“Hold!”
The blasts stopped as the three of them froze into place.
Again the woman appeared in the fire to stare at them maliciously. “What is it you do?”
“I’m crawling,” Blaise answered.
“Not you.” Her tone was irritable as she turned her gaze toward Varian. “Why are you protecting the woman?”
Yeah right, like he was going to answer that and get screwed again? How stupid did she think he was? “Why do you want to know?”
She shot a blast at him, but he deftly ducked it. Or so he thought. Instead of flying off, the fireball curled back and knocked him off his feet. He tried to rise, only to have another blast pin him to the ground and hold him there on his back. The fire burned on his armor but didn’t scorch or burn him. It merely held him in place.
“Why do they protect you?” she asked Merewyn.
“Because they gave me their word that they would do so, my lady. We’re fleeing from Morgen and her army.”
“An Adoni’s promise is worthless,” the Sylph queen spat at Merewyn.
Merewyn shook her head. “Varian’s isn’t, as you have seen for yourself. He has protected me, as he promised, even when it would have been best for him to abandon me.”
The fire petered out on his chest. Then another bit of it curled around him and lifted him to his feet. It did the same for Merewyn and Blaise. The only difference was that in the case of Merewyn, the fire coated her entire body yet didn’t burn or singe her.
The Sylph lowered herself from the top of the trees, down to the ground so that she could approach them. She passed a look first to Blaise, then pinned her fiery gaze on Varian. “You men owe your lives to a woman. I want you to remember that.”
“All men owe their lives to a woman,” Blaise said sincerely. “It’s only through our mothers that we’re born.”
The Sylph nodded in approval. “And it’s a wise man who realizes that.” She jerked her chin toward the path that led deeper into the valley. “Go in peace and remember to avoid still water.”
Before Varian could question her about that, she vanished. The fire around Merewyn went out completely. To his surprise, she remained on her feet.
Retrieving his sword and sheathing it, he went to her side. “Can you walk?”
Merewyn took a breath as she felt some of her queasiness subside. “My legs are still shaky, but they seem able to hold me now. I think she repaired my body.”
It was what Varian did next that shocked her even more than when he’d carried her. He held his arm out for her. Without thinking, she tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. He placed his strong, callused hand over hers. That gesture sent a wave of heat over her. No one had ever treated her with such regard. No one.
“Are you ready, Blaise?” he asked over his shoulder.
“I think so.”
Helping her walk, Varian again renewed their journey down the small path.
How very strange to her. She’d never walked like this with any man except for her father. There was something unsettling and at the same time invigorating about the sensation of having his subdued power beside her. There was really no reason for him to help her. Aye, he’d given her his word, but so few people followed through with their promises that she found his honor refreshing and precious.
An unfamiliar tenderness swept through her. It made her want to hug him close for being like this, but she knew better than to even try. Varian wasn’t the kind of man to be so emotional around. Even though he was an Adoni, he was extremely standoffish, which was another reason she was surprised he allowed her to touch him.
She glanced back to see Blaise trailing after them. He looked as tired as she felt, and his face was still swollen from their rough landing. Unable to believe what these two men had been through for her, she stopped.
Varian faced her with an arch stare. “Is something wrong?”
She shook her head as gratitude choked her. “Thank you, Varian.” She rose up on her tiptoes to kiss him on his grizzled cheek. Then she turned and did the same for Blaise. “And thank you, too. I owe you both everything.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Varian said, as if her gratitude made him uncomfortable. “We’re not out of the woods yet. Literally.”
Blaise snorted at his bad pun before he started singing, “Ain’t no valley low enough…”
Varian let out an anguished cry as he covered his ears. “Stop! Not that song. It’ll be going through my head for the rest of the day, and, no offense, I’d rather be chained to the wall and tortured by Morgen.”
When Blaise broke into another chorus of it, Varian shot his hand out. He grimaced as he realized it was futile. “I really resent the loss of my magick.”
Merewyn laughed at his childlike pout. “I’m sure Blaise doesn’t.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t, too,” Blaise said with a wicked smile. “Kind of damned glad he can’t blast me.”
“I could still skewer you though. Especially now that you’re worthless to me.”
Blaise threw his hand up to his heart. “Oh the pain of those words, you wound me, V.”
Varian scoffed. “I haven’t yet, but the day’s still young.”
Merewyn shook her head at their good-natured play.
As Varian started on his way, Merewyn returned to his side and placed her hand again on his arm. He didn’t protest as he led the way through the forest.
There was such an odd camaraderie between them. It’d been countless centuries since she last felt this kind of friendship. Since she’d seen people tease each other without malice or cruelty.
It was absolutely endearing.
They walked on for several hours without speaking while passing more of the black trees, some of which would erupt into flames without warning and for no apparent reason. But the eeriest part about the valley was that there were no animal sounds. It was so quiet that it was oppressive against her ears.
The path turned sharply to the right. She and Varian had only taken three steps when Blaise called out. “Wait. There’s water here.”
Varian released her arm to investigate it. It was a small pond with black water that didn’t ripple even though there was a fair breeze stirring around them.
