Bridge of Mist and Fog (2 page)

She tried to concentrate on what she was doing but her mind kept wandering back to the sight of the island. Finally she couldn’t stand it another moment and turned toward Maeve. “Mama, what do you think it means that I saw an island that MacCuill couldn’t see?”

Maeve turned and stared at her. “I have no idea. How about we take a walk after dinner and you can point it out?”

It seemed like hours before the meal was finished, the dishes washed and put away and the counters wiped clean. Airy pulled the wool cloak Maeve held out over her shoulders and followed her mother out the door. Even though it was still late summer, the evening breeze off the ocean was chilly.

Airy hurried ahead down the hill and across the river and on toward the beach. Maybe she’d just imagined the entire thing. But once she passed the woods and the horizon came into view the island was right where it had been before. “Do you see it, Mama?” she called, pointing.

Maeve joined her and then stared into the distance. She shook her head.

“But you have to be able to see it. I can’t be the only one!” Airy wailed.

“I’m sorry, Airy. I don’t know what to say. Perhaps this is meant for only your eyes.”

Airy wiped at the tears that were sliding down her cheeks. “But it scares me and I don’t understand it. What does it mean?”

“That’s something for you to figure out. You’re nearly sixteen and will soon come into your own powers. Maybe a trip to your namesake is in order.”

Airy frowned. “Airmid is the goddess of healing and the keeper of the spring—how can she help me? I’d rather talk to Corra.”

Maeve thought for a moment before nodding her agreement. “I can see how disturbed you are, but I don’t think it should worry you. The goddess of prophecy will have an answer.”

Before they headed back Airy took another look at the dark mound that only she could see. It shimmered in the dusky light and if she wasn’t mistaken it had moved closer. She grabbed hold of her mother’s arm, walking next to her all the way back to the house.

Airy was lying in bed unable to sleep when her mother came through the open doorway. “I sent a message through the ether, Airy. Corra will arrive tomorrow. Think about your question. The wording will make a difference to the crane goddess.”

She sat up and pulled her arms around her knees. “Can’t I just ask what the island is doing there?”

“Since you’re the only one who can see it, I would ask what that might mean.”

Airy thought about that for a moment. “That sounds easy enough.”

Maeve bent to kiss her. “Try and sleep. It won’t do any good to lie here and fret.”

Airy sighed and snuggled under the covers but her mind was going in many different directions. She’d heard about these supposed powers she might be ‘coming into’ for several years, but what this would mean was mystifying. Her mother could heal with her hands and see into the future as well as move through the ether. What would her special gifts be? What if she didn’t have any? But then she thought of the island that only she could see…

***

When the crane goddess arrived early the next morning Airy was waiting in the living room sipping her morning cup of tea. She jumped up to open the door and then reached to give her a hug.

“I hear you’ve been worried about an island?” Corra asked, following Airy into the house.

“I’m the only one who can see it and I don’t understand why!”

The crane goddess shook out her feathery dress and perched on an upholstered chair. “This island is connected to your future, Airy.” Corra paused, her head cocked to the side, her round orange eyes blinking as she stared into the distance. “There is someone there, a young man, whose future is connected with yours. You share a common destiny.”

“What is the destiny?” Airy asked, feeling nervous.

“The two of you are to be a bridge between two worlds.”

“A bridge? What does that mean?”

Corra shook her head. “I cannot see anything beyond what I’ve told you. You will have to discover this on your own. I must be going,” she said, rising.

“But you just got here and I have questions!”

Corra turned from the open door. “There is nothing more to say. You will find the answers soon enough.” A second later her body began to shrink, her legs turning into spindly crane legs, her feathery dress smoothing into feathered gray wings and tail. By the time Airy reached the porch she had already lifted into the air.

Airy was waving when Maeve appeared from within the house, her surprised gaze following the crane into the sky. “I didn’t get a chance to say hello.”

Airy stared through her mother, her mind on what Corra had told her.

“Airy? What’s wrong? What did Corra say?”

“I have a destiny, Mother. I’m not completely useless after all.”

