Page 237 of The Daughters of Avalon
Until such time as her mother returned to claim it, Cael d’Lucy was still lord of this demesne.
It was him, thank the gods!
By now, she recognized his footfalls—soft and sure, like a wolf on the prowl. Her heart skipped a beat, and she cursed herself for the weakness. Nearly every time she saw him, she waged a battle in her heart, one she would never, ever confess—it was true; she thought him beautiful, clever, and thoroughly impossible.
Unfortunately, whatever good she sensed in Cael d’Lucy, it was tempered by the fact that she knew him to be an agent for darkness—a scourge to England and Wales.
Indeed, he might well be respected in Stephen’s court, and perhaps even throughout Wales, but Cael d’Lucy was no less aservitor for darkness than the rest of her mother’s minions. And, in the end, he bowed, not to justice, nor to England’s King, but to a destroyer of realms.
Morwen.
Nay, she reminded herself,notMorwen.
Cerridwen.The Dark Goddess, the Shadow Crone, the Shapeshifter of Legend…
And now she was here; Rhiannon could feel it in her bones. It gave her a shiver.
What now, sweet fate?
There was so much she longed to say to her sisters.
Goddess only knew, whatever perfidy Morwen was planning, Blackwood was at the center of her plans. It was that cauldron, she realized—that holiest of grails. Life was born from its belly and Rhiannon knew intuitively that it was the cauldron Morwen wanted. But it was not so simple as taking it, else she would have done so long ago. King Stephen wasn’t so witless as to allow a great fortress to slip from his grasp. Instead of returning it to her family, he’d awarded it to the commander of his Rex Militum, and if Morwen tried to usurp it, he would mount an army to retake it.
No, her mother wasn’t stupid either. Rather, she meant for her daughter to take it for her. But no matter how Rhiannon felt about Cael, she would be damned if she’d allow Morwen to win this game—never would she take d’Lucy’s name!
But this was something she didn’t comprehend:Why?
Whywas Cael so indebted to her?
Whywas he so willing to turn a blind eye to all she did?
What precisely did her mother have to leverage over Cael?
Considering all these things, perhaps for the thousandth time, she fingered the etching on one of her manacles, still sharply inscribed no matter how many years had gone by…
Hic est Draco,
Ex undis,
Tenetur in argenteas
A capite ad calcem, tace, et sile
Here be the dragon,
From the waves of the sea,
Bound in silver,
From head to toe, silent and still
Rhiannon was notthedragon, but she wasaPendragon, and so it seemed that whatevermagikhad been imbued into the words, it was strong enough to endure.
The footsteps stopped abruptly in her antechamber. Ready to do battle, she spun to face the door, watching through the crack as her guards silently dispersed.
And there he was… lingering in the shadows, hesitating, and she knew why. After all they had professed, he fully intended to betray her at her mother’s behest.
“What are you waiting for?” she said acerbically.
