Caledonia Fae 04- Druid Lords (10 page)

“You may enter if she waits outside,” she said. “I have no reason to trust the fae.”

“She serves the Druid Hall,” Rory said. Huck knew Rory didn’t want to send him inside alone, but neither did he trust Flùranach outside on her own. “She will do as we command.”

The woman’s eyes widened. “A faerie serves a druid?” Her tone was sceptical.

“Yes,” Flùranach answered without hesitation. “I serve the druids unequivocally.”

The woman watched for a moment, then she bent and picked up a stone hidden amongst some shoes inside the front door. “Come in,” she said, opening the door all the way. She was wearing pyjamas: dark purple patterned bottoms with a soft, grey long-sleeved top.

Flùranach was able to follow her inside, although she still appeared somewhat strained. When they all reached a small seating area at the top of a flight of stairs, the woman put the stone near the corridor leading deeper into the house. So she would let them enter this one room only. His curiosity brimmed. Why was she so cautious? Why was she afraid of faeries, and who was she trying to protect?

“Sit, please,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I’m Huck Webster,” he said. “This is Rory and Flùranach.” The visitors sat with their backs to the large window.

“I am Demi Hartmann,” she told them and took a place in a soft, beige armchair opposite them. “Tell me about the Druid Hall,” she said. “I have never heard of this place.”

“You know of the Otherworld?” he asked.

“Yes.” She shivered and tugged on her sleeves until they covered all but her fingertips.

He told her about the Halls of Mist and how it connected the fae kingdoms by a magical portal. Then he described the Druid Hall, the druids’ place in fae society, and their goals of discovery and creation.

Flùranach asked, “Who unlocked your powers, Demi?”

Again the veil of fear returned to Demi’s features. “What do you mean?”

“Druidic powers lie dormant until the human has contact with a faerie, either one with a compatible bond, which is rare, or someone like me. I sense the talents of all druids.”

“It was a long time ago,” Demi said. “Several years.”

Her resistance bothered Huck. Nearly all the faeries he’d met were respectful and happy to know druids. Why would she be afraid of one? Unless what had happened to Rory had also happened to her. His mind reeled, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

“Why do you need such a powerful talisman to keep the fae away?” he asked gently. When she sat in silence, tugging at her pyjama sleeves, he added, “We can protect you.”

She glanced up. “Can you?”

“In the Otherworld, a druid lord’s word is law. Come with us. No one can hurt you if you’re under our protection.”

“Mama?” a tiny voice came from the corridor. At first, Demi’s chair blocked their view of the new arrival. Then a small boy with wild black hair sticking up in every direction scrambled around and climbed into her lap. He eyed the strangers cautiously and hid himself in his mother’s arms.

“Jago,” she said softly. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“I heard talking,” he said in a sleepy voice.

“Come on,” she said, standing with the boy in her arms. “Little boys shouldn’t be out of bed so early.” She walked into the corridor beyond, but not before Huck saw the fear on her face had amplified. She hadn’t wanted them to know about the child.

“Rory,” Flùranach hissed as soon as the pair had disappeared from sight. “The child is fae.”

“Are you sure?”

She cast a glare in his direction, more of her old spirit showing through. “I know a faerie when I sense one. The child is not human.”

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Rory asked, his tone sharp. “This changes everything.”

“It explains why she would ward the house, but why don’t the wards affect the child?” Huck asked.

Flùranach replied, “The only way I can imagine is if he helped make them.”

“Can you detect another faerie in the house?” Rory asked.

“It’s the ward stones,” Flùranach said. “My senses are muddled. Even your own druidic presence feels peculiar to me.”

A few minutes later, Demi came back. She sat in front of them and said nothing at first. She appeared deep in thought, and Huck didn’t want to interrupt. Finally, she said, “If you will protect me and my family, I will go with you.”

Why the sudden change of heart? Huck wondered. There was so much more she wasn’t telling them.

When they hesitated, she said, “Was this not what you offered?”

“The boy is fae,” Flùranach said.

“Half-fae,” Demi corrected. “He is my son.”

“Who is his father?” she asked.

