–Here–
He was in a clearing, dappled with sunlight and permeated with a warmth he had not felt before. The voices were singing loudly now, their music filling up his senses. He looked around for something he would recognize, for a sign of Grianne, for the “she” the aeriads had told him was waiting, but there was nothing to see. The clearing was empty.
Then, abruptly, everything went silent, and in that same instant he felt the tugging inside his head disappear.
–Railing. I am here–
A voice in the air, disembodied. “Grianne?” he whispered.
–I am what Grianne has become–
He hesitated, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. What she has become? “Are you one of them? An aeriad?”
–I am–
“You exchanged yourself for Cinnaminson?”
–I did. When I left Paranor, I came here to offer myself for the girl who would later became your grandmother. She had given herself for me, so that Penderrin could come into the Forbidding and free me. I chose to do the same for her and let her return to Pen–
He felt a rippling in the air and heard the soft voices of the other aeriads calling.
–My time to speak with you is short. Tell me why have you come, my brother’s great-grandson, child of my blood. Tell me what you seek–
So he did. Quickly and efficiently. He told her how he and Redden had accepted Khyber Elessedil’s request that they come with her to the Westland in search of the missing Elfstones of Faerie, of how their efforts had gone so badly awry and how Redden had become a prisoner of the Straken Lord and was trapped inside the Forbidding. He told her how Tael Riverine had demanded that Grianne be brought to him so she could become his Queen and bear his children. Finally, he revealed that the Ellcrys was failing and the wall of the Forbidding was coming down. The Straken Lord intended to bring his demon hordes into the Four Lands and take what he wanted, Grianne included, if she did not come back to him on her own. All of this had persuaded him to seek her out and ask if she would return to help them in their struggle—if she might not be able to show them a way that Tael Riverine could be destroyed. He had discovered her fate in the diary written by Khyber and had followed it here.
“I thought you might return with me because Redden is your blood descendant and you loved Penderrin and would want to help his grandson.” He exhaled sharply. “I came to find you, really, because I didn’t know what else to do to save my brother.”
–Railing, I cannot help you–
The words were tinged with regret, but were no less bitter for being so. Oddly, they were the words he had been expecting to hear all along, but had convinced himself she would not say.
“Is there nothing you can do?” he pressed. “Even if you came back long enough to face him and tell him what you have become, perhaps that would be enough. If he saw what you were, maybe he would no longer have interest in you and be persuaded to abandon …” He trailed off helplessly, aware of how foolish that sounded. “Or maybe you could just persuade him to let Redden go because his imprisonment serves no purpose.”
–The Straken Lord will be persuaded of nothing. He will be enraged. He is not human. He is a demon. He craves power, and when he cannot have me, he will turn his anger on others–
Railing felt the first twinges of desperation. “If you are an aeriad, you are beholden to the tanequil. But Cinnaminson was an aeriad, and you found a way to replace her and set her free. Can’t you do that now for yourself? Can’t you get free of the tanequil, at least long enough to come back with me?”
–I have been an aeriad for a lifetime, not for mere weeks. I am nothing of what I was and cannot impact the world of humans and Elves as once I did. I cannot come back with you–
“But you must!”
He blurted out the words in a paroxysm of frustration and dismay. The air around him went still in the aftermath, and for a second he thought she had left him, unwilling to listen to more.
“What about the Druid order? It is destroyed because of Tael Riverine! Would you let that happen? Would you do nothing to help preserve it?” He paused, waiting for an answer that did not come. “Grianne! Are you there?”
–I cannot help you, Railing. You must leave–
He took a deep steadying breath. He stood at the edge of a cliff, and she was pushing him from behind so that he would fall and all would be lost. He was devastated, but he was angry, too.
“I will go to the tanequil and speak to it! I will insist you be freed from your service and come back with me! My brother’s life is at risk, but so are the lives of everyone in the Four Lands!”
There was a rush of movement as the other aeriads whipped about him—or perhaps it was only Grianne, suddenly become aggressive and swiping at him repeatedly.