Return of the Danu Read online

  Elena gave him a not quite friendly look and changed the subject. “Soon we will be at the area we are proposing for your new city. It buts up against stone cliffs. An area that is close to the higher altitudes, so it would work for your stone houses without costing the Green more than it is willing to give. Between that and the sea shore to the East with the high winds and constant changes of tide you will have plenty of space to build.” She looked at him with a sardonic brow. “I know how you like your stone walls.”

  He smiled at her with predatory teeth. “You will like them too if the dark magic users of the far Eastern lands decide to invade.”

  She studied him for a long moment giving her horse no attention as it unerringly went the way she wanted it to go. “You think that is what is going to happen?”

  “It will not be the first time they tried to come to these lands. I can only think it was the presence of the Danu that kept them from the Northern lands when they came before. the South was not so lucky.”

  Both Beck and Lor looked as grim as he felt at the memory. Ansgar could not stem the rage that the memory of that time left him with. The three of them had been barely more than children the first time they were called to fight the magic users of Scarrof. They had beaten them back, mostly by knowing the terrain of the desert better than their enemies, but it had cost them dearly. So many women and young children, and nearly all the farming land they had managed to eke out of the desert places had been lost to black magic and war. In the end they had convinced the invaders that it was not worth the cost they would have to pay to keep the harsh environs they were attempting to claim.

  The men were all quiet living their own personal hell over again with the reminder. Ansgar more than any of the others had lost with the invasion. No, he did not have to look far to remember why he hated magic users. He felt a cool touch of soft hand cover his clenched one and he looked up in time to see that his own witch had moved close enough to touch him. Her face showed only her usual serenity, but he could feel her sympathy and worry in the bond between them. Worry for him, he realized when she moved her horse close to his side and held his closed fist. She did not say anything, but he realized she understood. He had not been the only one whose childhood had died in battle. He forced his fist open and their fingers laced.

  “It was the war that forced us to come North. We needed to be able to feed what was left of our people, and we needed to know that the magic users that shared our continent were of a different breed than those from the East.”

  Elena grimaced. “And then you came to peace talks and saw what you believed to be an attack from magic users.” She tried to pull her hand away looking sad, but he held it firm, yanking her arm just enough to get her attention. She met his eyes, but she had closed off from him, sunk into her own grief and regrets. “It was my older brother who decided to show you what you were risking with war between our peoples. He led the young Danu who gave you that show of power. And you having been fresh from a war with magic users took it understandably as an attack and…” she looked away from him and he felt the misery inside her. The grief. And he was shocked to feel, guilt. “So much death, my people nearly extinct and a new growth of Green that is too dangerous for even the great warriors of the South to traverse its borders.”

  “You are not responsible for your brothers’ actions,” Ansgar said, knowing he had guessed right when her shoulders tightened and she tried once again to release his hand. He squeezed just a touch too hard to get her attention and let her know he was not letting go. She had offered her hand. She should know by now that he kept what he claimed.

  “If we had not been fresh from a war with magic users it might have even ended differently. My men should have been too disciplined to react the way they did, and my father only called for the firing of the Green when it was clear we were losing the fight. There were too few of us left he could not chance it.”

  Elena looked away. From the way she was attempting to close down her emotions and seek her usual serenity shield he knew she was struggling with some powerful emotions. Finally, she spoke and he could tell that she had managed what he rarely was capable of doing. She let go of the emotion and looked at the situation logically. Her brows came down as she thought of a question, so he knew before she spoke she was going to ask something, but he was still surprised by her question. He had not realized his mate had such a diabolical mind. And then he wondered why it had never occurred to him to wonder.

  “Why did they attack the South? If they had done scouting as would seem logical, they would have known that it was mostly desert in that direction. It could not have been the meager farm lands you had because you say those were destroyed. All of them, which suggests they were either set on destroying your food source, or at least did not care to preserve them.”

  “They went after the fertile lands first,” Beck said his own mind moving in that direction, now that the question had been raised. “Destroying our ability to feed our people to undermine our moral.

  “So what would they gain by invading the South?” Elena asked ignoring his last sentence, and Ansgar sucked in a harsh breath and wanted to rend something when his mind finally saw where she was going with her questions. He released her hand before he accidentally crushed it.

  “The only thing they accomplished with that little war was making it impossible for anyone to survive in the South.” Lor said angrily. “If you think they pushed us out so they could claim it after we took our armies North, it was a waisted strategy. No one can live their now, even magic users who deal in death as they do.”

  “And what changed because of that invasion?” she persisted. She met Ansgar’s eyes and knew he at least had grasped what she was suggesting. “You came into the North where natural resources were in abundance, because you had no choice. It was either invade and claim new lands or let your people starve.”

  “Which forced us to claim the cities and challenge the Danu. The indigenous magic power in the area,” Beck finished grimly. “Leading to another war with magic users. More death.”

  “And the near extinction of the Danu, a numerous and powerful people with a connection to the land that would have made invading a near impossibility.”

  “They could not have expected that, or they would have just come in and burned the Green themselves.” Lor said finally seeing what the rest of them were saying.

