“It was in Teregad’s bedroom, as you guessed, Siawn,” Rhiann said.
The companions crossed the hall without incident and climbed the stairs to the second floor. The bedroom was as Rhiann had left it, the door still ajar. Rhun strode past her to the stone door and pushed it all the way open.
“Looks like fun.” He peered down the stairwell and then turned to Siawn. “You’ve never seen this before?”
“No.” Siawn moved to stand beside him and looking down the stairs too.
“Is there any reason why we shouldn’t follow the stairs?” Rhiann said.
“Lots of reasons,” Rhun said, “but do we have a choice?”
“No time like the present.” Taliesin had been standing by the entrance to the room, but now closed the door and pulled the string through the latch so nobody could open it easily from the outside. “I don’t want anyone coming in behind us, and I don’t want to get stranded somewhere with no way to get back.”
“Lead on, Taliesin.” Rhun gave him a short bow.
The little light on the end of Taliesin’s staff appeared again. He entered the stairwell, followed by Rhiann, Siawn, and Rhun bringing up the rear. Down and down they went, the stairs spiraling endlessly. After what must have been nearly two hundred steps, Taliesin stopped. Rhiann bumped into his back in her surprise.
“Sshh,” he said, one hand on the wall to maintain his balance.
Rhiann listened hard. She could hear water dripping down the walls on either side, and her companions stirring, breathing shallowly so as to hear better themselves. Then, under the sound of the water, came a very distant clashing; then, more loudly, a shout.
“Cade!” Rhiann knew instantly that it was his voice she heard.
Taliesin was already moving. Still in single file, the companions ran down the rest of the stairs, nearly skidding off them with each step since the treads were wet. Rhiann hiked up her dress, holding the hem up awkwardly because she still had her bow in her left hand. She was regretting that she was wearing it, even though the costume had saved them—twice—that night.
At last they reached the bottom of the stairs, which emptied out into a small cave. The ceiling was low, only a few inches above the top of Taliesin’s head, and a dozen feet across. Another opening lay on the far wall and Taliesin trotted to it.
The others followed him, but he signaled for them to stay behind him. Behind Rhiann, Rhun bounced up and down with impatience. “Can’t we just go?”
“I’m not so sure if you could see what I can you’d think that was such a great idea,” Taliesin said.
“Let me see, then!” Rhun said.
In the end, they all looked. Before them lay an enormous cavern that stretched fifty yards long and at least that deep. They perched on a ledge, fifteen feet above the cavern floor. Cade, Goronwy, Dafydd, and Hywel were opposite them, pressed against a far wall, in mortal combat with a dozen ... others.
Cade was attempting to fight four at once. His elbow snapped into one demon’s nose, while at the same time he slashed sideways with his sword to parry another’s attack. He then leapt forward to drive his foot into the midsection of a third, who fell backwards into the arms of the fourth.
“It looks like Cade should have waited for us,” Rhun said to nobody in particular.
Rhiann stepped from behind Taliesin and onto the ledge, pulling an arrow from her quiver as she did so. Without discussion or waiting for permission, forcing herself to concentrate and not shake, fear for Cade’s life a hair’s breadth from overwhelming her, she pressed the first arrow into the bow and loosed it. It struck one of the demons that Dafydd was fighting in the back of the neck and he went down. Dafydd froze for a heartbeat, but then seeing his opponent on the ground, visibly shrugged before turning to another demon on his left.
Rhiann picked her targets carefully, not wanting to hit any of her friends. She shot ten arrows in the time it took Rhun to swing himself over the edge of the ledge and jump to the cavern floor. By then, Cade, Dafydd, Hywel and Goronwy had defeated the rest of the demons. Rhun walked to where Cade stood, cleaning his sword with a shred of cloth. He wore a thick, green cloak he’d somehow acquired since Rhiann had last seen him.
The brothers clasped forearms and then turned to look up at Rhiann. The expression on Cade’s face was one of complete satisfaction, and Rhiann blushed when she realized that it wasn’t so much the fight he was thinking of, but her. Cade strode toward the ledge and when he reached a point just under it, he tilted his head to survey the distance to the ground.
