“Such a shame,” he hissed. “Such fire, soon to be extinguished. Say good-bye to your memories, Emily Adams.”
I knew it was probably a stupid thing to do even before I did it, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. Like it had been all those years with Aunt Muriel, his sneering face made me think of her, and my defiance was renewed. I spat in his face, a nice, big loogie lodged right on his cheek.
The doctor stood up straight and wiped the spit from his face with a handkerchief he had retrieved from his coat pocket. The burly guard to my left backhanded me across the face, hard enough to make my head jerk. Heat burned my cheek, and tears strained against the rims of my eyes.
“Now, Bert, no need for violence,” the doctor said.
“Sorry, Doc, I was just trying to teach this little witch a lesson about who’s boss around here.”
“That’s all right, Bert, but unnecessary. No need to rough her up. Soon, she’ll have no need for a lesson. In a few minutes, she’ll be compliant putty in our hands, and as a payback for that little stunt you just pulled, I’ll be handing you over to the boys here as a little gift. She’ll be an excellent companion for the two of you on your long shifts here.”
I had to stop asking myself what more could happen to me. Because each time I thought it, a new level of horror found its way into me.
In that moment, all that I’d ever endured paled in comparison to the sheer dread that I felt. Restrained, helpless and soon to lose the one thing – the one part of me – I had left. Utter terror gripped me.
The two orderlies held my head down tight. Now I couldn’t move even my head. The doctor reached for the medieval drill, and I saw it come up to the front of my head, pointing right in the middle of my forehead.
I closed my eyes and began to pray. I prayed harder than I’d ever prayed before. I put everything I had into my prayer and asked the Goddess to hear me. I prayed for the Goddess to know my voice – my unique note in the cosmic hum of infinite notes being sung.
Brighid, Goddess, please hear me. If my light goes out, I’ll have no chance to save Fanny or Greta. If my light goes out, there will be no one left who may be able to stop Ciardha. I’ve messed up, Goddess, messed it all up big time. And now Ciardha has grown strong because of me. But I’ve got to have a chance – please forgive me, and grant me the chance to set things right. But I can’t do it alone. I know that now. I need your help. Please, Brighid, for the benefit of all sentient beings in the Universe. Please, Goddess, I need your help. Please don’t let them do this to me. Please help me to save them.
I sensed the drill point touch my forehead and felt the searing pain as the sadistic doctor began to screw the drill into my flesh, agonizing millimeter by millimeter. He seemed to be going out of his way to crank it slowly, maybe just so he could see me hurt.
I felt blood trickle down my forehead and down the bridge of my nose. I heard my own screams cry out and the doctor and the orderlies laughing at my pain.
I heard the sound of the drill grinding against my skull, the metal tip hitting bone. I smelled the horrible stench of my own burning flesh as the drill’s friction caused my skin, blood and bone to burn.
I felt the now familiar feeling of a blackout coming on as the agony began to overtake me.
“Goddess, please!” I screamed.
Those were the last words I uttered before the veil of darkness fell over me again.
22
When I came to, I was lying face down in the dust of the arena. My head throbbed. When I reached my shaky hand up to my forehead, it came away covered in blood.
“Emily!” I heard a familiar voice scream.
I pushed myself up and turned in the direction of the voice. My vision was cloudy, and it was hard to see. At first, I thought I was losing my sight, but then I realized I had blood in my eyes. I wiped them as best I could with the hem of my filthy shirt.
As my eyes adjusted once again to the low light of the arena, I saw that Fanny and Greta were still held in their electric jail cell. Owen’s body still littered the arena floor where I’d left him. I looked around wildly, hoping against hope that I’d see Jake and Brighid, but I saw neither of them.
Macha still flitted at Ciardha’s side, and Dorcha flanked him on the other side. Ciardha still sat on his throne, a wide grin on his face. I wanted to slap that grin right off of his face.
