An Uncommon Truth of Dying (Broken Veil Book 2)

by Marie Andreas

  Maeve glanced over. “That looks bad. Is the pendant still hot?”

  Aisling tapped it with her finger. “Not that I can tell.” With her non-injured hand, she carefully lifted the necklace up. “It has added another line to the design though. Red this time, which is fitting since it felt like it was on fire.”

  Harlie leaned forward quickly and almost tore it from her hands. “Red...not good. I mean, not horrible, and not expected, but not good. Not that this is doing anything expected. And not as rare as the trileium. Oh yes, Hind’s Blood.” Harlie looked up at all of them. “It’s not really the blood of a hind, it’s actually a wood. Very hard wood.” He drifted off as he stared at the pendant.

  “And? I’ve never heard of it, is it from this world? Is it deadly? Will it poison me in my sleep?” Helpful or not, she wanted this necklace off. Who knew what it was turning into?

  “It shouldn’t hurt you.” Harlie winced as he looked at her burnt hand. “More than it already did, that is. It’s from beyond the veil, but the trees had grown here too—specifically in the British Isles long before they were British or even more than a collection of warrior states building walled fortresses. For some reason over the decades, the trees died out, and the ones remaining stopped growing. It shouldn’t poison you.”

  “Don’t think I didn’t catch the word shouldn’t.” Aisling stared at the pendant. With the new line it was becoming quite pretty. It already had been but now it was dramatic. And unique. “I’m thinking the spell to disguise it fell off when you lost consciousness, but could we just make this thing look silver again? I’ll try to keep it tucked in my shirt, but it does seem to have its own agenda.”

  Harlie shook himself out of his thoughts, reached to the front seat, took the pendant in his left hand again, then released it. “There” He flashed a smile. “Now, I will spend our driving time contemplating what just happened. Many things were observed that were not taken in at the time.” He gave a serene nod and closed his eyes.

  Aisling made sure the necklace looked silver. Nice, but what you could buy in any jewelry shop in the U.K., then tucked it into her shirt again.

  Maeve was locked in her own thoughts and still seemed focused on breaking the race time to Noth. Reece was quietly calling through to find London agents who might still be outside of it, but hadn’t reached anyone after Narissa. Aisling closed her eyes and drifted off.

  TO AWAKEN TO VOICES yelling her name. She opened her eyes. She wasn’t in the car, but at the edge of a cliff. One with fire engulfing the land below her. It took a few terrifying moments to realize that it wasn’t real, it was a nightmare. It was impossible to get that through her head, however. She looked down and her hands weren’t hers. The clothing was odd, old fashioned, and nothing she’d seen before. Weird clothing in a nightmare wasn’t too unusual. But the hands bit was disturbing. As she was trying to sort things out, the body she was in turned to a group of elves, all dressed like she was in flowing robes and tunics. She started yelling, but couldn’t hear what she said. Yet she could tell it wasn’t her voice.

  That was worse than the terror around her. It was her mother’s.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Aisling fought to wake up. She couldn’t hear her mother’s thoughts any clearer than she could hear her words, but she knew that was the body she was in. It wasn’t a nightmare, she didn’t have any idea what it was, but she knew it was beyond the world of dreams.

  “You need to know. This is who you are. You must know.” This voice was clear, loud, and slightly familiar. It sounded both male and female, but wouldn’t say anything beyond those three sentences.

  “What am I supposed to know? What is this?” She yelled in her head but the voice stayed silent.

  “Who are you? How did you get in my mind?” That voice was clear and loud—her mother directing her voice internally.

  Aisling shut up and focused on getting out of whatever this was. Her mother kept asking who she was and Aisling stayed silent. Finally, she felt herself being shaken and could escape.

  “Are you in there? What happened to you?” Harlie’s face was inches in front of hers. The car was parked and he had the front door open. Maeve and Reece were crowded in close.

  “I’m fine, thank you, I think you brought me out of it.” She shivered. Dream, nightmare, or something else, she didn’t want to go back to that place. Nor into her mother’s thoughts.

