Page 60 of Witchlight
Cloud whinnied, and Dandelion’s tail flipped in a way that said,I don’t feel safe here.
“Me neither,” Safi croaked, and for several moments, she felt stronger. Clearer. She unsheathed her blade. It sang with such truth that for several seconds, it was the only sound she heard. An empowering echo that shivered inside her ear canals.
Another whinny, this time from Dandelion, and when Safi spun toward him, she spotted four figures rushing her way. They were dressed in gray, faces hidden behind scarves like her own, and they moved with the concerted strength of trained military. Gone was any attempt at quiet. Now they were coming for her.
Shit.She could not fight four soldiers. Even on a good day, those would not be odds for a betting woman like herself. And on a bad day? Hilarious to contemplate.
Safi dropped her blade and lifted her good hand. “I surrender!” she shouted. “I surrender. Take me to the Raider King.”
Aeduan’s worst fears had come to pass. He’d failed again, and now the consequences were so much worse.
He should have sensed the witches approaching. He should have killed that Windwitch before it could attack Iseult. He should have moved faster, thought faster, reacted better. And he should not have been born the son of the Raider King. It was that, above all else, that haunted him. Where had his father gone so wrong? Why had he, Aeduan, served his father for as long as he had without seeing it?
One need not be evil to become it.
Aeduan thrust all his power into Surefoot, pushing the mountain horse to speeds she could never sustain without his help. It was not a magic he used often, if he could help it. For one, animals’ blood was a challenge to control. The freedom in their bloods ran wild; it took twice the effort to manipulate an animal as a human.
For two …
Well, that same freedom sparkling and alive only ever served to remind Aeduan that what he did was wrong.Demon. Monster.
He thought of Boots.
He thought of crocodiles.
Then he squeezed the reins more tightly on Surefoot’s blood and told her where to go. She trusted Aeduan; she didn’t resist his magic and she didn’t resist the speed he pulsed into her muscles.
In some ways, it was good that he was on her back. It meant he hadto focus so completely on propelling Surefoot faster that he couldn’t look back or second-guess Iseult’s command.
No one followed him toward the forest.
He hadn’t thought they would. After all, Aeduan’s father wanted the Cahr Awen. His son was merely a disappointment who now stood in the way.
There was a part of him that wondered if he should try to return to his father again, claim he had been serving the cause this entire time. Then he could do the one thing Iseult so badly wanted to protect him from: he could kill his father.
Except going to Ragnor was not the command Iseult had given Aeduan, and Safi would die from her wound if Aeduan didn’t find her. His jaw ached. His knuckles too. He gripped Surefoot’s reins as if they were driftwood in a storm.Go after the light-bringer and keep her safe.That was all he had to do. He did not have to plan ahead. He didn’t have to debate whether he should be here or he should have followed Iseult instead.
I love you.Te varuje.
Why hadn’t he said the words in return? Why was he obeying her instead of chasing after?Coin and the cause, coin and the cause.She’d been right: he had no idea how to live without someone else to command him.
The forest ahead was a black haze across pale grass. Never had he seen trees look less welcoming. The storm that hung above siphoned all light. All life.
Distantly, he wonderedwhythis storm never broke.
At last, he and Surefoot reached the trees. The ground softened and flattened into a forested floodplain. The winds stopped their constant howl, and Aeduan was able to ease his control over Surefoot’s blood.
She slowed. Then stopped entirely.
Aeduan slung off her back, worried she might collapse. That he’d pushed her too hard, and it would be one more creature he had failed to save. But when he studied Surefoot’s face, he found her unharmed. Her breaths were overloud in the sudden silence of this forest, her eyes were wide and terrified… but she was all right.
She was all right.
Aeduan lifted his nose, forcing his magic to rise again. He wanted to reach for Iseult’s silver taler first—then he would reach for Safi’s blood. But that was when the six old wounds decided to awaken. Spasms of torture across his chest. He cried out. He slumped over, eyesight crossing and ears ringing. And the fire—theflames. They started in the wounds but didn’t stay there. They lanced outward like wildfires spread by wind.
He imagined he saw arrows with fletching poking from his ribs. He tried to grab one. To yank it out. But of course, there was nothing there.
Surefoot’s face butted into Aeduan’s. She snuffed; her hot breaths steamed. Slowly, the ringing receded. The pain and cold too.
