Taken In (The Red Enchanter Book 2)

by Mary Swift

  Inside the circle the robe was still floating above Dante and Finnegan. Both men were trying to grab it with their fingers. Beside him Rowan heard Nora say something. She suddenly sprinted across the hall and jumped inside the circle.

  Chapter 48

  Finnegan couldn’t believe it. Nora had jumped into the circle. Her presence disturbed the energy flowing around them. He felt it dissipating. The robe floated to the ground. The spell Finnegan had been casting, one that would have guaranteed him the robe, slipped away. “Damn it Nora!” he cried. “What are you doing here?”

  Nora snatched the robe and stepped out of the circle. “You’re possessing him, aren’t you?”

  Nora and the robe were not a good combination. Behind her were Constantine and two young men. Finnegan recognized them as Kip and Rowan.

  Dante wiped the drool from his mouth. He was returning to his senses. The moment had passed. “You dare to possess me?”

  “I have the right. I am the Master Enchanter of Firesea.” Finnegan stated. “Nora told me to do this.”

  “Yes I did, and thank you for obeying.” Nora slipped the robe on. “And now I’m taking over.”

  Dante stumbled out of the circle and collapsed on his throne. “You’re just a pretender Nora. I broke the spell when I gave you our son.”

  “You broke my need for the robe, but you didn’t change the fact that I can use the energy in Firesea.”

  Finnegan was convinced that she was seriously mad. “Nora, you know I’m the heir.” He stepped out of the circle and tried to grab the robe. “Give it to me.”

  Kip suddenly came forward. He was loaded with more weapons than Finnegan had ever seen. He pulled a short dagger off of his belt and pointed it at him. “Touch her and you die.”

  Finnegan automatically put his hands up. “Kip, I’ve known you since you were a kid.”

  “I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a killing machine.”

  Rowan put a hand on Kip’s arm. “Take it easy.”

  Nora looked at the assortment of sickly protectors. “If you tie up Gavrashelli I’ll make sure you’re all healed of the sickness.”

  They shuffled forward and bound Dante.

  “This will never work Nora.” Dante said defiantly.

  “Give me the robe Nora.” Finnegan said. “Playtime is over.”

  “I’m not playing at anything. I came here for a purpose and I intend to fulfill it. I’ll give you the robe when I’m ready.” She looked at Kip. “Make sure he doesn’t try anything.”

  Kip held up the dagger. “No problem. I’m dying to kill someone.” He giggled at his own joke.

  Nora looked at the nearest protector, he was pale and sweaty. She turned to her son. “Are you ready Rowan?”

  “Yes.”

  Finnegan noticed that Rowan moved like Killian. He and Nora helped the protector sit on the floor. Rowan put his hands on the man. Rowan’s fingers glowed warmly, the protector squirmed.

  “It will be over soon.” Nora said quietly.

  A few seconds later Rowan took his hands away. The protector’s eyes were wide. “What did you do to me?”

  “I healed you, body and mind.” Rowan said.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Rowan said. “I’m glad I can help someone.”

  “He’s just like his father.” Dante mumbled.

  “Be quiet.” Nora ordered.

  Constantine looked at his father. “I want to thank you for giving me my mother back, after two decades.”

  “You two deserve each other.” Dante hissed. He was struggling with the bindings.

  “He’s going to get away Nora.” Finnegan warned her. Kip moved the dagger a little closer. The kid was seriously disturbed. “All my work for nothing.”

  “I don’t want him possessed anymore. He has to tell me about Killian.” she said.

  “He’s dead.” Dante told her.

  “I need proof.” Nora put a hand on Rowan’s arm. “Keep going with the healing.” The other protectors had already formed a line.

  “I have to possess Dante.” Finnegan said.

  “No, I need to know about Killian.” Nora replied.

  Finnegan had accepted his brother’s death. He didn’t want to let himself have any false hope. “Let Killian go Nora.”

  “Until I see it with my own eyes I won’t believe he’s gone.”

  “He’s nothing but dust now.” Dante said gleefully.

