The Immortal Realm (19 page)

Now Tania understood: Eden had called on her Mystic Arts to travel swiftly across Faerie on the horse of air—as Oberon had done when he had transported Tania and her Mortal parents to Bonwn Tyr.

Tania got to her feet. The flames had died away at Eden's back, leaving no sign of scorching on the long white carpet.

“I bear great and terrible tidings!” Eden declared. She walked to the throne and knelt at her father's feet. “My lord King, the plague rampages throughout the Immortal Realm. I have seen it! All of Faerie suffers. The sickness is everywhere!”

“No!” gasped Titania. “By all the spirits, Eden,
no
!”

For the first time ever Tania heard real fear in the King's voice. “You say you have seen it, my daughter?”
he asked, leaning forward, his fingers gripping the arms of the throne. “What have you seen? Speak quickly, child.”

“I departed this place in bird form yesterday,” said Eden. “I meant to fly to the palace and seek in Sancha's library for answers to this plague.”

“And did you find what you sought?” interrupted Rathina.

“Aye, I think mayhap I did!” said Eden solemnly. “But I found more. I found that the plague was rife in the palace. Some few had already died and many were ill. But worse news was to come! They told me that travelers had been arriving for several days—and that most were sick and in search of healing.” Eden paused for a moment. “I reverted to bird form, this time taking on the shape of a peregrine falcon so that I could traverse the miles more swiftly. And I saw such horrors! In every town and village I visited our people were suffering.”

She stood up, lifting her hand high and making a slow, sweeping gesture. Where her arm passed, the air flickered and an oval of white light opened with ragged, sparking edges.

“Behold the Mirror of the Falcon's Eye!” said Eden.

Tania gasped as a scene appeared in the floating oval disc.

It was a village of thatched cottages and stone-built houses. But something was wrong. Some of the houses were on fire, the thatched roofs burning with a pall of
thick black smoke, flames gouting from windows and doors. The earthen streets were deserted save for a few people wrapped in thick cloaks, their faces masked against the smog. They were pulling handcarts along.

Rathina let out a cry of dismay, her hands coming to her face.

The carts were full of corpses.

Titania watched, horror-struck.

“How did I not know of this?” The King gasped. “What mischief has shrouded my soul from the anguish of my people?”

“They burn the plague houses in their terror,” said Eden. “The dead are left alone on hilltops to make the journey to Albion without rite or ceremony. The sick are locked away or cast out of their homes. All of Faerie is in turmoil!”

“And while Faerie is ravaged by this Mortal devilry, we debate still over the fate of its progenitor!” shouted Aldritch, pointing at Tania. “Rid us of this thing, sire. Send her to Ynis Maw!”

“No!” Eden cried. “This blight is not of Tania's doing!”

“How do you know this?” asked Cornelius. “Do you have proof?”

“I do,” said Eden, her eyes turning compassionately to Tania. “Your Mortal father did not bring this illness into Faerie, Tania,” she said. She gestured toward the dreadful image that hung above them. “You see before you the village of Karkenmowr. It lies beyond
the River Dwan in the north of Minnith Bannwg. The plague has been stalking this and many another northern village for days now. And it has taken hold in the west and the east, too.” She made a flicking gesture of her hand and the vision vanished.

“This is no Mortal disease,” she said. “The plague has swept over the length and breadth of this land in but a few days.” Her eyes glowed like blue fire. “This sickness has not been visited upon us from some other Realm. The plague is a thing of
this
world!”

“The disease didn't come from Earth!” said Connor. He stared at Tania. “I let myself be trapped in this madhouse for
nothing
!”

Tania could hardly grasp what Eden was saying.
After everything they told me, after everything they made me believe, the disease has nothing to do with me or my parents?

“That is not possible!” declared Lord Aldritch. “Not in ten thousand years has such sickness erupted in Faerie!”

“I said not that it came from
within
Faerie, my lord,” Eden responded. “But there can be no doubt that an ill wind of
this
world has blown it to our fair shores.”

“Blown on an ill wind, you say?” asked Cornelius. “But from whence?”

“That I cannot say,” said Eden.

