Reunion (18 page)

Ren realized he meant it. He
was
glad he'd killed Alean and her sister. Their realities, and many other realities besides, were better off without them.

"And now Isleen's going to turn into one of them."

Learning that Isleen had broken through the magical bond placed on her mind to prevent her learning the secrets of the
Matrarchaí
that Delphine had shared with her and her sister stung, but he wasn't as surprised by the news as the others were. Since he'd first met the twins when they were ten years old, Teagan had always been the troublesome twin, Isleen the quiet, thoughtful one. Teagan would have railed against the restrictions had she still been here.

Isleen had said nothing while quietly working to undo them. She'd always been the curious one; the one who wanted to know what was so terrible about the memories Delphine had left for her. And she'd picked away at the bonds holding them in place like a beggar picking at a loose thread in a blanket.

Had Teagan and Isleen been in contact, the same way Ren had kept in touch with Darragh? It only took a small, unnoticeable nick, which meant nothing to anyone other than the twins who could manifest each other's wounds and feel each other's pain.

There was no way of knowing. The only thing of which he was certain was that this wasn't going to end well for anybody.

"She's got Delphine's information, and she went rift running as soon as she unlocked the knowledge, probably looking for the rest of the
Matrarchaí
. Or at least where they're holed up. Doubt she'll have much luck with that. The intelligence she has from Delphine is more than a decade old, so I don't know what Isleen thinks she's going to achieve taking off like that. Unless she found a way to contact Teagan ..."

He sighed. "Guess I should have pointed that out to Wakiko before I waned out of there. Might have helped her worry a little less to realize Isleen will probably be back as soon as it occurs to her that no matter what Delphine told her about the
Matrarchaí
, I know more."

Ren turned the jewel over in his hand wondering, as he always did when he confided in her, if Brydie was trapped in place or able to move about inside the gem. He also wondered if he should be more worried about Isleen.

The Undivided twins of this world were powerful sorcerers in their own right, with all the raw material to become as heartless and dangerous as the twins Ren had just killed. But Teagan and Isleen's life had taken a different path to Alean and her sister. They'd had the memories of their
Matrarchaí
mentor blocked when they were still young enough not to be corrupted by them and, until Teagan was abducted, a determined mother to raise them with some kind of moral compass. More importantly, they'd been brought up in a world where there was someone more powerful than they were and who would brook no thought of eradicating the Faerie.

Wakiko still refused to consider it, but Ren, Trása, Pete and Logan had pretty much reconciled themselves to the idea that Teagan, by now, had thrown her lot in with the
Matrarchaí
. What else could she have done?

But Isleen's betrayal wounded Ren. He'd trusted her.

Since Ren disposed of Delphine, Wakiko had dedicated herself to ensuring her daughters' destiny took a different path than Delphine intended for them, an effort she redoubled when the
Matrarchaí
took one of her daughters from her. She'd made their world a refuge for
Youkai
, and had taught her remaining daughter to welcome the refugees rather than turn them away. Backed by four part-
sídhe
sorcerers from other realities, she had organized the
Konketsu
to gather as many refugee
Youkai
to their realm as possible. The magicians of this reality, who had once devoted their lives to preserving their own magical bloodlines by eliminating any
sídhe
competition for their magic, had finally turned their efforts to saving the
Youkai
. It had been a struggle, at first, but once they learned their own power came from diluted
Youkai
blood, and that if they continued to eradicate the
Youkai
, the
Konketsu
would soon die out themselves, they'd been very pragmatic about the whole thing.

It was easy to fall into the trap of thinking the changed attitude in this reality regarding
sídhe
was all his or Trása's doing, or was the result of things Pete or Logan Doherty had done since learning about their true origins. In fact, the
Konketsu
had identified their thinning bloodlines long before Ren and his friends appeared. Preserving those bloodlines had been the intention of the Ikushima when they first met Ren and Aoi tried to seduce him into fathering a magically-gifted child with her.

Fortunately, the Ikushima clan had gone back to doing what they did best - making fireworks. Now they were the official suppliers to the Imperial Court, and their fortunes had taken a significant turn for the better.

Thinking of the Ikushima made Ren realize he hadn't seen Aoi for quite a while. He should make time to pay the family a visit. Kazusa would be a grown-up by now.

Pity it was going to be a while before he had time to make social calls.

"Of course, that's not my only problem right now," he told his unseen confidante, as he realized he was stalling. "I have to decide what to do about Hayley."

Ren had thought the problem of Hayley far in his past. He assumed someone in Trása's reality would have realized she didn't belong and sent her back through the rift, preferably with her sight healed, long before now. It never occurred to him she might still be in the other reality, and it certainly never occurred to him that Marcroy Tarth would have been holding her all this time.

He should have gone back for her, he supposed. It would not be the first time he'd sneaked into the reality where he was born, despite banning Trása from making contact with anybody there. He'd done it, the first time, the morning after his first visit to the Pool of Tranquillity when he'd finally dared delve into Delphine's memories and stumbled across a scene that still haunted him.

In Delphine's memory she'd been standing in the sacred grove near
Sí an Bhrú
. Ren recognized it from Darragh's memories.

Anwen, the daughter-in-law of Álmhath, the queen of the Celts, was explaining how she had convinced the queen to steal a child from Darragh before the transfer of power to the Undivided heirs killed him and his brother.

"We need the bloodline preserved, my lady, you said so yourself
," Anwen had explained to Delphine. "
It wasn't hard to convince Álmhath to send a suitable vessel to Darragh's bed so his seed might be collected. Any children spawned from such a union would be raised by herself, ensuring their loyalty to her rather than the Treaty of
Tír Na nÓg
."

Far from being pleased by this news, Delphine had been annoyed by it.
"If only it were that simple."

