entered it. I know very few I can say that about, but he was one of them.”
“Why did he come here?”
“Why does any Heliwr come into Annwn? To make amends.”
“I don’t know what that means, to be a Heliwr,” Bran confessed.
“I see. The wizard is playing the game close to his heart,” the Morrigan said. “The Heliwr is the Unfettered Knight—not chained to govern any portal between the two worlds. Whenever a crossing occurs from either world, the Heliwr is responsible for setting it right again if one of the Yn Saith fail.”
“Well, who is the Heliwr now?” Deirdre asked.
“There is not one.”
“So my father…hunted people down, then?” Bran asked. “Like a bounty hunter?”
“Aye, and when other mischief transpired,” the Queen replied. “But now is not the time to speak of such things. Deirdre has no wish to hear a history lesson, methinks. We can make Arendig Fawr before nightfall. There is much we must discuss in the presence of McAllister and the remnants of the Seelie Court. You are safe for now. Relax and enjoy the ride.”
The Morrigan trotted away but turned back suddenly. “These demon wolves you speak of. Did it sound like there were more of them?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“I see,” the Queen said.
With the Morrigan leading, the group continued through the rugged terrain of the Carn Cavall. Deirdre guided Willowyn as a quiet Bran finished his apple. She wondered about the outworlders again. The visions her shade mother had shared included her tie to some outworlder. Could Bran be the one her mother had spoken about? Could Richard McAllister? She did not know. The two had come into Annwn for unknown reasons. Were those reasons linked to her life? Could her mother be that clairvoyant? Whatever the case, events had gone tragically awry for them. Was John Lewis Hugo tracking them? Was Richard dying? What would Bran do if the knight did die? The Morrigan seemed fairly certain the knight would recover. If he did, Deirdre wondered how the outworlders would shape her future.
The afternoon wore on as the sun arced the sky. The land died the farther they traveled. One moment broad meadows filled with long browning grasses and lazy insects surrounded her; the next she passed under what once had been enormous waterfalls, now dried to a small trickle. Fewer and fewer forest animals watched them, emaciated and furtive. No birdsong lent music to the day. The peaks of Snowdon loomed, only its uppermost crags still covered in glacier.
As Snedeker sat on her shoulder and Deirdre thought about how she would convince her father to join those in the Seelie Court, Bran touched her arm from behind.
“So, how did you get involved in all of this?” he asked.
“Not the shortest of stories,” Deirdre answered, wondering how much she should tell him. “I live in a city called Mochdrev Reach, out in the plains south of the Carn Cavall. My ancestors aided the Tuatha de Dannan when they fled the persecution of the Misty Isles, choosing to settle apart from the fey. When Philip Plantagenet arrived with his Templar Knights, the Reach kept apart from both groups, autonomous.
“That separation is coming to an end,” she continued. “Philip Plantagenet has taken over much of Annwn and now wants to marry the Reach with his city of Caer Llion. It would bring the two separate groups of humans together, undoubtedly as a single force to fight the Tuatha de Dannan here, in the Carn Cavall.”
“By marry you mean…Philip marrying you?”
“As you can imagine, I’m not too keen on the idea,” Deirdre said.
“You shouldn’t be,” Bran said, frowning.
Still staring at the outworlder, Snedeker grunted darkly on her shoulder.
“I would rather choose love than have it forced on me,” she said. “My father, the lord of Mochdrev Reach, is at Arendig Fawr right now to discover with the Morrigan if there is anything that can be done, if we should join with the fey and defy Plantagenet or if we should be absorbed by Caer Llion to keep our people out of harm’s way.”
“Tough choices,” Bran said. “I would imagine you are hoping to not be married to the High King, although war can’t be much better.” Deirdre gritted her teeth at the thought of the forced marriage. “On the streets where I have lived most of my life, the main lesson I have learned is to knock the bully down. Knock the bully down, and they leave you alone.”
“It’s a bit different when thousands of your people are