I squeezed my eyes shut as the tears burned them again.
“Speirling, keep moving, please. Go at whatever pace you can, just don’t stop,” I rasped as I leaned over and rested my head against Cade’s back.
A tired whicker, a distant roll of thunder, and the icy lash of rain against my bared neck accompanied me as the black horse carried us across the open fields of Eilé. Before I let unconsciousness finally claim me, I pressed my lips to the icy skin at the nape of Cade’s neck and whispered for his sake only, “I love you.”
* * *
I woke when the force of my body hitting the ground knocked me back to my senses. A few moments passed before I caught my breath, and another minute dragged on as I realized the horrible scenes flashing in my mind were not the remnants of a nightmare, but the memories of the horror I had recently lived through.
I blinked up at the great horse standing before me. He looked absolutely exhausted and was even now lowering to his knees as if he might collapse. Just before he rolled over on his side, I recognized the still form on his back as Cade. My Cade, who had died protecting me. Crying out in anguish, I rushed over and pulled him clear just as Speirling fell over.
“Oh, no Speirling.”
I placed a hand on his side, hoping he was only extremely tired and not on the verge of death. I had pushed him too hard, and now Cade had no chance of recovery. I wanted to cry, to sleep, to just roll over and let my soul depart my own body.
Turning my face to the sky, I let out a massive sigh. The sky was dark with clouds and my eyes blurred with tears, yet I managed to make out the silhouettes of huge, dark shapes surrounding me. But not just any dark shapes: hills. I turned my head to the right and spotted a familiar door, two lit torches standing guard on either side of it. The Dagda’s house.
Crying out in pure joy, I rushed over to Speirling and gave him a hug, though he was too fatigued to notice.
“We made it!”
Without thinking, I grabbed Cade’s shoulders and began dragging him towards our sanctuary. He was so heavy, and I really should have left him and run for help, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave his side.
It took ages to drag him to the door, even though it stood no more than fifty feet away. The bonfire from last night’s Beltaine party still burned off to the left, nothing more than coals now, hissing and spitting in the rain. Finally, reaching my destination, I collapsed. Icy rain pelted me and ran down my neck and under the collar of my cloak. I was getting tired of the feeling, but I knew soon I would be warm and dry.
I trembled and strained against my own weight as I pulled myself up so I could pound on the door. Although the rest of my body was damp and freezing, my eyes and cheeks burned as tears of desperation broke free once more.
I must have hammered the wood with my fists for a good ten minutes, because by the time someone arrived, my hands stung and bled. One of the Dagda’s female companions stared down at me, not Alannah, but one with blond hair and wide blue eyes.
“Oh! My dear, what in the name of the Morrigan happened to you?”
I gritted my teeth. If only I had the strength to tell her.
“Please,” I rasped, my throat raw and my emotions nearly run dry. “Please, Dagda. Cauldron.”
I slumped to the ground beside Cade’s still form, leaking cold rain and mud all over the earthen tiles and beautiful rugs of the Dagda’s abode. I was half conscious when I heard a commotion behind the blond woman and soon many voices were barking out urgent orders.
Someone lifted me. “Cade,” I breathed, barely a whisper. “Cauldron.”
“Hush now darling, hush,” the Dagda said, for once his voice raw with anguish.
He carried me through the cavernous halls of his home. I thought I detected the warmth of a fire in the great room, the scent of food wafting in from the kitchen, the laughter and music and general joy that surrounded this god-king of the Faelorehn. Sleep tried to claim me as he hurried me along, but I fought it. Eventually he placed me on a dry, soft mattress.
“No,” I tried to say; tried to fight. “Cade.”
A huge paw of a hand rested on my forehead. My mind floated in a warm and blissful sea, and I no longer fought the sleepiness creeping up on me.
“Rest, dear heart, and let me do what I can for Caedehn.”
I sighed, and smiled. The last thought I had before everything went blank was the memory of Cade’s passionate kiss before he sacrificed his life to save mine.
