Moonshadow (Moonshadow #1)(102)

“I need to speak to Annwyn.” Sophie’s teeth chattered. “We came from Earth, and it’s urgent.”

“I’m Annwyn,” the woman said, crossing her arms. “Get down and say what you’ve come to say.”

That was easier said than done. The ground was so far away, and her fists had stiffened in Robin’s mane. “Robin,” she muttered. “Help me.”

Bowing his head, the stallion went down on his front knees. Sophie slid off his back in an ungainly sprawl. When she yanked her hands free, she tore long black strands out of his mane, but he didn’t complain.

She didn’t trust herself to get to her feet. Instead, she turned on her knees to face Annwyn and the circle of suspicious guards staring down at her. Holding out her shaking hand, she showed them the gold commander’s ring on her thumb. For the first time, she noticed the lion rampant on the head of the ring.

“Nikolas,” Annwyn whispered. Lunging forward, she knelt in front of Sophie. “Bring a cloak and a hot drink!” Annwyn turned back to Sophie. “Are you wounded? You have blood all over you. You’re insane to ride out in this weather dressed like that. How did you come here—and where is Nikolas?”

“I was wounded, but I’m healed now. We don’t have time for niceties. Listen.” Sophie grabbed her hands, and while Annwyn froze at her presumptuous touch, the other woman did not shake her off.

Words tumbled out of Sophie. Earth. A stray dog. The house. Broken passageway. Nikolas and the other men. The pub attack. Lycanthropes. Morgan.

She didn’t mention Ashe. That matter felt too private and raw, and it deserved its own telling, by someone other than she.

“Wait!” This time it was Annwyn who grabbed hold of her. “They’re here, in Lyonesse? You’re saying you found a way through?”

“Yes, but we might l-l-lose it,” she stuttered. Someone settled a fur-lined cloak around her shoulders, and someone else thrust a tankard of mulled wine into her hands. It was too hot for her frigid skin, and the tankard slipped through her clumsy, cold-numbed fingers to spill on the frozen ground. “Time moves faster on Earth than it does here, and when we left, Morgan was trying to tear down the house. He might destroy the way back if we don’t stop him.”

Annwyn swore, then said behind her shoulder, “Muster a force of five hundred. We ride within the next half hour.” As guards raced to do her bidding, she said sharply, “Puck! Your master is in an enchanted sleep, and we need to search for help from Earth. If we don’t get Oberon the medical attention he needs, he’ll die, and the idea of Lyonesse will die with him. Will you let us ride in your wind? I fear if we ride on our own, we will be too slow—and we will arrive too late again.”

The puck stood protectively at Sophie’s back. He blew in her hair. Robin owes them nothing, he said in her head. Because nothing is what they did for him.

She looked over her shoulder, into the stallion’s fiery eyes. Robin, you were hurt in your heart as well as in your body, and I understand how terrible that was. But sweetheart, not everybody could have known to look for you or send help. Not everybody abandoned you. The people in Lyonesse have been as caged as you were. Don’t let your hurt blind you to what is true and right, because if you do, Isabeau will have destroyed you. She will have won. Please don’t give that victory to her. You don’t belong in the cage of your abuser any longer. Choose to be stronger than that. Choose to be free.

The fire in the stallion’s eyes grew hotter, brighter. He said, And if we cannot get back to Earth, we can’t defeat her.

“Yes,” she said out loud.

The puck said to Annwyn, “You may ride in my wind, this once.”

Annwyn told him, “Thank you.” The other woman turned her attention to Sophie. “You should stay here, rest, eat, and warm up. You are in no shape for another ride with the puck.”

“No,” Sophie said so fiercely the other woman looked taken aback. “Tie me to Robin’s back if you must, but I have to go back.”

“If you insist,” Annwyn said.

*

After Sophie and Robin disappeared, the night felt even more cold and bleak with emptiness.

Finally Nikolas forced himself to stop looking after them. As he turned back to the other men, he found Braden standing at his elbow.

“Vicansha and the children are so close,” Braden whispered.

Nikolas’s chest tightened. As difficult as the last decades had been for him and the other men, they had been even harder for Braden.

He gripped Braden’s shoulder. “When we get reinforcements, I’m releasing you from duty. You can go to your wife and children.”

Tears spilled down the other man’s taut face. “Thank you, sir.”

Nikolas paused. “How do you do it?” he asked. “How do you make that kind of commitment, when we live such dangerous lives?”

Braden shrugged and wiped his face. “The love has to be bigger than everything else. The isolation, the separation, the danger. When the love is bigger than all that—you just do it. You pay the price in uncertainty and sometimes bereavement, because every moment you’re together is worth the cost. If the love is big enough, yet you don’t take that chance… man, it doesn’t matter what you’re fighting for. You’ve lost.”

Nikolas tightened his fingers, then let his hand drop and bent to pick up the skull again.