The Dagda's Cauldron

by M. C. Cairns

  Mack looked concerned and reached out to put his hand on her back, but Brianne shrugged him off. Taking the hint, Mack changed the subject. "Alayna, you asked about the treasures. I will tell you what I know, but it isn't a whole lot. You already know that the four treasures protect our land and if any of them are removed or destroyed that protection no longer exists. Dark faeries, trolls, goblins, any one of our enemies would have access to our lands without the treasures."

  "Of course, every faerie knows that." Alayna watched Brianne walk deeper into the shadows, her breaths still quick and short.

  Mack stepped in between them and looked at her pointedly. "You also know that only a light faerie, one of our own, would have the ability to remove a treasure, correct?"

  Alayna shook her head and focused on Mack. "Right. Anyone else would be harmed by the protection spell."

  "Well, the Dagda's Cauldron has been stolen."

  "What? How can that be? The only way it could have been stolen is if..." Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

  "If a light faerie were involved. We have a traitor among our people. Many believe it’s your mother because she disappeared about the same time as the cauldron, but there are a few of us who don’t think she would be capable of treason. The Queen is one of those faeries who still believe your mother is loyal and that is why she sent Ian to find you all. If we go to war, she knows you are the only ones who can save our people and rescue your mother."

  Brianne walked back to them. "You said 'if' we go to war. Does that mean there is a way around it?"

  "There might be," Mack answered. "But we haven't figured it out yet."

  "So my plan might work." Brianne's eyes lit up and she almost smiled.

  "You have a plan?" Alayna looked at her hopefully.

  Brianne hadn't realized she spoke out loud. "Maybe."

  "You want to share with the rest of the class?" Mack waved his hand back and forth between Alayna and himself.

  "Not really," she said, shooting Mack a look to shut him up

  Mack rolled his eyes. "Fine. The portal is right over there." He pointed to a group of trees that were trimmed to resemble a small town. "It's in the center of those of trees."

  The threesome jogged around the pond and continued on a narrow footpath that led to the trees. They slipped unnoticed in between two tree trunks, each one big enough that all three of them could have fit inside at the same time, and moved quickly to the tree in the center. Mack stepped aside, allowing Alayna to go through first. He grabbed Brianne's arm before she could enter the portal. "When were you going to tell me you had a plan?"

  She jerked her arm out of his grasp. "I wanted to wait until we made it to the Maiden's Mist. I thought if we could get there, I could work out the rest of the details before sharing it with you."

  "Maybe you should have told me before so we could have worked out the details together,” Mack huffed. “And why are you being so hard on Alayna? She can't help that she remembers and you don't. Which, if you ask me, is because you have put up some kind of mental wall that is keeping you from remembering. But hey, I'm not a head doctor. I do know that you are going to have to figure out how to work as a team. That is the only way any plan, yours or anyone else's, will ever work."

  "Fine. I'll try." She rolled her eyes and pushed past him to the portal. She stepped into the Seam expecting Alayna to be waiting for them on the path. Instead, all she could see of her sister were her feet, bound together and being dragged into the woods by two large, hairy creatures.

  12

  The Rescue

  B

  RIANNE GRABBED MACK'S SHOULDERS as he stepped through the portal. "They took Alayna! They had her tied up and they took her!"

  "Shhhh." He grabbed Brianne's hand and pulled her into the cover of a brush thicket. "Who? Who took Alayna?"

  "I don't know who they are. They were big, and fat, and hairy, and had skin that looked like the bark of trees. I only saw them from behind, but I saw Alayna's feet and they were tied up and being dragged between those two things." Brianne dropped her head into her hands.

  Mack thought for a minute. "Sounds like trolls. That could be good or bad. The good news is they could have taken her because they were hungry. The bad news is they are mercenaries, so they could be taking her to the dark faeries."

  "I thought the Seam was neutral ground. Wouldn't that be breaking the agreement if they are working for the dark faeries?" Brianne asked.