* * *
I woke up with a vague recollection of what had happened before I fell asleep, or passed out. The warm buzz of happiness that seemed to permeate throughout the Dagda’s mansion clung to the edge of my awareness, but the memories of the fight with the Morrigan kept dive-bombing my brain like angry wasps defending their nest: the horrible monsters with the scent of death clinging to them, the Morrigan’s threats and the battle that ensued, Cade telling me that he loved me. Cade dying . . .
I gasped out a sob and covered my mouth with my hands. No . . .
A light chittering sound drew my attention to one of the posts of my bed. Meridian sat perched on top, looking morose.
Sorrow, her mind said to mine.
Yes, I replied in the same way as tears tracked down my cheeks, sorrow.
The door to my room cracked open, letting in a draft that danced with the fire in the corner fireplace. The Dagda himself stepped through the entrance, his huge frame appearing weary, his face looking bleak. That only made the tears flow more freely.
“I was too late,” I whispered, my throat closing up with pain.
My heart clenched and I convinced myself it wouldn’t be long before it shriveled up and died. Cade had given his life for me. Because he loved me. I suddenly grew angry. Why had he done such a thing? Didn’t he know how much I loved him? How was I going to go on without his smile, his encouragement, his touch? I was alone in this strange place once again.
The Dagda moved closer, never saying a word. He sat down at the foot of the bed, making the mattress dip and creak dangerously.
“Meghan,” he said.
I couldn’t look at him. I could only cry into my pillow and let my anguish take over me as I pushed away all of his overwhelming, cheerful, happy-go-lucky charm. I didn’t care if the Celts viewed him as a god. I didn’t care if I had grown to like him. I didn’t care about his stupid, magical cauldron . . .
“Meghan, Caedehn is going to be fine. He was very far gone when you brought him here, but as soon as I put you to bed, we placed him in my Cauldron and began the revival rights. He’ll need several weeks to recover fully, but he is alive.”
All I heard was his last words.
“Alive?” I breathed, daring to glance up from my pillow.
The Dagda merely nodded, his usually twinkling eyes looking slightly dull with worry.
“Yes, very much so,” he murmured quietly, putting a hand upon my forehead as if I were a troubled child recovering from a nightmare. “You were right in bringing him here.”
I released another wave of tears and caught my trembling lip with my teeth while trying to take a few deep breaths. I had never been so relieved in my life.
The Dagda stayed with me for several minutes and I did my best to relate to him the details of the night. He listened quietly the whole time, even when I paused several times to let a fit of crying pass. His face was grim by the time I finished.
“So your glamour has finally revealed itself, and the Morrigan is aware of it.” He sighed and stood up, gazing down on me with those ancient eyes of his. “She should be rather indisposed for a while Meghan, but I think you ought to seriously consider making the Otherworld your permanent home. Now that your power is free, you’ll only grow stronger and learn to wield it better. You’ll also need Eilé’s own magic to replenish yours if you want to remain strong enough to continue thwarting the Morrigan.”
I nodded as I shut my swollen eyes. “I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing for a long time, coming to live in E
ilé.”
“Well, I think we can give it at least a month or so before any permanent decisions must be made. I’ll let you rest now. You experienced a terrible ordeal tonight.”
He started to leave, his massive size taking up most of the doorway. He stopped before entering the hall and turned to glance at me, a mischievous glint in his eye. “I believe you’ve gone and disrupted our quiet, comfortable lives, Miss Meghan.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
He sighed, still smiling. “You and Caedehn have started something huge, there is no doubt about that. Though, such a conflict was bound to occur sooner or later. Besides, a half-Fae and half-Fomore cannot exist without bringing some sort of turmoil into the world. Your strong magic is now the bone of contention, Meghan, but you mustn’t take on all the blame yourself. After all, you can’t help who you are.”
“The Morrigan won’t stop until she gets what she wants, will she?” I asked, the sudden realization sending a new bolt of terror through me.
