The Pendragon's Quest (The Last Pendragon Saga Book 4)

by Sarah Woodbury

  Rhun shrugged. “Arianrhod’s doing, I imagine. I’m sure Taliesin will have something compelling to say about it. For now, it seems you’ve driven the demons mad.”

  And it was true. The demons who remained were running in circles, falling either upon their own blades or that of Cade’s men, whom they’d ceased trying to avoid or even fight. Watching them, Cade held the door to his power open even farther. It flooded through him. He was light itself, fire itself, and like Caledfwlch, shot sparks and diamonds in every direction.

  Rhun gave him a long look and then urged his horse towards their own lines. Once Cade was sure no demon remained alive within two hundred yards, he followed. Although he couldn’t help those who’d already died, of which there would be far too many, Caledfwlch could heal the injured.

  Next would come the part of battle that men usually didn’t talk about. After a fight, it wasn’t horror or fear or revulsion that a man felt, but utter joy at having survived another day: I am alive! And my enemy is not! Against all odds, I will live to see another sunrise! At the same time, he couldn’t help but acknowledge that he’d known from the start that the fight was going to go his way. It always had. He believed it always would. That probably wasn’t something he should share with Rhiann. Cade almost guffawed along with Rhun, mocking himself for his pretensions to grandeur.

  This post-battle optimistic and joyful feeling was generally followed, in Cade’s case, by chills—purely emotional now, for his physical body no longer reflected what went on inside his mind. In the past too, the final stage was exhaustion. Even though he no longer felt it, it was important to remember that his men did and make allowances. Cade lifted his eyes to the heavens. The fat drops of rain hadn’t let up for a single heartbeat during the battle. Now, they washed the grime from his face, a loathsome mix of mud and demon blood.

  And that was when he saw it. At first the demon didn’t register as a demon: it was a boar, and far bigger than any he’d seen in all the years of hunting and stalking the woods at night. It was far larger than the hounds they’d defeated outside the walls of Caer Dathyl. The boar’s red eyes glowed as they stared at each other—and then the creature coiled itself like a cat and leapt at Cade.

  His first thought was: boars don’t leap!

  Cade brought up his shield to block the attack, but the boar had moved so quickly, even Cade’s reflexes couldn’t deflect him. He barreled into Cade and brought him off Cadfan. It was a move Cade had used many times himself because it was an effective means of disabling an opponent. Cade shouldn’t have been surprised. Just last night, Dafydd had brought down one of the humans at Caer Dathyl with the same technique. It was just the timing, force, and speed that he’d failed to predict.

  Cade fell to the ground, the boar on top of him. If Cade had breath, it would have been knocked from him. As it was, the back of his head snapped into the ground, and with a tangible whoosh, the power that had fed him over the last half hour sucked back into his center as if a whirlpool had replaced the flame. The boar’s front hooves rested on Cade’s chest, and it brought its snout and horns to within inches of Cade’s flesh. Cade stared at the demon and tried to gather his wits. “Who are you?”

  The boar grunted, but then spoke as no boar could. “Silence! Do not bother me with trivialities.”

  “My men—”

  The beast barked what could only have been a laugh. “Only you can see me.”

  “But—”

  The boar snarled again. “I have a message for you. You may have spoiled Mabon’s plans. You may have closed the black cauldron, but he is still among us. Mabon walks the earth, and I with him. I will always be here. Give me what I seek, and I may let your friends live.”

  “What is it you seek?” Cade spoke clearly now that he didn’t have to force the words through a constricted throat. He understood that the boar wouldn’t kill him, and perhaps didn’t have the power to kill him.

  “Someone will come,” the boar said. “Be ready.”

  Then he vanished.

  Cade tried to lift his head to rise, but his body wouldn’t respond. He lay back, confused and exhausted.

  “My lord!” Rhun’s uncharacteristic use of his title scared Cade almost more than the boar had, and then his brother’s concerned face appeared above him. He leaned down from the saddle, his face a mask of worry.

  Cade blinked again, and the battlefield came into focus. All was as he’d left it. “Did you see it?”