“It’s still. We’d best leave it alone.”
Blaise looked doubtful. “I don’t know…do you really trust a woman who lives in a tree…one who tried to kill us? Maybe she was lying so that we’d die of thirst.”
“Maybe.” Varian picked up a stone from the side of the path and tossed it into the water. It exploded with a sound so loud that Merewyn had to bite back a shriek.
The rock rained down on them in a fine ash.
Varian gave him a smug look. “Or maybe she told us the truth, huh?”
Blaise brushed the ash from his hair and clothes. “Note to self, listen to women who live in trees, even if they do try to kill me.”
Merewyn stared at the water, which still hadn’t rippled even the slightest bit. The rock had never broken the surface. As soon as it’d touched the black water, it had violently disintegrated. “What do you think caused it to do that?”
Varian shrugged. “Most likely it was someone’s idea of a sick joke.”
She agreed completely. “That probably explains the lack of animals here.”
“Yeah,” Varian said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “Dipping your head down for a drink is one quick way to ruin Bambi’s day.”
Blaise frowned as he looked at them. “So what are we going to do for water?”
“Hope to find water that moves,” Merewyn said.
That didn’t placate the mandrake. “And if we don’t?”
It was Varian who answered. “We probably will die, but that’s not something I want to think about right now, Mary Sunshine. Shall we continue on our way?”
Blaise mocked him before he sobered and gave a heavy sigh. “How did I get myself into this? Oh wait, I didn’t. Merewyn dragged me into it. I was minding my own business
when she popped into my room and asked me for a favor.”
She pretended to be miffed at his teasing. “You could have said no.”
“And well I should have.”
Her mirth died as she heard something in the woods. “Sh…what’s that sound?”
They grew quiet to listen. It was a faint, almost indiscernible bell-like sound.
Varian pulled his sword out again as he cocked his head to listen for a moment. But it was Blaise who caught the direction and headed for it.
Merewyn held the hem of her gown up as she followed after him, with Varian only one step behind.
Blaise drew up so short that she actually walked into him. Frowning, she opened her mouth to ask why he’d stopped, then slammed it shut as she saw the obvious answer.
Hanging in the trees were the remains of several knights. It was the spur of one who was swinging against a tree that accounted for the small metallic sound.
Bile rose in Merewyn’s throat as she stumbled away from the ghastly sight. She’d never seen anything more revolting or disturbing. Varian caught her in his arms as she shuddered in horror.
“Cut them down,” Varian said in a thick voice.
Blaise hesitated. “I think we should leave them until we figure out what put them there, lest we join them.”
Releasing her, Varian stepped forward with a look of grim anger on his handsome face. “You don’t disrespect the dead. Cut them down or you will join them.”
Blaise exchanged a confused look with her before he moved to help Varian cut down the bodies. She held her hand to her nose in an effort to quell her queasiness. Some of the bodies were nothing more than bones, while others were still decomposing. She didn’t understand how Varian and Blaise could go near them without vomiting.
“Who were they?” she asked, trying not to look at the bodies for fear of being sick.
“There’s no telling,” Blaise said in a tone that told her he was having to fight his own nausea. “I don’t recognize the arms on any of them.”
Varian didn’t speak at all as he freed the men, then piled their bodies reverently for a pyre. There were sixteen of them in all.
“Do you think any of them were grail knights?” Merewyn asked.
Blaise caught one of the bodies that Varian cut down, then took him to the others. “I think some of the older ones might have been the original group who quested for it. But the newer ones…There’s no telling. Maybe they’re Morgen’s lovers.”
“Whoever they were, they were damned unfortunate,” Varian said.
Merewyn agreed. Poor men to be killed, then left to hang like this.
Blaise stood back as Varian added the last body to the pile. “You know we can’t bury them, V.”
“I know,” he said, his voice heavy with emotion. Varian went to one of the fyrebaums and broke a branch off.
She walked over to Blaise and together they stared at Varian, who appeared sad and tormented by the company of knights he’d freed from the oak trees. “Is he all right?” she asked Blaise in a low tone.
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen him like this before. Something about it disturbs him a lot more than it should. I mean, it’s gross, no doubt, and I feel sorry for the poor men. But there’s more to his mood than that.”
It took several minutes before one of the trees burst into flames. Varian held the branch until it caught fire, then he returned to the bodies so that he could burn them. The flames caught against the surcoat of the knight on top, then spread quickly to consume the others. It was a funeral ceremony very similar to the ones her Saxon brethren had practiced.
Merewyn watched as Varian whispered a small Adoni prayer for their souls. It was so strange having lived with the Adoni to see one so compassionate. Had she not witnessed it, she would never have believed it.
There was a heart inside Varian duFey. He wasn’t the cold-blooded killer that the stories spoke of. This was a man who felt deeply for others. Unlike his mother, he thought of more than his own selfish needs, and it made her want to hold him until his sadness passed.
“I hate to rush you,” Blaise said quietly. “But we should probably go before the fire draws unwanted attention to our location.”
