Una listened, enraptured by the story. She knew that Merlin had some magical abilities, that he was one of the few men in the world known for his enchantments. But this was something else. She didn’t expect such a description from Brit, this woman who went out of her way to disrespect the male knights around her, to jump at the chance of proving herself stronger, to hunt down the one man who she saw as a threat to her future. She spoke of Merlin with genuine respect, almost reverence.
“What did he say?” asked George, his voice soft.
Brit seemed lost in another world, her eyes staring ahead, so much so that she didn’t even bother to tell George off for speaking.
“I knew who he was, though he told me his name anyway. He asked why I had come. I told him the anguish I had carried ever since seeing the man in the mirror. I asked him to comfort me, to tell me that the fate in the mirror was false.”
She broke off for a moment, a strong emotion in her eye, though Una wasn’t sure if it was anger or pain.
“He told me that he could not help me. He told me that the mirror showed us destinies ordained by the Hand of God, though he did not say which god, and I did not ask. He said that I should be glad to have Artegall, that through us would come a line of great kings, kings that would rule over these islands long after we die.”
Una glanced at George, and they both knew what each other was thinking. Artegall was a Saxon, and Brit was from Armorica. If their descendants were destined to rule over the isles, what did that mean for the Britons? Would they lose the war against the Saxon invaders? Perhaps it was in their best interest to keep Brit’s visions from coming true like she wanted, if only to spare themselves from invasion. But what if Merlin’s words were true?
Una didn’t like the idea of destiny. It made her feel like a puppet, manipulated by forces outside of her control. That was why she held little love for the Faerie Queen, who had manipulated her from the start, even before Una knew of her existence.
She wasn’t about to kill an innocent person to keep a prophecy from coming true like Brit appeared to be, but she could support her decision to fight against that prophecy in other ways.
Brit wiped at her nose. “I got angry, I told him that no one should control my fate like that, not even the gods. I told him that I would find this man and kill him, if it was the last thing I did. I would prove that I am not a slave to strange visions.”
“And what did he say to that?” asked Una.
“He only smiled. Not a cruel smile. He smiled as a father might do when his daughter is hurting. Partly to comfort, partly to mourn with her. Then he simply waved a hand and he disappeared from my sight. The next moment I awoke on the ground next to Glauce. She thought I must have dreamed all of it, but I knew I had not. We left and I sent Glauce back to our lands. Then I set out again to find Artegall.”
“How long ago was this?” asked George, his voice somewhat reverent.
“Nearly three months,” said Brit, her face stony. “I have been traveling alone for most of that time.”
“I’m sorry for your pain,” said George. Brit did not respond, neither to reprimand him nor to thank him for his empathy.
They rode in silence for the rest of the day, but Una’s mind was anything but silent. Set aside all talk of fate and destiny, which was a mind-turner under any circumstances, but the way in which Brit had described Merlin made her all the more certain that she needed to find the man. Perhaps she could convince Brit to go back, or if she wouldn’t, Una could go on alone. She was absolutely certain now that Merlin knew something of the old blood and its magic. If she could speak to him, he would give her answers.
Though she was also troubled by Brit’s story. From the way she described Merlin, he almost reminded Una of the Faerie Queen. Too cryptic and unhelpful. Though he had revealed what he knew of Brit’s relationship with Artegall. He didn’t hold anything back. The answer had just not been what Brit wanted. Una was prepared for an answer she wouldn’t like. She just wanted an answer, any answer.
The river Nene had begun to widen, which meant they were nearer its outlet, but it grew late enough that they decided to continue on in the morning. Though they had left the forested area, there were still a few trees scattered throughout the region that they found one large enough to hold both horses.
So far they had encountered no one apart from a few Saxon farmers, which strangely took some getting used to. Sometimes Una forgot that the Saxons weren’t all warriors. They weren’t invading the islands just to pillage and burn. They wanted land. That was the reason they first came several generations ago, because they needed land and it was promised to them.
Those thoughts occupied her mind as they set to work building a fire and making camp. In the morning they would soon find the coast and could set to work trying to find this cave that supposedly marked a former tear to the Otherworld, and Wrath’s current location. Odd that they would be searching for one of the Sins in a cave just as Brit had done when looking for Merlin.
Una’s dreams that night were not pleasant. Too often they led to that same dream she’d had so many times before, involving a multi-headed beast that, more often than not, bore her face on every head, or great horns and skulls like a deer’s. The dreams had grown stronger of late, and she was reasonably certain they would only worsen until the Sins were eradicated.
That was why she had to stay close to Brit and hold from searching for Merlin, at least for now. They needed to stop the Sins, and if that meant following the Faerie Queen’s advice, Una would do it, even if she hated doing so.
12
Something stirred Una awake, and she blinked her eyes open to find that dawn had begun to creep in. But the sky was overcast and only a pale light lay over the hill where they lay.
Rubbing her eyes, she rose to a sitting position. Something had brought her to consciousness. Brit was still sleeping on her side of the dead fire. But George was no longer there.
