“Well, that’s offensive,” Reyna muttered, wiping the blood from her sword against her downed opponent’s gloved hand.
Nollaig chuckled.
“You sound like you wish he’d sent more of them,” Tarrah whispered, her cheeks drained of all color.
“Reyna enjoys stabbing things,” Lorcan said, turning back toward the fallen warriors. “This paints a terrible portrait indeed. My father wants us all dead.”
“Could they have been lying?” Reyna asked.
“I don’t think so. He never intended for us to make it to Inishfall.” Lorcan’s hands fisted as anger roiled through him. “He sent us to our deaths.”
“Either he’s so mad he doesn’t know his own name…or his trust in me has finally failed,” Nollaig said quietly.
“It is a combination of the two,” Tarrah replied. “He truly has gone mad. I am certain of it. A darkness has twisted his mind. But…lately, you’ve done little to hide your scorn for him, Nollaig. He may be mad, but he’s clever, too. He will not have missed it.”
“It has never mattered before. I—” Nollaig fell silent.
“Nollaig, for fuck’s sake, tell us who you are,” Reyna insisted.
“Another time, Shieldmaiden.”
Reyna’s sigh was one of frustration, one Lorcan felt in his very bones. He’d known Nollaig for a very long time, and she had not once let her mask slip. Who she was under that cloak no one knew. No one except perhaps the king. It was odd. Lorcan trusted her with his life but he didn’t know one thing about her. Only her name.
“Does this mean we’re turning back?” Tarrah asked, the question Lorcan knew was on the mind of every member of this godforsaken party.
“Absolutely not,” Reyna said fiercely. “We didn’t come all this way to give up when we’re only half a day’s walk from the portal.”
“Reyna,” Lorcan said gently. “If there was ever proof my father was lying, this is it. He didn’t send us here to find a way to stop the Ruin. He sent us here so we could die. Quietly, without any witnesses, far from the castle walls.”
“He’s right,” Nollaig said. “He may be king, but we have allies inside that castle who would have tried to stop our execution. Segonax, for one, would never stand for it. And there are others. Warriors who witnessed you rushing into the storm to save their lives. The fae of Findius have seen their prince and his beloved fight for them. They will not soon forget that.”
Reyna’s voice trembled when she spoke. “This is not an invention of his own twisted mind. He might have sent us off to die, but Inishfall, it’s real. Isn’t it, Tarrah?”
“There is a great power there,” Tarrah whispered. “It’s true. But it is also a dangerous one.”
Lorcan frowned, but Reyna was not quite done yet.
“The High King planned to murder us here on the mountain. Inishfall itself is not the trap, so we don’t need to worry about going through to the other side.” She stepped up to Lorcan, wrapped her soft hands around his, and peered up at him with so much hope and conviction that he could not help but bend. “We are so close. Can we not just see what’s in there? If it turns out to be nothing, then we can leave. It is as simple as that.”
Lorcan sighed. “You are going to be the death of me, Reyna Darragh.”
Her smile was as bright as the stars.
38
Reyna
The portal to Inishfall was located deep within a cavern that cut through the core of Cinder Ridge. In the deepening darkness, fireflies darted overhead, the cavern walls looming so high that Reyna could not spot the top of them. Moss carpeted the ground beneath their feet, and a strange seductive scent filled the air, one of life.
“Well,” Nollaig said sharply, as they came to a stop at the edge of a deep well, one that formed a pool from the gush of water sprouting from the black stone itself. Flickering green light shimmered in the waterfall. Where the waterfall met the pool, there was a sound like ahush.
“How in the name of the Dagda is there a waterfall in the middle of the barren shadow lands?” Reyna asked in awe. She had never before seen anything like it. There were no falls in the Ice Court. The waters froze too quickly there.
“Magic,” Tarrah said, stating the obvious. “You see now. Thereisa power here. It’s just as my vision said.”
Lorcan gave Tarrah a sharp look. “I thought you were done with your visions.”
“I am.” She frowned. “Some of them have been true though, my prince. That’s why I don’t understand why some have also been wrong.”
