27 – Refusal
Herne had changed. He was no longer the creature of beauty Aedwen had seen bounding after the elks. He had transformed into a creature of nightmares. He was much taller, at least fifteen feet tall with long, boneless fingers that wriggled like albino eels.
He loomed over Trygil’s corpse. “Is this the man who defiled my sanctuary?”
Aedwen swallowed. “Yes. He was possessed by a rabisu.”
Herne reached for Trygil and recoiled. “He was no ordinary man. I sense magic upon him.” Herne knelt squatted beside the corpse and wriggled long fingers in front of Trygil’s face. The back of his hand glowed with a green light as wards materialized against his pale skin. “He was one of Urbarra’s. Winhurst must have fallen.” His accent made the back of Aedwen’s neck prickle, and not
…show more content…
Hilda cowered behind him, her eyes wide and her lips trembling.
“Then you brought a scynnfol into my domain.”
“We thought perhaps you could cure him. We didn’t mean—”
“Enough,” Herne said, his eyes gleaming dangerously. He nodded at Aedwen. “You may come with me to the glade. I will attend to your companion’s wounds there.”
Herne crossed the clearing and Aedwen shuffled aside. He knelt down and took Sigebert in his arms. The warrior looked like a small child as Herne walked through the foliage. The only way to describe Herne’s movements was like he floated along the ground.
Aedwen followed Herne along the path they had taken to the glade the night before, Rodgar and Hilda not far behind. No one spoke. Grimwald’s beauty in the early morning made the night’s events seem like a fantasy. How could something so wicked have occurred in a place so beautiful?
They arrived at the glade and Herne placed Sigebert on the steps beside the pool.
Even during the day, the altar still exuded an otherworldly allure that took Aedwen’s breath away.
“I will need you to restrain him,” Herne