He whispered into my hair, "Merry, Merry, Merry."
I clung to him, wordless, and wept.
Chapter 22
EVERYONE LIVED, EVEN THE HUMAN POLICEMEN, THOUGH some were driven mad by what they had seen. Abeloec fed them from his cup of horn and they fell into a magical sleep, destined to wake with no memory of the horrors they had seen. Magic isn't always bad.
The black dogs were a miracle: They changed depending on who touched them. Abe's touch turned the great black dogs into lapdogs to lie before a cozy fire, white with red markings - faerie dogs. Mistral's touch turned them to huge Irish wolfhounds, not the pale, slender ones of today, but the giants that the Romans had feared so much - these were the hounds that could snap the spine of a horse with their bite. Someone else's touch turned a dog into a green-furred Cu Sith that loped off toward the Seelie mound. What would their king, Taranis, think of its return? He'd probably try to take credit for it, claim it as proof of his power.
In the midst of the return of so much that was lost, other things much more precious were returned to me. Galen's voice shouting my name turned me in Doyle's arms. He was running across the snowy field with flowers following in his wake, as if wherever he stepped, spring returned. All the rest who had vanished into the dead gardens were with him. Nicca appeared with a following of the winged demifey. Amatheon was there with the tattoo of a plow gleaming like neon blood on his chest. I saw Hawthorne, his dark hair starred with living blossoms. Adair's hair burned around him like a halo of fire, so bright it obscured his face as he moved. Aisling walked in a cloud of singing birds. He was nude, except for a piece of black gauze that he'd wrapped around his face.
Onilwyn was the only one who did not come. I thought the garden had kept him, until I heard another voice shrieking my name in the distance. Then I heard Onilwyn's frantic cry: "No, my lord, no!"
"It cannot be," I whispered, looking up at Doyle, watching fear cross his face, too.
"It is he," Nicca said.
Galen wrapped himself around me as if I were the last solid thing in the world. Doyle moved so he could embrace me as well. "It's my fault," Galen whispered, "I didn't mean to do it."
Aisling spoke, and the flock of birds sang as if they were moved to joy by the sound of his voice. "We reemerged in the Hallway of Mortality."
"Major magic doesn't work there; that's why we're all so helpless to stop the torture," Rhys said.
"We came out of the walls and floors - and trees and flowers, and shining marble came with us," Aisling said. "The hallway is forever changed."
Galen started to shake, and I held him as hard as I could. "I was buried alive," he said. "I couldn't breathe, I didn't need to breathe, but my body kept trying to do it. I came up through the floor screaming." He collapsed to his knees while I fought to hold him.
"The queen was walling up Nerys's clan alive," Amatheon said. "Galen did not take well to that after his time in the earth."
Galen shook as if he were having a fit, as if every muscle were fighting itself, as if he were cold, though fevered. It was too much power and too much fear.
Adair's glow had dimmed enough so that I could see his eyes. "Galen said 'No prisoners, no walls.' The walls melted away, and flowers sprang up in the cells. He hadn't understood how much power he had gained."
Another shriek approached in the distance. "Cousin!"
Doyle said, "Galen's exhortation, 'No prisoners,' freed Cel."
Galen started to cry. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Onilwyn and the queen herself - and some of her guard - are wrestling Cel even now," Hawthorne said, "or he would be here already, trying to harm the princess."
"He is quite mad," Aisling said, "and he is intent on hurting all of us. But most especially you, Princess."
"The queen told us to run back to the Western Lands. She's hoping he'll grow more calm with time," Hawthorne said. Even by starlight, he looked doubtful.
"She has admitted before her nobles that she cannot guarantee your safety," Aisling said.
"We should flee, if we are going to," Hawthorne said.
I realized what he meant. If Cel attacked me now, here, like this, we would be within our rights to kill him, if we could. My guards were sworn to protect, and Cel was no match for the strength and magic that stood with me now. Not alone, he wasn't.
"If I thought the queen would allow his death to go unpunished, I would say, Stay, fight," Doyle said.
One of the great black mastiffs nudged Galen. He reached for it, almost automatically, and it changed before my eyes. It became a sleek white hound with one red ear. It licked the tears from Galen's face and he stared at it in wonder, as if he hadn't seen the dogs until that moment.
Then came Cel's voice, broken, almost unrecognizable. "Merry!" His screams broke off abruptly. The silence was almost more frightening than the shouting, and my heart was suddenly pounding hard in my chest.
"What happened?" I called out.
Andais walked over the rise of the last gentle hill, following Galen's trail of flowers. She was alone, save for her consort, Eamon. They were almost the same height, their long black hair streaming out behind them in a wind that came from nowhere. Andais was dressed as if she were going to a Halloween ball - and you were meant to fear her beauty. Eamon's clothes were more sedate, and also all black. The fact that Andais arrived with only him at her side meant she didn't want extra witnesses. Eamon was the only one who knew all her secrets.
"Cel will sleep for a time," she called, as if in answer to a question we hadn't asked.