Shadows and Light

away, walked to the window, and looked out. After a long moment, he turned back to them. “Go up to Bretonwood. It’s northwest of here. Talk to Lady Ashk. No one else will tell you anything about witches or the wiccanfae.”
    “How far?”
    “Since the days are longer now, a couple of days of hard riding would get you there.”
    A couple more days, Lyrra thought. How much more might happen in the eastern part of Sylvalan in a couple more days? Who else might die?
    “What about the Hunter?” Aiden asked. “Have you heard anything that would indicate he’s somewhere in the west?”
    Taihg gave them a strange smile. “Bard, if the Hunter wants to meet you, then you’ll meet.” He walked back to stand close to them. “But don’t ask anyone else about the witches or the wiccanfae. And don’t use the glamour to create a human mask. Your true face will be safer here.”
    “Safer?” Lyrra said, alarmed.
    “Some of those Inquisitors you spoke of came into the west. Warnings have gone out to be watchful of strangers coming into the west—especially strangers who start asking about witches and wiccanfae.”
    “What happened to the Black Coats?” Aiden asked.
    “One escaped. Might have gotten out of the west by now. That’s why it could go hard for anyone who makes the Clans or the barons’ guards uneasy. The others . . .” Taihg shrugged. “They didn’t escape.”
    Lyrra shivered, regretting even more her careless remark about witches.
    “Go to Bretonwood,” Taihg said. ‘Talk to Ashk.“
    Aiden nodded, held out a hand to Lyrra. She wondered how he knew her legs were shaking enough that she appreciated the help to stand.
    “Thank you for your time, Taihg,” Aiden said.
    “Bard,” Taihg said. “I know you’re both anxious to be on your way, but there are times when haste makes for a longer journey. Stay the night with us. Give yourself and your horses some rest. Then you’ll be able to start fresh in the morning.”
    Impatience shimmered around Aiden, but he nodded. “Since we’re going to be guesting at this Clan tonight, perhaps you’d be willing to let me hear some of your songs.”
    “That isn’t why I suggested that you stay,” Taihg protested.
    “I know,” Aiden replied. “That’s why I offered.”
    Aiden stared out the window of the guest room he and Lyrra had been given for the night. He hadn’t missed the fact that Taihg had shown no surprise when Lyrra had said the witches were the House of Gaian. No surprise at all.
    Which confirmed, for him, that the Fae of this Clan, at the very least, weren’t ignorant of who the women who lived in the Old Places were. They’d known a year ago, and had said nothing. Would things have happened differently last summer if he, along with Lucian and Dianna, had found out sooner who the witches were? Or would the Lightbringer and the Lady of the Moon have denied it, just as they denied it when Morag discovered what was written in the journals left by the women in Ari’s family?
    Perhaps it made no difference. Perhaps what happened at Brightwood would have happened anyway.
    “At least we know we’re looking in the right place for the Hunter,” Lyrra said, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist. “That’s something.”
    “There’s a lot of land, and a lot of Clans, in the west,” Aiden replied. He turned so that he could wrap his arms around her, giving comfort as well as accepting it. “The longer this takes ...”
    “I know. But there’s nothing else we can do.” She leaned back enough to look at him. “And we have a direction, a specific place to go and a specific person to ask in order to get some answers.” She frowned. “But I did wonder why Taihg thought this Lady Ashk would help us when he was equally certain no one else would.”
    Aiden had wondered the same thing. But he wasn’t going to tell Lyrra that, when he’d taken Taihg aside and asked about it, the reply he’d gotten was, “Ashk doesn’t like the Lightbringer.”
    Opposing Lucian had cost him his ties to his own Clan, had thwarted every effort he had made to convince the Fae to help the witches. He appreciated the irony that his break with the Lightbringer could assist him in winning over the Fae whose help he needed the most now.

    And he’d had a moment to feel bitterly angry with himself when he realized his demands for information might have cost another man all the things he, himself, had already lost.
    “What do you