  “Nightmare?” Maeve asked. “You started yelling right before I pulled off to Noth.”

  “Sorry about that. I’m not sure what it was. I thought it was a nightmare, but it was too real. And I wasn’t in my body.” She paused; it was hard to say. “I was in our mother’s head.”

  “What? Could you see what she’s up to?” Maeve got a bit closer.

  Harlie looked concerned.

  “No, it wasn’t now. It was a long time ago—extremely long ago. I couldn’t hear her thoughts; it was more like I was in her head along for the ride.” She shuddered. “But they were doing something bad. It was her and a dozen or so elves; no other fey, just elves. All in robes and old-fashioned clothing. They were burning trees.”

  The fire could have been accidental, and the elves could have been running away from it. But in her gut, she knew that wasn’t the case.

  “What kind of trees?” Harlie helped her out of the car.

  “No idea, they were burning. But she didn’t know I was there until some voice said I needed to know and this was who I was. I responded to the voice and somehow she heard me. She couldn’t find me, but if it wasn’t a dream, she probably would have eventually. Thank you again for getting me out.”

  Reece came alongside of her. “Can you walk?”

  “I’m back to looking awful again, aren’t I?” Aisling certainly felt awful. She’d already been exhausted from over-using her magic, but now every joint in her body was ice, and the muscles and tendons were on fire.

  Reece forced a smile. “I wouldn’t say that—”

  Maeve cut him off as she followed them. “I would. You look worse than that troll we brought in for drunk and disorderly a few years ago. The one who was coming off a two-week nectar binge.”

  “That good, eh?” Aisling let Reece and Harlie help her along a dirt path that led away from the car. “Where are we? I know we’re in Noth, but specifically?”

  “Bart found us lodging not far from the building drop site, we can walk there once you’re better.” Reece ducked under a low hanging tree as they approached the door. “This cottage is for you and Maeve. Jones and I are next door on one side, your brothers on the other. They’re small, but they’ll work as a base.”

  Harlie opened the door and they escorted her to a lovely sofa.

  “Any news? Beyond my nightmare?” She was almost certain it hadn’t been a nightmare, but she felt better calling it that.

  “Not much. All London based agents who happened to not be in town at the time of the attack are either coming here, or going to the headquarters in Edinburgh, or Dublin. There aren’t a lot.”

  Reece wasn’t saying what he thought—whatever was told to Maeve—by the tone in his voice, Reece believed everyone left in London was dead. Aisling wasn’t going to say anything, but she agreed. From what she’d felt when she and the pendant had reached out to it, whatever had cut off London was deadly.

  Caradoc stuck his head in the open door. “We leave you on your own for a short while and you lose Lon—What the hell happened to you?” He came over to Aisling. “Seriously, you look like a truck ran you over. The rest of you look fine, so something with the necklace?”

  “Thank you for your concern. I’m recovering by the way.” Aisling rolled her eyes. She hoped that she didn’t look as bad as she felt. “The necklace, with almost all of my magic helping it, stopped the green blob over London before it could swallow us.” Aisling held up her hand. “It did this and added a new line of color—Hind’s Blood according to Harlie.”

  Caradoc looked over but Harlie shook his head. “
You’ll have to take my word for it. I had the oddest feeling when I cloaked it this time. I don’t think we should be cloaking and uncloaking it, or it might just decide to remain uncloaked no matter what I want.”

  “It’s alive?” Maeve asked.

  “I wouldn’t say alive as we know it, but I do believe it’s sentient. I think it, not whoever put it on you, is controlling the changes it’s going through. I felt a particularly stubborn mind this last change.” Harlie scowled.

  Bart and Jones came in with a distracted Stella and another equally short fey woman trailing behind. A harpy by the way she walked—the distinctive swagger was noticeable. Harpies were common, but they also hated large cities, so finding one out here wasn’t surprising.

  Bart looked around the small front room. “I should have found at least one larger house, meetings in any of these will be a mess, even worse when the others start coming in.”

