Caelihn

by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson

  She looked up at me, her changeable eyes haunted. No wonder she’d been so tense. I thought her concern had to do purely with my being out for three days. But really, she was dealing with the shock of being alive after accepting the truth that the lightning should have killed us all.

  “How many people are killed each year because of these storms?” I wondered aloud, trying to distract myself from my friend’s distress.

  Even as I asked the question, I was afraid to hear the answer. The number had to be astronomical.

  “That’s just it,” Cade said. “The storms have never been this bad. Usually, we only have a few thunderstorms a month, with the lightning touching down only two or three times throughout the duration of the storm. In the past year or so, the storms have been far worse with up to fifteen or twenty incidents of lightning striking per hour. The most dangerous storms produce fractured bolts, like the ones in this last storm.”

  I nodded, letting Cade know I followed. Meghan had already explained about the gradual worsening of their storms, but it didn’t hurt to hear about it again. Who knew how many brain cells I’d lost up on that hill.

  “That’s what we call the lightning that spreads out like a net or a root system. Fractured lightning,” Meghan added for my benefit.

  Cade looked up at me, his eyes dark. “The storm previous to this one killed half the people in a small village ten or so miles east of Kellston, and only one large, fractured bolt was reported.”

  “How many people?” Devlin asked in a hard voice.

  Meghan’s eyes changed from pale hazel to sepia. “Twenty-eight.”

  My mouth dropped open. Twenty-eight people killed by one lightning strike?

  “According to one of the survivors, the bolt split just above the town and fanned out like an overturned basket. Anyone within range was hit.”

  A clap of thunder rumbled overhead, shaking the glass in the windows. I jumped. It was silly of me to react that way, considering the dangerous part was not the noise, but the flash of electricity that preceded it. Our current conversation regarding killer lightning bolts and my recent brush with death, however, had put me on edge. Devlin drew me closer and rubbed my shoulder. I snuggled up against him again. Ahhh, my very own warm, living pillow.

  After a few moments, I said, “Meghan mentioned something about the Morrigan’s residual magic being the culprit behind all this.”

  Cade nodded, then looked at Devlin again. “That’s what we were trying to puzzle out earlier.”

  “Cade and I have a theory,” Devlin said, his voice rumbling in his chest. “Last year, while I was traipsing around San Luis Obispo looking for the Daramorr, and falling victim to your charms, Cade and Meghan were busy here in Eile with a similar task.”

  I shot up, wincing as the action made me ache once again.

  “You were hunting the Daramorr?” I blurted. “I thought you were just dealing with pesky faelah.”

  “Not exactly,” Meghan said surreptitiously.

  “Not Daramorr, Faeduihn,” Cade added, his voice low.

  Beside me, Devlin grew very still. For several long moments, everyone was quiet, giving the sky a chance to grumble its discontent once again.

  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and asked the dreaded question. “What’s a Faeduihn?”

  “Faeduihn is a term applied to someone who has allowed the evil essence in their soul to take control of them.”

  I blinked up at Cade. “What, like being possessed by evil spirits?”

  “No. At least, not in mortal world terms. When a Faelorehn or Lorehnin person dies, their spirit is released and returned to Eile.”

  “You mean their glamour?” I pressed.

  Cade adopted a pensive look. “Yes and no. No one knows for certain. It is believed that a Faelorehn’s soul is composed of good spirit, glamour and evil spirit.”

  “What Cade is trying to say,” Meghan cut in, “is that every person is born with some good and some evil in them. As they grow older, that spirit grows as well. For some people, the good is nurtured, and in time, it overtakes the evil, nearly blocking it out, but not making it disappear altogether.”

  “Everyone, even the most generous and kind among us, feels that desire to do some evil every once in a while,” Devlin said. “Perhaps an honest grocer gets the urge to leave out a few ounces of sugar from the sacks he is selling, or maybe a farmer charges one person a little more than the next person for his produce.”

