister moved her out of the way so Arturo’s blood wouldn’t stain her clothing. That would just make everything so much worse.

I turned to the Merlin. “So
this
is your idea of letting destiny unfold?”

He shrugged. “I don’t make destiny, I just help enable it.” With a soft voice, he added, “I don’t enjoy seeing people hurt, but sometimes there are no winners.”

I was about to ask if he could help Morgaine like he had Arturo, but he held up his hand.

“There’s nothing I can do for her,” Myrddin said. “Her wound is emotional, not physical. I can help heal physical problems, but injuries of the heart are not my forte.”

I knelt beside Morgaine and brushed her hair away from her face. For all of her faults, she didn’t deserve this. Losing the man she had loved and taken care of all these years, and losing her son in the same moment? Not fair.

As I glanced over at Arturo, I realized I now despised him instead of pitying him. Myrddin should have left him in his fog. He’d been happy and Morgaine had—in her own way—been content with the life she’d carved out. But then again, she’d been seeking the Merlin herself, looking for answers. Now, she had them, even if they weren’t the ones she’d hoped for.

She was still unconscious and I had the feeling she’d remain so for a while. I turned back to Myrddin. He was standing, watching the scene impassively.

“We need your help. We tracked you down for a reason.” I wasn’t entirely sure that we were making the right move, but there was no help for it now. He was awake, and we’d already seen fallout from his return.

“What do you want?”

“An ancient wyrm is waking. Yvarr. The Fae Lords imprisoned their allies as well as their enemies. It’s only a matter of time before he breaks out of his prison. Can you help?” I didn’t ask
will you
 . . . he might choose to say no, but I wasn’t going to offer up the choice. If he wanted to be the bad guy, it would be on his own head.

But he surprised me. “I can. And I
will
.” His smile suggested he’d either read my expression or my thoughts, and I sincerely hoped it was the former. Either way, though, at least this gods-awful trip had some positive results.

“We still have daylight with us, so we’d better get moving, before it gets too late. We’re nearly out of food, though, so I hope you don’t get too hungry before we’re out of here.” I told him where we were—in the realm of the Elder Fae—and he at least had the courtesy to look alarmed.

“I concur. The sooner we leave this place, the better. The Elder Fae have always been capricious, and I doubt they have mellowed any in the time I’ve been asleep.” Myrddin motioned to Áine and she flowed up beside him. “But with my lovely by our side, I doubt if many will bother us on the return trip.”

By then, Morgaine was beginning to wake up, but she wasn’t all there, and could barely speak. Instead, she let us lead her, and I realized she’d be no use in navigating back the way we’d come. I’d have to take over.

“Delilah, please watch her? Tanne, cover our butt. Myrddin, you and Áine take your place right before Tanne please. Morio, follow me. And Delilah can follow Morio, bringing Morgaine.” I turned to Bran. As much as I didn’t want to interact with him, now was not the time to be choosy. “You—up front with me, please.”

He, too, seemed quiet. With a long look at Morgaine, he fell in beside me. We made sure we had all our gear. We’d plundered Arturo’s body for what we could salvage, feeling guilty with everything we took. But he wouldn’t need his things now, and there was nothing to be gained by forfeiting them.

Since there was no way to take his body back with us, we placed him in the crystal coffin and gently shut the lid. Morgaine stared at it mutely, then pressed her lips to the cool crystal and hung her head as Delilah led her away.

“What about Mordred?” Tanne asked.

“We can’t go chasing after him. We don’t know where he went, and we don’t have the resources to find him. It would be too easy to get lost in this place.” I shook my head. “We have no choice. We have to leave him behind.”

Myrddin spoke. “His destiny lies elsewhere, I fear.” He opened his mouth to say something else. Afraid of what might be coming, I shook my head.

“Shut the fuck up, please.” I nodded toward Morgaine. “Have some pity.”

With a shrug, he closed his mouth and, crooking his finger to Áine, he fell in line and we set off. By the time we got to the shore, Mordred was nowhere to be seen, but the boat was there. If he was still on the island, he had to have found some sort of cover we couldn’t see. If he’d chanced swimming, then he was dead. It was simply too cold for human or Fae to make it across the lake. Silently, we took our places in the boat. This time, Bran, Tanne, Delilah, and Morio rowed while I looked after Morgaine. Áine swept along beside us as we traversed the water, the only sound the swish of our oars.

*   *   *

Returning through the tunnel was worse than heading in, primarily because we were tired and hungry. Morgaine refused to eat the last of the food that we tried to give to her, and rather than throw it away—it would go bad if we left it any longer—I handed it to Myrddin. He hadn’t eaten in several thousand years. We’d see what he thought of a sandwich. Apparently, he didn’t think it too bad, because he wolfed it down with no comment.

By the time we reached the cavern again, I was exhausted. A glance outside told me it was near nightfall.

“We need to rest. We have two days walk back to the entrance.” The thought of going that long without food didn’t sit well. It wouldn’t hurt us, though we’d all be wolfish by then, but it sure as hell wasn’t going to make for happy campers. At least not Delilah and me.

“I can try to hunt along the way,” Tanne offered, but I nixed the idea.

“We’re down on manpower. We’re in a hurry. We don’t want to light a fire to attract any unsavory types. And it’s still snowing, thanks to Beira, who left us this lovely present of winter weather. I think we’ll just push on as hard and quickly as we can. As it is, we need to melt a lot of snow tonight so we’ll have water for traveling.”

