Lost Wanderer Awakened - Book One of the Airendell Chronicles

by Audra Hart

  “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” he wonders at a loss. Then it all clicks. “She has mind linked with me.” He goes back and looks at what he thought and heard again. “How the hell does she know it’s been 14 lives?” Then he feels like he’s tucking Breena into bed, putting some foul smelling food out for room service to cart away.

  Now he sees Morna’s lovely face, but she looks so miserable. It’s like she is looking at something she really can’t stand. “Is she looking in a mirror?” he wonders. “And what was that about a secret. She doesn’t keep secrets, she can’t, and they eat away at her.”

  Then a horrible thought hits him like a ton of bricks, he knows it came from Morna‘s mind; “I wonder what hell Luca thinks is so special about me in this life time, or any lifetime for that matter.”

  “Oh man, what is going on? Why is SHE thinking these things?” He remembers the taste of the scotch, but she isn’t intoxicated enough to cause this. Something else is doing this to her. It is something outside of her, something that feels and smells really bad, like spoiled meat smells. Then he remembers something she said today about when Aideen was born. “Someone was holding her in some sort of spell, her heart was failing. She could almost taste the bitter evil of the person wielding the spell.”

  Suddenly Luca knows that is exactly what is happening now. “Morna is being attacked by some outside, unseen, magical force!”

  He turns off the headlights on the rental car and floors it. Thanking God or whatever is responsible for his heightened vision acuity, reflexes and the late hour, with so little traffic to dodge. He has to get to her. “Someone is trying to kill her, or make her kill herself!!”

  He’s back at the hotel, trying to get to her. He can feel her terror building by the second. He’s in the room, he flies past Breena, who is asleep on the couch, and He feels the darkness she feels: Suddenly he is experiencing events from his own perspective and from her perspective:

  “What if he decides he doesn’t want to come back? What if he can’t come back? What if the evil that seems to be tracking me has his scent?” Her fear for him has become a tangible thing. She sits straight up in the bed and urgently whispers, “LUCA!”

  “I am here, Morna!” She hears his voice whispering back at her from the door. Her relief at hearing his voice spurs her forward.

  “Morna! Morna!” He barks. He hears his own voice echoing in his head. It is rather disconcerting to experience the same event from different perspectives at the same time. It’s no wonder Aideen was so agitated being in Morna‘s presence while they were linked. “MORNA! Calm down baby, someone is attacking you from the outside! Calm down so we can stop him… Easy baby! I am with you and will never leave you. Morna, Morna, darling I am here.”

  Suddenly, they both hear a clear voice of a woman saying; “Hang on, Sister! Morna, you are strong enough to overcome this!” And then the voice fades away.

  Luca is confused by the voice, but his main concern is helping his mate calm down. She’s still terrified. “Baby, you are safe. Listen to me, I can feel the poison leaving, it’s backing away. That putrid smell and taste of rotting flesh is fading, it is fading. It is gone!”

  He holds her in his arms in the dark, experiencing the feeling of her heart beating frantically, and then gradually start to slow. At the same time he experiences it from his perspective, hearing it race and then gradually slow. He feels his cold arms around her. Joy is singing in her heart at his touch, because he’s come back. “He doesn’t hate me! Luca, I love you forever! Thank you for coming back. Thank you for being safe!” It is like these words are being shouted at him inside his head. But he knows they are Morna’s thoughts.

  “Shush Morna; try to let your mind go blank. Calm down, love. I am here, always,” he assures her as he strokes her face lovingly.

  Breena hears all the commotion and comes in to check on Morna. Luca quietly explains that she was being attacked from some outside force. Morna had reached out for Luca to protect her, even though she didn’t fully understand what was happening.

  Then he tells Breena, “She linked with me, like she did with you. There are some really jumbled thoughts going on in Morna’s head about Magdrid working with a Shade. That doesn’t seem possible but it would explain a lot of things… hmmm”

  “I need to contact Ari and Almeda, and soon!” He says thoughtfully. “Morna is on to something here. Outside attacks on her mind make sense. That would explain so much.”

