Reunion

by Jennifer Fallon

"Are you trying to get rid of me, dear?" she asked with a small smile. "Have you got even more friends I've never met on their way over?"

  "No ... it's just you said you delivered twins last night. You usually check on your patients."

  Stella shook her head. "The mother isn't one of my patients. I was covering for Anthony." She took a sip of her tea. "I think I need to rethink my practice demographic. All I see are boring, nice, middle-class couples with mortgages. Anthony gets helicopters sent for him."

  Annad's eyes widened in shock. "You never said they sent a helicopter for you."

  "I did the caesarean in a private clinic better equipped than most major public hospitals. Maybe if you'd come to bed last night at a reasonable time, I might have told you."

  "Are there many private clinics in Dublin?" Pete asked. He didn't really care one way or another, but even though she was being civil, Stella was obviously still mad at her husband, and by extension him and his friends. Long experience with interrogating angry people had taught Pete the easiest way to get people to calm down was to encourage them to talk about themselves and feign interest in their answers long enough to disarm their rage.

  "A few," Stella said with a shrug. "I thought I knew all of them, actually. This one was in Cambria Castle. I'd never heard of it until last night."

  "I thought that was a hotel now," Annad said.

  "Well, if it's a hotel, they must have an interesting clientele. You should have seen this place. There was nothing they didn't have in there. They even had a POC ultrasound unit. I've been trying to get the hospital to invest in one of those for months."

  Pete had no idea what that was, but Stella was warming to her topic and her anger seemed to be fading as she spoke of something she was obviously very passionate about.

  "POC ultrasound? What does that do?" he asked as the phone rang again.

  Annad hurried off to answer it before his wife could pick it up, leaving Pete to learn more about delivering babies that he ever cared to know.

  "POC is an acronym for Point of Care. Essentially, a POC ultrasound unit lets you guide the needle when you're administering an epidural, so you know precisely where you're injecting the anesthetic."

  "Sounds useful," he said, acutely aware that he hadn't stepped foot in this technology-filled realm for a decade and had no idea what innovation or inventions were now part of daily life.

  Stella was nobody's fool. She could tell he was humouring her. "You've never been in a delivery room, have you?"

  He smiled. "Does it show?"

  "I've never met a man whose wife wasn't screaming or about to start crowning who gave a pig's fart about obstetric equipment."

  "I can appreciate that."

  "So why do you care?"

  I don't, was Pete's instinctive answer, but he was able to stifle the urge to say it. "Well, if I ever have kids ..."

  "You won't be having kids," Stella pointed out, as she took another sip of her tea. "Your wife ... your significant other, or whatever the hell they'll be calling it next, will be doing all the hard work. You just get to stand around trying to look supportive, which, in my experience, is something most men aren't very good at faking."

  He was never going to win this argument, so he smiled and threw his hands up in surrender. "Point taken."

  "Here's something else you might be interested in knowing," she said, looking like someone ready to deliver a lecture. "More often than not, it's the father who asks about pain relief in the delivery room before the mother does. Why is that, do you think?"

  Logan saved Pete from having to answer such a loaded question. He burst into the kitchen and then stopped abruptly when he realized Stella was there. "'Morning Doctor D," he said. "Good sleep-in?"

  "Yes, thank you."

  "Ah ... Pete ... got a minute?"

  "Gladly," Pete said, smiling apologetically at Stella. "Will you excuse me?"

  She shrugged, clearly not caring one way or the other.

  Pete followed Logan outside to the back garden. There was a paved area next to the house with a large stainless-steel barbeque and an outdoor setting. Beyond that was a well-kept lawn bordered by flowerbeds filled with Easter lilies, amaryllis, roses, chrysanthemums and wildflowers. It surprised Pete a little. He never pegged Annad for the gardening or barbequing sort.

  "What's up?" he asked, as soon as the back door closed and they were out of Stella's hearing.

  "Toyoda's back," Logan said. "And you're not going to believe what he's got to tell us."

