Earth's Hope (19 page)

“’Tisn’t a thing to joke about.”

The skin around his eyes looked pinched in the faint light from his mage light that was suspended off to one side. Aislinn stared. With his face illuminated like that, no one would ever make the mistake of labeling him human. All the parts were there, but they were too perfect. His eyes gleamed with ancient knowing. Even the golden flecks in the irises seemed to vibrate, underscoring his otherness.

“What is it, lass? Ye’re looking at me as if I grew a second head.”

She bit down on her lower lip. “Nothing. Sometimes I’m more aware of you being a Celtic god. That’s all.”

“Having second thoughts?” He cupped her chin and forced her to look at him.

Well am I?

“No, not really. But I shouldn’t make the mistake of ascribing too much humanness to you. You don’t think like we do.”

His face settled into stubborn planes she recognized, and she regretted her words.

“In the first place,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm, “ye’re scarcely human yourself. Never mind, ye thought yourself so for most of your short life. In the second place—”

She laid a hand over his mouth. “Stop. I don’t want to argue. I’m tired, and I misspoke. Of course I understand we need to wipe out all the Old Ones, and the dark gods too. It’s not that I can’t kill. I have. It’s that I never quite warmed to the idea.”

“Which is another good reason ye should remain here. Ye’ve been to Perrikus’s borderworld. ’Tis fraught with danger, and ’twill be worse this time around because the dark ones know the odds have steepened—and not in their favor.”

“While I waited to see if you and Arawn would return from there, I swore we’d never be separated again. I hated Bran and Gwydion for being the ones who’d returned first, and that was stupid. I should’ve bowed down and thanked every god and goddess in the pantheon that any of you were still alive.”

Fionn drew her against his body and stroked her hair, crooning in Gaelic, until she murmured, “English, please.”

“These are difficult times, mo croi. We have to get through each day as it happens. If the goddess smiles on us, ’twill come a time when things are easier.”

And if she doesn’t? But Aislinn kept that question to herself.

* * * *

Dewi overflew the manor house and grounds, grateful for something to do to take her mind off her brood. It had damn near killed her to leave them on the borderworld. Not because she didn’t think Royce and Vaughna would make good nannies, but because she felt she’d failed her offspring. It defied credibility that one of her blood would be so easily manipulated. And by a Lemurian no less. Stupid bastards with their hive mind mentality. For fuck’s sake, it took at least three of them to make even the simplest decision.

Leave it. Just leave it. No matter how many ways I turn this thing around, I still won’t like how it looks or smells.

She returned her attention to shadowed nooks and crannies, hunting for anything out of the ordinary. Humans and Arawn were patrolling on foot in a pattern that circled the manor every quarter hour. Since they staggered their line, nothing should be able to sneak through, but it wasn’t wise to underestimate their enemy. She’d done so in the past with disastrous results. Fanning magic in a circle, she moved it from her level a hundred feet off the ground downward.

Wait.

Something didn’t feel quite right, but it was subtle, so subtle Dewi ran her scan one more time, zeroing in on where she may have felt a tinge of wrongness. This time her magic pinged back clean, but she didn’t totally trust it.

I’m jumpy as a March hare. The first time I was distracted, not paying close enough attention. No point in getting everyone riled up for nothing.

She flew two more complete circuits, but couldn’t let it go. “Nidhogg.”

“Yes, dear.”

“Meet me up here.”

He didn’t ask for particulars, especially after Bella had identified their enemy so close. Soon his black form winged its way to her. “I know,” his dear voice rumbled against her ears. “You got lonely.”

She blew smoke, followed by fire. “If you want lonely, try believing you’re the last of your kind for hundreds of years.”

“I scarcely see that it’s worse than having Perrikus holding me on the edge of life to siphon my power.”

“Ouch. I didn’t invite you up here to trade pity parties.” She switched to telepathic speech. “Fly the circuit with me and scan with your magic. I thought I found something, but when I checked a second time, it wasn’t there.”

“Why alert me and not the rest of your patrol?”

“Because I didn’t want to look like an overreactive jackrabbit.”

Nidhogg chuckled, but she felt his power sweep the area. Once. Twice. He kept coming back to the same spot that had bothered her.

Breath whistled through her open jaws. “I didn’t tell you where I felt the aberration, yet you found it anyway.”