  Luca can tell that Morna is nearly herself again. “What was all that terror over him being lost or harmed or hating her? What is that about?”

  All of that is leaving her mind. She’s just in this exact moment. Then Luca feels really confused because he can feel the passion his presence is building in her body. Just holding her innocently like this is building an inferno inside her.

  She banks the inferno in her heart and it keeps the darkness stalking her away. She pushes all the pain back down so that she can manage it. All the intense physical pain in her head is pushed down and smothered. All the losses, all the times she has been taken away from him and the children that have been ripped from her; all of these painful things are overshadowed by her love for him. She uses that bright, shining, beautiful passion that she feels for him, and pushes all the horrible, painful stuff away so that she can stand up tall and proud and beautiful. So that she can be the woman she is really meant to be.

  Then he can hear the saddest thing he has ever heard, bouncing around inside her heart, her head and her soul. “Luca’s love is the only thing in me that constitutes any value to anyone. If he ever stopped loving me, I would cease to exist!” The throbbing, searing pain in her heart matches the pain in her head.

  “Does she really believe that?” he asks himself. This thought rips through him like a hot knife through butter, but it leaves a trail of burning pain in its wake, her pain becomes his pain.

  Then he recognizes the mate to that thought in his own heart, head and soul: “Morna’s love is the only thing in me that is good in me. If she ever stopped loving me, I would cease to exist!” He suddenly realizes, “We believe the same thing about ourselves!”

  He can‘t sort his thoughts from her thoughts. “Morna, can you break the link between us, darling?” he asks again. But she still doesn’t seem to hear or comprehend. She has locked herself away in that dark painful place deep inside of herself where she is ravaged by self-doubt and dark, vile magic from some outside source. Despite her doubts and the attack, she manages to warm her soul on the heat from her passion for her mate, rebuilding her strength. “How is this even possible?” Luca asks himself.

  Then way in the background he can smell the putrid rotten meat smell. He can feel the evil. He can hear the creature laugh, trying to find a way back in. But Morna is a true warrior. She is steadily using the inferno of her passion for him to block the enemy as he tries to find another way in. Then she starts pushing the love she has for him outward. She uses it as a shield to keep the evil out.

  Then she is using it as a mighty weapon to pound and destroy any infinitesimal trace of the evil she finds. Her love for him, which is so strong, so mighty, so boundless, surely it cannot truly be contained in the heart of one single beautiful, perfect, exquisite woman.

  Suddenly Luca realizes he is again hearing only his own thoughts, sounds that he only he hears, things that only he sees. The link is broken. He’s not experiencing everything through her any more. He almost sobs at the extreme sense of loss that overwhelms him temporarily. He can’t warm himself by her passion for him anymore. Now, he doesn’t see himself anymore as she sees him. The beauty has gone away and he mourns its loss.

  Luca is holding her like a child. Tenderly, sweetly, innocently. Morna gradually drifts off the sleep. Luca stays with her until he is certain she is sleeping soundly. Then he motions for Breena to follow him to the sitting room. Breena spots the cigarettes on the suitcase and snatches them up as she walks to the sitting room.

  Once Breena is seated
she lights a cigarette and pours a little more scotch. Luca starts pacing the small room. Recalling the tortured thoughts he had experienced in Morna’s mind. Trying to go back and review them all, even the one’s she was hiding. “Somehow, on some level, she knew she was being attacked. That’s why she had reached out to you Breena the first time,” Luca mutters.

  “She must have recognized that she was being attacked and she naturally reached out for the one other First Order Weaver that she trusted to help her, Breena. She must have been looking for additional help rebuffing the attack when she connected with Aideen, both times. Aideen is also a First Order Weaver. Magic seeks equal magic? Right?” he continues, deep in thought. “And she was really focused on Aideen because Carlisle and the Elf envoys had mentioned her to Morna.”

  “Makes sense to me,” agrees Breena.

