Despite myself, I can’t help but smile at her terrible joke.
“Oh, Long Meg, can you forgive us…” Warden says and she holds up a hand, instantly stopping him mid-sentence.
“Cut the crap, Warden. This isn’t about me. It’s about that bloody Thegn you idiotically did business with. I was trying to reach you to tell you about it when you did your flit across the Underhill.” She fans herself. “And you’re a hard Brag to catch up with when you’ve other things on your mind.” Long Meg gives me a knowing look. “Brags love a bit of it,” she adds.
“So you weren’t trying to kill us…I mean me?” I query.
“Quite the opposite,” Long Meg says. “I mean, I accept the Underhill has a bit of a reputation, but that’s only to keep the riff-raff out.” She looks over her shoulder, and out of the dunes about half a dozen younger women appear. “I made this place as a sanctuary, and we don’t want any old witch, warlock, or monster getting in here.”
“I fully understand,” I respond. “Keeping out the undesirables is the way to a much happier life.”
“I knew you would get it,” Long Meg says. “But it’s a shame that damned Thegn couldn’t read the signs.” She gives Warden a sharp look.
“It has a list of wants, and it already has the amulet of Backworth,” I explain. “But I have this.” I lift up my amulet. “And given it tried to scare me, intimidate me, and then finally kidnap me, as well as taking Warden’s mortality, I think it’s about time the Thegn learnt a lesson or two.”
“A woman after my own heart,” Long Meg says cheerily. “If I had one, which I don’t because I’m a big old stone, but the sentiment is there.”
The women move closer to us, and I feel Warden tense.
“Don’t mind my daughters.” Long Meg laughs. “They’re not interested in you, Brag. They’re interested in Hazel.”
“How do you know my name?” I ask.
“I was there when Lord Soulis brought you through the portal from beyond the veil.” She gives Warden a glance. “Sometimes it is useful being a stone.”
“You were there with Lord Soulis?” Warden growls. “Why would you consort with the Faerie?”
“Hardly consorting, merely observing,” Long Meg says, drily. “When the Faerie had power, when they were actively taking humans from beyond the veil for their own ends, my daughters and I attempted to save them and, when we could, send them back, or at the very least, keep them from the clutches of the Faerie until such time as they could be returned.”
“And what about me?”
“You were different. Lord Soulis knew it immediately,” Long Meg says, fixing her bright blue gaze on me. “Few if any humans who come through the portal have any intrinsic magic, but you did. And he coveted it.”
I look at Warden who is growling under his breath.
“Lord Soulis is no more, his empire disbanded. I would know if he had any captive humans.”
“You wouldn’t know about Hazel.” Long Meg grins. “Because we made sure she was well out of his reach.”
“You took my memory.” My voice is hoarse, rasping in the misty air. “You put me in the Dark Gibbet.”
“Well done.” Long Meg smiles. “It was never meant to be permanent. You were the ideal candidate.”
Her words make me bristle. They make the sword at my side tingle.
“You mean I was the ideal way you could hide what needed to be hidden.” I touch the hilt and heat spikes through me. “You were using me,” I snap.
“She’s a clever little one, isn’t she, your mate.” Long Meg smiles at Warden, but now her smile is filled with sharp teeth. “Yes, we were using you, but only to be sure the Faerie got what they deserved.”
“Not right, Long Meg,” Warden growls. “Not the Yeavering way.”
“What is the Yeavering if it is not me?” she retorts. “And after all, you got your mate, and you get to deal with the Thegn you let into my kingdom, the one which double-crossed you.”
“Why?” I ask her. “Why me? Why Warden?”
“Oh, my sweet summer child.” Long Meg grows taller, her skin taking on a granite hue. “If you come to the Yeavering with magic in your veins, the Yeavering will always claim you for its own.”
HAZEL
