by Lynn Crain
Aylwen looked surprised. “I thought we had been clear with our instructions to Ronan.”
“Ronan has been here?”
“Ronan comes to see us a lot, young woman, to seek our council and guidance.” The man stared down at her. “I’ll get you a chair before you strain my neck like you claimed we would strain yours.”
Giselle couldn’t say she was surprised to find a chair suddenly under her to bring her to their eye level. This was ancient elven territory and if what little she had done were any indication of what elven magic could do, then this was marginal. “You haven’t told me anything.”
Aylwen sighed yet again and patted her hand. “I know and there is so little time. We need to bring you up to speed.”
She looked at the older woman confused. “Why? I don’t understand.”
“Because there are a few things you need to do before we can allow you to pass into this realm.”
“And what are those?” Giselle was even more confused than ever. First, Ronan wanted her and then she ends up somewhere where a mortal human was never to tread.
“Ronan didn’t want you out of the blue, my dear. It had been destined since the moment of your birth. That’s why he ran far away from you.” This came from the woman which she thought had answered them in the beginning.
“What?”
“Ronan has loved you from the beginning, like he said. You and he were lovers and protector-guardians before in another life.”
She shook her head, even more confused. “I guess I’m a little dense here. What are you talking about?”
“You don’t believe in other lives? Reincarnation?”
“I’ve never thought about it, but with what little I know about the elven world, I suppose it is possible.”
“Damn, right it is. The boy has loved you since the moment he laid eyes on you.”
She shrugged. “So what does it have to do with the here and now?”
“Everything, young woman, everything.”
“Explain what you mean by everything.” Giselle looked at her cautiously. She had never been anything more than what she was now. Some days she was a spoiled brat and rather liked it. Sure she loved helping out her family, but they seemed to be so mortified she might tell secrets about them that they had effectively shut her out of their lives.
“You always had the heart of a protector-guardian, but you were never allowed to show it. When you did, it always seemed to come out as a look-at-me type of scenario where you would try to bring everyone’s attention to what was happening.”
She sat there and remembered the times in her life when she had been scolded for talking about her cousins. It had been a few times as she had related it to Aingeal, but during those few times were when she felt some bad things was going to happen. “That was true, but no one ever thought I told the truth because I wasn’t an elf.”
“Sometimes even an elf can be shortsighted.”
She gave a wry laugh. “Isn’t it the truth? But what does it have to do with me. We’re not moving forward in this conversation here. If time is short, we need to keep moving.”
“Quite right. It brings us to the second reason you’re here. Ronan being the first, but the second is a much harder task.”
“Why? I mean it is hard to be a human in an elven world. Why should this be any different?”
Aylwen smiled. “I think you’re getting the hang of it. But I digress. You are meant to help Ronan save the North Pole loinnir.”
“North Pole, as in where my family is? You mean like Santa and the toy shop?”
“As in Santa and the toy shop.”
“Why is it in danger?” Giselle was on high alert. This felt right to her, this was what she was meant for all her life.
“It is in danger from forces without. The man who kidnapped Merna isn’t a bad man and he will be turned to the elven way, but those who he worked for more than likely cannot be turned. They are the ones who will not change and want to harm us and our way of life. Indira will help you learn your task as you will need to bring all the elements to force as you help defend an ancient loinnir.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”
“Very few are ready when called to duty. But you are lucky young woman. You have someone who loves you and can guide you through this difficult time.”
“I don’t understand.”
Indira stood next to her chair and patted her arm. “Ronan can guide and help you. He is to keep you safe while you defend the loinnir. It has been the way forever of true protector-guardians to work together. One protects the home and the other protects their lover. It has worked for us since ancient time.”
She shook her head and stared at them. “I don’t know what to do. I mean you saw what I did with Indira helping me. I mean I got all weird and giddy and couldn’t even think straight.”
Indira chuckled. “True, but maybe if I had told Ronan what was going on, he would have explained the process to you.”
She nodded. “Just what is the process?”
“Giselle, under normal circumstances, we take time to train the person, but with you, we lack time as they prepare to attack as you are here. We tried what we had hoped to train you faster. We let Indira inhabit your body so she could give you her knowledge. It didn’t even come close to working with you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Let me think here for a moment. I remember some of what Lacey had said to me.” She turned her gaze to all those surrounding her. “Could they somehow have blocked my memory? I mean they did attack me and while I don’t remember a lot, I suppose someone there might have cast a spell, couldn’t they?”
The man’s rapid intake of breath could be heard throughout the hall. “That would be out of the question.”
“Why?” Giselle asked. “We are talking about a group intent on destroying a whole elven community. And for what? What would the human population gain by getting rid of all of elven kind? Is there a faction who wants to destroy you and for what reason?”
Aylwen stood straighter. “I had hoped this would not be a possibility, but you are right, my child. There has always existed a dark faction of our group, a group of dark elves so to speak.”