  * * *

  Toyoda was waiting for them with Echo, who was flitting about like an angry bee. Just from the way Toyoda was standing, Pete knew something was wrong.

  "You found them." It wasn't a question.

  "Aye," Toyoda said, "I be doin' as ye asked."

  "Did you speak to Ren? Did you tell him where we are? Is he okay? What about Darragh?"

  "Slow down, Pete," Logan advised. "You need to hear all of this."

  "The pixie be finding them first," Toyoda said, wringing his hands like a worried old woman. "I be havin' something to check on at first. While I be ... doing the checking ... she appears out of nowhere, squawking, Undivided gone with the evil ones, Undivided gone with the evil ones."

  As soon as he uttered the words, the pixie began to chant frantically, "Undivided are gone with the evil ones. Undivided are gone with the evil ones," as she flitted around their heads in a panic.

  "What's she on about?" Pete asked Logan, shooing her away from his face.

  Logan didn't answer, letting Toyoda tell the story. "I be following Echo to the place where Renkavana and his brother be."

  "You found them?"

  Toyoda nodded. "They be in a big house, Lord Pete. A huge house. A mansion. A -"

  "Okay, I get the picture, what happened when you found them? Did you talk to them?"

  The Leipreachán shook his head. "There be no opportunity. The Matrarchaí be getting to them first. They be bound and gagged and pushed into one of those carriages with the growling monster inside."

  "The what?"

  "He means a car," Logan explained. "He thinks the engine is a growling monster."

  "But why do you think it's the Matrarchaí? I mean ... how would they know where to find them? Are you sure it wasn't the Gardaí? Men in uniforms? Flashing blue lights?" That the Gardaí had tracked down the escapee from Portlaoise made more sense than the idea the Matrarchaí had located Ren and Darragh, particularly given the effort the authorities would be expending to find a dangerous escaped prisoner.

  "I be seeing Delphine," Toyoda announced. "That's how I be knowing it be the Matrarchaí."

  Pete stared at Logan. "Delphine is dead. We burned her body."

  "Alternate realities, Pete," Logan reminded him. "It might not be our Delphine."

  "They not be calling her that," Toyoda said. "They be calling her Mother. But she be the same Delphine who killed the Youkai in our realm. And she be the one driving off in the monster carriage with Renkavana and his brother."

  "Did you follow them?" Pete asked, still trying to digest the information that the eileféin of the woman he'd grown up loving like a mother - right up until she tossed him and his brother through a rift with plans to murder them - was here in this realm and that they'd have to confront her.

  There was no question in Pete's mind that there would be a confrontation. If the Matrarchaí had Ren and Darragh, what else could they do?

  Toyoda nodded. "Aye. They be taking them to this place." The little Leipreachán fished a crumpled piece of paper from one of his many pockets. "It be a likeness of the building I be finding while I be lookin' around. I not be knowin' exactly where it be, though. Do ye think ye can find it? Do ye know where this place be?"

  Pete took the paper from Toyoda and smoothed it out. It turned out to be a glossy, three-fold brochure. The kind they have racks of in airports and train stations. He stared at it for a moment and then closed his eyes, wondering at the bizarre coincidences that plagued them in t
his reality and if they really were coincidences or this was fate dealing them a hand they had no choice but to play.

  "Show me," Logan said.

  Pete handed him the brochure and smiled down at the Leipreachán. "You did good, Toyoda. We can definitely find them from that."

  Logan studied the brochure. "Cambria Castle," he said. "For the best in fine dining, elegant luxury, private fishing and hunting. They've taken them to a resort?"

  "You don't know the half of it," Pete said. Logan hadn't been in the kitchen just now, so he hadn't heard the discussion with Stella about the private clinic where she'd delivered two baby girls last night.

  "If that be all ye needin' me for, can I be leavin' now?" Toyoda asked. "I still need to be checkin' up on the thing I be looking for."

  "Knock yourself out," Pete told him distractedly. The Leipreachán winked out of existence, leaving Pete and Logan with Echo who was still buzzing about chanting "Undivided gone with the evil ones. Undivided gone with the evil ones."

