The Pendragon's Challenge (The Last Pendragon Saga Book 7) by Sarah Woodbury Read Free Book Online

tugged on him. Some men might complain that Catrin made them uncomfortable, but except at the very first, Goronwy had never felt that way about her. They’d been thrown together often since they’d come north from Caerleon, and in all that time he’d never heard her babble, as some women did, or demand attention or conversation. She had the admirable talent of silence.
    He put out a hand to her. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shouted, but Mabon is a sidhe . A few days, a few years—they are nothing to him.”
    Meanwhile, Taliesin’s expression was as grave as Goronwy had ever seen it—and it had been plenty grave beneath the caverns of Caer Dathyl. 
    “I know you seek the Treasures,” Mabon said loudly, finally having grown tired of being excluded. “Truly, I mean you no ill, and I can help you in your quest.”
    Goronwy eyed Mabon sourly. “Like you helped find them before the battle at Caer Fawr? We don’t need that kind of help.”
    Mabon looked affronted. “I wasn’t collecting them for myself!”
    Catrin pounced on the admission. “If not for yourself, then for whom?”
    At the question, Mabon seemed to realize that he’d given them new information because a sly look overcame his face. “That is not your concern.” He turned away and began to saunter down the road, plucking daisies and throwing them onto the road as he did so. It was wanton destruction and typical of Mabon.
    Taliesin watched Mabon’s retreating back for a moment, and then he turned to Catrin and Goronwy. “Do you feel magic from him?”
    Goronwy was already halfway into shaking his head before he realized that Taliesin hadn’t been talking to him. He looked away, trying to appear as unconcerned as possible, as if it hadn’t been strange at all that he had answered.
    But Catrin had noticed, and she pinned him with her gaze.
    Goronwy shifted uncomfortably. “What?”
    “You know what,” Taliesin said, proving not only that he’d been paying attention all along, but that Goronwy hadn’t fooled him for a single day.
    One of the things it was important to remember about Taliesin was that sometimes he was oblivious to everything that most men found interesting—wine, women, material possessions—such that a man forgot about the mind that lay beneath the vacant looks and absent-minded ramblings. Taliesin was a force to be reckoned with once he focused his attention on what he’d decided was important. Goronwy should have known that this day would come.
    “What are we talking about?” Catrin looked from one man to the other.
    Taliesin tsked through his teeth. “You would have heard of Goronwy’s mother. Her name was Nest.”
    “The great seeress!” Catrin spun on her heel to face Goronwy. “When were you going to mention that you have the sight too?”
    Goronwy cursed himself for letting down his guard and Mabon for distracting him. “Never.” He just managed not to shrink away from her glare. “Let’s just say that my abilities in that area are of far less consequence than yours.”
    Catrin’s eyes flashed again, and she took a step towards him. “I knew from the first that there was something different about you, but you so steadfastly hid your gift that I kept telling myself I was mistaken. I wasn’t!”
    “No.” Taliesin hummed a little tune under his breath.
    Goronwy would find no help from that quarter, so he tried again to explain to Catrin. “I know so little—”
    “That would be because you push your gift away and refuse to use what has been given to you. You should be ashamed of yourself.” She huffed away from him, but then pulled up at the sight of Mabon, who had stopped his carnage among the flowers and was watching their exchange with blatant curiosity.
    None of them thought it was a good idea to show weakness or disunity in front of him. So, under the watching eyes of Taliesin, Goronwy closed his eyes and quested into the depths of his soul for the power that lay dormant in the center of his