Lifting one hairy arm, the monkey pointed around the group. "Not a single one of you looked for Robin. Not a single one of you asked if a puck might be all right, what might have happened to him, or how you might help."
"Robin," Gawain said, stepping forward too. "We didn"t know any better, and I, for one, am so sorry."
"I"m sorry too," Nikolas said. "Deeply sorry. You deserved to have someone ask those things."
Sophie could hear the sincerity in both men"s voices. She held her breath. Could Robin?
The monkey shook his head. "Still, I say no. What I would have bargained for, what I would have given my entire soul for, you already refused to give. I will consent to carry only one of you-for she is the only one who carried me and asked nothing in return."
Sophie was so wrapped up in the conversation, and also so tired, it was only when everyone turned to look at her that she realized who the puck was talking about. "Who, me?" she said. "I can"t go to that place and talk to your people. They won"t trust me any more than they would Robin."
Nikolas strode rapidly over to her.
He said, "Sophie, you have to. You"re dressed in Earth clothes. You speak in a strange accent. Annwyn will listen to what you say, especially if you take her this." He twisted his signet ring off and offered it to her. "The only way you could be carrying the ring of the Dark Court commander is if you had traveled from Earth. Trust me-she will believe you."
Every taut line of his body was an intense plea. It was impossible to come this far only to refuse him.
She sighed. "Oh G.o.d, fine. I"ll go."
She held out her hand, and he slipped the ring on her thumb. In return, she handed him the skull. Power shimmered in the air. When she looked in the puck"s direction, the monkey had disappeared and a tall black stallion stood in its place.
He was magnificent, with fiery eyes and a mane and tail that flowed with magic. The pale moonlight shone on the muscled bulk of his shoulders and haunches. With a regal toss of his head, the puck sidestepped over to her.
She put a hand on his velvet nose and murmured, "I"ve never ridden a horse before."
"I will not let you fall," the puck told her.
When she turned back to Nikolas, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard. "None of us will be able to thank you enough for everything you"ve done."
"Shut up," she said. Of everything she might want to hear from him, grat.i.tude didn"t play any part of it. This is why you don"t kiss a.s.sholes, Soph-yet still you keep kissing him and kissing him. The wind gusted, and she shivered harder. "Help me get up on his back before I change my mind."
Setting the skull on the ground, Nikolas put his hands around her waist and lifted her effortlessly onto the stallion"s wide back. Thankfully, the puck radiated heat, so she had some hope of not freezing solid within the first ten yards.
As she glanced around at the men, they all looked so solemn it was beginning to scare her.
She sank her hands into the stallion"s mane. "Run your heart out, Robin."
The stallion reared. When he came down, his huge hooves struck fiery sparks.
Robin said, "We will run our hearts out together, dear love."
Chapter Twenty.
Afterward, she was never able to fully describe the experience of that ride.
There was a wild speed and so much magic, and the land sped past impossibly fast. Sparks from the stallion"s hooves lit up the night, and something in the wind laughed in response.
Terrified and freezing, she lay along the stallion"s back and clung with her knees while clenching her hands so tightly in his mane she couldn"t feel her fingers. She tried to look out at the landscape, but the air was too frigid, and tears streamed down her face. Eventually she gave up and hid her face in the puck"s mane while he raced along precipices and leaped over ravines.
Just when she thought she couldn"t hold on any longer and she might fall off despite Robin"s help, he surged up a long incline, past torchlit sentries, tents, campfires, and makeshift houses. Shouts rose behind them, far too late to stop the puck"s forward movement.
Finally Robin galloped up to a stone building at the top of a bluff. As guards ran up, one made as if to put his hand on Robin, and the stallion screamed a warning and reared in response, kicking out so violently the guards scrambled back.
Someone ran into the building, while Robin whirled to threaten off the guards that circled them.
"Stop doing that or I might be sick!" Sophie called out hoa.r.s.ely as the world spun.
Baring his teeth at the guards, Robin stopped spinning.
Soon several more guards poured out of the building, along with a tall, auburn-haired woman in armor. "What is going on? Robin! Where have you been?"
"Away," said Robin. "I have been away and trapped by evil."
"I need to speak to Annwyn." Sophie"s teeth chattered. "We came from Earth, and it"s urgent."
"I"m Annwyn," the woman said, crossing her arms. "Get down and say what you"ve come to say."
That was easier said than done. The ground was so far away, and her fists had stiffened in Robin"s mane. "Robin," she muttered. "Help me."
