The fae woman maintained a brisk pace, but she didn’t run, to avoid the risk of losing her passengers. Between her mist and the smoke, the visibility was almost as it had been with Selene’s fog. Will adjusted his vision with difficulty as he discovered that the fires produced an incredible glare. It took him a moment to find a comfortable medium that allowed him to see without being blinded by it.
Tailtiu trotted on, occasionally passing so close to soldiers that they stopped to stare at them in amazement. No one tried to stop them. The soldiers of Darrow had better things to do, and the camp was in complete chaos by then. The glow grew brighter behind them, and when Will glanced back it appeared as though the entire world had caught fire. For a moment he wondered how many people would die in the blaze. Most of those soldiers were ordinary men, like me, just doing what they were told. Then he thought about the women trapped in the other brothels. How many innocents would die because of his actions?
He closed his eyes briefly and tried to push the thoughts aside. I only did what I had to do, he told himself.
But a nagging doubt spoke from within, Did you? You suggested this. The entire thing was your idea.
And what had happened to Selene? He kept remembering the desperation on her face. “I’m sorry.” What could have made her break her rule? He didn’t think she was dead. His impression had been that she was being taken away against her will.
They passed beyond the edge of the camp and crossed the empty region around it. The Patriarch’s army had harvested most of the nearby timber. Will hoped it would be enough to prevent the fire from turning the entire valley into a bonfire. His own family would be in danger if that happened.
Tailtiu angled up as they started into the hills, then she reared, dumping Will onto the ground while Annabelle clung desperately to her neck. “That’s enough,” she said with an air of finality. “You’ll have to walk the rest of the way if you won’t take off that damned iron shirt.”
Will was tired. His fatigue was far deeper than he had been aware of until then. He should have expected it, though. Fighting, even for brief periods, was exhausting, and what he had been doing with the fire elementals’ attacks hadn’t been easy either. Taking off the mail shirt was logical, but when he put his hand on it he couldn’t bear to remove it.
Selene had fought long and hard to get him to wear it. Now that she was gone, it felt more precious than gold. “I’ll walk.”
Tailtiu continued carrying Annabelle as he traipsed along behind them. Something felt odd in Will’s back, so he reached behind himself and his fingers found a wooden shaft. He tugged at it and discovered a crossbow bolt when he looked at his hand. It had a bodkin point, and there was blood on the head of it. Hopefully I can find the money to get Harless to fix my mail, he thought idly.
It took them most of an hour to reach the congruence point where he had met Aislinn before, and Will was beginning to feel faint. His vision kept narrowing, as though he was walking through a tunnel. It was a relief when his grandmother appeared before him.
“I did as you asked,” he told her, his words slurring slightly.
Aislinn smiled. “You never choose the easy road, do you, William?” She held out her hand. In her palm was a golden ring with a white stone set in the center. As he looked at it, he realized that rather than a gem there was a tooth mounted on it, a human molar.
“This is the object of unspeakably vile knowledge and power?” he asked mildly. He saw no sign of magic around the ring.
“You’ll understand soon,” said Aislinn.
Tailtiu cleared her throat. “Please take it away before you bleed to death.”
“Huh?” Will didn’t understand. The world began to spin, and the ground rushed up to meet him. His last thought, as darkness closed over him, was that the rocks pillowing his head seemed much softer than he had expected.
***
Something tickled his nose, and when Will opened his lids, he found two green eyes staring down at him. He was surrounded by a halo of coppery curls. “Auntie! He’s awake!” yelled Sammy, directly into his face.
His cousin hugged him, squeezing the life out of him, then she leapt up and bounced away. “You have no idea how worried I was, Will. Your mom said you were fine, but I was sure you were going to die.”
He tried to sit up, and the world began moving in unexpected ways, so he lay back down again. He was on Arrogan’s massive bed. His mother came in a moment later and sat on the edge beside him. “How do you feel?”
“Tired, sore, and when I try to sit up everything spins,” he told her.
Erisa nodded. “You lost a great deal of blood.”
“How did I get here?” Will shifted a little and the movement of the sheets told him that he was naked beneath the covers.
“Annabelle came. She was in quite a state. Nearly scared me half to death. She was convinced you were dead. Your Uncle Johnathan went with her and carried you back to the house.”
Will peeked under the covers to confirm his suspicions. Worriedly, he looked at his mother, “Who undressed me?”
“Johnathan got the armor off you. The gambeson was soaked with blood. I washed it as best I could, but I’m afraid there will always be a stain,” said Erisa.
“And my trousers?”
“Annabelle helped me clean you up.”
Will grabbed an extra pillow and pulled it over his face in embarrassment. “Kill me now,” he moaned. “At least it wasn’t Sammy.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it, William. Annabelle’s been through a lot. She’s seen far worse,” said his mother.
“Is she all right?”
“Physically? Yes. She won’t talk about what happened to her, but I fear she’ll be haunted by it for the rest of her life.”
“She hasn’t said anything about it?”
Erisa shook her head. “All she talks about is you. The story she told us is hard to believe. She said you were throwing fire with your hands.”
“Only a couple of times,” muttered Will. “What about the camp?”
“Johnathan got as close as he could, but there are soldiers all over the valley. He said that from the smoke it looks like the entire thing may have burned to the ground,” said Erisa. Then she reached into her apron pocket and pulled something out. It was the ring. “What’s this?”
Alarmed, Will snatched it out of her hand. “You shouldn’t touch that.”
His mother lifted her eyebrows.
“It’s a gift from Aislinn,” he explained. “I think it’s dangerous, but I don’t know how.”
“There’s a human tooth set in it,” said his mother disapprovingly. “You should get rid of it.”
He frowned. “Not until I know what it does.” To change the subject, he asked, “Where was I bleeding from?”
Erisa helped him turn onto his side and guided his hand back to feel the bandage she had put there. It felt as though it was just a few inches above his right kidney. “It wasn’t deep,” she told him, “but all the moving you did kept it bleeding freely. Another inch or two down, though, and you might not be here now. Are you thirsty?”
The worry on his mother’s face made him feel terrible. “I’ve never been so thirsty in my life.”