Queen of Wands (The Tree of Ages Series Book 4) Page 8

  She didn’t think the Travelers would do any good against the Cavari either. The Ceàrdaman never truly helped anyone, and she would never forget what they had done to her.

  It was almost nightfall by the time they neared the meeting place. Kai found himself wishing for Garenoch, where there was whiskey a plenty, and he didn’t have to deal with saddle soreness. Between his nightmares, Anders’ shifty eyes and sweaty face, and the lack of any other travelers on the road, Kai felt ready to burst with anxiety. Riding with Finn was at least somewhat calming, even though they only shared a mount to prevent the Cavari from tracking them again. Still, he counted himself lucky. While he suspected she did not return all of his feelings for her, she at least cared about him, and trusted him enough to keep him close. The behavior was far preferable than her lashing out at him for being a liar and thief.

  “Just a bit further,” Anders instructed, riding ahead of the pack.

  “Wait,” Iseult ordered.

  No one argued with his tone, drawing their horses to an abrupt halt as they reached him. Kai glanced around the darkening scenery. There were old farmsteads nearby, but none appeared inhabited, judging by the lack of candle and firelight in the growing dusk.

  Anders glanced back over his shoulder, his eyes wide enough to show too much white. “We have not reached the meeting place yet,” he argued.

  “You will find Niklas,” Iseult instructed, “and you will bring him here.”

  Kai exhaled in relief. He much preferred meeting in a location of his party’s choosing.

  “He will not come,” Anders argued, moving his pleading gaze past Iseult to Finn. “Surely you will not pass up this opportunity to help Àed.”

  Kai bristled at the suggestion. Anders was trying far too hard to lure them to this meeting place.

  He watched as Finn flicked her gaze to Iseult, then back to Anders. “We meet here, or not at all,” she agreed.

  He observed the scene with interest, wondering what had transpired between her and Iseult. Had she seemed hesitant to follow his orders, or was it just his imagination? Come to think of it, the pair had spoken little to each other over the course of the day, save their private meeting at midday.

  “I’ll try to find him,” Anders sighed. “But do not be surprised if I am . . . unable to return.”

  “That will not be necessary,” a voice spoke from behind them.

  The unicorn danced nervously beneath them. Kai turned toward the voice to find one of the Ceàrdaman approaching. The Traveler wore shapeless gray robes, the fabric seeming to float around his body in the receding sunlight. As he walked, he removed the hood from his bald head, fully revealing his sharp, ethereal features.

  The Traveler was nearest to their mount, Kai realized with a start. Too near. He hopped down from the saddle and stepped forward, prepared to intercept him. Also seeming to sense the danger, Iseult urged his horse toward the Traveler. Before Iseult could reach them, the Traveler faded from sight, then reappeared behind Kai. He turned just in time to see the Ceàrdaman lift his hand and blow a cloud of shimmering dust onto Finn, still atop the unicorn.

  She gasped, inhaling the dust, then slumped forward in her saddle. Before she could fall to the ground, Iseult had his feet on the ground to catch her.

  Moving faster than he thought himself capable, Kai grabbed the Traveler from behind and held a blade to his throat. “What did you do to her?” he growled.

  The Traveler snickered, seemingly unworried by the blade at his throat. “Not to worry, my lad, she’s simply gone on a short journey. I have faith that she will return unscathed.”

  He pushed the blade more firmly against the thin skin of the Traveler’s throat. “A journey to where?” he demanded.

  “It’s alright,” Anders interrupted, rushing toward them after dismounting his horse. “He wants her alive,” he explained, gesturing toward the Traveler. “She’d be of no use to him dead.”

  Kai was about to demand further explanation, but was too late. Iseult had laid Finn gently on the ground with Bedelia to watch over her. He marched toward Anders, death gleaming in his eyes.

  A war horn sounded from the nearby settlement, drawing Kai’s gaze past the Traveler. Stout shapes rushed forward, raising axes and swords over their heads.