  "Technically, no. The neutrality agreement only says that faeries are promised passage that is safe from enemy faeries. If they hire someone else to do it, they aren't actually breaking the agreement. It’s the faerie way. You have to word everything exactly as you want it to be or they will find a way around it." Mack shrugged.

  Brianne threw her hands in the air and let them fall on her knees. "The ‘faerie way’ means being dishonest, got it. And how is it good news if they want to eat her?"

  Mack searched the area in front of them with his eyes. "Trolls have to rest and eat more than most creatures. If they don’t nap three times a day, and eat six times a day, then they will be weaker than the smallest faerie. If they took Alayna to eat, they’ll have to find a resting place to prepare their meal and, at this time of day, they would most likely be napping before they ate. If we catch them during their nap, we can free her and run away. But we have to find them first.” He looked back at Brianne. “Which way did they go?"

  Brianne pointed into the dark side of the woods.

  "Okay, let's see if we can catch up to them." He peeked over the brush, then grabbed her hand and pulled her into the scariest woods she could have ever imagined. She could only see about three feet in front of her, but she could hear forever. Something hissed to her left, causing her to cringe, fallen tree branches cracked to her right, but the worst was the shrieking sounds that echoed through the treetops above her. She squeezed Mack's hand with both of hers, not willing to let go. When spider webs enveloped her face, she used her shoulders to wipe away as much as she could, and when tree limbs slapped her, she ducked her head and kept moving.

  After walking in the cold, dark forest for almost an hour, she could see light up ahead. Before they reached the edge of the light, Mack tugged her down halfway behind a tree. He jerked a little too hard and she reached out to catch her balance on the tree trunk, smashing her hand in the middle of the black, slimy moss that covered the tree. Before she could complain, she caught sight of the trolls. They were tying something to a tree limb. One of them bent down to pick up more rope and Brianne could see what they were putting in the tree. It was Alayna.

  "What are they doing?" she whispered to Mack.

  "They are preparing for a nap." He pointed to a dead fialp lying beside a makeshift fire pit. "They have another food source, so most likely they are working for the dark faeries."

  "Of course they are."

  "It looks like they are still going to nap. That's why they are hanging her from the tree. If she wakes up and moves around trying to get away, they’ll hear her and wake up. Troll hearing is better than almost any other species."

  "So how are we supposed to get her without waking them up?"

  "Very carefully." He grinned.

  She grimaced. "I'm serious. We have to have a plan."

  "I know. I'm thinking."

  Brianne waited for almost a full minute. "Think faster! We don't have much time."

  "Okay, okay. I kind of have a plan. Maybe." He watched the trolls gather firewood.

  Brianne slumped her shoulders. "We're doomed."

  "Hush! You should have a little faith in me. I mean, even you said that I know everything." She could hear his mouth stretch into a smile.

  Brianne punched his arm and shot him a dirty look even though he probably couldn't see it in the dark. "What's your big plan?"

  "Okay, so, obviously we are going to try to get her out while they are sleeping without waking them up. This plan is more of a Plan B in case they do wake up. Got it?"r />
  Brianne nodded before she remembered he couldn't see her. "Got it," she added to her nod.

  "Okay. It’s a simple plan, but a good one. If they wake up, you,” he touched her arm, “are going to keep trying to get Alayna loose and I am going to provide a distraction."

  "Seriously? That’s the plan? It’s like every other failed plan I have ever heard." She sighed.

  "Maybe, but those other plans don't include a faerie who is a master of transformation magic.” He cleared his throat and whispered, “That’s me, in case you were wondering. The master.”

  Brianne made a gagging noise.

  Mack laughed and continued. “I will transform into a troll warrior and keep them busy answering questions about why they are here and under whose authority. Once you and Alayna are a safe distance away, I will take my leave and change back to my handsome self, then meet you at the next portal."

  "How are you going to meet us at the next portal when I don't know where it is?" She ignored his bragging.

  "I'm going to tell you how to get there. Pay close attention.” He waited for her to answer.

