His mother came out of the gate before he was halfway across the yard, and she had him by both arms before he could get a word out.
"You’re late." Evelyne said it into his shoulder, holding him hard enough that Adrien could feel the anger underneath the relief. "The driver came back alone, told me you’d be delayed, and apparently that was all you thought I needed to know."
"I’m here."
"Yes, you are." She pulled back and caught his face between both hands, checking him over as though she expected to find pieces missing. Her attention stopped on his coat. "What happened to you?"
"Long story. Mother, what happened here?"
Her hands dropped.
"They came down after you left." Evelyne started toward the house, and Adrien fell into step beside her. "Straight through the lower pasture. We fought until we finally pushed them back."
"How many?"
"At least a hundred and fifty. Garrick thinks there were more in the trees."
Adrien looked toward the ruined pasture. "Wolves again?"
"Some." Evelyne’s mouth tightened. "The others were mountain beasts. I’ve seen their kind before, but never anywhere near Greymoor."
Adrien turned toward her. "You’ve seen them?"
"Much deeper in the mountains. Beyond the old hunting trails." She gestured vaguely toward the ridges behind the estate. "Eight eyes in two rows. Long hooked claws on four of their limbs, and they can run on all six when they want to. Horrible things, but they usually stay far enough up that nobody down here has to care about them."
"And now a pack of them walks into our pasture."
"That’s the problem." Evelyne glanced toward the distant mountains. "They don’t come this far down. They shouldn’t even be close."
"Did anything drive them out?"
"That’s what Garrick thinks. Marek too." Her voice lowered. "They weren’t hunting, Adrien. Half of them barely stopped to fight until we got in their way. They were coming down from the mountains like they were trying to get away from something."
Adrien slowed for half a step.
Greymoor had forest at its back, and beyond that the mountains rose into country most people had no reason to enter. Further still were the old borders, elven territory, and stretches of land where even the maps stopped agreeing with each other.
Considering what Adrien had found out there himself, he suddenly had several ideas about what might have frightened them.
None of them were good.
"How many did we lose?"
"Nine." Evelyne did not soften it. "Thirty-one injured. Eleven badly."
Her jaw tightened before she added the rest.
"Two of the dead were from the lower holdings. One was fourteen."
Adrien’s expression changed.
"And Garrick?"
Evelyne stopped at a door on the ground floor and opened it without answering him. They had put the old knight in one of the front rooms, because nobody was carrying that man up a staircase, and he was under a sheet with his chest wrapped from the armpit down and his colour gone somewhere Adrien did not care for. He was asleep. He was breathing the way a man breathes when the breathing is being done carefully on his behalf by somebody else.
"Two claws," his mother said quietly. "Through and out the back, and it lifted him off the ground on them. He was empty. He had thrown everything he had and his sword came apart in his hand, and he swung at it anyway because he had not noticed."
Adrien held onto the door frame and looked at him for a while.
"He’ll live?"
"He’ll live." Evelyne folded her arms. "He should not. Your sister had her hands in that wound and it was going out of him faster than she could hold it, and he was gone. Adrien, he was gone."
"Then how?"
"Two elves came out of the forest during the fighting."
Adrien turned round and looked at her.
"Elves."
"A young man and a young woman. They came through the fire line when things were at their worst, and they were not asking anybody’s permission." His mother’s mouth did something complicated. "The girl put her hands where Ariane’s were and told her to move, and she did whatever she did, and Garrick started breathing properly again. I’ve never seen anything like it."
"And you let them stay?"
"They saved Garrick. Yes, I let them stay."
Adrien pulled the door quietly shut, his mind already working through everything that had happened while he was away.
"Alright. Where are they now?"
His mother did not answer straight away, and everything in Adrien’s chest went cold.
"Mother."
"They went up into the forest." Evelyne got it out flat and fast, the way you take a bandage off. "The elves said something had gone wrong deep in there and that whatever came down on us was running from it. They were going to look."
"And?"
"And your sister went with them."
"You let Ariane walk into that."
"I did not let her do anything." His mother turned on him, and there was more in her face than he had seen since the graveside. "I told her no. I told her no in that hall, in front of half the household, and I made it an order and not a request."
"And?"
"And she slipped out through the west gate without waking anyone." Evelyne’s chin came up. "Fifteen years old and she planned it well enough that nobody noticed. She left me a note saying she was going to find out what was happening and deal with it."
"Of course she did."
"That is all you have to say?"
"No. I’ve got plenty more, but I’ll save it for when I find her." He turned toward the stairs. "Which way did they go?"
"North."
Adrien nodded once and was already moving. "I’m leaving."
"You’ve only just come back."
"And I’m not sitting here waiting while she’s somewhere up there." He glanced over his shoulder. "She walked into the same mountains that sent a hundred and fifty creatures through our fence. I’m going after her."
Evelyne stared at him, then exhaled through her nose.
"Alright."
Adrien was already heading out.
...
AN: Add the novel to collections and send (power stones and golden tickets) support if like it ;)