Page 75 of The Shadow Path
Carys watched the slowly turning triple spiral that showed no signs of drifting or dissolving even while the wind picked up. “I’m going to have to agree with the dragon.”
Laura turned and faced Duncan and Lachlan on the far side of the fae mound. “I know you two may not like this answer, butI think it’s pretty clear that whatever it is we need to do to keep the peace here, Dru and Naida are going to be a part of it.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Godrik glared at the small fae woman and the willowy man with the bright blue sigils on his face. “I don’t like this.”
Dru, for his part, seemed unbothered. “Of course you don’t. My brother is the one who slaughtered the wolves of Ireland, and ancestral memory runs deep.”
“Dru has done nothing to you or your people,” Naida said. “Do you want us to examine the old fort or not?”
Carys, Duncan, Laura and the two fae had flown by coracle to Godrik’s home territory north of London. The hills were rolling and green, and large settlements crawled along the many rivers and inlets that led to the ocean.
There were sheep everywhere, along with large mills and modern but primitive factories. Cadell told her much of the wool fabric that was exported to the continent came from Godrik’s home territory, and Carys could see why.
It was a prosperous region dotted with forests, and they were standing in the middle of one. In front of them, a large, grass-covered mound rose up among the oaks and the yews, an old fae fort that Godrik claimed had changed the most over the previous year.
“This has to be at least twelve feet higher than it was a year ago,” Godrik said, still keeping one eye on Dru. “Before that? Not even the oldest wolf in our clan remembers fae here.”
“No.” Dru stepped closer, his eyes narrowing on the green mound. “The invaders built with stone and cut down trees.” He took off his leather boots and walked toward the mound. “You built great halls and wore shoes on sacred ground. Of course the old fae abandoned it.”
“We had people to feed and clothe,” Godrik said. “We can’t conjure riches by magic. Were we supposed to live in the mud? That’s what the fae want, isn’t it?”
“Not what I want, wolf.” Dru stared at the ground. “Fae are not a monolith any more than humans or wolves.”
To Carys’s eyes, the landscape around them was verdant and lush, but on closer inspection, she could see traces of humanity everywhere. Stone walls and willow fences. Cobbled highways and mill after mill after mill. If they were run by smoke and steam instead of waterwheels, there would be black smoke staining the air.
“This fort is old.” Naida bent down and dug her fingers into the soil. “It’s had time to rest. I feel new life here. Along with something very, very old.”
Cadell and Duncan stood at a distance speaking quietly while Laura and Carys walked with Naida.
“What has changed?” Dru sank his feet into the ground as he approached the mound, and as he walked, the grass grew up around his feet. It was the coolest and weirdest thing Carys had seen in a long time.
“The height, of course.” Godrik walked with him. “And strange plants we don’t normally see.”
Birds clustered around them, singing in a riot of song as they swooped through the air as if in celebration of the fae prince’s visit.
Naida waded into the brush next to the path and bent down. “This type of foxglove is unusual in Anglia.” She looked up. “Dru, did you see the blackthorns?”
“I did, my love.” Dru was looking at the ground, frowning at something he saw in the grass, when a small bright creature flew to his shoulder and alighted with a dreamy flash of gold wings.
“Hello there.” Dru smiled and angled his head to the side. “What’s that you want to tell me?”
“It’s a sprite,” Carys whispered to Laura. “See its wings? How they glow? Probably a tree sprite. They’re related to the water sprites we saw by the river.”
The small creature looked like a tiny fairy with a tuft of nut-brown hair, a body that appeared to be covered in leaves, and bright flashing wings that beat as quickly as a hummingbird’s.
It leaned up to Dru’s ear and whispered something that none of the rest of them could hear before it flew away as quickly as it had come.
Dru’s eyes followed the sprite as it disappeared into the trees, then spread his arms and held his hands out flat. “Humans and wolves, back away from the mound slowly.”
The fae man started backing away himself, but Godrik didn’t move.
“What?” the wolf asked. “What did that wild fae tell you?”
Carys heard Cadell’s voice in her mind.Nêrys, we should not be here.
“Cadell says we shouldn’t be here,” Carys whispered to Laura and Naida, who had joined them on the path.