  Rhun dismounted and fell to his knees beside Cade. “See what? Are you all right?” He patted Cade down, looking for wounds.

  Cade brushed his hands away. “I’m fine. But I’ve had another visit from the sidhe.”

  Chapter Four

  Rhiann

  “Cade!”

  Rhiann screamed his name. She hadn’t seen what had knocked him off his horse, but there was no mistaking the moment he fell from Cadfan and his power collapsed. When he’d first released the sidhe within himself, white light had flashed throughout the field. It had blinded Rhiann and, because of it, she’d released an arrow accidently and wasted it. It had sailed off over the trees to the south. She hoped that if it hit anyone, it was a fleeing demon. After that, Cade had shone like a beacon on a rocky point, guiding his people to him and scattering their enemies before him.

  She’d stood beside her friends, pressing and loosing arrow after arrow. The demons had never reached the stakes that Llywelyn had ordered set, and when she’d released her last arrow and stepped back, she’d found herself calmer than she ever would have expected during a battle. Even along the trail by Llanllugan, it hadn’t been fear of dying that had overwhelmed her but fear of failure: that she and Dafydd might not be able to protect all the women and children who depended on them, and only them, for their survival. That had been a test unlike any she’d ever experienced. This had been target practice by comparison.

  She’d made her arrows count and had killed over a dozen demons by herself. Combined with her friends, they’d killed a hundred, and among the full complement of archers in both companies, they’d killed nearly a thousand before running out of arrows. It hadn’t been enough to turn the tide, but it had winnowed them more than a little. Enough to give Cade the opportunity he’d needed.

  Now, she gazed towards the center of the battlefield, peering through the pre-dawn murk for sign of Cade, who must have killed a hundred demons all by himself. She’d kept watch on his form out of the corner of her eye as she’d fired the last of her arrows.

  “Wait—I see him,” Dafydd said. “He’s all right. Rhun’s with him.”

  “What could have happened? One instant he was fine and then he was on the ground. Nobody came close to him. Perhaps he’s ill. Could it have been something Arianrhod did to him?” She strained to stop her voice from going high in her anxiety.

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Hywel said.

  Rhiann didn’t intend to wait. She ran for the path that led down from the ridge. With the demons scattered and no arrows left in her quiver, she couldn’t do any more good here anyway. Once she made sure Cade was really all right, she would help the wounded. Hopefully, with Cade’s healing sword, they could save many who might otherwise have died.

  She hadn’t taken more than ten steps, however, before Taliesin appeared in front of her, blocking her way. He stood unmoving and unseeing. Although her heart told her to hurry and she was worried about Cade, she didn’t go around him. Instead, she pulled up short and touched his arm. “Taliesin?”

  He blinked and focused on her face. “I must go.”

  “What?”

  As she gazed into the depths of his eyes, a pool of sorrow welled up inside her—whether for him, from him, because of what she saw there, she didn’t know. She had never seen such a look of sorrow in another person’s face, not even in that of Alcfrith, Cade’s mother.

  “Tell King Cadwaladr that I will meet him at Deganwy Castle for your wedding, but I have business to the east,” he said.

  “Wedding
—what? Taliesin!” Rhiann reached for his arm, but he’d already melted into the woods. She gazed after him, uncertain whether or not to follow him. He obviously didn’t want her near him or he would have asked her to come with him, but would Cade want him to go off on his own, especially with stray demons loose in the woods?

  Dafydd had been conferring with Tudur and now hurried over. “What was that about? Where’s Taliesin?”

  “Gone,” she said, still stunned by his sudden departure. “He said he’d meet us at Deganwy.”

  “What are you talking about? When?”

  “I-I-I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know any of that. He’s just gone.” She didn’t want to tell Dafydd that Taliesin said he would meet Cade at their wedding, not without talking to Cade first. I need to see him!

  Rhiann fled down the hill, running hard towards the spot where Cade had fallen. She leapt over the bodies of men and demons, ignoring everything but the bulky shadow of Cadfan who stood where Cade had left him, his head up and his ears pricked forward.

  “Rhiannon, he’s fi—!” Rhun tried to stop her headlong rush but she barreled past him.

