"Mother was right," Connla said. "You are pitiful!"
"Then it is within your right to end my life. For you are correct. I wronged you by abandoning your mother. I should have been there for you."
A raven cawed overhead. Cú Chulainn looked up. He smiled. "She has come for me..."
"A stupid bird?"
Cú Chulainn laughed. "My goddess. She has come for me that I might love her, even in death... for she is the goddess of death and war. I suppose this end is fitting."
"You speak nonsense," Connla said. "Let me cut your bindings loose that you might face me and die a warrior's death."
Cú Chulainn smiled. "I did not want to be a warrior in life. I do not wish to be one in death. I only hope that this act brings you peace. You might not believe it, but I love you, son... I always have."
Those last words infuriated Connla. The rage boiled up within the young warrior, consuming his frame. The ríastrad overtook him, even as it had once done to Cú Chulainn that day he'd went out on the hunt... the day he killed the Fomorian.
Cú Chulainn screamed as Connla's jaws tore into his flesh. But he didn't fight. He recalled a verse of prose, he thought of the tale of Taliesin and Ceridwen. And he thought of those who'd loved him, and the goddess who loved him still. He didn't even attempt to rip apart his bindings.
With his last breath, Cú Chulainn made a plea... he could barely form his words. But the Morrigan heard him. She knew for what he asked.
The second he uttered his last syllable, one of Connla's claws sliced across Cú Chulainn's neck...
And he departed the only world he'd ever known.
CÚ CHULAINN'S BLOOD called out to me from the ground. He'd spoken words, but his blood spoke to me more clearly than his words ever could.
"I have heard your petition, my love," I said as Cú Chulainn approached the cauldron of rebirth.
"Then you will have agreed to my proposal?"
"You agreed to marry me should I only promise to bind the vengeance that courses in Connla's veins to your blood, your blood that cries out to me still from the ground of the earth."
Cú Chulainn nodded. "Might my death teach him to hate the battle even as I did, and may he be afforded a chance for another kind of life. Give him the opportunity I never had. But most of all, let him be free of vengeance."
"I will grant your request," I said. "But now, with his vengeance bound to your blood, which now soaks the earth, it will forever cry out to me, not on your son's behalf, but for the sake of the earth herself."
"At least my son will be spared..."
"You have failed, Morrigan!" I turned and, with Cú Chulainn at my side, we stared directly at the Dagda.
"I have not failed! Cú Chulainn has agreed to marry me!"
"Only in his death. He never loved you in life."
"But I did," Cú Chulainn said. "For just a moment, before my death... I saw her for her beauty. I chose to love her."
"Your heart still belonged to your wife."
I sighed. "Is this true?"
"I could never not love Emer," Cú Chulainn said. "Even if I treated her poorly. I always loved her."
"Then you see," the Dagda said. "You have failed to secure his love for yourself."
"Not true," Cú Chulainn objected. "The night before the battle, in the woods, I loved her then..."
"What you loved, then, was an illusion," the Dagda said. "Morrigan, will you now take your place at my side. Will you finally consummate our marriage?"
"I will not!" I said. "I would rather wander eternity alone than consummate our marriage, Dagda!"
"I will not elevate this mortal to godhood!"
I shook my head. "You never intended to allow me to love as I wished. I admit I made many mistakes in the pursuit of my love. But in the end... he accepted me."
"He accepted you. He agreed to marry you on account of his love for his son. But he did not love you."
"What is love," Cú Chulainn asked, "if not a choice?"
The Dagda huffed. "Cursed be both of you!"
A bright cone of light flashed in front of me. Fear Doidrich emerged from the portal. How did he do it? Could a mortal dare enter the otherworld?
"What are you doing here!" I demanded.
Doidrich didn't answer. He turned and threw a bolt of magic, striking Cú Chulainn in the chest and binding him in place.
"Let him go!" I shouted.
Cú Chulainn screamed. I dove after him, but the magic Doidrich wielded repelled even me. I looked at the Dagda. "Please, good god, don't let him harm him!"
The Dagda nodded at Doidrich. Was this what they'd planned all along? Doidrich lifted his arm and threw Cú Chulainn's body into the cauldron of rebirth.
I clenched my fists and charged Doidrich a second time. But two strong arms pulled me off of him even as I attempted to rip the sorcerer's head from his body.
"It is too late, my phantom queen. Your beloved has passed through the cycle and awaits his rebirth."