  Finnegan could sense Dante regaining strength. “Nora, you have to give me the robe.”

  She played with the buttons. “I will if you promise that you’ll let Rowan continue the healing and that you won’t possess Dante.”

  “Rowan can heal anyone he wants, but Dante needs to be stopped. Possession is the only way. You once believed that.”

  “I did, but things have changed.”

  Finnegan would have tried to forcibly take the robe from her but Kip was still threatening him with the knife.

  “I told you, I will give it to you.” Nora said patiently. “But you haven’t promised that you’ll leave Dante for me.”

  “Leave him for you? Where do you get the nerve Nora?” Finnegan cried. “I had his soul, I had it. I could have cast a new spell and taken the robe for good. That was until you jumped into the circle and took it for yourself.”

  “You don’t need a new spell.” Nora said calmly. “Give Dante to me. I’ll take care of him.”

  Next to him Kip clenched his fist. “Agree or I’ll knock you out cold.”

  “That’s how you’re going to get what you want Nora? By threatening me?”

  “Do you want to find out what happened to your brother or do you want him to remain dead?” Nora’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe that is what you want. You hated him for so long, maybe you’re glad that he’s gone.”

  “How dare you say that. I loved my brother.”

  “Really Nora, you’ve carried a torch for that redhead long enough.” Dante told her. “He’s dead.”

  “I want to see proof.”

  “I destroyed Darkhill. There’s nothing to see.”

  “You can’t have destroyed Darkhill.” Rowan said from the back of the hall. He had just finished healing a protector. “The council hall cannot be destroyed, my father told me so. It was made by enchanters that the Founders created. It’s essentially a spell. And it’s underground, so how do you know it’s not still there?”

  “Maybe the hall can’t be destroyed, but that doesn’t mean the ones inside aren’t dead.”

  “That’s true.” Rowan agreed. “But you can’t have destroyed Darkhill and that’s what you said. If you’re going to speak you should at least try and be correct.”

  Dante’s face turned red. “Impertinent boy! I am the Master Enchanter of Firesea, my word is the truth!”

  “The way I see it the one wearing the robe is the Master Enchanter.” Rowan replied.

  Finnegan smiled despite his anger at what was going on. Rowan was just like Killian. He looked at what was happening around him and sighed. He was just as power hungry as the rest of them. It was probably better that Killian wasn’t there to see how little he had changed. “You can have the robe Nora.”

  Nora wrapped her arms around it possessively. “Really?”

  “Yes. Maybe I’m not meant to be the Master Enchanter.”

  “No, you’re not.” Dante said. “You’re a loser.”

  Finnegan ignored him. “Keep the robe and take Dante.”

  Nora unbuttoned the robe. “Thank you, but I don’t want it anymore.” She slipped the robe off of her shoulders.

  “Nora stop it!” Dante shouted. “Don’t give it to him, he’ll destroy you.”

  Nora pulled the robe back on and strolled over to Dante. She grabbed a hunk of his long hair. “He’ll destroy me? The same way you kept my son from me for twenty one years? The same way you kidnapped Rowan? The way you supposedly killed Lucy and Killian? You’ve already done the job.”

  She pushed him off the thron
e and onto the floor. “This chair is for the Master Enchanter. How dare you sit your wrinkled ass on it.”

  Dante glared at her. “I should have never picked you.” Smoke began to gather around him. It enveloped his body; a second later he was gone.

  “I knew that would happen.” Finnegan said.

  “I’ll find him.” Nora said. She took the robe off and handed it to him. “Here you are Master Enchanter.”

  “You’re really giving this to me?”

  “Yes, really. I’m sure it’s hard to trust me after what I’ve done, but I mean it, I don’t want the robe.”

  “But I was supposed to give you Dante, now he’s gone.”

  “You did give him to me. I want him in possession of his soul and all his faculties before I take him down.”

  Finnegan held the robe. The silk clung to his fingers. It wanted him to put it on. He had waited so long for this moment. The robe felt supple as it glided over him. He fastened the buttons. He was the Master Enchanter of Firesea at last.