“Dark elves? It makes me wish I had time for a history lesson here, but I sense my time is running out. What can you do so I can complete this task, this mission, which you laid out before me?”
“You will learn someday how you chose to be here. I’m not sure what we need to do.”
“Again, back to what Lacey had told me. When Cuinn took her memory of him, he cast a spell. When they found out the harm it was causing, it had to be removed. Can you see if I have the same problem? See, she told me one of you touched her forehead and told her to remember.”
“She told you?”
Giselle squirmed in her seat. “Well, not in so many words.”
Indira stood with her hands on her hips. “Young lady, I am not going to ask how you knew.” She turned to Aylwen and the man. “I still think she has a point. If she has been bewitched and none of us know it, the spell would be broken and she would know exactly what she needs to know, exactly what she needs to do.”
“I agree it is worth a try.” Aylwen turned to her. “Are you sure you’re ready for this, young lady?”
She nodded once. “Yes, I am. Just tell me what Alma meant when she saw me.”
Indira smiled. “Easy. I was her great-great grandmother once upon a time. Now is your time, mine has past.” She lifted her finger. “Remember.”
Chapter 8
Ronan didn’t know how to reach the woman he loved. He tried to breathe deep, tried to find his center. He had never had a problem before, but with Giselle lying there as if in a coma, he was at a loss.
“Maybe you should tell her how much you care for her. I know both my brothers did with their soul mates and it seemed to help them.” Aingeal had come up beside him and he didn’t even hear her. It seemed it had been like this for hours when in re
ality it had been about a couple minutes.
“You know, one never prepares for this. One doesn’t expect the person they are in love with to ever be in trouble.” Fearghus smiled down at him and clasp his shoulder. “It will turn out exactly how it is supposed to, Ronan, I know this from experience.”
He frowned at the man leaning against the table next to him. “I guess you would. But what can they be doing? How long could they keep her in there with them without forcing her into making a choice?”
“You of all people should know, not all people go to the Hall of Elven Elders because they are dying. How many times have you been to that very Hall and never been required to choose?” Three sets of eyes turned to see Alma standing in the doorway.
“I thought the way for a human to get there was because they are dying.” Aingeal looked at her and frowned.
Alma shook her head. “My Nana, as she liked to be called, was there with Giselle when I saw her. My Nana was a woman full of mischief and fun and love. It frightened me and made me sad when I saw her as I didn’t know what was going on.”
Ronan raised sad eyes to her. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“My Nana comes back from where she is to train people or elves. Ronan, you know and were her student before. You’ve received favors from them because of her. I don’t understand why you didn’t recognize her when you saw Giselle.”
Confusion was plain on his face. “But why would she be training her? I thought the council trained true bloods only.”
Alma smiled at him wryly. “You’ve been around as long as me and you understand so little about us or yourself.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“The council can train anyone they determine can do a job for them. How could you forget that basic fact, Ronan. Or the fact certain humans are marked through the ages to help us.” Alma looked around at each of those present. “None of you may know this, but when the elves need help special humans are born and drawn to us.”
Fearghus looked at the current council talking in the corner and nodded toward the group. “Do they know about this?”
Alma’s gaze wandered to them. “They know most of it, but certain constraints don’t allow them to say much until events happen. Even then, I don’t think their knowledge is complete. No one can know it all, not even our Elders.”
Ronan’s eyes became dark. “I agree with your thoughts there. But are you telling me they could have prevented this?”
She looked back at him. “Could you have prevented yourself from falling in love with Giselle? Maybe that’s the bigger question. Or how about when it all started? Could we have prevented Janice Paine from falling in love with Bevan Locklin? That should be the real question here.”
He blinked once and looked down at the beautiful woman lying on the hard table. Could he have stopped the events that lead them to this moment? Or better yet, would he? He had an awareness from the moment this woman was a child, she was destined to be his, but he ran from the knowledge and until now never had examined why he left. And he hadn’t even known Bevan fell in love with a human until they were married as few were privy to the information until it happened. But he had the answer to the question as he had seen them together, seen how much they loved each other. No, it would be like trying to stop the snow in the North Pole. It was meant to be.
Slowly, he shook his head. “No, we were meant to be together. But this? Come on, Alma. This is not what I would wish on my worst enemy.”
“That’s the point, boy, you have yet to see your worst enemy.” Conall Darroch came to stand beside them. “I may be a hard old man, but I do remember the last human-elven skirmish. And I call it a skirmish because if there had been all out war, I’m not sure who would have won as the elves then, like now, were outnumbered. Some agreements were made because we’re here now.”
Aingeal looked surprised. “I thought this was all ancient history.”
“Watch out who you’re calling ancient, young woman.” Conall glared at her.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“He understood what you meant. He wants to bristle at all the little details right now. Believe it or not, this is as traumatic for us as it is you all.” This came from Aislinn who had walked to the group at the same time as Conall. “Any change?”
