Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 51

The lead guard was first to reach him, and when he saw that no magic had been cast even at this close quarters, his fearful wide eyes narrowed as he smirked. He said nothing as he lifted his sword and brought it crashing down on Tanwyn. The faerie had only a few seconds to dodge out of the way, though the sword still cut through the edge of his sleeve. He had dodged backward, straight into Cole, and they tumbled into the wall together. He knocked the dagger out of her hands and it fell into the grass, disappearing into the gloom. But even worse, Tanwyn's weight drooped suddenly and Cole was forced to grab his waist to steady him. It was then that she noticed the stain on his shirt was wet against her hands, and a gaping hole in the fabric hinted at a matching on that must be on the skin of his shoulder. It looked like Baerghast's sword had landed its blow after all.

She pushed Tanwyn back onto his feet, feeling his ribs shudder as he fought for breath. He was coated in sweat and shook even worse than her mother, who now huddled a few feet away on the ground. She covered her head and rocked back and forth, moaning as if she was a trapped animal. Thankfully, the guards seemed to have ignored her, and were focused on Cole and Tanwyn.

"I can't fight them," Tanwyn whispered to her. His voice was bitter and defeated.

"You can," Cole whispered back. "We won't win, but we can fight. We can go down together and make sure that they can't take us back to their dungeons."

Tanwyn nodded, but his face was tight and pinched. His hand involuntarily went to his wounded shoulder before he realized and let it drop back down at his side. "If we just had a little magic..."

He paused and turned to look at Cole. "Your ring," he said, breathless. "Do you still have it?"

Cole glanced down at her pocket. She stuffed the ring in when she was running and she hadn't checked to see if it was still there. Her hand dove in, hoping it was still there, as the guards came close enough that she could smell the stench of sweat on them. Her fingers wrapped around something metal and cool, but she didn't even have time to pull it out of her pocket.

"It's here," she yelled.

Tanwyn grabbed her arm yanking her to one side. They ran to where her mother sat, and Tanwyn almost fell on top of her as he slumped down on the ground by her side. "The ring!" he shouted, holding out his hand. Cole ripped it from her pocket, dropping it in his palm just as he grabbed her hand with his free one. She grabbed her mother's hand, and a second later the whole world tilted.

It was just like the times he had taken her to Avallen. The sounds of the guards yelling warped and spun around them, as if it was a hurricane of noise. Then the buildings and the darkness shimmered, melting away and being replaced by a gorgeous field of yellow flowers. The smell of the castle was the last to go, eventually being replaced by a strange sweet scent that reminded Cole of sleep.

Tanwyn gasped and fell backward into the yellow flowers. Her mother began to cry, soft and pitiful like a small mouse, covering up her ears with her hands and hiding her face in her knees. Only Cole looked around at their surroundings, noticing that the moon was strange and the sky was a dark purple. This was not anywhere in the human realm. This was Avallen.

"Why did you bring us here?" Cole asked, her voice breaking the unearthly silence the field was wrapped in. It felt as if they were the only beings alive, and that the flowers were eating away at any noise that might disturb them.

Tanwyn's breath came heavy and loud as he lay on his back, his eyes closed. "The travelling magic works best when you can clearly imagine the place you want to go. I was too rushed, and the only place I could think of was home."

"Won't you be in trouble with the queen?" Cole asked. "Everyone at the ball saw you. They'll know the fae are responsible for the assassination attempt. This could be the start of a war."

Tanwyn didn't reply. He looked pale... well, paler than normal. Cole frowned and reached forward, draping the back of her hand against his forehead. He flinched, his eyes flying open at the touch.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Seeing you're dying, you idiot," she replied. His forehead was slick with sweat but did not feel that warm. She knew it would only be a matter of time before the fever would hit. He was too badly hurt for him to last much longer. They needed to get him rested and bandaged up.

"Do you know where in Avallen we are? Can you tell me how to get to the nearest town or village?" she asked.

Tanwyn was silent.

She nudged him but he didn't respond. A bolt of fear ran down her spine. She shook his shoulder again, this time hard enough that it jostled his injured side and he groaned and peeled one eye open.

"No," he replied. "I don't know where in the Ray Fields we are, so I can't tell you where the village is."

Cole sighed and flopped down at his side. "You're hurt and we need to get you medical attention."

"I'll be fine," he tried to say, but his words slurred and he barely got the whole sentence out of his mouth.

"Sure. You sound just fine and dandy to me," Cole retorted.

Tanwyn mumbled something back at her, but it was so muffled and slurred that she couldn't understand a word of it. His skin was turning a gray-tinge and he shook as if he was bathed in cold water. When Cole rested the back of her hand against his forehead again, she felt the beginning of an inner fire under his skin. The fever was coming.

"Let's go. You need to tell me where we can find the village," Cole said, crouching down. She lifted Tanwyn's arm and threw it over her shoulder to use as leverage in hauling him to his feet. If she hadn't spent years in the mines hauling massive stones, she never would have been able to force him up to his feet. He leaned heavily against her, his ribs pressing into hers, his head flopping against her shoulder and neck. She grunted in frustration. "You have to at least know the direction that the village is in."

"Follow the green star," he muttered. "It's below the green star."

Cole rolled her eyes. "Green star? What are you talking about?" She scanned the sky above them, but, despite a bit more twinkling, the stars looked much like the ones back home. Nothing looked green.

"It's there." This voice was not Tanwyn's. Cole whipped her head around to see her mother, pointing to a large star near the horizon. It was bright and large, but as white as the other stars around it.

"That's green?" she said. She didn't expect an answer, but she still got one.

"Greanne, not green. It means 'home'."

"Oh," Cole said, not sure how she should respond. It was the most her mother had spoken, and it seemed surprisingly coherent and intelligent. Meegan must have been right about her gaining back her consciousness in waves. Right now, she almost seemed like anyone else. Her gaze was clear and she stood behind Cole and Tanwyn, weak but present.

Cole didn't want to push her luck and attempt a conversation, just in case it proved too good to be true and her mother slipped back away into the dark abyss of her own mind. She couldn't carry Tanwyn and her mother, so she needed her mother's mind to be as clear as possible. So, instead, she ignored that her mother somehow knew about the stars in Avallen and that she could maybe remember Cole and the life they had lived before, and she pressed on toward the large star that meant home.

The yellow flowers might have been lovely and a sight for sore eyes when they first arrived, but after a half hour of lugging Tanwyn through their tall stalks, Cole was thinking of burning the whole field down. Their leaves were sticky and sickly sweet, and the stalks were as strong as tree branches. She knew she must be developing welts on her shins from the amount of flowers that had snapped against her as she pushed through them. Tanwyn only got heavier and heavier as they walked, as well, and she struggled to breath under the exertion. He had stopped talking long ago, and she wasn't even sure if he was still conscious beyond his half-hearted steps. Her mother stayed behind them, the sound of her breathing the only thing that gave Cole hope. If she had gotten her mother back, she could survive anything.