SONS of DON

by Brenda L. Harper

  A tightness that was all too familiar swelled in Gwen’s chest. Her hands curled into fists as she turned back to the copper gate. She approached it, touched the surprisingly cold metal.

  “You know what to do,” a male voice whispered to her.

  “I don’t,” she said. “I don’t understand. How am I supposed to find this place when I’ve never even stepped foot in this country before two days ago? How am I supposed to know who I can trust and who I can’t when I don’t trust anyone? You have to tell me more!”

  But the only answer she received was silence.

  Gwen began to scream and that scream slipped into the real world as she woke and sat up, flinging Cei’s arm off of her.

  It was still dark. She stumbled toward the zippered entrance to the tent, barely managing to get it open before she lost what little food she had eaten the day before. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t take the stress that was sitting on her shoulders.

  She had always thought she was tough. Abandoned as a toddler, she’d learned quickly how to survive in the real world on her own. But this was different. These were dangers and expectations that she didn’t know how to survive. And she couldn’t do it on her own. She knew she needed to trust someone. But after Rhein betrayed her…who could she trust?

  She couldn’t do it. She just couldn’t do it; she couldn’t.

  But she had no choice.

  Chapter 4

  Cei woke a little after dawn and found Gwen sitting by a small fire. She was poking at the flames with a stick, her thoughts so far from this place and this situation that she didn’t even realize she had knocked a coal loose until Cei grabbed the stick and carefully rolled it back within the confines of the makeshift fire ring.

  “I thought you would sleep a little longer.”

  She shook her head. “Had a nightmare.”

  Cei sat down behind her and pulled her back against his chest. “You should have woke me up.”

  “You needed to sleep.”

  “So did you.”

  He ran his hand over her head, smoothing her hair back over her scalp. Gwen sighed as she relaxed back against him. There was always something about Cei’s touch that made her feel that he was trying to make up for all the affection she missed out on as a kid. He kissed the top of her head, lingering with his nose against her hair despite the fact that several days without a proper shower had likely left it smelling less like flowers and more like dirty linens.

  “This will all be over very soon.”

  “Will it?”

  “Another day’s hike and we should be close to the area where I think the gate might be. If it’s not there…we’ll head into Llandudno and meet up with Tony and Morgan.”

  “Do you think it could be there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Gwen pulled away. “It’s not in the city. Even you said that it was in the mountains.”

  “And we might find it tomorrow.”

  “And we might not.”

  She climbed into the tent and searched through her backpack to find a clean shirt and her toothbrush. Cei didn’t say anything as she walked out of their camp, making her way to a small trickle of water that flowed from higher up on the summit. She knelt on a rock and washed her face, running her wet fingers through her hair in an attempt to comb it. She shivered, the air colder today than it was the day before. She brushed her teeth, careful not to get the toothpaste in the flowing water. Then, she stripped off her shirt, again shivering in the cold air.

  “A little cold out here for that.”

  Gwen jumped, nearly falling backward in surprise. Who wouldn’t be surprised when a voice that was supposed to be thousands of miles away suddenly spoke in the silence of the early morning?

  She tucked her shirt around her chest as she slid backwards on the rough rocks.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Rhein stepped out of the shadows, his hands held out toward her as he slowly approached.

  “Stay away from me,” she said, stumbling to her feet.

  “You have to listen to me, Gwen. I didn’t do what you think I did.”

  “I saw you!”

  “You thought you saw me.”

  She shook her head, wrapping her arms tight around herself. “You were with Branwen. You stood there and watched while she drove her sword through my stomach. You told her that I could survive it.”

  “I didn’t.” His eyes widened, as he studied her and continued to walk slowly toward her. “I swear I would never hurt you. And would never team up with Bran and Branwen.”

  “How do I know that? I saw you.”

  “Think about it, Gwen. Think about what you saw. Were there little differences between that person and me? Something about the eyes, about the way he looked at you, the way he smelled?”

  Gwen shook her head again, still backing up until she stumbled over the lip of a boulder and began to fall. Rhein was immediately there, grabbing her arm before she smashed her hip on the hard rock. He yanked her up, causing her to slam into his chest, her shirt slipping as she instinctively wrapped her arm around his waist.

  And he was so familiar. His warm flesh under the protection of his leather jacket, the strength in his arms as he wrapped them around her, the heat of his breath as it puffed through her hair. And, yes, even the way he smelled. There was something unique about Rhein’s scent that was just Rhein…so familiar.

  That last thought triggered a memory…a hand touching her in a dark vehicle.

  And then she remembered something else. A conversation with Tony.

  “He can disguise himself?”

  “It’s a trait many of the practitioners of dark magic have. You’ve heard the stories of Satan, correct? How he was able to disguise himself as a serpent in the Garden of Eden?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a gift similar to that.”

  Gwen pulled back and looked up at Rhein, looked into those amazing blue eyes.

  “You think someone disguised themselves to look like you so that I wouldn’t trust you anymore?”

  “Someone who practices dark magic.”

