Return of the Danu Page 13

  The pirates broke at the sight of what came for them in the haze of their own magic induced fog and many of them died when beasts of the Green took them down as they ran. Elena, he thought when more than once a beast snarled his way but otherwise left him to bleed out in the rocks when he stayed as still as he could manage. He did not know if Lor and Beck lived still but Elena he knew had to have reached the Green if she sent the beasts to help them. And for the moment that would have to be enough for him because then there was only blackness as he passed out from the blood loss.

  ***

  Elena awoke slowly, feeling like her brain was on fire. She clutched at her head, as if applying pressure would help the pain and rolled off a too soft surface to hit one much harder. She sucked in a breath as she nearly lost the breakfast she had shared with Ansgar. She managed to hold it in with an effort but the trip to the wood planked floor from the bunk she had been laying on had not done her any favors.

  The floor beneath her was moving, she realized. The whole place was, and with the continued motion of what she realized was a ship all around her bobbing on unseen waves, she nearly lost the battle with her stomach all over again. Only sheer will and the powerful need to not be rolling around on the floor in her own vomit held her steady. Even before the door to her small cabin opened and Farget, the black-eyed pale foreigner she had met at Haven walked in, she knew she was far from the Green. The only thing that sustained her even a little were the man’s first words.

  “You have fallen, forgive me, the waters around these lands are unpredictable. The seas will be calmer when we depart these cursed shores.” He had started forward, his hands outstretched as if he would help her back to the bed. But all Elena heard was that they had not departed yet. And even as addled, numb and weak as she felt she knew that meant she still had a chance. She could feel herself draining as her inner magic dwindled in increments searching for a weave, either plant or animal that she could use to sustain her. But there was nothing, not the Green, not an animal of the Green, and not Ansgar and the new fragile weave they had newly formed between them. Did that mean he was dead? Or was being so disconnected from the land weakening even that connection?

  Elena gathered what magic she had left inside her and tried to think. Ansgar she could trust to take care of himself. And since it was the only assurance she had now, she clung to it, pushing aside her last look of him as the marauders swarmed.

  At the moment she could do nothing for him or Lor and Beck. She lay limp as the foreigner Farget lifted her, even if she did flinch from the cold wrongness of his touch. She needed him to think she was beyond action. It was not a hard act considering just how much it hurt just to form the thought. But she knew with the way she felt that with each second away from her own lands she was fading. She did not have the strength to take on a child, let alone a full-grown man so she let weakness flood her eyes and her limbs and waited for the right moment.

  She could not wait too long she realized as something pulled at the dregs of power she clung to so desperately. If she did not make her move soon, while she could at least move, it would be too late. Because she knew she would not survive whatever journey they had in mind for her. She doubted she would live past the trip out of the reef, let alone a long journey away from her own lands and source of power.

  “You need to return me to the Green,” a wasted effort but one she had to make, just as trying to escape would be. She still had to make the effort. She had nothing to lose but her life if she failed. As it was, she had to force her eyes to stay open and meet the black nothing in his. “I am Danu, taking me from the land will gain you nothing but a corpse to explain to your king when you land.”

  “You do seem the worse for wear. But do not concern yourself,” he answered blithely. “I think my king will be satisfied with the answers you give me, even if you would not survive the journey. A live Danu would be better, but ends must and after I tell him what you have hiding in that Green of yours. That you can control the beasts as well as the plants he will understand the changes to the plan.” Farget smiled at her almost appreciatively. “You, my dear, are just so much more dangerous than we had anticipated.”

  Elena bit back a curse at his words, even in the small moments that had passed between them she felt weaker still. Unless she could get him to leave, she would have to make her move while he was still present to stop her. She did not want to think about what would happen if she did make it off the boat and was forced to try to get to shore in her current condition. She could swim, but she had never done so in the sea for obvious reasons, and since she could barely lift her arms chances were good she would drown long before she made it through the crashing waves and back to shore. “I’m not going to answer any of your questions.”

  He laughed, she could hardly blame him, after all she was shaking so bad that she could barely get the words out and her eyes had closed even as she said it. If she had meant to show strength with her answer, she had failed miserably. She forced her eyes open and on the enemy in time to see his laughing.

  “Don’t let it concern you,” he answered when he was done laughing at her. “I’ll get what I need.” Then he pulled out what looked like a horse needle full of some bubbling black concoction she wanted no part of and injected it into her arm.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ansgar awoke alone, wedged between giant rocks and covered with sand and debris. He was a little shocked that he had woken up at all. The beasts of the Green were nowhere to be seen, and even the bodies of the enemy had been carried off, presumably for food. He had no idea how he had survived it, but there was no sign of his horse or his men when he pushed himself up enough to look around. Then he heard a sound between a hiss and a groan and he stood and turned haltingly in the direction it had come from. He walked gingerly on his injured leg, his head feeling as if each movement would knock him back to the ground. This time for good.

