A Kelpie of Rowan

Chapter 41

Rowan grins. "I did it!"

"Good, Ro. What does the river look like now?"

Rowan dips her fingers into the water, flower petals brushing against her fingers. "It's smooth. Still as glass. It just keeps going on and on."

Darach makes a sound of confusion. "I don't know what glass is, Ro."

Rowan opens her mouth to explain, but the water ripples around her fingers. It moves faster and faster, surging around her. There is another surge and Rowan is swept off her feet. She struggles to stay at the surface of the river, paddling for the shore. She doesn't get any closer but she begins to hear something in the distant. Its a rumbling, roaring sound. Her eyes widen. It's the waterfall again!

She screams. "Darach!"

She feels hands on her cheeks and can hear Darach's voice. It's calm, soothing, but there is an undercurrent of panic. "Ro, open your eyes. I need you to open your eyes and come back to this world."

Rowan tries, she tries so hard to think of the clearing. Once or twice she manages to see it in her mind for a moment, but then the water pulls it away from her. Desperate, fearful tears leak from her eyes. "I can't! I'm trying, but I can't."

Darach makes a strangled sound in her throat and spits out a word. "Daingead!"

Sharp pain flashes across Rowan's face and she cries out, squeezing her eyes shut. The sound of the river disappears and when she opens her eyes again, it is to the sight of the clearing. She touches her cheek gingerly.

"Did you slap me?"

Darach winces. "Sorry. But it was the only way to get you out. Would you rather be alive with a painful face or to be essentially dead, drowning in your own magic?"

Rowan frowns. "Okay, that's fair. I would rather be alive."

"That's what I thought."

Darach turns for a moment, glancing up at the sky through the branches of her tree. Rowan moves to do the same and finds that the leaves are fuzzy. She can't see through them. Rowan shakes her head and blinks for a moment before she crumples to the ground, her vision going dark.

~~~

There is a sound from behind Darach and she whirls. Ro is falling to the ground. Her knees have hit the ground already but the rest of her is still moving. She passed out. Darach sighs and raises her head to the sky.

"Feck."

She crouches down beside Ro and tries to shift the girl into a more comfortable position. She can't move her very well, she isn't strong enough. She's not human, she's a dryad. That makes her lighter boned, smaller. A shadow moves on the ground and Darach glances around to see one of the trees reached for them. No, for Ro, not Darach. The branches scoop her up, cradling her in a web of wood and leaves. Darach stares at the cocoon in amazement. The clearing doesn't just give Ro its allegiance, it cares for her too. The nest of branches lifts Ro higher into the air, away from Darach. She frowns.

Why is the tree taking her away? What if she wakes up in the air? She'll lose her mind. Darach turns towards her tree, planning to emerge on one of the higher branches, where she can see Ro again. There is movement from outside the clearing and Darach spins around to look at it directly. It's the Seelie man, the one who burned her tree. Darach snarls at him and steps closer to her tree, to safety. Around her, the clearing is changing positions. Trees are preparing branches to lash out at him and the brambles' thorns have grown longer and sharper. He grins, the smile cruel. If he didn't know that she was one of the Aos Sí, he would probably use glamour on her.

"Where is she?"

"Who?"

"My great-great-grandaughter. I know you know where she is."

Darach's brain goes fuzzy with panic. She can't lie. How does she make him leave? "Why would I know where she is? Or even what she looks like?"

"You've already met her, dryad. I felt a pulse of magic from this clearing. Her energy is similar to mine, I could feel it bursting out of her. She's here, or she was recently. So tell me, where is she? Tell me, or I'll burn your tree."

Darach raises her chin. "You've already tried that. Falbh a ghabhail do ghnùis airson cac."

His expression darkens. He knows what she said. How could he not? It's the oldest language the Aos Sí have known, and they continue to know it. Each and every one of them. He's one of the old ones too, someone high in the Seelie Court.

"I will ask you one last time. Where is she?"

Darach steps closer to her tree, prepared to flee. "Taigh nam gasta ort."

She is moving before the last word leaves her lips, melding into her tree. It will hurt when he burns the tree regardless of where she is. Nut he can't turn the fire on her now, not when she is safe within the heartwood. She can hear him snarling in rage, she can feel the heat of flames on her wood. She can only hope that he doesn't burn the rest of the clearing in his rage again. Ro is attuned to it. If he harms any of the other trees, she will feel it and could give herself away. Darach cries out when the first lick of flame touches her tree, charring its bark. He holds it there for a minute, letting it catch and spread. He steps away from the tree, leaving her to scream in pain from inside it.

"I told you not to cross me."

She can hear him leave the clearing over the crackling flames. Then she succumbs to the pain, curling into a tiny speck at the centre of the heartwood in hopes that she can escape the ravaging fire.
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Will Darach be okay? What did she tell him? What do you think is going to happen next? Tell me your thoughts!

I have some good news! This book has officially crossed the 50k work and 200 pg marker for a novel! Not in this chapter though, one of the ones you can't see yet.

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.