“So thoroughly pleasant for you to join us again, Miss Adams. There for a while, I thought our game was over. It didn’t seem that you had it in you. But you rose to the occasion. Oh yes, you rose to the occasion quite nicely. If I had any manners, I’d thank you for providing us such a wonderfully luscious game.”
Just then, before I had a chance to tell Ciardha what he could do with his game, the ground around us shook. The land rattled so hard that it bounced me around. If I hadn’t already been on the ground, I would have fallen down from the force of the tremors. Ciardha toppled from his chair as thunder cracked loud, a boom that threatened to split my eardrums.
A wind picked up and blew like a mini hurricane. I felt myself clawing into the dusty soil to get a grip on something so I wouldn’t be blown away.
Instead of the sky darkening with clouds from the thundering storm that was descending upon us, the sky split open with a fire that burned so bright, I thought it would blind me. My eyes had become accustomed to the grey, dreary darkness of the Umbra Perdita. The blaze now rolling across the dome sky of the arena was so bright, I had to shield my eyes from it. An orangey-yellow flame flecked with red danced like a fiery aurora borealis.
There was another deafening crack of thunder, then all of the fire billowing in the sky folded in on itself and became like a cyclone hurling down to the ground. As the fire burned into the floor of the arena, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.
Standing there, all at once, was Brighid, the Goddess herself.
She looked the same as the first time I’d met her. She came to us in her humanoid form. Her face continually changed from one human she’d met in her past to another. She wore the same flowing robes of blue, turquoise and purple made of fabric that seemed more a flowing pool of shimmery liquid than material. And all around her glowed a bright, white aura. The light cast from her aura was bright enough to create a pale radiance over the entire arena.
“The game is over, brother,” she said calmly.
“Nice entrance,” he quipped. “Always like to do things in a big way, don’t you?”
“You have been clever, Ciardha, I will grant you that. When I created the Umbra Perdita, I had not factored a dark pixie’s magic into the equation.” Brighid regarded Macha, whose wings brightened and turned once again an iridescent ebony. “But your fun is over. Release the girls from your cage.”
“Bossy as usual. You think you still have control over me. You think you still have the power to tell me what to do. But this is my realm,” he bellowed. The arena shook from his thunderous yell.
“I have grown, sister, can’t you see? I am no longer a child for you to push around. I am your equal.”
I heard Fanny and Greta scream and looked over to see Ciardha pointing his hands at them, the black electric current convulsing them like he had done to Owen.
“I said enough!” Brighid thundered. With a wave of her hand, Ciardha was thrust backward, his grip on Fanny and Greta cut off. Brighid waved her other hand at the electric cage, and it vanished, Fanny and Greta falling to the ground in a tired heap.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Ciardha said between gritted teeth.
“I will do as I please, Ciardha.”
“Not in my world, you won’t! This is my domain. You may have created it, but I have dominion here, not you!”
“I have control everywhere,” she replied. Brighid’s bright light shone without wavering or blinking. It was strong and steady. Her tone was cool and collected. Ciardha instilled unmitigated terror in us, but Brighid clearly had no fear of her brother.
“That’s what you think,” Ciardh
a said. He thrust his hands in front of him and hit Brighid with a full blast of his electrified Dark Energy.
Brighid was thrust backward but did not topple. She pushed her hands out in front of her, repelling Ciardha’s energy back to him. When she had repelled him backwards a few feet, she held him off with one hand while she drew her other around in circles, as if gathering invisible energy. Then she thrust the ball of glowing, excited Lucent Energy at Ciardha.
At the last second, Ciardha darted to the side and hid behind Dorcha, causing her to get hit with a full dose of Brighid’s energy blast. Dorcha was stone still for a few seconds, then she just toppled over like a statue, her animal legs thrust straight out, her body thoroughly lifeless.
Ciardha looked at the motionless body of his companion, then turned and glowered at Brighid. As Ciardha’s rage filled him, he began to grow in size. Within seconds, he was twice the size of a regular person, his giant black eyes boring down on Brighid.
