“A dragon, a wolf, and a fae walk into the Brightlands,” Godrik said.
Carys was waiting for the rest, but the wolf didn’t say anything else.
Duncan finally asked, “So what?”
“Nothing. That’s the joke. We cross into the Brightlands and we all become nothing but humans.”
Laura said, “That’s… not a very good joke.”
Naida nodded. “And every magical creature would agree with you.”
“Huh.” Laura pursed her lips. “Well, I still think being human is pretty great.”
“Thank you, Laura.” Duncan threw his arm around her shoulders. “I would agree with you as well.”
“I think that officially makes you my favorite Scotsman.”
“Good, ’cause I’m the one she’s keeping.”
Carys looked over her shoulder at Duncan, who winked at her.
They walked into Hyde Forest, off the main path and deeper into the dark and twisted old oaks. The ground was soft with new grass, and in the darkness, the nodding white heads of snowdrops sprang up between the trees.
A few moments after leaving the path, Naida led them through a dense patch of brush where a few scattered blue wisps floated in the trees overhead.
“We’re going through.” She turned to Carys. “You have to lead the way.”
Carys looked into a wall of greenery. “Lead where?”
“Just keep walking forward,” Naida said. “Follow the wisps.”
Follow the wisps. Ah yes, exactly what her mother had spent Carys’s childhood warning hernotto do.
“Following the wisps,” she muttered.
She felt Duncan take her hand, and she looked over her shoulder.
“I’m right there with you.” He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Whatever happens, I’ll be with you.”
Carys squeezed his hand, turned back to the pathway, and walked into the darkness.
The darkness pressed around her,and laughter echoed in the darkness.
It was Macha’s laughter. The laughter of the war goddess, the destroyer and the mother of crows.
There came a rustling of feathers all around her, as if a flock of crows were flying toward her and around her. For a moment she froze.
Nêrys.
She could still hear her dragon’s voice in her mind.
Yes?
Why did you say Ogwen Valley?
What?
Carys started walking again, focusing on Cadell’s voice in her mind as she pressed through the darkness.