“What are you doing?” Daley demanded, but Boudica ignored him.
Morgan glanced at the flames in my hands, but didn’t hesitate as she strolled up to the circle and faced Cailleach. Lacey and Melusine stood uncertainly between them.
“Well, Crone, I see you have found a new protégé. Have you not yet learned that they will only take what you have to give and then take their freedom?”
“As did you, my child.”
Morgan flinched. “I left my brother, not you. Do not blame me for choosing love.”
“You chose a human over the one who protected you from the time you and your sisters came into being. You chose the earth king and now you are bound to him and to your own ruin.” Cailleach sounded sad.
Morgan nodded at Boudica and the woman drew her sword. The sound it made as it left its sheath was like the hissing of snakes.
Cailleach was trapped, but she regarded Boudica with contempt. “I see you have found a she-dog to do your bidding. What did you offer her to take her from Taliesin? Beware, for this one will sniff after whoever holds the bone.”
“I know what you intend to do with this dragon in the making and I cannot let you give my brother so great an advantage. Do not make me choose between the love I bear you and that for my husband.”
Cailleach cocked her head and her round eyes blinked once. “If you were truly choosing love, then you would choose another. Abandon this foolish quest to wake the earth king. I bear a message from your brother. He will forgive all past trespasses if you make peace with the bard and live the rest of your long years with him. But be warned, Cernunnos will not allow you or Arthur to challenge his power again.”
Morgan sighed and her voice was soft and ragged. “As you say, I am bound and bound again. My fate is stretched upon an unstoppable wheel and I must follow it or be pulled under.”
“Then you will remain as Cernunnos made you,” Cailleach replied cryptically, “and will never be made whole.” She bowed her head. “Do what you must, my child.”
Morgan gestured and Boudica struck so fast that nothing earthly could have stopped her. Lacey screamed as the Crone’s head rolled into the circle, dark eyes open and staring. The flames in my hands sputtered and died as I struggled to not be sick. Boudica smiled as she wiped the blood on her sword onto the grass.
Morgan turned away from the body on the ground. “Cernunnos corrupts all who cannot escape his influence. He sought to raise a dragon from the last of the bloodline of Melusine to use as a weapon against us. My brother wishes to dominate this world as he does his own; to cast us all into everlasting twilight. Arthur is the only one strong enough to hold against him. This is what Taliesin cannot accept. Can you not see that we must be united against the true evil?” Put that way, it sounded reasonable, but she said it looming over the severed head of a woman she loved.
So what does she do to people she’s just fond of?
Daley confronted her. “And what about those who won’t kiss Arthur’s boot? What about all the people in this world who just want to live their lives untouched by magic?”
“What of them? They are not your people. Would they fare better with the host of monsters my brother will send once he is ready to attack?”
Lightning sizzled in the air above Daley’s head as he pulled the charm off the chain and it became the Wheel of Taranis in his hands. “Arthur is a tyrant.”
If Morgan recognized the Wheel, it didn’t frighten her. “That’s Taliesin talking,” she sneered. “Arthur will bring order to the ranks of all magic users and then, with their help, to the world. He will bring peace and freedom to this world and to the Grey Lands, our true home.”
Tynan stepped out of the darkness. “Our father believes there can be a middle ground; a path between chaos and tyranny.”
Morgan shook her head in frustration. “Taliesin would . . .” And then her eyes widened. Striding over to Tynan, she murmured an incantation and a ball of light appeared in her hand. Holding it up to Tynan’s face, she looked at him with desperate eyes.
“My son!” Morgan le Fay cried.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
I was wrong. This has gone so far past hell that I’m looking at hell in the rearview mirror.
“Did you know?” Morgan screamed as Boudica shook her head in confusion. “We leave now! Bring the boy and the dragon.”
Boudica gave a whistle and two horses burst into the clearing, one white and one black. I would have been trampled if Peter hadn’t pushed me out of the way. A stray hoof caught him in the leg and he fell.