“There’s something there. We must land and alert the others.”

Dewi and Nidhogg stopped near the moat and gathered the rest of the watch as they crossed that waypoint. Arawn moved between the dragons.

“What is it?” he asked in shielded mind speech.

“Is everyone here?” Dewi counted ten humans—two of them with bond animals: a hawk and a mountain cat. At nods, she drew strong wards around them, pleased when Nidhogg reinforced them.

“What the hell?” One of the human men asked.

“Something isn’t right about a quarter league northwest of the manor gates,” Dewi said. “I thought I felt evil, but wasn’t certain, so I called Nidhogg to give things a second look.”

“Ye felt it too?” Arawn gazed up at the black dragon, who nodded.

“It could be as simple as an outpost the Old Ones set up to spy on us and report back to the dark gods,” Nidhogg said.

“Or it could be the start of another attack,” Arawn grunted, shaking his head.

“It doesn’t matter,” Corin stepped forward. “We have to address it. I’ll wake the others.”

“We march as soon as everyone’s up and ready,” Nidhogg said. “It will still be dark, which works in our favor.”

“Whatever it is, it’s underground,” Dewi cautioned.

“Let’s do this,” Arawn said. “The four dragons can attack from the air. Blast the holy fuck out of where you feel the evil. The rest of us will provide ground support.” He looked as grim as the dead he commanded. “No prisoners. We kill every single thing that crawls out of the ground. Understood?”

“Do you suppose this is the same thing Bella stumbled on today?” Dewi asked.

“It better be,” one of the human women said, “because if it isn’t that means we have two problems.”

“I’ll get Kra and Berra,” Nidhogg pulled magic from the wards around them.

“I’ll roust Fionn, Gwydion, and Aislinn,” Arawn said. “Everyone front and center in fifteen minutes or less.”

Dewi waited, still as stone, in the dim mistiness near the moat. She’d been born for battle, yet she had a hard time finding the heart to move forward. She gave herself a good, hard mental kick. Feeling sorry for herself was an indulgence, one she could ill afford just now. It wasn’t as if her brood was dead, and there were still the eggs percolating in her belly. After years of spinning her scales, they were finally moving into the endgame. She should welcome it, yet all she wanted to do was take Nidhogg and flee to some place where none of this could touch them.

Understanding smashed home.

When I had no one to love, and no one who loved me, it didn’t matter. Nothing did. I took outrageous chances because I didn’t care if I lived or died. That’s all changed, but the world hasn’t. There’re still the dark gods to contend with, and those smarmy reptiles I spied on all those years.

Yes, and that will help because I know how they think even better than the MacLochlainn.

Dewi straightened. By the goddess, she had a role to play, and a damned important one. If what they faced were Lemurians—and it almost had to be—she was their best tactical leader, the only one who could outthink and outmaneuver the fucking things.

Kra, Berra, and Nidhogg touched down near her.

“Did Nidhogg fill you in?” Dewi asked.

“Aye,” Kra clanked his double rows of teeth together. “It will be good to avenge ourselves for what they did to your brood.”

“Assuming it is Lemurians,” Nidhogg said.

“I suppose there might be a dark god in the mix,” Berra said, “or some of those hideous Bal’ta things.”

Dewi thought about the Bal’ta. Minions of the dark, they stood between five and six feet tall. With their sloping foreheads, matted hair, and ropy muscles, they looked like apes, except for their eyes, which glowed an unholy orange. “Pah. They’re easy enough to kill. Least of our worries, really.”

Arawn and Gwydion sprinted to them. “Never underestimate any of them,” Gwydion said dourly. “I made that mistake with the human-Lemurian hybrids, and it almost sent me to the Dreaming forever.”

“Where are Fionn and Aislinn?” Dewi asked.

“They’ll be along soon,” Arawn said. “I’m furious Bran’s not back yet. He knows better.”

The air took on a numinous quality by the manor house wall, and Bran stepped out of a glowing portal, followed by Andraste, goddess of victory. Wavy blonde hair fell to her waist and even in the muted light, her green eyes flashed fire. She wore a long buckskin skirt and a top of the same leather that hugged her curves.

Bran bowed toward Arawn. “Instructive what ye hear when people don’t think ye’re anywhere close.”