  “Why?”

  Rhein stooped down to retrieve her shirt, holding it out to her with a straight face even though she saw his eyes move briefly down to her dirt streaked bra. She snatched it from his fingers and pulled it over her head, wrapping her arms around herself in a poor attempt to warm herself.

  “It depends on who it was,” Rhein said. “I would assume it was Bran…but I don’t know the all the details. Just what I could get out of Morgan before he left with Tony.”

  “How did you get here?”

  Rhein shrugged, as he settled on the edge of a large boulder. “The conventional way. I caught a flight out of Dallas.”

  “How did you know where I was?”

  Rhein glanced in the direction of the camp Gwen and Cei shared the night before. His face seemed to tighten, his eyes narrowing as his lips flattened into a thin line. “A good guess,” he finally said before he turned his attention back to her.

  Gwen moved back toward the thin stream, collecting her toothbrush and her dirty shirt. “You shouldn’t have wasted your time,” she said. “There’s nothing you can do here.”

  She started toward the camp, but Rhein blocked her path.

  “You have to be careful, Gwen. You don’t know who you’re dealing with here.”

  “I know that someone betrayed Gwydion and the others the night the curse was enacted.”

  The color drained from Rhein’s face, but he didn’t move or seem to have any intention of going anywhere.

  “Tony told me,” she continued, moving closer to him, pushing at him a little, but not really hard enough to make him move. Which, of course, he didn’t. “He told me that one of the immortal servants of the sons of Don led them to the gate of Annwn that night. He said it could be either you or Cei.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Why shouldn’t I? He knows so much more about this s
tuff than I ever will.”

  Rhein dragged his fingers through his hair, a movement of frustration that reminded Gwen of Paul…of her father. Her eyes welled with unbidden tears, making her look away.

  “I didn’t betray Amaethon,” Rhein said, mentioning the name of his master, one of the sons of Don. “And I wouldn’t betray you.”

  “Who else could it have been?”

  Silence fell between them. Gwen didn’t want to admit it to herself, but if Rhein was innocent of the kidnapping that sent her here in the first place, and he wasn’t the one who betrayed the sons of Don on the night Bran cursed them, then the list of those who could have done one or the other had just grown alarmingly short. There were other servants involved that night. There were six sons of Don—if one included Gwydion’s nephews and each of their servants—but only two of those servants were currently a part of Gwen’s life.

  Rhein.

  And Cei.

  She shook her head. “I don’t believe it.”

  “I know he’s convinced you that he loves you, but he has been around the block many, many times, Gwen. He knows how to manipulate people.”

  “He’s helping me find the gate. Why would he do that if he was a traitor?”

  Rhein didn’t answer her right away. He turned his head so that she couldn’t see his expression, as though he was trying to hide something from her. It seemed like everyone was either trying to hide things from her or simply couldn’t tell her the things she really needed to know. The frustration that had settled in her chest during her dream last night came back with a vengeance, burning inside of her until it felt like she would go insane if she didn’t scream.

  Instead, she slammed her hands into the center of his chest, pushing him backward off of the rock he had been standing on.

  “Go to hell!”

  She stormed around him, but Rhein was on his feet again quicker than she would have imagined. He grabbed both her shoulders and spun her around, nearly knocking her off of her feet. And then he gripped her jaw between the steel-like fingers of his left hand.

  “You have to listen to me.”

  “I don’t have to listen to anyone,” she said, trying to knock his hand loose with a quick movement of her head.

  “You will die if you don’t.”

  “What do you care?” She pushed at his chest again, tears of anger replacing the grief stricken tears that had begun to fall earlier. “You’re just like everyone else. You never tell me everything I need to know; you just tell me what you think I should know. How am I supposed to do this thing? How am I supposed to save these people I don’t even know, don’t really care about, and don’t really understand, if no one will tell me anything? Everyone keeps insisting that this is necessary, even while Bran and Branwen are insisting it isn’t necessary. Plus, they’re threatening to kill me so that I can’t do when I’m not even sure I want to do it.”

  She was beginning to ramble and she knew it. But she couldn’t get her thoughts in order.

  “Why should I help these people if I don’t even know anything about them? How do I know that I won’t be releasing a plague on the world by releasing them? How do I know that releasing them won’t cause me some sort of permanent disability? How do I know—“

  “Gwen.” Rhein relaxed his hold on her jaw and pressed a finger against her still moving lips. “Slow down.”

  She stepped back and lifted a hand to rub at her jaw. “I’m tired of people not telling me everything they know.”

  “I get that.”

  He smiled. It should have made her mad, but even she could see the humor in her mini breakdown. She smiled too, a soft movement that made her jaw ache a little.

  “What do you want to know?”

  She tilted her head slightly as a dozen questions suddenly flooded her mind. But there was one that floated to the top, that seemed to be more important than all the rest.

  “Tell me what you know about Cei.”

  “That could take a while.”

  She shrugged. “Then you better talk fast.”

