The Morrigan's Curse
Page 9
When the fires were out, they broke into the houses that had been in danger. “Is this what you call adding insult to injury?” Jax asked, as Riley kicked in a front door.
“Can’t be helped,” Riley said. “Check every room. Don’t leave anything smoldering that could reignite after we leave. Open the windows to make sure the smoke clears.”
“The people will be okay, right?” Jax asked.
“They weren’t here when their houses were filled with smoke, and by the time they reappear, the smoke should be gone. Hopefully, everyone is okay.” But all six houses had inexplicable fire damage—blackened siding, burned roofs, warped doors, verandas reduced to kindling, and screened-in porches gutted. Riley didn’t say it, but Jax knew that if any of these homeowners had been out of bed on Wednesday at midnight, watching late-night TV in their sunroom or admiring the stars from the veranda, they were likely dead despite Riley and A.J.’s best efforts.
Jax took a deep breath. “Mrs. Carroway said Addie was here with them.”
Riley had started up the stairs to check the second floor, but he paused.
“She said it wasn’t Addie’s fault,” Jax went on. “Seems to me like everybody wants to excuse Addie. But when bad things happen, she’s always in the thick of it.” The security people killed at the Dulac building. The Morgans’ planes. The attack on Evangeline through the scrying spell. And now this. Jax looked at Riley, hoping he had some reassurance to offer.
Instead, all Jax learned was that Riley couldn’t duck his head and hide his feelings behind a curtain of long hair anymore. His opinion of Addie Emrys was very plain on his face.
13
JAX GOT ANOTHER RARE compliment from Riley after they left Deidre’s plane that afternoon. “Good job today, squirt. Infant CPR, working those pump switches—that’s some talent you’ve got.”
“He’ll be doing brain transplants next,” said A.J.
“You can be my first case, soon as we find a donor.” Jax yawned and fell immediately asleep in the back of A.J.’s truck. He was aware of Riley and A.J. talking in the front seat and Stink curled up under his arm. He dozed through their conversation for most of the ride but woke instantly when he heard A.J. say, “Uh-oh. Look who’s coming.”
Jax sat up, rubbing his eyes. They were about three miles from the cabin. Coming toward them was a familiar black Land Rover, the driver identifiable by her silver-blond hair.
Riley had decided that Evangeline should learn to drive, but recent events had kept them busy enough every Grunsday that he’d only found time to give her one lesson. Today, however, Evangeline was apparently getting one from Mr. Crandall. As Jax watched, it seemed like Evangeline suddenly lost control of the SUV, which crossed the center line. A.J. hit the brakes. When Evangeline wrenched the vehicle sideways, threw open the door, and jumped out into the road, Jax realized she’d blocked them on purpose. She marched toward them, arms stiff at her sides, hands clenched into fists.
“Somebody’s in trouble.” A.J. sank down in his seat. “But I don’t think it’s me.”
Stink didn’t want to be involved either—or maybe he was honoring Riley’s request to stay away from Jax’s liege lady. He popped through the side of the truck, disappearing to wherever he went when he wasn’t with Jax.
Riley heaved a sigh, opened the passenger door, and stepped out. Jax considered staying with A.J., but that was cowardly. He pushed Riley’s vacant seat forward and climbed out.
“You left me!” Evangeline exclaimed.
Riley nodded. “I thought that was best.”
To Jax’s shock, she unsheathed the honor blade at her waist and offered it to Riley. “If you’re going to go back to treating me like a prisoner, I’ll return this right now.”
It was the Pendragon dagger Riley had used since childhood. He’d sent it to Evangeline when she was in danger and then offered it to her permanently as a symbol of alliance between them. Riley made no move to take it back. “I thought you trusted me to make decisions on the seven days I can’t consult you,” he said.
“That doesn’t include sticking me someplace and leaving me like baggage!”
“What happened?” Mr. Crandall demanded, walking up behind Evangeline. “You two smell like smoke.”
Riley told them the whole story. Evangeline cringed, and Mr. Crandall shook his head angrily. “Do the Carroways need a safe place to stay?” he asked.
