The Hallowed Knight

by Jenn Stark

  “More like Conal and his followers feel entitled,” I scoffed.

  “Call it entitlement, call it what you will, but the reality of magic falling into the hands of a populace who has grown up in such relative luxury among the developed world is not an ideal situation.”

  “Not all places on Earth are developed. Half the world doesn’t have clean water, yet the entire world was affected by the last surge of the gods. It isn’t only rich white people who got a power boost,” I challenged.

  “Justice Wilde, most of the Neo-Celts haven’t suffered great deprivation,” he harrumphed. “Magicians and sorcerers who have suffered greatly in their lives, assuming they have not been wholly broken like Judgment was, can often handle the advancement of their abilities with far greater discernment. But for those among us who have never suffered and who now have powers at their disposal heretofore unexperienced, powers that are going completely unchallenged… It creates a dangerous environment. The forces of the non-Connecteds will rally against all of us.”

  “You mean like SANCTUS,” I said, referring to the quasi-religious, quasi-governmental hatchet men loosely tied to the Vatican. In my efforts to protect Connecteds from the asshats of the world, I’d nearly been killed by that group several times over, but they hadn’t caused me much trouble of late. “They’re pretty much scattered to the wind.”

  “Organizations like SANCTUS always scatter to the wind, the easier for them to fly back together as one,” the druid observed blandly. “But no. I’m talking about the governments of all major nations. I’m talking about the UN, Interpol. I’m talking about police forces at the federal, state, and city level in your own United States. I’m talking about witch hunts, and I am talking about mass hysteria. It will come. I suspect your Magician has foreseen it. I suspect that’s why he is so eager to bring Temperance back to the Arcana Council, now more than ever.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “That’s an awful lot of information you’ve gathered for a group of guys who hang out in dark closets. Was there a bulletin or something that went out without me realizing it?”

  He didn’t answer, not that I expected him to. I pushed on. “So, since we’re on the subject of Temperance, is the Green Knight a past Temperance reincarnated, or is he his own special snowflake?”

  “An excellent question, and one that any member of your Council who’d been alive when Temperance Wilson was seated, albeit for a brief time, would know. Yet I see not one of them here.” He gestured to Simon, still lounging around on the concrete floor.

  I decided this wasn’t a good time to mention Death punching her ticket for the Emerald Isle. I figured she could make her entrance on her own terms. Still, the druid had a point. What had Armaeus said was the reason for sending me and the Fool on this, well, Fool’s errand? Because Temperance didn’t know us? That had seemed to make so much sense at the time, but now…

  “It’s a simple enough question,” I pressed. “Is the Green Knight a past Temperance reincarnated, yes or no?”

  The druid sighed. “No. I will grant you, the Arcana Council has lost its share of members to the shadows of the In Between, its members and sometimes gifts far more precious. And yes, those who have returned to the light after their long walk in the tomb passages are never quite the same. But Conal McCarthy is no golem from another time. He’s exactly what he seems to be: a druid whose abilities are outstripped only by his hubris. He seeks to bring the dawn of a new age of magic to an Earth that is not ready for it, nothing more. Though that’s certainly enough.”

  “And are all the druids in agreement of that? That Conal is simply Seamus’s son?”

  “We’ve known both him and Niall since they were children. Believe me, Conal’s spirit is far too fresh, too undisciplined to have tasted Council power before.”

  I peered at him. “You speak as if you’ve met a few Council members in the In Between before.”

  He shrugged. “You’re not the first I’ve encountered in these passages, but in all truth, Conal is not Temperance. He’s perhaps the absolute opposite of Temperance. Which introduces a bigger challenge. If he had been the incarnation of Temperance come back to lead the children of Earth on a quest to fully synthesize their magic, which is what Temperance is most skilled at doing, then you could rest assured that a spirit of coexistence would follow. Not a spirit of divisiveness. Not a spirit of anger and outrage and rebellion. That has never been what Temperance has stood for. But that is what we have with the Green Knight.”

  “Green Knight. Not the Hallowed Knight.”

  “Again, we sincerely hope not.”

  I sighed. “Fair enough. So who is he? Beyond the basics.”

  “The man who has dubbed himself the Green Knight came into his ministry only a few years ago, when he was no more than thirty years old. He’s remained remarkably quiet, almost nondescript, until November of this past year.”

  “Of course.” I lifted my fingers to squeeze the bridge of my nose. “That was a banner month for a lot of people.”

  “Since then, a crusade that would ordinarily take months, even years to build has now gained strength in the matter of only a few weeks. Through social media and the arcane web, McCarthy’s followers have built their presence in every developed country and quite a few second- and third-tier nations as well. They are strong and they are eager. And they have no idea what they’re doing.”

  “There’s a lot of that going on all over the world by people far worse,” I countered. “What makes the Neo-Celts such a threat?”

  “The difference is, the Connected are a group without an advocate or an ambassador. Save for the houses of cards, who operate in secret mostly for their own private benefit, there is no consulate for the Connected in any corner of the world. So when they fly their flag, there is no one to defend them as they are struck down. That is the second danger we face with the Green Knight. That his actions will awaken the ire of the non-Connecteds who will react to what they fear as they have reacted throughout time. With chaos and bloodshed.”

