by S A Archer
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Details can be found at the end of
BASTION OF MAGIC
or at
SidheTouch.com
Books by
S.A. Archer and S. Ravynheart
Scattered Magic
Remnents of Magic
Into Magic
Bastion of Magic
Knights of the Red Branch
In the very back of the book is a glossary and a pronunciation guide for the more unusual fey names.
11 minutes after the creation of the new fey realm
Chapter One
“War? With the Unseelie?” London, his druidess, questioned him with the high pitch of shock coloring her voice. “But the treaty—”
“Ended with the creation of the realm.” Lugh finished, as he stormed away from the portal and across the clearing on the Isle of Fey. Donovan’s command, “Go” still echoed in his mind. The weight of the Creator’s demand resonated through Lugh’s body like an eternally rolling thunder. Lugh’s connection to the new realm which revitalized his life and his magic flowed from Donovan, just as it once had from Danu. When Danu had been alive her will could compel all Fey connected to the Mounds. As the heart of magic in the new realm, Donovan was no less formidable. The shadowed essence of Donovan glazed the purity of the fey magic like the Touch.
From the moment of the Mound’s Collapse, which ripped away Lugh’s connection to the source, his personal magic suffered torments and brutalities from every quarter. The Fade drained away his strength and dignity. The dark enchantment injected into him by the Changeling wretch, Deacon, restored his strength temporarily, but loosed the beast within and stripped Lugh of his self control. Made worse by the bratling Unseelie perceiver, Malcolm. Only the Seelie king, Manannan restored Lugh’s light and his purpose, but even he could not fully drive back the Fade. Only a connection to a realm could truly renew him.
Within the span of this day, Lugh had been connected to two of them. First to the earth realm, that time by Donovan’s order and by Malcolm’s hand. Lugh could almost forgive that insult, since it allowed him to participate in the creation of the new fey realm and survive the effort. The second was the fey realm itself.
And through it, bound him inextricably to the Unseelie leader for as long as Donovan remained at the heart of the realm’s magic.
Which wouldn’t be long, if Manannan had his way.
Lugh would see the Seelie king in the center of the new realm. No one, not even King Manannan himself, would deny Lugh from witnessing that justice.
Lugh’s long strides carried him swiftly away from the portal, his druidess racing to catch up to him. Taking her hand in his, Lugh teleported them away from the Isle of Fey. The next time their soles struck the ground it was in a shadowed byway in the port town of Douglas on the Isle of Man.
By the jerk on his hand, he knew London not only ceased walking with him, but stubbornly stood her ground against him. “You owe me an explanation,” she insisted. “What happened back there?”
For a druidess, the woman possessed an unnatural obstinate streak.
Lugh turned towards her, gathering both of her hands within his own and pressing them to his chest. The gesture had been meant as an endearment to cool her ire, but London possessed a resilience to his Seelie manipulations which seemed to increase with immunity the more he used it. Rather Unseelie of her, though he wouldn’t insult her with the observation. Lifting her defiant chin she looked up at him, not at all revealing intimidation at his greater height. The sharpness glinting in her eyes didn’t lessen as he rubbed his thumbs over the backs of her gloved hands. Gloves she’d not possessed when he’d met her. Distracted by the soft suede, Lugh raised her hands from his chest to examine them more closely. “Where did you get these?”
London blinked at the change of conversation. The unconscious tug against his grip proved her reluctance to speak of it. He didn’t compel her to speak, although he could have. Rather he watched the interesting struggle play across her features as she debated what specifically to confess. By the unconscious tightening of her grip, he imagined that she feared he meant to take the enchanted items away from her. “At the Glamour Club.”
Lifting her right hand in both of his, Lugh examined the thief’s gloves. The fingerless gloves extended up her arms to her elbows, in a rather roguish fashion statement. The soft material was hardly worn in appearance; though the nearly invisible embossing along the stitching below the thumb revealed they were centuries old. The thieves’ guild altered their markings from time to time to preserve their secrets, but Lugh recognized these three symbols.
“I can’t serve you if I don’t understand what is going on.” London changed tactics.
Lugh dismissed her objections. “You have always served me with superb dedication.” Not that she’d much choice, given the compulsion of her vows, but he very rarely needed to enforce them. “Do you know how to use these?” He raised her hand, indicating her glove.
Shrugging released some of the tension that had drawn her shoulders towards her ears. “I know they have three enchantments, and that one of them opens and seals locks.”
He nodded, recalling her using them to release the silver cuff Donovan had placed upon him earlier. “The other commands are ‘grapple’ and ‘release’, to cleave to walls and ceilings and such, and ‘seen’ and ‘unseen’, to avoid notice even when you are within plain sight.”
London twisted her wrist to check the marks Lugh traced with his finger as if she’d not noticed them herself before.
“I have need of your expertise,” Lugh began. “I want to know the fullness of Manannan’s empire of wizards. Their number. Their location. The extent of their resources and their reach.”