“They went to their son’s home,” Riley said. “And took the baby with them.”
Evangeline lowered the dagger, but didn’t put it away. “Was Addie with the Llyrs?”
Riley nodded. “If we’d arrived any earlier, we would have run into them there. If you’d been with us, they could have captured you.”
She stiffened. “Or maybe I could have rescued my sister.”
“No.” Riley didn’t even consider it. “They went to Vermont for an oracle from that Kin woman and killed her in a fit of temper. And they still got what they wanted after she was dead, because they have an Arawen with them. They’re barbaric, Evangeline. Incredibly powerful and without any morals. I shouldn’t have brought Jax.”
“Hey!” Jax protested.
Riley looked at him. “You were great. You know you were. But I’m responsible for you, and it was a bigger risk than I realized. I’m not afraid to die,” he said, turning back to Evangeline. “But I don’t want to die stupidly. We can’t confront these people without an army backing us up.”
Evangeline had gone from flushed to pale. “I’d prefer you avoid dying.”
“Well, yeah, me too.” Riley looked at his old dagger in her hand. “Can we go to the house and talk about this?”
She turned on her heel and stalked back to the Land Rover. Mr. Crandall started to follow, but Evangeline slammed the driver’s door closed, put the car in reverse, and made the worst three-point-turn Jax had ever seen. Tires squealed as the SUV lurched down the road.
“Guess I’m riding with you.” When Mr. Crandall saw Riley staring unhappily after Evangeline, he gripped his liege lord by the back of his neck and shook him fondly. “Give her time to cool off, son. She’s a smart girl. She’ll find a way to back down while still claiming she was right. Trust me on this.”
When they got back to the cabin, the Land Rover was parked crookedly beside the house, and Mrs. Crandall met them at the door. “She’s in the kitchen,” Mrs. Crandall said. “Blade on the table.” Riley nodded grimly.
Evangeline was sitting at the table with the Pendragon blade in front of her—which Jax guessed meant that she was still ticked. She was threatening to end her alliance with Riley, but would she really? I hope she’s bluffing, because what am I supposed to do if she walks out? Jax thought.
Riley took a chair across from her, looking miserable. He laid Excalibur beside his old blade. Jax remembered a previous meeting like this one and brought his own dagger out to join the others. This was a formal meeting between the Pendragon and Emrys clans. Alliances and loyalties were literally on the table and under review. Jax sat beside Evangeline. Riley was . . . well, Riley was like a brother to him. But Evangeline was Jax’s liege.
“I know you did what you thought was right,” Evangeline said, opening the conversation. “But that’s my sister in the hands of barbarians with no morals. If it was your sister, how would you feel if I left you behind?”
“I’d be furious,” Riley admitted.
“If I’m going to trust you making decisions for me, seven days out of eight, I need to have faith that if there’s any chance in the future of getting to my sister—seeing her, contacting her, rescuing her, anything—you’ll include me.”
“If the risk is too great . . .”
“Risk?” Evangeline interrupted him. “You mean like when you delivered yourself bound and gagged to the pyramid so Wylit could sacrifice you? Risk like that? How about when you ran full tilt at a wyvern to rescue Billy? That wasn’t a risk?”
Riley heaved a sigh. “Okay, I see your point. I’m sorry.”
“That was me,” Jax spoke up. “I promised that. I’m sorry if I was wrong.”
“I can’t defend or excuse what he did. I’ll tell you whatever I can.” She looked at Riley. “But your family participated in the attack on my home, didn’t they? You must already know most of it.”
Jax gasped out loud and looked back and forth between the two of them. Riley had told him that Evangeline’s father was “stopped” before he could succeed in breaking the Eighth Day Spell, and Jax had rightly interpreted “stopped” to mean “killed.” But he hadn’t known the Pendragons were the ones to do it. Riley looked even more miserable, if possible. “There never seemed to be a good time to bring that up,” he said. “I didn’t know if you knew or not.”