Demi’s eyes flared with anger. “What does it matter? He is my son.”

“Demi,” Rory said. “We want to help you. We want to offer you protection, but we need to know from whom. The father is the one you’re hiding from, isn’t he? He’s the one you’re afraid of?”

She looked away, then nodded. “He is a fae royal, or so he claimed.” She sighed. “I met him five years ago in Germany. He was so beautiful,” she said, but her words were angry, not wistful. “He awoke these senses in me, and we were attracted to each other in a way I had never experienced with a man before.”

“But something went wrong,” Huck said.

“He quickly became cruel. He liked…he liked to humiliate me.” Her cheeks flushed. “Many times, he hurt and punished me if I didn’t do as he demanded. My mind was so entranced that I didn’t resist, no matter how he had begun to repulse me. Then one day, he told me some words had come to him, words I must say to bond myself to him forever. He tried but could not compel me to say them.” Tears slid down Demi’s cheeks and dripped onto her grey shirt, leaving wet marks. The room felt close and uncomfortable. Bring forced to bond to a faerie they didn’t want was every druid’s nightmare. Only someone like Flùranach, someone with an affinity for all druids, had the power to force a bond.

“How did you escape?” Flùranach asked, breaking the silence.

“Jago saved me. Within four months of falling under the spell of this man, I became pregnant. I knew the instant the seed of magic awoke within me. Jago’s life force gave me resistance. I grew stronger. Jago’s magic coursed through me as though it was my own. For the first time, I could stand against this man. His power lost its hold over me.

“My reprieve wouldn’t last. I feared the protection Jago gave me would disappear when I gave birth. I had to run. I went to my grandmother, who had some money, and begged for her help. I thought she would think me insane. She listened without judgement and agreed to help, even demanding to come with me as I escaped. You see, I inherited my abilities from her side of the family. We have a long tradition of strange powers popping up every few generations. There is even a Hartmann storybook, full of faerie stories. In our family, we have passed these tales down to our children. I think this was why I fell for Ulrich so easily. When I first met him, I realised those stories were real.”

“Ulrich?” Huck asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” she said. “Ulrich is the name of Jago’s father.”

Huck turned to Rory. “There is a royal named Ulrich.”

Rory blinked, as though trying to remember why the name sounded so familiar.

“Konstanze’s brother,” Huck whispered. “We’ll have to take her through Eilidh’s gates. We can’t risk moving her through Germany.”

“When can we leave?” Demi asked. She stole another glance towards her son’s bedroom. “We’ve had to run many times when he’s found us before. I don’t know how he found out about Jago, but he became obsessed. I’d thought maybe we would be safe here a little longer, but now that you’ve discovered me, we must leave soon. Word will find its way to him.”

“We would never tell him where you lived,” Huck said.

She smiled sadly. “We’ve been running from Ulrich for years. He will find us. Either we will go with you to this Druid Hall, or we will leave Amsterdam and never return. Either way, we leave today.”

Ah, Huck thought. That was why she agreed to go with them. From the moment he followed her from the coffee shop, he’d doomed her to run again. “We have to get permission from the queen before we can take you through the gates.” When he saw her expression, he said, “Not Konstanze, don’t worry. We know the queen of Caledonia, and we can bring you into her territory. She’s no friend of Konstanze. We’ll have to travel to Belgium to reach her gates.”

Flùranach tensed but said nothing. After only a fractional hesitation, she gave a nod.

Huck turned to Demi. “Give us this one day. We’ll get permission from Queen Eilidh, then we’ll come back to get you.”

“All of us? You will give shelter to my grandmother and Jago as well, yes?”

“Yes,” Huck said. Rory opened his mouth to say something, but he shook his head as though he thought better of it.

“And we will be safe in this Druid Hall?”

Huck nodded. “In the Otherworld, druids are revered. He could never hurt you as long as you’re with me.” He hadn’t meant to say it like that. He’d meant to say “with us.” The others looked at him, but he couldn’t correct himself now.

“We have to go,” Rory said. “The gates will close at daybreak. If we don’t leave now, we’ll have to wait until night falls again.”