“You’ll pay for that, sister,” he bellowed.
“She’s not dead, brother, only stunned.”
I realized I was almost directly in the line of fire between the two entities, and I scrambled backward. As I scooted back out of the way, I saw Brighid grow too, now once again towering over Ciardha.
“Do not try to use your illusions on me, Ciardha. I know all of your tricks.”
Brighid again gathered Lucent Energy and whirled it toward Ciardha. He created a shield of Dark Energy and repelled her blast.
As the two battled it out, I scampered over to where Fanny and Greta were huddled together, staring in disbelief at the spectacle of the two gods battling each other.
“This could go on for an eternity,” Fanny whispered.
“I know,” I replied.
“I never … knew,” Greta said. She stared wide-eyed at the two giant beings hurling energy blasts at each other, trying to put a dent in the other’s armor.
“Knew what, Greta?” Fanny asked.
“Knew that there really was … a Goddess,” she said. “Her face – I can’t stop staring at it.”
Greta was mesmerized by Brighid’s changing face, just as I had been when I first saw her in the Netherworld. Her visage displayed a face of a human woman for a minute or two, then it would morph into a new face. It was unnerving yet mesmerizing. I didn’t want to stop staring at her either.
“I know,” I said. “Everything about her is so beautiful you just want to stare at her and be in her presence, don’t you?”
Greta simply nodded.
“I’m too damned sick of this place to be in awe of anything,” Fanny said. “I just want her to whip his ass already so we can get the hell out of this … hell!”
I had to laugh. Fanny was back – for now.
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” I said. I reached my hand out to touch hers. As I reached for her, she flinched away from me.
Even though her aura had brightened since Brighid’s arrival in the arena, she still had some smudges and black spots. She was still partially under the influence of Ciardha’s Dark Energy. Or maybe she was truly so mad at me that we’d never be friends again. I have to get her out of here.
“Fanny …” All of the pain I felt at her rejection sounded in my voice. “Please.”
“I want to get the hell out of here, and I want to go home, and never see you or think about you or this place ever again,” she said. Tears streamed down her face. “You brought us all here, and you didn’t save Jake. You chose Owen over Jake, and then you left him, Emily! You left him there. You didn’t even bring him back!”
As she spoke, her dark thoughts caused her lemony-yellow light to waver and more dark smudges to appear. The Darkness is overtaking her. Fight it, Fanny.
“Fanny, I tried! You saw the whole thing. Ciardha showed you the whole thing. You know I tried, Fanny. You know I did. You have to fight off your dark thoughts. If you don’t, he’ll win. If you don’t, he’ll own you.”
“You’re trying to confuse me. You’re trying to blame this all on Ciardha. But you’re the one to blame. You say I saw it? Well, I did, and here is what I saw. You came back, and you didn’t bring Jake with you. When we get out of here – IF we get out of here – you are dead to me.”
With that, Fanny turned her back to me and faced the other direction, punctuating her point. Greta just scowled at me, which wasn’t anything new.
I knew that Fanny was truly angry with me – and she had every right to be. But I also knew that if we hadn’t been stuck in that place, constantly bombarded with Ciardha’s dark influence, Fanny would not have been so full of hatred at me. Hate and venom – that was not Fanny. But I didn’t know how to pull her out when she had closed her heart to me already.
“What, so the two of you are going to just ignore me? Give me the silent treatment?”
“I’ll speak to you only to help you get us out of here,” Fanny said. Greta nodded in agreement.
I wasn’t sure what the use of any of it was now. Even if the Goddess rescued us from the Umbra Perdita, I had lost almost everything that I ever cared about. Then I thought of my dad, and how I’d lost him when my mom died, but how he’d come back to me. My dad. I still had him. He was all that I had left to care about. I hoped it was enough.
23
Brighid and Ciardha continued to spar with each other. It didn’t appear that either had the upper hand. That was a worrisome thought.