"I didn't feel explaining the flaw in her logic would achieve anything, my lady, given her ambition coincided enough with our needs to achieve the same outcome."

She'd smiled sourly at that.
"Well, you have to give her kudos for trying, I suppose. It's a grand idea, but not one likely to succeed if the union results in offspring tied to the
Tuatha
by blood."

"I didn't have the heart to tell her how little chance her plan has of succeeding,"
Anwen said.

"It's not an impossible ambition though,"
Delphine conceded.
"There are realms where nobody has heard of the Undivided. Preserving the bloodlines in realms devoid of magic is much less problematic there. Believe me, I know. Who did you assign the task?"

"Brydie Ni'Seanan,"
Anwen had said.
"Mogue Ni'Farrell's daughter."

The mention of her name had caused a flood of Darragh's memories to overtake Delphine, which felt a little like having two people screaming at him at the same time, one in each ear and both with something different to stay. He'd fought down Darragh's lustful reminiscences and dragged Delphine's memory back. From the discussion that followed the announcement of her name, Ren gathered the
Matrarchaí
suffered from defections more often than they'd like. Brydie's mother, like Wakiko, had rebelled at being nothing more than a human incubator in the
Matrarchaí
's grand plan.

"The girl in question was the right bloodline and had few other prospects at court,"
Anwen had explained to Delphine in her memories.
"She was destined to be someone's mistress, not a wife. The men who come to Álmhath's court looking for a woman to bear their children and housekeep their estates, don't want a wife they know every other man in their kingdom will be lusting after. I did her a favor, my lady, not a disservice. Darragh of the Undivided was healthy, virile and not unattractive. One day, she'll thank me for the opportunity."

That statement had made Ren smile. Darragh would like to hear about that one.

But then came the real kicker and the reason Ren had risked visiting a realm where his safety was best assured if everyone kept believing he was dead.

"
Perhaps
," Delphine had agreed, with some reluctance. "
Where is she now
?"

Anwen untied the ostentatious, gem-encrusted necklace she was wearing and handed it to Delphine.
"She's in here."

Delphine had accepted the necklace on the palm of her hand and stared at it for a long moment.
"Did you ...?"

Anwen shook her head.
"I've not the power to do anything of the kind, Lady Delphine. That's why I was chosen to come to this court, if you recall. Had I any magical ability to speak of, the Druids or the Undivided may have recognized it in me, and I would have been discovered as soon as I arrived."

"Then who did this?"

"I'm guessing it was one of the Djinn,"
Anwen said.

Delphine looked up from the gems
. "What interest would they have in this girl? More to the point, what are the Djinn doing, sneaking around Sí an Bhrú?"

"I don't know, Lady Delphine. I just know that, in this realm, the only species of
sídhe
who use inanimate objects to trap unwary humans are the Djinn. And as you no
doubt
can tell, she
is
trapped in the jewel."

Delphine wasn't in any great hurry to release the stone and studied the necklace with interest.
"Do they know you have her?"

"I don't know, my lady. I suspect not."

"Then for the time being, she is safe. It is almost impossible to release someone trapped by a djinni without the help of the Djinn. If this girl succeeded in her task and managed to conceive, then we will have need of her. Until we can find a safe way to release her and the precious burden she may well be carrying, she is better off where she is."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime, the transfer will take place on
Lughnasadh
as scheduled, Darragh and Rónán will die and we will be rid of one more potential threat to our plans."
Delphine handed the necklace back to Anwen
. "If Brydie conceived a child
-
or better yet, twins
-
then you did well to preserve the line. I wish we were having as much success in other realms."

That was the reason, he'd known immediately, why the nightmares had stopped. Trása was right. It wasn't taking Delphine's memories that had stopped the dreams of him murdering Darragh's children. It was some nameless
djinni
who, for no reason Ren could fathom, decided to trap Brydie in suspended animation.

She was pregnant and the jewel prevented the pregnancy from progressing.

If she ever got out, then Ren's worst fears would come true.

He felt bad for Brydie. The innocent young woman the
Matrarchaí
had thrown at Darragh in the hope of getting a child from him was trapped in this jewel through no fault of her own. The
Matrarchaí
wanted her kept safe because she might well be the mother of Darragh's children.

And it was that frightening possibility that had caused Ren to risk visiting Darragh's realm and steal the gem from Anwen.

He didn't do it to save Brydie, however. He intended to ensure she stayed trapped in the jewel forever.

And to be certain she never brought the babies he was destined to kill to term, he never let the jewel out of his sight. If Brydie was carrying Darragh's children and she remained in the jewel, Ren would never have to live out that terrible scene burned so indelibly into his brain.

Ren had informed Brydie of this unfortunate truth as soon as he'd returned to this realm, feeling he owed her some explanation for her continued imprisonment. He hadn't told her about the dreams, of course, but had warned her not to expect to be released anytime soon. It was one of the reasons he spoke to her as often as he did. It assuaged his guilt a little to acknowledge her presence, even if he did nothing to restore her.

He could not tell her the reason. There was no way he could think of to explain that he still remembered a dream which had haunted him most of his life, and he had become more and more certain as he got older that it was not his own children, in the dream, he was killing, but his brother's children.

And had he realized Hayley was still there when he stole Brydie's jewel, he could have sought her out on the same trip and maybe brought her here to this world seven years ago. Or would he have done so?

There other were things he'd taken from Delphine's mind that made a public return to his own realm to find Hayley somewhat problematic, even if he didn't factor in the simple fact that everybody thought he was dead and he had a lot more to do before he was ready to reveal that that was not the case.

With the exception of Ciarán, there was nobody in the other reality he could completely trust not to reveal that he and Darragh still lived. But he'd not been able to contact the old warrior since arriving in this realm.

If the puddle phone was working, Ciarán wasn't picking up.