Her fingers glided over the symbols on her gloves, and then she raised her dark, intelligent eyes to him. “What’s on your mind?”
“That you will find the information I seek with impressive swiftness, my clever and talented druidess.” He deflected her question, with a touch of flattery. With his fingertips ever so lightly tilting up her face, Lugh bent to kiss her mouth. Luring her with his romantic charms might be wasted effort, but it pleased him to show her his favors. Although the Touch that exhaled from his mouth was more the point of this show of affection.
London’s lips parted for him as she inhaled his magic, swallowing all he gave unto her until she was filled with his power. That should last long enough to complete her task before the magic Faded and caused her any discomfort.
With the taste of his magic caress still fresh upon her tongue, Lugh stroked his fingers through her short, dark hair. Through the ages, Lugh possessed many different druids and druidesses. Some had been little more than pets, others his devoted worshipers, but the few he treasured the most had been like London. Exceedingly capable. So much so, that given too much information she might believe herself entitled to follow her own judgment rather than serve his purpose for her. “Protect my interests and gather for me what I need to know.”
She licked her lips as if to catch any fleeting hint of magic that she’d missed. “You know I hate when you keep secrets.”
The hint of amusement tugged at the corner of his lips. “I know.”
Chapter Two
In a blaze of enraged sunlight, Lugh teleported onto the
balcony outside Manannan’s throne room. His blinding radiation sent Changelings and humans scattering. Lugh channeled all his fury and all the magic funneling into him from the new realm into this display. Only Manannan, with his skilled perceiver’s eyes, could endure the brilliance. Lugh roared, “The fey realm has been created! Come now, my king, while the magic is still malleable! We shall conquer the realm before any might prepare a defense and we shall rip that Unseelie assassin from the heart of it!”
“You couldn’t have stopped them?” Manannan snapped out an angry hand towards the south, where surely the king had witnessed the awesome display of magic.
“They bound me with silver.” Each word dripped with venom. Drawing on the shard of darkness within him, Lugh felt the stir of his beast. Most of his life, the dark fragment of his personality paced inside its cage, hidden deep within the heart of Lugh’s magic. That had been before the connection to the new realm. The source channeled from within the Unseelie Creator before rushing into Lugh, and washing away the pure light prison keeping the beast at bay.
The animal within didn’t rise to control Lugh, as it had in the past. Now it lent its fury and its strength to his cause.
Manannan shoved himself back from the balcony railing with disgust. “The Unseelie risked everything on the instincts of their earthborn perceiver? The power of the realm will crush him.” He swung himself around with a dramatic flair of the cape buckled to the shoulders of his doublet.
“The boy isn’t the heart of the realm.” Lugh corrected.
The king froze. His back remained towards Lugh. With only the tilt of his head over his shoulder, he demanded, “Then who?”
“Donovan.” Even speaking the Unseelie’s name caused a resonance through his connection. The magic from the realm might be pure fey, but it wasn’t pure light, as it had been when Danu was the heart of it. A ribbon of Unseelie darkness stained the magic. This trickle of power spoke to his beast. Fed it. Dissolved its sharp edges so that it no longer lived as a shard, separate from himself.
Manannan remained still a moment longer, pondering, plotting. When he strode back inside, the cloak of Seelie control concealed his voice and expressions, giving nothing away.
Releasing the radiance of his power so as not to blind those within, Lugh followed the Seelie king inside his grand throne room. Unlike the Seelie Court of the Mounds, the fey standing guard within were all Changelings and the servant bringing fresh carafes of potions was a wizard. An evil mockery of the way it should have been, and yet so revealing of the dual nature of Manannan. Lugh’s controlled expression ignored all of this. Instead his gaze slipped to Rhiannon.
The dark Sidhe woman stirred him every time he caught sight of her, even after all these millennia. With the magical aspect of moon, she reflected his sun. Or should have.
Manannan crossed to the small serving table beside the sofa where Rhiannon lounged like a sleek feline in her shimmering silk gown. He poured her a drink from the bottle wrapped in a black towel into a fluted glass with a black stem.
Even as Rhiannon accepted the drink, her midnight blue gaze remained fixed upon Lugh. She, possibly even more than Manannan, would sense the change in him.
Rather than returning the bottle to the glass serving tray, Manannan selected a smaller bottle from the shelf below. Lugh recognized the pocket sized container, although he made no comment as Manannan filled it with the dark enchantment, and then handed it off to Deacon. The Changeling’s malicious grin flashed at Lugh before he flicked away in a slip of teleportation.
Manannan waved for Lugh to follow him to a table where he spread open a map. His long, graceful fingers traced over the surface.
