Beltane

by Alys West

  “But Cat was at Anam Cara in October. I know she’s still really ill and you’ve been away in New Zealand but why were you there in the middle of Sunday night?”

  There was a long moment of silence before Finn said quietly, “Let it go, Zoe.”

  She stared at his familiar features. What more was he keeping from her? Was it something to do with him being a druid, something that – after the way she’d reacted last night – he didn’t think she’d understand?

  Finn picked up her other two dream drawings, studied them again before slowly shaking his head. “It’s one hell of a talent you’ve got, Zoe Rose. You have no idea how good you are.”

  Feeling a burst of pride at his words, she smiled shyly at him. She’d felt burdened by her dreams for so long that it felt amazing to know he valued them. Their gaze locked and Zoe forgot about dreams and doubts as she lost herself in Finn’s eyes. The moment shattered when Winston plonked two cups of coffee on the table in front of them and picked up Zoe’s drawings.

  “They’re remarkable,” he said, after studying them intently. “There are records of seers having visions of this clarity but I’ve not heard of anyone in modern times with a talent like this. And because you’re an artist it’s all down on the page. Every single detail!” He picked up the latest drawing and glanced at Finn. “You’re going to need a knife.”

  Finn nodded. “Looks like it.”

  “And you’ll need to practice cutting the ropes,” Winston said. “Make sure you don’t slit your wrist in the process.”

  “I think I can cut a bloody rope,” Finn said.

  “With your hands tied behind your back?” Winston said. “If you drop the knife then you’re...”

  Finn’s jaw tightened. Glaring at his friend, he interrupted, “I know.”

  Zoe looked between the two men. Recognising the tension in Finn’s face, she knew he didn’t want to talk about this. Picking up the two drawings of the stone circle, she decided to change the subject. “There’s something I don’t get.”

  “What?” Finn said.

  “It’s this leather thong around your neck.” She pointed to it in each of the drawings. “I’ve never seen you wear anything like this. Is it some kind of talisman?”

  “Let me see?” Finn said. Zoe handed the drawings to him. Winston moved to stand beside his friend.

  “Beats me,” Finn said. “It’s not anything I own.”

  “It’s a wee bit girly.” Winston grinned. He leaned down to study the drawing more closely. “It looks like a piece of wood on the thong. Could be some form of protection but it’s not anything I recognise.”

  Zoe looked up at him. “Do you think it’s important?”

  “Could be. But we need to know what it is first.” Winston shrugged. “Add it to the list of things to find out before tomorrow.”

  Finn groaned. “Great.”

  “Time to fire up the laptop.” Winston picked it up off the floor.

  “Have you got an internet connection?” Zoe said. When Winston nodded, she added, “Can you do me a favour and look up the times of coaches from Bristol to London?”

  Before Winston could respond, Finn said, “I’m taking you home.”

  Winston instantly and vehemently opposed that idea, saying it would waste time they needed to prepare for Beltane. Zoe’s immediate reaction was to tell Winston to butt out. The prospect of a few hours alone with Finn was unbelievably precious but then she remembered what Winston had told her. It’d take six, maybe even seven hours for him to make the round trip. Six or seven hours when Finn wouldn’t be learning the skills he needed to keep himself alive.

  Aware of Winston’s gaze, Zoe turned to Finn and told him as gently as she could that she thought his friend was right. “I came on the coach and the bus. I’ll be fine going back that way.”

  “Not the bus,” Finn said. “At the very least, I’m taking you to Bristol and seeing you safely on to the coach to London.”

  Zoe couldn’t argue with that. An hour or so together on the drive to Bristol wasn’t much. It certainly wouldn’t make up for the time she’d hoped they’d have today but, right now, she’d grab with both hands anything that delayed the moment when they had to say goodbye. From behind his laptop Winston shrugged as if to say ‘whatever’.

  “Right, that’s settled then.” Finn stood. “I’m starving. Who wants breakfast?”

