by Hiatt, Bill
I didn’t know where all the destiny crap was coming from, so I decided to ignore it. “We won’t lose Carla. And I don’t think Morgan will manage to kill me, but if she does, she does. Better that than Morgan slaughtering my family while I’m away.” No, I wasn’t at all eager to die, but I knew what I was capable of, what the guys were, and what Nurse Florence was—and we had some of Gwynn’s men as well, and his safe passage. That seemed more than enough to deal with anything Morgan could throw at us, even if she was smart enough to figure out where we were, yet foolish enough to risk Gwynn’s wrath.
Vanora, who I thought was probably used to having her way even before she started being Carrie Winn twenty-four seven, was clearly annoyed by my taking control of the operation. I absolutely, completely, didn’t care, as long as she did her job. The truth was I was tired of being ordered around like an unruly teenager. OK, technically I was a teenager, but I also had thousands of years of experience, including the life of the original Taliesin. I, not Vanora, really knew how Morgan’s mind worked. I also had a greater understanding of magic than Vanora did. She was a powerful caster; that much I would happily admit. But even to construct her innovative network, she had needed my help. Who was she to dismiss me as a mere boy?
I know what you’re thinking: I was still angry with Vanora for what happened to Carla on Samhain. Well, damn right, I was! And I should have been. Vanora’s problem as a decision maker was that she was heartless, perfectly willing to treat people like Carla as collateral damage. In her mind, keeping Carla away from Morgan was more important than restoring Carla to health. Preserving me, for reasons I couldn’t fathom, was somehow more important than protecting our friends and family from Morgan’s impending wrath. The cold logic of a military commander might justify such choices, but I would never accept them.
“If all of my men and I stay here, transporting Carla safely to Wales becomes problematic. Morgan’s strength is greater in Annwn than it is here. I will not allow this kind of mistake.” Vanora was thinking calmly, but I could sense something very close to anger behind her words.
“Vanora, Tal may be making his argument rather abruptly,” thought Nurse Florence, giving me a scolding look, “but his point is well-taken. You have enough manpower and magic to keep Morgan from working mischief here while the rest of us are in Annwn. Without that kind of protection for their loved ones, I can’t see any of the guys wanting to go to Annwn in the first place.”
“And what about tomorrow and the next day?” asked Vanora, in a tone she doubtless thought of as calm but seemed more like cold to me. “I’ll concede that Taliesin’s plan might work long enough for you to transport Carla, but a magic network spread out across the whole town is just as unwieldy in the long run as a warding spell spread out the same way. Either it will absorb my whole attention, and possibly yours as well, or it will in time degrade, and Morgan need only orchestrate attacks from multiple directions to accelerate that process.”
“And that is why,” I thought with finality, “right after we make Carla safe, we go after Morgan. We capture her, or, if we cannot, we kill her.” I was proud of myself for not hesitating on the last part. Vanora was right about one thing: leaving Morgan alive on Samhain had been a mistake, one we were paying for now. I had no desire to kill Morgan, or anyone for that matter. But if it kept Carla safe, and my parents, and my friends, then I would do it.
Vanora was thoroughly bent out of shape by this time. Belatedly, though I wasn’t sorry for standing up for what I knew was right, I did realize I should have been more diplomatic instead of letting my emotions interfere. In the end, it was Nurse Florence who got Vanora to accept my suggestion/demand. Even then, Vanora made her protest clear, insisting that if the whole Annwn expedition failed, its failure would be on my head. Finally she cleared out, presumably back to Awen to make her preparations. I didn’t give her part of the plan another thought. Vanora might be an emotional iceberg, but I could not imagine her blowing her assignment because it had been forced on her. No, once given a task, she would perform it to the best of her ability. Even I had to admit that about her.
Once the plan was (grudgingly) agreed to, I broadcast the details to the guys. They couldn’t normally project their own thoughts for us to have a real conversation, as I could have with Nurse Florence or Vanora, but they could at least hear me, and that was enough in this case.