For a moment, Una panicked, supposing that George had left without telling her. He wouldn’t do that. Maybe the Faerie Queen took him away. She would do that. She twisted her head in all directions to search, but her fears were quickly put at ease when she spotted him about a hundred yards off, staring out towards the river. There was a sad, melancholy air about him. She must have made some noise, for he turned to look back at her, and she saw something stir in his eyes, a regret.
Oh no.
She quickly rose off the ground and made her way to his side, doing her best not to wake Brit.
“You had a dream last night, didn’t you?” she said in a hushed tone as she drew closer to George.
He nodded, his eyes stubbornly not blinking. “I am sorry.”
“We only just met up with each other. I thought maybe the Faerie Queen was sending you on this quest with us.”
“I thought that too, but it appears you were only meant to rescue me. She tells me that my next assignment will come soon, and that I’m needed back in the Forest of Arden with her.”
Una scowled and turned away from George. “This...this isn’t fair.”
“I know it seems that way,” he said. “But once all this is over, once the Sins are gone, we will have moments to rest, moments together.”
“Do you really believe that?” she said, turning back towards him. “Even assuming that we both live long enough for that to happen, do you think the Faerie Queen will simply let us be together. There will always be young women trapped by bandits, or boys drowning in rivers.”
He seemed to hesitate. “I...don’t know,” he said, finally. “But this is the most pressing matter at hand.”
“I don’t think she will let us,” continued Una. “You know as well as I do that there is something different about me and the Faerie Queen knows more than she’s telling.”
“She promised to tell you if she discovered anything related to your parentage.”
“More lies,” said Una. “Or if not lies, then at least she suspects something and won’t tell me.”
“Would you rather have her tell you something she suspects but may not be true?”
“Yes, George!” she exclaimed, forgetting to lower her voice for Brit’s sake. “I want to know everything she suspects, everything she knows. Then maybe, I wouldn’t feel like a fish floundering on a dry shore.”
George remained silent for a moment but stepped closer so he could put an arm around her. “I’m sorry. But I have no doubt that all will be revealed in time.”
Una set her jaw. There would be no convincing George to stay with her, not when he was so devoted to his oath. “When you next meet her, you have to promise me one thing.”
“Yes?”
“Try to learn all you can. When she appears in my dreams she won’t give me a straight answer, and she can simply leave before I can demand one. But if you see her in person, ask her for some explanation. We need her to tell us what she knows. We can’t keep fighting this war for her without a greater understanding of where all the pieces are.”
“I will see what she says,” said George. “But I cannot promise she will say anything.”
“I know,” said Una, relaxing her shoulders a little. “I just need...she won’t listen to me.”
“Alright, I will see what I can do. But I must be going.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. When she calls I cannot delay.”
He leaned down and tilted her chin upward for a kiss. She leaned into it, knowing it would be their last kiss for a while. She had almost been of a mind to forgive Gloriana somewhat since she had brought her and George together again. But now that forgiveness may have been hastily given. They had not even enjoyed two full days together.
Once again, she thought of abandoning the quest entirely, of going off on her own to seek Merlin. But even as she thought it, she remembered Wrath and the way in which Brit had reacted in Malecasta’s castle. She was now fairly certain that the Faerie Queen had assigned her to Brit for a good reason, even if that very thought rankled her a bit. She didn’t like the idea of the Faerie Queen being right, but she could not deny the Sins were worse threats. She would have to stay with Brit for now, but only until Wrath was defeated. Una’s magic was still considerable. If she faced him directly, she had no doubt that she could take him on as an equal if not a superior.
George stepped away then, leaving her and Brit alone. Brit didn’t rise for another hour, only to find Una poking a stick lazily in the dead fire. The Armorican woman looked this way and that for George, but eventually noticed that Pegasus was gone as well.
“The tall knight left?” she asked Una.
Una nodded. “He was given other business by the Faerie Queen.”
Brit didn’t seem to mind much. She pushed herself to her feet and brushed herself off. “It is too bad. He was rather skilled in battle, even if I had to save him from those men myself.”
Una fought down a smile. Yes, George was gone now, and so was Guyon. But Brit wasn’t exactly a boring travel companion. She kept things interesting, that was certain.
Una stood as well. “I assume we continue on to the coast now?”
“Yes,” said Brit while collecting her things. “We will look for this cave the lady Malecasta spoke of. Once we find it, we defeat this Sin of Wrath and I can go back to searching for Artegall.”
“I’m not sure it will be that easy,” said Una, kicking the fire pit to spread the ashes and extinguish any last remaining embers.
“Plans are always easy,” said Brit. “Execution is the hard part. But I am a master of execution.”
As they set out together, Una wondered idly if Brit had made a play on words.
They didn’t travel for long before they crested a hill and came into sight of the coast. It was different from the rocky coasts of Anglesey. This was a more gradual, sandy coast that seemed to stretch for some distance, covered in some areas by tall grasses that even appeared to extend into the water at times. She knew from the geography she’d studied as a child that this area was a large bay of sorts, with at least three rivers that emptied into it. At least, that was according to the maps she knew.
