Seeing Magic (The Queen of the Night Series Book 1) (23 page)

“Paul Sinclair, Great Poet of the Cacapon Clan, welcome.”  The judge sat next to Bill.

“Connor McCoy, Great Warrior of the Cacapon Clan, welcome.”  Connor sat next to Farmer MacGregor.

“Margaret MacDougall,” I jumped at hearing my abbreviated name, “honored guest and apprentice Healer of the Cacapon Clan, welcome.” I sat next to the judge.

“Evan Keach, Great Seer of the Cacapon Clan, welcome.”  Evan sat next to me.

“Fiona McDougall, Great Healer of the Cacapon Clan, welcome.”  Fiona took the last remaining seat in the center of the row, just to the left of the arch, next to Connor and a few feet away from Evan.

The Sidhe Council moved to stand on either side of the altar, and then turned to face us.

Dariene stood centered in front of the altar and called out in a powerful, ringing voice, “I call forth Easnadh, nyad of Warm Spring Run.” 

Four male nyads emerged through the arch inches from Evan, carrying Easnadh. She was too sick to stand on her own. They laid her gently on the altar.

Then Dariene shouted, “Bring in the accused, Jeremy Rogers, resident of Smith Crossroads!”

On a whoosh of wind, a swarm of fairy lights flew out of the shadows at the edge of the clearing leading to the parking lot. Within the center of the swarm was a dazed and drunk looking Jeremy Rogers, mumbling to himself. Buach conjured a bush chair for him just to the right of the altar, while Poplar conjured chairs around the circle for all of the Sidhe present. I noticed Jeremy’s chair was missing its moss cushion. The fairy lights deposited him into it rather brusquely.

Dariene continued to stand as she addressed him. “Jeremy Rogers, tell us how you came to be here tonight.”

Jeremy looked really out of it, and he mumbled and slurred when he spoke, but somehow we could hear everything he said, as if his voice were magically amplified.

“Just walkin’ from the bar to’s m’truck and sud’nly I’m ‘proached by a group of flyin’ light bulbs. They gets right in m’face and I kin see there’s a little midget in this light bulb wearin’ weird clothe--clothesss and a bad haircut. He stares at me so I’s stares back. He says  ‘Are you Jeremy Rogers?’ and I says ‘So what’f I yam?’  Then the little freak sneezes in m’face! I’s try to punch’is light out but sud’nly everythin’ ‘sblurry and I’m s’rounded by these freaky things. They’re all sneezin’ on me and I’m yellin’ ‘Hey, that’s unsatnitary!’”

At this point Jeremy belched…then continued.

“n’sud’nly ‘m floatin’ n’the air. N’theze little buggers grabbed m’shirt sleevesss n’ belt loopsss n’ pants leggsss n’carry’d m’off. So’s heres I’yam.”

I whispered to Evan, “Is he drunk or stupefied by the fairy lights?”

Evan replied, “probably a little of both.”

Dariene’s strong voice rang out again. “Jeremy Rogers, do you own property on top of Sleepy Mountain?”

He looked at her confused, “do I?”

She looked disgusted. “Do you own Ray’s Salvage Yard?”

Jeremy nodded and for a second he wavered like he was going to puke, but he straightened up when she said, “Did you organize a strip mining operation on your property for the purposes of extracting Bentonite clay and selling it for money?”

“I’sss sssellin’ t’for a LOT o’money!” Jeremy said proudly.

“And did you know in advance that you could release the toxic chemical, Cadmium, into the atmosphere by strip mining Sleepy Mountain?”

“Wells, t’geolllogissst said t’cud h’pen s’but I didn’t s’bleve him.” 

Jeremy belched again, and then said, “T’was a LOT ov’money.”

“Were you aware that an underground water source existed just below the surface of Sleepy Mountain?”

“Not t’firssst, but when we’s cut into it’sss I’s saws it.”

“And did you choose to stop mining when you saw the underground stream exposed?”

“HELL NOssss.”

“Thank you. The council will now confer.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Ritual of Transfer

All of the Sidhe council members got out of their chairs and approached Dariene at the altar. We couldn’t hear what they were saying. Since they weren’t speaking in English, it didn’t matter anyway.

