The Bwy Hir Complete Trilogy (78 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Cadno had never felt more terrified in his life. He had had to flee from a situation many times, usually from Aeron’s wrath, but he had always been able to wriggle out of trouble and sooner or later. Once Aeron’s temper had cooled he would return with his tail between his legs and beg forgiveness, always avoiding facing the R’hela, always evading punishment for his misdeeds. He would talk his way back into Aeron’s good graces and return to his place within the Host.

The R’hela. The chase had always been addictive to him; the adrenalin, the anticipation of victory. There was a time when he relished the coming of a R’hela, where he could run and chase and kill but that was before … before he was the hunter, not the quarry and now for the first time in his life he felt a strange, alien emotion: empathy. It was a new emotion and not a welcome one, for with empathy came guilt, hand in hand with shame. 

  So mighty, so exalted, so… magnificent. Cyfrwystra y Cadno, Cadno the Cunning, had been brought low. Chased and hunted like vermin, as he had chased and hunted so many times before. Cwn Annwn whipped up by a voracious master and his equally greedy bitch, Atgas, had been practically snapping at his heels as he pelted towards Maen-Du and hopefully towards sanctuary. Better to die by Aeron’s hands than face what Arawn had in store for him; Arawn didn’t want to kill Cadno: he wanted to possess him.

Would he let him? If it came down to it was it not better to be possessed and live rather than face an eternity in y Gwag? Alive he had a chance to be freed, to continue to survive – who knew what the future held – perhaps Arawn would release him once he had a new body of his own? Perhaps Cadno could survive this?

He needed time to think, time to plan, he need somewhere to hide, somewhere he could collect his thoughts: he needed somewhere to hide, somewhere he could go to ground, just for a short while. He swung his head left and right, desperately searching for some crevice or warren where he could slither away and hide from the chaos that reigned all around him.

Behind him the forest was on fire, a furious inferno raged and engulfed everything in its path. Great plumes of black smoke rose from the amber and gold flames blotting out the stars and shrouding the moon; Cadno was running blind – into what?

Ahead of him there was a sliver of night-blue sky, a solitary star twinkled and gleamed, a silent witness to his plight, beyond that were black storm clouds, billowing and churning, rumbling as they came, engulfing the starlight and leaving Cadno bereft of hope.

With a wretched wail Cadno through himself down a steep incline, slithering and slipping through slate shale, snagging and tearing clothes and skin on gorse and thorn. ‘Aeron!’ he called to the broiling skies, ‘Aeron, help me!’ His cries went unanswered.

Down to the valley floor he slid, skidding to a halt as his feet met flat ground. He looked behind him to see the Cwn Annwn had just crested the top and were already bounding down the slope. Fear gripped his heart as he dug his heels in and tore across the open grasslands towards the mountains, the Cwn Annwn yelping growing louder, closer.

The first raindrop hit his face, then another, then another, followed by a hissing deluge. Cadno howled his frustration. His strength in the elements would be useless: water the conductor would electrocute him the moment he wielded lightning, fire would gutter and spit; its fury quenched. He was disarmed and defenceless against the gaining hounds. He threw a look over his shoulder as he ran: they were gaining ever closer, it was just a matter of time before they reached him and tried to pull him down.

Panic. Frustration. Fear. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t see a way forward, he was blind, he was about to be caught. All he had to do was accept it and it would be over. No more running, no more fear, just an embracement of fate. He slowed and then stopped, his chest heaved, his heart rate decelerated as he turned to face them.

They came. Even in the darkness he saw them darting through the grass, lurching, straining to reach him. Only four Cwn Annwn and two Helgi. He almost laughed; his mind had conjured a horde, an army of pursuers. A smile split his face as a spark of hope lit his heart and steeled his courage; he may not use lightning or fire, but he still had one weapon: wind.

He shook the water from his eyes and focused before throwing his arms out in front of him and dragging them sharply to the side. One by one the Cwn Annwn were sent spinning into the air, pushed by an unseen force, and hurled away into the darkness to come crashing down to earth with a sickening squelch.

Even the Helgi were not spared. Despite the frenzy of the chase they would not attack a Bwy Hir, yet Cadno was taking no chances; he had been offered a chance of survival and he had grabbed it with both hands.