  His words shimmered in the room around us, almost a living thing, because of course he was right. This was the same concern that’d been building in my own heart these past several weeks as the Connected of the world woke up to new and greater abilities. Fear had held them back so far, but that wouldn’t last forever. The actions at the Vegas festival had already proven that. We were sitting on a powder keg of roiling, uncontrolled psychic power…

  And the Green Knight wanted to light the fuse.

  If he even got the chance. I had the feeling that the agenda of the Tuatha dé Danann wouldn’t exactly match up with Conal’s once they’d returned to Earth.

  I sighed. “So what was your plan to handle this if I hadn’t shown up?”

  The druid’s chuckle was soft and filled with compassion, and when he spoke, he sounded all too much like Seamus McCarthy, the man who’d started me down this twisted emerald path. “You are the plan, Justice Wilde. You had no choice but to show up.”

  Chapter Twenty

  A rock band started up above us, the sound transmitting into the room via high-fidelity speakers, saving me the trouble of informing this guy that he wasn’t the boss of me. Instead, I glanced up. “Where are we, exactly?”

  The druid nodded. “Directly below the Temple Bar district. One of the most highly trafficked areas in Dublin, and quite crowded, as it happens. You won’t have any trouble blending in with the crowd.”

  I didn’t have much trouble blending, period, but he didn’t need to know that.

  I looked down at the two prone figures. William was still out cold, but the Fool had awoken at some point during our conversation and was gazing up at me, his hands now positioned comfortably behind his head.

  “You have a nice nap?” I asked.

  Simon grinned. “I wondered when you’d get around to noticing me again.” He sat up and crossed his legs, gazing around at the men standing there.

  “Druids?” he guessed
. “You people look way less interesting in real life than you do online, is all I got to say. You might want to check out some cosplay options if you want to get serious about your game.”

  “Noted,” my druid guide murmured drily.

  “You know, I was supposed to be protecting you down here,” I put in.

  “And I feel totally secure,” Simon said, turning back to me. “I’m seriously stoked, for real. I managed to pull some data down about the In Between before William and I were hit with—something. Someone, maybe, but definitely more than just a force field or an overeager wall. It was a physical entity, and it was moving fast. I don’t know enough about those passages to know what all is roaming through them, but I got the impression they extend way farther than we think they do.”

  I looked back to the druid. “How far do these go?”

  “In Dublin itself, the passages start as catacombs that stretch well beyond the bar district and the college district and continue as subterranean passages all the way out to the suburbs. But the doors to the In Between are riddled throughout. Just as you found a doorway into the tomb passages, there are several doorways that lead out, only to open up at points far distant.”

  “Okay, so how distant?”

  “Far enough that we have never fully mapped it,” he said. Which was exactly the answer I’d most been dreading.

  Simon, however, perked right up. “Are you serious? Like there’s a whole Dungeons & Dragons game waiting to happen here? Do you have any idea how exciting that’s going to be to a hell of lotta people?”

  The druid stared quietly at him for a long moment before speaking again. “I suspect it would be interesting, if such information were ever to get out. However, since we have done an excellent job for three thousand years to make sure that that isn’t the case, I feel certain we will be able to forestall such a terrible thing from occurring.”

  Simon scowled. He leaned over to grab his pack and drag it toward him, as if shielding himself from the Luddites harshing his mellow. “And why would that be so bad?”

  “Perhaps because we don’t know what those adventurers would find.”

  That answer did not seem at all satisfying to Simon, but that was an argument for another day. Instead, I helped him up.

  “We’ve got to get going.” I said, then glanced to the druids again. “I get that Conal isn’t Temperance, but a past Temperance isn’t hanging around waiting for us to find him, at least not down here, right? He would’ve shown up by now?”

  The druid nodded. “The appearance of new Arcana Council members in the In Between would have been a beacon of brightest light to any former members. He—any of the former Council—would be inexorably drawn to seek you out.”

  “Or he’s trying to avoid us,” Simon offered up reasonably.

  “Or that,” the druid said. “But your journey has not been in vain. We have not been idle once we understood your plan to come to Ireland. At Seamus’s suggestion, we’ve let word slip out that you had gained access to the In Between earlier today, and where you would most likely emerge. As you may imagine, that has attracted some attention.”

  I blinked. “Just how much time has passed with us down here? It’s felt like only a few hours, but outside…?”

  “To the outside world, mere minutes have passed since you entered the Long Hall of the Trinity College Library. Fortunately, our expectation of your emergence at this time has allowed us to get all the players in place. You’ll definitely be noted the moment you return to the world above.”

  I studied him skeptically. “And how is that a good thing?”

  “The Neo-Celts are, above all, a people in search of signs, Conal first among them. Now they are as much, if not more, interested in finding you as you are in finding them. Beyond that, we’ve sent this information out along the very byways you have just traversed, and whispered it into the winds. If a past Temperance still walks this Earth, or roams the In Between, he will know that you are looking for him.

