Her eyes were as wide and as sincere as I’d ever seen them.
Nuadha broke the moment. “Traitor! Give me that sword!” I could see the hunger in his eyes and I stepped back, taking my mother with me. “Nope, can’t do that. It’s mine.”
He snarled, “Give it to me now!”
Darcy and I scrambled back, Nuadha following. I didn’t want to have to fight him, I knew I couldn’t win on skill alone, and I’d kill him if I just used my powers.
“Nuadha, stand down!” An older man stepped into sight, Luke at his side. I couldn’t stop the grin that split my face when I saw him. He gave me a salute and a wink.
Nuadha froze, a snarl twisting his lips. “You will not take my place.”
“I don’t want it,” I said.
“It’s not a choice you or I make!” he roared. His face was mottled red and white with his rage, and he didn’t lower his hand.
The man who had stopped him shook his head. “Nuadha, this is a decision for the whole council. . . you have let your fear rule you.”
I saw the moment that Nuadha made his decision, saw the calm acceptance that he would end this now.
Crap, crap, crap. I pushed Darcy down and sprinted towards Bres. Darcy screamed behind me, “Nuadha, no!”
It was the only warning I had. I dropped to the ground as a power bolt sizzled over top of my head. Leaping to my feet, I made it to Bres and smashed through the Barrier with Carnwennan.
Bres shouldered me aside, “Stay out of ta way!” as Nuadha rushed us.
Three strides behind Nuadha was Luke, pulling his sword free of his scabbard. Nuadha glanced over his shoulder. “Good, Luke, keep Bres busy.”
Nuadha never saw the blow coming. Luke smashed the hilt of his sword into the back of Nuadha’s head, dropping him to the ground in an unconscious heap.
“What the hell was that about?” I gasped out, adrenaline coursing through my veins.
Luke snapped his fingers. “Guards, put him in chains. Now.” There was no arguing that voice. The power and Charm that he put into his words made doubly certain that he was obeyed.
Guards milled about, putting Nuadha into chains before he came to.
Luke stared after Nuadha. “He’s been off the whole time I’ve been back. He’s not the leader I remember him to be.”
Bres shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. “I know what happened to him.”
Everyone paused what they were doing, looked to Bres for the understanding of Nuadha’s sudden madness.
“Chaos.”
13
With Nuadha in chains, we made our way to a tent city the Tuatha had set up. The largest structure in the middle of the makeshift camp was the Council’s and Nuadha’s. The Council hushed us all on the way there.
I tried to query the Council as we walked, but the only response I got to my questions was—“We will discuss all behind the walls of the Council.”
Darcy gripped my hand the whole way, and Bres and Luke stayed right behind us, guarding my back.
As we walked, my hand gripped in Darcy’s, I realized it was the first time in many years she’d willingly taken my hand, or touched me at all.
It’s because she is the oracle and her visions one day will cease, and yours will start. That is why she wouldn’t touch you, Cora said, surprising the hell out of me.
I thought you had left me, I said, unable to keep the bitterness out of my mind. Cora had kept so much from me, so much that could have helped me understand, and maybe could have stopped some of this hurt and madness.
I can’t remember everything anymore, Quinn. It’s why I came to you when Ashling and you first came to the West Coast. It’s why I’m with you now. I am doing my best, with what I have left, even if you don’t believe me.
Ah, a punch in the gut would have been preferable to the shame that filled me. I’m sorry. Why did you keep Wil and Darcy apart?
I felt her shift as if adjusting herself. Because he wasn’t good enough for her. A smith! She was to be the oracle; she needed a strong man, like Lir, to love her.
This conversation would take us nowhere. Okay, fine. Whatever. Tell me about why she wouldn’t touch me, hug me, or hold me, even as a child.
Cora let out a sigh. Because as you saw in the helicopter, her visions can be passed to her offspring, as one or both could become an oracle in their own right.