  Kai debated slitting the Traveler’s throat right there. He must have planned the location all along, ordering Anders to lead them past where he waited in hiding, instead of to an actual meeting place. That way, they didn’t have to trust Anders enough to attend the actual meeting. They only had to be curious enough to get close.

  He shoved the Traveler to the ground as the shouting warriors neared, quickly glancing toward where Finn lay to see Bedelia and Anna standing over her with weapons drawn.

  If the Traveler truly did not want Finn dead, he sure had an odd way of showing it.

  Finn slowly opened her eyes, cringing at the massive pounding in her head. She lay on a stone floor in a massive chamber, the walls glowing with candlelight. Someone knelt over her, vibrant red hair shimmering in the flickering light.

  “Branwen?” she muttered, trying to force her eyes to focus.

  The woman over her snorted. “Hardly.”

  Finn blinked rapidly, and slowly the woman’s face came into view. Her features were sharp, but feminine. Her vibrant cornflower blue eyes starkly contrasted with her red, waist-length hair, a thick wild tendril trailing over her black diaphanous dress.

  “Who are you?” Finn groaned, slowly reaching a hand to her aching head as she sat up.

  The woman stood and moved out of the way. “I could be your friend, or your enemy,” she said cryptically as she began to pace, trailing her dress across the stone floor. The clatter of her boots echoed around the chamber, drawing attention to the otherwise eerie silence of the space.

  Finn wanted to stand, but still felt dizzy. “Where are my friends?”

  The woman stopped pacing and raised a red brow at her. “You’re truly worried about mere mortals? Not like any of the Dair Leanbh I’ve even met.”

  Finn’s heart began to race. She took a deep breath, then crawled to her feet, but swayed once she got there. She stumbled over to the wall and braced herself against the cool stone. “You know of my people?”

  The woman turned and smiled at her. “I know you run from them. Something has been hiding you from their sight. Hiding you from my sight as well, but you can hide no longer.”

  Finn slowly pushed away from the wall. She knew her mother had been hiding her from the Cavari. Had her mother intentionally shielded her from this woman as well, or was it mere coincidence? Though she had mixed feelings about her mother, if she’d intentionally kept this woman away, she should heed that warning.

  “I don’t know why anyone would shield me from you,” Finn began, hoping for more information.

  The woman seemed genuinely perplexed. “At first I thought my inability to track you was my father’s doing, or perhaps one of your other companions, but you’ve been separated from them all at times, and yet, you have eluded me . . . until now.”

  Finn stared at the mysterious woman. She’d said her father, and had implied that he’d been one of Finn’s companions. Could it be . . . “Keiren?” she questioned. “Is that your name?”

  The woman narrowed her gaze. “I see my father told you about me. Pity, I’d hoped for the element of surprise.”

  Finn’s mind stuttered to a halt. This was the woman who’d turned Àed into a tree. This was the woman who could turn him back. She pushed away from the wall. “I demand you return Àed to me right this moment,” she snapped. “How could you do that to your own father?”

  Keiren sneered. “I see Bedelia has spilled all my secrets. I’ll have to see to it that she loses her tongue.”

  “You will not touch her,” Finn hissed.

  Keiren grinned, then let out a throaty laugh. She stalked closer to Finn. “You believe you can stop me? You? I think being a tree altered your mind, because you’re dumb as a stump
.”

  Finn stepped forward, despite her quavering limbs. Keiren towered over her, but Finn refused to cower. She looked up into Keiren’s vibrant blue eyes and evenly stated, “You will not touch her, nor anyone else who is dear to me.”

  Keiren lowered her face so that it was only a hair’s breadth away from Finn’s. Her hot breath added to the angry flush already burning Finn’s skin. “Your friends are currently at the mercy of my Reivers, and you are stuck here with me. You can bandy threats about all you please, but it will not save them.”

  Panic hit her, she felt barely able to suck air through her clenched teeth. Was Keiren telling the truth? She had the uncharacteristic urge to lash out, but no, she needed to think. She had to get out of this place and back to her companions.

  She stepped back out of Keiren’s reach until her back met the cool stone wall. She suspected they were in the in-between, the place between the living and the dead. The last time she’d been there all she needed to do to leave, was sleep. However, she highly doubted Keiren would allow that. There had to be another way.

