The First Spell Weaver of Airendell: Book Two of the Airendell Chronicles (2 page)

The group is much smaller than yesterday before Aideen attacked her own mother.  Everyone seems more than a little reserved and tense.  Morna watches the group speculatively.  There’s George and his granny, Maria, the two Stone Breakers that have joined their group to battle whoever or whatever force is trying to upset the balance between good and evil in the world of magic.  As well as Brian, Brigid, Elias, Carrick, Fionn, and Breena the Spell Weavers and the young vamp, Damian, whose been roped into acting as Morna’s bonded protector in the dining hall.

Morna finishes her food, gets up, cleans her dishes, and gets more coffee.  On the way back to the table she hears Carrick say, “Morna, I wish you had been able to learn more from the creature on that other plane before you disposed of it.”

“Me too, Carrick.”  Morna admits ruefully.  “I have been thinking that was a mistake ever since I came back.  That creature was afraid of me.  More than it should have been if it was acting alone to attack my mind like that.  I mean why didn’t it just attack me that way again when I confronted it?  Something was off.  We are missing something.  I just can‘t figure out what.  I should have been smarter, more patient.” 

Morna sighs and scrubs her face hard with her hands and winces from the harsh contact on the still tender bruising.  “Maybe I should have gone after that golden woman that I saw in the distance, as well.  But I was worried about all the blood I was losing and thought it might be a trap.”

“I wasn’t criticizing Morna,” says Carrick.  “Any warrior would have ended it when you did.  You might not have lasted much longer after sustaining that wound.  You lost a great deal of blood.  Whatever that compound was in that creature’s blood and on its claws interfered with your accelerated healing.  You were badly weakened by blood loss.”

Morna nods at Carrick, she knows that he is right.  “I just regret not knowing more about the creature and who got her to attack me.  I just don’t think she acted on her own.  She was far too fearful and I could sense how desperately she wanted her mate,” she admits.  Morna exhales a harsh breath and grouses; “Well, since I wasn’t warrior enough to capture the creature we may never know who was pulling her strings.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Carrick, a fellow Spell Weaver and warrior, along with Morna spend the rest of the day running Damian, Rinda, Breena, Morna’s sister the Clan’s Chronicler, and Brigid, another childhood friend, Spell Weaver and Master Healer, through some defensive drills and discussing strategies to defend the Gateway with their fellow Spell Weavers.

At one point when Breena had put Rinda on her ass a couple of times Morna decides to pair Breena and Damian.  Carrick joins Morna and asks if she thinks that pairing is really wise.  Morna laughs and responds; “Well, they will either burn off their frustrations on each other or end up in the sack like Luca and I always did when we used to spar against each other.”

After ten minutes of watching them spar Morna laughs and says; “Breena, your abilities as a demon and vampire slayer must been greatly exaggerated or else you are holding back.  I know the boy is holding back because he’s too damned chivalrous for his own good… What’s your excuse?”

“Bite me, Morna,” Breena snaps out.

Morna laughs, “Oh big sis, you really don’t want me to do that.  My teeth are probably as sharp as the boy’s there.”

Breena tosses the stave to ground and is in Morna’s face before anyone can bat an eye.  “Stop calling Damian the boy.  He’s not a boy.”

Morna is surprised by her sister’s ire.  “Shit, Bree!  Chill out.  I was just messing with the two of you.”

“Well, knock it off,” Breena snarls before turning to snatch up the stave and return to sparring with the young vamp.  It becomes obvious to everyone that Breena and Damian had both been holding back because now seem to be sparring in earnest.

The rest of the afternoon goes by fairly calmly.  When Morna is finally so exhausted that she knows she must sleep, she bids everyone good night and heads for her quarters.  She’s reluctant to admit just how badly her injuries had weakened her.

After a quick shower she lies across the narrow bed and sobs pitifully.  She is worried about her children, especially Aideen.  And fearful that her mate may never be able to forgive her for all the mistakes she has made.  Suddenly, she feels someone crawl on to the bed beside her.  For a split second she rejoices thinking that Luca has returned.  But she quickly recognizes Rinda’s scent.  She heaves a frustrated sigh and turns to face her dear friend.

