Page 139 of The Shadow Path
“Hello?”Carys walked toward the rider, who turned away and disappeared behind a rise in the hillside where a white chalk outline of a horse marked the beginning of Saris Plain.
She walked up and over the hill, but by the time she reached the top, the horse and the rider were gone and the plain filled her field of vision, empty save for a herd of wild horses that grazed among the grass.
“What do you think?”
Carys turned to the right to see the woman with long wavy hair standing next to her.
“I’m dreaming again.”
“This time you are not.” Rhiannon smiled a little bit. “I simply wanted to show you the plain as it looked before you were born.” She spread out her arms. “The plain as it should be. Isn’t it beautiful?”
The long golden grass waved in the breeze, and while there was no sun shining, the air around them was warm and the light bright.
“It’s beautiful.” Carys turned to her. “Why are you here?”
“You were wondering why the fae prince came to this place,” Rhiannon said. “You were wondering why Aine’s son chose Saris Plain.”
“Yes.”
“Because more than just the fae prince waits. More than Elatha’s son is hungry for power,” the horse goddess said. She bent to Carys’s ear and whispered, “You must not let them spill blood on Saris Plain.”
Carys blinkedand the woman was gone. In the distance, Cadell waited for her, and Duncan was calling her name.
“Carys, where are you wandering off to?” The blacksmith hiked behind her. “Dru’s back and we should?—”
“We shouldn’t spill blood on Saris Plain,” Carys said. “She told me not to.”
“Who?”
Carys closed her eyes and tried to remember her face. “I don’t… I can’t remember the details, but I’ve seen her before. In London.”
“Your mother’s Brightkin?”
Carys shook her head. “No, not her.”
You must not let them spill blood on Saris Plain.
“We shouldn’t fight here,” Carys murmured. “There’s something about this place.”
“We shouldn’t fight anywhere,” Duncan said. “Andyou’renot going to. Dru may be determined to go to war with his brother, but that fight is not yours.”
You must not let them spill blood on Saris Plain.
“You’ve got stab marks in your shoulder” —Duncan was still yelling— “and your face is slashed.”
He touched her cheek, and Carys was surprised when his hand came away bloody. She hadn’t even felt it. “That wound is going to get infected. Imps are nasty creatures, Carys. We’re going back to London. This has gone far enough.”
You must not let them spill blood on Saris Plain.
Carys staredacross the swiftly passing landscape of Southern Anglia as Cadell flew them back to London.
Duncan was fuming.
Cadell was silent.
Dru was staring at her.
“What did the horse goddess say?” he finally asked.