A few minutes later, Dariene addressed us again. “Jeremy Rogers, we, the High Council of the Sidhe people, have found you guilty of knowingly poisoning the water in Warm Spring Run. We also find you guilty of inflicting pain and sickness upon a member of the Sidhe people to achieve personal gain. We will now confer to determine your sentence.”

I turned eyes wide with fright to Evan. He took my hand in his and the warmth calmed my fear. After what seemed like a very long time, Dariene faced us. The other members of the Sidhe council returned to their seats.

“The High Council of the Sidhe people has reached a decision. For the first time since 1348 in Florence, Italy, the Ritual of Transfer will be performed. This decision is unanimous and cannot be overturned.” 

At this point Buach stepped forward. He faced Rogers. He levitated the still stupefied man out of the bush chair and forced him to lie down on the altar. Buach placed Rogers next to Easnadh, with his feet level with her head. Buach stood next to him on the side of the altar farthest from us. Dariene continued to stand next to Easnadh’s side.

Then, with her arms outstretched and her palms facing upward, she lifted her face to the sky and intoned, “We pray to Arianrhod, the Queen of the Night, to assist us with carrying out this sentence. Arianrhod, we beseech you. Arianrhod, come to us!” 

For a moment the large amethyst cabochon embedded in her tiara glowed with a vibrant purple light. At the same time the glow faded from the stone, another glow began to grow.

It came from the other arch, the one at the opposite end of the clearing; the one that I’d never seen used by anyone, and was shrouded in darkness. Half the fairy lights flew over to form a canopy covering the other circle in the clearing.

Dariene whispered, as if awed like the rest of us, “Arianrhod, come to us!”

The amethyst-colored glow grew and seeped out from under the arch. It formed a growing cloud, which added fuzzy stripes of color as it moved farther into the clearing. One color shifted into the next, as if the clouds were made up of layers of airy fabric. The light purple changed to a light blue, followed by a medium blue, then a midnight blue which was dotted with sequins like far off stars on a clear night. The colored stripes undulated as if held aloft by a breeze under dozens of silk petticoats, with the midnight blue being the sequined velvet dress on top. The colored clouds squeezed through the narrow opening of the arch and spread out, forming a pyramid shape of colors. Three large diamonds set in a row emerged next, forming a belt. After the belt came a ruffled bodice of deep violet before two arms and a ruffled neck became visible. The last part of the goddess to emerge was her head.

Her silver skin glittered. Her heart-shaped and fine-boned face held deep violet eyes echoing my own. I would have been disturbed by the coincidence in our eye color if I wasn’t so mesmerized by her visitation. With a pop, her flowing long, wavy locks of navy blue hair topped with an intricate silver filigree tiara slid through the portal and completed the entrance of Arianrhod.

Since I’d always assumed the deities referred to by clan members were allegorical and not actual, the surprise paralyzed me. I glanced at Evan and Fiona for support. Connor McCoy’s mouth remained wide open and it echoed other reverent mouths in the clearing.

Fiona’s mouth, however, remained closed. Under her breath she said, “I would have worn the bodice off the shoulder, if it were me. I don’t care for all those frills. It reminds me of Queen Elizabeth the First. They’re probably scratchy, too.”

The Queen of the Night floated a few feet above the ground to the altar and addressed Dariene. “Daughter, why have you summoned me?”

I figured goddesses probably had pretty full schedules and were inclined to get straight to the point.

Dariene bowed low in supplication. “My Goddess, we wish to perform the Ritual of Transfer and require your assistance.” 

Yup
…nobody’s messing around with the deity by using euphemisms or idle chitchat.

Arianrhod turned her attention to the altar. She said, “Was the nyad made sick by the actions of this man?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Then so be it.” 

The Goddess lifted her arms in the air and held her palms face down over Easnadh. She announced, “May the afflictions placed upon you by the actions of another be removed from your body.” 

She floated over Jeremy Rogers and said, with condemnation in her voice, “And may you carry the burdens you have created.”