Lacey stood in front of Melusine and began chanting, but Morgan gestured and the stones creating the magic circle flew apart. Boudica pushed Lacey out of the way and she hit the ground hard and lay still. Almost solid now, Melusine didn’t resist when Boudica heaved her up onto the black horse and then mounted behind her.
“Mel!” Daley cried, but she just smiled and leaned back against Boudica. Thunder boomed and a bolt of lightning flashed, but the horse dodged it easily. If Daley used the greater power of the Wheel, he might hit Melusine.
“Look!” Miko pointed. Tynan was on the white horse and Morgan was behind him. Putting her arms around his waist, she rested her cheek against his back.
I ran to them and grabbed the reins. “Ty, what are you doing?”
The wind whipped Tynan’s hair across his face and I couldn’t see his eyes. “I felt it was true when she said it. My soul knows it.” His voice darkened. “Taliesin always sent me away when she was coming, never let me be near her. He was hiding me. Morgan’s my mother. I have to go with her.” I gasped in pain as he tore the reins from my hands. He gestured and a grey gash ripped through reality. Beyond it I glimpsed twisted trees like the ones in my dream—a dream of travelling on a Path. Morgan’s horse jumped through the portal and Boudica’s followed.
I ran after them. Miko screamed something through the rising storm of Daley’s fury, but I ignored her. Throwing myself through the opening, I whimpered in pain as I skidded across the ground and had to stop myself with my raw hands. I was just getting to my feet when Daley hit me from behind. We lay there for a moment, entwined in ways that felt intimate, before he pulled away. Standing, he brushed his hands off on his jeans as if their contact with my body had soiled them. I stumbled to my feet and hoped my burning cheeks would cool before he noticed.
“Where are they?” Daley’s voice was swallowed in the thick silence of the Path. The air felt dead and resistant to speech and movement.
“I don’t know. They should be right here.” Without a Guide to change it into something more familiar, the Path took its true form. The ground beneath our feet was too smooth and uniform. The twisted trees were bare, but dense and impossible to see through, and they curved above our heads and blocked the sky. It was like being in a grey tunnel. I was reminded of what Morgan said about Cernunnos casting the world into everlasting twilight.
“We need to find Tynan. He’s our only hope of getting out of here.”
White fear made it difficult to think. The Paths were deadly to those without the talent to travel them. “Why did you follow me?” I whispered.
The flashes of lightning in Daley’s eyes were the brightest things on the Path, but the expression on his face was unreadable. “We need to get Melusine and Ty back.”
There was no sign of the portal we’d come through. “I can’t hear the horses.”
Daley took a couple of hesitant steps. “The sound is strange here. They could be just ahead and we might not even realize it.”
“I’m going to try something.” Closing my eyes, I extended my awareness along the Path and was rewarded almost immediately. Without Viviane’s frozen barrier blocking the way, I was filled with fresh color. I still had almost no idea what to do with any of it, but I could sense the powers of those around me more easily. Morgan was a rainbow of fireflies dancing across a silver lake. I could tell she was too powerful for me to challenge. I tried Tynan, but his colors were even more chaotic.
Clashing hues chased one another so fast that I couldn’t focus on any of them.
I moved on. Melusine was a surprise. I expected fire now that she was in her dragon form, but she was still aquamarine, sea-foam, and iridescence. A pale rope the color of bone surrounded her and disappeared into a far darkness. I shuddered. The dragon might be rising, but Death hadn’t relinquished its claim on the girl.
Running out of options, I found Boudica. In my mind, I could see the aura of her power as a fierce gold fouled by blackness.
I opened my eyes. “They’re just ahead.” I didn’t wait for Daley as I began running down the winding Path, but I knew he was following. The trees made it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead. Without warning, the Path took a sharp turn and we skidded to a stop in front of an immense form.
Melusine had completed her transformation.