She nodded. “I will wait one day.”

“I could stay with you,” Huck said. “Flùranach and Rory have to go, because she casts the illusions that make them appear human, but I don’t have the same problem.”

A small smile flitted across her face. “No,” she said. “I must tell Omi and Jago we are to leave again, and I need to do that alone. In truth, I think she has been preparing ever since she saw you in the street below our window.”

Huck was reluctant to leave her, afraid she would bolt the second they were out of sight. But there was nothing he could do. “Okay,” he said. “We’ll be back as quickly as we can after nightfall.”

“We will be ready,” Demi said.

Munro convinced Eilidh to stay in bed longer than usual, and he suspected she wanted to soothe any unspoken jealousy about her trip with Griogair. Once they rose and dressed, they shared their first meal of the evening with Griogair. Over fruit and cream, Eilidh asked the prince to join her in visiting the gates and altars. The three of them met with Prince Koen and his father, who seemed perturbed to hear Griogair was going along. Eilidh mollified them by asking them to be a part of the welcoming entourage on the journey. For some reason, the news that Munro wouldn’t be taking the journey pleased the princes.

The ridiculous wrangling made Munro chuckle. If the new guy thought he might be able to displace Munro in any way, it showed how little most of the fae still understood the nature of the bond. To be fair, though, Eilidh and Munro were one of two bonded pairs known to exist, all the others having died out thousands of years ago.

Even though Munro had planned to stay in Caledonia a while, Eilidh’s departure changed his plans. Leaving his future wife to deal with the domestic mess the Source Stone had thrust upon her, he headed back to the Halls of Mist. He arrived in the early evening, when activity was at its greatest around the portal, with scholars and fae from all kingdoms travelling back and forth. Shortly after Munro came through the portal, a passel of young faeries was herded to the library by their mentors to learn about rune study. He had to check himself for a moment. He recognised their youth and thought of them as children, as all faeries would. But some of them were likely fifty years older than him. How easily he’d slipped into the fae way of thinking.

Some of the youths stared at him, but he pretended not to notice. Instead, he gave a cordial nod to their teachers, who returned the gesture of respect with a quiet, “My lord druid.” He waited until they descended into the library, gave them a few minutes, then followed. Rory and Huck would still be in Amsterdam, and nobody expected him back. Now seemed like a good time to talk to Oszlár about the Source Stone.

At the bottom of the stairs in the library entrance hall, one of the keepers’ assistants divided the students into smaller groups.
Munro slipped through the crowd, back
towards the keepers’ private study chambers. The keepers lived like monks, with none of the trappings their exalted status among the fae could give them.

He located Oszlár in his office. The fae didn’t use traditional desks and chairs like he might have found in a human-built room used for the same purpose. They had different attitudes towards rank and status. When they built to impress, the intent often went over his head.

Munro paused in the archway, his keen vision finding Oszlár, despite the lack of light in the room. The old keeper dozed, holding a thin rune slate in one hand and a stylus in the other. He looked even more ancient while sleeping, his face retaining none of the sharpness that made him so formidable.

“You can’t be here,” came a voice behind Munro.

He turned and faced one of the other keepers, a round-faced male faerie with wispy grey hair, who rushed up behind him. When the keeper recognised him, he paused. “Oh, my lord druid. I didn’t realise it was you.” Although faeries could usually sense the difference between a human’s presence and a druid’s, after he’d touched the Source Stone, he
felt
like a faerie to them.

“I didn’t realise he was asleep,” Munro said. “I’ll come back later.”

“I’m not asleep,” Oszlár said, adjusting himself in the low chair. “I was meditating. Come in, Lord Druid Munro.” He waved a hand at the other keeper, shooing him out. Keepers were never shooed, except by Oszlár. As the oldest faerie alive, the others permitted him some eccentricity.

“I wish you’d call me Munro. Or Quinton even,” he said. “All this Lord Druid stuff can get to be a bit much.”

Oszlár nodded. “I understand, but I’m afraid I can’t do that. You see, this
Lord Druid
stuff
may save your life.” He gestured to the chair opposite him and put his tablet and stylus aside.