Hello my dears! Thank you for sticking with me for so long =)

--

Reprise:

My eyes drifted closed and then open again, and I saw my own blood mingling with more. Cadvan must have killed the aylach. The forest wavered.

"Kayla, don't go. Talk to me. Kayla, say something. Kayla?"

My eyes were wide as I looked at him.

"My name's not Kayla," I said.

Everything went black.

--

Cadvan stared at Kayla as she slipped into unconsciousness. Not Kayla? How could she not be Kayla?

Turning his mind to more important matters, Cadvan checked her pulse and her breathing. She seemed to be unharmed - apart from the two bites - though she was unconscious. She began muttering something and Cadvan bent his head to hear.

"Home…want…home…go back…"

Home? Pellinor or the Cot, Cadvan wondered. To say 'go back' sounded like the Cot. Should he take her? It was possible someone could help her there.

Either way, he couldn't leave her here and he couldn't take her on, so what real choice did he have? On the other hand, he couldn't make a month-long journey on the basis of the unconscious ramblings of a girl bitten by an aylach.

He debated for a long time, and eventually decided to delay the decision by waiting until the next morning. As far as he knew, the aylach's poison did not kill on its own, but he had never heard of a situation before now in which a person had been bitten and not killed.

Cadvan gazed down at Kayla's face, and thought how beautiful she was. She didn't deserve this. Cadvan looked up and remembered that Darsor had been bitten too - how was he going to take them both back? He did not want to leave his friend here to die.

"Cadvan, old friend," Darsor said weakly into his mind. Cadvan had to concentrate to be able to hear him. "I cannot move."

"Are you in pain?"

"No, the bite is not bad. But Cadvan, you cannot take me with you, and you cannot leave me here. I will starve, or be killed."

"I know."

"I don't want that to happen."

Cadvan knelt down next to him and stroked his head, fearing that he knew what he was getting at.

"You know what I mean, don't you, Cadvan?" His voice was getting weaker, and Cadvan knew he would be unconscious before too long.

Cadvan bowed his head and a tear fell from his cheek onto Darsor's dark fur. He wiped it away with a stroke of his hand.

"When I am asleep. Do it then." They were the last words Cadvan heard his friend speak.

"Thank you, my friend. Thank you for everything. And I am sorry."

He sat for a long time with the horse's head in his lap, stroking his neck and crying silently.

When he was certain Darsor was unaware of anything, Cadvan laid his hand on his friend's forehead and muttered a charm, his words choked with tears. Before he could truly break down, he carried Kayla gently over to Darsor, laying her more comfortably on the fallen leaves and damp soil. He lay for hours with Darsor's head on his chest and his arm around Kayla's unconscious body.

He wondered what would happen if he just lay here, the three of them together. The world would turn around them, and they would just lie there eternal. Autumn would come soon, and the leaves would cover them, and then the snow would drift down on them. Come Summertime, no one would ever find them.

Cadvan closed his eyes and slept.

--

The next morning was bright and clear, with a warm feeling to the air that spoke of Summer. The light filtered down through the leaves and speckled over the clearing in which two people and a dead horse lay.

Cadvan opened his eyes and sat up slowly, careful not to jog Kayla or Darsor. After checking on Kayla, he found some branches to cover Darsor - he could not offer a proper burial, but he wanted to show his friend some respect.

He checked on Kayla again before numbly going over their supplies. There was enough to last him for quite a while, but he had no idea how Kayla was going to eat. That was if she ever woke up.

Looking over at her reflexively, he realised that her eyes were slightly open. He hurried over to her.

"Kayla?" he said softly.

"I want to go home. Take me back," she groaned in a weak voice.

"Back where?" he questioned, taking her hand.

"Gilman's Cot. I want…I need…Don't let them know…Take me home," she ended in a pathetic voice.

"I will," he promised, already wondering how on earth that would be possible. "Now Kayla you have to eat something. I don't know how long you're going to be awake."

Kayla did as he had said. As Cadvan watched and helped her, he noted that she looked dazed.

"Are you in any pain?" he asked worriedly.

Kayla shook her head, and then squeezed her eyes shut as though the act had dizzied her. "I can barely feel anything." She touched his hand gently. "Can you feel that?"

Cadvan nodded wordlessly.

"I can't," she replied in a choked voice. She held his hand tighter. "Now I can feel it…Will it get better?"

I don't know. "It'll be fine," he reassured her. He meant to go on but before any words were formed in his mind her eyes were drifting closed again. Cadvan lifted Kayla onto his lap and held her as he thought. If he could find an inn, he may be able to borrow a carriage and a couple of fast horses - Kayla could not ride, so a carriage would be much quicker than anything else.

He stood up, taking Kayla with him. He had a long walk ahead of him.