I squeezed Darcy’s hand. She looked over at me and gave me a half smile. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
I untangled my hand from hers and slipped Wil’s ring off my thumb and pressed it into the palm of her hand. “I understand better now. He still loves you.”
Everything seemed to shift in that moment. Years were stripped from her, the bitter woman I knew who was full of anger and pain was gone, leaving only a woman who looked strikingly like Ashling, young and vulnerable. The resemblance was true, right down to the innocent wide green eyes, and the hope that filled them. “How . . . I don’t understand.”
“It’s the last thing I’ll ever ask of you. Go to him, be happy.” I stopped walking, forcing the Council to stop, too. I didn’t care about the audience as I pulled her into a hug, and she clung to me, crying. Her body shivered as I let go, her eyes squeezed shut as if she were holding back, or more accurately, as if she were in physical pain.
“I was a terrible mother.”
I answered simply. “Yes. But I think I understand why. I don’t know what I’d be like if you forced me away from the man I loved and made me bear another’s child, not once, but twice.”
Cora shifted again inside of me, and the wash of shame I felt was not my own.
“It was for the prophecy. I knew it had to be done. I just couldn’t love you two girls like you should have been, not knowing what was coming,” she whispered.
I shrugged. “It’s made both of us stronger. Which is what we need now.”
We stepped inside the Council’s tent to see Nuadha chained to a chair in the middle. He was just starting to come around, his head lolling from side to side.
The Council of twelve, six men and six women, were huddled in the far back of the tent. Surprisingly, my mother strode to the front of the room and raised her hand for silence. “I will speak, and you will listen. I have shirked my duties as oracle for far too long. Nuadha has been spelled by Chaos.”
She crouched down in front of Nuadha and beckoned me closer. He was blinking up at her and she tipped his head backwards, her fingers trembling, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face. “Do you see that there, Quinn?” A dark spot was growing on the corner of his eye, not unlike the blackness I’d seen in Ashling’s eyes, and I said so.
“Yes, it is the mark of Chaos. Search the troops. There can be none with this mark left to roam free. They should not be harmed, but they cannot be allowed to cause harm,” she said.
The Council leapt to her command, again surprising me. They filed out, almost running to do her bidding. “They used to listen to my mother like that,” Darcy whispered. She swallowed hard and wiped her hand over her face, brushing away the sweat on her skin. “Until she no longer gave them the visions.”
We stood, Darcy, Bres, Luke and I, alone in the tent with Nuadha, who was fully recovered. There was shouting outside, the clash of men and metal. How many had already been taken by Chaos?
“Should we make a Barrier?” I asked.
Both boys went to the door and stepped outside. I could hear them discussing the situation and trusted they would make a good call. I crouched down in front of Nuadha. “Do you know why you are tied up? Do you understand that Chaos is making you do these things to split apart the Tuatha?”
He snorted and spit at my feet. “There is no such thing as Chaos, a boogeyman of the old gods. Your sister has spoken to me, in a dream. She told me that she has taken the throne of the Fomorii from her father and she wants to join with the Tuatha, just as the prophecy has foretold.”
Darcy asked. “And what of the great evil that must be overcome,
hmm? How did she explain that?”
His head bobbed, “She told me that a woman claiming to be the Chosen One would ride into camp on the back of an Aughisky, and so you did.” He glared at me.
“What has that got to do with anything?” I asked, before I realized what he was implying. “You think I’m the evil that needs to be destroyed?” He nodded, his eyes glittering with hatred.
Darcy put her hand on my arm. “You will not be able to convince him of anything, not while Chaos holds him in sway. But there may be a way to save Ashling, Quinn.”
“Tell me.”
“You have to offer yourself to Chaos, make a trade. She will take it believing that you have the better power for her to use.”
I nodded, that made sense. “But how will I fend her off? I saw how she devoured Ashling, and she’s as strong as I am.”
Darcy shook her head. “No, she’s not. She was always the weaker one.” She shuddered and her body crumpled to the floor. Laying there, she sobbed out, “I am sorry, I’ve tried to fight this.”
