Page 40 of First Light
Yasmin smiled softly. “The blessing will protect you, Carys, as long as you need shelter, but we will not take you to the fae gate. We never go near them.” Her eyes grew dark. “That is the place where the innocent are taken.”
The innocent?
The twins who never make it to the Shadowlands.Carys pictured the hundreds of tiny lights in the forest, as abundant as fireflies. “You’re reallygood, aren’t you?”
Maybe that much goodness couldn’t bear being around such a twisted place.
The sadness fell from Yasmin’s eyes, and she smiled again. “You say that when you have met my daughter.” Yasmin wound up a silvery gauze that looked like spiderweb and put it in a woven bag along with the ointment she’d applied to Carys’s wounds. “Try standing now.”
Carys rose to her feet and found that while her legs were cold and damp, the blisters and scrapes didn’t hurt anymore. The burning pain around her ankles from the kelpie’s binding didn’t even make a twinge.
“Wow.” She breathed out in relief. “So much better.”
Yasmin stowed her bag in a nearby tent and led Carys toward the open meadow. “Fundamentally, our nature is wholeness. Peace.” Yasmin looked at Darius with fierce pride. “But make no mistake, our blessing is lethal in battle when we need to be.”
“I believe it.” She leaned against a tree. “My scrapes don’t even hurt anymore.”
“I’m indebted to you for bringing Azar home. Her cousins will get quite a punishment for leaving her alone in the forest.” Yasmin shook her head. “I’m glad she wasn’t stranded for long; the foals always play too near to the old fae fort.”
So therehadbeen something magical in the forest. Carys made a mental note to avoid that dark place on the way back.
“Our children are very precious to us,” Yasmin continued. “Even if they are rambunctious.”
“She’s a wonderful little girl.” Carys looked at the small child on the unicorn’s back. “Someone told me that children aren’t born here. That the fae are the only ones who give the people here children. It’s not the same for you?”
Yasmin shook her head. “Nothing is born in the Shadowlands except by magic, but a unicorn’s fundamental nature is magic.” She smiled as she watched the children and the unicorn foals playing. “The old gods bless us with young just like they bless the dragons and the wolves and other magical creatures.”
“Wolves?”
Yasmin’s expression grew dark. “They live in the south and owe their allegiance to the Anglian rulers.” She looked at Carys. “Dread the day you meet a north wolf for they love war.”
Carys shivered at the warning in Yasmin’s voice until a bright voice distracted her.
“Mama!”
Yasmin’s face bloomed into a beatific smile. “Azar.” She nudged Carys toward the meadow. “Your new friend is feeling better.”
“Did you give her a potion?” The little girl slid off her father’s back and held up her ankle. “My foot feels all better from mine.”
“I’m glad.” Carys bent down to see the ankle the little girl stuck out. “I wanted to thank your father for saving me.”
Carys stood up and watched as a golden mirage seemed to overtake the massive form of the unicorn Azar had been riding. Moments later a man appeared, dressed only in a cream-colored wrap that circled his waist. His skin was the color of gold-touched sand, and the first word that popped into her mind when she saw him waswarm.
The unicorn looked warm even in the winter cold. His hair fell loose and flowing to his waist, and though the cold breeze crept down Carys’s neck, the man’s skin showed not a single goose bump.
“I am Darius, guardian of the Moray blessing.” He was even taller than Yasmin and wore a gold sigil on his forehead where his horn had been. “Welcome, Carys.”
His human voice was deep, resonant, and as powerful as she’d expected from the massive unicorn who had battled the kelpie.
“Thank you for saving my life,” she said. “I was foolish to walk so close to the loch. I was trying to fight it off, but I’m pretty sure that monster would have dragged me under if it hadn’t been for you.”
“You saved my daughter’s life, and our blessing owes you a favor.”
“Honestly, it’s my own fault,” Carys said. “Azar tried to warn me, but I didn’t know about the kelpie, and I’ve had a bit of a shock today. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“You saved our daughter before protecting yourself,” Darius said. “You have our gratitude. Can we see you back to the castle? You arewelcome anytime, but we don’t have human beds that would make you comfortable this night.”
Honestly, the thought of sleeping on the ground with unicorns in the middle of a magical meadow sounded so much better than going anywhere at the moment. The day was starting to catch up with her.