  “I believe I can help on that, Agent Churchill.” The woman with Stella stepped forward. Tiny, with wild gray hair, sharp blue eyes, and a wicked grin. Aisling liked her already. “I have a barn. Stella and I can fix it up, maybe with some more help.” She smiled at Harlie. “I’m Dailten by the way. I feel like I know all of you from Harlie’s calls and letters. And sendings. I really get a feel for you that way.”

  Harlie picked her up and lifted her high in a hug. Then set her down gently. “It is wonderful to see you again, my friend.”

  “I told you to just call me Bart.” He actually looked embarrassed about it.

  “I prefer Agent Churchill, makes me feel like I’m back in the old days.” Dailten grinned and went around nodding and saying hello to everyone. She stopped in front of Aisling. “Oh, dear. I see what you meant, Harlie. Can I see the pendant?”

  Aisling pulled it out and held it up.

  “Oh, the colors are amazing. The Hind’s Blood is new I take it?”

  Aisling glanced down in surprise but the pendant still looked silver to her.

  “Never mind child, it’s covered. I have an ability to see beyond masks and cloaks.” She gave Harlie a wink.

  “Yes, the newest line created itself after Aisling managed to stop the dome over London from growing.”

  Dailten tiled her head and released the pendant. “You’re exhausted magically, but also injured?”

  Aisling held out her hand. Stella scurried forward at once.

  “I can heal you, if you accept it?” A very old phrase once used by healers to ask permission before working on someone.

  “If you can fix, this and hopefully the aches in my joints and muscles, I’ll be in your debt for life.”

  Stella laughed. “Yours or mine?”

  “Both.”

  Stella sat next to her on the sofa, took Aisling’s hand, and closed her eyes. And fell over.

  Caradoc was closest, and he grabbed her before she hit the coffee table, but it was a near thing.

  Stella’s eyes popped open and she shook her head. “That was very rude.” That she said it to Aisling’s hand didn’t make it any less meant. “Now, behave.” She sat back up, nodded a thanks to Caradoc, and dove in again.

  Aisling would have stopped her, anything that punched back that hard might need professional help. But Stella was already in a healing trance.

  It took a few moments, during which Stella grimaced and muttered swear words under her breath, but then her eyes popped open. “Ha! It thought it could thwart me. That is not going to happen, my friend.” She patted Aisling’s hand.

  There was no longer a mark or pain. “Sorry that it was difficult, but thank you.” She stretched and found that her joints and muscles all had recovered as well.

  “You are most welcome. I’d gotten out of the healing game beyond minor injuries to the staff in the diner, those were easy to fix. This, however, was a very difficult issue. That pendant of yours knew damn well what would happen to you when it redirected your magic. And, had that mark remained, it would have given the pendant more hold over you.” She shook her finger at the necklace. “Bad pendant!”

  Aisling thought she saw a flare from the necklace, but it could have just been an odd bit of sun glancing off the metal. “I don’t think I like that this thing is trying to take me over. Are we certain we can’t get it off of me?”

  Harlie shared a look with Dailten, then both shook their heads.

  “I don’t see how. The vallenians have their own magic, and that’s what is anchoring it on you.” Harlie frowned.

  Dailten nodded. “From what I felt while looking at it, I’d say that is from beyond the veil. As in it is still beyond the veil.”

  “Wait, how can something that’s here, also be there? Multi planes of existence?” Caradoc looked at Aisling like something to be taken apart and studied. She hated that look.

  “That is a very good question, and one I wish I had an answer to,” Dailten said. “This is a unique situation as far as I can tell. Even when we first crossed to this side of the veil, there was never a person, or thing, who was on both sides at once.”

  Aisling tucked the pendant back in her shirt. “Is there anything we can do about it now?”

  Dailten and Harlie shook their heads in unison.

  “While we were waiting for you, we did a brief check of the building site. It’s is stable for now; I believe we need to focus on the attack on London first.” Bart had remained silent during Stella’s work on Aisling’s hand, but was back in charge now. “We need to set up a base of operations.”

  Harlie nodded. “The energy that leaked through when the building crashed, is far weaker now. I agree, that lincolica spell sitting over London is a bigger worry.”