  He headed over to the kitchen area. Throwing open the fridge door he said, “I can offer you bacon and eggs. Or for the veggie, eggs and eggs.”

  Zoe laughed. “I’ll have eggs then.”

  “Have a look at this, will you?” Winston gestured at his laptop. Moving to stand behind him, she saw a photograph of a stone circle on the screen.

  “Is this the circle from your dream?”

  “I don’t think so.” Zoe picked up her drawings and held them next to the screen. “The perspective’s different so it’s tricky to compare but I think the fallen stones aren’t in the same places.”

  “Bugger. That was my best guess,” Winston said. “I’ll keep looking.”

  A few steps took her to the kitchen area. “Is there anything I can do?”

  “That depends on how you want your eggs.” Finn tossed a frying pan onto the cooker. “I can do fried or boiled. If you want anything else you’re going to have to cook them yourself.”

  Zoe leaned against the kitchen counter. “I could eat a fried egg sandwich.”

  “Then the only thing I want you to do is stay and talk to me.”

  She smiled. “I can do that.” Except her mind was full of the dark and deadly worries that Winston’s words had created. Did Finn really not know how to use magic to hurt people? Was that something you had to learn? And why had Winston said it went against everything Finn believed in? She decided to start with an easy question and work up. “When did you know you were a druid?”

  “When Padraig told me when I was fifteen,” Finn said, dropping rashers of bacon onto the grill pan.

  “He had to tell you? You didn’t, like, just know?”

  “I knew some strange stuff was happening around me. Electrical equipment had an unhealthy habit of bursting into flames when I got frustrated. I don’t know how many calculators I got through. My parents stopped replacing my computers. Then, one day, I was having a row with Father and everything breakable in the room shattered. That was the final straw for my parents. Father wanted to send me to a boarding school for troubled teenagers. Instead Mum packed me off to Padraig in Donegal. I thought it was some kind of punishment. Turns out she suspected what was happening and had sent me to the only man who could help me.”

  “Because Padraig was a druid too?”

  “Yes. The first few weeks were hell for both of us. I was one angry kid. He had this habit -” Finn smiled affectionately “- of pulling objects out of the air. I thought it was some kind of stupid trick and I felt far too old to be taken in by kid’s stuff like that. But when a tent appeared on the kitchen table halfway through dinner and he told me I was going on a camping trip I realised there was something else going on.

  “He took me to a woodland about thirty miles from his house. There’s not a whole lot of trees in Donegal. These were in a valley with a stream running down the middle. He left me with the tent and enough food for a week. Told me to learn about the earth, the water, the trees and what connected them. I thought he was raving. But when I started to feel the earth pulsing beneath me when I lay down at night I thought I was the one losing my mind. When Padraig came to collect me he asked me if I’d felt anything. It took me a while to come clean. When I did he smiled and said, ‘All these weeks I’ve been thinking you were nothing more than a spoilt eejit. Turns out your mother was right, boy. It is in your blood. You’re a druid’.”

  “Wow!” Zoe said. The word seemed massively inadequate but she couldn’t think what else to say.

  “That was the start.” Finn broke eggs into the sizzling frying pan. “I went back every chance I could after that. Th
e following year, when I was sixteen, I spent another week in the wood to choose my staff. That’s a rite of passage every druid goes through.”

  “What happens?”

  Finn shook his head. “Sorry. Can’t tell you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s a secret druidic ritual passed down from the ancient Celts.”

  “Oh!” Zoe leaned against the kitchen counter and pouted with disappointment. The move had the effect she’d hoped for. Finn wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned towards her. The kiss was slow and lingering. “Nice try but I’m still not going to tell you,” he said.

  “You’re no fun!” Zoe laughed, pushing out her bottom lip.

  “I promise I’m lots of fun,” Finn whispered against her ear, in a low voice that sent goose bumps across her skin.

  Zoe giggled. “Ooh! I like the sound of that.” Just come back so I can find out.