The dragon’s head was long and tapered, and while it somehow kept something of the girl, it was also completely inhuman. Its serpentine body was covered in scales of mother of pearl and four powerful legs were tipped by luminous claws. The creature’s wings were small and obviously not useful for flight. In fact, they almost looked like gills. Tynan and the others had to be somewhere behind her, but Melusine towered over us and blocked the way.
“Mel!” Daley cried. “You don’t have to do this. Come back with me.”
I heard the dragon’s answer in my mind, and by the shocked look on Daley’s face, so did he. “Why would I want to do that? You have no idea of the power I now command. Death and the witch have freed it in me. I have become Otohime, the luminous jewel, and I will take my rightful place among the gods.”
“Please, Mel. I love you.”
The dragon’s sinuous neck extended until the creature’s snout was inches from Daley’s face. Its mouth gaped open and translucent fangs dripping with venom were exposed.
“Melusine,” he whispered.
“Our love was just a little thing.” The dragon sounded amused. “It pleased me to have you. Tynan too.” There was no sound, but the dragon’s movement gave the impression it was laughing. “Do you begrudge your brother a few kisses, a few sweet embraces when your back was turned?” Daley’s face darkened but there was no thunder on the Path. “Don’t be sad. You served the purpose all men are made for, and quite well, I might add. I would have stayed with you if death and glory hadn’t come calling, but your place in my story is finished and it’s time for you to go. Say goodnight, my love.”
All the light and electricity that belonged uniquely to Daley seemed to dim and grow cold. Closing his eyes, he bowed his head.
I could tell that Melusine was preparing to lunge. Pushing past Daley, I sank my hands into the scales around her neck, shuddering as my fingers dug through them like the scales on a fish. The dragon reared, but I held on, feet dangling a few inches off the ground. I didn’t need to close my eyes to find her colors. Ignoring the chill of Death’s pale rope, I closed my fingers around her aura and the soft, wet scales oozed through my fingers. Filling my hands with aquamarine and iridescence, I pulled. Melusine howled as skin and power was ripped from her. I landed on my feet with a thud.
I had a moment of triumph, but her power slipped through my fingers like water. Shaking my fingers clean of iridescent slime, I backed away as the dragon advanced, snarling and huffing. I looked to Daley for help, but he’d slumped to the ground and either didn’t realize or didn’t care I was in imminent danger of being shredded. Using Viviane’s spell to create a blue veil, I threw it at the beast, but it slid off and dissipated. Melusine was more powerful than a spell spun from moisture and mist and her mouth widened into a parody of a smile.
I needed more power. If I couldn’t find it inside myself, I would have to get it somewhere else.
I didn’t dare close my eyes, but I could sense Boudica somewhere ahead on the Path. Tynan and Morgan seemed to have disappeared, but I fought back grey despair and concentrated on the woman. Boudica was a queen. Despite the darkness surrounding it, the gold of her aura told me she had the power of command and the ability to bend others to her will.
I can use that.
Melusine’s neck lifted up like a snake ready to strike and I knew it was now or never. Darting to the side, I slipped around her, but my heart stopped for a moment as I felt the displacement of air as the dragon’s teeth snapped together behind me. I’d only barely avoided having my head chomped off.
Melusine’s struggle to turn her enormous body around on the narrow corridor gave me a head start. Two turns of the Path and I found Boudica running her hands across her horse’s neck, murmuring calming words. She’d been left back to babysit the dragon, but the horse seemed to have other ideas and was pulling on the reigns, eyes rolling. Distracted by her efforts to control her mount, she was unaware of my arrival until I barreled into her and knocked her to the ground. As she let go of the reigns, the horse panicked and ran off.
Now that I was touching her—straddling actually—I could feel the gold of Boudica’s power emanating from the thick choker at her neck; it was the symbol of Celtic royalty and she’d unconsciously centered her entire being on it. Before she could catch her breath and push me off, I grasped the two ends where they met in the middle of her throat and pulled. There was a small resistance, and then the choker broke apart and her color flowed into me.