Nurse Florence hurried off to make final arrangements with Gwynn and with the Order. Dan and I changed back into our street clothes, which seemed more practical for Annwn than our soccer uniforms, and then Dan, Stan, and Gordy piled into my Prius and headed for the hospital. Shar had just gotten a Lexus from his parents, and so he took Carlos.
In a very short time, we reached the hospital. Shar and I parked, and then we rushed to the hospital. No point in trying to be mysterious. If Nurse Florence and Vanora had “jammed” Morgan’s ability to track us, then she wouldn’t be able to see us anyway. If Morgan had defeated the jamming somehow, she would recognize us, and no nonchalant saunter was going to fool her.
Once in the hospital, I threw a little don’t-notice-me spell around us just in case. I didn’t want to explain to hospital personnel why so many of us were visiting Carla at one time. We reached her room without incident. Vanora’s guards saw us, but they stood aside to allow us in without comment. Then we spent an awkward few minutes fidgeting until Nurse Florence arrived, and then more time fidgeting while she wheeled in another bed and then created an illusionary double of Carla to put in it. Under other circumstances, watching Carla’s double become more and more solid and more and more like Carla as Nurse Florence worked would have been interesting, and actually it did keep the guys enthralled, but I was anxious to be on our way. This process took longer than I would have liked, but there was really no way to speed it up. A visual illusion would have been hard enough, but this one had to hold up to touch, since doctors and nurses would be examining her, to say nothing of family members holding her hand. Finally Nurse Florence pronounced herself satisfied, and, examining the fake Carla with only my physical senses, I had to say that she would stand up pretty well to scrutiny.
Then, with a little help from Stan, I magicked the various monitors Carla was attached to, so that they would continue to give the kind of readings they had been giving once we disconnected them from Carla and connected them to the double. Nurse Florence knew how everything should be hooked up, so that part went quickly, and we were finally ready to go. Nurse Florence opened a glowing portal to Annwn and stood back to allow the others to enter. She and I came last, wheeling Carla’s bed.
I had first experienced Annwn about fifteen hundred years ago, Nurse Florence more recently, the guys even more recently, but each new visit seemed much like the first time for each of us. Despite the mist that tended to hang over everything, Annwn was somehow always more vivid, more alive than the “real” world. We passed from the hospital into a brilliant green meadow surrounded by massive oaks that looked as if they had been growing for a thousand years—and could have been, given the nature of the place. Since modern technology much above the level of a match would not work in Annwn, the place’s unspoiled quality would have seemed miraculous even without Annwn’s innate magic.
Somewhat to my surprise, twenty faerie archers were waiting for us in the meadow. I knew Gwynn had agreed to provide us an escort, but this one was larger than I expected—not that I was complaining! Given their speed, reflexes, and keen vision, faeries could shoot arrows faster and more accurately than pretty much any other group I could think of. Like most faeries, these were tall, slender, blondish, brilliantly blue-eyed, luminously pale-skinned and not easy to categorize by age, since faeries didn’t typically show much sign of it, unless they chose to for effect. However, I doubted that Gwynn would send inexperienced fighters with us. These particular faeries were recognizable as men of the Tyllwth Teg by their red-and-white tunics, some decorated with a red, white and black design that looked like an abstract portrayal of Gwynn’s three houn
ds, the Cwn Annwn.
I would have preferred more practical attire, recalling that the faerie warriors we met last fall had not been so decoratively dressed. This group seemed more ceremonial. Then it occurred to me that their attire would signal to anyone their connection to Gwynn—a visual symbol of his protection of our party.
“I am Sir Arian,” announced one of the faeries as he moved in my direction. “As our king has agreed, we are here to escort you to the gateway to the headquarters of the Order of the Ladies of the Lake in Cardiff.” I bowed to him, as did Nurse Florence, and the other members of our party followed our lead.
“However,” continued Sir Arian, “there is someone here who is not included in Gwynn ap Nudd’s protection.” I looked around, puzzled, wondering how the usually meticulous Vanora could have failed to include one of our party members. If anything, she would have included more, since she must originally have negotiated places for herself and some of her security men.
