The tone of Seamus answer was very somber. At the moment of death, when a telepath’s soul leaves their body, they can pass the contents of their mind to a living person who is in physical contact with them.
If Brenna hadn’t been sitting, she would have fallen down.
All of it?
Yes, Seamus answered, all of it.
Her mind raced, trying to process that.
You said you received your great-grandmother’s Death Gift. If I received yours, would it contain hers as well?
Yes, and those before.
How many before? She tried to keep a rising surge of panic under control.
In my mind? Over fifty. I received my father’s as well.
Overwhelmed, Brenna asked, Going back how far?
Almost two thousand years.
And I’ll … someday … know how you see me?
You don’t have to wait that long. Seamus pushed a thought package through their link. It exploded like fireworks in Brenna’s mind. Take care, Brenna. You’re precious to me. And then he was gone.
Brenna lay on her bed for almost an hour before she could pull herself together, then called Collin.
“What do you think about pulling McDermott and putting him to tracking Finnian and Andrew O’Byrne?” Brenna asked.
“Sounds smart to me. Sean is probably compromised with Siegfried. He’s helped Charles take down half a dozen prostitution rings, and if he sticks around here much longer he’ll probably end up dead.”
Brenna called McDermott, gave him her itinerary, and asked him to meet her in Dublin.
~~~
After dinner, when tea and cordials were served, Corwin made his announcement. The quiet in the room was total. He didn’t stand, but when he began to speak the hall was totally silent. Everyone knew of the attack on Brenna the previous evening.
“For those who have not yet met her, we have a guest, Lady Brenna O’Donnell, heir to the Clans of O’Donnell and O’Byrne. Her grandmother is my sister, Caylin, Lady O’Byrne. You may be seated near some of her party who are also with us tonight.”
Corwin’s voice took on a hard edge. “Last night, Lady Brenna and her party were attacked. Those responsible have been exiled. That includes my grandson Finnian. There are formal notices in all O’Neill facilities worldwide. Anyone assisting those on that list are also subject to exile.”
Corwin paused to gather his strength and took a long drink of his wine.
“Earlier today, my son Hugh came to me and expressed his deep desire to abdicate his position as heir to my position as Chief of this Clan. Regretfully, I have accepted his decision, agreeing with his reasons, and feeling that it is in the best interests of the Clan.
“I’m old. I was born in 1815, in a very different world than the one we now live in. I’ve tried to ride the significant and often violent changes that have happened. Currently, we’re the strongest we’ve ever been, but the world continues to change, and when compared to people who split the atom to make war, our power is insignificant. People no longer burn witches, at least not in County Tyrone, but the challenges and dangers to our people have not diminished. It will take a strong leader to steer you through the murky tides that are coming.
“As many of you know, among my Gifts is precognition. I won’t say I’ve always seen clearly, but when I’ve been smart enough to listen to what that Gift tells me, I’ve at least been able to avoid disaster. A little over a year ago, I had one of the clearest visions of my life.” He turned and said quietly, “Stand up, Lady Brenna.”
Turning back to those assembled, he continued, “This is what I saw. I didn’t know who she was, and at first I thought I was dying, seeing my beloved niece as she welcomed me into the arms of the Goddess.
“Then Seamus O’Donnell contacted me and told me that Maureen O’Neill O’Byrne O’Donnell’s lost daughter had been found, and I understood. Tonight, I name Lady Brenna Aoife O’Donnell my heir, to inherit my wealth, my position, and my power when I die. She has agreed to lead and protect this Clan for as long as she is able and has life. Please welcome her and make her glad she has agreed to this sacrifice.”
He paused for the polite applause to die. Looking out at the crowd, Brenna saw a full range of emotions on people’s faces, from smiling to blankly stunned, to worried, to angry. She wished she was anywhere else.
“And let none of you think it is not a sacrifice,” Corwin continued. “She has agreed to put your health and safety over her own, your happiness and prosperity over her own, your interests ahead of hers. Such is the task a leader faces. May she, at the end of her life, find it in her heart to forgive me for asking her to assume such a burden.”
