Darkwitch Rising by Sara Douglass

Why didn’t I point out that I would not do what Weyland wanted either? Did I not want to say it, or did I not want to do it?

“But you will not tell me what he is doing,” he said.

“No. Neither will I betray you to him, Weyland.”

He regarded me steadily, the illumination from the candles catching the glint in his eyes. “I could force you. I still can, you know. The presence of the imp was immaterial. You are my creature. I can force the information from you.”

I continued to hold his eyes, more sure of him now than I had ever been. “You won’t,” I said. “You will not force me.”

He affected one of his old sneers.

“Don’t,” I said softly. “That is not the Weyland you have shown me these past months.”

He dropped his eyes, and one of his hands fiddled with a piece of holly on the table.

“What I have seen in the past months has turned my heart, Weyland.”

“Don’t,” he said.

“I will not betray you,” I repeated. “I am not Ariadne. And that is my Yuletide gift to you, Weyland. My promise: I will not betray you.”

He would not look at me, his hand still fiddling with that irritating piece of holly.

“Will you fetch me the golden kingship bands of Troy?” he said, thinking he knew the answer.

“Yes,” I said, and his startled eyes flew up to mine. I laughed. “In a manner of speaking. I will fetch them and bring them to the Idyll and there I will place them. But I will not hand them to you. They will be safe in the Idyll.”

“Hand them to me.”

“No. I will remove them from where Brutus-reborn can reach them, and I will secrete them in the Idyll. You will not be able to find them, but they will be closer to you than to him. And I can only bring four of the bands. Not all six.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“I sent two of the bands into the Otherworld, and I do not know where they are. Even your wraiths would not be able to find them. It was a foolish thing for me to do, perhaps…but it means that neither you nor Brutus can achieve all of the bands.”

“Who can find those two?”

The Lord of the Faerie, I thought, but would not tell him this. “A friend,” I said. “One of the faerie folk, and one who has the best interests of this land in his heart, as do I.”

He sat, thinking. “Noah, why do you do this?” he said eventually. “Why promise not to betray me? Why bring four of the bands to the Idyll now, when you had made me promise to wait until you’d gained your full powers as Mistress of the Labyrinth? Why treat me as if…”

I rose and moved about the table. “Why treat you as if I regarded you with love, Weyland, rather than hatred?”

He flinched at that word, “love”, and I wondered at the fact that we had both steered well clear of it for so long. I came to him, and sat down in his lap.

“Why do we never speak that single word, Weyland?” I said, shivering with pleasure as his arms slid about my waist, and sliding my own about his shoulders. “Why do we avoid it so assiduously?”

He was looking down, as if fascinated with the patterns in the silk of my skirt, and did not answer.

“Why are we so afraid of love?”

He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.

“I will not betray you, Weyland,” I whispered. “How can I, when I love you so deeply?”

Oh, gods, those words had been sitting in my throat for weeks and months, choking me, standing in my way, impeding all my progress. How sweet it felt, now, to say them to this man.

To Asterion.

His eyes were still tightly closed, and I wondered what thoughts consumed him. I put one of my hands on his head, and stroked gently at his hair. I will not betray you, Weyland. I will not betray you.

“Weyland, Weyland,” I whispered. “Where are we going? And why should we stop?”

Tears forced their way between his tightly closed eyelids, and coursed down his cheek. His arms about me tightened, and I was suddenly very afraid for him, that he should be this terrified of being loved.

“Weyland,” I said, and I took one of his hands, and put it on my belly.

“I have your daughter in there,” I said. “Your daughter, and mine. Not a reborn daughter, or a recreation of the ones we have both lost, but a new child. One made for both of us.”

He tensed, his hand rigid on my belly.

“I am not Ariadne,” I said. “I will not betray you to another Theseus, nor will I ever take this daughter away from you. This child heals wounds, Weyland. Your wounds, and mine.”

He finally dared enough to open his eyes, and raise them to mine. “Why?”

“Because I love and trust you, Weyland.”

He was looking at my belly now, his hand still rigid. “I am so scared,” he said. “I had not thought this would happen.”

“I know.” I pulled his head against my breasts, and for the longest time we sat there, cradled together, he and I and the child we had made growing within me, as the voices of the church choir filtered about us and two wraiths from the halls of the dead cleared the table, and set out port wine for us to drink, should we desire.

Idol Lane and Earl’s Court Station, London

Weyland stood, staring at Noah in that strange reserved manner he had when he was at his most wary.

“I have arranged the driver and carriage to meet you on Thames Street,” he said. “As you asked.”

She smiled, briefly putting the palm of her hand against his cheek. “Then I do thank you, Weyland.”

“Brutus—”

“He will know. He won’t act.”

“Are you sure?”

She paused, and Weyland could see that she was not sure at all. “I will come with you,” he said.

“No, Weyland. I can only do this by myself. The band will remain hidden if it senses you nearby.”

Weyland repressed every natural instinct he had to insist that he accompany her. He took a deep breath.

“Very well,” he said. “Gods, Noah—”

“I will come home, Weyland. Trust me.”

The frightening thing was, he thought, that it was too easy to trust her. Too easy to believe in her.

Too easy to love her, and risk all.

Weyland gave a weak smile, and she leaned forward and kissed him. “I will bring back the band, Weyland…and I will not bring Theseus with it.”

At that Weyland felt so weak with fear, with sheer vulnerability, that he actually felt physically nauseated. Noah knew too many of his weaknesses. She knew what horror it had been for him to see Ariadne leading Theseus by the hand into the heart of the labyrinth, and knew that the horror had not so much been fear, but that soul-destroying knowledge of treachery by someone he had loved without reason.

She kissed him again, briefly, and then she was gone, leaving Weyland standing at the head of the stairs, staring after her.

The carriage and driver were waiting at the junction of Idol Lane and Thames Street as Weyland had promised. Noah spoke softly to the driver, waited for his nod, then allowed him to settle her into the carriage.

The driver climbed to his seat, picked up reins and whip, and clucked the pair of bay mares into motion, and they were off.

They drove west along Thames Street, worked their way to Fleet Street, then to the Strand which they followed to Charing Cross. From there, they turned right up Haymarket Street and then west along Piccadilly and Portugal Street into the open countryside. Fields and orchards, covered with a dusting of snow, stretched on either side; the market gardens of Earl’s Court, where they were headed, were sure to be smothered in either slush or mud.

But as they drove, a change came over the countryside and, indeed, in the vehicle in which Noah travelled. The sound of the horses’ hooves faded, as also did the dark-cloaked figure of the driver. The carriage grew a roof, where before it had none, and its motion changed from rolling and rocking to a far smoother action.

Noah was riding in one of those strange black machines she had seen on several occasions in her previous life, when she had moved the bands for the first time. She tensed, unhappy with the strangeness of the vehicle, but knowing it had to be endured.

The countryside closed in. Tall, dirty, stuccoed buildings rose to either side, shutting out any view of what fields may have been left behind them. People in strange clothing bustled along footpaths, while about Noah rushed many similar vehicles to the one in which she was trapped.