“Someone invisible,” added Arian in response to my obvious confusion.
Morgan?
No, I knew that no one could have joined us unseen in the hospital, given how well warded it was, at least not without making a considerable magical ruckus. But then who else would want to sneak in as part of our group? I had been so intent on the preparations for moving Carla that I had not been looking intently enough to see an invisible intruder, but I did so now, and a diminutive figure, trying to hide behind Shar, came slowly into focus.
“Khalid?” I looked at him in astonishment. “What are you doing here?” Knowing his invisibility trick was not working anymore, Khalid stepped somewhat reluctantly away from Shar, who was every bit as amazed as I was. Khalid was trying to adopt a tough-guy facade, but he just didn’t have the physical presence to pull it off yet. In fact, his lip quivered almost imperceptibly. Wow, you would have thought I was going to hit him or something. Then I thought about how his life had been going recently, and I realized he probably did expect someone to hit him. I needed to be careful about how I handled him.
“Khalid,” I said as calmly as I could. “Why are you here?”
“Yeah,” added Shar. “My mother’s gonna be worried sick.”
“It’s OK,” said Khalid quietly. “She thinks I’m with you. Right after you walked out the door, I told her I was going to ask you if I could go with you. And I am with you…I just didn’t ask.”
“Khalid, you lied to my mother.”
“So did you,” he said defensively. “You told her you were going to the library. And I bet you don’t tell her you wear a magic sword to school every day, either.”
“I don’t want her to worry,” replied Shar. Well, that was certainly a masterpiece of understatement if ever there was one.
“You still haven’t answered my question, Khalid,” I prodded. “Why did you come? What we have to do is dangerous, and we’ve trained for this kind of situation. You haven’t.”
Khalid looked at me apprehensively, as if being told to go back home would be the worst thing that could happen to him. “I could help. I haven’t trained in the way you have, but you’ve seen how fast I am, and I got Shar’s sword away from him.”
“That wasn’t in a combat situation,” pointed out Shar, somewhat defensively.
“Tal, we have to get moving,” said Nurse Florence firmly. “Carla’s condition is unprecedented enough that I have no idea how extended exposure to Annwn will affect her.”
“Is there a problem?” I asked quickly, looking at Carla.
“No, but we’ve only been here a few minutes. I’m not saying the situation is dangerous, but I don’t think we should take chances.”
“Agreed. Sorry, Khalid, but you need to go back. Nurse Florence will open a doorway for you back into the hospital.”
“No! I want to go with you guys.” Unspoken, but clear from his eyes, was that what he really wanted was to be part of the group. After months and months of living on the street, I couldn’t really blame him.
“Tal,” said Shar, “is he really going to be any safer in Santa Brígida with Morgan skulking around?” Given the security arrangements in place there, I was certain he would be, and so was Shar, but clearly he felt bad for the kid and wanted to be able to take him with us.
Sir Arian had been studying Khalid intently. “He is not just a human boy, is he?”
“Half djinn,” replied Nurse Florence.
“Please, sir,” said Khalid. “I can help. And I promise not to get in the way!” Much to my surprise, the seemingly solemn Sir Arian chuckled a bit.
“The boy has spirit,” he noted. “Viviane, do you accept responsibility for him?”
Nurse Florence clearly did not want Khalid under foot, but she didn’t see a quick way of getting rid of him, and she did want to get under way. “Sir Arian, I will accept responsibility.”
“Then in the name of Gwynn ap Nudd, I extend your safe conduct and your protection to him.” Then, less solemnly, he added, “Gwynn told me to expect at least one surprise from your party, Taliesin.” I hoped that was a compliment, but the tone Sir Arian used made it a little hard to tell.
Khalid couldn’t have been happier. Only his desire to look less boyish restrained him from jumping twenty feet in the air, though I could tell he was contemplating the idea.