  “Okay. Tell me.” She leaned toward him and listened intently.

  Mack picked up her hand and pointed it toward the clearing. “You see that big purple bush on the other side of the clearing? Go there and make a right. Stay on the path until you see the mouth of a cave cut into a rock wall on the left. Go into the cave, walk to where it splits into three and take the middle opening. That will lead you to the other side of the rock wall. Stay along the wall to the right. The portal is at the end of the rock wall. Don't go through the portal until I get there. Got it?"

  "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

  The trolls built a fire and put the fialp on a stick over top of it. They were digging holes in the ground about seven feet long and three feet deep, barely big enough for them to lie down comfortably. They worked so fast that Brianne couldn't help but think they could make a lot of money working for cemeteries in the human world.

  Mack and Brianne waited until the trolls were snoring before they moved in. As they got closer to the tree Alayna was tied in, Brianne decided there was no way the trolls would hear them over the guttural sounds they were spreading through the forest. She walked faster, wanting to get Alayna down and get out of there as fast as they could. One of the trolls rolled over causing Brianne and Mack to freeze in their tracks like a game of red light, green light. When they were sure he was still asleep, they took the last few steps to the limb Alayna was hanging on.

  The trolls must have drugged Alayna because she was still sleeping and it had been long enough that Brianne's knees and ankles were stiff from crouching behind the bushes outside of the light. They moved there to try and hear what the trolls were saying, but it didn't help. Trolls don't speak clearly. Everything they said was muffled and mumbled, making it impossible to decide if they were talking or just grunting while they worked. Mack thought they said the name Drake, which is the name of the knight of the Unseelie court, but he couldn't be sure.

  Brianne went to work on the knots at Alayna's feet while Mack worked on the ropes wrapped around her torso. Brianne pulled the last part of the rope out of her knot at almost the exact same time Mack finished unraveling his and, despite their delayed effort to catch her, the sleeping Alayna did a perfect belly flop on the ground below. The impact woke her up and knocked the air out of her lungs. She rolled in the dust, eyes wide, gasping for air. Brianne tried to tell her to be quiet, but her hitting the ground woke up the trolls and they were on their way to her. And they were moving fast.

  She looked around to find Mack, but he disappeared. She grabbed Alayna's hand and pulled her to her feet, but she fell right back to the ground. Scrambling back to her own feet, she turned toward the trolls and spread her arms to shield her sister. The troll in the front jumped toward them and swiped his serrated claws across her left arm, leaving three six-inch gashes below her shoulder. The pain was instant and nearly unbearable, but she couldn't let herself pass out. Adrenaline began pumping through her body and her hands were engulfed in flames. She learned from the last time that she could throw the fire, so she began launching one fireball after another in the general direction of the trolls.

  "Alayna! Get up! We have to run!" She reached down with one hand and pulled on Alayna’s arm while continuing to toss fireballs at the trolls with the other.

  Alayna scrambled to her feet and suddenly they were in what Brianne could only describe as a life-sized snow globe, only there was no glass. The trolls were on the outside, trying to get inside the water ball, but they couldn't penetrate the surface. Then there was a third troll on the other side of the clearing. He was dressed in leather protective armor and was yelling.

  Brianne tugged on Alayna’s arm. "That's Mack. Follow me!"

  Alayna squinted her eyes and looked at the other troll. "That's Mack? He's gotten better at transforming."

  "Yes. We made a plan in case something went wrong and something definitely went wrong. Come on!" She let go of Alayna and pressed her hands against the water dome.

  Alayna dropped the shield around them and followed Brianne toward the purple bush. Before they could make it there, a deafening roar rumbled through the air. They turned and watched Mack get taken over by the two trolls.

  "Mack!" Brianne started to run back to him.

  Alayna grabbed her and pulled her back. "No! We can't help him! If we go back they will take us to the dark faeries. They have no interest in Mack because they were only paid to get us. Trolls only do what they are paid to do. Nothing more, nothing less. He will get away. Where are we supposed to meet him?"