  Keiren tilted her head, cascading her long hair over her shoulder as she observed Finn. “There is no way out. If you’d like to return to them, you must cooperate with me.”

  Was she so transparent? “Never,” Finn spat. Even if there was no way out, she would kill Keiren before she gave her anything she might desire.

  Keiren shrugged. “Then your friends will die, and it will be all your fault.”

  Finn balled her hands into fists. Could she be telling the truth? She glanced around the large room, desperately seeking anything that might give her an edge, then remembered something important. She lowered a hand to her hip, searching beneath the edge of her top, then nearly gasped. The Faie Queen’s shroud tied around her hips for the past weeks was no longer there.

  Keiren tilted her head to the other side. “Are you prepared to hear my terms?”

  Finn flexed her fingers. Bedelia claimed Keiren was the most powerful sorceress in the land. Powerful like Oighear. She’d only bested the former with the use of the shroud. Could she truly hope to beat Keiren on her own?

  “Name them,” she growled.

  Keiren’s lips curled into a wicked smile. “I require your immortality. Just a taste of it, really.”

  She stared at her a moment, surprised by her answer. “Why?”

  Keiren’s smile wilted. “That is none of your concern. You will willingly share your blood with me, and I will call off the assault on your friends.”

  Could it be that simple? She’d shared her blood with Kai to save his life. It had drained her of energy, but hadn’t seemed to do any permanent damage . . . at least not to her. Her thoughts raced for another solution, but if her friends were currently being attacked, she didn’t have much choice.

  She took a step forward. “We’ll need a dagger. The ritual will take some time, so you must first call off your warriors.”

  Keiren’s eyes seemed to twinkle. Finn couldn’t help the feeling that she was making a terrible mistake, but what choice did she have? Without the shroud, she could not best someone as powerful as Oighear, perhaps more powerful.

  Keiren withdrew a dagger from her belt, then took another step toward Finn. “Hold out your hand,” she ordered.

  With a deep, aching breath, Finn obeyed.

  Iseult fought against his rage as the warriors circling them began to close in, clearly Reivers judging by their primitive leather garb and long beards . . . but what were they doing this far south? Reivers were the bandits of the Northern Lands. Most Southerners would normally never even encounter them, except perhaps at sea.

  Iseult lifted his sword, weighing his party’s odds. Dusk had turned to dark, and he could not tell if more warriors waited further away, but things did not look good. He realized then that the Traveler had appeared to distract them from noticing the Reivers moving in from the distant farmsteads. Outside the ring of warriors that surrounded them, the Traveler that had to be Niklas stood watching. Anders was beside him. Traitor.

  The nearest warrior narrowed his black-lined eyes before lunging and swinging his gleaming ax toward Iseult, testing him.

  Iseult easily dodged the attack, stepping out of reach, then looked past the warrior to Niklas, silhouetted in the moonlight. “I never thought I’d see the day when the Ceàrdaman would lower themselves to work with Reivers. Why do they not advance?”

  “They await orders from their mistress,” Niklas replied, tapping his temple with one long, bony finger. “Whether they attack depends on the choices of your mistress. I am simply a casual observer.”

  He resisted the urge to glance at Finn’s prone form, still guarded by Bedelia. She was merely unconscious, not dead, but seemed incapable of currently making choices.

  “An observer who attacked the very person with whom you sought alliance,” Iseult growled.

  Niklas tsked. “As I’ve already assured you, she will not come to harm. My desires for alliance still stand.”

  Anna sidled up beside Iseult, her gaze trained on the nearest Reivers. “That powder he used sent her to the Gray Place,” she explained. “It’s the same thing they used on me when—”

  She cut herself off abruptly, for there was no need to continue. He knew all about what had happened to her while under the Travelers’ care.

  “How do we undo it?” he asked.

  “It will wear off,” Niklas explained, stepping toward the nearest Reiver, a stocky man with jet black hair down to his armpits, and a beard just as long. He wore a tunic and breeches topped with a heavy fur vest, their colors drained by the full moon.

