Heart of the Moors

Chapter 29

Aurora woke to Diaval pecking at her fingers.

“Ow!” she cried, sitting upright and putting her hurt finger in her mouth. “Oh, you’re back. Where were you?”

She turned toward where Count Alain had been sleeping, but he was no longer there. Only a tangle of blankets remained. Her dream was still thrumming through her mind, confusing her thoughts. She still saw the pallor of Prince Phillip’s half-buried face, still heard his final shout echoing in her ears.

Run!

At the memory, she scrambled up out of her blankets. Diaval took off into the air.

Her dream confirmed for her that in her heart she didn’t believe Phillip was to blame for Maleficent’s disappearance. Aurora knew him. She believed that he was still the person she’d fallen in love with despite herself, someone kind and decent and good. She could believe he’d gone back to Ulstead, but she could never believe he would hurt anyone just for power or revenge.

Count Alain’s words had played into her fears, but that didn’t make them true.

And if I’m wrong, then nothing is fair, she told herself, because we didn’t even get a love story. He didn’t kiss me one time when I was awake. If he was going to betray me, he should have at least kissed me first.

With those thoughts in her head, Aurora followed the raven. As she walked, she noticed the imprints of boots on the ground. Count Alain must have gone the same way.

Her heart beat harder, the dream and her reality blending.

Through the woods she walked. Diaval moved silently above her, winging from tree to tree. They went past the spot where Diaval had stopped before. Along the way, she lost Alain’s footprints, and the moonlight wasn’t bright enough for her to find them again. She hoped that she wasn’t lost.

“You know where we’re going, right, Diaval?” she whispered.

But all he could do was caw in return.

As she walked on, she came to a place with steam rising from the ground. Frowning, she knelt, expecting to find a passage to hot springs beneath the earth, but there seemed to be a chimney there, venting up from the ground.

What was below them? Could her godmother be held there?

She nearly shouted for her, when her sense got the better of her fear. She was going to have to find a different way.

On she went until she found the path again. It forked, one part winding on through the woods and another cutting down into a quarry.

She recalled Count Alain’s words: We are not so far from my estate. Let’s make for it in the morning. I will put my soldiers at your disposal.

If they were close to his estate, then they were also close to his iron mines.

She found her way down the path in the moonlight, wishing with each step that she had an easy means of sending information to Smiling John. Wishing she’d come up with a different plan. Wishing she hadn’t tried to be quite so clever.

Because there, gaping in front of her, was the entrance to the mine. She crept toward it. The closer she got, the more she was sure she heard voices. She peered into the smoky torchlit darkness, blinking and trying to make out shapes.

Several guards were lying on the ground some distance from Maleficent, who had her hand around the neck of a flailing Lord Ortolan.

“Godmother!” Aurora said, relief flooding her. She was so happy to see that her godmother was safe, alive, and unharmed that she failed to notice the warning in Maleficent’s expression until it was too late.

“Run!” Maleficent said in a terrible echo of her dream.

Run. He’s right behind you. Run!

She spun around only to crash into Count Alain. He grabbed hold of her. She kicked as he hauled her up into the air, and she struck him with her fists until he caught them, twisting her arms behind her back.

“I am very sorry to do this, Your Majesty,” he said. “Very sorry indeed. I had hoped to bring you to my home. I hoped we would grow close. I hoped you would never need to know about any of this. Even when you rode out, I hoped I would be able to steal away and arrange everything before you awakened.”

“Count Alain, what have you done?” Aurora asked.

“If only you’d listened to me. If only you had let me share my wisdom and experience, I wouldn’t have had to resort to such drastic measures.”

She looked at Maleficent and took a deep, shuddering breath. “Phillip was never a part of this, was he?”

“The prince was captured with me,” Maleficent said. “But fear not, he’s far from here. And he knows the truth of what you’ve done, Alain.”

Relief washed over Aurora. Not only was Phillip not responsible for what had happened to Maleficent, but he was safe. He was free.

“I will be sure to send my men to track him,” sneered Alain. “They always enjoy a hunt.”

Aurora tried to pull away from Alain again. He held her fast, his gaze going to Maleficent. “As you can see, I have the queen in my power. If you don’t want her harmed, release Lord Ortolan.”

Maleficent let the old man fall. “You dare much, threatening your queen.” He scuttled back from her, making a wheezing sound.

“The man who dares little achieves little,” said Count Alain. “Now, Lord Ortolan, I believe you will find iron chains in the guardhouse. Lock the faerie in them.”

Maleficent raised hands sparking with magic as green as her eyes. She looked at Alain with a wild fury in her face. Then her gaze went to Aurora. Their eyes met and the light of her magic extinguished. She bent her horned head and smiled ruefully.

“You have found my weakness. Anything else and I would have brought down this cave on us both before I submitted.”