“What’s wrong Rinda?”  Morna asks woodenly.

“Nothing is wrong, love.  I just wanted to check on you.  You have been dealing with a lot of shit lately and I know you must be hurting very badly.  Emotionally as well as physically,” Rinda says softly as she gently rubs Morna’s back.

Morna tenses at her touch, and says, “I am, but I really don’t want to talk about it with you.”

Rinda stiffens up and pulls back, “What the hell, Morna?  I just came to see how you are doing.  Do you think that I am trying to seduce you or something like that?”

Morna suddenly feels bad for how she worded her rebuff and reaches out to touch her dear friend on her arm.  “No, love.  Not at all.  I am just hurting too much to talk to anyone about it.  It felt like Rinda the therapist had come to see me, not Rinda my friend.  Just hang out with me for a while.  But I just can’t talk about this mess I have made with Luca right now.  I really screwed up bad this time and it’s just too raw to talk about.”

“Okay love.  Tell me about your babies, or will that hurt too much?” Rinda asks gently.

“No not all.  Now that I know they are alive and my heart sings with joy.  I miss them like crazy.  But missing them is so much easier to take than believing them dead.”  Morna gets up and grabs her huge purse and quickly retrieves her wallet.  She deftly pulls out several pictures of each child to show Rinda.  Each photo has frayed edges and it is obvious that Morna has pulled them out her wallet many, many times during the months that she thought her children were dead.

Morna had believed for eleven months that her children were dead.  But recently she had learned that her babies were safe in the care of the Light Elves in Alfheim, their ancient home realm.  Morna longs to see her children but knows the Elves won’t allow her to do that until she has removed the threats to their safety because several prophesies predict her children will do much to protect mankind and maintain the peace among Immortals.  Morna and her supporters have been trying to figure out exactly who is behind the threats and plan on neutralizing their enemies when they do. 

Morna is certain that her own Mother, Magdrid, is one of the persons behind all of the tragedies she has endured for nearly six hundred years since Kyera cursed her for killing that witch’s mate after he had attacked Luca.  Magdrid is the current First Spell Weaver of Airendell, the Clan’s leader.  She is very powerful and resentful of own children because Morna was foretold to become stronger than Magdrid and is fated to take over as First Weaver.  Morna and others believe that Magdrid is behind the attacks on her children; Aiden who Morna had believed had died mysteriously after several vicious seizures, and Kyle and Nora who presumably had perished in the violent crash that nearly killed Morna and wrecked her body. 

They are also convinced that Magdrid was holding Luca, Morna’s true mate, in a trance when that ancient vampire attacked him in 1435.  Morna had come upon them before her mate was killed and destroyed the vampire.  She nursed Luca and fed him her own blood to keep him alive as the venom from the ancient one turned him into a Stone Cold vampire. 

Kyera was the vampire’s mate, and she put a curse on Morna in revenge for Morna’s killing the murderous vampire.  That curse caused Morna to die and be repeatedly reborn as a mortal with no knowledge of her true origins, her abilities nor of her mate, Lucian Michaels. 

Aideen was the child that Morna had given birth to the day she died the first time.  Kyle, Aiden and Nora are the children she gave birth to when married to a mortal named Rolan Montfort in this latest incarnation.

Morna proudly displays pictures of a beautiful little girl for Rinda.  “This is my little Tyrant, Nora.” 

Rinda gasps, “Morna! She looks just like you did at that age, except for the eyes.  Amazing!”

“She behaves much better than I did at that age.”  The two lifelong friends laugh at that statement.  “She is the sweetest, most even tempered child I have ever met.  Nothing ever surprises that kid.  She is an amazingly talented artist too.  From the very first time she picked up a pencil to draw a picture, you could tell exactly what it was meant to be.”

“She’s a gem Morna.  You must be proud.”