“I never got a good look at the Transitioners. My mother told me to take Addie and Elliot and run, and that’s what I did,” Evangeline said. “But when we were on the pyramid, Wylit made a comment about your father as if they’d met and fought one another. I guessed he probably meant that day.”
“Wylit lost track of the years,” Riley said. “It was my grandfather he met, not my father. And for the record, my grandfather wanted to take everyone alive.”
Evangeline stared at the table. “My father would never have surrendered.”
Nobody spoke for a moment, and Jax squirmed uncomfortably. There wasn’t anything they could say. Riley couldn’t apologize for things that had happened before he was born, any more than Evangeline could apologize for her father being a traitor.
“What do you want to know?” Evangeline asked finally.
“Who the conspirators were,” Riley said. “You told me Dr. Morder said he was working with people who were in on your father’s plan. Can you give me names? We know some.”
Evangeline listed the names of Kin families that had been working with her father. Riley recognized many of them. “We know about the Aerons,” he said. “I don’t know why they weren’t locked up in Oeth-Anoeth with the Llyrs fifteen hundred years ago.”
“They switched sides,” Evangeline said dryly. “That’s what my father told me. The Aerons were spared because they helped Merlin at the end.”
Riley grunted and made a face, as if he thought Merlin’s judgment had been lacking. “What about Mathonwy? I’m not familiar with that name.”
“He wasn’t very important. I remember my father saying he was included only because he had money.”
Riley sat up. “Money?”
“Yes, a lot of Normal money. That’s the Mathonwy talent—prosperity. Is it important?”
“Somebody bankrolled the military strike on Oeth-Anoeth. The Llyrs are traveling in a plane, and the Dulacs took Addie from a Hummer. This might be the connection we were missing.”
“Is that the treasure mentioned in the prophecy—money?” Jax asked. Mrs. Carroway had heard the prophecy the Llyrs got from the dead woman, but she’d been so upset she didn’t remember much of it.
“No,” said Evangeline. “That must refer to the Treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann.” When Jax looked blank, she explained, “It means ‘the tribe of gods’ or ‘the Kin’ in the old language. The four Treasures were the Cauldron, the Spear, the Sword, and the Stone.”
Jax’s eyebrows shot up. “The sword in the stone? When Arthur pulled Excalibur out of a stone and was named rightful king of Britain?”
Riley rolled his eyes. “No, Jax. That’s a Disney movie.” Jax made a face back at him. How was he supposed to tell which legends were real and which ones weren’t?
“The four Treasures are magic artifacts,” Evangeline explained, “brought from four Kin cities in our ancient home in the North Sea. The Cauldron of Dagda was destroyed long ago, but my father obtained the Sword of Nuadu and the Stone of Fal.” She looked at Riley. “I suppose you know what became of them . . . afterward.”
“I do. They’re safe.” Riley didn’t offer any more information than that.
“So,” said Jax, “your father was going to use these items to break the Eighth Day Spell? Like Wylit tried to do with Excalibur and that mummy?” Wylit had gathered ancient relics to reinforce his spell, including King Arthur’s honor blade and the mummified body of Niviane Dulac.
“My father didn’t want to break the spell. Trying and failing to destroy it could kill the caster. That’s how my brother died.” Evangeline paused, then blinked and cleared her throat before going on. “My father was working on a counterspell. Something to reverse the effects of the Eighth Day Spell the way an antidote counteracts a poison.”
“O-kay,” Jax said cautiously. “Is that a big difference?”
“A counterspell might not work, but it won’t backfire and kill everyone involved. It’ll just fail. Do either of you know how the Eighth Day Spell was originally constructed?”
“I only vaguely know,” Riley admitted. “Niviane conceived it. Merlin cast it. Arthur commanded it to stick. That’s what I was taught.”
“Niviane Dulac imagined a reality where the Kin were confined in a separate timeline,” said Evangeline. “She planted that memory in the minds of everyone participating, causing them to believe it was true. Merlin Emrys cast a Spell of Making, which creates reality from belief. Arthur Pendragon commanded the universe to obey, and all of his vassals, allies, and peers threw the power of their talents behind his command.”
