What woke Rhiannon, she didn’t know. One moment, she was in a dead sleep. The next, she found herself wide awake and sitting up in the pitch blackness of their room. Somewhere on the floor, she could hear Taliesin snoring softly. She couldn’t see him, but having spotted him on brighter nights, she could picture him with his head resting upon his satchel and his violin case tucked against his chest. His steady breathing hadn’t been what woke her.
Quietly, she slipped out of bed and peeked through the wooden shutters into the dark night outside. The air was uncannily still, the night eerily silent. Somewhere between the trees on the far side of the road, she saw the swaying light of a lantern. The glow called to her. She could hear a woman beckoning her to come carried on the breeze. The shutters opened seemingly of their own accord. Rhiannon hardly felt the rough wood under her fingertips. She peered through the misty night, leaning out the window for a better look. “What’s...?”
A hand pulled the shutters closed. Rhiannon jumped and backed into a solid chest. Taliesin steadied her with a loose arm around her waist. “Careful,” he whispered as if the lantern bearer outside could hear. “There’s a will-o’-the-wisp out there.”
Baffled, she repeated, “Will-o’-the-wisp?” Rhiannon had heard about those somewhere before, but try as she might, any recollection flowed through her fingers like water.
“They’re a fairy that enjoys getting people lost,” Taliesin explained. “Some are more nefarious than others, so it’s better to avoid them unless you know for sure what it’s like.”
“Do you know many will-o’-the-wisps?”
She couldn’t see his wry smile. “I’ve met more than a few, and I couldn’t in good conscience recommend it. Even the nice ones are a pain to deal with.”
Suddenly more aware of herself and the risk she’d nearly taken following a mysterious fairy, she asked, “Do they often try to lure people from their beds?”
“Occasionally, in out-of-the-way locations. This is a tad too well traveled to be a regular haunt despite the recent wyvern infestation.” Cautiously, he pushed the window shutters open once more to peer out. The wavering glow of the false lantern beckoned. “Curious,” he mused. He leaned out and checked the handful of other windows facing the forest and found all shut and barred. “It’s not trying to lure me or anyone else for that matter. But why only target you?”
Her stomach knotted. “They can target people?”
He barred the shutters again. “It takes a lot more skill than one normally has. We have an experienced wisp on our hands. Rhiannon, can I trust you to stay here while I go investigate?”
“You can’t!” More awake now, she remembered all the stories whispered within the castle walls of will-o’-the-wisps. To try and approach one meant getting lost and never finding the way home, with the light just out of reach. Only death from utter exhaustion awaited the unfortunate victim.
“I appreciate your concern,” he said, “but I’ve dealt with my fair share of the Fair Folk. It bothers me that this one seems to be trying to lure you out. Best to foil whatever plan they have now before they realize it isn’t working.”
Taliesin was right, but that didn’t mean Rhiannon was okay with him going alone. “I’ll come with you.”
“I wouldn’t want you in any danger—”
“It’s dangerous for me to be here by myself,” she reminded him. “What if it gets me outside next time and Sir Brodrick comes back?”
She too had a point. Taliesin weighed their options and reluctantly agreed. “Stay close to me.” He joined their wrists with a worn leather strap that he’d been using to keep his belongings together and neat. “Keep this around your wrist. They’ll have a harder time tricking me, and so long as we’re bound together, you won’t get lost. Should you start feeling the urge to wander or that you don’t know where I am, say something. I’ll be right by your side even if you can’t see me.”
Rhiannon agreed and snagged her cloak on the way out the door.