Then a breeze as soft as goose down nudged his cheeks, filled with the mingled smells of dewy grass, growing trees, and intoxicating flowers.
“How can this exist here?” Bran breathed, dumbfounded.
“A sorcerer named Tathal Ennis created it, meant to hide it for his own personal gain. He was attempting to import items from Annwn and sell them to the highest bidder in Europe. The Church discovered the portal after Seattle’s Great Fire and hunted him down, but with no luck. Once a portal is opened it cannot be closed, and clever spells in the room above help keep people from venturing here.”
Bran looked back to the portal. He didn’t know what to say.
“Don’t panic,” Richard ordered. “There is more for you to know once we are on the other side. Keep moving forward once you step in.”
“What’s it like?”
“You’ll see,” the knight said before murmuring. “So will I.”
Arrow Jack flew in ahead of the two men. Bran took a deep breath. As Merle had said, there was no turning back.
With Richard in the lead, Bran entered the portal.
“I have returned from Mochdrev Reach, my king.”
Philip Plantagenet ignored the entrance of John Lewis Hugo and stared out the uppermost window of Idyll Tower, watching dawn come alive as the Harp of Tiertu attempted to soothe his stress. It didn’t help. He had seen thousands of sunrises grace Annwn, each one carving the peaks of the distant Carn Cavall Mountains from the night sky and burning away the gray fog from the Forest of Dean east of Caer Llion, but no sunrise during his centuries living in the land of the Tuatha de Dannan had brought such high stress—and such promise.
He rubbed the reddish stubble along his jaw, his eyes gritty from lack of sleep. It was a critical time and much demanded his attention.
“Welcome back, old friend,” Philip greeted finally, silencing the self-playing fey harp with a thought and turning to his long-time advisor. “I trust your trip was uneventful?”
“It was, thankfully,” John said, half of his face a hideous mask Philip had never grown accustomed to viewing. “Meeting with Lord Gerallt and his daughter went as planned. As I knew it would. The lord gave his blessing in private. Lady Deirdre is ordered to court in one month and will bring her retinue. And my king… she is a beautiful woman, strong of spirit and body. She will produce you a fine heir, one worthy of two worlds. You both will unite two peoples.”
“I am still not entirely sure it is the right time for me to marry, to have children,” Philip thought out loud, crossing his arms. “There is much work left. My father ordered the destruction of the Tuatha de Dannan and the annexation of Annwn. That has not yet happened. Does your use of the cauldron truly portend the time is now? Are you sure she is the right woman?”
“I am,” John said. “Marrying the daughter of Mochdrev Reach will unify the peoples from Britain. With the additional might, you will crush the Tuatha de Dannan and fulfill King Henry’s crusade. Is that not the trust you have been charged?”
It was, of course. Philip turned back to the sunrise. There was still a part of him that resented leaving his war unfinished, putting individual happiness before completing his father’s commandment. A man had his duty first; what came after was his alone. Over the eight centuries of his war, many women had enjoyed the pleasure of his sheets, all of them broomed from his royal suite just as quickly. None had produced children. John blamed it on use of the relic: such a potent magic rendering Philip impotent. Stoppage of its use—or so John believed—would lead to the heirs his long family line required.
Philip did not question his advisor. But his purpose in Annwn was yet to be finished, and it remained a festering wound to his honor.
“What did Gerallt’s daughter say?” he asked finally.
“She is angry, as is usually the case with arranged marriages,” John said. “Yet she knows her obligation to Caer Llion, and it will lend her the strength to do what is right.”
Philip wondered. If he did marry Lord Gerallt’s daughter, Mochdrev Reach would become a powerful new asset to his empire. The breadth of Annwn he had already conquered was vast but the populace sparse, particularly in the south. The men and women of the Reach were the descendents of the first humans to enter Annwn,