A Kelpie of Rowan

Chapter 24

"You were unconscious. Your stone came through and when I got there, you were unconscious. I carried you through the passage."

Rowan glances up at him, her frown deepening. "My stone?"

Andrian nods. "Yes, the stone you tossed through to me."

Rowan shakes her head, her eyes widening. "That wasn't me. I barely got to the water before I passed out. I didn't have time to do that and if I did, I would have come through myself."

"If you didn't do it, then who did?"

Rowan shrugs, her voice bitter. "Not the Seelie Lord, that's for sure. But . . . someone did help me."

Andrian blinks. "I don't understand. Am I missing something?" He pauses. "What happened since yesterday, because I still don't know why you passed out."

"Everything?"

He nods. "Yes. Tell me every detail that might be important."

"When I was walking back home from the river, I discovered that someone was watching me in the trees."

"Did you see them?"

Rowan shakes her head. "No. Well . . . I saw their outline."

"Tell me."

"Tall. Longish hair. He had antlers, like a deer. But they were smaller in proportion to his body than a deer's would be."

Andrian nods. "That sounds familiar, but I can't remember which of the Aos Sí looks like that. Did he say anything?"

"He knew my name."

"Did you tell him?"

Rowan scowls. "I'm not stupid, Andrian."

"I'm not saying you were. Just answer the question, Ro."

"He asked me and I told him that my name was Ro. Then he said my real name. He already knew it, Andrian."

He frowns. "That could be bad."

"You think?! I know that names have power."

"There's nothing we can do about it right now. What happened next?"

"Normal things, although my grandmother did make me help her line the borders of our yard in iron nails. In the stone wall, beneath the gate, just a barrier of them."

He looks stunned. "How much protection does your house have, Ro?"

"Umm. The iron border, a rowan tree in the yard, every entrance is lined with salt. There are rowanberry garlands in my room and also horseshoes above my door and windows."

Andrian blinks. "That is a lot of protection."

"It is, but Gran isn't comfortable unless everything is protected."

He nods. "What happened today before you got here?"

"I was heading to the river and I passed the bramble patch. The Seelie Lord was there." Rowan's voice shakes. "He set a trap for me, Andrain. He was going to force me to go back with him."

Her hands flare up for a moment, fire sparking. Rowan takes a breath and stifles it. Andrian touches her shoulder. "It's alright, he didn't get you."

"But he almost did. When I saw him, I tried to back away. I stepped right onto a rock with some sort of symbol on it. It froze me in place. He had those all around him, Andrian. He was expecting me to be there."

"What was the symbol? Do you remember it?"

Rowan nods. "Do you have a piece of paper?"

He pulls one off of the desk and hands her a writing utensil a few moments later. It takes Rowan a moment to draw the symbol, it feels strange in her hand. It's fighting her but the movement is also smooth and easy at the same time. The two sensations are warring in her hand. When she's finished, the ink glimmers on her paper, the strange shifting one from the note Andrian gave her on the leaf. The symbol looks split in two, half of it round and half of it jagged and sharp. Andrian touches it with a finger. He doesn't pull it away, he doesn't do anything at all. His teeth grits and he forces words out.

"Rowan, pull the paper away from me."

She's confused but does as he asks. His finger falls away as the paper slips toward her. In one motion, Andrian seizes the page and tears it in two, slicing the symbol down the middle. Rowan leans away from him.

"Andrian? Are you alright?"

He sighs. "You just froze me. So you have a gift with runes as well."

"Is that bad?"

"Not necessarily, but it means you won't be drawing them to show me what they look like anymore. I'll find a book for you that has runes in it." he shakes his head, trying to pull himself away from his thoughts before he gets distracted. "So this rune is a freezing rune, and it froze you. That means you wouldn't have been able to move. So how did you escape?"

"Someone helped me."

"Who?"

"I don't know."

He sighs. "Tell me everything that happened."

"I was frozen, and the Seelie Lord tried to grab me. Something flung him away from me and the next thing I knew, someone was behind me. They said they would help me get away, but I couldn't look at them. And the air in front of me was cloudy."

Andrian nods. "That would be to keep the Seelie Lord from seeing you two."

"He did something to the enchanted stone and I could move again. Then he slipped something into my bag and touched my hands, saying that I needed to control them. I think he meant the fire. After that, he left. That's when I started running toward the river."
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So, who do you think helped Rowan, and who did she see in the forest? Also, give me runes you want me to create, I'm making a list of them. Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out