  Chapter 5

  The camp was all packed up when Gwen walked back. Cei was sitting by the still burning fire, stirring the remnants of a stew.

  “Where have you been? I was about to come looking for you.”

  Gwen grabbed her pack and shoved her dirty shirt and toothbrush inside. “I was just exploring the area a little.”

  “You shouldn’t wander off by yourself, Gwen. We have no idea who knows where we are.”

  “You think Bran might be looking for us?”

  “I would bet on it.” He brushed off his hands as he stood. “He could be here…somewhere. It wouldn’t take much for him to put two and two together when he realized you were no longer in Lubbock.”

  Gwen picked up her bag, tossing it over her shoulder as she did. “Then, we should get going.”

  “Eat first.” He picked up the stew and brought it to her. “You haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon.”

  It was the same stew she’d eaten the day before, but, somehow, it tasted just as good. She settled on a rock and ate it too quickly, her stomach warming with the heat of it. When it was all gone, she found herself wishing there was more. But, again, that sense of urgency that had begun to build with Cei’s words the night before had only expanded with her conversation with Rhein.

  She grabbed a handful of sand and wiped out the pot before hooking it to the bottom of her pack.

  “Let’s go.”

  Cei didn’t say a word. He just kicked out the fire and led the way, following almost the same exact path Gwen had taken to the stream. She almost expected Rhein to appear at every turn, but he didn’t. There was no sign of him at all.

  “We make our way around this summit today,” Cei said, pointing up the hill they were standing on. “Then about a quarter of the way down the other side.”

  Gwen nodded. “And if it’s not there?”

  “It’ll take us a little while to search the area.”

  “How did you know to bring me here? To this spot?”

  Cei glanced back at her as he hiked slowly up the hill. “I told you. I remember going to the gate with Gwydion a few times before the curse. My memories are a little vague, but I think this general area is close.”

  “Okay.”

  She followed him slowly up the hill, her thoughts scattered and a little confused. She couldn’t stop thinking about the things Rhein had told her.

  Cei wasn’t who she thought he was.

  But did that mean he was a traitor? Or that his declaration of love was just a way to manipulate her?

  She didn’t know what to think.

  Cei reached back for her hand. “It’s a little rough up here.”

  He guided her over the rocks. It was slow going for a while, but they finally made it to an area that was more vegetation than rocks. Much easier on the legs. They made up for their slow progress, crossing possibly several miles in a few hours.

  They stopped at midday under a huge spruce tree to share some beef jerky and a couple of apples. Cei made sure that Gwen ate despite the fact that her stomach was tied up in knots and she just wanted to lie down in the shade for a while.

  The cellphone Paul slipped to Gwen as she was getting ready to leave Lubbock began to vibrate. She had yet to tell Cei about it. Paul’s decision to sneak it into her hand suggested he didn’t think it was a good idea and now didn’t seem like the right time to let him know about it. She sat up and slipped it out of the outside pocket of the bag where she had hidden it.

  “I going to go find a tree to squat behind,” she said.

  Cei didn’t even look up from where he was reorganizing his own bag. “Don’t get lost.”

  She walked further up the incline they were sitting on, looking for a quiet place where her voice wouldn’t carry. She finally slipped behind another large tree and pulled the phone out of her pocket. She didn’t immediately recognize the number that had called, but it had the Lubbock prefix, so it didn�
�t take much to assume it was Paul.

  She pressed redial and waited.

  “Gwen.” Paul’s voice was a whispered sigh. His relief was so palpable in that single syllable that she could feel it, even all these miles away.

  “If you want me to keep the phone a secret, you probably shouldn’t be calling me,” Gwen said.

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Are you okay?”

  He grunted—or maybe it was just the static that filled the line between them. She wasn’t sure which.

  “Bran is on his way to Wales,” he said quickly. “We have reason to think that Rhein is with him.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Theresa has connections…I don’t know. Someone told her and she thinks it’s information we can trust.”

  “Have you heard from Tony and Morgan?”

  “They called this morning. Everything’s fine with them, but they’ve had no luck in locating the gate.”

  “Okay. We’re close to the place where Cei thinks the gate might be. We should know more in the morning.”

  “Be careful, Gwen.” Paul grunted again, or was it the static again? Then, he made a soft sound like he was clearing his throat. “Stay close to Tony.”

  Gwen glanced around the tree where she was standing, staring into the shadows to see if Rhein or Cei, might be somewhere nearby. She didn’t see anything…but she felt watched.

  The hair on the back of her neck was standing up.

  “There’s something I need to know,” she said, turning back around as she lowered her voice.

  “Anything.”

  “How did you find out about Tony and Theresa? Who told you to send me to their house?”

  There was nothing but static on the line for a long minute. Gwen thought for a second they had been disconnected; she even pulled the phone away from her ear to see if the call was still active. But, then Paul again made that weird, grunting sound. She could imagine him, standing in the middle of his tiny apartment, dragging his fingers through his hair until the curls all turned and danced in a different direction.

  “Cei.”

  “He just approached you, out of the blue?”