--

It was two days before Cadvan found an inn he felt safe to stop at. He spent a night there, took a horse and carriage in return for a blessing on their crops, and set off the next morning with Kayla still unconscious in the back and three strong horses pulling them. He had promised to send the horses back with a stable boy, but they had allowed him to keep the carriage until the journey was over. Cadvan was surprised at their generosity and trust, but they explained that it was so long since they had seen a Bard they were glad simply of his presence. At this, Cadvan felt guilty, and went about their house doing whatever he could to protect them and give them good fortune.

The next few weeks were filled with frantic dashes from one inn to the next. Kayla woke from time to time, ate what he gave her, but said little except to reiterate that she needed to go back to the Cot. She said someone would be able to help her there. He doubted it; after all aylachs were rarely in that area so they would have no need of an antidote, but Kayla was so insistent and so horror-struck when he expressed any doubt that it seemed to be the best course of action. He had tried to question her about her name, but she either refused to speak, or frowned at him incomprehensively as though she had no recollection of the event. Her loss of feeling increased, until she could barely feed herself because she couldn't tell how tightly she was gripping things.

They came across few Hulls, and those that there were seemed to be fairly weak and so Cadvan was able to kill, immobilise or evade them without too much trouble. There were no more ambushes, and Cadvan suspected that nobody had been expecting them to go back.

As they were passing through Innail, they stopped a night and Silvia fussed over Kayla, worrying that she did not know how to make her better, worrying that she was too thin, worrying that Cadvan had had to deal with it; basically worrying about anything she could think of. Cadvan debated whether to tell Silvia what Kayla had told him. Whatever his decision, she probably would be unable to help. In his mind, Cadvan doubted that Kayla had told the truth about her identity; she still felt like Kayla. Indik came down, grunted and shook his head, and Dernhil did not come to see her at all.

Cadvan harboured a slight doubt she would actually let them leave, but when the moment came Silvia hugged them both - though Kayla hadn't regained consciousness in the whole time they'd been there - and let them go without too much fuss. They now had a much smaller pony and trap that would hopefully allow them passage through the mountains, and had sent the innkeeper's carriage back with a teenage boy who looked delighted to have the honour and the adventure.

The journey to Gilman's Cot was the hardest; the roads were rocky, and the carriage jerked so much that Cadvan feared Kayla might fall out. When it came to passage through the mountains, Cadvan took a risk and called to the mountain lion who had guided them last time. It paid off; he agreed not only to guide them but also that Kayla could be laid over his back, if Cadvan would hold her steady.

Kayla woke up only once during the whole journey through the tunnel. Cadvan was sure she was getting worse, and feared that if she did not receive help soon she would simply never wake up. He tried not to think about that too much, choosing instead to concentrate on not falling into a hidden pit or lose his way in the dark tunnels.

At last, after what felt like months, Cadvan emerged blinking into noonday sun. Kayla did not react and the lion simply lay down to allow Cadvan to take Kayla from his back.

It felt wrong to call her Kayla now.

Cadvan thanked the lion and struggled on with Kayla in his arms. Not much further, he kept telling himself. Not much further.

He had to stop once more that night, but set off after just an hour and by midnight he could see Gilman's Cot as clear and large as life. He laid charms over them both to keep them hidden and crept forward.

He hadn't thought of this. How would they get back in? He could not scale a wall as he had last time, not with Kayla to take as well. He assumed that if he waited long enough, the gates would be opened, but that wasn't soon enough.

Without thinking about what he was doing, Cadvan cast a spell. It looked like a wisp of grey smoke, but as he sent other spells into the smoke it formed itself into a body, which turned and walked away. It took large steps all the way up to the huge gates of the Cot. Cadvan sent another spell after his creation and it raised a hand and knocked.

Sending out his hearing, Cadvan could detect mutterings from the watchtowers. They seemed uneasy, but Cadvan was sure that their curiosity would cause them to open the gates eventually. He crept forward silently, mentally checking the charms that were keeping himself and Kayla hidden.

"What is it?" men were asking.

"Some dark spirit," replied a voice which sounded drunk. Cadvan hoped that Kayla's tales of drunken guards were true, because it might just give them a chance. He stopped behind his creation.

Cadvan's concentration began to waver from exhaustion, and the smoke-creature became more skeletal. It turned its eyeless face towards him as though reprimanding him, and then knocked on the gates once again.

"See what it wants," Cadvan heard to his relief.

"It might kill us! Or worse!"

Another voice giggled. "Kill us," it repeated happily.

Cadvan twisted his face in disgust at them. The smoke-creature was about to knock again when the gates began to screech open.

"Who's there?" came a sharp voice.

Cadvan stepped forwards through the smoke, still unseen, and as his body lined up with and passed through the other side of the smoke-creature's it leaned forwards into the man's terrified face and screamed, a long, drawn-out, dead noise. Cadvan slipped away and left the man to his nightmare.

Instinctively, Cadvan knew where he must go. He found the cowbyre he had been in before very quickly and entered it.

Kayla was back where their story together started. Would that help her?

--

With thanks to Kiaga for being my beta and for helping me through the muddy patch.

I think I may have just invented an awesome bad guy and turned it into something Cadvan created -raises eyebrow- I am so reusing him.