“Uh, what about the stalls that aren’t finished, what will you do with all that space when they are done?” I said, grabbing onto Meghan’s sleeve and leading her back toward the entrance.
Behind us, the wild mare continued to have her hissy fit. I didn’t want to be anywhere near those hooves, in case she decided she was mad at us.
“We’ll need a place for the foals when they are older,” Meghan answered, “and every now and then, one of Epona’s horses needs a place to recover from an injury where the rest of the herd won’t pester them.”
I arched a brow at that, and Meghan smiled widely. “Epona, the ruler of the wild horses of Eile. Both Speirling and Lasair are from her herd, and two of our mares. They are allowed to come and go as they please, although Speirling never leaves Cade’s side, and Lasair has been hanging around longer of late. Although,” she leaned in to whisper, “I suspect it is only because he has a crush on Realta.”
We stepped out into the open and began our trek back up to the castle. Those angry storm clouds continued to churn, still a ways off but no less threatening, and the paler grey sky above looked ready to drop a torrent of rain. We managed to get to the road just as the downpour started, and Meghan and I had to run the space of the courtyard to reach the safety of the castle. Despite our efforts, we were sopping wet as we tumbled into the entrance hall.
“Is the weather always like this?!” I exclaimed, holding my arms out and watching the water run from my fingertips in rivulets.
Meghan nodded solemnly as she took a towel offered to her by one of the young kitchen maids. Tara, I remembered. She offered me one, too, then told us Melvina was working on lunch before she got back to her chores.
Meghan immediately began drying her hair, then nodded toward the staircase.
“I think we should leave the study alone for now. Let’s have tea in one of the sitting rooms and do some more catching up. You’ve been here three days, yet I still feel like we’ve hardly talked about anything.”
I nodded. She was right. A good long talk would fill up the two hours Cade and Devlin would be away.
“Just let me tell Melvina where we’ll be.”
Ten minutes later, I was following my friend up the main staircase that led to the second floor. Once at the top, she took a right and stepped through the archway that led into one of the small turrets. Inside the tower, a narrow, spiral stone staircase twisted vertically up one wall. Meghan didn’t take the stairs, but passed through another arch that opened up onto the walkway running along the edge of the second floor. We followed the passage for about fifty feet until we came upon a carved wooden door set in a curved wall.
“Is this the south tower?” I asked, peeking around Meghan’s shoulder.
She turned her head and smiled. “Yes. Just need to find the right key. Haven’t used this room in a while.”
She pulled out her ring of keys and rifled through them while I peered through the diamond-paned glass windows lining the outside wall. They were rain-smeared, and since the glass was already slightly distorted, I could barely make out the garden and castle wall below.
Finally, Meghan found her key, unlocking the door and pushing it inward. I followed her once again, stepping up into a surprisingly spacious room. Although the air was a bit musty, the apartment itself was tidy and clean. The outer wall of the tower room was curved and decorated with two narrow windows featuring the same style of glass along the hallway wall. A hearth was perched on a raised slab of stone to our right, a few cords of wood piled off to the side.
“I’ll see about getting a fire going. Do you mind lighting the lanterns?” Meghan asked, handing me a small wooden box she had removed from the mantle. Without waiting for an answer, she knelt down and started piling dry wood in the hearth.
Curious, I opened the box in my hand and discovered several matches. I removed a few to hand off to my friend.
Meghan gave me a questioning look, so I said dryly, “You can’t start the fire without matches.”
She only beamed at me and held up one hand, her fingers coming together in a point as if they supported a small glass globe. A strange sensation tingled along my nerve endings, and the space above Meghan’s fingers glowed pale blue, then flashed in a single burst of light.
I gasped and turned my eyes away. When I recovered enough to look back, a brilliant blue flame danced where the glowing light had been. I gaped. This must be Meghan’s glamour. She bent down and held her burning fingers to the wood. The flames licked the dry logs for a few seconds, then spread over them in a wave of blue before taking on the more familiar orange of natural fire.