"Might the vengeance of his blood curse you, too, Dagda!"
The Dagda shook his head. "You still will not take your place at my side?"
"Never!" I declared. "He has entered the cauldron. He will be reborn. I will wait for my beloved..."
"You know as well as I do, my queen, that we cannot determine when the cauldron will see him born again."
"I'll wait an eternity if need be! Better an eternity waiting for my love than one spent at your side, Dagda."
The Dagda dropped his head. Doidrich, standing behind him, smirked. He apparently found all of this amusing.
I diverted my eyes. The only thing that disgusted me more than the Dagda was Doidrich and his smugness. But I would not exact vengeance upon him. I would not make of myself the very thing my beloved hated the most. When he returned, I'd find him. Whenever that might be. Even if it be a thousand years or more.
He'd have the chance at a new life no longer burdened by the mistakes of the one he's just lost. I couldn't be reborn, but that didn't mean I couldn't learn. It didn't mean I couldn't be a better deity, a more benevolent goddess, who worked to make the sort of world Cú Chulainn had always wished it was.
"Even as you wait for him," the Dagda said, interrupting my thoughts. "I will wait for you."
"Then we wait together, but still apart."
The Dagda took a deep breath. "Until then, you may rule as the Queen of Samhuinn. This place, the place of death. For you are still the goddess of death and war."
I nodded. Perhaps, even if just the goddess of death and war, I could do something to change the world... perhaps I could intervene in the affairs of mankind and pacify their lust for war. I'd do whatever I could to make a new world that didn't demand my beloved be a warrior whenever he emerged from the cauldron and into another woman's womb. I wanted to make the world a place that would praise him for his gifts of verse rather than compel him to fight. A place that allowed him to be the bard he'd always wanted to become.
And if vengeance cried out through his blood, if it cried out on behalf of the earth, I would respond and answer its cry with wisdom. A wisdom I'd never had if I had not learned the meaning of love, the meaning of real sacrifice, exhibited by my Cú Chulainn who gave up everything for love. Not for the love of me. I didn't deserve that. But for the love of his son.
And the Dagda was right—the sort of love he'd tried to offer me in the end, it wasn't the kind of love that satisfies. I'd have my chance to earn that love, I hoped, in the future. His rebirth gave me another chance, still... a chance I'd spoiled two times before. But now I knew what love was—more than ever before. It was more than a feeling. More than even a choice. It was sacrifice. The willingness to put the welfare of whomever you love above your own.
Epilogue
I WAITED, ONE century after the next. I decided thousands of wars. I was there when Arthur fell to his son's own blade and when Mordred fell to his father's—both met me at the cauldron where their differences were finally put to rest. One day, the
y shall return, even as my Cú Chulainn would.
The Dagda still waited. And so did I.
One day, I'd see my beloved again.
So many years passed. So much bloodshed. Whenever one man struck down another in vengeance I could hear my beloved, my Cú Chulainn cry... his blood screaming from within the earth itself.
But it wasn't him. Not anymore. It was Vengeance. The vengeance he'd taken from his son by his love, by his sacrifice.
And it cried out to me so often.
I heard the cries of those faithful ones who were fed to the lions in Roman arenas. Then, I thwarted the crusaders who'd been born from their ancestors whom I once defended from the very empire whose banner they came to carry.
I preserved a remnant of druids and all those who believed in us... me and the Dagda, the Horned God Cernunnos, and others, we whom they now refer to as the "old gods." Despite many who sought to eliminate them, I ensured that those who embraced the old ways still thrived in the shadows.
I responded to the cries of the enslaved as they endured the middle passage. I emboldened a young lawyer, a tall and lanky man with a predilection for funny hats, to overcome the odds and see the cruel and peculiar institution ended.
I presided over an armistice. I invigorated the hearts of the soldiers who stormed Normandy's beaches and liberated the death camps.
But I did not align myself with one nation over another. Even while one side achieved a victory I flew into the mushroom cloud, I led the souls of tens of thousands to the cauldron when their lives were tragically ended. They'd have another chance... just like my beloved.
I was there still when a reverend who knew me not had a dream. He, too, has seen my cauldron and I wish I could say he'd soon return... for the world needs to hear his voice again.
More than once I quieted the hands of Americans and Soviets alike as they nearly set the entire world aflame out of their hatred for and fear of the other.
