Prologue
Arianrhod
“Father—”
“You have meddled quite enough in the human world for now, don’t you think?”
Arianrhod bent her head. She should have known better than to appeal to her father’s paternal instincts, as he had none. At times like these, it was best not to think of Beli as her father at all. He was the sun god, whose presence gave light and whose absence meant darkness and death. Gwydion, the coward, wasn’t even here to back her up. He was exploring other options, whatever that meant.
Meanwhile Beli paced back and forth before the great hearth in his receiving room. “First Cadwaladr ap Cadwallon and then Taliesin. What did you mean by giving your son to him? That was not my intent!”
Arianrhod kept her eyes on the ground. “I apologize, Father. I must have misunderstood.” She could feel his gaze boring into her, but she refused to look at him. Beli, who was also the lord of the Otherworld, was not to be trifled with, especially when he was on fire with rage. And yet, she could not remain silent. “Efnysien—”
“Efnysien! He has done as much or more for this family than any other! Did he not sacrifice himself in the black cauldron and save us all? Next you’ll be accusing Nysien of treason.”
Efnysien was a blackguard, known throughout all worlds for deceit, betrayal, and mercilessness. His brother, Nysien, on the other hand, was a close companion of Gwydion and was light to Efnysien’s dark. It was hard to believe the two brothers had come from the same mother. And it was Nysien, of all the sidhe, who feared his brother the least.
“I would never do that, Father, and I don’t understand why—”
Beli pointed at her. “I will not hear another word!”
Arianrhod subsided as Beli wanted, but her insides were churning. She glanced to the doorway where her mother, Dôn, waited, hands folded patiently in front of her. Dôn nodded, and Arianrhod took the motion as a dismissal. Her mother always had the right soothing words to calm the fire that burned in Beli. Arianrhod would be foolish not to leave her to it.
She looked up once more into her father’s eyes and then looked away again—but not before she saw something flicker in Beli’s eyes, the emerald green turning momentarily to smoky gray. She disguised her surprise with a twitch of her skirt and a flourished spin on her heel, but her heart was shaken. The madness had overtaken her father again. She had noticed it happening more and more often lately, even if nobody but Gwydion acknowledged it. Something was wrong in the very heart of the Otherworld.