“So that’s how Niall has been starting the fires for us,” I murmured, realizing I’d never noticed him using matches. Good thing I wasn’t a detective with the police force. I don’t think I’d make it far in that career considering obvious details escaped my notice.
Meghan nodded and stood up, brushing her hands together as if dislodging imaginary dirt. “It comes in handy. Now, are you going to light the lanterns or not?”
After making a face at my friend, I moved about the room, lighting the handful of lanterns attached to the wall. While I worked, I let my eyes wander, taking in the room’s details as it slowly filled with light.
Two wing-backed, stuffed chairs in muted shades of gold, green and violet, sat in the spaces between the windows. A small bookshelf hung on one wall while a dark, polished wooden door suggested an exit on the opposite side of the room. In the corner beside the fireplace, a giant basket piled with a variety of patchwork blankets called out my name. I walked over and picked up a quilt, wrapping it around myself before plopping down in a chair beside the fire. Aah, bliss. Not for the first time since coming to Luathara Castle, I wondered if I could convince Meghan and Cade to let Devlin and me move in with them. That is, if I could ever convince Devlin to leave the Weald.
Meghan chose her own blanket and fell into the chair opposite mine.
“The weather is always intense here,” she said, returning back to my comment from earlier, “more so than the mortal world. At least in my experience in the last few years, but Cade tells me it was never this bad.”
She let out a deep sigh, then looked down at her hands. She had them clenched together in her lap, but now, she made an effort to draw them apart. In a defeated voice, she said, “Everything has gotten worse since the Morrigan’s death.”
Meghan bit her lip and glanced out the window. Outside, the rain was a silver sheet of water, the only barrier now between us and the dark clouds. The wind had also picked up and was now tossing the tops of the trees in the distance. How long had it been since Cade and Devlin left? Surely an hour had passed already.
A bolt of lightning, followed by a bone-rattling charge of thunder fifteen seconds later, jolted me out of my lazy mood. Oh, no. The storm was moving in fast. I lifted my hand and wiggled my fingers. That odd tingling sensation again. This time, it had started in my palm and spread out, reaching halfway up my arm. I stopped moving and made an effort to seek out the glamour that resided next to my heart. Yes, it was still there, churning a little but only enough for me to be aware of it. I turned toward the window like my friend, but I couldn’t see past the sheet of rain.
“What’s wrong?” Meghan asked, leaning forward.
I grimaced and made a fist with my numb hand, then loosened my fingers and shook it out. I hadn’t really told her much about the last several months of my life, and we had come up here to chat. “You’ve done a good job of catching me up on your life, but I haven’t told you much about my story yet,” I said.
I recalled what had been in the letter I sent before Devlin and I left the Weald. In five paragraphs, I had told Meghan that I had stumbled upon Devlin one night, and that, over a course of a few months and through some strange trials and tribulations, we had learned that one of my parents had been Faelorehn and I had enough glamour to interest the Daramorr. Time to fill in the rest. I glanced up at my friend, catching a small smile on her face.
She pulled her legs up underneath her and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees and her fingers laced under her chin. Meghan’s attention was entirely on me.
Okay, I could do this. I could tell her everything.
And so, I dove into my story, starting with the night Devlin stumbled upon my lawn looking like a frat boy playing the fool in order to earn favor from his guild brothers. We laughed together, to the point of tears, as I continued to tell her the most amusing parts of my tale. Soon, I forgot all about the storm outside and the tingling in my hand. I even forgot about the nagging worry over Devlin and Cade being out in the storm. I told her how Devlin had hunted me down on a city bus using his tracking glamour, and how I was reluctant to trust him. And finally, I told her how, despite my better sense, I had fallen in love with him.
“Honestly, Meghan,” I said after finishing most of my story, “on top of all his other qualities, he was one of the hottest guys I’d ever seen. Well, besides Cade, of course.”
I grinned, and my friend picked up one of the throw pillows on her chair and launched it at me.
I screeched and managed to catch the thing. “So, that’s why they’re called throw pillows!”
Scrunching my face up in malicious glee, I tossed it back at her, but only hard enough for her to catch it and return it to its resting place.