  Rhiann fell to her knees beside Cade who lay just as he had that morning, for all intents and purposes, dead. “Why is this happening again!” She put a hand on either side of Cade’s face and pressed her lips to his. She released him and to her relief, he opened his eyes.

  “It is as Rhun said.” Cade brought up his hands and grasped each of hers.

  “Sorry.” Rhiann glanced at Rhun.

  Rhun shrugged. “I thought he had perished too, at first.”

  “What happened?” Rhiann glared at Rhun. “I thought you were supposed to protect him!”

  “Rhiann, please.” Cade ran a hand over his eyes. “My limbs feel heavy still.”

  Rhun held a hand out to Cade. “Let me help you up.”

  Cade grasped his hand and pulled to a sitting position and then unsteadily to his feet.

  Rhiann gazed up at him, unexpected tears tracking down her cheeks.

  Cade looked down at her, and then put his hand under her chin. “Come here.”

  Rhiann allowed him to pull her up too and fold her into his arms until she sighed and relaxed. “I’m sorry again, Rhun. I know how impossible it is to protect Cade when he doesn’t want protection.”

  “I heard your love for him,” Rhun said. “But the truth is, I didn’t see anything amiss until Cade was on the ground.”

  “Nobody but I did,” Cade said. “Nobody but I could. Rhun couldn’t have protected me in this case, even were he standing beside me.”

  “Tell me,” Rhiann said.

  “If you could pardon the wait, I’d like to tell the story only once. Taliesin must hear it too. Where is he?” Cade scanned the ridge above the field.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this,” Rhiann said, “so I’m just going to say it—Taliesin’s gone. He said he had business to the east, and he would meet you at Deganwy for our wedding.”

  Cade’s arms tightened around her. “I feared he’d leave us. I could see the compulsion in his eyes from the moment he confessed that he could no longer see, way back on the road to Bryn y Castell. That knowledge has haunted both of us every day since.” Cade barked a laugh that didn’t sound amused at all. “I guess we know where we’ll be getting married though, don’t we, cariad?”

  Rhiann choked on a laugh that his cloak muffled. “I guess.” It wasn’t quite the proposal she’d imagined, but then, he was holding her as if he would never let her go and that was far more than enough.

  “It was a demon in the shape of a boar,” Cade said, and then at Rhun’s exclamation of dismay added, “—a manifestation that only I could see and that could only affect me, or so it said and so it appears.”

  “Not a regular demon, then,” Rhun said.

  “No,” Cade said. “He told me that he wanted something from me and that he would send an emissary soon to ask for it.”

  “Did he say what?” Rhiann said.

  “Or who he was?” Rhun said.

  “No.”

  “Besides, who manifests as a boar?” Rhiann said. “I can’t think of any gods off the top of my head—.”

  Cade made one of his forceful sighs. He loosened his arms around Rhiann enough to tuck her under his shoulder and then tipped his head back to look up at the clouds above him and let the rain pit-patter onto his face. “I can think of one, but it isn’t going to make anyone very happy.”

  “Are you telling me that it was Mabon?” Rhiann said.

  “No,” Cade said. “It wasn’t, which is precisely what concerns me. Taliesin said that the gods were taking sides in the world of the sidhe, and it meant that they would among us as well.”

  “So who do you think it was?” Rhun said.

  “The only god who manifests as a boar that I’ve heard of is Camulos, a god of war,” Cade said.

  Rhun nodded, grudgingly. “That would make sense.”

  “So Mabon has other allies now, besides Arawn,” Rhiann said. “That’s what you’re telling me?”

  “It looks like it,” Cade said.

  “Yet Mabon is with Arianrhod now,” Rhun said, “and she appears to think he’s on her side.”

  Rhiann pressed the back of her hand to her forehead, trying to ease the stabbing ache that had formed behind her eyes. “If it really was Camulos who attacked you, it sounds to me as if Mabon is still playing the same game he was playing when he was with Arawn. He’s just enlisted some otherworldly help.”

  Cade nodded. “Unfortunately for us, I think you’re right.”