“Who ever said you were useless?” Maeve placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Any other details about this destiny?”

“Only that I’m linked to someone on that island. Corra thinks it’s a boy—something about us being a bridge for two worlds?”

“A bridge,” Maeve whispered, staring into the distance.

“Do you understand? Because I don’t.”

“No, sweetheart. I don’t know any more than what you just told me.”

But the expression on her mother’s face said something very different.

3

Fell, 2468

After Wolf had gone, Fehin wandered aimlessly through the forest. His brother’s abrupt appearance had shaken him. Far Isle had gone through a terrible time due to Wolf and his evil. Wolf had challenged all the deities with his insatiable need to be in control and thousands had died at his half-brother’s hand. No wonder Loki had ordered his punishment.

When he felt a presence behind him he turned, his gaze meeting the green-gold eyes of the dragon. Aki seemed restless. “Are you trying to tell me it’s time to go?” Fehin grabbed hold of the bony protuberance on the dragon’s back and pulled himself up. But when the dragon took off it was not in the direction of Thule.

When they landed in the bailey of Loki’s castle Fehin wasn’t surprised. Aki’s parents and sister lived here. His glance toward the entrance to the castle revealed a scowling bigger than life god heading quickly toward him. Meanwhile Aki had disappeared and there was the sound of dragons bellowing in the distance.

“Are you aware that Wolf has escaped?” Loki shouted. It took him another long stride to reach Fehin and then he was glowering down on him.

Fehin had lived here with this god from the time he was two until nearly seven years old and was not cowed by the bulging eyes and the wiry red hair that stood away from his head like angry tangled snakes. “I just ran into him in Fell.”

Loki let out a sound between a grunt and a roar. “That exile was supposed to be permanent.”

“If it makes you feel any better I don’t think he has powers.”

“Then how did he get out?”

Loki’s voice boomed like a cannon going off. Fehin resisted the impulse to plug his ears. “He didn’t tell me. Do you have any idea why he’d want to travel to the Otherworld?”

Loki’s wide eyes widened even further. “The Otherworld is four-hundred years in the past!”

“Wolf asked me to sail him there on
Skidbladnir.”

“I trust you said no.”

“I told him it isn’t my boat.”

Loki pushed his massive hands through his hair. “He must expect to regain his powers there. But how he figured that out and what he hopes to accomplish is something for the Norns to decide. I would like to get my hands on whoever let him out.”

“Do you want me to go there and speak with my father? He might know.”

Loki shook his head. “Too dangerous and Brandubh is probably dead by now.”

A pang of sadness moved through Fehin at the thought of his father being no more. Despite his past deeds Brandubh still held a place in his heart. “The Norns are seers?” he asked, trying to put his mind on something else.

“The Norns control the destinies of gods and men, Fehin. It was, Skuld, one of their own, who meted out his punishment and it is she I must call upon now.”

Fehin had a slightly ill feeling as he thought about the past. Far Isle had been free of Wolf for many years and the idea of the terror and killing returning was something he didn’t want to contemplate. He and many of the former residents were now safe on Thule but anyone who had come here since would be prey to Wolf’s evil if he were to regain his powers. “If his powers can be restored in the Otherworld, will he have them when he comes back here?”

“Not if I can help it.” Loki turned away and headed toward the castle, his right hand held up in a cursory wave of farewell. Fehin watched him go, his gaze taking in the dark exterior walls of the enormous castle that housed the god and all his servants and guards as well as a few goddesses now and then. Loki was not one to go without female company for long.

You would never know from the stark exterior the opulence of what lay inside. Somehow the deep gold and brilliant reds of the furnishings against the pale marble floors and walls brought light into a space that should have been dark. Fehin thought of the goddesses who moved freely along those halls dressed in gossamer clothing that barely hid what lay beneath the transparent layers of silk. He was fascinated with them when he lived here and tried hard to hear and understand their whispered conversations. Freyja, the goddess of love and beauty, had taken the place of his mother during those years of exile and when Gertrude reappeared and took him away he remembered feeling sad for a time. But those were the memories of a seven-year-old boy and hardly worth thinking about now.