Innumerable other conflicts, spanning the world, were guided by my invisible hand. But alas... now even the earth cries against humanity, choking on the indulgences of a species addicted to its own delusions of progress.
Even as the earth cries for Vengeance, begging me to answer her call. Still, there is hope. If they could succeed, perhaps the world will finally become a place suitable for my beloved's return.
Two children. A boy and a girl. Twins.
Born of the kind creature who'd once touched my heart at a time when I thought myself unlovable. A creature whom I knew before I became the Morrigan. The children of Grainne and the druid whom my father sought to destroy...
I saw my father for the first time in more than a millennium, though for him it had probably seemed but moments. He spread his scaly dragon wings and took a deep breath, fire in his nostrils, as he emerged from the portal. He was after the druid... and I knew my father well. Anand said he'd never leave the children of his enemies alive lest they rise up to avenge their parents against him. I had to protect the twins.
Where was the boy? I didn't know. At least he was safe. But the girl... I could take her... I could raise her up and prepare her to become something more. Yes, I could use this girl to protect her brother, too. For these children, though they seemed as common as any children coming of age, were born of an ancient people. A community of druids... a people who honored the earth... a people who despised vengeance...
Yes, I am still the Phantom Queen of Samhuinn, the goddess of war and death...
But the war has changed.
No longer am I consumed with wars between clans or even nations and empires. Now there is one final war left to decide... the war between humanity and itself. Yes, I've seen world wars. But now the war for the world has begun... and I cannot remain silent.
For the blood that lingers in the ground, the blood of my beloved, cries out to me still. Perhaps my beloved is waiting... waiting for one who might conquer Vengeance once and for all... waiting for a world, one I intend to make, worthy of his true gifts. I'd do what I needed to do. I'd rely on these strange twins, the children of Grainne, and hope they can finally pacify the cry of Vengeance. I'd do it for the sake of the earth, yes, but especially for my Cú Chulainn. After all, when a god or goddess loves a mortal, such love never really dies.
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The Morrigan’s Story Continues in: THE DRUID LEGACY
The Morrigan Returns Again in: THE LEGACY OF A VAMPIRE WITCH
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The Vilokan Asylum of the Magically and Mentally Deranged
Volume 1: The Curse of Cain
Welcome to the Vilokan Asylum of the Magically and Mentally Deranged.
I'm Doctor Cain. I'll be supervising your treatment plan.
Yes, before you ask, I am that Cain.
I've come a long way since I became the world's first murderer.
I'm now a licensed psychiatrist.
What is it you just asked? You heard that I was cursed?
Yes, I'm also the world's first werewolf...
But don't worry. I have it under control.
It won't interfere with your progress at Vilokan Asylum.
3 BOOKS IN ONE MASSIVE VOLUME!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE!
ALSO BY THEOPHILUS MONROE
The Druid Legacy
Druid’s Dance
Bard’s Tale
Ovate’s Call
Rise of the Morrigan
The Fomorian Wyrmriders
Wyrmrider Ascending
Wyrmrider Vengeance
Wyrmrider Justice
The Voodoo Legacy
Voodoo Academy
Grim Tidings
Death Rites
Watery Graves
Voodoo Queen
The Legacy of a Vampire Witch
Bloody Hell
Bloody Mad
Bloody Wicked
Bloody Devils
Bloody Gods
The Legend of Nyx
Scared Shiftless
Bat Shift Crazy
No Shift, Sherlock
Shift for Brains
Shift Happens
The Vilokan Asylum of the Magically and Mentally Deranged
The Curse of Cain
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Theophilus Monroe is a fantasy author with a knack for real-life characters whose supernatural experiences speak to the pangs of ordinary life. After earning his Ph.D. in Theology, he decided that academic treatises that no one will read (beyond other academics) was a dull way to spend his life. So, he began using his background in religious studies to create new worlds and forms of magic–informed by religious myths, ancient and modern–that would intrigue readers, inspire imaginations, and speak to real-world problems in fantastical ways.
When Theophilus isn’t exploring one of his fantasy lands, he is probably playing with one of his three sons, or pumping iron in his home gym, which is currently located in a 40-foot shipping container.
He makes his online home at www.theophilusmonroe.com. He loves answering reader questions—feel free to e-mail him at the
[email protected] if the mood strikes you!
Gates of Eden: Starter Library Page 131