She lowered her arms until her hands were mere inches from his prone form. She moved them from his head to his toes. Then floating backward she said, “It is done.”

Everyone in the clearing got down on their knees and bowed to the Goddess. I followed their actions only about a half beat behind the others, but I was out of sync enough that she saw me. My mouth went dry as she approached and either I squeezed Evan’s hand or he squeezed mine. The circulation to my fingers had been cut off because we held onto each other so tightly.

“And who, child, are you?”

I tried to swallow past the lint ball stuck in my throat so I could answer. Eventually, I croaked out, “I’m Maggie.”

“Maggie, you have my eyes. What is your lineage?”

“Uhm,” was it possible to lie to a Goddess?  I decided I’d better not try. “My mother is Shannon MacDougall.”

“So, you will be the next Great Healer. I am gratified to hear this news. I worried she would defy me and marry that Seer…what was his name?  Anyway, whom did she eventually marry?  Was it another member of the Cacapon Clan?  Who is your father, dear?”

“Matt…Matthew Stewart,” even as I answered her question, I knew I was in trouble.

“Blasphemy!  That lying wench…WHERE ARE THEY!  I will search their life essences. Once I have been introduced to a person, I remember them forever. There is nowhere in this world they can hide from me!” 

This attitude toward my parents made me more pissed and less terrified. I was painfully aware that Evan had long since dropped my hand and stepped away from the conflict, so I told her, “My father is dead. There’s nothing you can do to him now.”

“Where is your mother?”

“Not here,” I stood defiantly against her wrath. If she wanted to hurt me just because I existed, she would. Nothing would stop her, but I wasn’t going to sell out my mother, no matter what. Just beyond the Queen, I saw Evan and Fiona talking animatedly to Dariene. Dariene was talking to Easnadh, who sat up and looked much better than she had in weeks. Evan helped Easnadh down from the altar, and the four of them approached Arianrhod.

Dariene addressed the Goddess. “Your Grace, you should know this girl solved the mystery of what ailed our sister of the stream. Maggie tracked down the culprit and brought him to justice. Without her help, the balance of nature would be greatly disturbed.”

Arianrhod floated backward so Dariene and I stayed in her peripheral vision. Buach had fallen in behind Dariene.

She challenged him, “Is this so?”

Buach answered her calmly, without any sign that he felt intimidated at all. “It is true. The young Healer has great strength and will be an important member of her clan someday. We know this to be true.” 

I was heartened by his words.

“But how is it that this child has magic, if she is the result of the union between a Healer and a Seer?”  Arianrhod addressed this question to Dariene.

“I could not say, Your Grace. I did not see this child in any visions. She must not be a threat to your reign.” 
Ah, Dariene is a Seer, like Evan
. It explained why she dressed in purple.

“Very well,” the Queen of the Night replied, “she may live. I will let her mother live as well. For now…”  Her eyes narrowed. “Tell me, little-yet-fierce Maggie, do you have siblings?”

My mind raced. She said once she was introduced to someone she could track them. Did that mean if she was never introduced to someone, she didn’t know they existed?  I had to do everything in my power to protect my brother.

I prepared myself to look a Goddess in the eye and tell a bold-faced lie straight to her face. “No, I am an only child and my father is dead, so there will be no others from their union.”

“Then this encounter is concluded. For your bravery and your accomplishments in protecting the balance of nature on Earth, you have my gratitude. However…on any given night, little Maggie, I might look down on you. I will be watching.” 

The coldness in her tone left no doubt in my mind. I might not have made an enemy this night, but I certainly did not make a friend.

Arianrhod floated back to her portal at the far side of the clearing and reversed the process of squeezing herself back into the heavenly realm. Once she had disappeared entirely, I started to shake. I didn’t cry, but I couldn’t control the convulsions racking me.

Dariene reached out and wrapped her arms around me to calm my nerves. Everyone else pulled away from me. She pulled me into a close embrace and whispered in my ear. “Don’t worry, young Healer. You have saved our sister of the stream and we owe you a life-debt. Neither I, nor any in my service, will ever reveal the secret of your sibling to Arianrhod. You are safe with us. Go in peace with fairy blessings.”