Read Ashes of Time (The After Cilmeri Series) for Free Online

fine.”
    “ That man cut Mom,” Cadell
said. It might be a long time before he could see something other
than that image whenever he closed his eyes.
    “ It was a surface wound,
like a scrape,” David said. “A couple of years ago, Grandma and
Grandpa went away with Uncle Goronwy. Some of the littlest of you
weren’t born yet. They left because Grandpa was sick and the people
there made him better.” David rubbed Cadell’s cheek with one
finger. “Grandma is going to make sure that your mom stays
safe.”
    Cadell put his arms around his father’s neck
and held on.
    “ Marty, however, is not
fine.” Dad scrubbed at his face with both hands, and then dropped
them to take Elisa into his lap.
    “ I can’t say I’m sorry
about that,” Math said into Cadell’s hair.
    Ieuan appeared in the doorway leading to the
west corridor. David had been waiting for him to return before
deciding what to do next. Bronwen went to her husband, and he put
his arms around her. Catrin had gone back to her meal, which at the
moment consisted of a well-buttered roll that dripped with
honey.
    After Bronwen released Ieuan, she glanced at
Dad, who’d sunk into his chair and didn’t look like he had the
strength to leave it. Then she said to David, “You’d better go talk
to everyone else, David.”
    He sighed. They had to come up with a story
to explain the disappearance, and as usual, it would be that Mom
and Anna had traveled to Avalon. “Dad?”
    Dad grimaced with what David hoped was
regret rather than pain. “I’m with you, son.” He rose to his feet,
Elisa still in his arms. David was glad to see that some of the
color had returned to his face, though his skin was still grayer
than David liked. Long and lean, with only a speckle of frost in
his dark hair (though more in his beard), he didn’t look that
different from how he’d looked nine years ago when Anna and David
had saved his life by driving their aunt’s minivan into his
attackers at Cilmeri. His twin two-year-old children may have worn
him out at times, but they also kept him young, and most of the
time David didn’t notice the twenty-year age difference between him
and Mom.
    Today, however, was not one of those days.
“Thanks, Dad.”
    Bronwen lifted a hand, almost as though she
were in school. “I have an idea.”
    “ I am open to any
suggestion,” David said.
    “ Then I need you to give me
a second.” She looked at Goronwy. “Will you come with
me?”
    “ Of course.”
    With a last squeeze of Dad’s shoulder,
Goronwy followed Bronwen as she darted out of the room. Carew moved
to Dad’s side in Goronwy’s place. Dad looked up at him but didn’t
nod or speak before looking away again. Everyone waited. David had
no idea what Bronwen was up to or what to expect, but he trusted
her, which was why he’d agreed to whatever she wanted without first
asking what it was.
    Five minutes later, she returned with a
triumphant expression. “Goronwy has everyone gathering in the great
hall. Come on.”
    Bunched into a group, kids
and adults together, the family descended the stairs from the
queen’s hall directly into the inner ward. Lili held Arthur’s hand
and walked beside David. As they reached level ground, a bard’s
clear tenor soared from the open door to the great hall.
“ Afalon peren a pren fion
… ”
    David groaned. “Bronwen, what have you
done?”
    “ If you’re going to stand
up there and talk about Meg and Anna traveling to Avalon, at the
very least everyone can be in the right mood to hear it,” she said.
“Right now, we have a dead man at the base of the
tower—”
    “— I ordered his body moved
to the chapel, actually,” Ieuan said.
    Bronwen shot her husband an impatient look.
“You know what I mean. It’s the only explanation that makes sense
when so many people saw Anna and Meg vanish in midair.”
    David blew out his cheeks, knowing he was
cornered and knowing she was right.
    “ You haven’t fought this
battle for years,