Read Online The Pendragon's Challenge (The Last Pendragon Saga Book 7) by Sarah Woodbury - Free Book Online Page B

of his eye, he lit the end of his staff again, and the little light illumined a few feet of space in front of him. He started down the steps, followed by Mabon, and then Goronwy and Catrin. The door into the crypt was easily pushed open, and a long tunnel stretched before them.
    “Does it—does it have an ending?” Catrin said.
    Taliesin didn’t bother answering, because she wouldn’t like his reply: It does, and it doesn’t.
    Goronwy pulled his sword from its sheath. “I don’t like this at all.”
    “You aren’t meant to,” Taliesin said.
     

Chapter Eight
    Rhiann
     
    R hiann arrived in the courtyard, her recent conversation with Cade ringing in her ears.
     
    “With all that has happened, I’m still riding to Caer Fawr with you tonight? Why?”
    Cade had given her a quizzical look. “Don’t you want to? Are you tired of my company already?”
    Rhiann made a face. “Don’t be silly. Of course I want to come with you. I’m just surprised that you think it’s a good idea. It would be much more likely for you to want to send me somewhere else where I’ll be safe.”
     “I would be more of a fool than I actually am to think that any of us are safe anywhere else,” Cade said. “Even with the sidhe cutting themselves off from our world, we have plenty of mortal enemies—and who’s to say that Mabon is the only sidhe who walks among us?”
    “Do you believe Mabon when he says he means us no ill?”
    “I believe that—up to a point and only as far as it gives him rope to hang himself.”
     
    Peada had already departed with his men, having eaten the evening meal in double time. Rhiann had climbed to the battlement to watch them pound down the road, ultimately turning northeast towards Chester, which was where he said he was going. Rhiann had never been to Chester. Before leaving Anglesey with Cade, she’d barely ever left Aberffraw, much less visited England. If she’d married Peada as her father had wanted, she might have ended up there anyway, even if she would have been a different person inside.
    At Rhiann’s entrance, Angharad lifted her bag to show Rhiann that she’d brought it. “We’ve been settled for two months, but I’ve been ready for days to leave at a moment’s notice.” She lifted her chin to point to the crowded courtyard. It was the same organized chaos that always accompanied a departure from the castle. “Where are the others?”
    “Goronwy and Catrin went off with Taliesin, and Hywel and Bedwyr are following Peada to Chester. If all goes well, they will ride afterwards to Caer Fawr. But Taliesin wanted us to leave, so we’ll head south tonight. The other lords will be gathering too.” Rhiann shivered slightly. “It feels all of a sudden as if we’ve sat on this mountaintop too long.”
    Dafydd appeared in the doorway behind Rhiann. “It’s time.”
    Angharad looked up at her husband. “How far is it to Chester?” She had never been to England either.
    “Some twenty miles, a little more,” Dafydd said. “Hywel and Bedwyr will have no trouble.”
    “We’ve ridden less far in more peril.” Rhiann shook her head. “Taliesin’s fears have spilled over to me. I can’t help feeling as if the danger we face is worse than anything we’ve seen so far.”
    “Worse!” Angharad’s emerald eyes flashed. “I hope not. At least Penda is human.”
    “Humans can be more inventive in their cruelty than the sidhe ,” Rhiann pointed out.
    Dafydd held out his hand to Angharad, and she took it. The pair had married within a few weeks of their victory at Caer Fawr. Some might have said they’d married in haste, but their friends agreed with them that life was too short to dawdle.
     Cade was riding with nearly the full complement of men he kept at Dinas Bran. He’d sent home most of the men who’d fought at Caer Fawr, knowing they needed to see to the spring planting and newborn lambs, but he kept a contingent of forty knights with him at all times and would leave only