“No!” demanded Aldritch. “I will not believe such a thing!” His eyes glittered dangerously. “Princess Eden seeks to absolve her sister of blame. Had the plague
been already in Weir, I would have known of it.”

“You departed Caer Liel ere it struck,” said Eden. “Had you remained in your stronghold but half a day longer, you would have felt its evil breath upon your neck, my lord. And had you not traveled the straight road south, doubtless you would have heard the lamentations of its victims in many a hamlet and village upon the way.”

“And still I say you forswear yourself so that the escutcheon of the House of Aurealis should bear no smirch!” shouted Aldritch. “Sire, how do you countenance such falsehoods!”

The King didn't reply. Tania looked at him; he seemed stunned by Eden's fearful vision, his face pale, his eyes unseeing.

“How did I not know?” he murmured. “How
could
I not know?”

“I believe that the same dark force that brought this evil upon us has also worked to blind you to its progress, Father,” said Eden.

“A dark force, indeed!” cried Aldritch. “I see the dark force.” He pointed at Tania. “It stands before me. Do not be deceived, sire. The Princess Eden seeks to protect the half-thing with her lies! Mayhap they work this malevolence together. Mayhap they—”

“No more, my lord of Weir!” the King roared, half rising from his throne, his face dark with wrath. “You will cast no doubts upon the word of the Princess Eden!”

“Oberon, take care!” cried Titania, stepping forward to support the King as he stumbled. “You are weak, my lord.”

“Aye, but not so weak as to suffer my own children to be malspoken thus!” said the King. “Nay, not even by so puissant a lord as Aldritch of Weir.”

Lord Aldritch rose to his full height, his eyes disdainful. “Will you not proclaim the fate decreed upon the Princess Tania by the Conclave of Earls, your grace?” he said, his voice cold and haughty.

“You cannot do that, Father!” cried Rathina. “The earls did not know the truth of the matter!”

“Indeed they did not, my lord Aldritch,” said Titania.

“I will not do it,” said the King. “The verdict was false!”

“So be it,” said Aldritch. “Then I depart this court forthwith, and all my folk with me.” He turned and shouted, “Captain Chanticleer! Come forth!” He looked at Tania, and there was hatred in his eyes. “You are the wellspring of turpitude and vice,” he snarled. “Choose what your sister says, I have no doubt but that you do us great harm! Were it not for you, Tania Aurealis, my son would still be alive! You are a sorcerer and a corrupter of men's hearts—and I will have nothing more to do with a court that seeks to defend you!” His voice rose. “I repudiate this court. I quit this place! Never more shall Weir show fealty to the House of Aurealis!” He glared at Oberon. “Your days as my overlord are ended!” He strode to the door, leaving a
shocked silence in his wake; a silence broken only by Connor's subdued voice.

“Wow! I should have brought some tranquilizers with me,” he murmured. “That guy is off his head!”

Tania stared after the lord of Weir. She had never thought of him as a friend, but to hear him blame her for Gabriel's death! How could he think such a thing? She hadn't enticed Gabriel Drake to do the things he had done; she had been his victim, not his evil seducer! And the fact that he would accuse Eden of lying to cover for her was just as bad.

She saw Edric appear at the open doorway to the Throne Room.

“My lord?”

“Get you to our quarters, Captain Chanticleer. Tell Master Hollin and his folk to prepare for immediate departure. We will board his ship ere the sun is a hand's breadth higher in the sky, and we will turn forever our backs upon this place!”

Edric stood unmoving as Aldritch stalked up to him.

“Well, captain? Are my instructions unclear?”

“No, my lord…but…” He glanced past Lord Aldritch and his eyes met Tania's. She almost ran to him, but then he bowed his head. “No, my lord,” he said. He marched out of sight, leaving Tania feeling as if her heart had been clawed out of her chest.

The Throne Room door slammed on the lord of Weir.

“Your grace, what peril does this thing foreshadow?”
asked Cornelius. “Is Weir now our enemy?”

“Nay, brother,” said the King, sitting wearily back into the throne, Titania's hands on his arm to help him. “We need not fear Lord Aldritch. Let him cool his wrath upon the open ocean. Wiser counsels may prevail when our present concerns are done.” He turned his eyes on Eden. “And as to that, what more can you tell us, my daughter?”