As he’d been bidden, Lugh leaned over the table to inspect the map of the earth realm spread before him. Colored lines showing the paths of the ley lines crisscrossed its surface. It was only as he studied it that he realized the enchantment. The ley line markings twinkled and flowed, giving off a magical glow. He knew the magicraft Manannan must have used. This was no estimation of the direction and strength of the magic. It was a true and real time representation that would adjust as the ley line power fluctuated. Lugh caught the barest hint of Manannan’s head tilting towards him. This time he did not hide the map from him. From his stillness and his silence, Lugh knew Manannan waited for him to see some deeper truth.
His gaze traced the lines. The colors split just beneath the Isle of Fey with only a brilliant and iridescent blue thread bowing up to kiss the surface beneath the gateway to the Fey realm. This much Lugh might’ve suspected, and so wasn’t the thing Manannan waited for him to realize.
It was only when he took in the whole of the map did he notice what was missing. “The Asiatic portal doesn’t appear. Nor the Mayan.” And with the closed portals that trace of magic didn’t weave into the ley lines.
The earth realm generated no natural magic of its own. It was what made it a perfect meeting ground for the various realms connected to it. The magic that flowed off each being seeped into the earth realm like water to create the underground currents that were the ley lines. It had been the fey energy that existed within those magical tributaries that had sustained the fey who had abandoned the Mounds long ago.
“Those realms hardly visit the earth realm anymore and it may be centuries before they realize that they have been sealed off from it.” The corner of Manannan’s mouth quirked up, quite pleased with himself.
“Why would you covet the earth realm when a realm of fey awaits you to conquer it?” Manannan had never fully trusted Lugh when they’d been in the Mounds. Even now, after Manannan had woven his power into him, Lugh wouldn’t assume that the Seelie king would confide completely in him. Manannan’s weaving had been altered by London’s persistence and by the connection to the new realm, but the shape of it remained. Lugh felt that twisting within, although it did not control him as it once had. What he did now was by his own conviction and determination.
Manannan explained, “Even if Donovan is not acclimated, the fey realm will have knotted itself through his heart. Removing him will take an abundance of power. When I’m done, the fey realm will consume the earth realm and I will rule over them both.”
“You mean to close all the other portals then.” Lugh said, his voice deepening as the weight of what Manannan desired hardened his reserves. He wanted Manannan in the fey realm almost as intensely as he’d once wanted the fey realm created. The complication of the ley lines and of the earth realm magic that Manannan was determined to possess darkened his mood. Though he kept a moderate reign upon it, allowing only a hint to show. He controlled himself in Seelie fashion revealing only what he intended, and only that which served his purposes.
“Close, or control them.” His fingers caressed the energy lines on the map as if feeling their power and potential. “I have closed other portals already in addition to the ones you noticed. All of the ones that have been unused, abandoned, or forgotten about in recent centuries. Those with no Champion to guard them.”
“And how do you intend to close the ones with Champions?” Lugh tilted his head and saw the answer in the slow smile spreading across Manannan’s face.
“That, my Champion, will be your task. You know these guardians. You’ve dealt with them before. Many of them trust you more than any other Sidhe. You can trick them. Slip past them. Sabotage or seal their portals before they even realize what has happened.”
Lugh’s teeth clenched, firming his jaw. “You would fight a war on multiple fronts? The other realms won’t tolerate such a move, when the neutrality of the earth realm has meant peace since before the Sidhe-Wizard war.”
“Not if we are clever.” Manannan clamped a hand on Lugh’s shoulder. “Not if we are swift.”
Manannan meant not only to remake the earth realm, but to destroy the fabric of peace between the realms that Lugh spent the lion
’s share of his life toiling to achieve. Most of the other Champions knew him. Trusted him. Lugh had earned that not for himself, but for the fey. Manannan’s greed overreached the bounds that even Lugh once credited him for. Drawing upon the dark strength within to fuel his conviction, Lugh vowed, “I will see you in the center of the fey realm by any means at my disposal. This is my oath.”
And an oath, like a promise, bore trivial meaning to the Seelie. But Lugh gave no evidence of anything other than his purest conviction to see it done, for it was an oath he’d already made within himself from the moment he’d felt the Touch of Donovan’s magic laced within the power of the new realm.
“Of course, my Champion.” And despite Manannan’s perfect smile Lugh knew the Seelie king trusted him only as far as he deemed necessary. It mattered not if Lugh’s goals coincided with Manannan’s. Secrets held power and Manannan would not relinquish his power.
And London would suss out those secrets for him. Lugh would know everything, whether Manannan trusted him or not.
As he stepped back from the table, from the corner of his eye Lugh spied the slip of dark silk gliding out of the throne room. He didn’t even need to flick his gaze back towards the sofa to know that Rhiannon slipped away.
Lugh followed. From the hallway he caught a hint of her disappearing through a doorway. In a few long strides he trailed her inside the tower stairwell. Racing after her, Lugh snatched a glimpse of the fluttering silk trailing from Rhiannon’s dress. Her giggles echoed down the spiral stairs circling upward inside the tower. Lugh bounded up the stairs two at a time, never catching more than a hint of her perfume or the flick of one of the black ribbons of her hair.