He turned to her, folded her into his arms and kissed her on the forehead.
Numb and feeling the room spin, Brenna sent, Uncle, please hold me a minute more while I get myself under control. I don’t want them to see me cry.
He looked down at her, and turned with her slightly away from the people in the hall. There’s a handkerchief in my sleeve. Wipe your eyes and put it back.
She did as she was told, looked up at him and smiled, then turned back to her awaiting audience. Butterflies the size of seagulls bounced around inside Brenna’s stomach as she faced the people in the hall. Bracing her feet, she started to speak but her voice caught in her throat. She put her hand on the table in front of her to steady herself and cleared her throat.
“I was stunned when Seamus O’Donnell named me his heir. I told him I didn’t want it and wasn’t qualified. My reward for that protestation has been to be named the heir to O’Byrne and now O’Neill. Obviously I’ve angered the Goddess and this is my punishment.”
The general laughter lightened the mood and helped her to relax.
“Hopefully, my grandfathers and my great-uncle will live for three hundred years. I’m hoping the Goddess will at least grant me that. But if I am called to lead O’Neill, I pledge I will be a fair and impartial leader, tempering strength with mercy, power with kindness. I know little about your businesses, or your lands, I don’t know any of you. I won’t be able to spend as much time as I probably should here in the near future, but I will be here when I can. I’m a good listener and a fast reader, so please, help me get up to speed. And thank you for the kind, warm welcome I and my party have received.”
She sat down, and the stunned silence stretched.
~~~
“My Lord, Finnian O’Neill has contacted us. It seems he has been exiled.”
“Really?” John Gordon raised an eyebrow. “And what does he think I can do about it?”
“He has some interesting news,” Security Chief Foster answered. “It seems the O’Donnell girl has been named heir of all three Irish Clans.”
Gordon lost his indolent look, sitting straighter in his chair. “The succubus?”
“Yes, my Lord.”
Gordon cursed. Standing, he paced the room. “Get Geoffrey in here. I assume they plan to unite the Clans under O’Donnell?”
“That seems to be young O’Neill’s take on it.”
Geoffrey McCarthy, the Gordon Clan’s President and Chief Operating Officer, came into the room and at a nod from Gordon took a seat. Foster briefed him on the new developments.
“From a business perspective, it creates a juggernaut,” McCarthy said. “We have a difficult time competing with O’Donnell now, and O’Neill has a commanding position against some of our businesses in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Right now, they compete with each other, and us, in several important markets. We’d be at a significant disadvantage against the combination.”
“Not to mention the military power they’d be able to wield,” Foster said. “O’Donnell has become increasingly aggressive in the States. If they decide to consolidate their power here in England, it would be very uncomfortable for us.”
“Yes, and the merger will free them to strengthen their efforts in France and northwestern Europe,” McCarthy said.
Gordon shifted uncomfortably i
n his chair. “Seamus is relatively young,” he said. “O’Neill could die any day, and O’Byrne isn’t much younger. This isn’t something we have the luxury of time to see how it works out.” He fixed Foster with his eyes. “I want a complete profile of this heir on my desk by day after tomorrow.” Turning to McCarthy, he told him, “And I want an analysis of the business ramifications by next week. Assume O’Neill and O’Byrne both fall to O’Donnell by this time next year.”
His lieutenants nodded. After they left, Gordon picked up the phone and made a call. His side businesses, the illegal ones, were a minor part of his empire, but very profitable. He ordered one of his top operatives to find the O’Donnell heir and put a small team to tracking her.
~~~
Chapter 2-18
To the moralist prostitution does not consist so much in the fact that the woman sells her body, but rather that she sells it out of wedlock. - Emma Goldman
On the way south, just before reaching the town of Dundalk, they took a side trip to see Proleek Dolmen, a so-called capstone tomb. A gigantic forty-ton boulder sits perched on three large upright stones. At Summer Solstice, its opening aligns with the peak of a nearby mountain and the sun at sunrise. This area included Newgrange, an ancient winter solstice temple and was a center for the Druids thousands of years before the birth of Christ.
