by Linsey Hall
“It’s the Bad Water!” I cried.
The old salt lake was sometimes dried up, sometimes not. But it wasn’t supposed to be deep. Six inches, max. Right?
Please be right, Uncle Joe.
Rowan sped over the water, the buggy’s tires sending up silver spray that sparkled in the sunlight. It smelled like rotten eggs, and I gagged, then breathed shallowly through my mouth.
Magic always had a signature—taste, smell, sound. Something that lit up one of the five senses. Maybe more.
And a rotten egg stink was bad news. That meant dark magic.
Tension fizzed across my skin as we drove through the Bad Water. On either side of the car, water sprayed up from the wheels in a dazzling display that belied the danger of the situation. By the time the explosion came, I was strung so tight that I almost leapt off the platform.
The monster was as wide as the buggy, but so long that I couldn’t see where it began or ended. It was a massive sea creature with fangs as long as my arm and brilliant blue eyes. Silver scales were the same color as the water, which was still only six inches deep, thank fates.
Magic propelled the monster, who circled our vehicle, his body glinting in the sun. He had to be a hundred feet long, with black wings and claws. He climbed on the ground and leapt into the air, slithering around as he examined us.
“It’s the Unhcegila!” Bree cried from the front.
Shit.
Uncle Joe had told us about the Unhcegila—a terrifying water monster from Dakota and Lakota Sioux legends.
Except it was real, as all good legends were. And it occasionally appeared when the Bad Water wasn’t dried up. It only needed a few inches to appear.
Looked like it was our lucky day.
My heart thundered as the beast circled, undulating in the air in that signature snakey way. Its eyes pierced me as it waited to strike, and I raised my hands, ready for it.
“Use your shield!” Bree shouted.
“I’ve got to time it!” I didn’t have an endless supply of magic, and wasting it at the beginning of our crossing was a bad idea.
“How do we defeat it?” Rowan cried. “You can’t hold it off forever.”
My mind raced. Uncle Joe had said something about that. Something…
The creature struck. Light glinted on its fangs, and its breath smelled like week-old garbage as it hurtled toward me.
“Ana!” Rowan cried.
I stifled a gag and called upon my shield magic, envisioning a protective barrier between me and the beast.
It burst from my hands, shining and white. The monster’s head slammed into the shield, so hard the collision vibrated up my arms. My magic faltered, weakening.
Damn it.
I wished I had offensive magic—fire, ice, a sonic boom like Bree.
Instead, I was a shield. Destined to react, not act.
The monster reared back and slammed its head against the shield again. It hit with such force that I went to my knees, my arms trembling from the strain of keeping the shield up.
“Drop it so I can hit him!” Bree screamed.
I cut off my magic gratefully, panting. The shield dropped, and Bree’s magic swelled on the air, smelling like cedar and sounding like a whistling wind. She hurled her sonic boom, a massive force that smashed into the monster and drove it backward.
The Unhcegila plowed into the water and skidded in the shallows. I scrambled to my feet.
The Unhcegila was fast, rising upward to strike again. My heart thundered as it charged.
Bree threw her sonic boom again. It blasted past me, making my insides vibrate, but the core of it hit the monster, who flew backward again.
It was up a half second later.
“My power isn’t working on him!” Bree cried.
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the Unhcegila was up and charging. It moved so fast, plowing toward the front of the buggy where Bree was stationed, I didn’t have time to call on my magic.
She struck out with her sword as she dived toward the front seat. The blade sliced the monster’s cheek as she flew into the footwell, crashing down next to Rowan. The Unhcegila’s head slammed into the bars protecting the front platform, denting them.
The engine roared as Rowan stepped on the gas, and the buggy jumped forward, shaking the Unhcegila off. Stunned, it slipped down into the water.
Bree scrambled up. “I need a freaking shield.”
“No kidding,” Rowan said. “We’ll add it to the list.”
I spun to watch the Unhcegila, who was already rising, ready to attack again. I steadied myself on the back platform as we drove away—I was the only thing between it and my sisters.
I’m not going to let it get them.
Its scales glinted in the light, but there was something at its head that shined brighter. A gem—right between its eyes. A tiny red crystal.
A memory flashed in my mind.
“We have to smash the gem!” I cried.
My memory was hazy, but I swore I remembered Uncle Joe telling us the tale of the Unhcegila. Destroying the gem would kill the beast—for now, at least. It would appear again to another traveler, but if we wanted to get it off our butts, we’d have to destroy that gem. And whoever did would get to keep it, and it would bring good luck.
This was going to be up to me. Bree fought with a sword, and Rowan was driving.
I drew a dagger from my boot. The Unhcegila charged, its breath wafting over me, reeking like hot garbage. It opened its mouth wide, fangs glinting.
I hurled my blade, but the monster dodged, then plowed toward me. Before I could build my shield, Bree threw her sonic boom. It blasted past my left shoulder, sending me flying toward the right. I slammed into the safety rails.
The sonic boom nailed the monster right in the face, and the beast tumbled backward.
“Thanks, Bree!” I pushed off the rails and grabbed another dagger.
The monster was rising, but slower this time. Bree’s repeated blasts were working. It was weakening.
This was it. My chance.
I used the monster’s slowness to my advantage, throwing my dagger right for its eyes. The blade pierced the crystal, and magical energy exploded outward. It blew my hair back from my face and stole the breath from my lungs.
The Unhcegila disappeared in a burst of silver light. A small red crystal flew up into the air, turning end over end and sparkling like a ruby.
