Page 84 of Broken Veil
Before he could enter the circle of light, Angus put a hand on Duncan’s shoulder and yanked him back. “Not for you, Brightkin. Your brother has accepted this challenge. The old laws demand that he finish it before another can face the Green Man.”
Duncan paced, raking a gloved hand through his hair, the axe swinging uselessly at his side.
Though the Green Man had appeared sluggish before, he now possessed preternatural speed, blocking Lachlan’s every strike so smoothly he hardly appeared to be moving at all.
It was as if Lachlan was fighting a statue, only every time Carys blinked, that statue was in a different defensive position.
Laura ran to her. “Does Lachlan have a death wish or something?”
“I don’t know.” Carys’s heart was racing. “Maybe.”
It was the last thing she would have thought three days ago, but three days ago Lachlan didn’t know his wife existed in the otherworld, that she’d been taken to Annwn where warriors who died in battle sometimes wound up.
Oh Lachlan.
Cadell was circling the duel, his body moving in a reptilian crouch as the fire at his throat grew hotter and brighter.Nêrys, what is this place?
Carys looked around as Lachlan and the Green Man continued to fight. “Angus called it a pocket world.”
Indeed, though the forest around them looked like any forest in any place, the air itself was laden with power.
When Carys looked at Laura again, she saw the tattooed lines on her friend’s chin were visible, as if the magic of this pocket world had soaked into her very skin.
Carys looked down at her own hands and saw faint lines along her fingers, the tips of which appeared to have been dipped in blue ink.
Her mind flashed to her mother’s hands.
Her hands. Her mother’s hands.
Blue lines tracing down the center of her fingers.
Were her mother’s hands tattooed?
She could no longer remember her face. When she thought of Tegan’s face, another layered over it, a mirror image of herself.
…here. What is he doing? What did you let him do?
A familiar voice was whispering furiously in her mind again.
Carys answered without a second though.I didn’tlethim do anything. He just charged in!
Such a damned fool.
Lachlan spun around, trying to surprise the old god, but the moment he spun, the Green Man shifted and was already blocking the prince’s blow.
…the best dualist in Alba.
What?Carys frowned, trying to focus on the voice.
He thinks he’s the best dualist in Alba.
Is he?
Perhaps.
Cadell stood straight and threw his shoulders back. “Seren?” He scanned the tops of the trees, took a massive breath. “Seren?”
Lachlan’s attention was caught, and he stumbled, looking at Cadell.
