The Dragon's Stolen Mate: A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance

by Jade White

  “What do we do now?” she asked Carwin, torn between annoyance and anxiety. “I can’t swim.” She hated feeling like she was holding him back, but at the same time, that was a fairly arbitrary reason to bar entrance to the Well.

  “I’m not surprised,” he said, unperturbed. “The only reason I can swim is that I was born so near to the sea. Few people living inland can swim. There must be another solution. I’m not even sure we actually need to go across. Look around, and see if you can see any clues.”

  Eleri felt some of her anxiety drain away at his response, and she walked over to the wall to see if she could spot anything unusual. There was a place, she noticed, that was mostly devoid of plant life, and too regular of a shape to be natural. She reached out to brush a vine away, and when her fingers touched the stone, something happened. Markings appeared, glowing shapes lit with the same inner light as the mushrooms and crystals. They were letters, she realized, the same that the druids used, and though she could not read them, the meaning seemed to etch itself into her mind. “Cast aside your earthly burdens and dive into the waters of thought and memory.

  What does that mean?”

  Upon hearing the sound of her voice, Carwin appeared at her side. “You can read the ogham?” he asked wondering.

  “No,” she admitted. “When I touched the letters, I just knew. But I don’t understand it. Casting aside my earthly burdens sounds like it wants me to die or something.”

  He chuckled. “I don’t think it’s that extreme. Probably, we’re just supposed to take our clothes off.”

  “Oh, right,” she said, her cheeks getting hot. Not so much over the embarrassment of being nude, though if anyone but Carwin appeared, she wouldn’t be happy. It was only that now that he had said it, the meaning was rather obvious.

  “Shall I assist you?” he said with a roguish grin, pressing his lips to the back of her neck, and she shivered at the touch.

  “Very tempting, but I fear that would lead to activities that are probably not suitable for such a sacred location.”

  “Spoilsport,” he teased. “But you’re right; even Rhiannon would likely consider that rude. We shouldn’t linger in a place like this, anyway. There’s no guarantee that all the denizens are benign.” They stripped off their clothes, and Carwin regarded his dragon scale pendant with a thoughtful frown. “This isn’t exactly an earthly burden, but I’m not sure what will happen if I take it off.”

  “Dylan said Ceridwen’s magic wasn’t allowed here. Maybe right now, it’s just a normal piece of jewelry,” she offered, though in truth, the rules of the gods and their magic made little sense in her mind.

  “Maybe,” he said, his voice uneasy, but he closed his eyes and lifted the pendant slowly over his head. A heartbeat passed and then another. Nothing happened. Carwin let out an explosive breath; he looked as though a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He tossed the necklace onto the pile of his discarded clothes and reached out for her hand with a smile. “It really is a tempting thought, to stay here in Afallach. Ceridwen has been hanging over my head for so many years that I nearly forgot what it was like to be free of her.”

  Eleri frowned in confusion even as she allowed Carwin to pull her to his side. Compared to the cool, damp air in the cave, his skin was pleasantly warm on her own. “I didn’t know you found being her champion so burdensome.” Although she supposed he hadn’t enjoyed being turned to stone.

  “I...” he sighed. “Sometimes it is difficult. Her wishes and mine do not always align. But now is not the time to discuss it. We have to investigate this water of memory.”

  She nodded, resolving to bring up the subject again later. “I still can’t swim,” she added with a shiver.

  “I know. I won’t let you drown, whatever happens, but we may only need to wade in the pool.” She took a deep breath to steady herself, and they walked into the water together. It was warmer than she’d expected, but even when they were both submerged to their chests, nothing happened.

  “It did say to dive in. Maybe we have to put our heads under,” she guessed, though she wasn’t fond of the idea. Still, even when she held her breath as long as she could, there wasn’t any change.

  Carwin sighed unhappily. “I’m afraid we must have to swim toward the bottom of the pool. I can’t think of anything else to try.”

  “Maybe you should go without me,” Eleri said, feeling like she might cry but not seeing any other option. She wasn’t going to hold him back. He touched her cheek.

  “I’m not going to go without you,” he said firmly. “If whatever is down there isn’t too far of a swim, it will be easy enough to carry you on my back.” Eleri frowned. It sounded like the exact opposite of easy. At least, for him. He grinned. “I could carry you on my back with hardly any effort on land. Underwater, you’ll weigh even less. The hard part will be holding your breath. Don’t you trust me?”

  She sighed, defeated. “Of course I trust you. But I also know you can be very stubborn when it comes to your refusal to look after your own well-being.”

  “I’ll be fine,” he assured her. “Just hold onto my neck and put your legs around my waist. When I count to three, take the deepest breath you can and hold it.” She felt a little ridiculous, especially considering the last time she had done something like this, she had been a little girl riding on her father’s back. But that had not involved being underwater. He counted to three; she filled her lungs until she thought they would burst, and then they dove. Streams of tiny bubbles tickled her cheeks as they trailed by, and then she could see nothing but deep blue water and Carwin’s hair flowing behind him.