Fehin turned away and called for Aki in his dragon-master voice and when the dragon appeared he climbed on his back and mentally gave the order to return to Thule. The dragon ran, his huge wings displacing air with a swooshing sound before lifting straight up. As they banked over Fell’s beach Fehin caught sight of Wolf standing alone. His half-brother looked up as they flew by and the anger and hostility in his dark eyes gave Fehin a chill. The dragon flew from there out to sea, making a few evasive maneuvers in case Wolf was watching.

Once they reached open water another vision of the mysterious girl came into Fehin’s mind and this time it felt like she was calling to him.

***

“What do you really think Wolf is up to?” Fehin’s mother asked as they walked along the trail into the mountains. It was herb-gathering day and the two of them were seeking out the wild yarrow, mountain mint and arnica that grew along the cliffs.

“He didn’t say and I couldn’t pick up anything when we were together. Mostly I was trying to keep thoughts of Thule out of my mind. If he found this place…”

Gertrude stopped and turned, her dark eyes meeting his. “He won’t find it.”

Fehin hoped she was right as he scanned across the expanse of palms and tropical fruit trees, the strange pink feathery trees that Fehin made up when he was seven that grew odd-shaped delicious fruits, and the wooden houses nestled beneath them here and there. The sound of children’s laughter could be heard echoing in the distance and then the deeper richer lilt of adult voices as they went about their daily business. It was his magic that had created this safe haven. Since the time of the conjuring the island had taken on a life of its own, producing everything they needed for a full and abundant life.

Many of the residents were in their sixties and seventies but had appeared to age backward. It was rare for someone to get sick and when it happened it was nearly always due to a mental process that had gone unchecked. A woman had come down with what at first had been deemed a terrible infection but when she entered the sacred space built for such things and sweated in the heat from the fire she was shown the real reason behind her malaise. She was jealous of another woman in the community and had shut herself off from this person, even hiding her feelings from herself.

It was the way of things here to talk things out, to sweat things out and to keep minds clear through meditation and exercise. If they didn’t do so the island manifested whatever they suppressed. Fehin thought back to the spear-wielding, half-naked men who had attacked the village causing mass pandemonium and actually killing a few people before someone realized why it was happening. After setting up weekly meetings to discuss grievances and let go of emotions that would otherwise fester, there had been no more sign of them.

His mother seemed pensive on the way home and when Kafir, his surrogate father, joined them by the fire with a pot of tea, Fehin sensed that something was up.

After passing Fehin a cup, Gertrude glanced briefly at Kafir whose slight nod gave Fehin a distinct prickly feeling along his arms. Whatever was coming had been discussed without him.

“Fehin,” Gertrude began, ”Kafir and I have been talking about your future. You’re sixteen now and this is the only place you’ve ever lived.”

“I lived with Loki for a few years.”

“Yes, that’s true, but it hardly qualifies. Kafir and I think you need some time away from Thule, away from Far Isle and also away from Loki. It’s time for you to be with people your own age.” She waved her hand around indicating the island. “The children here are all younger than you are.”

“I know. They were all born after we came here.”

Kafir leveled his unusual turquoise eyes on Fehin, rubbing a hand across his rough beard. “Your mother and I have been discussing sending you to college.”

Fehin instinctively knew they weren’t being honest and wondered why not. “College? Where?”

“In Milltown where I lived before I came to the future,” his mother answered. “You’ve been there and met my friend Carla. She can help you get settled.”

Fehin remembered Carla from his one trip to Milltown when he was seven years old. She was nice enough but many years had gone by since then. He’d heard about colleges from listening to conversations between his mother and Kafir as well as discussions from others living on the island, but had never considered going to one. “Don’t you need to take a test?”

“Gunnar can get you in.”

That name set up a red flag. Gunnar was a time-traveling druid who moved from one era to another with ease. If he was involved there was magic afoot for sure. “I’ve read tons of books. Why do I need college? You told me a year ago that I seemed brighter than many adults you’ve known.”