The Lost Armies
ASH
This time it is not me, but the companions that are nearly ripped from their horses, each of them shouting a growl of pain into the sky as an unknown assailant attacks them and their horses circle in a dance of mayhem.
“What in the good Goddess?” I snipe, steering my steed around theirs as they work to control their mounts in the aftermath of whatever invisibile demon plagued them.
We have covered much ground in the last two hours. Riding toward the Forest of the Golden Oak nearly as quickly as if we were in shadow, and when this phantasm encounter takes place, we are nearly to the halfway point and the brook that marks the Meadow.
“‘Tis free!” Laksha yells, standing on his horse like a fool before toppling off in a fit of laughter. “She’s free, she’s free, her magic be free. The queen’s return and magic burn!”
Daphne?
“What are you saying, Laksha, and pray tell I can make sense of your garble before I straighten your tongue to please my ears. What has happened?”
But Laksha isn't listening as he dances about the empty gray trench, bouncing from wall to wall like the wicked little hobgoblin he is.
It is Bregda that answers me, his eyes taking on the luminous color of fresh mortal blood. “The Queen of Hidden Fae… she has completed the circle. She sits upon the throne. When her magic returned, our magics… burned. We felt it. Did you not?”
“Why in the bloody hell would I? I am of an entirely different court. I have my own magic,” I gripe, only a little jealous that I did not feel this… thing. “She is my betrothed and carries my child. She will be my wife, not my keeper.”
Yet in so many ways she is my keeper.
The keeper of my heart… and… my bloody sanity.
Because if I do not get to her soon I may go mad with need.
Goddess… it has only been a day. Contain yourself.
“And she has agreed to this?” Bregda taunts me. “This… being your wife business.”
My head jerks toward him, doubt clouding my mind with just his words. “She knows we are betrothed and she…” I sigh, an odd pain thumping in my chest, “...she loves me.”
“And do you love her?” Bregda asks deadpan.
“I do,” I whisper, my longing for her tinging each word. “Goddess damn it. I do.”
“You miss her,” Bregda hisses, a cruel smile turning his lips as he cocks his head in my direction. “I can taste your melancholy.” He grins, his long pinkened tongue sliding across his lips. “It’s delicious.”
“How far are we from this… Forest of the Golden Oak?” I ask, worry seizing me as I look toward the sky and think on the message Isabel sent for her sister. That and the blade. “And how large are the armies of the Hidden Realm?”
Perhaps I should have kept that last question to myself, because Bregda is instantly suspicious.
“We are close, Prince,” he slithers out, sidling his mount next to my own as he attempts to peer into my eyes. “But where is this need to know of our armies coming from? Are you planning an attack on your very own bride to be?”
I stare directly into the depths of his demonic gaze and speak the truth. “Never.”
He breathes in deeply and then growls, “What did the scroll say? Why have you not shared it with us?”
“It is a personal note from one sister to the next,” I grumble, “it’s not my right to share it.”
“Nor was it your right to read it then,” he shoots back.
I grimace, countering, “Perhaps. But the blade was delivered to me, in case you’ve forgotten.”
“So it was…” Bregda sighs. “Something I may have failed to mention when we first met. There is a reason I played the gatekeeper for the Lost Fae of Marrow Hill.”
“Oh?” I harp. “Do tell.”
Laksha, who has ceased leaping about and has reseated himself upon his horse, tips his ears in our direction, listening intently.
“I was the captain of the guard that escorted Queen Clayeira from the Lost Gate and into the Mortal Realm. I commanded her armies for many a turn before she… left. Most of my soldiers remain there, at Marrow Hill and if the secret that the scroll carries means danger for my new queen… we will need them. All of them.”
I meet his eyes solemnly. “Then we will send a messenger bird once we arrive at my Daphne’s side. Because I fear it is as you say… we will need them.” I snap the reins. “Let us ride now. The sooner we arrive at her side. The sooner we can gather our forces.”
”Our forces?” Bregda questions, galloping up alongside of me with Laksha bringing up the rear.
I give him a withering look. “There will be more than one army at her back when the time comes, Bregda. Even now, my captain of the guard accompanies her. And if it is true and the False One rides north… he rides for the Winter Queen. He rides to ally with her and she is the one who seeks to destroy Daphne the most. She is the one who has hated her longest and once the False One informs her of the pulse you felt, of the burn - which he undoubtedly will - her armies will turn their attention from Cinder and point toward your home. She will know my curse has been broken and will seek to murder your queen .” My peasant.
“And if she finds out about the babe…” Bregda trails off, his eyes flashing. “She will try to capture her. She will want her for the Tithe.”
I grimace, leaning forward and urging my mount faster as we near the brook. “Correct. Even more so than the usurper who sits upon a stolen Woodland Throne.”