  “But, I wouldn’t call those acts evil,” I said. Heck, I was guilty of far worse than that, and although I had no qualms calling myself greedy about certain things, I didn’t believe I was evil.

  Cade nodded. “No, that is only the little speck of evil spirit fighting for more room in their souls. It is up to the person to continue the struggle and overcome the desire to fall victim to it. Most Faelorehn are able to, but for some, it is just the opposite. In some cases, the evil is given a chance to grow, and once it takes root, it is hard to force it back.”

  “For those whose evil grows out of hand,” Meghan said, “life no longer holds the value it once did for them. They no longer have a conscience to point them in the right direction.”

  “People who contain evil that has been nurtured more than the goodness in their souls become the murderers and thieves of the world,” Devlin added.

  I nodded. So, those in Eile believed everyone was born with equal amounts of good and evil in their souls, and only through time and growth did they become influenced to act in the name of one or the other.

  “Is the choice up to them?” I asked. “I mean, what about children? Can they choose between good and evil if there is no one there to guide them?”

  Cade’s face took on that dark look again. “Children are very vulnerable to becoming lost to the darkness. That is why my sister, Enorah, works so hard to find those children who are abandoned, so that she might give them a better chance at fighting it.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “But, to answer your question, yes, much of it is left up to choice.”

  “Although in rare instances, the evil grows so strong that a person, no matter how hard they fight it, will succumb,” Meghan said grimly.

  “And that brings us back to the Faeduihn,” Cade said. “When someone of Faelorehn blood dies, the good of their soul returns to Eile, while the evil is returned to Donn.”

  I arched one of my eyebrows. “Donn? As in the god of the dead? The great bull?”

  Meghan smiled. “I almost forgot about your obsession with Celtic mythology.”

  I merely snorted and settled back against Devlin.

  “The very same,” Cade continued with a smile. “Donn’s kingdom lies off the east coast of Eile upon an island of stone pillars. His job is to guard the underworld and all the dark things that reside there. It is his responsibility to keep the evil at bay.”

  “A few years ago, when we fought and defeated the Morrigan, Donn was there,” Meghan commented, reaching for her teacup.

  She took a sip, then continued, “He supplied the war goddess with his massive bulls, but his part in the battle wasn’t all that great. We think, at the time, he was just testing the field, gauging the Morrigan’s power. Or Danua’s.”

  Cade inclined his head. “He might have also been testing the waters for the influx of darkness that would soon be entering his kingdom.”

  “Oh, you should also know that faeduhn is what we call the actual darkness that is supposed to return to the underworld after death,” Meghan pointed out, “and Faeduihn is the term used for those people who are overcome by it.”

  I nodded my head once. Alright, so Faelorehn had evil and good in their souls, and if they were killed or died, which didn’t happen as often as it did in the mortal world because they were immortal, then the good returned to Eile and the darkness entered the underworld, which was guarded by Donn. Oh, and the dark, evil power in a person’s soul was called faeduhn. So far, so good.

  “So, where do you two come in?” I a
sked, scooping up another petite sandwich and taking a bite. Mmmmm, smoked ham.

  Meghan let out a deep sigh and glanced at Cade. That particular look made me think she was checking to see how much they should tell us.

  “Last year, while Devlin was hunting the Daramorr, Meghan and I were doing our best to take care of the Faeduihn problem,” Cade said in a somber voice. “What we discovered was that someone,” he shot a quick glance in his wife’s direction, then turned dark green eyes on me once again. “Someone,” he continued, “had discovered how to infuse the dead with faeduhn and reanimate them.”

  My eyes widened in horrified shock. “Wait, you mean someone has been creating zombies?”

  Meghan blanched, then looked at me, her face pale. “I guess you could say that.”

  I glanced between the two of them, then blinked up at Devlin. His jaw was tight, and his skin had paled as well. Huh. Looks like he was unaware of this little fact. Were Meghan and Cade taking a risk telling us about this? I’d have to make an extra effort to keep this information to myself, just in case.