Connor moved closer to Tania. “What just happened?” he said. “Tania, what kind of place have you brought me to?”

Tania looked at him. “I'm so sorry,” she said, her soul weighed down with contrition for the harm she had done him. “But I need to hear what Eden has to say.”

“Tania spoke to me of a dream that came to her, my lord,” Eden told the King. “I believe the dream contained a riddle, the unraveling of which may reveal a possible cure to the plague. And it seemed that the answer lay in the enigma of the Lost Caer.”

“Was there ever such a castle?” asked Cornelius. “I thought it but a myth.”

“As did we all, my lord,” said Eden. “And I concede that my search among the archives uncovered no reference to the Lost Caer.” She turned again to the King. “But it seemed to me that mayhap the most ancient texts might hold a clue to our woes, hidden somewhere in the days before days.”

“The days before days?” said Rathina. “Do you mean in the times before the Great Awakening? Surely
no texts exist that can tell of events from before the coming of our father to Fortrenn Quay?”

“Nay, none do,” agreed Eden. “Not in the Royal Library. But I discovered a brief text in the most ancient book of the Faerie Almanac. It speaks of the Helan Archaia and says that it hides a great, forbidden secret.” She looked at the King. “My lord, do you know the meaning of this?”

“I do,” said the King. “Although it is a thing known to few others.” He took a long breath. “None now living can pierce the veil that was drawn across Faerie before the Great Awakening,” he said. “But it is known to some few lords of this Realm—Earl Valentyne among them—that a place exists where it is said that such prohibited knowledge lies hidden. This place is the Hall of Archives—the Helan Archaia—a great stone tower at the heart of Caer Regnar Naal.”

“I, too, have heard of this place,” said Cornelius. “Although it has not been spoken of for millennia and then only in awed whispers. But the secrets within cannot be learned, if memory serves, for the chamber is protected by a great door of Isenmort, fashioned in the deeps of time and encircled with enchantments so that even black amber is no panacea to its venom.”

“It is so,” said Oberon. “The Isenmort Portal cannot be opened by any man or woman Faerie born.”

“I have no fear of Isenmort!” Rathina declared, stepping forward. “If this room exists, then let me go there. I will open the Hall of Archives!”

“The door is too heavy for a single person to open
it,” said the King. “The task is beyond you, Rathina, even were I to sanction it.”

“There must be another way,” said Tania. She looked from Oberon to Eden. “Can't you use your Mystic Arts to get it open?”

“Against Isenmort?” said Eden. “Nay, sister, that is not possible.”

Tania stared from face to face, seeing defeat in everyone's eyes. Was a locked door of iron really going to bar their way to a knowledge that could save the whole of Faerie?

A quiet, trembling voice broke the dismal silence. “Could
two
people do it?” asked Connor.

“Aye, mayhap,” said the King.

“Then I volunteer,” said Connor.

Tania could see the fear in his face. “Connor,
no
!” she said. “You don't have to do this.”

He gave a wan smile. “I might as well make myself useful.”

The King frowned. “This would be a strange happenstance indeed,” he murmured. “That a Mortal man should aid us so?”

“Can I just know one thing for certain?” Connor said. “Am I ever going to get back home?”

“The ways between the worlds have been shut,” said the King. “You have my pity, Mortal, for I see now that you and your kind are innocent in this matter—but there is no power in Faerie to open the portals again.”

“Thanks,” Connor said heavily. “I just needed to
know for sure.” He took a long breath. “So? How dangerous will it be to help with this door?”

“There is no danger to you, Master Connor,” said Eden. “I will bear you and Rathina hence on the horse of air. And the bite of Isenmort will not harm you, of that I can promise.”

“Connor is only here because of me,” said Tania. “I have to go with him.” She turned to Eden. “How soon can we leave?”

“Most soon, to be sure,” said Eden. “But I must first go to my chamber and commune for a brief time with the spirits. I have demanded much from them of late, and I must give thanks.” She turned and ran quickly to the door, pushing it open and disappearing into the corridor.