When it was over Cadno bent over and retched into the sodden grass, leaning his hands on his knees to stable himself. The exertion had taken its toll. He had the luxury of a moment’s pause; Atgas was hurt and Arawn was in a Human’s body, there was no way they could have kept pace with him. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood up, his face turned towards the sky, savouring the cold, clean rain.

‘Hello Cadno.’ Those two words froze his heart and limbs. He felt the blunt jab of a knife pressing into his back and he slowly raised his hands; an opposite momentum of his dashed hopes.

‘You nearly escaped.’ She tutted sardonically. ‘You shouldn’t have stopped, as soon as the last hound was down you should have turned tail and ran, I would never have been able to catch you.’

‘How?’ His voice was surprisingly calm; he was surprisingly calm. ‘There was no way you could have kept up with me.’

‘I didn’t have to keep up with you; I had to cut you off.’ She felt a sudden change in Cadno’s stance, a tightening of muscles poised to act. ‘Ah, ah,’ she chided, ‘this knife is of course poisoned, one nick of your skin and you know what will happen; you have already experienced its effects.’

Cadno laughed coldly. ‘Then how would Arawn extract my consent? You need me awake.’

Atgas tutted again. ‘Oh, you would wake, but
where
would you wake, hmm? What delicious scenes would you wake to? How painful could I make it, hmm? Yes, Cadno, do me a service and try to escape, just try.’ She cackled again.

Cadno remained silent as thunder peeled across the heavens, lightning streaked through the clouds and flashed across the mountains as the rain began to fall in earnest, squalling in great silver sheets across the open plain. Cadno chuckled mirthlessly to himself; even the elements were against him.

‘I’m glad you’re happy.’ Atgas leaned against him, increasing the pressure of her knife. ‘We will be together soon, you will be Winter King and I the Queen of the Summer Realm; we will reign together.’

‘
I
will never be king, Atgas, any more than you will be Queen.’

‘Arawn has promised me,’ she hissed, ‘I
will
be Queen and my first decree will be that Mab faces the R’hela.’

‘Still bitter, Atgas, even after all these years.’ Cadno shook his head. ‘Mab did what was right, her only mistake was to let you live; none of this would have been possible otherwise. Arawn would never have been able to return if Mab had made you face the R’hela.’

‘This is why I will make a better Queen than she.’ Atgas was ready to push the blade into Cadno’s back and have done. Arawn had warned her to keep him lucid but he hadn’t arrived yet.

‘Good evening, Cadno.’ Arawn strolled from the darkness, flanked by three
Bradychwr-Seekers and their Helgi. ‘Atrocious weather we’re are having – Aeron must be furious for such squalls as these.’ Arawn came to stand before Cadno. He was two hands shorter than Cadno yet his huge antlers reached above Cadno’s head. ‘I see you have destroyed a pack of my Cwn Annwn.’ He tutted sardonically. ‘It is fortunate I have more or else I would be sorely vexed.’

Cadno was once again repulsed to see Afagddu’s face staring up at his, although transfigured and reshaped, he could still recognise the Druid cast. ‘I doesn’t matter how many hounds and traitors you have.’ Cadno’s voice was flat. ‘Aeron will hunt you down and kill you.’

Arawn slowly shook his head, his huge antlers swinging wide. ‘Aeron is no match for me … so, I presume you are ready to surrender your body?’

‘I hadn’t thought about it … What if I refuse?’ Cadno was wasting time.

‘Then you shall die here and now.’ Aeron folded his arms and studied his potential new body. ‘Y Gwag is a terrible place, Cadno. A grey, desolate eternity of nothing; no day or night, no up nor down, just a vast emptiness where disembodied souls float and mourn and despair in their silence.’

‘Yet you survived, Arawn. How is that so?’ Cadno felt his skin crawl as Arawn continued his appraisal of him.

‘Hate.’ Arawn tipped his head to one side as raindrops ran down the length of his antlers and dripped away. ‘Injustice and hate kept me warm in the barren coldness – a hate so intense, so innate that my spirit burned with it.’ His eyes blazed with the memory. ‘Y Gwag tries to consume you, dissolve your consciousness, leech every shred of memory from you, but I fought against it, learned to control my thoughts, my hate allowed me to remember what I was –
who
I was, and I hungered, Cadno, oh, how I hungered to be flesh once more; to feel, to think, to be alive.’