There was probably a moment when I could have stopped—a brief moment when I knew that I was taking too much—but I let it pass. Filled with a pleasure so visceral, so transcendent, I took her power. And when that was gone, I took her very essence, even the darkness. Throbbing with color, I tossed the broken choker aside and stood. I wasn’t even aware of Boudica as I stepped over her to face the dragon. Melusine had stopped and was watching me as if she was curious as to what I had done, but I wasn’t interested in her anymore either.
It was Death I needed to talk to.
I didn’t stop to think of how impossible it was to do what I was doing. Filled with so much power, I felt like I could order the stars to dance. Instead, I closed my eyes and commanded Death to take Melusine.
And Death obeyed.
Melusine screamed—a sound that pulsed between the roar of a dragon and the pitiful cry of a woman who died too young. As death’s pale rope tightened and pulled her into the black abyss, I joined my scream with hers. Pleasure had twisted and erupted into flames which licked the inside of my skull. I fell, but strong arms caught me and held me tight.
“There you go, mo leanabh, I’ve got you.”
I knew that voice. “Redcap? What are you doing here?”
His breath was soft against my ear. “What I always do, Rhiannon; come at the call of a Great One’s death.”
There was a sensation of movement I couldn’t make sense of and then cold grass brushed my cheek as Redcap eased me down onto the ground. I opened my eyes as he brushed the hair back from my forehead, but even that light touch brought fresh agony.
Taliesin’s face swam into view. “Is she injured?”
“I’m not sure. I can’t see a wound.”
A wail shook the trees and they whipped and waved in response as it began to rain. I turned my head and forced myself to focus through the pain. At first, I couldn’t understand what I was looking at. Rowan was holding something in his arms and rocking it back and forth. I blinked and white horror surrounded it.
It was Boudica, beautiful and cold, eyes wide and staring.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN
I pieced the details together of how I got there as I lay in the hospital bed. I remembered Rowan refusing to be parted from his wife’s body. I remembered him ripping the cross from his neck and throwing it into the grass before Taliesin and Daley restrained him.
I remembered the screaming.
Now that the pain was dulled by a drug being dripped into my veins, I realized I was the one who’d been screaming. I also remembered Daley calling me a vampire, but I knew that wasn’t what I was. I was something worse. Boudica was a queen. That gold
lined with darkness was her very soul.
And I’d yanked every bit of it out.
Peter stayed by my side until the drugs kicked in. He had a nasty gash on his leg that had to be stitched—Morgan’s horses must have been supernatural to have the power to injure him—but I could feel through our bond that he was already healing. He told me how Miko had called Taliesin and the bard had contacted Robin Goodfellow. They’d arrived via another Path shortly after Daley and I disappeared. How Redcap appeared was part of his own particular mystery.
When Peter’s parents came to take him home, I pretended to fall asleep so they would all go and leave me alone. When the room was quiet, I surrendered to indigo. The drugs weren’t the only thing restraining me, but I couldn’t blame Taliesin.
I woke up the next morning when someone tapped me gently on the shoulder. It was the doctor on call. Pushing myself up in the bed, I pulled the blanket around my flimsy hospital gown. My stomach sank as I realized it was the same doctor I’d seen at the walk-in clinic—the one whose yellow aura showed how worried he was about my headaches.
“Hello, Miss Lynne. Do you remember me?”
“Dr. Calder,” I said to prove I did.
“You were supposed to come back and see me.”
I shrugged. “I was fine so I didn’t think I needed to.”
He raised an eyebrow as he checked my chart. “And yet it says here you were brought in screaming in pain and had to be put under heavy sedation to calm you down.”
“My headache got bad last night, but I’ve been handling it.”
He held up the chart. “Clearly you haven’t. I’m going to arrange for you to have some tests.”
“What kind of tests?”
“We’ll do a neurological exam to check your hearing, vision, balance, and reflexes, and then an MRI to get a look at what’s going on in your head.” After a few reassuring platitudes, the kind doctor who oozed yellow concern left to continue his rounds.
Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch Page 20
