Beyond the Crimson (The Crimson Cycle) (23 page)

             
I stopped dead in my tracks a few feet from him as my eyes finally fell on her. She was definitely of the fairy people; I could see the blue moon on her forehead. She was just as Brendelon had described: small, pixie-like, and dressed in fur clothing. The twilight gave her skin a glow, appearing almost translucent. Suddenly it became very cold to me, and I found myself missing the warm comfort of the scorching sun. She turned her head slowly to me, eyes transfixed. My heart skipped a beat, and I was instantly filled with adrenaline as my instincts anticipated the danger.

“What did you do to him?” I yelled at her. She tilted her head delicately to the side and studied me. Brendelon suddenly twisted painfully gasping for breaths.

“Leave him alone!” I shouted, watching him clutch to the sides of his head. I was overcome with protectiveness once again and before my brain could register my actions, I pulled the bow up, aiming the arrow at her. After all, she did not know if I would be accurate or not. She was obviously powerful, but I didn’t care. “So help me I will kill you if you don’t stop hurting him!” 

“You are not of this realm,” she said slowly, cocking her heads to the left, studying me once again.

“I’m from the future and know things your feeble mind could never comprehend,” I blurted out.

“The future,
” she gasped, as her eyes darted around.

“Yes
and you do not want to cross me.” I tried to match the malicious tone I had heard so many times from Brendelon, but I feared my wobbly voice gave away the truth of my bluff.

She shook her head
. “
He
is the one you should fear. He should never have escaped.” Her expression turned dark once more.

My eyes narrowed.
“Escape?” I whispered. “How do you know that?” I demanded, lifting the bow higher.

“Do you not know what he is capable of?” Her
lip quivered slightly. “He will destroy us… all of us.” I blinked at her words, they sounded too much like Theol’s.

             
She stepped forward so lithe-like the branches under her delicate feet did not even crunch under her weight. She grabbed his hand from the side of his head, revealing a dark metal cuff around his wrist that barely caught the last bit of the sinking rays of sunlight. Gently, she showed me the other hand with the matching cuff. I gasped understanding now why he grabbed his wrists. “This is black magic,” she continued stepping back as she looked up into the dark blue sky that was slowly being sprinkled with salted stars. “It is a bond with the dark one.”

             
The bond transferred
, I thought, remembering Merlin’s words. She turned her light eyes to me, raising an eyebrow.

“I cannot save his life
this time, too much is at risk.” She looked around carefully, and I noticed that behind her confidence she was terribly frightened.

“I’m not going to let you hurt him,” I threatened keeping the arrow aimed at her. Her bright eyes looked up at me, slightly amused and then she blew white dust from her hand that circled around me, slowly falling to the ground. Her face scrunched in a panic as she took a step back.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

I blinked, not understan
ding her sudden alarm. “I told you I am from the future; my intellect is far above yours, now release him from your magic!” She lifted a hand, and he stopped twisting in pain, but he still remained motionless on the ground with only his back moving up and down in a steady rhythm.

“No, you are something else,” she said quie
tly, eyes widening into a panic. “I need to find her.” Her eyes searched as though the person she was speaking of was merely hiding among the brushes.

“Who?”
I demanded, wondering if she meant Morgaina.

She whipped her gaze back to me and a
ll the fear I once saw was gone. “Consider this a gift,” she hissed.

Suddenly thunder cracked loudly in the sky and he let out a painful moan, against my will my head jolted to the sound and in the same instant she was gone.

Her words left me in complete disarray, but I did not have time to think on them. I pushed on his shoulders, trying to wake him from whatever sleep he was in but he wouldn’t budge.

“Brendelon!”
I panicked but he stayed motionless.

The forest was enchanted; he had warned me of that. I looked back up into the sky and saw the hawk again but this time it was swooping lower coming so close that I finally realized it wasn’t the hawk from earlier at all. It was a black bird, larger than a crow, with a long rounded black beak. It landed a few feet away from us, turning its head to the side and watchin
g me with its beady black eyes. The eerie feeling escaladed, and I shuddered unwillingly. The bird blinked rapidly, tilting its head in small twitches watching Brendelon on the ground, long fingers entwined in his disheveled raven hair…
raven?
And then it dawned on me. I whipped my gaze back to the disturbing little creature and realized it was a raven. His words of ravens bringing ominous messages sounded through my ears as the bird stepped closer to him. I thrust out my arm to shoo it away. It jumped back and let out a nasty caw at me, and I pulled my arm to my chest, frightened that it would attack.

“Scram!” I yelled at it
, throwing a rock into its path. It blinked it glowing eyes at me once more then took flight giving me the teeniest bit of relief.

I had a feeling deep down there was something relevant with the raven; it seemed too eerie and too symbolic to simply brush off as coincidental
, but it was already getting darker, we were becoming more vulnerable, and the only thought on my mind was to get him out of here and back into the open field, away from these fairy folk, and away from whatever darkness drew him here. I yanked on his arms, but he was far too heavy. Panic twisted inside of me. We couldn’t stay here. If she was afraid, then we should be afraid too. I glanced back at the direction of the horses still on the road. He would hate me for this, but I had no other choice.

              I gently led my horse through the dead brush, trying to clear out a path as we walked back to Brendelon’s hunched form. I knelt beside him, trying one more time to wake him but he stayed perfectly still.