“Do you think you can get down like Rhun did?” Cade said.
Siawn, Taliesin and Rhiann all stepped to the edge and peered over it. “It’s a long way,” Siawn said.
Taliesin stepped back quickly.
“You don’t like heights?” Cade said.
“It isn’t heights,” Taliesin said, “just heights with no railings or walls.”
“If you can hang over the ledge, even half-way, and let go, I can catch you,” Cade said.
Taliesin turned a greenish-yellow color.
“I’ll go first,” Rhiann said. “And then you can see that it’s not that hard.”
She knelt on the edge and handed her bow to Goronwy, who’d come to stand beside Cade, and then dropped her quiver. As the dress underneath her cloak had long since been ruined, she ignored the dust and dirt she was smearing onto her front and wiggled over the ledge in order to hang her feet down. There was still a long way to go.
“Let go, Rhiann,” Cade said.
She pushed off and Cade caught her. He was so rock solid that he didn’t even need to bend his knees—and maybe he held onto her for a moment longer than he had to.
“It’s easy, Taliesin,” Rhiann said. “Come on.”
Taliesin tossed his staff to Dafydd who caught it, and then he copied Rhiann. “May Bran protect me,” he said, as he carefully got down on his stomach and dangled his legs over the edge.
“This is a side of you I’ve not seen.” Cade grabbed Taliesin’s legs and dropped him gently to the ground.
Taliesin brushed himself off and took back his staff, still grumbling. “Who would have thought that I’d have to worry about heights when going underground?”
Goronwy patted him on the shoulder while Cade caught Siawn, and the reunited companions gathered together to confer.
“Do you think we have much farther to go?” Rhun said.
“No.” Cade gestured with his chin towards the rear of the cave, near where they’d been fighting. “A long passage lies behind a doorway that only I can see. I saw it just before we were set upon by those demons. We were trying to retreat down it when you appeared.”
“I don’t see it,” Rhiann said.
“You’re sure it’s there?” Dafydd said.
“It is,” Cade said. “And beyond it, I suspect, is what we’re looking for.”
“Arawn?” Rhiann said.
“At least Teregad,” Cade said. “I ... sensed him.”
“I know he came through here,” Rhiann said. “That’s how we found this passage. He was fleeing down it.”
“Fleeing?” Goronwy said. “You saw him, then?”
“Taliesin made Rhiann appear to him as the image of my dead mother,” Siawn said. “Teregad thought she’d come for retribution; punishment for bringing about her death.”
“Teregad has a lot to answer for,” Goronwy said. “And Mabon.”
“So they run to Arawn, the keeper of death,” Cade said. “How’s that for irony?”
“Are you ready to face him?” Taliesin studied Cade.
Cade squared his shoulders. “I am. My destiny lies on the other side of that door, and I will not reach it except to go through it.”
“We’ll be right behind you, brother,” Rhun said.
Cade surveyed his friends. “Thank you.” He turned and headed across the cavern floor, towards the far passage. He moved with that inhuman quickness Rhiann could never quite get used to. It had him nearing the tun
nel entrance before any of the rest had taken more than two steps.
“Wait!” Rhiann said, before he could disappear inside the tunnel.
Cade stopped. Rhiann hadn’t meant to call to him, but something inside her told her that she couldn’t let him walk away from her into danger one more time. Not now. Not like that. Not without knowing if what she had seen in his eyes meant what she wanted it to mean. She wanted to cross the chasm that had separated them since before Dinas Emrys, and it felt that if she didn’t find out now, she might never have another chance.
Rhiann reached him, breathless, and stepped close, a hand on each of his arms, gripping him tightly. She tipped her head up to look into his face, and instantly lost herself in the bottomless blue of his eyes. Without having to ask, or speak, his hands went to her waist. The other men instantly found something else to talk about among themselves.
Cade was so very close.
“You called me cariad at Castle Ddu,” she said.
“I did.”
“You said you couldn’t have a wife. You told me not to hope.”
“I was trying to convince myself,” Cade said. “I shouldn’t allow myself to love a woman. It’s too dangerous for her.”
“But ... ” Rhiann was breathless again, but not from running. “You’ve changed your mind?”