“Mom, what’s wrong?” I bent to help her, wrapping my arms around her.
Her eyes rolled in her head and she let out a short gasp. “Don’t listen to me, she’s so strong, I can’t keep her at bay any longer.”
Luke and Bres rushed back into the room.
“What happened?” Luke asked.
“I don’t know. She was telling me how I might be able to stop Chaos and save Ashling and then she just started to shudder,” I said, smoothing her hair back. Her eyelids fluttered and I pulled my hand away, then pressed it to her face, opening her left eyelid.
There, next to the center of her eye, was a dark spot.
The Mark of Chaos.
14
She started to scream and I held her down at the shoulders, then flipped her over onto her stomach. “Bres, help me tie her; she’s got the mark.”
“Ironic that she showed it to us, don’t you think?” Luke asked, he crouched down beside her and held her shoulders to the ground. His voice got soft and I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me, or if he was speaking his thoughts out loud. “She looks so much like Ashling, even her eyes.”
“She was trying to fight back; I thought maybe she was sick,” I said. I looked at Bres. “It was right after I gave her the ring from Wil. I think that gave her the strength to fight Chaos off for a few minutes.”
Luke gave a “huh?” which I chose to ignore. We didn’t have time to re-hash my mother’s sad love life.
As we finished tying her up, the Council filed back in, minus three members. “We have them all rounded up.” The older gentleman, who seemed to be the speaker, announced. Then his mouth dropped upon seeing Darcy tied on the floor.
“Not the oracle, too!”
“Yes, though I believe she was trying to fight for us, showing us the mark,” I said. I let out a deep breath, bending at the waist, my hands on my knees. Bres put his hand on my lower back.
“Just breathe, Quinn. You can do this, love.”
The silence in the room took me a minute to absorb. They were waiting on me to lead them. Well, crap.
“Okay, put all those with the mark somewhere safe. When Chaos is defeated, I think the mark should go with her,” I said, hoping I was right. I picked out two of the younger-looking council members and sent them to do that. Guards came and moved a screaming, ranting Nuadha and a sullen Darcy.
When they were gone, silence again reigned. I licked my lips. “Tell me what you know so far.”
What came next was so very much worse than I could have expected.
Chaos had been as busy as I had, putting the world into a tailspin of destruction. Natural disasters had ravaged across all the continents. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and every imaginable force of nature had been unleashed on the world in the space of only a few days.
“How many have been killed?” I whispered.
“Hundreds of thousands. The death toll is rising every day. The humans are calling it the apocalypse,” one of the Council members said. “They are waiting for a Savior.”
The world seemed to tilt under my feet. Bres slipped an arm around my waist, and Luke touched my arm, but wouldn’t even take my hand. “You couldn’t have stopped this any sooner,” he said, his blue eyes holding my gaze. “Don’t you dare think this is your fault.”
Bres tightened his arm around me. “He’s right. This be her doing, not yours.”
The Council members that were left said nothing, their faces left carefully blank. No doubt they were used to dealing with Nuadha, which said a great deal about their reaction to the situation. How long had Chaos been leading Nuadha by the nose? How long had they been forced to do what she wanted through his bidding?
“I need...a moment.” I pointed to the Council. “Leave us here, return in an hour.”
They filed out, obedient without question. Not a good thing in a council that was there to advise a leader.
“Chaos has been running things for a while, I think,” I said.
Luke grimaced. “I bet that’s why Nuadha and the Council forbade me from coming after you, Chaos was already in control then.”
“Good thing you disobeyed them.” I attempted a smile, though inside, my heart was breaking. So many people had died because of Chaos —because I hadn’t stopped her.
Bres dropped his forehead to my shoulder. “It was my pa that did this.”
“He did and didn’t,” I said. “I’ve no doubt Chaos has been planning this for a long time. She’s been putting all her pawns into place. Don’t you remember what Fianna said? Aednat had been swayed by Chaos years ago, even while she was locked away. Now it’s up to us to stop her.”