The Dagda sighed and leaned against the door frame. “Every powerful Faelorehn king or queen will want to take advantage of your power. Don’t worry Meghan, Caedehn will help guide you when he is recovered, and if you’re willing to trust me, I’ll help you as well.”
He stepped away from the door, moving closer to my bed once again. He placed a gentle hand on my shoulder and tilted my chin up with the other one. “But Meghan, the choice is yours. You cannot let the Morrigan or any of the other Faelorehn make you think that you must serve their side. You must choose what’s right for you; you must decide who and what is worth fighting for.”
I relaxed back into the soft pillows, but something still worried away at my conscious. Taking a shaking breath I said, “That’s why they shun him, isn’t it?”
I glanced up at the Dagda with shimmering eyes. He shot me a quizzical look, but remained silent.
“Cade. Why Drustan and his friends don’t like him. Why Danua doesn’t want me around him. Because he is the Morrigan’s son.”
The drawing of a deep breath, followed by a terse, “Yes,” gave me the Dagda’s answer.
On top of everything else, I felt sick to my stomach. Sadness wasn’t the cause, however. No, only deep anger had the ability to make me so ill.
“Why?” I hissed. “Cade can’t help who his parents are, and he isn’t evil like her.”
“Unfortunately,” the Dagda answered, “he suffers from guilt by association. The Morrigan has done unthinkable things in order to increase her power and keep her hold over the faelah. And because of the geis she placed on Cade, he was forced to help her.”
I sucked in a breath, horrified. What had she made Cade do?
The Dagda quickly shook his head as he held up a hand. “Do not fret Meghan. Cade was able to resist most of what his mother insisted. He never took part in anything too appalling, and most people know this.”
I pulled my knees to my chest and rested my cheek on them. Still staring across the room, I whispered, “Then why do they still treat him like a criminal? He isn’t his mother.”
The Dagda gave a jaded smile. “Is there no one back in the mortal world who judges you by what they perceive to be the truth?”
I opened my mouth to argue, but stopped. He was right. People in my world were constantly judging others based on their actions and what their peers said about them. And they were ready to accept just about anything as truth. The popularity of tabloid magazines was testimony to that. I looked up and found Cade’s foster father grinning at me, his kind eyes twinkling.
“So you see,” he continued, “our nature encourages us to formulate our own version of the truth. It is much harder to convince others of your merits once they’ve convinced themselves of your faults. But do not worry, Meghan. As long as Cade can count on you and his other friends to care about him, it won’t matter if most of the others do not.”
He smiled at me again and for the first time in several minutes, I was comforted.
“Now,” the Dagda stated, standing up once more and clasping his hands together, “you get some rest and on the morrow, I’ll assign a guard to escort back to your more familiar realm.”
I shot my eyes up to meet his as a realization burst through me. “My family! I was supposed to be home last night, to get ready for prom!”
I groaned and dropped my face into my hands. How on earth had I forgotten about my life in the mortal world? Oh, yeah, extreme trauma can do that to a person. What were they going to think? What were they thinking right now? Did they think I was lying in a ditch somewhere, murdered? Had Robyn told them about my lies? I groaned again and felt the panic rising, my newborn magic trying to rise up as well. Suddenly, it seemed as if someone had opened a window and the storm outside was flooding into the room.
“Meghan! Meghan, you need to calm down,” the Dagda exclaimed as he rushed to my side, wrapping his arms around me. “Your magic is newly unleashed and you might hurt yourself and destroy my house.”
I forced myself to relax and blinked up at him with teary eyes. “Why did my power have to awaken now? Why didn’t it help me before Cade fought with the Morrigan’s Cúmorrig?”
The Dagda rocked me, comforting me the way Cade once had.
“I think your magic has been awake Meghan, but it had no reason to become furious. Something powerful had to happen in order to get your glamour to stir.”
I sighed and nodded against his chest. That made sense.
“Now,” he said, pulling away from me so he could look me in the eye, “you might be rested enough to ride home. I’ll insist on sending most of my guard with you, however.”
