Until I can look into his eyes and understand what we are to each other.
I swallow hard and nod. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“You can get yourself safely across that river,” he says roughly. “Because if you fall into it, I’m afraid I’ll have no choice but to go in after you.”
“Where you go, I go,” I murmur, my chest tightening painfully.
His hand grips mine. “Where you go, I go, even if it’s into darkness.”
37
The convoy waits in tense silence. Even the horses seem to sense the danger, stamping nervously against the rocky bank. If not for the roar of the river, the anticipation would be deafening.
Taliesin kneels at the edge of the rapids and skims his knuckles across the water.
Almost instantly, frost blooms outward beneath his touch. Ice races across the river in twisting veins, spreading like creeping vines over stone.The temperature plummets around us, cold enough to burn.The forming bridge groans, then cracks violently as the rapids hurl themselves against it.
Gasps ripple through the convoy behind us. But Taliesin grits his teeth and forces the ice outward again.
The river fights him every inch of the way, smashing against the forming bridge hard enough to send sprays of freezing mist into the air.Ice and water battle for dominance.But the ice begins to win, pushing back the current until it stretches across the divide between the banks.
Taliesin closes his eyes. Sweat beads along his brow despite the cold. The ice thickens and widens and roots itself deep into the riverbed.
“Go,” he croaks out, the word nearly swallowed by the crackle of the ice and the relentless churn of the river battering against it like a war hammer.
I lurch to my feet and turn toward Rhian. “Go.”
“No,” Taliesin grunts immediately. “You first.”
“Taliesin, I—”
“You fucking first, Angharad.” He plunges his hand deeper into the ice, and a violent crack splits across the surface before sealing itself again.His entire arm trembles from the effort.“Stop distracting me and go.”
“Just do it,” Rhian says gently, placing a hand on my back to urge me forward. “It’s fine. We’ll be right behind you.”
I frown. I don’t like this. The harp is more important and should clearly go first. But one look at Taliesin’s strained expression, and I can tell there’s no point arguing.
I step onto the ice carefully, every muscle in my body tightening to a brittle point. The bridge shudders beneath my boots. Cold bites through the leather soles and climbs straight into my bones. Beneath the cloudy surface, dark water churns and crashes like a storm.
I force myself not to look at it for too long.
Instead, I stare ahead at the opposite bank and move forward one small step at a time, arms held out for balance. Water hammers against the ice hard enough to send shivers travelling up through my legs.
Behind me, the convoy springs into action. Rhian’s voice cuts through the noise, directing people into position while the harp’s wagon slides onto the bridge first. The wheels creak against the ice. The horses whinny, their hooves scraping and slipping as they’re coaxed forward.
Then the bridge releases an almightycrack. Heart lurching, I glance back before I can stop myself.
Taliesin is still kneeling at the riverbank with one hand thrust deep into the ice, his head bowed. Frost has crawled up the length of his arm now, tracing white patterns across the dark fabric of his sleeve. Every few seconds, fractures burst across the bridge, only to freeze over again beneath the force of his magic.
“Keep moving!” Rhian bellows at me.
Clenching my teeth, I turn and move on.
The farther out I get, the more exposed I feel, suspended over all that violent water with nothing but Taliesin’s willpower holding the bridge together. Mist lashes against my face, and my fingers ache with cold.
The wagon inches painfully slowly across behind me.
I swallow around the lump in my throat and force myself onward until my boots finally scrape against dirt instead of ice. I stumble onto the riverbank.
