The Bwy Hir Complete Trilogy

by Lowri Thomas

  ‘And a fine job he is doing.’ Aeron smiled smoothly. ‘Why, he hasn’t even murdered anyone yet, so I have high hopes for him.’ Afagddu glared at the new Councillor and Tomas met the stare coolly and calmly. ‘You may withdraw.’ Aeron waved the Seekers away. ‘Wait outside and do not enter again until I call you.’ Elder Tomas leaned in and whispered in Aeron’s ear, ‘Madog can stay.’ Madog’s eyes opened wide, but he stayed where he stood.

  Aeron let the silence stretch, his eyes boring into Afagddu’s pallid face. Madog shuffled his feet as he waited for the silence to be broken. ‘Why am I here?’ Afagddu finally spoke up. Aeron’s smile deepened, vulpine and dark as he flicked a hand to his new Councillor.

  Elder Tomas drew himself up to his full height and stepped from behind the chair. ‘Afagddu you are hereby formally charged with the murder of a woman from Ty Mawr Farm, relation to the Chosen and thereby protected under our laws.’

  ‘I deny that accusation,’ Afagddu spat.

  ‘Liar!’ Aeron roared from his seat. ‘We have retrieved the body!’

  ‘I deny that accusation.’ Afagddu pulled against is restraints.

  ‘We also have the knife she used to protect herself, your denial is pointless!’ Aeron seethed.

  ‘I deny–’ Afagddu’s eyes bulged as he began to fight for breath. Unseen hands clenched his windpipe, starving him of oxygen.

  ‘Liar.’ Aeron once again appeared calm and calculated. ‘You will confess.’ Aeron pressed against Afagddu’s throat with his mind for a few moments more before releasing him. Afagddu gasped for breath. ‘One way or another you will confess. You will also tell us where the other bodies are, which mirrors you used to dispose of them in y Gwag.’

  Celyn-Bach spoke quietly and confidently. ‘Your crime is not simply murder, but the desecration of that we hold sacred. Y Gwag is hallowed and deific. You are evil for what you have done and you will cooperate with us.’

  Afagddu remained silent. He held his head high and met the Bwy Hir’s stares arrogantly and defiantly. You are bluffing, no one could have known where I hid my victims, no one except … Afagddu turned to Madog and with a snarl lunged for him, throwing his weight against his chest and barrelling him to the floor, kicking and biting as he squirmed with bound hands, desperate to gain purchase on his betrayer. Madog tried to fight him off but Afagddu was insanely strong. ‘Help!’ Madog shrieked, ‘Help!’

  Aeron lifted his hand, disallowing anyone to intervene; even the Seekers remained behind the closed door. ‘Oh, an accomplice, I see!’ Gwrnach growled, darkly amused by the scrap occurring on the floor.

  Aeron stood, like a flash he was on his feet, grabbing both men, dragging them across the floor out onto the balcony. He pressed on their chests with huge hands and closed his eyes before returning to his seat, leaving the men pinned to the floor, the keening of the wind pressing against them, deafening their ears, blocking their mouths and forcing their eyes shut. Taliesin was in awe at his father’s strength and power. Taliesin struggled to light a candle or lift a book in his training sessions.

  ‘Behold! Not one venomous snake in our midst but two!’ Gwrnach leaned to watch the two men struggle against their invisible bonds.

  ‘Two we know of,’ Celyn-Bach corrected, ‘there could be many more – I mean no offence, Councillor.’

  ‘None taken.’ Elder Tomas folded his hands in front of himself. ‘I pray that there are only two of my brethren with wicked intents, but who knows? Who knows?’

  ‘I could shake it out of them,’ Gwrnach offered, but Elder Tomas held up both of his hands. ‘I would not have your oaths compromised for the sake of two villains. They should be put to question by the brethren, Druid to Druid, we shall make them confess and reveal any others of their kind that lurk in the shadows … evil, evil.’ He shook his head again before suddenly standing erect. He looked to the Bwy Hir with a look of both insight and apprehension. ‘Are they possessed?’

  Gwrnach snorted but Bran and Celyn-Bach looked concerned. ‘Why would you suggest that, Councillor?’ Celyn-Bach asked quietly.

