Angharad of Llyr is heir to a matriarchy: a line of enchantress-queens that has ruled her island for centuries. Her destiny from birth: to rule as sole authority and ensure that her powerful bloodline endures for another generation. Devoted to her p...
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Angharad swung into the saddle and clucked to the horse, one strange to her. Elen and Eilwen shared the other mount.
"All right, out with it," Eilwen commanded, the moment they were out of Geraint's earshot.
It was nothing she had not expected, but Angharad frowned in annoyance. "The only thing you need to know just now is how much danger we all are in."
"I thought you weren't supposed to tell anyone."
"I don't care. Mother's lost her wits and I won't be silent for her anymore." She recounted it all, from the beginning; the vision, the midnight rituals against the alien fire, and her confrontation with Regat. Eilwen and Elen both stared, white-lipped and open-mouthed.
"Achren?" Elen spat the name like a bite of spoiled food. "What kind of plan is that?"
"Desperate," Eilwen whispered. Her usual impudent cheerfulness had disappeared. "Rhiannon. When you said it was bad..." She shivered, cupped her hand to her breast and squinted at her sister. "There is a certain logic to it. Achren is the one most likely to know how to fight this, if it's truly Arawn. But she won't do it for love or loyalty to us. What does Mother think to offer her in exchange?"
"I don't know," said Angharad. "She said she had certain terms, but...I suspect she thinks Achren will help us just for the sake of revenge."
"Hmph," said Eilwen. "She might, from what I hear. But I wouldn't trust her to stop there. Mother's no fool, Angharad — she has to have some idea of how to keep her under control."
"If she does, she didn't tell me."
"Well, you ran out in a fit, didn't you? Not that I blame you for that." Eilwen chewed at her lip, looking grim. "I might have done the same. Especially with that to run to," she added, twitching her head back in the direction of the cove.
Angharad ignored the insinuation and continued, "She was furious. I thought she'd follow me."
Elen shook her head. "She didn't come looking for you, milady, not in your chambers."
"Then I suppose no one knows I was gone but the two of you." Angharad heaved a heavy sigh of relief. "I'm sorry. Forgive me, Elen, I didn't mean to worry you; I just...wasn't thinking. I barely knew where I was going and I never intended to stay out the whole night. But the storm...and he was...I couldn't..." She clutched at her throat, suddenly struck with the enormity of what she had done. "I don't know how it all happened."
Eilwen snorted and started to speak, caught her sister's baleful glare, and shut her mouth, though it twitched at the corners. They rode in silence for several minutes, grave, lost in thought. Angharad desperately tried to calm her mind, tried to come up with some sort of plan. There was too much: too much happening, too much to feel, too much to protect, too much at stake, and she could not think.