“I love you. And I want you,” he said. “And I think I can make this work.”
Standing there, in the catacombs of Arawn, death just around the corner, joy filled Rhiann and she laughed. Cade slid his hands behind her back and pulled her to him.
“I love you,” Rhiann said. “I could no more stop loving you than stop breathing.”
“I don’t breathe, but I refuse to live even less of a life than Arianrhod has left me. These last weeks have shown me that.”
Rhiann reached up a hand, put it at the back of Cade’s neck, and pulled his head down so she could meet his lips with hers. Cade hugged her closer and she wrapped both arms around his neck.
He lifted her up so that she was at his eye level. “I could make a habit of this,” he said, after allowing her to come up for air.
“Is everyone watching us?” she said.
Cade glanced over at his men. “They are, although they’re trying not to. Taliesin is practically stamping with impatience.”
“Good,” Rhiann said. “Put me down, my lord. We have work to do.”
Cade did, though only after another kiss, prompting an unsubtle snort from Taliesin. They each took a step back, trying to regain their balance. Rhiann’s breathing hadn’t returned to normal and she wasn’t sure it ever would. Then Cade smiled, that same gorgeous smile he’d given her at Llanllugan, winked, and turned away. At his movement, the others sprang into action.
Rhun was first into the tunnel after Cade, followed by the others, each elbowing Rhiann out of the way as they passed her. “It’s for your own safety, Rhiann,” Dafydd said, running by.
“Wait!” Rhiann followed him into the tunnel. It extended forward twenty feet before it jagged to the right. Cade disappeared around the corner just ahead.
“Oof!” he said.
“What is it?” Rhun said, hurrying to keep up.
Taliesin and Dafydd were next, followed by Rhiann. When she turned the corner, she saw what had stopped Cade. He hovered in a high archway, pressing his hands against an invisible door that lead to another enormous cavern, unable to enter it without an invitation. Teregad and Mabon stood before them, along with a man—or being—
Rhiann didn’t recognize, but who could only be Arawn, Lord of the Underworld. He sat on a raised and magnificent golden throne, next to the black cauldron. His stare terrified Rhiann and she cowered behind Cade’s back. Sweet Mary! How are we to face him? Cade, however, stood tall and gazed straight ahead, head high and shoulders back.
“It is this for which I was born.” He pressed his hands against the unseen door. “And made.”
Chapter Ten
Cade
Cade stood flush against the barrier that prevented him from entering the cavern. At the sight of him, Arawn stood, still all in gray—and Cade hoped, more tangible. Arawn’s throne sat just to the right of the black cauldron, which was larger than Cade had imagined it might be, nearly ten feet in diameter. It crouched in the exact center of the cavern, on a large flat space supported by a stem of rock at its base, suspended before the companions like a royal serving platter. From it, smoke and fumes rose, although Cade couldn’t determine its contents.
With effort, praying that Rhiann was right and that it had nothing to do with him, he forced thoughts of Arianrhod and what she’d done to him from his mind and focused instead on the task before him.
At his feet lay a pit, at the bottom of which huddled a man. Although his back was to the companions, Cade recognized him.
Siawn gasped, knowing him too. “Gwyn!”
Although he could not move well and a blue chain tied him to the cauldron, Gwyn turned his head at his cousin’s voice and met Cade’s eyes. The sadness in them was unmistakable. Cade cursed under his breath, but could do nothing for him, not until he had dealt with Arawn who remained separated from Cade by twenty yards of nothingness. Teregad stood behind the throne, and at his side, Arawn’s son, Mabon. Neither Teregad nor Mabon looked nearly as happy to see Cade as Arawn, who’d been surveying Cade and now smiled.
“I am pleased to meet you in person at last,” he said. “I apologize for leaving so abruptly earlier, but I had some business that needed my attention.” He flicked his eyes towards Mabon and Teregad. Teregad took a step back, but Mabon merely glared at Cade.
Arawn’s evident displeasure at both of them pleased Cade. “I have a score to settle with those two cowards you’re protecting,” Cade said.
