Page 90 of A Tale of Ice and Ash
Chapter Fourteen:
Into the Dark
When Eirwen woke the next day, someone was sitting beside her bunk, stroking her hair.
“Mama Gee?” Eirwen shifted upwards, hugging the blankets around her. Frost permeated the tent. “What are you doing here?”
Garnet smiled. “Onyx came to get me.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
It had been dark when they last spoke, and the cottage was not nearby. How long had he walked in the pitch blackness to bring Garnet to her side?
“Oh. He… he didn’t need to do that.”
Garnet patted her hand. “He thought he did. He told me... about what happened to your maid.”
“Niamh,” Eirwen whispered. “Her name was Niamh.”
“I’m sorry, darling. Do you want to want to talk about it?”
Eirwen shook her head, but repositioned herself to lie her head in Garnet’s lap. “Cole was there, too,” she swallowed painfully. “And I left him there. I think Niamh was more important to him than I knew. And he’s all alone up there…”
Alone like Niamh.
The memory of her pale face and bloodied body sliced through her, and rose up new waves of grief.
Niamh, Niamh, Niamh.
She let herself cry a little longer before getting up that morning.
∞∞∞
Garnet had bought Juniper and Ivy with her to the encampment. They ran about like puppies, questioning anything and everything, before Wren wrestled them into her makeshift armoury with the mission of sorting through their latest donations.
“Had someone bring a cartload of discarded bits from the palace,” she said gleefully. “Lots of rusted blades and leather armour, a few arm guards and shin pads.”
“Anything salvageable?”
“Armour’s a poor fit us, but there’s some that might fit you. And I’m sure Merry can rescue some of the blades.”
Onyx was sitting by the campfire, staring into the embers. Eirwen took the log beside him.
“What now?” she said.
Onyx poked the fire with the steel tip of his cane, his gaze unwavering. “We need to figure out how she controls the shades. Any attempt to try and take her by force with them at her beck and call… will not end well for us. We were lucky last time.”
It did not feel lucky, not to Eirwen. They had saved two and lost two. A poor exchange.
“We could attack during the day–”
Onyx shook his head. “You don’t think she’ll have allowed for that? She’ll haul herself up somewhere away from sunlight, somewhere they can protect her. We’ll never mount a force equal to the sheer number of the shades, not unless you inspire half the kingdom.”
Eirwen did not want to inspire half the kingdom. She did not want half the kingdom to die for her.
She inhaled carefully. “We need to go down Under the Mountain, don’t we? Find out where they’re coming from.”
