“Agreed,” he said as he bent low to retrieve the message. “Take the path for which you seek, but keep in mind, not all will take you to what you need. Illusions abound, tempt and deceive, and while men covet that which holds great beauty, humility is often the key to the King’s needs.”
“Well that’s about a cluster hump of dumb luck,” I replied, smiling. “But seriously, that’s crap. I hate illusions,” I complained out loud.
We walked through the maze for at least another hour that was slow and go, due to the pathway being lined with landmines for at least a quarter of a mile. I guess if the ancient Chinese could rig these nasty toys, so could the Fae.
The maze finally ended in a square area that had many different items placed on pillars that had been made from the same shrubbery that formed the maze. Most of them shimmered, while others seemed more corporal. We’d arrived at the illusions for which the vellum spoke of.
They were all cauldrons. Ryder and his men didn’t know which relic it was—the scroll just spoke to one of the legendary Fae treasures being hidden here, and as I scanned the cauldrons, I realized it was the fabled Dagda’s Cauldron. The stories said it was bottomless and no man was ever unsatisfied. The irony wasn’t lost on me that the maze only allowed someone who was once a witch and her bodyguard to go for a cauldron. Brilliant.
“We have to choose?”
“Very carefully,” Danu said, as she appeared in front of us from nowhere. “Choose wisely, for you only get once chance. If you choose poorly, the maze will start over and someone who awaits you outside will pay the price with their life.”
I stared at her, seriously wanting to kick her ass, or have Ristan do it. Those choices sucked about as much as Indiana Jones uber fast-aging, head-exploding poor choices.
I scanned the selection and looked back to Ristan, who was once again staring at Danu with a mixture of love and resentment. I ignored them both and searched through the relics, for the one true one.
Most were made out of gold; one had even been made out of wood. There was one in which my eye kept going back to, but it was made from platinum and iron. They were all round in shape, and looked like bowls or basins.
“Which will you choose, child?” Danu asked, as she walked over to me. “The gold is beautiful, is it not?”
“It is, but the Fae have never really put a lot of stock in metals. The platinum would be the smarter choice, but again, it’s made of metal. No, the Fae of old kept their relics hidden in ancient settings. They were arrogant as a people, and sparkly, shiny things didn’t really sway them; they were typically into natural things. The staff was made from oak, and it wasn’t until Ryder held it, that anything happened and it transformed into its true shape and it was beautiful.” I looked around and found the wooden bowl, which was battered, but still intricate in the carvings that spanned the base. It was made of oak like the staff, and the Fae loved oak.
It had too much fine detail, but beside it a few feet away was a rough, hand carved stone basin. The side was cracked, but it was natural, and even though it was plain in looks, it was still beautiful. “This one,” I said.
“It’s broken, Synthia,” Ristan hissed beside me.
“It is, but so is this world and it’s still beautiful. Like this bowl, it’s cracked and needs to be fixed. In the right hands, it’ll become beautiful and whole again.”
“You choose wisely,” Danu said as she picked up the bowl, and it changed into a beautifully chiseled work of art. She handed it to Ristan carefully and turned to me. “You were the right choice for the Queen of Faery, Synthia. You see beyond the beauty of something, and into its heart. Keep to the path I have set, accept me, and you will be able to save your unborn babes. Stray and everything will be lost,” she said as her ice blue eyes slid down to my belly.
“Let yourself be free here, Synthia. Find something worth fighting for, and those powers will come forth once you have embraced me and all that Faery has to offer. You have to trust what you are, and what you want the most, to find who you truly are.”
And with that she disappeared, and I felt a weightlessness come over me. I screamed as the feeling of falling took hold of my body and mind, and then I crashed against something hard, and warm. I inhaled and looked into perfect golden eyes.
Danu was wrong. I knew what I wanted, and I was already willing to fight for him.
“Synthia,” Ryder growled from low in his chest and pulled me against him tightly. He pushed me away a second later and was undoing the Demons field dressing, and checking the graze.
“It’s only a flesh wound.”
“So I heard,” he replied and crushed his lips against mine.
Yes, I had found something worth fighting for. I was going to fight to keep the elusive Horde King as my own. Every beauty needed a beast, and he was mine.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
~Ryder~