Age of Druids (19 page)

Rather than think about the possibilities when Leocort had made his feelings quiet clear, Lisle changed the subject. Of course the head Mistwatcher would bond with her if ordered to, but she would not force him or put his loyalty to the test. She refused to do to him what Flùranach had done to Rory. “We have a task waiting in Eirlioc Falls. We should tend our duty without allowing ourselves to be distracted.”

“Yes, my lady druid,” Alyssa said. Although the light of flows as revealed by the flute had begun to fade, Lisle sensed the echoes of Alyssa’s disappointment.

“How likely is it that the Watchers we encounter would be able to detect me using your astral abilities?” she asked.

Alyssa shifted uncomfortably. “I’d say they will be aware if either you or I cast an illusion using my power in their presence.”

Lisle frowned. “Why didn’t you say so before?”

“I assumed you and Leocort would have considered that possibility or that your own talents might compensate. As part of my Watcher training, I was taught to sense illusion. I’m more adept than most, because I’m detecting work in my own sphere. When I created illusions so others could practice avoiding them, I noticed some had greater success rates.”

“Did their success depend on their sphere?”

“As I said, an astral faerie would find the task easier, but no one earth talent seems better than another at detecting illusion.”

Lisle nodded. “I hadn’t planned to use illusion but, rather, influence. All I care about is detecting a lie or persuading them to tell the truth.”

“Forgive me if I offend, my lady druid, but that should not be necessary. Watchers are faeries of the highest integrity.”

“So you do not believe Prince Griogair was manipulated into murdering the queen’s third mate?”

“Not by one of her Watchers, no, my lady druid.” She paused. “So, will you consider bonding with me?”

Her persistence annoyed Lisle, but she shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, the girl had continued in her pursuit of Munro, even though anyone could have told her the effort was futile. Some glint in Alyssa’s eyes caught Lisle by surprise. She put the flute to her lips again and blew. Reaching in to take Alyssa’s mental talents, she probed the Mistwatcher’s mind. What was her purpose? Alyssa shuddered at the intrusion, but made no objection and submitted to Lisle’s efforts.

The Mistwatcher’s ambition rippled to the forefront. She’d tried to seduce Munro because he might someday be king. She wanted to bond with Lisle for the same reason: ambition and the desire to avoid the trouble she saw ahead for herself. Half of a bonded pair would never be subjected to months of punishment. She would become
Lady Alyssa
and enjoy all the perks of the highest ranks. Whether or not she knew Munro had suggested Lisle as a candidate for the throne, the druid couldn’t tell.

When Lisle released her power, Alyssa looked down, flushing with embarrassment. “My lady druid—”

“We’ve rested long enough,” Lisle said, leaning against a tree for support as she got to her feet. “We should press on.” Although she worried that having Alyssa with her would serve no purpose other than as an excuse to be in Eirlioc Falls, her discovery had at least chased away any guilt she’d felt at returning the girl to Caledonia.

Chapter 12

Huck couldn’t be sure how many days had passed since their captors’ attack. He’d awakened cold and desperately thirsty. Crawling to the back of the cave where the small water source flowed, he drank greedily. Taking their shared washcloth, a colourful scarf Demi had worn the night they were captured, he soaked and rinsed it, then returned to where Demi lay unmoving. He touched her face, relieved to find her skin only slightly warm. With care, he squeezed the cloth, letting water trickle into her mouth.

Demi didn’t stir. Anger burned through Huck, swirling and undirected. Who should he blame? These creatures were almost mindless in their simplicity. They wanted something but were unable to make their wishes clear. Huck wanted to kill them all and felt frustrated with his helplessness. The monsters were unbelievably strong, and their stupidity made them impossible to reason with.

In the beginning, he’d wondered about their origins and their motives, considering whether they were acting on someone’s direction. They hardly seemed clever enough to understand any reason to keep Huck and Demi alive…unless someone had ordered them to do it. But who? And how? After so much time, Huck didn’t care about such questions. He only wanted a way out.

Without a doubt, he and Demi were still in the human realm. Although the creatures could have moved the pair through a portal when they were still unconscious, Huck’s fire magic didn’t work well enough in this prison for it to be the Otherworld. So Leocort had been right when he warned them about
demons
in America. If Huck wasn’t so overwhelmed with anger and desperation, he would have laughed at the irony.

Hardening his resolve, he removed his belt. He didn’t have the option of playing it safe anymore, of waiting to be rescued. Now was the time to act. He’d intended to follow one of the creatures after it brought them food, as Demi suggested. But none had come, and experience had taught them their captors might not return any time soon.

Huck picked up a familiar rock in which he’d carved several fire runes some time ago. Using his fingers, he added another mark for light. When the stone began to glow, he placed it beside Demi. They’d not bothered with light before. They could see in the darkness, and they worried a light might attract negative attention from the strange creatures. But now he planned to make his move, and he didn’t want Demi awakening alone in the black cave.

After disassembling the buckle, Huck took the prong and tried to use his fire to fashion it into a crude stylus. Once he was outside the cave, he would need to work quickly, and a tool would work faster than his hands.

The last of his preparations finished, he kissed Demi’s cheek. “I’ll be back. Don’t worry,” he whispered.

He struggled to his feet, wincing at the pain in his side. His ribs were deeply bruised, but he tried to ignore the pain and move as quietly as possible to the entry. He listened hard but heard nothing. The creatures were strong and fast but not stealthy.

Gathering his courage, he stepped out of the cave. If they caught him, another beating might kill him.

He had three choices of direction. Deciding to treat the prison like a maze, he went right, planning take every possible right turn and mark each as he went. On the wall by the turn, he carved a rune:
hope
.