  Around the room the protectors bowed. They used to do that for his father. Finnegan felt taller, stronger, important. He pushed open the doors of the hall and stepped into the decaying circle. The well-being of everyone was now in his hands.

  “Finnegan.” Nora was behind him. Kip lingered nearby, his hands clinging to his weapons. “You do realize who the heir to the robe is now?”

  “Yes, Rowan. And that puts him in danger.”

  “Unless you have a child of your own.”

  Finnegan had to laugh at that. He hadn’t held a woman’s hand in years let alone impregnate one.

  “Of course if Killian is alive then that could change everything.” Nora said.

  “Killian is dead.” Finnegan said. “You have to accept that. Lucy too. I hate it as much as you do. I loved my brother. I would give anything if he could be here with us, but he’s gone. Be grateful that you have your sons.”

  “I am grateful. But- It’s hard to explain. Killian doesn’t feel dead to me.”

  “That’s because you never saw his body.”

  “It’s because I know something isn’t right.”

  Rowan came outside. “I’ve finished healing all of them. What should I do next Master Enchanter?”

  Finnegan realized that Rowan was talking to him. “We can go door to door; many of them can’t walk anymore. There aren’t more than a hundred left.”

  “In the whole circle?” Kip asked. “I thought Firesea had thousands of enchanters.”

  “It used to. You can have us cured in a day.”

  “What about Dante?” Kip asked. “Are we going to just let him go?”

  “Dante never stays away for long.” Nora said.

  Chapter 49

  It only took Rowan a couple of hours to heal the rest of Firesea. It was shocking how few residents were left. Nora was told that Killian’s father Devin had died just a few months before. The same went for Henry, Kip’s grandfather, who had been left behind in Firesea years before. Once the healings were complete Finnegan took them to the Master Enchanter’s house. They had a chance to bathe, eat, and sleep. The next morning, after breakfast, Nora sat down to talk to Rowan.

  They were in one of the spacious reception rooms on the ground floor. Rowan was dressed in a tight green and black striped woolen sweater and black pants.

  Nora pulled at her heavy wool dress. She hated what passed for fashion here. “I have to tell you something.”

  “All right.” Rowan looked worried.

  “Now that Finnegan is the Master Enchanter someone else is the heir. Do you know who that is?”

  “No.”

  “Finnegan has no children, so the robe would pass to Killian. But if Killian- With your father gone that leaves it to you.”

  Rowan pointed at himself. “To me? I’m the next Master Enchanter? What about Lucy?”

  “She’s not a Firesea enchanter.”

  “Oh.” He stared at the floor. “Just because I healed people doesn’t mean that any more enchanters can be born. The Founders would have to be alive. It will still be the end of the circles. Does it really matter anymore?”

  “Yes, it still matters.” Nora told him.

  “Do you think Dad is alive?” Rowan asked.

  “Your Uncle Finnegan thinks I should accept that he’s gone, but I can’t.”

  “I can’t either. I’ve never believed it.” Rowan said.

  “What you said in the hall, do you really think Darkhill is still there?”

  “Yes. If Dante simply razed it there would be something left, a foundation, the remnants of a road, something. But he could have masked it with one of his poems.”

  “Those stupid poems.” she muttered. “If Darkhill is under a spell do you think there is any way we can possibly reverse it?”

  “I don’t know.” Rowan said. “But finding out about Constantine changed things for you, to me that means there’s hope.”

  “I still feel the energy here.”

  “Do you want the robe?”

  Nora hesitated. There was still a part of her that desired power. “I can resist it.”

  “So that means that Dante’s spells can at least be weakened.” Rowan said. “I think we should go to Darkhill.”

  “Dante may follow us there.”

  “Isn’t that what you want?”

  Nora smiled. “Yes, it is.”

  Rowan stood up and pulled at his sweater. “These clothes are awful. I feel ridiculous in them. Would you be ready to go in the morning? The sooner we get there the better.”

  “It’s going to take a while. Maybe we could look for a mortal car. They used to confiscate them. There might be one around here.”

