Page 127 of The Shadow Path
Carys glanced at Naida. “Have you seen the city of Temris?”
“Once.” Naida blinked. “That was how I met Dru. I had traveled to Éire with my mother. We were meeting with court healers.” She frowned. “Something like what you’d see as a conference or convention in the Brightlands. Just a gathering of fae and unicorn healers traveling through the gates to share knowledge.” She smiled. “It was nice.”
“And it was fancy?”
Naida laughed. “It was more than fancy. I had been brought up in the valleys. My people aren’t from the north like yours. My mother was born in the southern valleys of Cymru, maybe the most gentle and beautiful place in the Shadowlands.” She smiled. “I could be biased.”
Carys couldn’t stop her smile. “Just a little bit.”
“It’s a beautiful place, but it’s simple. Very small community of ellyllon and humans. Lots of wild fae. The woods and valleys are thick with sprites and gnomes and all sorts of water spirits. The trees are old, and even the smallest willow tree has a fae spirit attached to it.”
“It sounds beautiful.”
“It is. And peaceful. Going to Temris was like another world. I thought, ‘This is what it must look like to see the sun’ because the magic of the city makes everything glow.”
“It sounds stunning.”
“Yes, it’s wondrous.” She shook her head. “Underground cities and gardens lit by magic. Libraries that are illuminated by sacred fire. Halls so vast you couldn’t see the end of them from the door you walked into. And power.” She shuddered. “So much power it was like the scent of lilac in spring. Power infused everything.”
“And that’s where you met Dru?”
“All this glowing architecture” —Naida smiled— “and right in the middle of all this light, there was this dark, brooding, sulky fae prince who looked like he’d been sucking on a turnip.”
Carys had such a clear mental picture she nearly laughed out loud. “Did you tell him that?”
“I don’t remember what I told him, but I had no idea who he was, and I simply thought he was spoiling the mood. I said something silly to try to get him to cheer up and then something rude when he scowled at me.”
“And he fell in love.”
“I fell in love,” Naida whispered. “And he fell in lust. Or maybe love. I don’t know. But eventually someone told me who he was, and thank the gods, I went home the next day.”
“Did he follow you?”
Naida looked at Carys from the side of her eye. “He pursued me all the way home, and when I told him that our lives were too different, he dug a mound in the middle of the valleys and sulked for nearly ten years.”
Carys blinked. “Ten years?”
“I was weak,” Naida muttered. “I never should have given in so quickly. As soon as I did, my life was turned upside down. Cian caused trouble for my mother. The farmers in the valleyhad problems with their crops, and the animals became sick.” She shook her head. “It was petty, but I understood. Dru and I are not meant to be together.”
“Says who?”
“The nobles of the aes sídhe. The rulers of his people.” She nodded at Dru’s fort. “The ones who will follow him to claim his throne from Cian would never accept me as queen, and that is why I am here and not in there.”
“Does he want you in there?”
“Yes.” Naida smiled a little bit. “But I know where I belong, Carys Morgan. And it’s not on a throne.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“The first thing you must do is hide the children.” Dru was hunched over, and he had never looked more inhuman. The fort where Carys and Cadell had been granted access was riven through with roots and vines that crawled down the muddy walls. Green ivy curled around the twisted roots that formed a kind of primitive throne beneath the earth.
The blue sigils on Dru’s face were darker now, and a circlet of shining silver ran around his forehead and through his tangled hair.
It must have been a trick of the eye or glamour, but from certain angles, it appeared that two large antlers grew from Dru’s head, not unlike the headdresses of the stag dancers they had seen at Anglian parties.
The round barrow was filled with the fae prince’s collection of wild fae courtiers. Tall fae, wary dark-eyed brownies, and various beasts with intelligent eyes. Owls perched along the vine-covered walls, and a blue fire burned in the center of the room.
Cadell spoke into Carys’s mind.You see his true nature now.