I released a pent up breath and the small storm my wild magic had been creating vanished. Later, when Cade was healed and I recovered from this whole ordeal, I would learn how to control my magic and put it to good use. I held my closed fist up to my mouth, hiding a sudden grin. Perhaps Danua would think differently of me now.
“When will the guard be ready to escort me?” I asked, anxious to return home and assure my family I was still alive.
The Dagda stood up again and chuckled. “I’ll instruct them to saddle their horses.” Then his humor dimmed a little and he asked in a more careful tone, “Would you like to visit Cade before you leave?”
“Yes,” I said instantly, “yes I would.”
Alannah brought me a change of clothes, something more fitting to the Otherworld, but I was glad to get out of my black and white dress. It had been ruined and now served as a reminder of the atrocities of the previous night. When I finished getting ready, the Dagda led me down another hall. Despite what he had said, terror gripped me at the thought of visiting Cade, to see him so injured and defenseless.
He came to a stop in front of a door and released a massive sigh. “Now, he looks bad Meghan, but he will mend, I promise. He won’t gain consciousness for at least another week or so. Those creatures of the Morrigan took a lot out of him.”
He paused and lifted my chin with one of his large, calloused fingers. I forced myself to meet his eyes, their bright blue turning a deeper color.
“He must love you very much to have done what he did and you must return that love just as fiercely, to have brought him back here. For those reasons alone, my care for him will not falter. I’ll make sure to return him to you as he was before.”
I nodded, comforted by the Dagda’s words.
The room we stepped into was large and resembled all the others I’d seen. A fire roared in the fireplace set in one wall and I glimpsed the storm still pummeling the earth with rain through a large diamond paned window. The huge, four poster bed however, caught and held my attention more than anything else.
Crying out, I ran forward, coming to the bed’s edge and just barely stopping myself from leaping onto the mattress. Cade rested there, his bare arms and chest exposed, the rest of him tucked snugly under the comforter. One arm lay stretched out beside him, while the other was draped across his abdomen. His head rested against a pillow with h
is face tilted towards the fireplace.
“Careful Meghan,” the Dagda murmured behind me.
I heeded his warning, but my hands crumpled the bedspread anyway and I heard the thunder grow louder and the rain fall harder outside. I had been warned, but seeing him like this still tore at my heart. His face was the palest I’d ever seen, at least the parts that weren’t bruised and swollen. His entire chest was covered in more contusions and cuts, the worst being the slices through his side where the mutated Cúmorrig had stabbed him.
“Do not fret, my dear girl. He is healing; alive. And he’ll keep healing, just give it time.”
The Dagda’s soft voice and kind touch helped ease my distress, but only a little.
A new thought came bursting forth to the front of my mind and I nearly choked, partly in shame for forgetting and partly because it had appeared so suddenly.
“Fergus!” I blurted. “We had to leave him behind, because when Cade fell, well you know . . . Meridian said- Meridian!”
I whipped my head around and the Dagda lifted his hands. “She’s hunkered down in the stables, resting with Speirling. What about Fergus? Where did he fall?”
“She said he was in the forest, near the site where the battle took place. Near the dolmarehn leading to the mortal world.”
The Dagda sighed. “My guard will find him and bring him back after they accompany you to the mortal realm. Don’t worry, he’ll heal as Caedehn will.”
I released a breath of relief and turned back towards the bed. I watched Cade’s slow breathing for several minutes and only when I was certain the rise and fall of his chest wouldn’t stop, did I let my relief break free. The storm immediately let up and the rain slowed to a gentle patter.
The Dagda placed his huge hands on my shoulders.
“Time to say goodbye. I’ll send word when he is improved, but it may be a while.”
I nodded then glanced up at Cade’s foster father with tears in my eyes. He grinned, somehow understanding what I asked, and stepped out of the room, taking one of the servants with him.
Dolmarehn - Book Two of the Otherworld Trilogy Page 23