  Stepping out of his arms, she sucked in a deep breath to dispel the panic. Why did Finn have to take on the crone anyway? She understood why he couldn’t go to the police but wasn’t there someone in his world he could turn to? Some kind of magical law enforcement that handled problems like this?

  A few minutes later when they were sitting around the coffee table with plates balanced on their knees, Zoe said, “I know this might sound like a really stupid question but why do you have to deal with Maeve? Isn’t there someone you can call on whose job it is to deal with druids and spellworkers who break the rules?”

  Winston grinned. “You mean like a Ministry of Magic?”

  “Exactly.” Zoe nodded, surprised he understood. She’d thought Harry Potter was maybe a bit low-brow for Winston.

  Winston shook his head. “No. Not anymore.”

  “There used to be,” Finn said. “They were called The Order. A council of five druids and spellworkers elected to uphold our laws. If they were still around they’d have dealt with Maeve.”

  “So where are they?” Zoe said.

  “They’re dead,” Finn said. “They all died on the winter solstice six years ago.”

  “Oh, how awful? What happened? Was it an accident or...” Zoe’s eyes widened, her hand rose to her mouth. “No! Are you saying it was magic?”

  “Yes,” Finn said. “They all died in different ways. Two were apparently natural causes. Bryn Williams had a heart attack, Eve Penbury a brain haemorrhage. Nina Stewart drowned. Harry Field crashed his car into a tree on a road he drove every day. And Tamara Blythe, the newest and youngest member of the Order, just disappeared.”

  Surprised by the regret in Finn’s voice, Zoe said, “You knew them?”

  “I met all of them but it was only Harry that I knew well. He and Padraig went way back.”

  “And as we have no idea who did it or how it was done there’s been a serious of lack of volunteers to form a new Order,” Winston said.

  “But why would anyone do that? Why kill all those people?” Zoe said.

  “I have no idea. Even after all this time no one does although there’s no shortage of theories,” Finn said. “But that’s the reason there’s no one for us to go to. Why we have to deal with this ourselves.”

  “But you’ve never done anything like this,” Zoe said. “Isn’t there someone, anyone you can ask for help?”

  “I did. He’s right here.” Finn glared at Winston. “And that was information he wasn’t supposed to share.”

  “Too late, mate. Get over it.” The Scot shrugged.

  “So you’ve done this before?” Zoe said to Winston.

  There was a moment of hesitation before he said, “Sure.”

  “And you can teach Finn how to defend himself?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Zoe looked between the two of them. Winston winked at her, slumped in his chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Finn leant forward, knees apart, hands resting on his legs. They looked confident. So why did she feel like they were suddenly conspirators? “There’s something you’re not telling me,” she said slowly.

  There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Winston shrugged as if to say ‘your problem, mate’. Finn nodded pointedly in the direction of the kitchen. Taking the hint, Winston picked up the empty plates. “I’ll be over there doing the washing up.”

  “Winston knows what he’s doing,” Finn said. “He’s faced evil and come out alive. He’s going to keep me safe.”

  “But he said you’d never used magic to hurt anyone before, that it goes against everything you believe in.” Zoe spoke low and urgently. “How long will it take you to learn? Is that what you don’t want to tell me? That there’s not enough time?”

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “We’ve got time. Don’t worry about that. When sunset comes tomorrow I’ll be ready.”

  “Couldn’t you just do it the easy way and shoot her before she gets to the stone circle?” Zoe said.

  “Wouldn’t that solve our problems!” Finn laughed briefly and mirthlessly. “But no, it won’t work. Any half decent spellworker can generate an energy field that keeps them safe from bullets. The only way to stop them is to destroy that field.”

  “So how do you do that?”

  “With magic.”

  Zoe thought for a moment and then said, “But once you destroy their energy field couldn’t you shoot her then?”

  Finn’s eyebrows rose. “I didn’t think you’d be a fan of firearms.”

  “I’m not normally but right now I’m keen on anything that keeps you safe.”

