The witch queen had appeared beside him, the pleasure of the dancing already leaching from her face.
“A breach, along the border. Luc says they’ve tricked it into the canyon but it won’t stay there for long.”
Rhiannon nodded. “What kind of breach? I can be there by daybreak.” Arawn shook his head, and I was shocked to see fear creeping into his eyes.
“It is beyond any of us. Come, let’s get somewhere we can talk more privately.”
Arawn and Rhiannon strode quickly away, the revellers parting before them like a bow wave. I grabbed Belis’s hand and tried to follow. The dancers were less eager to get out of our way and by the time we had broken free Arawn had vanished from view. I looked around, trying to see where they might have gone. Belis tugged at my hand.
“Over there.”
I spun to see Rhiannon vanishing beneath the fronds of a weeping willow. We hurried after them, slipping between the trailing branches.
Arawn sat on an upturned log, his left hand gripping the long scythe he had been wielding when we had met him in the fields. It seemed sharper now, cleaned of the chaff of the harvest, more a weapon than a tool. Beside him Rhiannon was peering into a pool of water at the foot of the willow’s trunk. The messenger was gulping down a mugful of something.
“I can’t see it,” Rhiannon said, bringing her face so close to the water that her nose almost touched the surface. “The corruption must be hiding it from me.”
Arawn ground his teeth.
“Try again, try to see the path of where it was. That should help us a little.”
“It cut quite the swathe of destruction,” Luc interrupted, putting down his cup. “I’ve never seen anything like it. When it flew it almost blotted out the sun.”
“It flew?” Belis said, then put her hand over her mouth. The others turned to look at her, seemingly just noticing that we had followed them. “There’s trouble at the canyon, isn’t there, Arawn? Tell us what’s happening, we’ve earned the right!”
Rhiannon’s nostrils flared and she half rose but Arawn waved a hand.
“Go back to your scrying.”
Arawn rubbed his forehead. “This beast on the borders, Luc, thisshadowbittenmonster, tell our guests what form it has taken. What horror has befallen one of my charges.”
The messenger looked startled to be called upon. “My lord?” Arawn nodded at him. “Theshadowbittenhas taken the form of a great white wyrm. A fire drake, winged and sulphurous. It crossed over from the shadow side of the rift and has been tormenting the surrounding lands.”
A dragon. I had never much taken to the beasts, though they were common enough in the wilder parts of the island. Vicious, smelly creatures which had occasionally chased us away from their lairs when I had ventured close enough to retrieve the souls of their prey. I had no wish to repeat the experience in this human form.
Belis nodded, not even flinching. “A dragon. So we must drive it back or defeat it.”
“You say it like it would be an easy task,” Arawn said. “The drake is only a symptom of the problem. Of the poison. As long as it infects the land such creatures will continue to be twisted from the souls of the dead. Even should you succeed againstthis dragon we cannot hold out forever. More and more will come.”
“We’ve a better chance than you,” Belis retorted. “I’m willing to try. Maybe if we buy more time then one of the high fae will notice.”
“I have a different suggestion,” Rhiannon said.
“No,” said Arawn. He stood up, leaning his scythe against the tree trunk. “I know what you want to do. It is too soon. You have only just returned to us.”
“The dragon is a worrying development. We cannot leave this problem much longer. Instead of going in numbers we should slip into the shadowlands, make for the centre and see if we can cure whatever is causing it once and for all.”
Belis narrowed her eyes. “Why have you never tried it before?”
“We have,” rumbled Arawn. “No one has made it more than a league across the canyon before being corrupted or overrun. There are simply too many of theshadowbittenand my own powers are useless against those I am sworn to protect. Rhiannon has never been strong in martial magic. I doubt you’ll have better luck.”
“I think we could, Arawn.” Rhiannon moved in front of him. “You’ve seen the bramble field. I think they can cut down theshadowbitten, just like mortals in the living world can. No other guards you could send can resist the corruption.”
She knelt down and sketched another rough map in the sand. She built a mound of dirt and tipped over her scrying bowl so that the water formed a moat around it.
“Here, this is the point where the poison first started. If Belis can get me there then I can break us free of it.”
“Just you and Belis?” Arawn folded his arms. “I don’t like it.”