  Dailten’s eyes went round. “A lincolica spell? How—” She stopped and looked around the room. “We can discuss how that happened once we get started.”

  Harlie patted her on the arm. Since no one else knew what the spell even was, having a private discussion between the two heavy magic users made more sense.

  Stella held up her hand. “But first, it’s not that we don’t trust you my friend...” She smiled at Dailten and nodded to Aisling. “I still have extra slivers, but I’ll want the box first.” Aisling gave her the box and watched Dailten.

  Dailten seemed far more excited about the process than concerned about being mistrusted. She patted her check after the light declared her clear and Stella put the chip in. “This is amazing. I felt nothing and the box is a work of art. I’d like to meet this Mott person once this is over.”

  Bart nodded. “Now, to that barn of yours?”

  Aisling felt much better, but Bart refused to let her help with setting up the barn meeting room. He brow-beat her to a battered lawn chair in a corner. Fortunately, there was enough magic between all of them, along with physical labor from Reece and Jones, that a serviceable conference room was finished in a few hours.

  Aisling felt it was a bit optimistic as there was a bank of stadium seating on one side that could fit a hundred or so people. She wasn’t sure that many agents had escaped London.

  Jones was working while listening to a news broadcast in an ear-bud, but he dropped what he was doing and turned around at something he heard. “There’s been a claim as to who took over London. Our friend Nix has joined forces with the HLF. They want twelve billion dollars in gold, and all the fey out of London once the dome is removed.”

  “What?” Everyone in the room said at once.

  Reece recovered first. “Why would he work with HLF? More importantly, why would they work with an established fey criminal? They want to raise human rights, not get rich.”

  “It has to be a ruse.” Maeve stiffened at Nix’s name and still looked far too tight. They might need to keep her car keys hidden from her in case she decided to go hunt down Nix herself. “He’s using HLF to lend legitimacy to his crime. They aren’t violent.”

  “That’s a good point. Also, we still don’t know how Nix could have pulled off that spell. Even if he is working with HLF.” Aisling held up her hand to sto
p Maeve. “They are human and therefore not magic users. And Harlie said no group could do that anyway.”

  “And no single magic user would be strong enough.” Caradoc was pacing now. “I felt Nix in that last fight, he’s strong, there’s no doubt, but not stronger than Harlie. And Harlie said he couldn’t have done it. So who made that dome?”

  “Damn.” Aisling tried to shove down the thought that popped up, but it came forward anyway. “It can’t be done by a group, because the separateness of them would shatter the spell, right?” At Harlie’s nod she went on. “And no single magic user known is strong enough to do that.” Again the nod. He knew where she was going and from the look on his face, he didn’t like it any better than she did. “Nix and his clones. Same mind, same powers, lots of bodies. That’s why he kept cloning himself.” Unlike Maeve she didn’t have the need to kill him herself, but she desperately wanted him dead.

  The silence of the group wasn’t comforting.

  Finally, Bart nodded. “I think we have to assume that it a serious possibility. We can check to see if there have been any more spottings of Nix outside of London, but I have a bad feeling there won’t be any recent ones.”

  Dailten seemed the most stunned. “I don’t understand how...I know you told me of this person, but how can he do that?”

  “That is a question I believe our network should look into.” Harlie was already moving into solving the situation, one way or another.

  “All I ask is that I get to kill him. The real him.” Maeve looked like she was already sharpening her knives.

  “We know.” Aisling’s comment was echoed by Caradoc, Reece, and Jones.

  They set up a table with all of the laptops and a stand for Aisling’s mobile blackboard. They were going to have to start backing up the original screens into storage at the rate they were adding new ones. But seeing everything spread out did make her feel better. There were a lot of connections lying under the surface, just waiting to be resolved.

  “When you’re ready, I can show the building drop site, but there isn’t much to see. The agents who were here looking into it were called back to London a day ago.” Dailten’s face fell. “They are probably all trapped under that dome now, aren’t they? That is very sad, they seemed nice.”