Arawn’s fervent remembrance had him rambling. ‘And there she was,’ he said, extending a hand towards Atgas, ‘my angel, my salvation. She fed me, nurtured me, and helped me escape, although without Afagddu’s aid…’ He paused as if listening to something way off in the distance. ‘He helped form my victory – fed the Ysbrydion, so they too could gain strength and when the time was right, when I was strong and ready, I did what no Bwy Hir has ever accomplished: I returned from y Gwag, just as I promised, just as was prophesised.’

Cadno’s eyes popped. ‘You think you’re the Dragon?’ he blurted incredulously. ‘You think you are the destroyer? That the time of reckoning has come?’

Arawn lifted his head. ‘All shall feel my wrath. All the Lost shall be destroyed and turned back to the old ways where they shall be beneath our feet. We are divine. We are the rightful rulers of the earth!’

Cadno thought he had tasted true fear, yet standing before Arawn he was shaken – his potency and ferocity, his vehemence and conviction: Cadno was face to face with lethal insanity and unable to hold his eyes, he looked away, ashamed and frightened.

Arawn smiled and inhaled deeply. ‘It is time. Surrender to me, Cadno.’

Cadno closed his eyes and slumped his shoulders. ‘I cannot.’

‘It matters not, Cadno.’ Arawn shrugged his shoulders. ‘Open your eyes and look at me Cadno.’ Cadno reluctantly obeyed. ‘Don’t you see, Cadno? The ateb is the key. Without it how could the Human woman have spawned a Hanner-Bridia? I will have a Bwy Hir body, it is only a matter of time before I have one, whether yours or the child’s, else I’ll find the woman and breed my own – I have the ateb.’ Cadno’s eyes widened as he understood.

‘Yes,’ Arawn crooned, ‘y Gwag is no prison to me any longer – once I am King I will ensure the continual supply of Hanner-Bridias to possess at our will – we will possess new bodies over and over again – we will never die. We are now truly immortal.’ Arawn threw his head back and laughed.

Atgas smiled wolfishly. ‘Now. Do it now, Arawn – take him.’

Arawn’s face grew serious. ‘Yes. It is time. Consent Cadno.’

Cadno’s face had grown ashen. He dolefully shook his head and Atgas pressed the dagger against his back. ‘Consent, Cadno, here and now, else you will regret it when you wake up, this I promise.’

Cadno closed his eyes.
Please, please, Aeron, come and find me, I’m not strong enough to say no
. Once again, he was left unanswered. ‘No,’ he whispered and then he tensed. Atgas felt it immediately and without hesitation she drove the knife through his back. Cadno’s eyes widened in surprise and then he collapsed.

‘What have you done?’ Arawn scowled at Cadno’s crumpled body lying unmoving in the boggy grass.

‘My Lord.’ She rushed to embrace him but he held up a cautionary hand, and stopped her in her tracks. He took the knife from her hand. ‘What have you done?’

‘He was going to strike you – us.’ She held out a beseeching hand. ‘I had to stop him.’

‘Why didn’t you use your power?’ Arawn was furious. ‘I needed him conscious.’

‘I am too weak,’ Atgas cried, ‘my body is too frail to use the elements – I am hurt Arawn, they hurt me.’ She wrapped her arms around her waist, holding her bloodied robes.

Arawn twisted his head sideways. ‘You cannot wield the elements, Atgas?’ She shook her head and looked away from him.

‘Then what use are you to me?’ He took a step towards her and she backed away. ‘Without your power you are no more than a vicious witch. I have tolerated your willingness to inflict pain, your craving for chaos and discord, your delight in others’ misery and fear: all that and more because you could wield the elements and I have only Derwydd yn
tân – now I am more powerful than you, so tell me, what use are you to me?’ He allowed her to take another step away from him, he could see her fear, taste her confusion. The Seekers took a step forward too, the Helgi strained at their leashes, sensing hostility. Arawn waved them back.