  It was getting darker and darker, and her lungs were beginning to hurt. All Eleri could think was that this was an impossible task, even for Carwin alone. Maybe the Well had already decided they were unworthy. Just as she was ready to give up, she saw something ahead of them, a greenish glow in the water.

  It brightened as they came closer; her ears popped and the burning in her lungs eased, but what she saw made her gasp. Though she would have sworn they had traveled steadily downward, the surface of the water was now below them. She could see bright sunlight shining down into the deeps, but even more surprising was the beautiful woman floating in front of them. Golden hair swirled around her like a halo, but where her legs should have been was a fish’s tail with shining silver scales. The mysterious woman reached out to them, and when one pale, slender finger touched the center of Eleri’s forehead, her vision went white.

  *************************

  Carwin awoke to find himself lying somewhere he never thought he’d see again, except maybe in nightmares. He was on the battlefield outside the keep where he had spent nearly the first thirty years of his life. It was a scene deeply etched in his memory, only when it had actually happened, he had been wounded when he had regained consciousness. This had been the worst day of his life, and he suspected what had to happen next.

  He retraced the steps he had taken, across the field littered with corpses, the cries of carrion crows harsh in his ears. There was the horse, standing forlorn over the dead body of its rider, Carwin’s younger cousin, Aneirin. He had shed more than a few tears over that death the first time, but now he felt only sad resignation, knowing much more keenly than he had on that long-ago day, that this was only the least of the blows aimed at his heart. He took the horse and rode on, steeling himself for what he knew was coming.

  When he reached the gates, they were thrown aside, scorched by dark magic just as he remembered, and there too, were the torn and mutilated bodies of the guards and banner men who had fallen in defense of the keep. It was no less horrifying than the first time he had come upon this scene, but he did not look away. Manwydan had told them to face the truth after all, and the dead men deserved that much.

  Carwin climbed the steps to the main hall with his mouth set in a grim line. There were the bodies of his parents, his father shielding his mother and young sister as he died. Dywell’s forces had not maim
ed them, as they had with many of the others, and there was some small mercy in that. Tears threatened to fall as Carwin knelt down beside them, as he had so many years ago, intending to arrange and cover their bodies just as before. But when he reached out to touch his father, the eyes of the corpse flew open.

  Carwin might have screamed as he jumped backward, nearly falling over in his haste to get away. The corpse of his father, unperturbed, sat up and glared at him in accusation. “You did not avenge us,” it said in a horrible scratchy voice, not at all like the jovial bass of the man whose body it mimicked.

  “You didn’t even bury us. You failed,” hissed the body of Carwin’s mother. For a moment, he was helpless before these apparitions, and their accusations cut him to the bone. He wanted to argue or to beg forgiveness, but from somewhere inside him, a shred of reason remained. They were long dead. He shook his head.

  “I failed, yes. But it was too large a task for me, too large for anyone to accomplish alone. If you had been alive then, you would have told me I was foolish to take it on. I have gained some wisdom since then, and I have not given up, but it’s no longer about vengeance. Dywell must be stopped, and I will do what I can since our family is partly to blame.” Carwin stood again, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. “You are not my family. Leave their memories in peace.”

  That seemed to satisfy the apparitions. The corpses disappeared, leaving nothing but a pile of dusty bones, but there was still an aura about the place that made Carwin’s skin crawl. He suspected this test wasn’t done with him, and he knew where he had to go next.

  It had taken him ages to find the bodies of his wife and daughter the first time. The memories haunted him now, the hours of staggering through the keep, sometimes falling down from pain, searching despite knowing what he would find. He had been almost possessed, half out of his mind with grief and delirious with fever; it was a wonder he’d survived.

  Now, he knew just where to go. Like Eleri and her mother, his wife Heulwen had been attempting to flee with a group of women and children, but they had been caught. Dywell’s forces had taken them out to the upper bailey and killed them one by one, stabbing them with swords and leaving them to die slow, agonizing deaths. The youngest children they’d simply clubbed over the head. It was a scene he had never wanted to see again, but he’d revisited it in his dreams more times than he cared to remember.

  After what had happened with his parents, Carwin approached the bodies with more caution. He knew just where his wife would be, but to his surprise, nothing happened when he knelt next to her bloodied form. At the time, he had been in no shape to notice details, but he could see clearly that she, at least, had not suffered much. The pool of blood beneath her testified to that; she had died of blood loss, probably within minutes.

  Carwin wondered what it meant, that he noticed it now. Had he always known that, somewhere in the back of his mind, but had before been too emotional to see it, or were the gods showing him this now to give him some measure of peace? Considering the rest of the vision, he doubted it was the latter.

  Still, nothing was happening. He had to remember what he had done next. Of course, he had looked for his daughter. Olwen had been so young, it had been almost impossible to tell, among the bodies of the other children of the keep, and in the end, he had covered them all with a tapestry.