“Wow,” said Jax, picturing it.
“My father wanted to cast a counterspell that would stitch the eighth day back into the other seven, negating the original spell and releasing the Kin,” Evangeline went on. “He was trying to learn the Spell of Making, which only a few spell casters have ever mastered, and he wanted the Treasures to magnify his power.”
“How did brownies get stuck in the eighth day with the Kin?” Jax asked suddenly. Evangeline looked at him in surprise. “They are, aren’t they? I’ve never seen one outside the eighth day except when the Dulacs had them trapped in a warded cage.”
“Magical animals like brownies, kobolds, wyverns, and unicorns ended up enclosed in the separate timeline. I don’t know if it was accidental, or if Niviane did it intentionally. Maybe she meant to stick all nuisances and pests with the Kin.”
“Unicorns,” repeated Jax. “Really.” Is she kidding?
“The big magical animals died out pretty quickly,” she said in complete seriousness.
“I’m not sure brownies are trapped,” Riley put in. “You don’t normally see them outside the eighth day, but my sister thought they could go anywhere they wanted. Being outside the eighth day causes them discomfort, though, or messes with their magic. If they were being held captive in the seven-day timeline, they were probably in a lot of distress. No wonder they dumped a wyvern on the Dulacs.”
“I have never heard of that happening before. I had no idea something could be brought from that far in the past.” Evangeline pushed her chair back from the table as if ready to conclude this meeting. “I wouldn’t wish a wyvern on anyone,” she said, “but I have to admit I wouldn’t mind seeing Sloane Dulac infested with kobolds.”
Riley snorted. “Me either.”
Jax didn’t know what a kobold was, but Evangeline’s attempt to end the discussion with a joke, even one directed at Sloane, seemed forced.
Riley waved a hand at the honor blades on the table. “Are we good?”
She nodded stiffly. They stood up and reached for their respective daggers. Jax watched them while pretending not to. Evangeline didn’t look directly at Riley, and Riley made sure not to touch her hand when picking up Excalibur.
It didn’t seem to Jax that they were “good” at all.
14
SOMEONE KNOCKED ON THE bedroom door while Jax was changing clothes. He pulled a T-shirt over his head before answering, knowing it had to be Evangeline. Riley or A.J. would’ve come in, since all three of them wer
e sharing this cabin room, and Mr. or Mrs. Crandall would’ve called to him from outside.
“Hey,” he said when he opened the door. “Still mad at me?”
“I wasn’t mad at you.” Evangeline gave him a hug. “I hear you saved lives today.”
“No big deal. It’s what we do, right?” But he couldn’t suppress his grin.
“It is a big deal.” She let go of him. “Do you have my sister’s letter? Mrs. Crandall thought you did, but when I looked for it earlier . . .” Evangeline made a face at the room.
Jax looked around. With the three of them jammed in here, it was kind of a mess.
Okay, mess was an understatement. Disaster zone might’ve been better.
“I don’t have it, but I think I know where it is.” He located Riley’s duffel bag and started rummaging through it. Luckily, Riley was such a slob, he hadn’t unpacked the bag since last week. The letter was still at the bottom. “Here,” Jax said, handing it over.
Evangeline’s eyes were on the duffel bag. “I see,” she said coldly. “Riley had it.”
“I’m sure he just hasn’t had a chance to give it back to you.”
She lowered her voice. “I need you to do something else for me—and tell no one. Get me saffron before next week.”
Jax hesitated. “Are you sure it’s safe to try again?”
“I won’t be caught off guard now that I know they can strike at me through the spell.” When Jax didn’t immediately agree to her request, Evangeline said stiffly, “As your liege, I’m requiring this.”
That hurt. She hadn’t ever given him an order before. “I’ll do it. But why don’t you want me to tell anyone?”
“There’s no saffron in this house, and Mrs. Crandall refused to get any for me. She said Riley decided there would be no more scrying. He doesn’t have the right to make that decision, Jax, and I won’t stand for it.”