“Don’t tell Devlin I said that,” I continued. “He might get jealous.”
“As long as you don’t try to steal my husband, I’ll not breathe a word.”
Meghan held her hand up in a pledge, and I snorted at her mock-serious pose.
Our conversation was momentarily interrupted when Birgit appeared on the staircase carrying a tray with a teapot, two teacups, a tiny pitcher of cream, a small bowl of honey, and several little cakes and finger sandwiches.
“Oh, this is perfect! Thank you, Birgit,” Meghan crowed.
Birgit smiled and said she’d check on us later before ducking out of the room. Meghan reached for the teapot and proceeded to pour us some tea. I mimicked my friend, adding honey and cream, then stirred the liquid until it was all blended. I took a careful sip, and my mouth was flooded with a delicious blend of herbal and floral flavors.
My eyes grew wide, and I stared at Meghan. She only laughed.
“My absolute favorite blend. Grown in the more humid, southern regions of Eile. It’s called Courtly Manners.”
I quirked an eyebrow, and this time it was Meghan’s turn to snort. “Ridiculous name, I know, but the flavor is heavenly.”
We polished off our first cup and when Meghan reached for the pot to pour our second helping of tea, I picked up one of the dainty plates and started choosing sandwiches.
“So, do continue on with your story,” she said, adding more tea to my cup.
I shrugged, then took a bite out of one of the egg salad sandwiches. Once again, I was impressed with how good the food was here. When I was finished chewing, I said, “I told you all the good parts. Not so sure you want to hear the bad.”
Meghan’s shoulders dropped, and her changeable eyes went from hazel to dark brown.
“Oh, Robyn, what has happened since I left you all?”
I knew Meghan meant more than just me and her family. She also meant our other friends: Tully, Will and Thomas. As far as I knew, our other high school friends weren’t having any trouble with Otherworldly creatures. Yet again, I hadn’t talked to them in ages, so they very well could be suffering from the same ailment as me.
Instead of saying all that, I only shrugged and gave a sad smile. “How were you to know I would end up being Lorehnin? But I guess I had better tell you what happened, just so you won’t worry anymore.”
And so, after taking a deep breath, I described my dealings with Mikael and Moira, the Daramorr and his sister. I told her how Mikael had tried to seduce me, then ensorcelled me, in order to get to my glamour.
Meghan gasped out loud when I got to the part where the siblings had tried to sacrifice me. Grimacing, I pulled my shirt back enough to show Meghan the scar on my chest.
“Dear gods, Robyn! Oh, I’m so sorry!” she breathed, her eyes growing lighter now.
I only shrugged and gave a half grin. “Meghan, how could you possibly know this would happen? You didn’t even know you were Faelorehn, remember? Cade had to tell you.”
Meghan sighed and leaned back into her chair. “You’re right. Ugh, I wonder if there could possibly be any more surprises for us.”
I chortled. “Are you kidding me? I bet there are loads.”
Meghan blanched, but then gave a wary smile. How could there not be? We were so new to this world, we had a lifetime of information to catch up on. I just hoped the surprises proved to be good ones, not like the ones I’d experienced so far.
“Even having lived in the Otherworld for two years,” Meghan concurred, “I still feel like a toddler trying desperately to keep up with the big kids.”
We talked for another twenty minutes or so about life in Eile. After my story about the Daramorr, Meghan confessed that she and Cade had spent the first year of their married life dealing with the aftermath of the Morrigan’s destruction.
“There are still so many people who are still loyal to her, or obsessed with the dark magic she left behind,” she murmured, over her third cup of tea. “Not just people like the Daramorr. There are everyday people here in Eile who want a part of that power, as tainted as it is.”
I nodded. Devlin had suggested as much to me before.
“And some of her dark glamour has pooled in places across Eile, creating a sort of cancer in the area and having a negative influence on the wildlife and people living there. Fortunately, I think we’ve taken care of most of it.” She shrugged. “Only time will tell. We spent several months hunting them down, Cade and I. It all started with a faelah attack during our honeymoon.”