  “And that’s a good thing?”

  The druid chuckled softly. “Everyone wants to be noticed, Justice Wilde. It’s part of the human condition.”

  “Well, William’s human condition needs to be addressed as well,” I pointed to the poor guy still unconscious on the floor.

  “We’ll see to the librarian,” the druid assured me. “We’ve been watching him for some time.”

  I lifted my brows. William had seen far more than he’d anticipated. Hopefully, the druids knew better than to mess with his memory, if they were even able to do that, which I suspected they were for them to have remained so unnoticed for all this time. However, I had bigger fish to fry, the Green Knight to track down, and Death’s back to cover.

  Looking remarkably satisfied with his sojourn through the In Between, Simon shouldered his pack and gave one last long look around before he and I set off with our druid guide. The doorway at the back of the chamber led to a narrow staircase, which emptied onto a landing with three other doors. The druid pointed to the one on the far left.

  “That will let you out into a storage closet, which in turn will open onto a corridor leading to restrooms. It will be simple enough to affect that you don’t know where you are, because in truth, you don’t,” he said. The man had a point.

  We took our leave immediately after that, and the druid’s words proved true. Within a minute or two, we found ourselves in the midst of a loud and boisterous pub crowd where the patrons stood packed cheek to jowl. I wasn’t going to find anyone here, nor would they seek me out. We needed to get outside. I began pushing my way through the crowd, not trying to draw any attention by clearing it with magical means, and Simon quickly peeled away from me. I could only keep sight of him by tracking his enormous pack through the crowd. A few minutes later, he ended up back beside me again as I neared the front door, clutching two pints in his hands.

  “There’s a courtyard out back that looks promising,” he said with a grin, waggling his brows.

  I wasn’t sure what promising looked like to a man holding two pints of Guinness, but I followed him out into the open and had to agree. The space was cool, well lit, and inviting, and had so few people milling about that it had to have been cordoned off for VIPs.

  Simon unshouldered his pack, then took a long swig of his Guinness. “Look like you belong,” he said, glancing around at the decidedly nontouristy group we’d just crashed. “Nine times out of ten, no one will bother you, and if they do, you can tell them you’re waiting for the Green Knight. That’s almost always how it goes down, I’m telling you.”

  A high, clear voice rang out. “Justice Wilde.”

  “Or, you can do that.” Simon shrugged. He turned to take in the woman who stood a good ten feet away from me. Whether she was cognizant of my need for personal space or not sure if she was supposed to call security, I didn’t know. I also didn’t respond, and the woman’s stern demeanor turned a little more hesitant.

  “You are Justice Wilde, aren’t you? My name is Patricia James, and I’m very glad to meet you. We were told to expect you.”

  “Out here? With a beer in hand?”

  Now her face did crack into a smile. “Well, it seemed the most likely place, given your companion.” She turned to Simon. “We have long been fans, Druid Simon. When you whispered of your new adventure, we could not stop talking about it.”

  I shot him a look. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “My outfit is so much better, you cannot even believe,” he assured me. He grinned at the woman and raised his Guinness. “You’re with the Green Knight?”

  “I’m proud to serve.” Patricia lifted one fist to her chest and tapped lightly, and I was struck by the familiarity of that gesture. Where I had seen that before, Star Trek? Sometime more recent?

  “Is he here?” I asked.

  “Soon. He wasn’t at all sure that you would come. He has summoned you before now, to no avail.”

  “He has?” I’d onl
y had this job since November. I was pretty sure I would’ve remembered somebody calling himself the Green Knight if he’d come shooting into my office via pneumatic tube. “Recently?”

  She tilted her head. “Last summer solstice was the most recent attempt. He’d planned for a renewed request this winter solstice, but the Happening occurred instead.”

  I winced. The Happening. Great. “What exactly, ah, happened here in Dublin for that, anyway?”

  “We were blessed to be standing in a circle of stones when the lights assaulted the heavens and the world was split wide and made whole again,” Patricia said, her words almost hushed, reverent. I didn’t know exactly what she meant, but I didn’t need it to be spelled out any clearer. They’d been paying attention.

  “And were you surprised? Or had you known it was coming?”

  She smiled. “None of us knew it was coming, not even Conal. He proclaimed it both a miracle and a sign. And when reports came in from all over the world that those among us who were Connected had experienced a flowering of our abilities in many ways, we believed with him that the time to act was now. His ministry has been in place for years, but that moment was when it became real, you know?”

  “Right.” I took a long draught on my beer. “And what is your role in his, ah, ministry?”

  “You could call me his chief of staff. I coordinate the online ministry, correspond with all members of the order, and recruit. It all equates to a lot of time online, some of which is spent waiting for people to get back to me.” Patricia eyed Simon again, her cheeks coloring in the bright glow from the outdoor lights. “When the waiting gets to be too long, I’ve been known to explore the arcane web for rumors of the newest video games released by Arcon Entertainment.”