Ronan gave one shake of his head. “No movement at all, not one twitch. She is not in there.”
“I’m sorry. I wish there were more I could do.” The older woman gave a sad smile and softly touched his shoulder.
He looked up at her. “Maybe you could start by telling us about this skirmish Conall mentioned.”
She frowned. “I’m not the one with the best knowledge of the time. I believe Merlin is, so you should talk to him.”
Fearghus stood. “I’ll go talk to him and see if he has time for an impromptu history lesson.”
Ronan glared toward the rest of the group still talking quietly in the far corner. “I don’t see why not. It’s not like there is a lot happening at the moment.”
Aislinn turned back to him the moment Fearghus walked away. “Young man, you don’t need to be snippy. We’re all under some stress here. Nothing is happening according to what we thought would happen. It’s all—” She threw her arms akimbo and stared at him hard. “I believe the expression is all screwed up.”
Ronan closed his eyes. “That’s not what I would say, but you’ve got it right.”
Aingeal nodded. “Agreed, but there is an expression in the human world I believe it goes like this The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. I think in this case, it should be men and elves because it seems as if someone had some sort of plans here. For the life of me, I can’t figure it out yet.”
“Well, you don’t need to place the blame on the council’s shoulders as things seem to ebb and flow in this world as well as the great beyond.” Merlin sauntered over to the group as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Ronan pulled the reins in on his temper. He wanted, no needed, answers as he felt time was running out and the clinch in his gut told him it would get worse. “Look, I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but it seems as if not one damn thing is getting accomplished here. I mean if this were urgent, wouldn’t the Elders make it happen fast?”
Merlin smirked. “Boy, you need to settle down. She will wake up when she wakes up. The Elders endeavor to teach her a lot in a short amount of time. I understand your feeling of urgency as I’ve had it a few times myself in my few lifetimes, but going off half-cocked will not get either world the help they need. Patience, boy, patience.”
He sighed deeply, again profoundly disturbed he couldn’t find his center. “I am sorry. I can’t seem to center myself today. Life has changed so fast.”
Merlin indicated his agreement. “And unfortunately, it will seem to go even faster until it is over.”
Ronan gave him a confused look. “What do you mean?”
Aingeal smiled. “I do believe you’re about to get the impromptu history lesson you were asking about.” She hopped upon the far end of the table. “I hope you don’t mind if I listen as well. I believe I’ll need to know this, too, being the earth intuitive in the elven community.”
Merlin returned her smile. “You know you are always welcome to my knowledge.”
“Uh, I think Ronan’s going to blow a cog if we don’t start answering some questions.” Aingeal stole a glance at the man holding her cousin’s hand.
“Quite right. What is it you want to know, young man?” Merlin stood with his hands behind his back.
“I have lots of questions. And the first one would be, what is going on here?” Ronan sat back in his chair and gripped Giselle’s hand even tighter to give himself or her a little comfort.
Merlin rubbed his chin and rocked on his heels for a moment. “There is no good answer to this.” He lifted his hand when Ronan started to protest. “I can tell you this much. It seems about every thousand years in the human-elf relat
ionship, tensions hit an all time high. Most of the time, or at least in the beginning, we could slink away into the night and into the loinnirs without the humans ever knowing about us. Now it is harder to do a process like this. There’s so much surveillance and the like I think we’ve been barely holding on to our anonymity.”
Ronan understood what he said. His role as protector had gotten harder over the years. “I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t see how we got to this point.”
The older elf leaned against the table and shrugged. “Again, I’m not sure. I think the magic and tension combined help to create situations where humans and elves must work together for some common good. This time, I think saving the loinnirs would be high on the priority.”
Aingeal shook her head. “I’m not sure if saving would be the correct word. I think recharging would be better, don’t you two?” She looked pointedly at both Fearghus and Ronan with the former nodding his agreement.
“I would be inclined to think you are correct, wife of mine. It was as if she were charging up the barrier with the electricity she received from the sky. The weird part is she didn’t seem to be touched by the stuff.”
“Except a headache, she did mention before she passed out.” Ronan glanced again at her, hoping for some sign of recovery and, seeing none, he looked up.
Aingeal gave them a wry smile. “Wouldn’t you have a headache if you had been the conduit to all that power? I can tell you when I was hit with the hellfire spell, I could feel it for days. While it was unexpected, I can’t believe Giselle had any true inkling of what was coming either.”
“Agreed. She would warn us if she knew. Still, I’d like to know exactly how she could even draw the lightning to her.” Ronan again watched the older elf to see if he could read him in anyway.
“That’s easy. She’s an earth elemental of some sort. And until she returns from the Hall of the Elven Elders, we’re not going to know which one she is.”
Aingeal nodded. “It would make sense. I mean Lacey is our fire elemental. But how could we miss this one since she’s our cousin?” She gave confused look to both Ronan and Merlin.