  “Have you heard anything?” Niklas muttered to the Reiver.

  The Reiver nodded, then gruffly replied. “She asks that we stay our hands . . . for now.”

  “Who is this invisible mistress?” Kai sighed from somewhere behind Iseult.

  Niklas grinned more broadly, then his smile faltered. He glanced over his shoulder at the dark woods looming ominously at his back.

  Iseult tensed, sensing something. More Travelers? He could hear footsteps in the woods . . . and the soft rattles of metal armor? He’d never known the Travelers to wear armor.

  “Go see what it is,” Niklas hissed to the nearest Reiver.

  The man nodded, then charged off, heedless of any possible danger. Iseult watched as he disappeared beyond the tree line. A full minute passed.

  Silence.

  Niklas glared at Iseult as if this was somehow his fault, then tapped another Reiver on the shoulder. “Follow him,” he ordered.

  This Reiver looked somewhat hesitant, but still left the group of warriors to charge off into the tree line.

  Iseult watched on curiously, a small sliver of hope trickling through his mind. With Finn unconscious, they didn’t stand much chance against so many tried warriors, but if Niklas kept sending them off one by one into the woods, he might whittle down their ranks enough to make them vulnerable

  Several quiet moments passed.

  Iseult felt eyes on him. Before looking to the source, he stepped back from the reach of the nearest warrior. Glancing to his side, he noticed Anna with her daggers poised to fend off attacks, but her eyes were all for him, clearly trying to tell him something. Something about whatever was in the woods? Perhaps even if they managed to escape Niklas and the Reivers, they would have a greater foe to face.

  Niklas growled in irritation, then tapped two more of the Reivers. “Both of you go,” he demanded. “I expect at least one to return.”

  The two men charged off, a bit more cautious than the preceding two.

  “Aren’t the Ceàrdaman supposed to be all seeing?” Kai quipped. “Can you not simply peer through the trees and divine what might be hiding there?”

  Niklas sneered at him. “Watch your tongue, boy. I can see through to your very soul, do not make me lay all of your secrets bare.”

  Kai snorted. “Some threat, that. I haven’t got any secrets left for you to steal.”

>   Iseult kept his eyes on the trees, ignoring the conversation. He wasn’t sure why Kai was baiting Niklas, but if it kept the Traveler preoccupied, he would not interrupt.

  The remaining Reivers, still too many to fight and come out alive, began to shift uncomfortably. None of the men sent out had returned, yet there had been no sounds of struggle.

  He flexed his hand on the pommel of his blade. The wise move now was to wait.

  Niklas had turned his attention away from Kai, and back to the woods. Slowly, he moved his gaze to Iseult. “I don’t suppose you’d like to go and see where my men have gone?”

  He remained silent. Normally he’d gladly march into the woods to face whatever enemy awaited, but he would not willingly leave Finn behind while she was vulnerable.

  Niklas sighed and turned toward the first Reiver he’d spoken to, the one who seemed to be receiving some sort of mental communication from this unknown mistress. His expression questioned what was amiss, but the Reiver merely shrugged as if saying, I don’t know, then an arrow came whistling out of the woods to pierce right through the Reiver’s neck.

  His eyes bulged, and he tried to inhale, but instead sputtered on blood, black in the darkness, then fell to the ground, dead.

  “Close in!” one of the Reivers shouted.

  Those bearing large shields moved closer to the tree line, raising the rough wooden barriers to protect themselves as a volley of arrows launched forth from the woods.

  Iseult raced back toward where Finn lay and stood in front of her body, his sword raised. Anna and Kai appeared at either side to flank them, with Bedelia and Sativola protecting the rear. Their horses pranced about nervously, but had nowhere to bolt since the Reivers remained in a tight circle around them, save those who’d moved closer to the treeline.

  Iseult narrowed his gaze toward the woods and the more pressing danger. Shadowy forms could be seen there, casting the occasional glimmer of dull metal in the moonlight. He’d seen such a sheen before, but knew these warriors couldn’t possibly be Oighear’s warriors, the Aos Sí.