  “And if that’s the case,” Rhun said, “does Arianrhod have allies too? Or is it just you on whom she depends?”

  Now Cade shook his head and gave a half-defeated shrug. “I don’t know. But if I’m all she’s got, this is hardly going to be a fair fight.”

  Chapter Five

  Cade

  To have an emissary from Mabon approach him like this just when Taliesin took it upon himself to disappear was more than irksome. Just when I needed him. And then Cade chastised himself for that kind of thinking. As it was, it was likely that Taliesin was thinking of Cade: he’d seen what had happened to him, known something about it, and run off because the answers lay somewhere else. That Taliesin didn’t see anymore only made the need to leave that much greater.

  “We’ve wounded, Cade,” Rhun said as they left the battlefield.

  Cade shook off his dazedness and checked the sky. Very little time remained before sunrise—long enough to see to a few men who were too hurt to move to the trees. “Organize some stretchers. I’ll help here while I can.”

  “Over here, Cade.” Rhiann had dismounted and begun moving among the fallen men and demons. There were plenty of both. The man she chose to succor first was a foot soldier who had a gash along his upper thigh. The wound was similar to many Cade had seen. Soldiers were taught to aim at an opponent’s neck or limbs because armor that was difficult to penetrate without forceful pressure protected the rest of the body. A slash wouldn’t do it. Head wounds too, were common.

  Cade crouched and lifted the man’s hand to touch the hilt of Caledfwlch. “What’s your name?”

  “Llelo, my lord. The demons—” The man broke off, seemingly unable to articulate further.

  “They’re frightening, aren’t they?” Rhiann said. “Everyone’s frightened of them.”

  “You have it right, my lady.” Llelo sighed and closed his eyes.

  Cade watched the healing of the man’s wound. Another few heartbeats and it disappeared altogether without leaving even a slight scar. Cade snorted a laugh. A man might regret its total absence. It was well known that a strategically-placed scar might aid in courtship of a lady.

  Cade pressed a hand to the man’s shoulder. “Wait a moment while you get your breath.”

  The man opened his eyes and pushed himself onto his elbows. He stared at the smooth skin where before he’d been bleeding out. “Wait, you—”

/>   Cade had saved the man’s life, but he turned away, not wanting to hear the man’s horrified protest. When it didn’t come, Rhiann spoke instead, “King Cadwaladr must seek the shelter of the trees now. If you could help bring the wounded to him, he might be able to save most of them. He hopes to aid them as he has aided you.”

  “Of course, my lady! Anything!” Cade glanced back to see Llelo rub his leg one more time and then pop to his feet. “It’s a miracle!” Llelo held out his arms, twisting his hands back and forth as if he’d just discovered them, and then gazed past Rhiann to Cade. “Thank you, my lord!”

  Cade gave him a small smile, more content with his so-called gift than perhaps he’d ever been before. He looked towards the trees at the top of the ridge. Rhun stood above him, waving a hand to get his attention. Cade lifted his own hand in acknowledgement and picked up his pace. His head had begun to pound. With the rain lessening in conjunction with the rising sun, he needed to get himself safe.

  “Over here, Cade,” Rhun said.

  While Cade had been working, so had others: collecting armaments, clearing the demons from the grass and tossing them onto an ever-growing pile, and preparing food and drink for the survivors, of which, Cade was glad to see, there were many. He’d feared, in the first moments of battle, that none at all would survive the onslaught.

  “Do you need—” Rhun gestured towards a roped pig, one of many that the army had brought with them as food. The pig gazed placidly at Cade, unaware of its lack of a future.

  Cade checked himself internally. “Not now. Not unless the cooks were going to butcher him anyway.”

  Rhun peered at Cade curiously. “Are you sure? It’s been a long night, and it was an even longer day before that.”

  Cade probed his insides, at that well of power that now lay quiescent. “I’m sure.”

  * * * * *

  Many hours later, covered in blood but with a light heart, Cade gestured to Rhun to bring the last wounded man to him. As with all the others over the course of the long morning of labor, Cade reached for the man’s hand, intending to put it on Caledfwlch’s hilt.