  "We have to go rescue them, don't we?" Logan asked, as if it was even a question.

  Pete nodded. "'Fraid so."

  "Any ideas how we even get past the front door, let alone get them out of there with the Gardaí hunting for them, and then back to a rift where we have enough magic to get home?"

  "Actually, I do. The front door part, at any rate." He held out his hand. "Echo, come here and shut up for a moment."

  The pixie, remarkably, did as he asked and landed on his palm with a soft, "shut up for a moment, shut up for a moment," as if she just couldn't help herself from getting in the last word.

  "I need you to be good," he told the pixie sternly. "I need you to meet someone and be nice to them. If I give you a treat, can you do that?"

  Logan looked at him with a worried expression. "What are you going to do, Pete?"

  "Introduce Echo to the inimitable Dr Stella Delany."

  "What the fuck do you want to do that for?"

  "Because last night Stella delivered two bouncing baby girls." Pete ever so gently covered his palm with his other hand so Echo couldn't escape. She had the ability to wane herself somewhere else if she thought about it, but pixies weren't over-endowed with intelligence or the wit to formulate an escape plan.

  "I know that, but -"

  "In a private clinic at Cambria Castle."

  Logan was silent for a moment. "Well, that changes things somewhat, doesn't it?"

  Pete nodded. "So, let's start our assault on the front door by showing Stella the Faerie we captured at the bottom of her garden."

  Chapter 48

  Teagan knocked on the door of the room in the guest wing where the young woman who'd arrived in the middle of the night by helicopter was resting and waited for permission to enter.

  If there was one thing Teagan had learned about being in the Matrarchaí, it was that you never, ever walked into a room in this place without permission.

  A voice called "Enter', so she opened the door and discovered a young woman with long, dark hair lying on a hospital bed. Although the décor here was just as elegant and expensive as the rest of the castle, this wasn't part of the hotel, Teagan knew. In fact, in seven years, she'd never been allowed in this part of the building before.

  "Mother sent me to look after you," she announced, as she closed the door. The young woman looked at her blankly. "Mother sent me to look after you," Teagan repeated in Gaelish. She'd been here long enough to speak the language fluently, but she'd had to learn it the hard way. In this realm without magic, there was no opportunity to learn quickly through the Comhroinn.

  "I'm fine, really," Brydie said.

  Mother had told Teagan the girl's name and that she was new to this magic-less realm. She would need help adjusting to life here.

  Teagan well remembered how that felt. "Is there anything you want?"

  The girl shook her head and then she seemed to change her mind. "Actually, there is something."

  "Name it."

  "I need to pee so badly," Brydie confessed, "but there is nowhere to go here."

  "You have your own bathroom," Teagan pointed out and then she smiled as she realized the problem. "Come on, let me help you up and I'll show you how it works. They're insane in this realm. They using drinking water to flush everything away, but you'll love having hot showers, I can promise you that."

  "Thank you."

  Brydie was quite sore, apparently. She'd given birth by caesarean and it would be weeks before she would be back to normal. Teagan helped her to the bathroom without tangling herself in the drip line, wheeling the unit as Brydie shuffled slowly alongside. Teagan showed her how everything worked in the bathroom, and then waited in the room with the door open for Brydie to finish. Once she was done, she helped her back to the bed, rearranged the drip and then straightened her blankets for her.

  "Thank you so much," Brydie said with a sigh.

  Poor girl, I wonder how long she's been holding on? "That's okay."

  "My name is Brydie."

  "I know," she said taking a seat at the foot of the bed. "They told me. My name is Teagan. Mother says I'm to show you how to get by in this world." She smiled. "It takes some getting used to."

  "I'm still getting used to daylight," Brydie said with a sigh. "Everything seems different when you're not looking at it through an amethyst wall."

  Teagan had no idea what Brydie was talking about and decided not to inquire. That was something else she'd learned here. Uninvited curiosity was frowned upon. If the Matrarchaí thought you needed to know something, they would tell you, otherwise it was none of your business.