  He managed to drag himself over the rocks until he found an open spot and Lor and Beck. Beck was bleeding from several injuries including one to his neck that looked like he could not possibly survive. Lor was leaning back against the rocks that formed the natural crevice of sand he had fallen into. He looked nearly as bad as Beck. But he was conscious. And his hand was on his sword when he heard something moving his way.

  Ansgar held up the one hand he could spare. “It’s me.”

  Lor immediately dropped his hand like even the thought of lifting his weapon was too much. Instead he slumped down and closed his eyes. “Good you are here general,” he said haltingly. “I didn’t…Beck is hurt bad…” Then he fell back to the sand beside Beck and Ansgar saw the wound in his back and the blood that was even now draining from it.

  If he had the strength, he would have cursed. The only thing that had been keeping Lor conscious was his need to protect Beck who could not protect himself. Apparently seeing Ansgar had made him believe he was no longer needed to keep his friend alive since he knew his General well enough to know he would die to protect them.

  Ansgar ground his teeth against the pain and turned to survey the land around them. They were butted up against rock canyon, sand dunes with the ocean just on the other side, and at their back the Green spread far to the South and West. Both Lor and Becks mounts had died carrying their warriors, and from the look of them it had cost them dearly.

  His horse, and the one Elena had claimed from the wild were not among the dead. That at least gave him some relief. As much as he would have liked to see either animal, not seeing them was preferable to finding them dead like the rest. He hoped that since he and his men were left alone and even their dead horses has not been dragged off like the rest of the meat it meant his Frendi had not been taken down and dragged off.

  But where was Elena? She would not have abandoned them to bleed out after she used her magic to protect them, and the beasts were no danger to her. That left only two choices knowing his witch as he did. If she was not here on the beach unconscious like he had been, then
somehow she had been taken. As soon as he had the thought, he had to fight back worry and fear for his Danu witch. He could not help her like this, even if the ship was somehow still anchored in the cove beyond the dunes at this moment, going after her would only end in his death and not help Elena. He would get her back, no matter where he had to go, or what he had to risk, he would find her wherever she was taken. But right now he needed to survive to see that happen.

  He looked in the direction they had come. In that way lay the relative safety of the paradise Elena had shown him, but without a horse and in his present condition he doubted he could get himself, let alone his men there. And there were no healers waiting at the end of the journey. Which meant even if he could get them all there, Lor and Beck at the least would die of their wounds eventually anyway. He might survive himself, but at what cost? And there was no help for Elena in that direction either. His only real choice was the Green at his back and the Danu that may or may not relish the chance to see him dead. Elena’s brother Quain came to mind but he brushed away thoughts of the angry Danu. Wounded as he was chances were good that he would be eaten by several beasts, and probably plants before he found any Danu that could finish the job, or if he was very lucky help his men.

  Ansgar turned and studied the wild and grimaced. A very slim possibility, the only one where his men might survive, if he could find the Danu, if he could trust them to help, and if they had someone with healing abilities. He spared a thought to wonder if Elena could have healed them, and how hurt she had been in the attack. He immediately forced the thought of her away. He needed to have a clear head, fear would not help any of them right now.

  Ansgar shut down all thoughts but each step he needed to take now. With effort and slow progress packed Lor and Beck’s wounds as well as he could to slow the bleeding and forced his exhausted hurt body out of the rocks and eventually, slowly, he entered the Green.

  He entered the Green with no real expectation that he would ever leave it alive.

  Ansgar had no idea how long he had walked in the haze of pain that was slowly claiming his mind and body. He had lost his sword somewhere along the way, but it was still daylight out, though shadows were longer under the canopy when he tripped on a root and crashed to the ground. His body refused to heed his commands to get up and keep going. He pushed himself over to his back. The effort and pain of the move nearly causing him to black out.

  He must, he realized be more damaged than he thought. He looked up at the swooping trees and speckles of blue sky above him and told himself that he would rest for but a moment and then get back up and keep going.

  A hawk circled overhead and then the bird, which had to be the biggest of his kind Ansgar had ever seen landed on a low branch above him and regarded him with predatory interest.

  Ansgar grunted out what passed for a laugh in this state and spoke to the beast, his words coming out as a near growl when it was all he could do to get his lips to move. “If you are some magic beast of the Green, go find the Danu that commands you and tell Prince Khalon that his brother has need of him.”

  When the bird just kept watching him, he sighed, and felt the pain of the slight movement in his chest and head. He winced, and that hurt even more. He gritted his teeth against the pain and spoke again. “Am I just talking to a beast or will it make you willing to do as I ask if I tell you a Danu witch, the lady Elena is in danger?”

  He had not really expected a response, but if he had he would still not have expected what happened after he said those words.

  The bird hopped off the branch and swooped down at him talons barely missing his face before it landed beside him and…transformed. Even as Ansgar was wondering if his wounds had finally destroyed his brain a man stood where a bird had just been. A man dressed in Danu leathers, with dark auburn hair and flaring Danu Green eyes. No wonder he had made it past the patrols. And no wonder Elena had not wanted to tell me her brothers secrets.

