I frowned, sliding a hand under Belis’s chin, feeling for a heartbeat. For a long moment I couldn’t find it, only the smooth skin of her throat. Then, weak and unsteady but dogged, a pulse pushed through her veins. I sagged in relief, leaning over to press my forehead to hers.
“She’s alive,” I sighed.
The old queen grinned through her spiked teeth and closed her eyes in relief.
“Excellent. Good job.” She sat down on the ground and stretched her hands. “Not a drop of magic left in me. We’d better hope the journey home is uneventful. Your girl is stronger than I thought. The magic in her blood was very powerful indeed. She would have been a great witch given training.”
I felt Belis’s breath on my cheek and her eyes fluttered open. “Is it done?” she said sleepily. I smiled at her.
“It’s done. You did it. Rest now.”
She grinned and closed her eyes again. I lifted her head into my lap and released a long breath. Rhiannon was staring out at the world around us. One of the sleeping mortals twitched, then sat up. I frowned at it and felt for my sword as the woman stood and began to walk towards us. She paused a few strides away and looked down at Rhiannon.
“I dreamed I was a monster,” she said, her voice dry from lack of use. “Lady Seneschal, it was not a dream, was it?”
Rhiannon shook her head. “You have been lost here for some years, but we came to bring you home. Will you stay with us a while?”
The woman smiled. “I think not, I am ready now.” She glanced at me and I thought I recognised her, just one of the many souls I had brought to Annwn. Her face relaxed when she saw mine and then she was gone, leaving nothing but a ripple in the wind where she had been standing.
Rhiannon muttered a few words of prayer and I nodded. A feeling of pride swept through me. I might not be the Nightshade any more but I had still helped this woman find peace. That was a good feeling. I looked down at Belis. Her eyes were closed. Perhaps that was something I could bring into whatever life I found next.
We rested for the whole day. Rhiannon brewed a potion to replenish some of Belis’s blood and made her drink the entire foul-tasting thing. She complained heartily but the colour came back into her cheeks almost at once and she insisted on standing up to see what we had done.
Rhiannon and I helped her to her feet and looked around us. More of the dead souls were standing now, wandering around and embracing each other. No others faded into the wind; these were smiling and talking, still full of energy.
“It looks as if hardly anything happened here,” Belis said, staring out at the plains
“Just as well. Those who wereshadowbittenhave been healed, they will forget their sickness as a bad dream. That is how they will go on until they are ready to pass.”
“I guess.” I bit my lip, trying to frame the emotions tangled up in my chest. “But if they forget about this then how will people know what we did?”
“They won’t,” said Belis. Rhiannon nodded.
“No songs will be sung, no stories whispered around bonfires. The three of us have saved the afterworld and all who reside in it. The old protections have been renewed and no one will ever know.”
I squirmed, uncomfortable with how this thought made me feel. It seemed incredibly selfish to say how much I had wanted to be a hero.
Rhiannon patted my arm.
“I’ll know, Mallt. And so will Arawn, and Belis here. Most importantly, you’ll know.” I found a weak smile and Rhiannon turned back to the east.
“We should leave. There’s a long walk ahead of us.”
Belis frowned. “Can’t yourushus? Now that this is all Annwn again?”
“I don’t have the energy left. I spent everything I had on the spell.”
I groaned. “So we have to walk all the way back?”
Rhiannon answered by setting off down the hill, into the waist-high grass that carpeted the slopes. Belis laughed.
“Come on, Mallt, I thought you enjoyed travelling! Or do you want me to carry you again?”
I wrinkled my nose and followed Rhiannon. Belis padded after me, humming to herself and twirling her spear. She seemed inan irritatingly good mood. I could understand it. We had beaten impossible odds and had merely to collect Cati’s soul from Arawn and head back to mortal Britain. I didn’t know why I was so on edge, why the sound of her singing grated on me. I felt a little awkward. I wanted to speak to her in private, but I couldn’t think of a reason to send Rhiannon away.
It took half a day for us to reach the western side of the rift. The wind still howled through the gap in the land.
“So this place didn’t mend?” Belis said, wrinkling her nose.