Varian nodded before he tossed the branch onto the pyre, then turned to leave.
Merewyn hastened her steps to catch up to him, but she didn’t try to touch him. His stance was too rigid for that. He obviously wanted to be alone. “You look troubled, Varian.”
A muscle worked in his whiskered jaw. “Needless death always troubles me.”
His feelings didn’t make sense to her. They were at odds with his occupation. “But you’re an assassin for Merlin.”
“And those I kill are traitors who sacrifice innocent people to Morgen’s vanity and machinations. What I do, I do for the good of all. Trust me, the men I’ve killed were no loss to humanity. Not even the mothers who whelped them would mourn their passing.” His gaze was harsh as he met her quizzical stare. “But that doesn’t mean I like what I do.”
His tone touched her and made her ache for him. “I overheard you asking the bartender in Glastonbury about the grail knight the MODs killed.”
He nodded. “That’s why I was in Camelot. I wanted to know what he’d told them during his torture.”
She cringed as she remembered the poor man they had brought to Morgen in chains. Like Varian, he’d stood strong before them. At least at first. By the end of his torture, they had reduced him to a crying babe before they mercifully had ended his life. “He told them nothing.”
“That’s what the MODs told me, too.”
The color faded from Blaise’s cheeks. “There was a grail knight killed?”
Varian looked back at him. “Did you not know?”
“No. Who was it?”
“Tarynce of Essex. Merlin sent me to Glastonbury Abbey to return him to Avalon and find out who betrayed him to Morgen.” He narrowed his gaze on Blaise. “How is it he was killed in Camelot, and you didn’t know it?”
“The same way you were captured and tortured without my knowledge. Since I took off with Kerrigan, I’m not exactly on the list of people they trust.”
Merewyn grimaced as she thought of the brutal way Blaise had been treated since his return. None of Morgen’s court could stand him before he left. Since he’d returned, they were openly hostile and crude. “Why did you come back?”
“Merlin needed a spy.”
Varian snorted. “No offense, haven’t you been a bit inadequate since you never seem to know what’s going on?”
Blaise’s lavender eyes snapped with heated fury. “Shut up, Varian. Trust me, no one’s more upset by Tarynce’s death than I am.”
“So you say.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Varian paused to confront him on the trail. He turned around and faced the mandrake. “How do I know you’re not the one who betrayed him?”
By the look on his face, she half expected Blaise to shove or hit him. “You’re not serious with that bullshit.”
Still, Varian didn’t back down. There was so much tension between them that it was tangible and frightening. If they started fighting, there would be nothing she could do to stop them.
“Maybe I am.”
Seeking to diffuse their mutual anger, she spoke up quickly. “Blaise didn’t do it.”
Varian gave her an exasperated stare. “How do you know?”
“I know,” she said emphatically.
“And I’m just supposed to accept your word on it?”
She looked at Blaise. “Tell him what you are.”
He was petulant. “Why should I?”
And that just irritated her to the core of her being. Men! They were ever prideful, never wanting to back down from an argument. “You would withhold that from him when you know it would allow him to trust you?”
“Why not? If he doesn’t trust me without it, why should I tell him?”
Varian scowled at them. “Tell me wha
t?”
“Tell him, Blaise,” she insisted.
Varian glared at the mandrake, who remained sullenly silent. “Whatever.”
She growled at the mandrake. “Blaise!”
He let out a tired sigh before he relented. “I’m a grail knight, Varian.”
Varian came to a dead stop as those words went through him. Blaise was a grail knight? That didn’t make any sense. “What did you say?”
“You heard him,” Merewyn said. “It was how I knew he’d help me to free you.”
Blaise turned on her then. “My question is, how did you know what I was? You touched me right on my mark when you asked for my help.”
Her cheeks flushed becomingly before she answered. “I saw you bathing one day in the stream by the castle. I thought the mark was curious, but put it out of my mind until I saw them bring in Tarynce. They ripped his armor from his shoulder to show the mark to Morgen. It was then I knew what it meant.”
He appeared baffled by her actions. “Why didn’t you tell Morgen about me when you knew she would reward you greatly for that knowledge?”
“I told you. I don’t betray my friends.”
“But I’ve never been that friendly to you.”
It was true, he hadn’t. “No, but you were never cruel to me either. That’s the closest thing I’ve had to a friend since Narishka took me from my home.”
Varian shook his head at her words. How pathetic the two of them were that it took so little to touch them. That she would willingly hide Blaise’s identity because he’d merely treated her cordially.
It was a foolish thing he would do.
“How did Morgen learn about the mark in the first place?” Varian asked her.
“There was a knight who came to her one evening and explained the mark. I didn’t understand that it was the same as Blaise’s mark until I saw it for myself. That knight was the one who told her about Tarynce and where she could find him. He said that Tarynce could lead her to the location of the grail.”
Varian’s heart sped up at her words. “Who was this knight?”
“I don’t know. I’d never seen him before. He wasn’t one of the circle members who serve Morgen. Rather he was from the outside.”
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