  “I can’t fault that logic.” Finn’s smile was tight and weary. “But it won’t work. If she were concentrating she could stop the bullets or worse send them back the way they’d come. The only sure way to defeat a spellworker is with magic.”

  There were lines of stress around his mouth, his eyes. She reached out and took his hand. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this but I’m…scared for you.”

  “I know. That’s why I should never have dragged you into this. If I’d walked away after we first met then you wouldn’t be going through this now.”

  “Oh, don’t start that again! If I hadn’t met you on Tuesday night I’d have gone back to Anam Cara and who knows what would have happened.”

  “I can have a bloody good guess.” Finn shoved his hand through his hair. “You’re right though, it was too late. Your pictures make that clear. Even before we met you were in this. Right in the middle, dreaming and drawing and changing everything.”

  Zoe searched his eyes. Saw the fear she felt reflected back together with a softness that made her breath catch. “But I didn’t have a clue what I was doing,” she whispered.

  Finn swept a strand of hair away from her face, his fingers lingering on her cheek. “Doesn’t matter.”

  Chapter 27

  Maeve woke to a persistent knocking. Opening her eyes, she said wearily, “Who is it?”

  Helena’s voice came faintly through the door. “I’m sorry to bother you but it’s Penny. She’s ill. Tony’s really worried and he’s insisting on seeing you.”

  Maeve cursed under her breath. She’d been desperate enough yesterday to ignore the potential complications of a concerned spouse. She’d intended to be careful, to limit the amount of energy she’d taken during the healing. Apparently she hadn’t been careful enough. “Tell him I’ll be down shortly,” Maeve said, climbing out of bed. “And come back in ten minutes. I’ll have an infusion ready for Penny.”

  Walking to the window, she jerked the curtains open and sunlight flooded the room. She averted her gaze from the damage to her garden and stared out at the wide sweep of the Levels. By this time tomorrow she’d be far from here, ready to embark on her new life and these petty troubles would be forgotten.

  Returning to the table she filled the kettle from a bottle of local spring water and switched it on. She stared for a moment at the canisters on the shelves. The infusion must revive Penny enough for her to leave. She needed uninterrupted space to prepare for the Beltane ritual.
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  Taking down three canisters - angelica to renew energy, borage to speed recovery and ginger to remove pain – she spooned the appropriate amounts into a mug. After pouring in boiling water, she reluctantly placed her hand over it to infuse the contents with a little of her own energy, just sufficient to have the desired effect. Then she left it to cool.

  She walked over to the mirror, gazed critically at the wizened wreck of her face. She’d been doing this spell for decades. From tomorrow she wouldn’t need it anymore. She’d be strong enough to permanently turn back the years, to restore the looks she’d lost to grief.

  Placing the mug of infusion on a tray, she put it outside the door. Then she poured spring water into a silver bowl and cast a circle. Above the centre of the circle she suspended from a hook in the ceiling the poppet she’d made yesterday.

  Speaking the words to invoke the goddesses, Maeve lifted the silver bowl and passed her athame three times over it deosil. Then she spoke the words of the spell, “Once, twice, three times by this blade by the mighty winds and the boundless sky, thrice do I charge this water to show me where she be.”

  Slowly, careful to avoid ripples, she raised the bowl until she saw the little doll reflected in the water. An image shivered into being behind the poppet’s reflection. It wavered and clarified until it showed streets and stone buildings. Maeve smiled briefly. She recognised this place. The girl was in Bristol.

  * * *

  Finn bent to put her rucksack and portfolio on the floor and Zoe couldn’t help but appreciate how fit he was. In both senses of the word! He’d carried her luggage during their dash through the streets of Bristol and was barely out of breath whereas she felt unattractively sweaty and red in the face. Not a good look when she was about to say goodbye to him not knowing when - or if - she’d see him again.

  Finn slid his arms around her waist, pulled her into a tight hug. “Well, we made it,” he said. It’d taken longer than they’d anticipated to navigate Bristol’s one way system and they’d had to run from the car park. Only to find when they arrived at the coach station that the National Express to London was ten minutes late.