Having said that, Delilah and I gathered all the water bottles and slipped outside the cavern, into the blowing storm. Again, we took one of the plastic tarps and heaped a mound of snow on it, then brought it in. The men tied the corners to four stalagmites. Áine swept in, took one look at the snow, and breathed warm smoke on it. The resulting melt was quick enough for us to not only fill our water bottles, but to drink deep, go for seconds, and refill them again. By the time we bedded down that night, all our water bottles were full.

Áine and Morio took the first watch. Tanne and Delilah volunteered for the second, and I took the third with Bran. I still didn’t trust Myrddin enough to leave him up watching over our sleeping selves. We settled for four solid hours of sleep each, and broke camp while it was still dark. But at least we knew which way we were going, and though the snow was a bitch, we weren’t afraid of falling over the edge, given the tall rock face that sheltered us from the drop to the side.

The journey down was rough, plowing through the snow, but it wasn’t as difficult as the climb and to my surprise, we made it down with a distinct time advantage. But, staring across the marsh, I realized crossing the bog was going to be hell. The snow was deeper, and it was impossible to see the way we’d come.

“This is a mess. How the hell do we cross this in one piece?” I explained the problem to Myrddin.

He grinned. “Not so much of a problem. Áine is a cross between water and earth in the Dragon Realm, so she can seek out the path and guide us over. Would you like me to take the lead since I can talk to her?”

I wavered. I was still unsure, but if I said no, then we’d be slogging through here far longer than we could afford to. I didn’t want to be caught on the marsh any longer than we had to be. Myrddin might not be our ally—we couldn’t be sure yet—but he wasn’t going to be inclined to take a nosedive into the icy water either. Morio agreed when I pulled him aside to ask his opinion.

But Morgaine worried me. She still hadn’t spoken—the last word she’d said was to call after Mordred, and we’d seen no sign of him. I had a suspicion he might have flung himself into the lake, but we couldn’t know. We might never know.

I slipped my arm around her, and she gave me a blank look. “Cousin? Can you hear me?” Her eyes flickered but she made no reply. “Morgaine, please say something. I know you’re hurting, I know this was a horrible thing for you, but you have to say something.” Still nada. Finally, I brushed her bangs back and the look in her eyes shifted—she was pleading with me, but I didn’t know what she wanted. Then, as quickly as the light had come, it faded and she went back to staring straight ahead.

I motioned to Delilah. “We’re going to have to just take her back to Aeval and see what they can do.”

Myrddin whistled. “We’d best go. Áine says there’s a dark force on the horizon. It will be here within the hour, so let’s be off before it crosses our path.”

The last thing we needed was another encounter, so we headed out, following Áine and Myrddin, silently crossing the marsh. Nobody felt like talking, and it was well toward night when we reached the other side. I glanced up at the sky. Even though we couldn’t see her, the Moon Mother would be full tonight, which meant even more trouble for Delilah and me. And . . . Morgaine.

“Delilah, you need to stay near Morio. He’s going to have to keep you from wandering off tonight. We aren’t going to make it out of here without spending a full moon under the skies.”

She frowned. “I hate to say it but you might want to use this. I brought it, just in case we needed it.” Fishing through her pack, she frowned as she handed over a leather harness, tabby-cat size.

Morio grinned. “I think it would be a good idea if you changed now, before the moon rises and sends you into a frenzy. That way we can harness you into this and I’ll carry you on the rest of the walk.

She rolled her eyes but agreed. Handing her pack to Tanne, she exhaled slowly, shifting with an even, smooth transition. The moment she was in tabby form, I snatched her up before she could change her mind and—together with Morio—managed to get her harness on. She put up a lazy fight but seemed to be doing her best to cooperate. He tucked her into his arms and we headed off again.

Everybody was tired, but I was grateful to Áine for leading us through the marsh. It had saved us hours of indecision. I was really beginning to like the dragon and wished she could shift into human form so we could have a chat.

We passed the dead bog monster, and by the time midnight neared were back onto the grassland, and headed toward the path to the stream. I was done in. We’d been walking through snow and cold for hours without a break, and I still had to look forward to the Hunt tonight. I could feel the pull.

I turned to look at Morgaine, who was staring at the sky. With a long sigh, I turned back to Tanne. “I have no clue what’s going to happen to Morgaine when the Hunt comes riding past, but when we stop for the night, watch her, would you?”

All I wanted was some downtime. We had no food, and we were cold and tired. But one more hour and we’d reach the path again, where we’d crossed the bridge and turned off into the grassland. We might as well drag our sorry butts that far before setting up camp.

By the time we came to the rushing stream, we’d had all we could take. There was no shelter here from the cold, but we did our best, huddling together with the blankets tight around us. We had Arturo’s blanket, which we gave to Myrddin. He whispered something to Áine and she began gently circling us, slowly. Her bulk kept most of the wind from blasting right past us, and she began a thrumming that sounded almost like the purr of a cat. Whatever she was doing raised the temperature around us by a few degrees—enough to take the worst of the bite off.

“She’ll keep watch till morning.” Myrddin held my gaze. “Trust me enough to rest. If anything comes near, we’ll know in advance.”

Exhausted and cold, and still heartsore over a journey in which we’d lost two of our party and yet a third was traumatized beyond counting, I gave in and accepted the offer. Myrddin offered to take first watch, to guard Morgaine, making sure she was comfortable. Tanne and Bran laid down near them and quickly were snoring away. Even Delilah wasn’t up to her usual moon-play. She curled up next to Morio, who fixed her leash so she couldn’t get away while he slept.