  ‘Purgatory, y Gwag, limbo, purdan, in between, the emptiness, the gloom, all names for the same place,’ Elder Tomas inhaled before reciting: ‘“And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgement of the great day” … “Wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”’ He ended shakily, his eyes full of unease. ‘Could it be?’

  ‘You spout the bible to us?’ Aeron sneered, but he too appeared uneasy, as did Celyn-Bach. Bran looked angry, Gwrnach simply looked away, refusing to meet Elder Tomas’ eye.

  Aeron held Elder Tomas’ stare but spoke to his son. ‘Taliesin, you will leave us.’ Taliesin wanted to argue; he was as schooled as he was mature, he had devoured every book Madog and his tutors had set before him and many more besides, he understood the philosophy of his being, he understood far more than his father gave him credit for, but he didn’t argue, he could feel the tension in the room and he was better away from it. ‘I will be in the Great Library should you need me,’ Taliesin said to his father, before he sullenly left the chamber.

  ‘Let me give you another quote I heard long ago,’ Aeron said to his Councillor. All trace of sarcasm or ire was gone from his voice. ‘Evil begets evil … Afagddu is not possessed, but he is evil for he has fed flesh to the spirits of the Nephilim and they are thus damned for eternity to be given over to Lucifer himself. Afagddu has created evil. What we do not yet know is how much evil and how it may threaten us. This is why Afagddu must confess all to ensure we know everything before we make any decisions.’

  ‘Can the spirits hurt us?’ Elder Tomas asked. ‘I understood spirits to be harmless.’

  It was Celyn-Bach who answered. ‘Pure spirit cannot harm us for it has no substance, but feed a spirit and it gains substance and strength, then it can become dangerous. The more it’s fed, the stronger it becomes until it becomes substantial. That is when it is very dangerous and very powerful. A spirit gaining strength will also feed off others like it, the weaker perishing, the stronger growing.’

  ‘What do we do?’ Elder Tomas was wringing his hands, his face was slack from sleep deprivation and poor sustenance.

  ‘You will send your best scholars to me,’ Aeron said firmly, ‘then you will sleep. When you wake you will visit the physician and request the potion he gave Afagddu during the term of my reign, it will keep you awake longer and give you strength and alertness. I have no use for you if you weaken and fail.’

  ‘And what of Afagddu and Madog?’ Elder Tomas flicked a glance towards the balcony.

  ‘They will remain here in case your scholars have questions for them, after that they will be returned to Dduallt where they will be entertained by Questioners.’ Aeron turned his back to his Councillor and looked back to the scrolls and books littering the table. Elder Tomas left on silent feet.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Anwen had no success with the small hand mirror she clutched in her hands and she wondered whether Mary had deliberately not told her something she needed to do to get the thing to work. She had been trying for the last few days; fogging the glass with her breath and writing on its surface: Tali, are you there? Staring at her own hazy reflection she had waited and waited but nothing had changed, nothing worked, the only change had been tiny circles appearing on the surface, minute bubbles with the tiniest scratches held within them.

  She presumed it was some sort of fault within the mirror, the bubbles would appear and then vanish when she wiped the mirror with her sleeve and then she would either try again or close it, returning the mirror to her pocket with a frustrated groan, the bubbles forgotten.

  She wasn’t going to ask her jailer for help, she simply wasn’t going to cow down to the woman, however kind and accommodating she had been to Anwen.

  Mary w
as sitting in the living room of the apartment they now shared. As usual for this time in the afternoon Mary was reading; she was always reading. She sat in a cosy chair positioned with its back facing in the window, allowing Mary natural light to read in. Her reading glasses were in place, her feet were resting on a padded footstool and her favourite pillow was nestled in the small of her back. She glanced at Anwen as she threw herself onto the sofa. ‘If you’re bored,’ Mary said, without looking up from her book, ‘why don’t you find something to read?’

  ‘I’m not in the mood for reading.’ Anwen was in another huff. She stared at the ceiling and sighed. Mary ignored her. ‘Can we go out?’ Anwen twisted her head to look at Mary.

  ‘What for?’ Mary concentrated on the pages of her book. ‘The food shopping is done, you’ve got plenty of new clothes now and besides it is too cold today.’