  Brianne hesitated for a split second before pointing past the bush. "This way."

  13

  The Whole Truth

  A LAYNA AND BRIANNE RAN DOWN the bumpy dirt path, ducking under low limbs, hopping over protruding roots, and only slowing down when their lungs screamed at them to stop. They searched for almost an hour for the cave in the rock wall without any indication they were getting close. At every turn, they expected to find the cave, only to find more trees on the other side. They were both struggling to keep up the pace, but neither would admit it.

  "Hey, you okay?" Brianne asked Alayna when she stopped for the third time and doubled over, bracing herself with her hands on her knees.

  "Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go." Alayna sucked in a deep breath and nodded at Brianne to keep moving.

  "No. We need to stop for a few minutes. You have a messed-up head and I am having a hard time breathing." She removed her bag from her back, being careful to avoid the gashes on her arm, sat it on a rock, and dug in a side pocket, pulling out a bottle of water. She drank half the bottle in one gulp. "Here," she offered the bottle to Alayna, "you need to hydrate."

  Alayna shook her head, refusing the water. "You are going to need that more than I am." She slid off the vine she was swinging on and placed her hands on the dusty trail. Within a few seconds, the dirt began to resemble mud, and a few seconds after that, she was holding a baseball-sized water ball in her hands. She lifted it to her lips without spilling a drop and took a long, slow drink.

  Brianne threw the water bottle back in her pack a little too hard and mumbled, "Show off."

  Alayna wiped her mouth. "What was that?"

  "I said that was a really cool trick. Too bad there’s nothing around for me to pull fire from." Brianne turned and smiled a fake smile at her.

  "Oh, that's not true. Fire only needs three things. Oxygen, which is in the air, fuel, the whole forest is fuel, and heat, which is where you come in. All you have to do is focus and you will generate the heat." Alayna nodded as she spoke, sure of what she was saying, but Brianne wasn't convinced.

  She tilted her head to the side and looked at Alayna with her eyebrows raised. “That doesn't make any sense, though. When it happened before, I wasn't focused and there wasn't any fuel involved."

  "Each of us has a reserve of energy that we can tap into
when we are in danger.” Alayna put one hand over her heart and one over Brianne’s. “When you created fire before, you were using part of your reserve as fuel. As far as being focused, in those instances, you worked on instinct. You didn't have time to think, which is what helped you access your magic. I think you have some sort of mental barrier keeping you from your memories and magic."

  "Mack said the same thing. I don't understand how the barrier wasn't broken when we joined, or melded, or whatever you call it." Brianne shrugged her shoulders and zipped up the pack.

  "You can call it anything you want, but we used to call it partnering. And you're right, it should have been broken. Our minds are usually both open and we can think as one but, this time, it was me pulling you along. You always had better mental defenses than I did, so maybe the blocks they put in place when they hid us were strengthened because of that. Mom always said you were the hard-headed one and I was the soft-hearted one." Alayna’s eyes misted over and she smiled a sad smile.

  "Well, she was right about one thing. You obviously don't have a hard head." Brianne eased her pack over her shoulders again and walked away from Alayna. "Come on, we have to keep going."

  Alayna raced to catch up to her. They hiked further down the path, neither of them speaking, but Brianne knocked limbs out of her way and kicked anything on the path. Alayna fell a few paces behind her, giving her space to be angry. As they rounded the third turn, the rock wall came into view.

  "Finally," Brianne broke the silence.

  "I was beginning to think we missed it somewhere," Alayna agreed. "Do you see the cave?"

  Brianne scanned the rock wall in search of the mouth of the cave. When she couldn't see it, she climbed on top of a downed tree trunk that was so big she had to climb it as if she were mounting a horse. "There it is!" She pointed about two-thirds of the way down the wall. "It might be hard to find from the ground, though. I can only see it up here because I'm higher than the weeds and bushes. I think the best thing to do is climb over this tree and follow the wall until we reach the cave. Here, grab my hand, I'll pull you up."