I stepped away from the two boys, my thoughts racing. “Do you think Chaos will meet me in open battle?”
Both of them shook their heads. Luke answered first. “No, not a chance. Not now that you have Carnwennan.” He motioned to the sword at my hip. “She’ll know it is the one thing that can destroy her, and you are prophesied to do just that.”
Bres was nodding his agreement. “It’s too great a chance that she’ll lose to you. I think she’ll try and kill you from a distance, use assassins and such to get close to you.”
My blood chilled at what they were saying. We were in a full-blown war. “Then we have to find a way to draw her out, to trick her into meeting me.” I refused to think about the reality of what I was saying, of what it would mean when I did face her.
Death for one of us, maybe even both.
Luke folded his arms, “Do you have something in mind?”
I thought for a moment, my mind rolling over the possibilities. “What if we used Nuadha? We could set him free.” They gasped, and I kept talking, “and use him to draw her here. If she thinks she has an ally in Nuadha, she won’t hide from him.”
Bres began to pace. “It might work. If we had someone in camp who could report back to us about her movements, we could find someone who to influence Nuadha.” He glanced up at Luke. “You could do it. We’d be able to trust you, and you’ve always been able to bend Nuadha to your way of thinking.”
Tapping his fingers on the edge of a chair, Luke nodded. “Yes, that would work. You and Quinn could wait just outside of the army’s camp for my signal.”
I lifted my hands up. “Whoa, I wasn’t thinking of leaving Luke behind. I was thinking someone else could do this, one of the council members maybe.” That sounded feeble, even to me.
Luke smiled. “Who else would you trust?”
“What if she figures out that you’re on our side?” I whispered, thinking of the black tendrils that had devoured the Fomorii, her own army. I started to shake. “I can’t lose you.” I looked to Bres. “Either of you. There has to be another way.”
Though we spent the next hour working through different scenarios, none worked as well as the first. I fought the two boys on it, in spite of the fact that it had been my idea at first, but in my heart I knew it was the only chance we had to get clo
se to her. The plan was to set Nuadha free that night, before any suspicion could be roused.
When the Council came back, I informed them that we would have an answer for them in the morning. They left as quickly as they’d come, seemingly happy to be out of the presence of their new “leader.”
We had several hours before it was even dark, and both Bres and Luke insisted that I try to rest while they readied the plan. After the ride in on the Aughisky, and the time spent in the scorching hot Barrier, I didn’t argue.
I was shown to a darkened tent where a bed and clean clothes were laid out for me. A basin of hot, soapy water had never looked so heavenly. I stripped out of my jeans and t-shirt and scrubbed far too many days worth of dirt, fear, and blood off my body.
Slipping into the clean clothes, I wondered at how well they would fit. Snug khaki-coloured pants that tucked into a pair of leather knee-high boots, and a white blouse that was nearly see-through, clung to me as if tailored for my body. If it hadn’t been for the camisole, it would have been indecent. Fully dressed, Carnwennan in its sheath and strapped to my hip, I lay down, sleep claiming me instantly.
“Quinn, please, I don’t have much time.” I opened my eyes to Ashling leaning over me in the same white dress as before, her eyes full of fear. It was a dream, but it felt real.
“Ash.” I pulled her into my arms and hugged her to me, feeling how frail her body had become.
“I can’t help you, there is nothing I can do, but I wanted to see you again, one last time,” she whispered into my hair.
“Don’t say that.” My words caught in my throat. “We are not saying goodbye; that isn’t how our story ends.”
She started to cry and I rocked like I had when we were younger, and when she’d been afraid of the dark. “Ash, we can get through this, just like everything else.”
“Don’t lie to me,” she said, pulling back so she could look me in the face. “I know you had a sword made, one that would kill Chaos. I’m not angry. I understand, but don’t lie to me.”
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