“What took you so long?” Gwydion barked. “I was none too pleased with you myself.”

“We got into an argument,” Andraste said. “No one wanted aught to do with the Norsemen.”

“If ye felt the same”—Arawn stomped to her side—“why are ye here?”

“Never could let a battle pass me by.” One corner of her perfect mouth twisted downward. Her gaze settled on Dewi. “Where are your younglings? By my count they’re nearly old enough to join us.”

“On our borderworld.”

“What?” Andraste squared her shoulders. “Why?”

“’Tis a long tale,” Gwydion said, “and one which we havena the time for just now. Our first order of business is to wipe out something wicked that’s taken up residence too close for comfort.”

“I’m all for wiping out darkness”—the goddess’s smile was as predatory as one of Dewi’s own—“but why is it ye doona know exactly what ye face?”

“They’re underground,” Dewi said, “and we didn’t want to look too closely. In fact, we should be shielding our conversation.”

Humans trotted up in small groups, followed by Fionn and Aislinn. Dewi considered asking what took them so long, but her tone would’ve been snappish, and it would kindle the Maclochlainn’s ire. Not the best idea on the verge of a major skirmish. Instead, she resurrected the earlier wards and outlined the plan. Before they moved out, she asked Bella if the location was where she’d found Lemurians.

For once, the raven looked rattled. “No. The group I found was in an old castle south of the gates, between here and the ocean.”

“Hear that,” Nidhogg cautioned the group. “Watch your backs. We have no idea what we’ll find out there, and there may well be a second faction that’s lying in wait to trap us.”

Chapter Sixteen

Fionn’s muscles tensed with apprehension, and his nerves came alive like they always did when a fight loomed. He angled his head toward Aislinn’s ear. “For once, do as I instruct. I canna split my attention, and if I’m worried half to death about you—or worse, doona know where ye are—it might prove tragic for all of us.”

She tapped the side of his face with two fingers, and her face lit with a determined expression that made her look much older than her twenty-two years. “I’m not making promises I can’t keep, but I will keep you apprised of what I’m doing if it deviates from your orders.”

He swallowed the lecture that rose to his lips. No time, and it wouldn’t make any difference. Lemurians may have trained Aislinn, but they’d trained her in guerilla warfare where she fought alone and made her own decisions. Nothing he could say would alter that.

The group around them melted into the night and the rush of dragons’ wings created a torrent of wind until they were airborne. Aislinn took off at a lope, following a bunch of Hunters. Rune trotted next to her.

Bella’s talons tightened on Fionn’s shoulder to the point of pain. “What are you waiting for?” the bird asked. “We’ll miss the party.”

Except it wouldn’t be. “I have a bad feeling about this,” he told the raven and bolted after Aislinn.

Bella switched to mind speech. “Since when does that excuse us from fighting?”

“It doesn’t. Quiet. I need all my senses.”

For once, the bird didn’t argue, but he sensed her tension from the death grip she maintained on his shoulder. He reached the others in short order and noted the power circle they’d formed around the area Dewi had discovered. Fionn positioned himself next to Aislinn. Eve and her cat were on his other side. After a brief hissing and cawing match, Bella and Tabitha settled down.

The first bolt of dragon magic thundered down, and the ground shook beneath his feet. As they’d planned, the dragons piled charge atop charge with bare seconds in between. Fionn homed in on the patch of greenery before him, every nerve on edge. Something felt wrong. It was too silent, too devoid of life. Normally, small creatures—owls and rodents—would live in bushes like those, but they’d deserted it long since.

With an eerie, thrumming, cracking noise, the earth split open. Heather and gorse blew into the air, and an unholy, shrieking moan rose, grating against his ears and making his stomach clench. Bile blasted the back of his throat as he drew power, balancing it between his hands, ready to annihilate whatever rolled out of the hole.

Next to him, Aislinn’s ragged breathing tore at his soul. Even though Northern Ireland looked nothing like the Andean mountainside where she’d lost her father, death had crawled out of a hole in the earth that night too. Sulfur and the rotten stench of road kill left in the sun to rot belched from the fault.

“What the holy fuck?” Aislinn snapped.

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Fionn ground out, ready for anything, but mostly wanting whatever it was to show itself.