“My dear, I’ve always known how important you were.” She smiles, her eyes crinkling at the corners. “I’ve had a tracking spell on you from the moment we met.”
“Important? I’m not important. I’m just a human.”
“Oh, my sweet, you are so much more thanjust a human.”
Linton looks at me, runs a thumb over my cheek.
“You are my mate,” he says.
I wrap my arms back around him, holding him tight.
“Yes, Linton. I am.”
I am pleasedto have Linton back with me, even if it means he has a lid on his cuteness and is attempting to be angry to make up for what he clearly feels are his past failings. Gloriana has already accused him of having a sore head and that made him growl at her, sort of proving her point.
Having trailed us through the wood out onto a track and informing Linton in no uncertain terms we were not far enough from the stronghold for him to fly anywhere (which he wasn’t pleased about) and would have to walk, we’ve been walking for around three hours.
My feet ache, my back aches, and I’m dusty and dirty.
“Here we are,” Gloriana trills as she points to a small track, no greater than an animal track, off the main one.
“Where?” I ask wearily.
“The portal.”
“What portal?” Linton growls.
“The one which will take us back to Moranick,” Gloriana says.
“We can’t go back to Moranick,” I say, looking at Linton who has taken on an impressive glower, his wings shivering and scales falling from him. “If Tam Lin found me there once, he’ll find me there again.”
“But this time we’ll be ready, and this one”—Gloriana points at Linton—“will be able to do his job properly.”
“I already did my job,” Linton grumbles.
“What do you mean?”
“This one was supposed to protect you. That’s the reason he’s been hanging around, even before Lord Guyzance met his end.” Gloriana chuckles. “He already had his instructions, from Long Meg herself, the centre of all the resistance here in the Yeavering.”
I gaze at the woman I shared my life with up until recently. She’s always been a wily one, but now I’m seeing a whole new side to her.
“You are a jewel, my sweet. Tam Lin needs you to pay the tithe to hell and gain power over the Yeavering and that’s why he sent this Bluecap.”
“Is this true?” I look at Linton. His entire body is vibrating.
“I don’t know,” he says, teeth gritted. “Things are…scrambled.” He puts the heel of his hand against his forehead. “My head…it doesn’t work right sometimes.”
I glare at Gloriana. “This is intolerable. Why is Linton being used in this way?”
“The resistance didn’t expect the Brag to take him to the brothers. Once he was in the stronghold, they were powerless to stop the charms instilled within him to repress his memories and to make him into an assassin in the outside world.”
“They lost control?”
She sighs deeply. “They did, it’s the reason I’m here, to make sure one way or the other you got out of the stronghold.”
Gloriana takes hold of my hand, staring into my eyes.
“All I wanted was for you to be happy and safe.” She sighs. “And finding out Long Meg chose you and by such choosing ending the Faerie rule here in the Yeavering would become a reality. But to do so, they needed a creature capable of being on both sides as well as some bait to draw them out.” She gestures to Linton and to me. “He has to perform his true purpose, one of keeping youfromTam Lin, not delivering you to him. And you were to provide the reason Tam Lin would draw close. If we go back to Moranick, you can find out so much more.”