It took a little more time to get the logistics straightened out, but finally we began to move forward. Dan, Stan, Gordy, Shar (with Khalid), and Carlos were at the front of the party. Nurse Florence and I were at the back, following Carla’s bed, which was now floating safely on a bit of cloud Nurse Florence had commandeered. I hadn’t thought much about the differences between Earth and Annwn that she had been mentioning to me in one of our earlier conversations, but there was no denying it was easier to manipulate the physical world in Annwn.
The faerie archers floated somewhat above us, both to have a better view and a clean shot in the event someone—or something—did choose to attack us.
“Well, I guess that explains why there are no horses,” I said, looking up.
“Faerie horses have become even more skittish about taking human riders than in the days of the original Taliesin,” replied Nurse Florence. “We didn’t have time for that. Don’t worry, though; we only have a couple of days’ walk ahead of us.”
“A couple of days?” asked Stan loudly, looking back at us. “But we only have cover stories for this afternoon!”
“A couple of days here, but more like a couple of hours back in Santa Brígida.”
“When we met Gwynn in October, the visit didn’t take only one twenty-fourth of the time,” objected Stan. “It took more or less the same amount of time here as it did there.”
“It is hard to explain in scientific or even rational terms,” replied Nurse Florence. “The flow of time here is not connected to the flow of time in our world in any logical way. Just take my word for it.”
“Nonetheless,” I began, “it does seem odd that we picked a location in Annwn two days away from the gateway to the Order’s headquarters. Why not emerge right at the gateway?”
“That’s one of the Order’s security measures. The headquarters maintains a connection to Annwn, and members of the Order who happen to be in the headquarters can use that connection to enter Annwn and return to the headquarters from the same spot. However, travelers, even Order members from outside headquarters, can’t enter through the gateway unless they have entered Annwn at least two days distance from it. That makes it harder for a potentially hostile force to pop in unannounced.”
“It also makes it hard on those of us who aren’t used to hiking,” observed Carlos.
“I thought all that swimming made your legs strong,” said Gordy.
“Yeah, you’d think, but it doesn’t work quite the same muscles that hiking and running do.”
Carlos glanced self-consciously in my direction while he was talking, then quickly looked away. He had mentioned to me before that he often ended up feeling like the odd-man-out during our ad
ventures. He had gotten somewhat less sword training than the others, and though he was as athletic as anyone in the party, except for Shar, the skills he had acquired as a water polo player and a swimmer didn’t have the same value on the battlefield as Shar’s martial arts training or even Dan and Gordy’s football background. To me Carlos looked as effective in combat as anyone else, but he clearly didn’t see himself that way, and now here was yet another situation in which he felt less capable than the others. I wanted to make him feel better about himself, to affirm his value to all of us, but I knew just telling him wouldn’t do the trick. I would have to think of some way to convince him once we had taken care of Carla and dealt with Morgan.
There were occasional other bursts of conversation, but as we walked on, most of our attention went to sightseeing. The Santa Barbara area did have its park space and nearby forests, but they just couldn’t compare to the pristine beauty of the forests of Annwn. While we walked, I sang, partly for entertainment, but also to keep my magic at its height, just in case. I also magicked all of us to be a little faster, except Khalid, who naturally didn’t need the boost. The speed would also serve a purpose in the unlikely event of attack, but it would also get us to the Order much faster. Sir Arian glanced down, having no doubt felt the power, and smiled approvingly.
For what seemed like several hours we marched through Annwn, enjoying the scenery and gradually becoming somewhat less alert, though probably the faeries remained as vigilant as ever, and Nurse Florence spent most of her time carefully monitoring Carla’s condition. As for me, I was diligently daydreaming about what life would be like with Carla restored. To hold her in my arms again, to kiss her again, even to have a conversation with her again, would move me more than all the natural beauty around me.
Then I noticed the chill. The usual mist made the time of day a little more difficult to figure out in Annwn, but I think we had started in Annwn’s morning and were now somewhere in late afternoon. However, it was not the sun gliding toward the west that was causing the sudden cold. The breeze had been relatively warm only moments before. No, something was wrong…very wrong.