Just when it seemed that the battle between Lucent Energy and Dark Energy would rage for endless time, Brighid sent a massive, luminous ball of Lucent Energy at Ciardha, and he immediately diminished in size. His lightning bolts were weakening. Brighid had him on the ropes. Her victory was near.
“She’s going to win,” Fanny whispered.
“She better,” Greta said.
I just hoped that the Goddess would finish him off, soon, before the Dark Energy infected Fanny so entirely that I’d have no hope of getting her back. With the battle going in Brighid’s direction, Fanny’s aura had gotten brighter, and most of the black spots had disappeared. You have to win, for Fanny’s sake.
“I’ll offer you a deal, sister,” he bellowed.
“I don’t see that you are in a position to offer anything,” she coolly replied.
Brighid hit him with another ball of her white light. Ciardha fell to the ground, causing the whole arena to quake. Macha hissed her disapproval. It was everything I could do not to let out a whoop of victory, but I knew better than to draw Ciardha’s attention. If I did, I felt certain he would hit me with one of his fiery, black electricity bolts.
“You will not even hear me out? And I thought you were the just one.”
“What is it, Ciardha? What is your bargain this time? I might remind you that the last time you played a game with me, you ended up here.”
Ciardha’s maniacal laugh filled the arena. “Touché, sister. But what have I to lose? I am, after all, in a prison of your making as we speak. What could be worse for me?”
“I can think of something,” she replied.
“Why is it that I have the reputation as the wicked one when you, dear Brighid, hold a dark side too? All is not light, even with you, precious sister.”
“Come out with it, Ciardha. I tire of your endless games. What is it that you want to propose?”
“A simple deal. Winner takes all.”
“All of what?”
“As I see it, you have had the run of the majority of this Universe far too long. It is the time of the Dark Energy. You can feel it rising, can’t you? That’s why you won’t take my wager – you’re afraid.”
“I am not afraid of you, Ciardha.”
“Maybe not of me, but of what will happen to you when my Dark Energy is released. When sentient beings in this universe see what Dark Energy can do for them – the power it will give to them – they’ll have no need for you.”
Brighid said nothing in response.
“Ah, you do see it, don’t you. You feel it.”
/> “Enough!” Brighid bellowed. She hurled a bomb of light at Ciardha and hit him square in the chest with it.
“Temper, temper! You always were a hothead.” Ciardha’s laughter at his own pun rattled the ground so hard, I could feel my teeth clang against each other. “I see that your patience wears thin, so I will cut to the chase.”
“Finally,” I heard Fanny whisper behind me.
“I heard that, human!” Ciardha thundered. All three of us hunkered back even further from the action.
“As I see it, you came here for a reason. That whelp with your torc around her arm is precious to you, though for what reason I cannot fathom. She is nothing but a gelatinous mass of fear, cowering even now in self-pity and self-loathing. If you ask me, she is entirely unworthy of the honor you have bestowed on her.”
“I did not ask you.”
“In any event, she is your chosen one, the last on her planet – in fact, in the whole of the universe – to carry on the lineage of your teachings. She is valuable to you and perhaps your last hope for ensuring that your light remains in this dawning age of Dark Energy.”
Brighid said nothing.
Ciardha continued, “For my part, my wants are as clear as they have been from the time that you made this prison home for me. I want nothing more than to be free of this place.”
“I can’t do that, Ciardha.”
“You CAN!”
“Let me rephrase that. I won’t do it. If I must leave poor Emily here, I will have to do that. I cannot risk that you will be unleashed on the universe.”
Her words hit me hard. My stomach turned over at the thought. She was right of course. She had to consider all beings, not just me. If I had to be sacrificed to save our world from Ciardha, I would do so willingly. But it was a horrible thing to think about. Stuck in the Umbra Perdita for as long as Ciardha cared to keep me alive.
“But you can’t lose. You are so much stronger than I. What do you have to lose?”
“I stand to lose everything.”
The Akasha Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set: The Complete Emily Adams Series Page 42
