Warriors of Ethandun (36 page)

‘Will it still work?'

‘Let's see.' He signalled to Taliesin to untie Braveheart, who had been whimpering his complaint at not being permitted to join the battle; war dogs were not best suited to the close press of the shield wall. The great dog bounded up to Dan, almost knocking him over in his enthusiasm, and licked Ursula's hand enthusiastically. He seemed as relieved as Ursula to find Dan restored – insofar as she could tell.

‘This might work for you too,' Dan said, showing the orb. ‘It brought us here.'

‘Are you coming, Rhonwen?' Taliesin asked.

‘Where?'

‘Home, if we can get there – somewhere else if we can't.'

‘What? You think that thing has the magic we do not? I'll give it a go but you're not still trying to marry me off to your old master, are you? Because I have to tell you I am a little past the age of heir-bearing.' Rhonwen took Taliesin's arm with that familiar flirtatious smile. Ursula wondered if in all the drama of the last few hours she even knew that her youthful beauty had been restored.

‘I wouldn't be so sure of that,' Taliesin said. ‘Let's see where we end up then, shall we?'

They walked for a while, back towards the great forest, each lost in their own thoughts, until Taliesin found a place they all agreed seemed likely, though it was hard to tell as there was no magic for any of them to use, only the orb, which seemed unchanged.

‘I feel we should leave Aelfred a note or something – so
he knows that we did not break our oaths.'

‘Were there no witnesses to your brave ride?'

‘Yes.'

‘Then he will know. You did not break your oaths. You fulfilled them better than anyone could have hoped.' Taliesin leaned in towards Ursula and whispered: ‘Just tell me. Was it worth the pain?'

Ursula thought about the aching emptiness of the void the magic left, then she thought about what the magic had done to her and to Dan. She could live with the void if it meant she could have Dan.

‘Yes,' she said quietly, and Taliesin smiled.

‘Shall we try here?' he said more loudly, so that everyone could hear.

They all held hands and Dan cut his hand lightly with Bright Killer so that his blood, the necessary blood of sacrifice, began to fall. They clustered together as tightly as they could, heads bowed in private prayer. Taliesin rubbed the orb and to their immense relief tendrils of oily smoke curled around the ground, until the familiar dense yellow fog developed. As one, they stepped forward into the mist – home.

‘Aelfred ended up being one of Britain's most famous Kings. I feel we ought to have known that,' Ursula said as she turned the page of the only history book they'd been able to find in the library that told them anything useful about their one-time Liege Lord and King. ‘I just wish we knew what happened to Asser and Gunnarr and Aethelnoth.'

‘There will be other books, and we know that Asser at least must have lived long enough to write his history, which he hadn't even started when we knew him. I wonder if he got over Rhonwen?'

‘He didn't fancy Rhonwen – you're kidding!'

They laughed together and then stopped. There hadn't been that much to laugh about since they got back.

They had arrived with impeccable timing, just after the police had been called to the incident in the library. They had run home to find more suitable clothes and to hide Bright Killer and then had to return to school to face the music. Ursula felt horribly guilty when she saw the damaged tree at the end of the school field. She had been mad
then and that was a kind of proof.

In the end, Lucy did not press charges. Everyone in the library agreed that she had started the confrontation, even if Ursula had overreacted. Fortunately, as Lucy was unharmed, everyone felt that the whole unfortunate incident had something to do with whatever violent encounter Ursula had experienced that had left her nearly dead, and she was obliged to see a counsellor for a while. She had apologised endlessly but her brief period of popularity was over as everyone feared her as a dangerous freak. It did not matter. She had found Dan again. Dan went back to his sport and encouraged Ursula to join in. She was pleased to discover that the strength they both had gained in their encounters through the Veil was not lost – maybe the magic had caused a permanent change in their bodies. Ursula had somehow become an athlete.

‘I wish we could be sure Taliesin and Rhonwen made it back and that they found somewhere for Braveheart,' Dan said for only the hundredth time since their return.

‘We know Taliesin was OK because he persuaded us back into the Veil. If he was OK, I'm sure Rhonwen would be – she's tough as old boots.'

‘Isn't it odd how she was our enemy for so long and now I worry about her?'

Ursula touched his hand reassuringly. ‘That's why I told you to meet me here. I dreamed about her last night.'

‘Show me!'

Ursula smiled. She could no longer wield magic – not here in her own time – but they could still speak to each other, and sometimes at night she dreamed of magic and
sometimes she dreamed with magic and the previous night had been such a night.

She opened her mind to Dan and showed him the image she had of Rhonwen embracing a still handsome middle-aged Macsen. Braveheart was by her side.

‘I think it's a true vision sent from Rhonwen herself.'

‘That's great – if it's true and not just wishful thinking.'

‘It's real.'

‘As real as this?' Dan leaned forward and kissed Ursula, taking care that the librarian could not see him. She had not forgiven either Ursula or Dan for the chaos they'd caused in the library. It had taken her weeks to get it sorted out and some of the books had been torn, as she was fond of telling them.

‘Nothing is as real as that,'
she said happily, mind to mind. She did not have to tell him, because he already knew that this was the happy ending she had always wanted. He did not have to tell her that it was what he had always wanted too.

I am, as always, grateful for the support of my editors at Bloomsbury, my agent, Mic Cheetham, and my family. I am very happy to have had the opportunity of completing the Warriors trilogy and rescuing Ursula from her unenviable state, hovering somewhere between life and death. She was in this rather unsatisfactory limbo for a number of years and, returning to her story after such a long break, it was very helpful to have the input of so many online and RL friends who read the early draft of
Warriors of Ethandun
for me. Special thanks therefore must go to: Paul and Owen Browne, Stephen Weddle, Michael R. Dolbear, Brian M. Scott, Elaine Thompson, Deborah Lane, Antti-Juhanii Kaijanaho, Jacey Bedford, Bill Swears and Catja Pafort. I found their help invaluable. I very much hope that all the readers who wrote to me wanting to know what happened to Ursula can now rest easy.

Also by N.M. Browne

Hunted
Basilisk
The Story of Stone
The Spellgrinder's Apprentice
Shadow Web

Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin and New York

First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
36 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QY

This electronic edition published in September 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © N.M. Browne 2009
The moral right of the author has been asserted

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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages

A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

eISBN 978 1 4088 2629 4

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