“I am.  I have to confess that I wondered if I would be able to bond to her when I carried her.  I conceived her when Rolan raped me.”  Morna shuts her eyes and shudders at the memory.  “We had been drifting apart for years and finally one night he caught me unaware and screwed me from behind, pinning me to the floor.”  Morna chokes a little on the horrible memory.  She quickly calms herself and says, “Aiden was in the room so I didn’t fight him.  I didn’t want to frighten my poor little man any more than he already was, but it was horrible Rinda.  I have never felt more worthless, or dirty in my life.  I almost killed the sorry bastard later that night, but Aiden started crying in his bedroom and Kyle called my name in his sleep.  I came to my senses and just told him to leave and never come back.  Rinda, I could have easily slit his throat and I would have never lost a moment’s rest over it.” Morna whispers fiercely.

“He sounds like a pig.  He would have gotten what he deserved if you had.” Rinda spits vehemently.

Morna chuckles and leans over lightly kisses her friend.  “You always make me feel better Rindy.”

“No one has called me Rindy in centuries.  Well, except for Fionn.  I think he does it just to piss me off.”  Rinda laughs.  “God Morna I have missed you so much!”

“Me too love!” 

Rinda wants to distract Morna from the foul memories of her former husband’s attack and asks; “Why do you call Nora the Tyrant?”

“Family joke.  I suspect she has a touch of the seer’s gift.  She was rarely surprised by anything and used her knowledge to manipulate people and situations to get her way.  My oldest son called her a tyrant one day and it stuck.”  Morna smiles at her memories and then says; “Let me show you my boys.  They are beautiful.”

Rinda gasps when she sees the most recent photo that Morna has of Aiden, “He looks like Ari!  It must be so hard for you to look at Ari when he is in original form.  He looks sweet Morna.”

“He is.  I am so excited now that I realize I am part of a magical clan of healers.  What if we can heal my baby boy?  That would be… a gift from God!”  Morna sighs happily at the thought.  “He probably won’t live very long if we can’t.  His health is very poor.  He is so very frail.”

“He might ascend, like Ari.” Rinda offers hopefully.  Rinda doesn’t have the heart to remind Morna that brain injuries are very hard for their healers to heal.  That’s why their friend Brigid became a neurosurgeon, to learn all that she could about healing injuries to the brain.

“My babies are half mortal… who knows if it’s even possible.  I should have started training them in our lore when they were toddlers…  So many missed opportunities, just because I didn’t even know who in hell I am!” Morna says sadly.

“That’s hardly your fault Morna Glynn!”  Rinda chides gently.

“Morna Glynn Michaels,” Morna corrects automatically.  And then blushes when Rinda laughs happily.  Morna laughs too and pulls out her pictures of her oldest child.  “This Kyle.  My oldest.”

“Morna, he is so handsome!  He looks a lot like your Father,” Rinda says enthusiastically.

Morna nods.  “He does, doesn’t he?”  She smiles at the picture before adding; “He is so damned smart.  Like genius smart.  And he has always been such a good, good kid.  He’s very level headed and perceptive.”  Morna smiles and says, “He gave me purpose when he was born.  My babies are the best thing I did in this lifetime.  I am so grateful to God that they still live, Rinda!”

“I can only imagine what you have been through Morna.”  Rinda says softly as she starts rubbing Morna’s back gently. 

Soon Morna and Rinda are talking about their adventures and misadventures as girls.  Before long Rinda has snuggled up to Morna and goes sound asleep.  Morna lies there holding Rinda.  All of her memories of Rinda have come back as they reminisced.  Morna is grateful that Rinda didn’t bring up how intimate the relationship between the two women had actually been before Morna met Luca.  She’s hurting too bad right now over Luca leaving, and she would not have been able to handle any discussion of that time of her life.  But she has to admit, it is nice to hold Rinda like this.  She leans in and kisses Rinda’s lips softly before she too drifts off to sleep.

DAY FIFTEEN - March 14             

The next morning Morna and Rinda go to breakfast together.  Rinda had just reminded Morna of a prank they had pulled on Shamus, the head of the Elders when they were kids.  And Morna is still chuckling as they enter the dining room.

Morna makes plans with Rinda, Fionn and Micah for them to go check on the girls at The Bridge.  She goes back to her room to get her note pad.  She wants to send a note to Carlisle about her friends back there and things that she wants him to do to provide for them.  She also wants to thank him for looking out for the girls and Mike while she is at the Gateway.