  Anwen pursed her lips and glared at Mary. ‘I am tired of being stuck inside. I’m bored, Mary. Can’t we go for a walk, to the park – anywhere?’

  Mary folded her book closed, carefully marking its place and setting it aside on the arm of her chair. ’We went for a walk yesterday and the day before that, if you’re bored find something to do.’ Anwen sighed again and rolled her eyes. ‘Anwen, why don’t you just ask me?’

  ‘Ask you what?’ She sat up on the sofa. Mary shrugged her shoulders and picked her book back up again. Anwen ground her teeth. ‘Fine,’ she said flatly, ‘will you help me work the mirror?’ Mary looked over the edge of her book and raised her eyebrows. Anwen glared. ‘Please.’

  Mary put her book down again. ‘Of course I will, pass it to me and I’ll show you.’ Anwen pulled the mirror from her pocket and stood up, she handed the mirror over to Mary who took it and patted the chair arm for Anwen to sit beside her.

  ‘It’s really very simple,’ Mary said, as she opened the case, moving her hand so they could both see the face of the mirror. ‘A Drych Ysgrifennu: a Writing Mirror is a simple form of a Dderwydd Ddrych: a Druid mirror. Instead of being able to step through it, you relay messages on the surface. Once you’ve written the message it will appear on the surface of the mirror it is twinned with, which I’m presuming is somewhere in Wales – never mind, I don’t want to know, but remember what I told you: Never say where you are or who you are with.’ Mary waited for Anwen’s nod before she continued.

  ‘Now, once you’ve written the message, which by the way, if it’s a long message use a blunted cocktail stick to draw on the mirror – there are some in the kitchen drawer, you can get much more text on the surface that way … where was I? Oh, yes, once you’ve written your message wipe your side of the mirror clean. Your message will be waiting on the other mirror’s surface. Once that message has been read he – I presume it’s a he – no, don’t tell me – will wipe his side of the mirror clean and then reply to you, which is why the mirror must be wiped clean. His message will appear, but it will look different, it will appear under the mirror’s surface, the underside of the mirror will be fogged. Once you’ve read the message you wipe it clean and continue as before – got it?’ Mary handed the mirror back to Anwen.

  ‘Thank you … but that’s what I’ve been doing.’ Anwen miserably put the mirror back in her pocket. ‘He’s just not replying … I think I’ll go to my room for a while.’

  ‘Yes, go and rest. The early weeks are always the hardest. You’ll feel much better come your second trimester.’ Anwen left the room and Mary waited until she heard her move down the hallway before fetching the mirror of her own she kept hidden in the desk draw and returning to her seat.

  Mary opened the lid and stared at her own reflection. She wasn’t expecting a message, she wanted to look at its surface as she had noticed something on Anwen’s mirror but did not want to alarm her … yet.

  Lifting the mirror into the light Mary looked at it from every angle and there it was, the same mark as on Anwen’s mirror: a tiny circle with the smallest of markings within it, almost negligible, but definitely apparent. What is that?

  Mary put her mirror to one side while she rifled through the drawers looking for a magnifying glass. Pushing her glasses higher up the bridge of her nose she settled back down into her chair. Lifting the mirror with one hand and holding the magnifying glass with the other she jostled them both until the tiny mark became distinct.

  ‘It can’t be!’ Mary breathed as she dropped her hands down to rest in her lap. ‘It simply can’t be!’ She lifted up the magnifying glass again and leaned further into the daylight before holding the mirror underneath … it was definitely there: a tiny ancient rune.

  She snapped the mirror closed and put it back in the drawer with the magnifying glass. Worry etched her face as she moved to the bookcase. Running her fingers over the spines of the top shelf she found what she was looking for and carried the large, heavy black bound book to the coffee table.

  Taking a seat and pushing her glasses up her nose again, she opened the aging pages and flicked through the illustrations and notes until she found the matching rune to the one she’d seen etched on her mirror’s surface.

  It was exactly the same: a spiral covered with two crossing lines – the end of both lines held small a small v, like an arrow. It was an ancient rune, a rune to evoke an opening; travelling from one place to another, a powerful rune to enter from one realm into another and the only “other” realm Mary knew of was y Gwag.