To the south she spotted smoke, and there were increasing signs of civilization in that direction. That would be a Saxon village. With a bay like this one on the eastern shores, and access to more than one river, this area would be considered a prime location for the Saxons. She had no doubt that if they kept to the shore, they would run into an encampment of some kind here. Certainly, there would be several rural settlements. But they were likely to find some military outposts as well. They would have to remain on their guard.
“There is not much room in this place for a cave,” remarked Brit. And she was right. Una might have expected a cave on the southern or western shores of Britain, but the beaches here were smooth, devoid of the rocky terrain she had grown used to in Anglesey.
“We can’t assume that this cave will be what we expect,” said Una, gazing along the coastline. “The term could be figurative instead of literal. It would fit with what we know of the Shadow Realm.”
“Yes, you mentioned this before. What is this Shadow Realm?”
“It’s something like a pocket of the Otherworld, or a space between that world and ours. Guyon went there once and encountered one of the Sins there. They can travel into the Shadow Realm freely wherever there was once a tear in the Otherworld. What’s worse, once there they can travel quickly to any other location of a former tear. That means they could travel across the isles in less than a day.”
“This would give them a great advantage,” remarked Brit.
Una nodded, “It does.”
“Can we not harness this power for ourselves as well? Or perhaps this Faerie Queen could do it.”
Una thought on that. She’d never really considered the idea of using the Shadow Realm for themselves. Most people probably couldn’t use it, only those with magic. But she had managed to speak to Guyon in the Shadow Realm from this reality. It probably wasn’t much more effort to actually enter it herself. The Faerie Queen could probably do it too. In fact, anyone with some ability in magic could probably enter. It was something to think on.
“That reminds me,” she said, thinking back to when she and Guyon had first discovered the Shadow Realm. “Before, when traveling with Guyon, I was able to sense one of these tears. Or at least, I think that’s what I was sensing. I can usually tell when there’s a great source of magic nearby.”
“Why have you not been using this before?” said Brit, folding her arms as she stared Una down.
Una shook her head. “It’s not exactly something I can turn on and off. I simply wasn’t feeling anything. But perhaps I can try harder. At least to find something that would point us in the right direction.”
“You did not feel magic in the castle?”
Una thought on that. She hadn’t sensed magic, at least not as she had known it before. But she had felt rather uncomfortable in that place. She’d thought it simply a byproduct of the guard’s treatment of George, but what if it had been more? And she couldn’t forget the sort of darkness surrounding Brit when she was angry.
“I don’t know if I did or not,” she said, carefully. “There might have been something there, but it felt different.”
“Perhaps I can clarify some of your concerns,” said a voice from nearby.
Both Una and Brit whirled to see a man covered in what looked like dirt and seated upon a strange horse some fifty yards away. Immediately, Brit had her sword out of its scabbard, and Una brought her magics to the forefront, preparing them for anything. The familiar thrill of power rolling through her body almost made her smile.
The man brought his steed closer, and as he did Una realized the beast was not a horse. It was…
“A lion,” she exclaimed, instinctively forming a wall of air in front of herself and Brit. She’d seen a lion before, even had one as a travel companion once, and she knew how dangerous they could be. This one looked a lot like the beast that had once accompanie
d her before it was killed by Pyrochles. Except this one was enormous, like the one she had seen in her dream. There was no wonder she had first mistaken it for a horse. Its forward legs alone had to be nearly Una’s own height.
At the same moment, Brit’s horse caught sight of the beast and whinnied excessively, throwing itself up on its hind legs and surprising Brit who fell off. The horse darted to the side, away from the lion and galloped as fast as it could in the opposite direction.
“Hello, Una,” said the man as he drew closer, speaking with a soft, almost endearing tone. As he neared, Una could make out more of his visage. She swallowed as she realized he wasn’t covered in dirt. He was covered in blood. In that instant she recognized him as a man from her visions, the one who had seemingly watched her while she was sleeping, only to disappear once she and Brit had awoken. Had he actually been there on that day?
Apart from his disconcerting blood-stained clothing, he was definitely a handsome man with silky dark-red hair that shone in the sun, and green eyes that sparkled even from this distance. He had a broad chest covered in light armor fit for an assassin, though it was brighter in color, making the blood stains all the clearer. He bore no weapons that Una could see, though he carried with him a dangerous air. Or maybe that was just the feeling he radiated. In fact, now that Una thought of it, the feeling wasn’t all that different from when they were in the castle. As soon as she made that realization, she knew who it was she faced.
“Wrath,” she breathed, and she felt rather than saw Brit tighten her grip on her weapon beside her.
13
The newcomer flashed a charming smile at her. Apart from the blood covering his clothes and body, he wasn’t at all how she expected Wrath to appear. “I see I need no introduction. And yes, this is a lion. I believe you were familiar with one of his cubs.”
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