  “Tonight the attack must have centered on me, her fear of losing me, perhaps? She reached out to me to try to keep me safe, not for me to keep her safe. That must be it,” he decides. Then he looks to Breena and explains what he had been experiencing while Morna was linked with him. “Was your experience similar to mine?” Luca asked.

  Breena looks thoughtful for a long while, and then says, “I was receiving a very strong clear signal from Morna, and it was as though I was actually in her skin. I guess, because we are connected by blood and are both First Order Weavers, the connection was more direct. But you two are so tightly connected on other levels. Your lives, souls, hearts, your very beings are tightly entwined, and you always have been. That and you do have a great deal of magic in your blood, from whatever mysterious source,” chuckles Breena.

  “I think I should try to contact Ari and Almeda,” says Luca thoughtfully. “We don’t know enough about Shades, and other magical beings, or these connections that Morna is forming to solve this puzzle. But I am certain that she was being attacked tonight. I could feel, actually taste and smell the evil of the attacker. He despises her with a venomous hatred. I can’t understand why anyone would hate her like that.”

  “Luca, your view of Morna is somewhat distorted.” When Luca looks at his sister in law doubtfully, she says, “Well, maybe not distorted, just incomplete.” Breena holds up her hand to stop Luca from protesting. “Hear me out.” Luca sits across from Breena and gives her his full attention. “Luca, you never had to go up against Morna. Your daughter nailed it on the head when she said Morna is a one scary ass broad when she needs to be.”

  Breena takes a deep breath, and thinks how to explain this, “She is powerful and fierce when she is in battle. You have only fought alongside her, you never had to go against her, but when we were kids even, she never gave any quarter to even me. She never gives an inch when doing her duty. She does what she thinks needs to be done, and too bad if it makes someone else unhappy, or hurts anyone she perceives as threat. I am not saying she is bad person. She’s not, but she is a warrior and it was her mission to protect Airendell and our Guild, to protect the gateway into the upper-world. To keep the mortals safe. Nothing got in her way when she was performing her duty.”

  “What if this person attacking Morna is someone she faced in battle or some other type of confrontation where she would be using her warrior persona. That persona is not loving, is not patient, is not kind, or giving. Her warrior persona is ruthless, direct, single-minded, determined to win, and exceedingly dangerous to her opponents. Being struck down by that Morna might certainly engender the feelings of hatred you describe.”

  “Hmmm,” says Luca thoughtfully. “I have fought beside her, but she never turned that side of herself against me, so I guess I can’t recognize it as being part of her. But I know she has it, I have seen the results of it. She used it on you? Really?” he asked incredulously.

  “Yes, we don’t talk about it. It’s a shameful time for me,” Breena admits. “I was thirteen, almost fourteen actually, and Morna was barely ten. A middle-world traveler came to our village. He was beautiful and told lovely stories. Almost all of the children and most of the adults were totally charmed by him. Morna was suspicious of him from the beginning, she immediately recognized him as a threat. No one else did, but Morna was just ten years old and everyone dismissed her warnings. But she saw him for the threat that he was, and set out to stop him. He was there to steal the Guild’s healing and defensive talismans. Do you understand how serious that is?”

  “Yes,” Luca replies. “When Morna taught me the lore of the Spell Weavers she made it clear to me that it was the duty of all Weavers to protect the talismans. They were gifts from the Elves, and that with them, the natural descendents of Ari and Almeda are able to channel the trace amounts of magic that reside in their bodies to heal and protect the Guild, the gateways, and anyone in need of protection. She explained that Weavers cannot use their powers in a purely offensive way. They could not for instance, go out and conquer another group, unless it was a defensive action.”

  “Even then it would be iffy,” says Breena. “Going on the offensive as a defensive measure doesn’t always work. Think of Trendor. He tried that and his magic failed him. He was easily defeated and destroyed.”

  “But I digress; The Traveler was trying to steal our talismans. He had everyone fooled but Morna. I was particularly taken in by him. He charmed me, romanced me. I was young and easily influenced. He persuaded me to bring the talismans to him. He said he only wanted to look at them, to behold their beauty. I was stupid enough to believe him.”