I gaped at her. “Seriously? You guys didn’t even get to enjoy your honeymoon?”
Meghan gave me a wry grin. “Only about an hour of it.”
Oh, really? Despite the dark subject, I couldn’t help waggling my eyebrows and saying, “Oh? An hour wasn’t long enough, was it?”
Meghan gasped, and threatened to throw the pillow at me again. I laughed out loud and held my hands up in defeat.
“Oh, come on! You set yourself up for that one!”
To my great relief, Meghan dropped the pillow and giggled, but her good humor didn’t last long.
“In all seriousness, we finally managed to take care of the faelah out to get us, only to return to Luathara and discover the people of Kellston were having their own problems with the Morrigan’s residual magic.” Meghan sighed, then added bitterly, “And it looks like, despite our recent efforts, that problem isn’t going away anytime soon, if today’s incident is any indication.”
“That totally sucks,” I offered, not knowing what else to say.
Meghan nodded and returned her attention to the window, staring down onto the grey world below. I was pretty certain she was worried about Cade. A few years ago, I might have snorted and accused her of being obsessed with some guy. But, everything was different now. Cade wasn’t some guy, he was her husband. And, who was I to judge? I had my own guy to pine after. Gritting my teeth, I slugged that blossoming worry in the gut and told myself not to be such a wuss. Devlin was a big boy, a skilled fighter of Eile, and he could take care of himself. Cade, too.
Trying to shake off the final dregs of my agitation, I glanced out the window closest to my side of the room. The view from this one wasn’t as nice as Meghan’s. Instead of looking down onto the garden, my window offered a full view of the courtyard, a sliver of green hills and trees above it, then the inky, roiling sky beyond. But the sky wasn’t just roiling, it was crackling. My eyes went wide, and I sucked in a breath. Whoa. Lightning, in shades of pink, green, and violet, crawled over the surface of the
clouds like fine spider webs. Although not the eye-searing flashes from before, this strange, creeping lightning was just as unnerving, if not more so.
My fingers began to grow numb again, the tingling and pricking sharp enough to draw a hiss of pain from me. This was no mild reminder that my magic was stirring, this felt like a warm-up to a full on charge, just like the time Mikael and Moira had nearly cut out my heart. Did it mean we were in danger? Was it because I was starting to panic again? Was the lightning churning outside causing this?
Despite my unease, I took a breath and did my best to shake it off. I looked back over at my friend. Meghan had taken up chewing her fingernails down to nothing. Fabulous. Look at the both of us, like nervous housewives waiting on the return of our men.
Finally, unable to take the silent tension anymore, I cleared my throat and said, “Meghan, they’ve been gone nearly two hours. I’m sure they’re on their way back right now.”
“Robyn, you have no idea what these storms are like,” she said, her voice snapping a little. “The way that lightning is acting,” she flapped a hand toward the window, “that’s not a good sign.”
I lifted an incredulous brow at her.
Meghan continued to wave her hand around. “Imagine the last real lightning storm you were in, then multiply that by ten.”
She sighed heavily and stood up to pace the small room. “We’re relatively safe inside the castle, unless an incredibly large bolt decides to strike. Those who are outside in this?” My friend tilted her head toward the window that was now being pelted with pebble-sized hail. “Cade and Devlin, for example. Not only do they have to put up with this hail, but the lightning here strikes far more often than in the mortal world.”
“And this is only the beginning,” she added woefully. “Back home, the lightning bolts come down in one streak. When the clouds start looking like that,” she jabbed a finger at the window again. I didn’t need to look to know what she was talking about. I had a clear image of the tendrils of electricity crawling over the clouds. “When they look like that, the lightning splits up like the roots of a tree, creating an enormous net of deadly energy when it hits the ground. Anyone caught in that net, dies. And, these storms are so unpredictable. I mean, we knew yesterday this one had a good chance of turning evil, but sometimes they don’t fall to the influence of the dark magic. Other times, they can grow out of a clear, sunny day and strike without any warning.”
Caelihn Page 13