I used all my strength to roll him over to his back, carefully making sure his shield was underneath him. I sat gasping. He was already big, but his armor made him even heavier. I crawled back over to the mare, grabbing the rope off the side of the saddle and tied it carefully around his boots, checking the knots to make sure they wouldn’t come undone. He was really going to hate this. Quickly, I tied the other end to the s
addle, yanked on her reigns and dragged him across the forest floor.

I
tried to go as slow as possible, to not hurt him anymore than necessary, hoping his armor and the shield would be enough to protect him from any road rash. The blackness had completely taken the sky by the time we made it to the safety of the open field, where his horse still patiently waited, but whined when he saw us approach. I grabbed his horse’s reigns too, pulling both of them as far from the forest as I could without leaving the open field. Though I felt safer in a place where I could see oncoming fairies and creatures, no place felt quite safe enough. 

             
I untied his feet and huddled very close to him with the bow in my arms, and even though he obviously couldn’t offer much protection and I clearly wasn’t an expert with the bow, both gave me a feeling of comfort. The horses seemed calm, and I took this as a good sign. My eyelids felt heavy, but I fought against it not wanting to sleep, worried I wouldn’t wake up, or that I would be trapped in their fairyland for years like he had warned me.

Each blink felt longer than the last. Maybe one minute rest would be okay. Just one minute…

             
“Do not touch me again!” a voice roared. I jolted upright, wide-awake, heart pounding. I darted my eyes left to right; nobody was around. His eyes were still shut, but he had twisted to his side, face contorted into pain.

             
“Brendelon,” I shook him.

             
He stayed still for a long while, only thing that moved were his facial features. I watched him carefully. Then suddenly he thrashed about. I scrambled out of his way. He could take my head off and not even know it. He was rolled onto his stomach, grasping handfuls of grass and dirt, almost like he was going to army crawl his way forward, but he stayed in place, groaning.

             
“I will never give the sword to you,” he growled into the dirt. His body convulsed into a hunched ball and he moaned in pain. He finally relaxed for a moment, heaving in breaths then crawled onto his hands and knees, trying to slowly move forward.

             
“Brendelon!” I tried again, keeping my distance.

             
He shook his head, dropping it forward, clutching his hair. “It is mine,” he hissed into the ground.

             
He stayed like that: face in the dirt, knees tucked under, dark cape spread over him. I didn’t go near him; he wasn’t conscious of reality, and I wasn’t sure how long this would last. He had said years could pass and only feel like days. I began considering how much damage it would do to have his horse drag him back to Caerleon. Although, I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to find our way back. I couldn’t stay stuck in the wilderness forever. I’d never survive. 

             
I hugged my knees, watching his motionless form, every once in a while he’d convulse, but the talking stopped. In a twisted way I wished he would continue to talk. It made me feel less lonely, and I was sure his groaning and yelling would scare away on any oncoming predators. I glanced around the dark field. It seemed still but who was I to say.

             
My eyes remained faithful throughout the night until I finally saw the aurora of the sun peeking up over dark mountains to greet me. The daylight was a relief, a safe haven. I laid on my side, keeping my gaze on Brendelon. Maybe I could sleep; surely we were safer in the daylight.

             
I closed my eyes for what only felt like a split second until a hand grasped my shoulder and began shaking me.

             
I screamed and swatted at the hands that held me as my eyes adjusted, finally focusing on green emeralds that stared back at me. I scrambled backwards, unsure if he was still drugged off fairy dust and afraid to be at the center of his fury.

“Brendelon?”
I started.

The right side of his mouth curled upward, mock
ing. He glanced down at himself. “So it would appear…”

I frowned. “W
ell, you definitely weren’t yourself last night.”

His eyes tightened.
“Damned fairies.” He stood up, shooting his brooding look towards the forests trees, little birds chirped in the distance almost as a response. Then he glanced down at me, offering me a hand. “How long was I out?”

I took his hand as
he pulled me up. “Just the night.” The sun was high overhead; I must have slept longer than I thought. I still felt exhausted but relieved that he was awake.

“How did we get out of there?” he asked
, keeping his eyes on the forest.

“Umm… I had to drag you.” He turned t
o me with a confused expression. “Well actually, the horse dragged you…”

I expected him to be mad
, but instead his face broke out into a grin. Maybe he thought I was joking, but he didn’t question me. He just shook his head.

“Well
, that certainly is a first…” He scratched his head, eyes slightly softening. He gave me that adorable half-grin, and I felt my cheeks redden.

“What happened to you?”

“Elenora decided to remind me of her power.” He clenched his fists. “She might as well be a sorceress,” he muttered. 

“Elenora?”

“Aye, I saved her life once and this is how she repays me,” he spat out disgustedly. “I knew better than to trust the fairy folk.”

“Wait,” I said suddenly getting my mind clear. “She said she saved your life once and would not do it again
. I think she meant to kill you,” I pointed to his wrists, “because she was frightened of the bond you have…” I decided to not mention the part about her claiming he would destroy them all; he already thought he was wicked enough. “Is that the transfer Merlin was talking about?”

His eyes clouded
, and his jaw clenched suddenly as he took deep breaths. It seemed as though he were debating on whether or not to tell me the truth. He finally sighed, pushing his hand through his hair. “Aye and there is another bond on my ankle now.” He walked forward a few steps, chewing on his thumbnail.

“Why didn’t you tell anybody?” I asked him.

He turned to me with a bored look on his face. “What can they do besides worry and pity over me as always, treating me as though I were some incompetent child?” He shrugged his shoulders. “I got myself into this mess, and I can get myself out of it.”