Page 134 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

My mother was quiet for the remainder of the flight until we passed over Aes Mirr and then banked back. Rian in the lead, we began circling the village, descending closer to the yurts and crowd of people gathering beneath. Eventually, I could hear their shouts as they cleared a space for us to land.

Rian touched down first, followed by Darragh, Ciaran, Summer, and finally me. No one dismounted until all five vargr were on the ground and then we all disembarked at once behind Rian.

Eive the Shadow Banshee was waiting in the front of the crowd, her arms crossed and her scarred face troubled. She was relieved to see my mother once I dismounted and lifted her down from Serafin.

“Asha, thank the gods!” said Eive before they clasped hands in greeting once my mother reached her.

I went to stand next to Summer, and I noticed it when she swayed toward me, brushing her shoulder against me as if to acknowledge my presence at her side. Her fingers even brushed mine as if she had wanted to take my hand but refrained at the last second.

My mother was right. It was like we couldn’t help but touch one another. I just didn’t know if it meant anything more to her or if she merely felt safe with me.

“Are you alright? It seemed you were having a rather sombre conversation with your mother,” she whispered.

I could not help but smile at her assertion of concern, and my fingers brushed hers in acknowledgement almost of their own accord. Since I met her, Summer had been woefully oblivious and sometimes willfully indifferent to the feelings of others, so showing awareness and genuine worry for me was significant for her.

“I’m alright,” I assured, and I felt her drift even closer to me when my thumb caressed her hand.

“You have come with interesting company,” I heard Eive telling my mother. “Rian,” the Sua added to my cousin and inclined her head as he did so both of them showed one another mutual respect. “Smoke was rising in the south all day yesterday, and yourteine ceangalwent suddenly cold,” Eive added to my mother. Referring to ancient stones that were gifted to our people long ago by one of our ancestors, a fire god called Elius, which could be used with fire to communicate over great distances. There were only four accounted for after Rian’s village was pillaged and the fifth stone had undoubtedly been carried off by some unsuspecting Fuath. “I sent my scouts to check on you and warned Imogen and Sassha.”

“It is very unlikely your scouts will return. I am sorry,” my mother whispered, squeezing Eive’s hands when the other Sua became upset. “The Fuath moved unexpectedly fast in the night. If it were not for the great efforts of the Wild Hunt, our entire village might have been lost.”

She had gestured at us, but there were already plenty of eyes appraising our silent ranks, most notably Summer. They had likely heard by now that Aodhan was replaced, and this was their first look at the new rider who was also the first female rider.

“You are undoubtedly the next target,” my mother told Eive who nodded in resignation. “They have a mage who erected a ward that protects them in sunlight in addition to the magic I already told you about that hid their cave.”

“Then they are still very close to us,” Eive guessed, and many of her people began to shift with discomfort as their eyes turned southward toward the imminent threat.

“You need to move. Now,” my mother advised the other Sua. “How I wish I’d had the chance to do so.”

Eive drew in a deep breath, looking emotional as she turned to look at another female in the crowd with a child strapped to her chest. I was pretty sure the redhead was Eive’s lifemate, and the child was her adopted daughter.

“I do not wish to abandon our homes to monsters,” Eive objected, but I could tell that she knew there was no choice in the matter now.

“You are not abandoning your lands,” Rian spoke up as he walked forward to stand with my mother. “You are merely ensuring your people are safe so that my riders and I can purge the Fuath.”

“Death or the destruction of our home? Are those truly our only options? What of the Light Wraith and the plan to meet them in battle?” she asked.

“I do not intend to destroy your home,” Rian insisted. “While it would make my work faster and easier, I swear to restrain my power and those of my riders so long as the Fuath are not an immediate threat. But I cannot make that promise to you whilst your people are at risk.”

Eive nodded, reluctantly conceding his point before inclining her head to him in acknowledgment. “You have lost much, but you need not fight this war alone, Rian. They have threatened us all.”

“This has less to do with my desire for vengeance and more to do with preserving lives. It is your essences and your magic that hold that darkness at bay,” he reminded her as he cast his arm back in the direction of the blight. “Your lives have meaning in a far greater struggle than the one the Fuath would bring to you.So allow me to do what I am best at and destroy these monsters quickly.”

Our leader has such a way with words, does he not?Ciaran smirked down the bond.

Rian certainly knew how to set minds at ease as well as he knew how to inspire them. It was evidenced by the way Eive’s shoulders rolled down in relief even while her chin lifted with her resolve.

“Very well, Rian. If you say you can destroy this threat without laying waste to our homes or risking the lives of my people then I will not stand in your way.”

Chapter thirty-seven

VILLAINOUS PLAN

Sage

We flew next to speak with Sassha the Wolf Maiden who was the Sua of Aes Lyrra. Summer was initially skeptical when she saw the river plunging through the earth into a cavern and heard the village was underground. It was not until Ciaran snorted in derision at her uncertainty that she allowed me to tug her down the worn stone steps after the Aes Lyrra sentries. But she was purely enchanted by the cave below in which the village perched at the edge of a subterranean lake with the river thundering through the ceiling and forming a massive waterfall.

Sassha had always been enamoured of Rian, and my cousin knew it. He knew that she would be easy for him to convince that she needed to move her people.

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