He still couldn’t get into the chamber and he leaned on the barrier, waiting, feeling the pressure of the spell that prevented him from reaching Arawn. Cade was used to encountering this sort of thing every time he tried to go into a place into which he hadn’t yet been invited. Demon lairs were usually not prohibited to him, however. He’d certainly been able to enter that first tunnel from the trail, after they’d killed the riders. Arawn, not surprisingly, was not ordinary, nor, in truth, a demon. He was sidhe.
Taliesin reached out a hand to press it against the empty space that was acting like a solid door for Cade. “It isn’t just you. It’s all of us.”
Then Arawn broke the spell. “Come in! Come in!” He waved Cade forward and the pressure on Cade’s forehead vanished. “You don’t need approval from me! You are Cadwaladr, the King of Gwynedd and heir to Arthur Pendragon.”
Cade stepped through the doorway, his confidence ebbing, knowing it had to be a trick, but not sure what that trick might be. Arawn was too jovial, too welcoming. With two more steps, he stood on a narrow ledge overlooking the chasm. The ledge extended in a full circle around the inner wall of the cavern, with a narrow extension leading from where Cade’s feet were planted to the place Arawn stood with the cauldron. Additional paths led from the side and rear walls to the center, forming the shape of a cross with the cauldron and Arawn in the center of it.
Arawn held his arms out wide. “Greetings, friend. Welcome to my domain.”
Cade wasn’t sure what to say, so he didn’t say anything, just watched Arawn warily.
“So you defeated my troll, did you?” Arawn’s words filled the silence that had descended on the cavern. “Did you kill him?”
“I don’t think so,” Cade said. “I don’t kill any creature unless I have to.”
Arawn laughed at that. “You think yourself so noble, Cadwaladr son of Cadwallon, even as you lie to yourself. You’re still trying to fill your father’s shoes, aren’t you? And failing, I might add.”
“Just like Mabon has failed you,” Cade said.
That brought a pout to Mabon’s face, but he was behind his father who didn’t see it. By now Cade’s companions had filed into the cavern behind him and were spread out along the ledge on eithe
r side of him. Cade felt Rhiann standing just to his right.
“Don’t listen to him,” Rhun said from beyond her. “He’s powerful, but not wise.”
“Silence!” Arawn roared and sent a shaft of light from his hand like an arrow from a bow directly to Rhun’s midsection. It hit him full on and he doubled over, coughing up blood. Cade ran to him and wrapped his arms around Rhun’s shoulders.
“Grasp the hilt of Caledfwlch,” Cade said in a low voice, just by Rhun’s ear. “Stay down, though. I don’t want Arawn to know you aren’t dying.”
Rhun collapsed to his knees and Cade went with him. Rhun coughed again, and then lay on his right side. Rhiann crouched behind him, despair in her eyes. Cade hated to see it, but could give her nothing beyond words to comfort her.
“It’s going to be all right.” He believed it, but he would have lied through his teeth if he thought it would help either of them survive what was coming.
Rhun nodded. “I’m good. It already doesn’t hurt anymore.” He held onto Caledfwlch for another count of ten, and then released the hilt. In his other hand, he held not his sword, but an ornate dagger. It was the one he’d meant to throw at Mabon at Caer Ddu, but had never released. Rhun clutched it, his knuckles white around the hilt, and perhaps, like Caledfwlch, it was helping him too.
Cade stood up and turned back to Arawn. “That makes you wise? Killing one of my companions?”
Arawn sent another shaft of light, this time at Cade. He dodged it and it hit the wall behind him, sending a spray of stones to the floor. “Very good.” Arawn lowered his arm. “You’ve earned the right to live a little longer. So tell me, what exactly do you think you’re doing here?”
“I intend to stop you from releasing your demons,” Cade said. “I intend to send you where you cannot harm my people.”
Arawn laughed. “Really? And how are you going to do that? I am not alive! I rule the Underworld! It is not possible for a human to defeat me.”
“I think it is,” Cade said.
Arawn sneered. “I admit it surprises me that you made it this far, but you humans are fated to fall at my feet and beg for your lives; every single one of you.”
Song of the Pendragon (The Last Pendragon Saga Book 3) Page 9