Page 121 of First Light
“Duncan is with me.So is Darius.”
You will not be hidden from the unicorn as this fae has not warded against his magic. Be careful and stay close to him for as long as you can.
“I will.”
It took a long time to cross the valley and ford the river at the bottom. Carys took her boots and stockings off to keep them dry, but her lower legs were soaked after the effort. Even Duncan’s warm back couldn’t stop her shivering.
At the base of the hill, Duncan pulled on the reins.
“This is as far as the horses should go. They’ll spook once we cross her wards.”
“What?” She waited while Duncan dismounted. “Why? Do the fae dislike horses?”
He helped her down and quickly led his mount to the trees as Carys found a fallen log and sat on it to put her stockings and boots back on. It helped with the shivering. A little.
“It’s a complex relationship. Horses have their own gods and their own magic. Fae can’t influence them the same way they can humans.” He nodded at Darius. “It’s part of the reason that Darius can see through their wards while dragons cannot.”
“Strange.”
You smell of Epona’s blood.
Epona, the goddess associated with horses. The goddess that the fae didn’t like.
Darius dismounted and walked over. “We leave the horses here.”
“Agreed.” Duncan guided his horse to a stand of pines. “We’ll tie them up here and go the rest of the way on foot.”
Darius lifted his nose and smelled the air. “I smell no predators nearby, but tie them loosely, human. They do not owe us their lives.”
“Done.” Duncan walked back to Carys. “Ready to do some hiking?”
She looked up at the pine-covered mountain shrouded in fog and shadows, then down at her newly warm feet. The sun had never seemed farther away, but she knew in her gut that clues to her sister’s death lay at the top of that dreadful hill.
“Hiking is the one thing I can do in this crazy place.” She nodded. “Ready.”
The way wasnarrow and rocky, but it curled up the mountain like a slow-moving twist of smoke, drifting back and forth over the face of the hill. Verdant green brush quickly gave way to dense pine and cedar, and the way was strewn with needles. Carys’s feet were slipping on the damp forest path, so they had to move slowly.
Duncan took up the lead, his steel-core dagger hidden away in his boot. Carys walked behind him, glad she was an experienced hiker but wishing for her modern boots, which would have been a vast improvement over the stiff leather she was wearing. She had taken a jar of honey from her saddlebags and tucked it into the pocket of her tunic.
Bonnie had been confused when Carys asked for a dressy, embroidered tunic that morning to wear with a pair of practical wool trousers. Carys suspected that arriving in work clothing would be offensive to any fae, much less a powerful one, so she wore her dressier boots, the nicest leggings she could come up with, and she’d braided her thick hair into two plaits that fell over her shoulders. A fur-trimmed cloak both dressed up the outfit and kept her warm.
Darius brought up the rear, still in human form and wearing nothing but his linen wrap and a cloak over his broad shoulders. He said he preferred to climb mountains in human form as his natural form wasn’t as nimble on narrow, rocky paths.
Crows and blackbirds visited them regularly, squawking from the trees as they climbed. There was no other birdsong on the mountain, and the quiet pressed against her.
“It feels like the fae gate,” she said.
Duncan glanced over his shoulder. “There’s a reason for that.”
She looked through the trees, halfway expecting to see blue lights dancing in the shadows, but there was nothing to break the darkness, which was almost worse.
Skittering from the brush, a massive rat darted out of the bushes, making Carys jump back and nearly fall into Darius.
“It’s fine,” the unicorn said. “She has an affection for the creatures.”
“Rats?”
Darius nodded. “They’re smart and sociable, much like crows.”