“They will not hurt you, Claudia,” Eden said. “But they will not leave until you release Hartley.”
“So that he may work his evil on some other innocent?” Claudia clenched her hands, shooting glances right and left as if trying to watch all the animals at once. “He will take you away from me, and destroy you, as he destroyed my love!”
“No. He will not take me away. He will go with our son to a place where both of them will be safe from people like you.”
“Safe from punishment!” Claudia cried. “I will not give him up!”
An unearthly cry silenced them both. Hartley had risen into a crouch within the cage. His chest rose and fell in a deep breath. From his brow sprouted antlers, and from his mouth came another cry that shook the very dale itself.
In the distance came a faint rumbling, like an approaching storm. Eden realized that it was not thunder but the drumming of hooves.
Out of the forest, down the fell, up from the dale dashed the red deer, magnificent stags in full antler and their females in blazing coats. Males that should be fighting each other in rut ran side by side, bellowing challenges as they came.
Cyrus pulled Claudia against him. “Eden, take Donal and run!”
“There is nothing to fear.” Eden took Donal’s hand as the deer joined the other beasts, towering above them in their magnificence. The air rang with snorts and the tearing of earth.
But among the deer was another red-coated creature, nearly lost in the forest of stamping hooves. It continued to the very edge of the cage when the others had stopped.
A fox. A red fox, crouching and cowering low to the earth. Hartley knelt. He lifted his hand and spread his fingers as if in a benediction.
“Be free,” he commanded.
The fox writhed, falling upon its back. Eden was not sure what she saw, for in a single blink the fox was gone, and a man lay there in its place—a man dressed in the fashion of two decades past. He lifted his graying head.
Claudia stood rigid in Cyrus’s hold, staring at the man. She spoke a single, croaking word.
“Raines.”
And Eden knew. She embraced Donal and thanked Providence for this miracle, and for Hartley’s selfless compassion. His freedom would make the miracle complete.
Claudia shook herself free. She took a halting step toward her husband, and then another, and another. The man rose to his knees. He blinked as if he had forgotten how to see with human eyes.
“Claudia?”
Eden turned Donal away. What happened now was a private reunion, and even after all Claudia had done—after all her scheming and hatred—she deserved this promise of redemption.
But when Eden faced the cage, she saw that Hartley lay still.
“No. Not yet.” She lifted Donal high and pressed her cheek to his. “Call your father, Donal. Call him!”
“Wake up, Da!” Donal cried. “Wake up!”
Hartley stirred. He whispered something too low for Eden to hear.
“He’s trying, Mother,” Donal said. “He’s so tired.”
A large, gentle hand came to rest on Eden’s shoulder. “Claudia gave me the keys,” Lord Bradwell said. “Take them. I will help you.”
Dry-mouthed and shaking, Eden let Donal down and fitted the first key to the padlock. The door opened and she flung the lock aside. She crawled into the cage and grasped the iron collar; using the second key she carefully removed the collar from his neck. She grasped Hartley by the sleeves of his coat, pulling and tugging him to the door.
“Help me,” she begged. “Soon you’ll be in a place where you can heal. You must try. Damn you, Hartley, try!”
He moved almost infinitesimally. Eden redoubled her efforts. Her father reached in when Hartley was near the door and helped her pull him onto the wet grass. Donal bent beside him, laying his small hand on Hartley’s matted hair.
There was no time to let him rest. His only chance at recovery lay in his own land. In Tir-na-nog. But she did not know how to find the way.
“Donal, think very hard. Did your father ever tell you how to get to the land of the Fane?”