  A shiver ran down her spine and she held her mouth with her hands as she tried to make sense of it. Why would such a tiny rune be etched on her mirror and Anwen’s too? Who was trying to break through a mirror – what was trying to break through? Mary shivered again.

  ‘Anwen,’ Mary called into the hallway, ‘Anwen,’ she called again, louder this time, but Anwen didn’t answer and so Mary went to the bedroom door and poked her head through. Anwen was fast asleep, huddled in a foetal position, a wisp of hair stirring across her face as she breathed slowly in and out. Mary closed the door quietly and went to use the phone.

  She dialled the number she had committed to her memory and waited for an answer, but no one answered. Chewing the inside of her lip Mary tried to convince herself that she was jumping at shadows, that what she saw on the mirror was just a quirk, a fluke, nothing to worry about, but she knew deep down that something was wrong and she needed to let someone know, unless they already knew and just hadn’t bothered to tell her – after all she’d been pretty much ignored for nearly twenty years, but being Anwen’s protector changed everything and she needed advice, guidance from those closer to the Triskele. She would wait and try calling again. She had to tell someone.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Cadno disliked Caerlleon the moment he set foot on the English soil, to him it felt old, over used and overrun with the Lost.

  He had taken shelter in a small copse of ash trees just beyond the old Roman walls that surrounded the entire city and here he waited for darkness. The Helgi were sitting forlornly on a carpet of fallen leaves, their heads hung low, their eyes half closed. Cadno didn’t know what was wrong with them, but they were obedient and subdued and that suited him just fine.

  He rustled through his rucksack, careful not to let the two vials he carried bang against one another. One vial contained the original Druid ateb, stolen from the Infirmary before he watered down the rest to hide the theft. The second vial contained the new ateb he had brewed to Taliesin’s instructions. He didn’t know which he would use, whether Taliesin’s was even viable – that’s why he had taken both. A back-up plan was always prudent, and besides, he didn’t have the first idea how to concoct the Druids’ ateb, so Taliesin’s had better be bona-fide.

  Cadno craned his neck to look at the sky, the sun was well past its zenith and sunset wouldn’t be long in arriving. Where will Atgas be hiding herself? he wondered, as he settled down to wait. Somewhere grand no doubt, Atgas loves all things beautiful, she wouldn’t go to ground somewhere that could not provide her warmth, comfort and retainers – she’d need retainers. He ru
mmaged through his rucksack again, this time retrieving the Dderwydd Ddrych. This mirror was twinned with Atgas’.

  He ran his finger over the cold glass. There was no message on it, there never had been, not since she’d been banished. Once, a long time ago they had used the mirror for all sorts of messages, many silly sport and jibes sent to each other. There had been a friendship between them then, a friendship that had sealed them together for every Solstice, but that was before her lusts had been discovered.

  He lifted the mirror to his face and breathed to fog the glass and then he wrote: Answer me Atgas. I have left the Host, I need to meet you. He wiped the glass clean and waited.

  If she didn’t answer he could always use the hunter-bind rune. He would simply draw the rune on the mirror and use the magic to take him to the mirror’s twin and hopefully Atgas, but he’d prefer it if she would answer him first and so he waited.

  The sun was beginning to set by the time Cadno finally decided to use the hunter-bind rune. His finger was poised over the mirror about to draw the first of the eight lines required when he heard the tell-tale snap of a twig behind him. The Helgi heads shot up and they immediately began to growl, a low rumble deep in their throats.

  Cadno focused and gathered his will, ready to strike out with a whip of fire. ‘I dislike being crept up upon, especially when you’re not very good at it.’ He kept his voice light and unconcerned.

  ‘You took so long to notice that I felt it only polite to give you a sporting chance,’ the female voice called from the shadows of the trees.

  Cadno smiled. ‘It’s been a long time since I heard that voice … I was just about to come and find you.’ He didn’t relax; his muscles tensed even more, every sinew poised to lash out if necessary.

  Atgas laughed from the shadows. ‘You were always one step behind me, Cadno.’ Her laughing stopped abruptly, her voice became harsh and demanding. ‘Why have you come? I made a promise to shoot any Welshman that dared enter the walls of Caerlleon after dark and yet you still came.’