  Every child lost was equally heart wrenching, and he had been the only one left to mourn. Now, he approached the pile of small bodies with a sick feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach, and as he feared, when he approached, their mangled bodies began to rise, coming toward him in a twisted parody of a toddler’s eager embrace.

  “Papa! Papa!” they cried with voices like ravens. For the first time in his life, Carwin felt his knees go weak from horror.

  “You forgot us,” said Heulwen’s corpse, and her voice sounded like the whisper of tattered parchment. “You abandoned your family for another.”

  The dead children were advancing on him, reaching with clawlike fingers, and he back away in unthinking fear. “You don’t even remember what I looked like,” said one voice out of the cacophony.

  “No, no,” he stammered a denial. “I didn’t, I couldn’t...” The back of his knees hit the edge of the parapet, and for a brief moment, he wondered what would happen if he died in this vision. Would he just wake up and be unable to find the Well after all, or would he drift down in the darkness of the underground pool, never to breathe again? Eleri’s face flashed in front of his eyes. Even if he didn’t care about his own survival, he couldn’t do that to her. She had only come here for him after all. And suddenly, he knew what he had to do.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. The corpses paused. “I haven’t forgotten, but I have moved on. It was a long time ago. I loved you both, with all that I had, but I can’t grieve forever. Heulwen wouldn’t have wanted that. You are not her.” The malice went out of the air with a great sigh, and then the ground began to shake under his feet.

  Carwin wasn’t sure if it meant that he had succeeded or that there was something worse to come. Cracks appeared in the stones. Any moment now, the keep would collapse. He could see no other choice. Taking a deep breath, he leaped over the battlements.

  ************************

  He awoke with the feeling that he’d just been slammed back into his body, and he lay gasping for breath for several moments while his brain tried to make sense of where he was. Rocks were digging into his bare skin, and the ceiling was alight with pale green phosphorescence. He could hear the faint sound of water slapping against stone. Was he still in the cave? Where was Eleri?

  He sat up, his eyes darting around frantically, but she was lying right next to him. Her eyes were screwed shut, and her lips were moving, but no sound was coming out. When he put his hand to her shoulder, he could feel that she was freezing.

  “Eleri,” he said gently, gathering her up into his lap and pressing her icy fingers between his own. “It’s all right. You’re safe.”

  She came awake all at once, her breaths shuddering through her whole frame and her muscles tensing when she felt his arms around her. Her mouth opened as if she might scream, but then her eyes finally seemed to focus on him, and she sagged with relief. “Oh, Carwin, it was terrible,” she said, turning her face into his chest and shivering.

  “I know,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his face into her hair, which was oddly dry. “Judging by what I saw, I have no doubt it was awful, but at least it is over.” She could only nod in agreement, and they sat there for several long moments, just trying to recover.

  Eventually, reality began to reassert itself. “Where are we?” Eleri wondered, peering around at the cavern. “It looks like the same cave as before, only not. The light’s different. Did we succeed or fail?”

  “I don’t know,” Carwin admitted. “I thought I had overcome the... vision, but this place does look awfully familiar.” He shook his head. “At the moment, the important thing is that we’re together and not drowned at the bottom of the lake. If this is the same cave, at least we can have our clothes back.”

  Their clothes were folded nearby, just as they had left them, and they helped each other dress, touching each other for comfort and reassurance rather than desire. “I’m sorry, Carwin,” Eleri said quietly as he replaced the necklace lovingly on her neck. “If we came back here, the Well must not think we’re worthy, and I’m sure that it’s my fault. I’ve done nothing but get in the way.”

  He turned her to face him, cupping her cheeks in her hands. “If this is failure, then we have both failed. The magic was capable of separating us in the pool; I have no doubt it could continue to do so if needed. And you have not been in the way. Considering your sheltered upbringing, you have done remarkably well on a quest that is not your own. I asked you to come for my own selfish reasons, but I continue to be glad that I did.” She sighed, and he kissed her forehead. “In any case, don’t be too quick to assume defeat. You’re right about the lig
ht changing color. It used to be blue. Maybe that’s a good sign. All we can do is keep going.”

  “True,” she replied, looking up at him with a less downcast expression. “I guess I’m still feeling shaken by the visions, but you’re right. Even though they were horrible, I also felt like I… defeated them, I guess. After that, I can’t imagine what the final test is going to be.”

  “I fear saying that it can’t get much worse is tempting fate, but I still feel that, after that, we can survive anything,” Carwin said with a grim chuckle.

  “I know what you mean,” she said, pulling back from his embrace and taking his hand. “We may as well go see what else is in store for us. The sooner I can leave this cave, the better.”

  “Agreed.” Hand in hand, they walked toward the entrance, but after a moment, Eleri frowned and looked around.

  “Shouldn’t this passage be going upward? I could have sworn we went down when we came in.” Carwin stopped and looked around the tunnel.