  "Oh, and I can take you to see your babies, if you feel up to the walk. Apparently it's supposed to be good for you to start moving about."

  "Maybe later," Brydie said.

  Teagan was surprised by that. She thought the new mother would be champing at the bit to see her babies. She'd expected to have to hold Brydie back, but the young woman seemed disinterested. Maybe she was suffering post-partum depression. Or perhaps it was pain. They'd cut the babies out of her, after all.

  "Do you live here?" Brydie asked.

  "In this place? Or in this realm?" Clearly this girl came from somewhere other than this world, so Teagan figured she was safe asking that.

  "Are you not from this realm?"

  "I was brought here from another realm about seven years ago."

  Brydie studied her for a moment with a thoughtful expression. "And your name is Teagan, you say?"

  "Yes ... why? Is that a problem?"

  Brydie nodded, as if she had worked something out for herself that Teagan wasn't privy to. "I suppose ... makes sense, really. I mean they always thought it was the Matrarchaí who took you."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You are the Empress Teagan, aren't you? Your sister is Isleen. Your mother is Wakiko."

  Teagan stared at her in shock. "How could you possibly know that?"

  "I've just come from your realm," Brydie informed her. "Ren told me about you."

  It was as if the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room. For a moment, Teagan couldn't breathe. "You know Renkavana?"

  Brydie nodded and then she shrugged. "Kind of. He talked to me a lot when I was ... well, in your realm. Did you ever catch up with Isleen?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "Didn't you know? Isleen broke through the bonds Ren put on Delphine's memories and went rift running looking for you. I suppose it must have only been a couple of weeks ago, now, but I really have no idea. Time was ... different where I've been." She stopped talking and looked at Teagan with concern. "I'm guessing, from the look on your face, that you didn't know any of this."

  Teagan shook her head, almost speechless with shock. "They keep promising me they'll go back for her when we're twenty-one."

  "Why twenty-one?"

  Teagan shrugged. "I don't know. How is she? How's my mother?"

  "I couldn't say, Teagan. I'm sorry, but I only know what Ren told m
e about you and your sister. I never actually saw anyone other than Ren the whole time I was in your realm. Well, eventually I saw the Leipreachán. And Trása. And Nika, too, come to think of it, and some of the Youkai in Tír Na nÓg. But really, that was just toward the end before we came to this realm."

  "Trása is in this realm now?" Teagan wasn't actually under instructions to report her conversations with Brydie to the Matrarchaí, but she had a feeling they'd want to know something like that. "Why did they come here? Are they looking for Isleen? Is she here, too?" That possibility made her almost giddy. Teagan rarely admitted, even to herself, how much she missed her twin. But the thought that Isleen might be stuck in this realm with no chance to use her magic and no way of coping without it ...

  That was something else Teagan had figured out over the years. It took her a long time to understand why, when in a magical realm she had the power to flatten buildings if the mood took her, they had kept her here where she could do nothing and learn nothing about her power. Teagan had eventually realized it suited the Matrarchaí for people like her to be rendered powerless.

  In her own realm, had she stayed there, they would have welcomed her ability and used her to further their ambition to strip as many realities as possible of their sídhe populations. But here in this realm, in the very bosom of the Matrarchaí, in the place where the true power resided, the Matrarchaí kept a very tight leash on potential powerhouses like Teagan. Had the Matrarchaí been successful in bringing Isleen through the rift, the same night they stole Teagan from the Edo palace, it might have been different. Twins provided their own innate set of checks and balances. But without Isleen here, with no way of controlling both of them, or knowing what her twin was up to, the Matrarchaí never fully trusted Teagan, despite the promises they had made to her the first day they brought her here. By now, of course, she'd realized they had no intention of sharing their innermost secrets with her, just to have her sister turn up someday and entice her away, or worse, entice her to join the Matrarchaí's enemies.

  Teagan understood their reasoning, she even sympathised with it. But that didn't alter the fact that she had been denied the chance to become a great sorcerer because her twin sister hadn't made it through the rift with her.