Shadows and Light

all you need.” She grabbed Lyrra’s hand and pulled her away from Aiden. “Come along. The steps are quite simple. Neall! Come along now!”
    “Neall doesn’t have woodland eyes,” Aiden said to Padrick as the Baron of Breton came to stand beside him.
    “No, he doesn’t. But his mother, Nora, was a witch. So he’ll join the dance.” Padrick smiled as he watched Ashk demonstrate the dance steps for Lyrra. “Ashk used to dance with Nora for the Solstice.
    She’s been looking forward to joining this dance again. Having Neall and Ari living here means a great deal to her.”
    Not because they’re useful, Aiden thought as he watched several of the Fae take their places to form a large, loose circle, but because they are dear to her. For her, they’re like the favorite nephew and his beloved wife, finally returned home.
    He heard the drums set a slow, measured beat to indicate the dance was about to begin. His heart pounded a little too quickly. He’d seen the spiral dance last Solstice, had felt the magic in Brightwood answer that dance. But Ari had danced alone that night, and the power they’d felt when she drew all that magic to herself and released it again had frightened the Fae who had come to her cottage pretending to be human.
    “You’ve a hungry look about you, Bard,” Padrick said. “Did you have enough to eat?”
    There was a hunger in him that had nothing to do with a full belly. He hadn’t realized how much he’d craved seeing this dance again when he knew what to expect. “Hmm?” Aiden said, feeling impatient with conversation that was distracting him. “Yes, I had plenty. Wonderful food. The only thing I’ve tasted that was better was some brown bread we’d had at a village on the way here.”
    “Brown bread?” Padrick asked sharply. “Where was this?”
    “A village. We took a road off the main one and had a meal in the village tavern.” Aiden frowned. He didn’t want to be impolite, but Ari was walking over to the circle; the actual dance would start any moment now.
    “You stopped in Wiccandale?”
    “Didn’t have a sign posted anywhere, so I can’t tell you which village it was.” Aiden turned his head slowly and stared at Padrick. “Wiccandale?”

    Laughter danced in Padrick’s eyes. “You didn’t know, did you?”
    “Know?”
    “It’s a wiccanfae village.”
    Aiden’s mouth fell open. “Are you saying it’s an entire village of witches ?”
    Padrick coughed politely. “Only the women are called witches.”
    “Mother’s mercy,” Aiden said weakly. An entire village of people who could trace their roots back to the House of Gaian. No wonder the village had the same feel as an Old Place. With the appearance of Black Coats in the west, no wonder they were wary of strangers.
    Remembering the woman and the little girl, Kayla, he realized the Black Coats weren’t the only danger to those people. Would anyone be able to rouse the Clans to protect the witches and the Old Places if they knew there was a place where they could obtain another witch? The Fae might be unwilling to enter the Mother’s Hills, but a village in the west? Oh, yes. Dianna wouldn’t think twice about ordering the men of her Clan to ride to Wiccandale and take a couple of young witches. She wouldn’t care if those women were willing or not, as long as it freed her from being the anchor that held the shining road open at Brightwood. She would justify it as something owed to her because she was the Lady of the Moon.
    “Bard.”
    Something in Padrick’s voice pulled Aiden’s attention back to the here and now. He wasn’t sure if he was looking at a Fae Lord or the Baron of Breton. He suspected the feral heat he saw in Padrick’s eyes was one of the reasons the man was obeyed so readily.
    “It was wonderful bread,” Aiden said softly. “It’s unfortunate that I wouldn’t be able to find my way back to that village.”
    Padrick stared at him for a moment before nodding. “If witches were suddenly to go missing, it would displease the Fae in the west—”
    Displease the Hunter, you mean.
    “—and it would displease me, since Wiccandale is in the county I rule, and I have a responsibility to those people.”
    “I understand.”
    “Yes,” Padrick said quietly, “I thought you would.” He lifted his chin slightly. “The dance is starting.”
    Aiden turned back to the meadow in time to see Ari take the first steps of the dance. He already felt the eddies and currents of