∞

The sea fae had taken Sheng and Aaron to a strange, rounded castle under the sea. Aaron wasn’t even sure
castle
was the right word, but the structure was by far the largest they’d seen. The breathing crowns worked well, although water pushed the bubbles against their faces as the faeries carried them onward. Aaron was forced to turn his head to keep from suffocating, not having mastered how to push enough air through the artefact. As a water druid, air wasn’t his best element. Still, he could breathe, and that was something.

The sheer size of the underwater area overwhelmed him. Even though they were in a moderately shallow location, still able to see the moon above, he imagined this must be what it’s like in outer space. One wrong move, one lapse in concentration, and his bubble would dissolve, drowning him in a short, painful minute.

Before long, they were taken indoors, into the castle that also used air magic to hold the water aside. This building, unlike the first, didn’t have kelp all over the floor. Intricate inlaid stonework formed a pattern of waves throughout the entryway in bright, tropical colours. Murals and intricate designs were carved into the smooth rock with impressive detail.

“Look,” Sheng said, once they were firmly on their feet inside. He gestured to the doorways, the inside rim of which were covered with runework. “We aren’t the first druids to grace these halls.”

Aaron watched again in wonder as the sea faeries adjusted their bodies to a humanoid form. One by one, they followed the druids inside. He turned to Sheng. “We need to make this quick, or Munro is going to go nuts and send the cavalry.” He nearly made a joke about seahorses, but decided against it when he sensed the strange, wide stares of their hosts.

“Agreed,” Sheng said. He approached the arch and ran his hand over the runework. “This is amazing work. I’ve never seen most of these runes before. Look at this one. I read it as
confine
. Logical, of course, in terms of holding air in and water out, but I never would have thought of using it this way. Clever.”

The sea faerie who seemed to be in charge quirked her head curiously before turning to another of her company. “Send word to Her Majesty. I will take our guests to the great hall.”

In response, the other faerie jerked his head and made a peculiar noise in his throat before walking away.

Aaron and Sheng were led to a large room, where they were told to make themselves comfortable. The other faeries departed, leaving only the leader, who stationed herself outside the entrance. The colourfully inlaid back wall of the chamber was dominated by an immense pure white statue of a woman. Like the sea fae, she had a long, powerful tail and a pattern of scales that had been carved over her body. But unlike faeries, she had large breasts, round ears, and long, flowing hair. She held a spear in one hand and a sphere of some sort in the other. “Juno?” Sheng whispered.

“Maybe. That would be my guess,” Aaron said, his voice echoing in the large room. There was not a stitch of fabric in sight, but he supposed carpet wouldn’t be practical underwater. The decorations were carvings and colourful tiles made of shell or stone.

After about a half hour of waiting, footfalls sounded in the corridor outside. More than half of their allotted time had now passed and Aaron felt the pressure of the ticking clock. The best-case scenario would be that Munro would send a search party. The worst would be that they’d return to the Mistgate and find it closed, leaving them no way home until someone reactivated it from the other side.

A female faerie entered, followed by a retinue. Judging by the jewelled bands worn around her arms and torso and the sparkling crown on her head, she had to be Queen Grenna. And unlike the other sea faeries, she had long, flowing hair, not too dissimilar from the woman in the statue. Aaron suspected the likeness was intentional. “Welcome, draoidh,” she said, her voice like trilling music.

Aaron nodded in acknowledgement. “Thank you for receiving us, Queen Grenna. I am called Aaron, and this is Sheng.”

She walked past them to the front of the room, her round hips swinging in a way Aaron found distracting. When she reached the statue of Juno, she turned. “On rare occasions, one of my people will venture to an overland kingdom. I had heard rumours that your people had returned to the Otherworld, but my heart did not believe. We are, as you might expect, isolated. Is it true the Father of the Sky lives?”

“Yes,” Aaron said. His reply was answered by murmurs from Grenna’s retinue, which she silenced with a dark look.

“Our Lady Juno wept for his passing,” she said with a demure frown. After a pause, she said, “Will you accept the hospitality of my house? We are honoured by your presence in our halls and wish the opportunity to share the delights and abundance of the sea.”

“We thank you for your offer,” Sheng said. “We would be pleased to be your guests another time. This was intended as an exploratory visit. We hadn’t been certain what we would find on the other side of the Mistgate, and our comrades are waiting for us to return within this hour.”

Grenna smiled, an ability none of the others seemed to possess. “Tell me of this Mistgate. When our Watchers reported your first visit, I was astonished.”

“Its base sits at the Druid Hall in the Halls of Mist,” Aaron explained. “We constructed it so we could rotate its destination within the Otherworld. After the destruction of the portal in the Halls of Mist, we have been allowing people of all kingdoms to use it as needed until we can construct permanent gates for each. We will add one for the sea fae, if you would like.”

“Through the generations, as we promised Our Lady Juno, we have remained prepared for the return of the draoidh, but I had not expected to be the queen who would see it.”

“If I may ask, what instructions did Lady Juno give regarding us? You are the first faeries we’ve encountered who immediately accepted our claim in Otherworld society,” Sheng said.

With a light, lovely laugh, Grenna asked, “My sister queens have challenged you?”

Aaron considered carefully. He didn’t want to tell Grenna the new druids weren’t as powerful as their ancient forebears. “There has been occasional resistance.”

“And you did not crush them?” From her tone, Aaron couldn’t tell if she was teasing or if she was genuinely surprised the druids didn’t obliterate the Otherworld.

“We didn’t come to conquer,” he told her. “A peaceful Otherworld suits us all.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “As to your question, Our Lady Juno charged us to care for certain artefacts, items precious to our survival. Although we have adapted to the sea, we are but guests here. She told us someday the draoidh would return and instructed us to honour you and treat your people as we would her, with reverence and worship, but we must not part with certain objects which she entrusted to us, or her spirit would return in wrathful vengeance.”