Fifty-first full moon
I knew Tanwen was dead the moment I found her. For more than two years, she’d been fire and voice filling my days.
Now she was so quiet. Not a sigh. Not a sound.
I stepped farther into the clearing, my stomach twisting at the odd angle of her limbs, the arrows in her chest.
I checked that Carrick’s sling was still pulled over his face. Young as he was, I didn’t want him to see Tanwen this way.
I crept closer, aching to say her name! Tanwen. Come back. We need you. Aiden needs you. Carrick . . .
I knelt beside her, hoping like a fool—like a child—that she’d stir. She didn’t move when I touched her shoulder. She didn’t blink her wide-open eyes when I pushed her hair back from her face.
I gently closed her eyes and straightened her limbs.
Then I looked up at the sky. It was already afternoon.
Aiden would be here in hours.
Tanwen had sent the Hunters to the Otherworld one last time, but I didn’t know how long it would be before the Queen summoned them back—or sent others to find us here.
We—I—didn’t have much time. Tanwen must be buried, and Carrick and I must run again.
By the time the sun set, I’d brought Tanwen’s body to the camp. I removed the arrows and threw them into the fire, then wrapped Aiden’s cloak around her.
Good, I could almost hear her say. I’m proud of you. Don’t give in to fear now.
I hadn’t. Fear and hurt disappeared when I was preparing her. There wasn’t room for it.
She looked pale, but I’d washed her tear-streaked face. I didn’t want Aiden to see that. More than that, I knew Tanwen wouldn’t have wanted him to.
And then it was dark. I heard the beating of wings and finally the low voices of my brothers.
“Ryn?” whispered Mael. “Why is there no fire? What happened?”
But Aiden knew, I think. He knew the moment he changed. “Tanwen? Tanwen!”
I just stood there, with Carrick still in his sling against me and everything edged in cold, blue moonlight.
Aiden rushed up to me with only his trousers on. I’d long wished I could erase the image of my brothers’ first transformation, but Aiden’s face when he saw Tanwen was even more horrifying.
He scooped her into his lap and buried his face in her hair, rocking her back and forth. His shoulders shook, but I couldn’t hear anything.
Not a thing.
The rest of my brothers rushed up. Mael stood beside Aiden, a hand on his shoulder, his cheeks shining with tears in the moonlight. Gavyn sat with his head in his hands.
Cadan bellowed words I couldn’t hear, his fist raised toward the trees, until Declan ran to him and wrestled him into stillness.
It wasn’t till Owain put his arm around me that I seemed part of the world again. I could hear Cadan’s gruff sobs and the murmur of Aiden whispering something into Tanwen’s hair.
“Was it the Hunters, Rynni?” Owain asked.
I nodded.
“You did all this? Brought her here?”
I nodded again.
He led me to a stone near where I normally lit the bonfire. I rested my head against his shoulder and wondered if I would ever feel my heart again.
After a while, Mael’s face swam in front of me. “What happened, Ryn?”
Numbly, I drew and acted out all that had happened.
Mael sat back on his heels. “How is Carrick?”
I opened Carrick’s sling and he peered up at his uncle with curious eyes. Mael’s gaze softened as he cupped his hand around Carrick’s head. “Ah, Little Man! How brave you are tonight.”
Then he went to Aiden and whispered something to him. Aiden nodded but kept holding Tanwen.
Then Mael walked over to my other brothers.
“It’s time,” he told them. “Cadan and I will dig the grave. The rest will gather the stones.”
Stones to keep the wild animals from reaching Tanwen.
Cadan brushed his sleeve across his eyes. Then my brothers began their awful tasks.
I kissed Tanwen’s cold cheek before we laid her in the ground. And I cut a lock of her hair.
“What are you doing?” grunted Cadan.
I held the lock close to the sling to show that it was for Carrick. When I had my voice, I would tell him how she saved him. I would show him the color of her hair and I would tell him how her laugh was as warm as fire on a cold night.
We laid the last stone in place only hours before dawn.
Aiden looked as if his spirit had been poured from him—but I needed my brother back for what I was about to ask of him.
So I loosened the sling and gave Carrick to his father. Aiden looked at his son blankly for a moment, then gathered him up so quickly I was afraid he’d crush the child. When he looked up, something fierce burned at the back of his eyes.
Good.
I knelt to smooth the dirt at my feet and motioned that he should watch.
I drew our shoreline, and Eyre across the channel, then pointed to Eyre and made the sign for safe.
Aiden nodded. “But how—?”
I drew a raft with a girl and a baby in it. Then I drew six lengths of rope from the raft, up into the air. Finally, at the end of each rope, I drew a swan.
Aiden stared at what I’d drawn: six swans, towing a raft across the water.
Then he called, “Mael! Cadan, Gavyn, Declan, and Owain! Come here!”
They all came running.
“The Hunters will come back for Ryn and Carrick. We have to take them to Eyre.”
“You want to send them to live among those barbarians?” asked Declan.
“We can hardly see Eyre from here!” argued Gavyn. “And only when the weather’s good!”
“I need you to make a raft, Mael.” Aiden’s voice was granite.
Gavyn shook his head. “It’s at least twelve leagues to Eyre! We don’t know the currents. They could be swept beyond Eyre and out to sea!”
Aiden looked at me, asking if I was certain that I wanted them to attempt to tow us so far.
Yes. I’d never been more sure.
Aiden turned back to Mael. “Can you make a raft? That’s what I need to know.”
“We’d need rope.”
I darted away and returned with length after length of nettle yarn. We could braid it into a rope. There would be enough to tow the raft.
Mael took it from me, then nodded. “I can fashion a simple raft. It wouldn’t last long, though.”
Aiden pointed to my drawing. “We don’t need it to last long. We’ll tow them across the sea. Six swans harnessed to the raft, flying for the far shore. It’s the only way we can guarantee their safety.” He pulled in a shallow breath, mouth pinched against the pain. “We won’t leave Ryn and Carrick to the Hunters. We can’t.”
“This is your idea, Ryn?” asked Mael, incredulous.
Yes.
“Even if we could make harnesses, no swan would suffer itself to be harnessed!”
“The swans would follow if one led the way,” said Aiden.
“You?” asked Cadan.
Aiden nodded. “I won’t let myself go.”
“You’ll hold on to your mind for that long?” asked Declan. “It can’t be done, Aiden. Think of something else.”
I took his arm and shook my head. There is nothing else.
Finally, Mael nodded. “I say we do it.”
Cadan grunted approval. “Better they die with us in the sea than fall into the hands of the Hunters.”
“There will be no dying,” said Aiden. “I can do this. I know it.”
I nodded, then gathered Carrick from Aiden so his hands would be free. There was so much to do before sunrise.
Cadan stood. “Gavyn should rig the harnesses and think of a way to get them on us. The rest of us should see to the raft. It’ll need to be provisioned too.”