  “At any rate, whatever my motivations, I stole the talismans, and was handing them over to The Traveler when Morna discovered us. Even at only ten years old, Morna recognized the serious threat to our kind; she acted without even having to think about it. She immediately pinned us both with binding spells. A spell she was too young to have been taught, I might add.”

  “She could read The Traveler’s intent in his heart. She knew he wanted to destroy us. Morna offered him quarter if he would change his heart, and swear loyalty to us in a fealty ceremony. He vehemently refused. Morna knew he would come back and attack again. Morna destroyed him Luca! She choked the very life out of him without laying a finger on him. She was a tiny, little ten year old, angel of a girl, and she destroyed him without giving it a second thought because he posed a current and ongoing threat to our Guild.”

  “Then she turned her attention to me. There was no malice in her actions. She knew my intent had not been to harm the Guild, but she also knew I had let my affections for The Traveler supersede my loyalty to the Guild. She reminded me of my duty, of where my loyalty must always remain. She did to me just what she did to The Traveler, only stopping short of taking my life. Then she gathered me up in her arms, carried me to our cottage. There she healed me without weaving healing spells, she should not have known how weave the healing spells, much less be able to heal without them at such a young age.”

  “Once I was well again, she took my face in her hands and looked me in the eyes. She said; “Breena, I love you with all my heart. You are my dearest sister. My very best friend in the whole world, but if you ever allow someone to harm our kind, I will finish what I started today. Do you understand?”

  “When I told her I understood, and she could see the truth in my words, she took me in her embrace and cried. She wept for what she had nearly had to do to me. I knew she loved me. I knew it would be like killing part of herself if she had to kill me, but she would have done it without any hesitation. Morna knows her duty, above all else. She will perform her duty, what is right. No matter the personal pain it may cost her,” breathes Breena.

  “Don’t you see Luca, she has made enemies. Her single minded focus on duty and determination to perform that duty makes her dangerous to any who seek to do harm to our Guild, or access the gateways for evil. She is a force to be reckoned with. Someone has been trying to take her out of the equation for a long time, a very long time. I believe that is what is behind all of the horrible things that have befallen you two. You are a target because you are her mate. You are
her weak spot, the chink in her armor. But I know if it came down to saving you or saving the Guild, the true Guild, not our mother and her cronies, Morna would do her duty first, and save you second.”

  Luca nods, “No doubt about that,” He concedes. “Once when we were fighting off a small band of trolls, I broke off from my defensive position at the gate to guard her back. She ordered me back to my position. And when it was all over, she literally beat the tar out of me for leaving my position open and defenseless. She said under no circumstances could a defender of Airendell put his or her personal feelings before their duty. She told me that it would have been my duty to let her die rather than leave my position open to protect her. It was shock to me at the time, but I was young, and in love with her. I was foolish. She made me see that. She made me understand that to do one’s duty often involves personal sacrifice.”

  “Yes I do understand her single-minded focus on duty. And I can see how that makes her a target. But she is no longer in Airendell; she no longer guards the talismans. How is she still a threat?” Luca asks.

  Breena sighs. She can’t understand why Morna has never told Luca any of this. “Luca, Morna is still guarding the talismans… well actually…. Oh hell, let me go back to the beginning. That’s the only way this will make any sense.”

  Breena lights another cigarette and gets up to start pacing now. Luca is becoming anxious. He wonders, “What has Breena so troubled? And how could Morna still be guarding the talismans? She hasn’t been back to Airendell in nearly 600 years! Or has she? Is that where so goes between incarnations, and when she disappears without warning from her mortal existences?”

  Breena takes a deep breath, sits beside Luca and takes his hands into hers. “Morna is the talismans!” she blurts out!

  Luca stutters, “What? How? I have seen the talismans.”

  “No, Luca, you have seen the replicas the Elvish envoy made to fool our enemies. I told you Morna was protecting the talismans when she was only ten years old. Well by age twelve no one could refute it, she was a full blown warrior of the First Order of Airendell. She had rebuffed a total of six attacks on the talismans and the emerald gateway. She was fearsome!”