  “Faelah are made in a similar way,” Cade said. “The Morrigan would take animals from the Otherworld and sacrifice them to steal their glamour, then reanimate them to use as her minions.”

  “And now, someone is doing the same with the people of Eile?” Devlin asked, a growl to his voice.

  I reached out a hand and laced my fingers with his. Surely, he was remembering what had happened to his mother. Hopefully, that hadn’t been her fate.

  “Who is responsible for this atrocity?” Devlin hissed, leveling his eyes on Cade.

  The Faelorehn man only shook his head slowly. “We are not at liberty to say. Already, we have told you more than we should have.”

  “So, can some of the Faeduihn be saved?” I asked, hoping to move the conversation along.

  Meghan sighed and leaned her head back against her chair. “Yes. Those who are still technically alive. It is hard to pull them back from the darkness, but there is always a chance they can be saved. Those who have already been murdered and reanimated, well, their spirits have left them, and they are like the faelah: empty shells ruled by the darkness within them.”

  “During the past few years, we’ve been putting most of our efforts into ridding the world of these mindless Faeduihn,” Cade pointed out, “herding them back into the underworld where they belong.”

  I gaped at my friend and her husband. “You chased these walking dead Faeduihn into Donn’s realm?”

  In my head, I pictured Cade and Meghan using sheep dogs to gather up crowds of zombies in order to force them into a dark hole in the ground. I watched as each reanimated corpse jumped willingly into the pit as three black and white border collies nipped at their heels. On the outskirts of the crowd, a fourth dog trotted along behind them, carrying a half-rotten arm in its mouth. I shivered. Ewww. What was wrong with my mind?

  Devlin glanced down at me in concern, and I gave him my best grin. Nothing wrong here. Just creating fodder for future nightmares.

  “It’s not nearly that simple, but that’s the gist of it,” Meghan offered.

  “Did you get all of them?”

  Cade turned his green eyes on me, and they darkened to brown. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back into his chair, mimicking his wife. He looked tired and far older than he appeared. Wait. He probably was far older than he appeared, but now it seemed easier to read on his face, as if the recent run-in with the faelah had physically aged him somehow.

  “We did what we could. We stopped them for now. But, ever since the Morrigan’s defeat, Eile has been unstable. The Faeduihn and the extreme weather are only two factors. We also have the other slaves of the goddess, not just the Daramorr, but all the Daormorrig and their ilk to contend with.”

  I winced, vaguely recalling a conversation I’d had with Devlin so long ago. Mikael wasn’t the only power-hungry sadist out there. There were also the other servants of the Morrigan, and if I remembered correctly, there was even someone who was higher up on the food chain than Mikael. I gritted my teeth. Perhaps some of those important players would be out of the game already if not for my ignorance. Had things gone differently a few months ago, Mikael and Moira might not have escaped and Meghan and Cade, and all the good people of Eile, would have had two fewer villains to deal with.

  Devlin leaned in close to my ear and murmured, “It is not your fault they got away.”

  Was he reading my mind? I tilted my head back against his chest and looked up into his eyes. He only smiled.

  “I know what you are thinking, Robyn. Anytime the Daramorr and his sister are mentioned, you immediately start wondering about what you could have done differently. But we both did everything we could.”

  I grumbled, and he held me tighter.

  “It may seem like Eile is a more dangerous place now, and in several ways it is. But you, Miss Dunbarre, are an unexpected card that may or may not work in our favor,” Cade announced.

  Now, that snapped me out of my nice, cozy place. I sat upright, pulling away from Devlin. Outside, the sky finally started to deepen with twilight’s darkness. An occasional rumble of thunder and flash of lightning added their own complaints, but in the library of Luathara, all was silent.

  Meghan looked at her husband, her face a mix of irritation and slight confusion.

  “My friend is not a pawn to be used in this game we play, Caedehn,” she said in a dangerous tone.

  Whoa. Go, Meg!

  “That is not what I meant,” Cade said, holding up one hand defensively.