Bowing his head, the stallion went down on his front knees. Sophie slid off his back in an ungainly sprawl. When she yanked her hands free, she tore long black strands out of his mane, but he didn"t complain.
She didn"t trust herself to get to her feet. Instead, she turned on her knees to face Annwyn and the circle of suspicious guards staring down at her. Holding out her shaking hand, she showed them the gold commander"s ring on her thumb. For the first time, she noticed the lion rampant on the head of the ring.
"Nikolas," Annwyn whispered. Lunging forward, she knelt in front of Sophie. "Bring a cloak and a hot drink!" Annwyn turned back to Sophie. "Are you wounded? You have blood all over you. You"re insane to ride out in this weather dressed like that. How did you come here-and where is Nikolas?"
"I was wounded, but I"m healed now. We don"t have time for niceties. Listen." Sophie grabbed her hands, and while Annwyn froze at her presumptuous touch, the other woman did not shake her off.
Words tumbled out of Sophie. Earth. A stray dog. The house. Broken pa.s.sageway. Nikolas and the other men. The pub attack. Lycanthropes. Morgan.
She didn"t mention Ashe. That matter felt too private and raw, and it deserved its own telling, by someone other than she.
"Wait!" This time it was Annwyn who grabbed hold of her. "They"re here, in Lyonesse? You"re saying you found a way through?"
"Yes, but we might l-l-lose it," she stuttered. Someone settled a fur-lined cloak around her shoulders, and someone else thrust a tankard of mulled wine into her hands. It was too hot for her frigid skin, and the tankard slipped through her clumsy, cold-numbed fingers to spill on the frozen ground. "Time moves faster on Earth than it does here, and when we left, Morgan was trying to tear down the house. He might destroy the way back if we don"t stop him."
Annwyn swore, then said behind her shoulder, "Muster a force of five hundred. We ride within the next half hour." As guards raced to do her bidding, she said sharply, "Puck! Your master is in an enchanted sleep, and we need to search for help from Earth. If we don"t get Oberon the medical attention he needs, he"ll die, and the idea of Lyonesse will die with him. Will you let us ride in your wind? I fear if we ride on our own, we will be too slow-and we will arrive too late again."
The puck stood protectively at Sophie"s back. He blew in her hair. Robin owes them nothing, he said in her head. Because nothing is what they did for him.
She looked over her shoulder, into the stallion"s fiery eyes. Robin, you were hurt in your heart as well as in your body, and I understand how terrible that was. But sweetheart, not everybody could have known to look for you or send help. Not everybody abandoned you. The people in Lyonesse have been as caged as you were. Don"t let your hurt blind you to what is true and right, because if you do, Isabeau will have destroyed you. She will have won. Please don"t give that victory to her. You don"t belong in the cage of your abuser any longer. Choose to be stronger than that. Choose to be free.
The fire in the stallion"s eyes grew hotter, brighter. He said, And if we cannot get back to Earth, we can"t defeat her.
"Yes," she said out loud.
The puck said to Annwyn, "You may ride in my wind, this once."
Annwyn told him, "Thank you." The other woman turned her attention to Sophie. "You should stay here, rest, eat, and warm up. You are in no shape for another ride with the puck."
"No," Sophie said so fiercely the other woman looked taken aback. "Tie me to Robin"s back if you must, but I have to go back."
"If you insist," Annwyn said.
After Sophie and Robin disappeared, the night felt even more cold and bleak with emptiness.
Finally Nikolas forced himself to stop looking after them. As he turned back to the other men, he found Braden standing at his elbow.
"Vicansha and the children are so close," Braden whispered.
Nikolas"s chest tightened. As difficult as the last decades had been for him and the other men, they had been even harder for Braden.
He gripped Braden"s shoulder. "When we get reinforcements, I"m releasing you from duty. You can go to your wife and children."
Tears spilled down the other man"s taut face. "Thank you, sir."
Nikolas paused. "How do you do it?" he asked. "How do you make that kind of commitment, when we live such dangerous lives?"
Braden shrugged and wiped his face. "The love has to be bigger than everything else. The isolation, the separation, the danger. When the love is bigger than all that-you just do it. You pay the price in uncertainty and sometimes bereavement, because every moment you"re together is worth the cost. If the love is big enough, yet you don"t take that chance... man, it doesn"t matter what you"re fighting for. You"ve lost."
Nikolas tightened his fingers, then let his hand drop and bent to pick up the skull again.
Watching him with a grim expression, Gawain said, "We might have known that poor bloke well. He could have been a friend."
