Shadows and Light

a clearing in an old woods and waited for the young Lords to test their strength against him to see who would ascend and become the new Lord of the Woods.”
    “And the young Lords came,” Lyrra said, taking up the story both of them knew so well, “but none of them were strong enough. None of them could match the waning strength of the one who commanded all of them.”
    “Then another Lord stepped into the clearing, a stranger the others had never seen before. The stranger walked to the center of the clearing and faced the old Lord of the Woods, and all those who had gathered there felt the power rising— a fierce, joyful power that burned like a hot sun compared to a waning moon—and they knew this stranger was the new Lord of the Woods. The old Lord changed into the mighty stag that was his other form, and waited for the young Hunter to shape an arrow of magic, fit it to the bow, and send it into his heart, stripping him of his magic as was the custom.”
    “And the stranger did shape an arrow of magic and fit it to the bow. Then the new Lord of the Woods shot the arrow into the ground in front of the old Lord’s feet, and said, ‘I will take the burden of your duties with a glad heart, but I will not take from you the power that made you what you are. For you have walked in the shadows and the light for all these long years, and your strength, your experience, your wisdom are still needed in the world. Go in peace. Merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again.’ ”
    “The stag lowered his head, then turned and walked away from the clearing. When he was gone, the other Lords of the Woods came, one by one, to kneel before the Hunter and offer their loyalty, swearing to obey the commands of the new Lord of the Woods. And so it was, that night near Harvest’s Eve, and he who came into power that night still rules the shadows and light of the woods and all things in it.”
    Lyrra said nothing, feeling the echo of Aiden’s last words whispering through her.
    “He changed things, Lyrra,” Aiden said. “Before that night, every time a Lord or Lady ascended to rule over all the others who had that same gift, the one whose power had waned was stripped of all of it, if not killed outright, in order to ensure that there would be no rivalry between the old and the new. By letting the old Lord walk away, the Hunter changed the waning and waxing of power from a battle between rivals to a ritual where the duties of power were passed on to the one best able to take up the task. When I ascended to become the Bard, I didn’t strip the old Bard of his gift of song. You didn’t strip the old Muse when your time came to command that power. And we would have, because it was the custom, if it hadn’t been for the story of how the Hunter came into his power.”
    “Some still strip the power from the old to prevent any rivalry,” Lyrra said.
    “And some always will. But many no longer do. If the Hunter could show compassion that night, he might be willing to hear what we have to say about the witches and why they need the Fae’s help.”
    Hopeful. Doubtful. Lyrra wasn’t sure which was the strongest feeling pulsing through her. “Where would we even begin to look?”
    “Where no one has thought to look.”
    She puzzled over that for a moment. Then her eyes widened. She sat up on the bed and stared down at him, wondering if he was feverish. “The west? You want to go to the western Clans?”
    “Think about it, Lyrra.” Aiden sat up to face her. “He hasn’t been seen in years. But we know he’s still the Lord of the Woods because if he wasn’t, another would have ascended to become the Hunter. No one knew who he was that night. No one knew what Clan he came from, and I don’t think he ever said where he came from, even during the time when he did travel to the other Clans so that the other Lords and Ladies of the Woods would have no doubt about who ruled them. Then he disappeared again.
    Where else could he be?”
    “Perhaps ... in the human world, living there the same way Ahern did?”
    “Even if that’s so, it still has to be in the west. All of us who ruled a gift knew where the Lord of the Horse was, even if few approached him. But no one knows how to locate the Hunter, and maybe that’s because we avoid the western Clans. If we approached one of those Clans and asked for him, I wonder how long it would really take to find him.”
    What was it about the Fae from the western Clans that made