  “But if they set it in motion and sat back to watch it play out,” Beck said grimly. “They would have at least seen what the magic here was capable of, how they reacted to invaders,”

  “And it they were really lucky discover a weakness they could exploit.”

  “Like firing the Green to kill the Danu.”

  Elena shook her head and looked as angry and grim as the rest of them. “They got more than they bargained for when the fires were set. The Danu are nearly extinct. They must have been overjoyed their plans worked so well.”

  “Then what are they waiting for?” Lor asked with a near growl to his voice that said he welcomed the idea of killing the entire Eastern army, with his bare hands.

  Ansgar understood the feeling. “They were letting us do all the work first. Probably expected us to claim new lands and plant more crops once the Danu were gone, then they could swoop in and claim in all, but it has not happened like that.”

  “Because the Green grew its own teeth,” Elena said with a savage little smile he was glad was not directed at him. One that had the bonus of making his dick hard enough in his leathers to be uncomfortable riding a horse. Elena was still speaking, and he forced himself to focus on her words and not that sexy bloodthirsty look in her eyes. “And they wonder like the Northern peoples do if it the Danu controlling it still.”

  “So they send someone to sew unrest and fetch a Danu, to get the answers they can get no other way and find out why the Green is closed to them.”

  He looked at her and caught evil satisfaction in that smile. “The Easterner who came to see me in Haven. He coul
d not come into the garden. The weave rejected him wholeheartedly. I would not doubt that if any of his people had tried to enter the Green they would have gotten no further than the first step. It would not allow something so foreign and foul feeling to live in its borders.”

  Ansgar snarled grimly. “He heard of a Danu outside the borders and tried to convince you to go with him.”

  “And when that did not work,” Beck said. “He sent the gypsies for you.”

  “He’ll try again,” Lor said still looking bloodthirsty.

  This time when he met Elena’s eyes, he knew they were in perfect agreement.

  “Let them try,” he said and smiled with a whole lot of teeth when Elena gave that sexy savage smile again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Once they reached the land of the proposed city, it took them no time at all to approve its use. There was abundant water, and as a bonus, hot springs close to the natural stone cliff beyond it. A natural cliff at its back that would both give them the foundation for their city and offer a natural wall of protection that rivaled Haven. Now they had moved on and were traversing land that was becoming more and more sparse of both vegetation and beauty.

  The sea shore might have its own beauty slapping up against the hard stone of the jutting land, but this was not a place for a Danu, Elena knew. If it had not been for her connection to animals and she was surprised to note, her new weave with Ansgar, she would have been suffering so far from the natural magic of her blood.

  She would have turned them back long since if Ansgar had not needed to inspect the journey from land to sea. But it only made sense when she thought about it. They would most likely be bringing people and supplies by sea up the coast line and then trekking in, rather than through the dangerous deep Green. There were not enough Danu to use them as both harvesters and guides so taking the more dangerous route would not be logical, or safe.

  She just wished she did not feel so exposed on the rocky shore devoid of all but a trickle of natural magic. She had heard once in stories that there was a magic that could be found in the waters of the deep. Once there had been a magic people that guarded it, but they were long lost to time and legend, and whatever magic existed in the deep oceans she could not feel it here among the rocky shores and the few hardy shrubs that survived there.

  In fact, the closer she got to the Sea the farther the weave stretched so that it felt weak and stretched thin, as if with a wrong step too far it would snap and she would be cast adrift.

  Elena was not aware that she had started swaying on the horse, or that it had stopped beneath her, quivering and snorting as if it would turn and bolt the other direction with the slightest provocation. Ansgar touched her arm and she started, shaking her head and taking longer than it should to focus on his grim face. He was speaking but it was as if she was listening through a stuffing of gauze, all her senses dulled and her mind jumbled.

  She struggled to open her mouth and tell him they needed to turn around. That she could not follow him over the sand dunes and onto the beach they could hear crashing beyond. If he wanted to see the beach where they would land their ships, he would do so without Danu escort.

  But she never got the chance to say any of that because a wave of black clad soldiers came at them from what felt like nowhere and everywhere at once. She could see Ansgar’s rage before he reached out to take her reigns turning his horse and hers away from the overwhelming horde and back toward land. She was sure he yelled at all of them to get back to the Green before he slapped her horses’ flanks to get the beast moving ahead of him.

  Elena knew she was of no use in a fight like this, so she obeyed, letting him fall behind to guard her back as they galloped for the safety of the Green. If they could get back to the weave and the marauders were stupid enough to follow, they would quickly find out the error of her ways. A sharp pain in her head and a wave of dizziness was upon her before she could finish the vengeful thought and she fell.

  The ground rushed up and slammed into her. She felt blackness smothering her and fought to turn her head. She was facing away from the Green and could see the swarm of what looked to her fading sight like an army of ants over sand and rocks.

  Becks horse fell beneath the onslaught taking that warrior down beneath the blackness and Lor kicked out at his attackers and fought his way to his fallen friend.