Tramping across a field to view the huge monument up close, someone made the comment that they didn’t understand how such a huge formation as this or Stonehenge could ever have been built by ancient peoples.
Brenna walked around it and said, “It wouldn’t really be that difficult if you had several powerful telekinetics. I could probably lift one of those smaller stones and hold it up by myself, and with just a few more people … The difficult part would be setting it in place and balancing it there. I’ll bet they didn’t get it right the first time and people were cursing like Rebecca on a bad-hair day.”
Several people chuckled, but most were staring at her. Jeremy nudged Rebecca, “You and I think about how in the hell you’d get a crane across this soft ground, or what kind of levers and machines you’d be able to build three thousand years ago. She thinks, ‘I could do that’.” He shook his head. “It’s not just a matter of thinking outside the box, she’s in a completely different box than the rest of us.”
“Jeremy, have you seen her snowman out behind the manor house?”
“Snowman?”
“Yeah, she built it out of boulders, three of them. The largest is about four tons.”
He looked back at the dolmen, then at Brenna.
“She’s twenty-three, Jeremy. Seamus told her not to lift anything larger than that until she reaches thirty so she doesn’t strain herself. It’s not even a box. I think it’s some kind of round-sided dodecahedron with an opening into a different dimension. Sometimes I think her whole purpose on earth is just to blow my mind on a regular basis.”
~~~
With the help of the Clan travel agency, Rebecca had reserved an entire Inn near Dunany. Brenna’s mother’s estate sat near the coast, and though the house was rather large for a ‘country cottage’, it wasn’t large enough for a party of thirty-six.
County Louth was as welcoming and pretty as Donegal was rough and forbidding. Brenna understood why her mother would have preferred this place to her father’s. Arriving at the house, she was met by the resident staff of five. John Stewart was the steward, running the estate and its stables where racing horses were bred and trained. The O’Byrne Clan had used the house at times over the past fifteen years, especially Caylin. Seamus and Fergus shared the expenses for the estate and the stables. Now this was all Brenna’s.
The house was simple in design and looks, the architecture of an Irish cottage rather than of an English manor. Two stories tall, it was a rectangular box with no wasted space. Entering directly into the living room, the dining room was to the left and the kitchen beyond that. A morning room beyond the living room on the right faced the rising sun and the Irish Sea. The back of the house had several smaller rooms on the sea-facing side that could be used as offices, workrooms, or possibly an extra bedroom. On the other side behind the kitchen, pantry and laundry were rooms for the staff.
Upstairs were twelve bedrooms, eleven with their own small baths, and the master suite with a bath rivaling the one in Brenna’s room in West Virginia. The inn was twelve miles away and they had reserved all twenty rooms.
This was the first time they had almost enough rooms for everyone to have privacy, but it wasn’t a big deal. Indeed, their party consisted of twenty men and sixteen women and the Protectors worked shifts. But considering the number of pubs within easy driving distance, there was always the chance someone might want to take a break from the sleeping arrangements they’d had for the past weeks.
They arrived several days early due to their early bolt from O’Neill. But as with their other hotel reservations, Rebecca had booked the week prior to their arrival to allow her advance team to vet the place and install their security. Since Brenna would not be staying at the Inn, they did their scans quickly and moved in. The area had a lot to see, restaurants and pubs, and the large towns of Dundalk and Drogheda. Brenna told Rebecca to leave their itinerary for arrival in Dublin as originally scheduled.
She went down to see the stables and her steward introduced her to the horses. He and the stable hands were surprised but pleased that she shared their Gift. Several people volunteered to take her riding and show her the surrounding area. Making arrangements to go riding the next morning, she went down to the beach and walked along the sand, enjoying the illusion of solitude. She could feel the Protectors, but they were unobtrusive.