"Whoever he was, we need to give him a proper burial," Nikolas said. "Sophie promised." He tucked the skull aside carefully so that it could be attended to later, and he told the others, "We need to get a fire going and build a wind barrier."
They set to work. After some quick effort, they had a large lean-to built and propped against the hillside to cover the hole that led to the oubliette. It was constructed of pine branches heavy with needles so that it blocked the worst of the wind.
While some worked on building the lean-to, others sourced deadfall wood, and soon they had a fire going. It didn"t feel like it warmed the area so much as eased a little of the bitter chill, but at least they could heat some of the water and the food they carried in their packs for calories and warmth, which helped.
Nikolas thought of Sophie, riding the puck in the elements, and clamped down on a surge of worry. None of them were dressed for deep winter, but they were hardier than her, and they had the advantage of some rudimentary shelter.
Time pa.s.sed, and the moon traveled across the sky. Most of the others huddled close to share body warmth while they napped, but Nikolas couldn"t rest. He fed the fire and kept watch.
Sophie and Robin had to have reached Raven"s Craig by now. He imagined them talking to Annwyn. What would happen next? She would muster a fighting force, and while they would have the advantage of horses, the route would be treacherous with snow and ice. It might be another thirty-six to forty-eight hours before anyone arrived.
He sat on a log, at one end of the lean-to, his head in his hands. Two days in Lyonesse would be weeks on Earth. Morgan might have weeks to do as much damage as he could. After so much effort, they might not make it back across in time after all.
Thunder sounded in the distance and grew louder. It approached too quickly to be a thunderstorm.
It sounded like many galloping horses.
Cael stirred and murmured, "What"s that?"
Nikolas stood, looking out as the first of an army of five hundred appeared over a rise, with a fiery black stallion racing at their head. Annwyn had made the two-day journey within a few hours.
Robin plunged to a halt in front of Nikolas, followed by Annwyn astride a dappled gelding, along with Hershel, Rogier, Dihanna, and many others Nikolas recognized.
But he had eyes only for the cloaked figure lying p.r.o.ne along the stallion"s back. Running over to Robin, he lifted back the hood to stare at Sophie"s white face. As he touched her cold cheek, she whispered through bloodless lips, "I"m okay. Just super cold and tired. They tied me on so I wouldn"t fall off."
"Oh, for f.u.c.k"s sake," he swore. He felt along her arms to discover the rope tied around her wrists and worked to get the knots undone.
Her mouth trembled. "Don"t yell at me right now."
"I"m not going to yell at you, my Sophie," he whispered. "I"m going to yell at them."
Annwyn approached. She clasped Nikolas"s arm in a tight hold and gave him a look that sparkled with unshed tears. Then she moved to untie Sophie"s other wrist.
"I tried to talk her into staying behind at Raven"s Craig, but she insisted," Annwyn told him.
"I take it back," Nikolas said to Sophie. "I am going to yell at you."
As her hands came free, he lifted her off the stallion"s back and cradled her in his arms. Bowing his head over hers, he hugged her tight.
"Fine," she gritted, shivering. "But I get to have a cup of coffee first."
He looked up at the puck, who stared back, ferocious and unfriendly. Telepathically he said to Robin, Thank you for carrying her safely. And for bringing the others. We owe you-I owe you so much.
Some of the starch seemed to go out of the stallion"s black mane, even as Robin said fiercely, "You will not forget a puck again."
"Never," Nikolas said. "I swear it." He looked at Annwyn. "Much as I would love to have a leisurely reunion, we don"t have time."
"We will take time on the other side." She clapped him on the shoulder, then turned to start issuing orders.
Some of the troops would stay behind to set up a winter camp and care for the horses. Annwyn had laid plans based on hope. Temporary shelters would need to be erected, while wagonloads of supplies and more troops would arrive over the next two days. The troops that remained behind would then work on erecting more permanent structures.
In the meantime, Nikolas and Annwyn would be able to take as many as four hundred and fifty troops across to Earth-a.s.suming they could get through.
He looked down at Sophie, who had revived enough to stare at him pointedly. Eyes flashing in the moonlight, she told him, "Shush. Don"t you start yelling. My coffee is in the great hall."
Laughter bolted up from his belly. He clenched her tighter so that he could bury his face in her hair. "We"d better go get it then."
If there was a great hall to get back to. Neither one of them said it.
"Put me down," she told him.
"Are you sure you can stand?" Gingerly he set her on her feet.
She wobbled but stayed upright. Beside them, in a shimmer of magic, the stallion vanished and a monkey took its place.