  “Do you know how to drive?”

  “I used to, but it’s been a long time.” Nora hadn’t been in a car in nearly twenty years. “Your father rode in one once, he got really sick.”

  “I hope that doesn’t mean I will too.”

  “We could have Uncle Finnegan enchant you not to be.”

  Rowan shook his head. “I don’t want any more spells on me than I have, and it might affect my ability to heal.”

  Nora took his hand. “Rowan, I’m so proud of the man you’ve become. I know the last few years have been difficult. I probably don’t even know how much so. You are so much like your father; he would be amazed by you.”

  “I’m like you too.”

  “I’ve been a terrible mother. And now there’s Constantine, I know it must be difficult to have him around.”

  “He was the last thing I expected. I’ll get used to him, it’s just that-”

  “You have to share me with him.”

  “Yes.” He squeezed her hand. “And you’re not a terrible mother. If I hadn’t skipped school that morning we would still be in New Wildbush.”

  “And you could be dying.”

  “I never thought of that. Maybe things were meant to happen this way. I’m glad I’m a healer.”

  “So it was worth having your hands cut off?”

  “Yes. When I watched Daddy heal Arden and Paul it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. One minute they were dead and the next minute they were alive. It was incredible. I knew right then and there that healing was my purpose in life.”

  She touched the red strands of hair. “We’ll stop at some of the other circles along the way and try to help.”

  “What if Dante finds us?”

  “Don’t worry about him.”

  “Aren’t you scared?”

  “No. I’m not scared of him.” Nora meant it. She didn’t feel frightened of anything.

  “Good, then let’s go to Darkhill.”

  “To Darkhill.”

  Chapter 50

  Darkhill didn’t exist anymore, Arden knew that. He saw the remains of the circle every day. He lived in the neighboring mortal village of Rudder. It was just two miles from the circle. Every morning he walked there on his crutches to look at what was left. Sometimes he would comb the ground searchin
g for a sign of the council hall, the metal gate, or Lucy.

  Like many in the village Arden was dying. His legs were weak. He knew he wouldn’t be able to make the walk much longer. Paul used to come with him but now he was confined to his bed. They had settled in the village after leaving Wildbush and discovering that Darkhill had been destroyed along with the Founders, Killian, and mostly likely Lucy.

  He and Paul easily found work. They were young and fit and worked mostly in the woods foresting. The following year Paul met a woman and got married. He had urged Arden to do the same. There was no reason to think that Lucy was alive.

  When Paul’s first son was born he again told Arden to find someone else. “Lucy would want you to be happy.”

  “We don’t know for sure that she’s gone.”

  “Do you really believe that she’s alive? Really?”

  Arden didn’t know if he did. As the years passed he began to wonder if wasn’t deluding himself. There had been a time when he had contemplated returning to Wildbush. But the sickness came and he became too weak to travel much farther than to the remains of Darkhill.

  He was ashamed of himself. He had left Rowan and the others on their own. Lucy would have never done that. The sickness was weakening his body but his heart was already damaged. There was no one like Lucy, there never had been. He had waited so long to see her again and then they had been together for such a brief time. It wasn’t fair. He wished he could see her one more time before he died.

  It was a warm autumn morning as he hobbled down the little used road to Darkhill. His shoulder had started hurting that morning and using crutches was difficult. He had seen Paul the night before. His second son was near death. Arden was afraid that once the boy succumbed Paul would give up on his own life.

  He was about halfway to Darkhill when he stopped to rest. He sat on a boulder on the side of the road. Above him the birds were chirping in the trees, a light breeze rustled the leaves. Arden took a hunk of bread from his pocket and nibbled on it. He sat there for nearly half an hour when he began to sense something, an old feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time, someone from Firesea was nearby.

  He pulled himself up on his crutches. His ears pricked up at the sound of a horse. The old ranger instincts were still there. He looked for somewhere to hide, but the woods were sparse and open and he moved slowly. The clip-clop drew closer. Suddenly a rider in red armor came around the bend. It was a Firesea ranger.