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Hùisdean pulled his sword from its sheath, balancing the reins in one hand and the weapon in the other. He rushed beside Ayda and started looking around for the noise source.
“The draugr,” Ayda whispered. She grabbed her dagger from her belt, gripping it tightly. Anxiety started churning in her gut. She hated the draugr, with their phantom faces and permanently open mouths. The image of an aged Hùisdean began to play on repeat in her head, and Ayda forced herself to breathe slowly.
The shrieking kept going in a continuous loop. Whenever it died down, it would pick up from a different spot. It was practically impossible to tell where the draugr had come from, but it sounded like they were surrounded.
“I know.” Hùisdean started cursing. Their horses were getting antsy, blowing and snorting while making jerky movements in attempts to bolt. Ayda and Hùisdean kept white knuckle grips on the reins.
“Where are they coming from?” Ayda shouted over the noise. It was steadily getting louder. Her magic started to boil in her blood, rising to the occasion as the impending threat got closer and closer. A rush of wind came whipping through the trees, and Ayda’s magic rippled over her skin. It tangibly danced across her arms and fingers, manifesting in a way Ayda had never experienced before. She looked down and realized her fingertips were covered in frost, and her horse’s tack was icy.
“AYDA!” Hùisdean howled. “Ride!” Ayda started to turn around in her saddle. “Don’t look back, just ride! Fast!”
“What are you talking about?” Ayda looked back at Hùisdean anyway and immediately regretted it. A swarm of draugr, perhaps fifty feet away, was advancing down the path quickly towards them. Hùisdean was standing between Ayda and the draugr, his sword held high.
“Go!” he shouted again. Ayda realized what he was attempting to do.
“No!” she screamed, tugging the reins to turn her horse towards the advancing ghouls. “I’m not leaving you!” The shrieking was getting louder and louder as the temperature plummeted around them.
“I’m not fucking kidding, Ayda!” Hùisdean shouted. “I’ll hold them off. You need to go. Now! You’re the only one who can try and talk to Margaret—”
“They listen to me!” Ayda intervened. “It worked before!”
“I’m not taking that chance with your life!” Hùisdean snapped. “We don’t understand it. Someone has to distract them!” Ayda held up her hand, still covered in ice.
“I’m more powerful now. It’ll be fine—”
“Forgive me!” Hùisdean cried. He raised his hand and traced a sigil in the air before flicking it toward Ayda’s horse. Ayda held on as her horse reared and then took off. It thundered down the dirt road, aided by whatever Hùisdean had charmed it with. Within seconds, his figure was shrinking behind Ayda, disappearing into the blur of the forest.
“Goddamn it!” Ayda cursed. She pulled up on the reins and immediately started drawing counter sigils, allowing her horse to slow and finally stop. Ayda turned around and hauled back towards Hùisdean, knowing each precious second mattered when fighting off the dead spirits.
When Hùisdean finally entered her vision again, only mere minutes had passed, but it might as well have been twenty years. Hùisdean was centered in the draugr swarm, all reaching out towards him with bony fingers. Ayda could sense the dark and cold power of the draugr and realized she didn’t feel any magic coming from Hùisdean.
Fuck, his powers are gone!
Ayda urged her horse on faster, pulling up beside Hùisdean as he swiped at the draugr with his sword. His face had aged by decades, and the sight of it stopped Ayda’s heart.
“If the draugr don’t kill you, I will for pulling a stunt like that!” Ayda stood in the saddle, throwing her dagger straight through a draugr’s skull as it descended on Hùisdean. The skull evaporated for a few seconds and then slowly started to rematerialize.
“I’m trying to keep you safe!” Hùisdean wheezed, his energy starting to fail him. Ayda raised her hands above her head, pulling on the icy magic thrumming through her body. It coursed through her veins and all around her, spinning faster and faster until a wintry vortex surrounded Ayda and Hùisdean’s bodies. The draugr screamed in displeasure, trying and failing multiple times to cross through the wall of power.
“Be gone!” Ayda bellowed, her voice dropping an octave and taking on an ominous timbre. Ayda didn’t know what to say, so she tried injecting her voice with as much authority as possible. “Leave now, you damned souls. The blood of Margaret commands you!”
Almost instantaneously, like when they were at Carenlume, the draugr listened. They shrieked and screamed in protest but started to evaporate. Cold winds carried them away, crying their displeasure but futile to do anything about it. Within seconds, it looked like they had never been there.
Ayda closed her eyes for a brief moment to catch her breath, steadying herself.
It’s fine. You’re fine. Hùisdean is fine…
“You prick!” Ayda turned towards him. “How dare you—” She stopped, her fragile sense of calm vanishing. Hùisdean was hunched over in his saddle, leaning against his horse’s neck. “Hùisdean!” Ayda dismounted as quickly as she could, nearly getting her foot caught in the stirrup. She ran to his side, pushing some of his hair out of the way and holding his face.
“Oh my god.” Ayda’s blood ran cold. Hùisdean’s aging hadn’t reversed. Lines around his eyes and mouth made him appear like a man in his fifties. He murmured something unintelligible as Ayda gently patted his cheek.
“Talk to me, Hùisdean,” Ayda commanded. “They’re gone. They’re gone, okay? It’s okay.” Ayda didn’t know what she was doing. Her stomach rolled as a wave of nausea washed over her, battling it out with her magic. Hùisdean was fading quickly, and she had no idea how to save him.
“Ayda…” Hùisdean’s eyes flickered as he started to fall out of the saddle. “Ayda…” He couldn’t keep his eyes open. “Love…”
“No!” Ayda snapped harshly. “You don’t get to try and say that now. You fucking tell me properly, preferably conscious!” Hùisdean passed out and turned into dead weight. Ayda caught his body as it fell. He was nearly double her size, and she struggled to get him down to the ground but eventually managed to do it without harming him further.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” Ayda cursed. She got down on her knees next to Hùisdean and tried to understand what was affecting him. She ran her hands over his stomach and down his sides, letting out a strangled cry of despair when her fingers appeared coated in blood.