Brenna called Collin that night. They talked about West Virginia and how much they missed each other, then she asked him if he had any news on the O’Neill situation.
“Our Protectors arrived about the time you pulled out,” Collin said. “Siobhan reports there have been two incidents involving Finnian’s supporters. One fool tried to assault her last evening.”
“Assault Siobhan?” Brenna was horrified.
“I don’t think anyone will try that again soon,” Collin said.
“Goddess,” she breathed. “Did she kill him?”
“He probably wishes she did,” Collin said grimly. “The woman has obviously spent too much time with Kallen. Otherwise, James reports things are going smoothly. He’s getting good cooperation from Thomas O’Neill and Siobhan has been given access to the Clan and corporate books. It seems a lot of people there are happy Finnian’s gone and relieved that you’ve been named.”
“Collin, I’m going to have to spend a lot of time in Ireland over the next few years.”
“Yes, I know.”
“What are we going to do? I don’t want to be in Ireland with you in West Virginia.”
He chuckled, “Well, I do a lot of traveling in my job, checking with my security chiefs around the world. The work I do here at the estate can be done in any of our offices.”
“So you’d come here with me?”
“Darling, I’d follow you anywhere. You should know that.”
She hung up feeling a lot better about the world.
~~~
Rebecca, Antonia and six Protectors showed up at the stables after a hearty breakfast of sausages and porridge. Two stable hands, Harry and Del, had their horses saddled and took the Americans out to show them the surrounding countryside. They rode along the sea for a couple of hours then cut inland and climbed a hill that gave them a view of the entire area. They ate a picnic lunch atop the hill as their guides pointed out the sights.
By the time they took their leave and headed back to Dublin, Brenna had fallen in love with her country cottage. Dunany was almost exactly halfway between Belfast and Dublin, an hour and a half to each, quiet and secluded with a nice beach and horses to ride. Amenities and a quiet nightlife were readily available, and cities close enough but also far away enough.
If she had to spend a lot of
time in Ireland to deal with the two Clans, this would be a good, neutral place. She placed a call to Jack Calhoun and asked him to send someone to Dunany to evaluate what would need to be done to create an Irish headquarters for her.
~~~
Sean McDermott was sitting in the hotel lobby when they walked in. Brenna asked Rebecca to take care of checking her in and getting her luggage upstairs, then motioned with her head toward the bar. Sean followed her.
Sitting in a private corner, she told him about the problem of Andrew at O’Byrne and Finnian at O’Neill.
“So what do you want me to do about them?” he asked.
“First, find Finnian. Once you do that, I can inform O’Neill and we can arrange for someone to keep track of him. After that, try to figure out what Andrew is doing. I don’t trust him and I’m wondering how bright he is. I just don’t understand people like him, or why they act like that.”
Sean smiled, “That’s why you have me. I’m dumb enough to understand them. Is there anyone local I can trust to help me?”
“Yes, my Aunt Morrighan. I’ll give you her cell number and let her know you might be contacting her.”
“No might about it,” Sean said. “I can’t keep track of two men unless they’re together. But if they get together, it’ll be easy.”
“If they get together, we have real problems. But you’re right, it would be easy to take them out.”
She called Morrighan and arranged to have dinner with her. She and Rebecca took Sean and introduced them. Morrighan reported that Andrew was back at the O’Byrne estate, acting somewhat chastised after his short exile. She said Fergus had trusted Protectors keeping an eye on him.
The next day, Morrighan took Brenna to the O’Byrne Enterprises’ corporate office in downtown Dublin. They breezed through the lobby and got on an elevator that required a key code, which Morrighan gave her. Arriving at the President’s office on the top floor, Morrighan introduced her to Michael O’Byrne’s secretary and she showed them into his office.
“Thank you for stopping by,” Michael said with a smile, jumping up from his desk and coming around to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
The Telepathic Clans Omnibus Page 48