  Ansgar was fighting his way to her, but even his noble Frendi could not stomp on all of the attackers that surrounded them. Light flashed as steel clanged and she heard Ansgar bellow his rage as he lopped off heads and body parts, and anything else that stood between them. Already the bodies littered the sand and rocks like a macabre trail of death. But even Ansgar the Bloody could not kill all of them.

  Her eyes were fighting to close in pain and dizziness but even her addled brain saw that they were outnumbered horrifically. Beck and Lor had already fallen and Ansgar would die on this already red soaked sand while she lay helpless to injured and too far from the Green to help. Elena gritted her teeth and forced her closing eyes back open but all she could see was wavering light and shadows. She lifted her right hand with an effort and held it shaking in the air as she gathered what power she could. She brought it down with a slap of power to the dirt and rocks where she had landed on the edge between the rocky shore that bordered the sand dunes and the scrub of land that almost touched the Green.

  She sucked in a breath and would have screamed her rage had she had the energy for it. Instead she pushed every bit of power she could muster into the bare sputtering of life beneath her and sent out a call of power she had no way of knowing would reach anything or anyone. Another wave of blackness was the last thing she remembered before there was a feeling of falling, which she thought odd, since she was sure she was already on the ground. And then there was nothing.

  Ansgar could not see Elena. Whatever else he could say about the Danu, Elena at least could ride like her horse had wings. He did not know if it was the magic or just the wild horse’s natural ability, bit that beast could move, and before even the horde of Eastern pirates descended on the men and cut off his view of her, she was very nearly out of the rocks and onto safer ground for a Danu. So he felt safe in turning his full attention to the battle at hand.

  Not that he had a choice in the matter, it was either fight or be overrun all the faster. Seeing the odds that seemed to keep coming at them over the dunes, and from whatever rocks they were crawling out of he knew there had been some magic afoot to keep the enemy from being seen. It was magic he had fought before, and he knew these were not just simple pirates. There was no other way they would have walked so unknowingly into the swarm without hearing or smelling something off. Even the horses had not given warning.

  When a curved blade came too close to his head as he was forced to duck the deadly throw, Ansgar stopped wondering how they had been ambushed so successfully and bellowed his rage. Now was not the time to be distracted, not by questions, or worry over his witch. Now was the time to stay alive. A feat he was quickly realizing was not going to be easy, if it was even possible.

  He swung out and deflected a blade coming for his horses’ flanks as they attempted to cut him out from under Ansgar. It sparked a further rage in man and beast and as one horse and rider reared and came down with a crunch. Another slash of blade took care of what was left of the screaming man.

  A dark cloud of black smoke appeared out of what had previously been clear blue skies and his horse reared, as he heard Lor’s bellow of pain to his left. He could hear the battle raging all around them. Strange when he considered there was only three warriors to the dozens that were coming at them. His horse reared and pawed at the smoke as it came close enough to touch. Ansgar understood the pain filled cries around him when the black smoke touched his exposed arm and burned like acid had been poured there.

  He locked his jaw and fought the overwhelming need to run sweeping over him. This was why he hated magic users. As if overwhelming numbers were not enough, they chea
ted with mind tricks and strange fogs that could befuddle or harm depending on the intent of the magic user. Ignoring the pain, for the illusion he hoped it was, he channeled his rage and pain into his sword swing and took off the head of a man coming at his side with sword raised, his sun darkened skin blistered and boiling from contact with the black fog.

  Not liking the idea of Elena alone with dark magic on the wind, he decided that was all the head start they could spare. He raised his head and roared signaling his men to retreat. He needed to get to her now. Though he could not see them, he could hear Lor and Beck fighting in two directions and knew they were alive at least. He took out one more attacker then turned to head for his witch. Using his Frendi’s slashing and trampling hooves without remorse.

  His horse neighed and danced when a sword finally managed to slash his flank. But the beast hauled up and bucked, kicking the head in of the attacker at his back. Then Ansgar felt pain and then a wrenching and roared again, this time in pure rage as he felt his witch fall. Then the black smoke rushed to swallow him up and the pain was almost enough to knock him out. He fought the magic and the blackness, kicking out and slashing as he tried to force his horse to get past the fighters and find Elena. He did not have to push too hard, as that seemed to be what the beast was trying to do anyway. He felt a slash of white-hot pain across his thigh in the dark and felt his horse buckle and then right itself with an effort. He knew that the blade had struck both of them.

  Then as he was pulled from his horse into the melee of battle, a new sound was heard trumpeting across the battlefield. It was like a blood curdling call to arms and even as Ansgar fought the battle in front of him he wondered what new horror the magic users of Scarrof had come up with, because it sounded as if a thousand beasts with gnashing teeth and scraping claws were coming for them.

  The marauders started screaming as creatures hurdled into the fray. Ansgar looked around at the baying of wild hounds and the caw of taloned birds to see beasts of all description coming out of the Green and attacking, but it was not him and his men who they attacked. The pirates fell beneath a moving wall of teeth and claws. Some of the beasts, like the wild wolves and horned bears he recognized. Some he had never seen outside of nightmares.