  Meghan crossed her arms and sat up straighter, angling her body toward his. “Do elaborate.”

  Cade leaned over, resting his elbows on his knees. “Like I mentioned before, Devlin and I have a theory.”

  Ah yes, back to the reason behind this entire convoluted conversation. I looked at Devlin and detected a spark of guilt in his eyes. Oh? So this was how it was going to be?

  “What have you two been conspiring?” I demanded.

  “Not conspiring,” Cade insisted. “While you were recovering, we were going over our knowledge of glamour and Otherworldly history. You see, Devlin and I spent some time in the Amsihr Mountains a few years ago, hunting a draghan.”

  I nodded when Cade looked my way. Devlin had told me a little bit about it before.

  “The draghan was harassing the Amsihria, an elite group of women responsible for keeping Eile’s weather under control.”

  Cade paused again, and I furrowed my brow. This had already been explained to me. Why was he repeating it? Meghan must have wondered the same thing because she let out a huff of breath.

  “Cade, we know all of this. Out with it already. What is this idea of yours?”

  Cade shot Devlin a glance, but he didn’t say anything. He just pressed his lips together and stared stone-faced at Meghan’s husband.

  Ugh. What was it? Was it so horrible that they couldn’t bring themselves to tell me?

  “Now, just remember, Robyn, that Devlin is certain he’s never detected your particular glamour before, or anything like it anywhere else, so we could be wrong–”

  “Cade!” Meghan cried, throwing her arms up in the air.

  “Devlin and I think there is a remote chance you’re Taeriehl.”

  Meghan stiffened, but all I could do was look between the three of them, like a confused, newborn baby, blinking at all the unfamiliar sights around me.

  “Someone who is Taeriehl,” Devlin continued for Cade in a guarded tone, “is someone capable of taking command of Eile’s lightning.”

  -Chapter Fourteen-

  Theory

  I fell back against the couch. It felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. It all made absurd sense now. If I took the time to let my racing mind settle down, I could think back as far as August when the faelah first started showing up at my apartment in San Luis Obispo, when I kept shocking myself on the metal objects around the house. Holy crap. I had the power to wrangle
lightning. No way.

  When I finally came up for air, I realized everyone had started arguing. Not a full-blown shouting match, but the harsh, grating, aggressive words that quickly twisted people up with tension.

  “Taeriehl?” Meghan hissed. “It has been nearly two centuries since any have existed in Eile, Cade. And, Robyn is only half Faelorehn. She might be related to one of the Amsihria, and that is probably what kept her alive out in that storm, but I doubt she can actually control lightning.”

  “How do you know it’s been two centuries since someone has controlled lightning?” Cade countered.

  Meghan rolled her eyes, crossed her arms and turned in her chair to face him. “What do you think I’ve been doing the past year whenever I have a spare moment?”

  Cade wisely chose not to answer her, so she continued, “When I’m not helping Briant, Melvina and Birgit with chores, and when I’m not off on some quest to kill the Morrigan’s leftovers or attending to my mother’s requests in Erintara, I’m here, going through Luathara’s books, trying to educate myself on everything I missed while growing up. Just last week, I stumbled upon a passage about the Amsihria, and the Taeriehl were mentioned.”

  “Did it happen to mention who the last Taeriehl was?” Devlin asked.

  Meghan turned her hazel eyes on him, her face serious.

  “It did,” she said. “The last person to wield control over lightning in Eile was a woman named Jarda Leannain.”

  Devlin, who had turned to take a sip of his tea, choked and almost dropped the cup in my lap. His eyes shot up to meet Cade’s. The other Faelorehn man looked stricken.

  Okey dokey, then. “Anyone going to let me in on why that name has suddenly made you look as if you’ve seen an army of faelah charging toward our door?”

  “It could be another woman,” Cade murmured, ignoring my question.

  I looked up at Devlin, only to find his expression blank and wan. He was trying very hard not to give any emotion away. Not a good sign.

  “Devlin?” I whispered, reaching out to touch his arm.