  “Where is Elena?” Quain of the Danu asked nearly shaking with rage. “What did you do to my sister?”

  Ansgar let that accusation in his voice go and gave him the bare facts, starting with the attack, Elena’s probable location, and ending with where his men could be found in need of healing, just in case the boy could and would help.

  Quain reacted by becoming even more enraged and Ansgar could not blame him. Elena was under his protection, and they had taken her. “I will get her back,” he vowed at that accusatory look on the other mans face. “Even if I have to sail all the way to Scarrof to do it.”

  “Fool,” the young Danu hissed, nearly striking him in his anger. “Elena is Danu, she cannot survive away from the Green. Why do you think I am here? I felt her calling of magic and beasts far from where it was safe for her to be. She should not have been able to do what she did, but the beasts came to her call, and now because she used what power she had in a place she should not have been, I feel the life draining from her where I cannot get to her.” Ansgar felt every word like a blow the boy intended as he went on. “You let her be taken and it will mean her death in the worst possible way a Danu can die, short of being burned in their own weave.” He added the last with raw bitterness but Ansgar had no patience for anything but Elena. The fear he had been fighting inside himself, the knowledge through their fragile new bond that something was very wrong he could no longer ignore. He needed to get to Elena now, nothing else mattered. He sat up, forcing his body to an action it was not ready for and cursing his own weakness when that was as far as he could get before dizziness and pain bombarded his senses. He ignored all of it.

  “Then heal me and I will go get her now while there is still a chance.”

  Quain looked like he would rather kill him with his bare hands than heal him but before he could say one way or another, they both heard horses and turned to see who was coming towards them from deeper in the Green.

  Ansgar recognized his Frendi horse and, riding it, his brother Khalon looking grim and deadly, leading his wife, the queen of the Danu. She was riding Elena’s horse with something close to the grace his own Danu witch was capable of.

  They stopped close to where Ansgar had fallen forward on one hand trying to stand. Khalon looked at his brother. Ignoring Quain he turned dark navy eyes to his wife. The queen of the Danu did not have to be asked aloud. One moment she was atop Elena’s mount and the next she knelt beside Ansgar.

  “Sleep for but a moment Ansgar the Bloody. I do not think you would like to be conscious for this next bit.”

  Then with a touch of her hand to his throbbing head and a surge of magic, he fell into blackness before he could roar that there was no time for sleep.

  When he awoke, he was completely healed and could feel the last of the earth and vines releasing him. For a moment he was confused. Then he jumped up, reaching for the sword he had lost in his walk through the Green. He looked around him clutching at air and caught the eyes of his brother. Khalon watched him with wary eyes while his queen stood just out of reach to Ansgar’s left.

  “My apologies,” Katrine said her voice clear and powerful for all her quiet words. She radiated power, and Ansgar felt a surge of it inside himself respond to that power. Her eyes widened and started to glow as she examined him. “You are in the weave,” she said clearly shocked. She looked from him to his brother and shared some look between them, even as Quain barked out a harsh laugh.

  She moved those magic shrouded eyes his way. “You do not see it?”

  “If he was in the weave I would know,” Quain scoffed, and then seemed to remember who he was talking to. “My queen.”

  “He is not in the shared weave with the rest of us, it is true, but he is a part of at least one, but I think 2 personal weaves. Something I did not realize was possible.” She looked at the Frendi who had come to his side. Quain saw it then and looked both incredulous and envious while Katrine continued. “You have bonded with this Frendi?”

  “So Elena told me,” he growled impatiently. Before he grabbed
the horses main and threw himself to the Frendi’s back. He looked at them all. “I have no time for this. Elena is in trouble. My men are in the rocks in need of healing as well.” He pointed in the direction of the dunes. And with those words, and not another moment waisted he and his horse took off. He could care less that he was leaving without a weapon or back up. He could feel Elena now that he had opened himself up to the bond. He could feel her slipping away, in pain and far from her source of magic. He was no longer interested in being smart about her rescue. At this point he would kill every last one of them with his bare hands to get to her.

  Lucky for him his brother caught up with him quickly on Elena’s horse. Without a word he handed Ansgar the sword he had lost along the way. Ansgar did not ask him how he had managed that, he simply sheathed it and kept riding. No doubt it had something to do with the Danu in the Green. After they had made it nearly back out of the Green Khalon finally spoke.

  “The others will get to Lor and Beck and see them healed and back to the safety of the Green. My wife asked me to tell you that the healing would take its toll on your strength sooner rather than later. She recommends that we get Elena as quickly and as quietly as we can manage and get her back to the Green. Neither of you are up to prolonged battle.

  An Eagle flew overhead and toward the place where he had left his men. Quain in bird form swooped low and then coasted in a tight circle to show that he had found them. It did not tell Ansgar if they were alive or dead. He would have to trust the man and his brothers Danu wife to see to them. Just as they were trusting him and Khalon to get to Elena before it was too late.