The Bardic Academy (A Bard Without a Star, Book 3) (15 page)

The boy
patted him on the shoulder. “That’s okay. Do I get a name now?”

Gwydion
shook his head. “Only your mother can do that now. But I can call you
something other than boy. Would that help?”

The boy
looked like he might cry. “I want my true name.”

“Well
that’s something else entirely,” Gwydion said.

The boy
swallowed his tears, and composed himself. Then he leaned close and whispered,
“When no one’s around, Aunt Mari calls me Melyn. She says it means blonde.”

“It does
indeed,” Gwydion said. “Your aunt is a wise woman. I think I shall call you
Melyn for now as well.”

“But that’s
not my permanent name.”

“No, only
your mother can give you your permanent name now,” Gwydion said. “But don’t
worry about it. We will make a plan, you and I, to get it from her.”

The boy
hugged him tightly, and Gwydion picked him up. “I think we’re ready to go,” he
said.

Ard Righ
Fergus called a couple of more fians. “These men will escort you out of
Glencairck.”

“Thank you,
but I think I can make my own way.”

“I’m more
inclined to trust you than Arianrhod,” Fergus said. “But I have to make sure
you follow the law.” The fians took positions on either side of him, looking
at him menacingly.

“I intend
to,” Gwydion said, feeling the Cymric magic welling up inside him. “So I will
leave your demesne this very moment.”

He formed a
bridge to another world. No one seemed to notice except the boy, who
whispered, “What’s that?”

“Our next
step,” Gwydion said.

“It looks
scary.”

“Do you
trust me?” he whispered into the boy’s ear.

“More than
anything,” the boy said.

“Then here we
go,” Gwydion said. He smiled at his friends, nodded to Columb and Fergus, and
walked out of Glencairck and across the Pale into a new life. He never looked
back.