“Turn around!” I screamed.
“Why?” Rowan shouted.
“Because!”
“Great reason!” Rowan yanked the wheel to the right, and the buggy made a sharp U-turn. I clung to the railing, keeping my gaze pinned to the crystal. It hurtled back toward the ground, splashing into the water.
The red gem glowed brightly, and I pointed toward it. “Head for the glow!”
Rowan did as I asked, and I climbed over the side of the platform, clinging to the safety railing. “Slow down!”
As we neared the crystal, Rowan slowed the buggy. The gem gleamed brightly, and I hung low, scooping it out of the water. It was warm in my hand, and I squeezed it tight, scrambling back onto the platform.
“Can we keep going now?” Rowan asked.
“Yep!” I looked at the gem briefly. The center was black where my dagger had hit it, but the rest gleamed red and bright. I wasn’t sure if it really was lucky, but I could use all the help I could get, so I shoved it into my pocket.
Rowan cut through the rest of the Bad Water without incident, the silver liquid spraying up around the tires and glinting in the sun.
The buggy cut across the desert as the sun beat down upon us. I shielded my eyes, squinting into the distance. Everything was beige, all different shades. And it all shimmered with danger. The air stank with it.
“You smell that?” Rowan asked.
“Yeah, dark magic.” It was the thing that made the desert nearly impassable, and the reason that Hider’s Haven was so protected. If you wanted to lie low—like, r
eally low—that was the place to do it. It was full of criminals, mostly. But also innocent people who were trying to avoid criminals. Get in trouble with the magical mob? Hider’s Haven was the supernatural version of witness protection.
Rowan expertly drove the car around scrub brush and boulders. Up ahead, the air shimmered, making it hard to determine what was coming at us. But the air stank with dark magic and prickled, abrading my skin.
Whatever it was, I knew it’d be bad.
~~~
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Author’s Note
Thanks for reading Celtic Magic! If you’ve read any of my previous books, you might have noticed that I like to include historical places and mythological elements in my stories. Sometimes the history of these things is so interesting that I want to share more, and I like to do it in the Author’s Note instead of the story itself.
There’s a lot of mythology and history in Celtic Magic, starting with the Kobolds. They are figures from Germanic mythology that have survived into modern times as part of German folklore. They’re interesting creatures who can take the shape of a person, animal, fire, or a candle, and they are often invisible. In many cases, they are ambivalent house sprites that perform chores. If they are insulted or neglected, they might play tricks. In some stories, they were so obnoxious that they drove inhabitants from their homes. Annoyingly, they sometimes followed those inhabitants, informing them that they would never leave them alone. In other cases, they’d set up shop in a place and never leave. These are the Kobolds that inspired the ones in Celtic Magic.
Now, moving onto Celtic myth. There was a whole of it in this story. One of the first things that I’d like to note is that the Celts did not build the stone circles that are famous throughout the UK. Most of these were built thousands of years prior by an entirely different culture. The Celts often used the circles for ceremonial purposes, however, and who could blame them? Modern Druids and Pagans still use them today.
The Oppidum where Ana’s mother lives is a traditional type of Celtic fortified settlement that was common during the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. They were built from eastern Britain all the way to Spain and Hungary. I debated whether or not to use the word Oppidum for this type of settlement because it is the Latin word, not the Celtic. The Celts certainly had their own name for this type of city. While some Celtic cultures did have written language, not much of it survived. Since we don’t know the Celtic word for this type of city, I decided to go with the Roman one.
I’m sure it would annoy some ancient Celts if they found out that I used this term, but it illustrates an interesting point—much of what we know about the Celts comes from the writings of the Romans, one of their greatest enemies. As a result, it can be hard to say what is true in Roman writing. They could have fudged the facts in order to help their own cause (they likely did). For example, the wild Celts could have been used as propaganda, or as a means to increase the size of the Roman army.
The first challenge that Ana faces is at the Iron Age forge, where she must solve the riddle to create a bridge. I’d like to confess to taking some liberties with the nature and construction of this forge. Normally, they were built a little differently, but it didn’t work as well for the story. But I wanted to bring in iron production since it was so vital to the Celts, and this seemed like a fun way to do so. Piles of Iron Age slag, the black glass waste that is a byproduct of iron production, can be found all over Europe. Evidence of their iron working is everywhere.
The Cŵn Annwn, the spectral hounds of the Welsh Otherworld, are one of my favorite parts of Celtic myth. You may remember them from one of Del’s books. I love them so much that I included them here as well. They are often associated with the Wild Hunt, where they chase wrongdoers until they can no longer run. In some stories, they escort souls on their journey to the Otherworld.
The Otherworld is an interesting concept in Celtic religion, primarily because there was no singular type of Otherworld. As I’ve mentioned before, the Celts were a loose group of people with a similar culture, but they didn’t have one religion with the same pantheon of gods. The Irish Celts worshipped different gods than the ancient Celts in Hallstatt, Austria. For the purposes of this story, I created one big Otherworld contains many elements of Celtic culture from all over Europe. Ana has only been to part of the Celtic Otherworld, and while she is there, she encounters a mishmash of Celtic figures. That’s one of the most fun things about writing fiction—I get to take the most interesting bits and leave all the rest.
One of those interesting bits is the Kelpie, a horse/man figure who inhabits the lakes of Scotland. Nearly every sizable body of water in Scotland has an associated Kelpie, and they are such an important part of the folklore that there are two modern enormous statues of them along one of the major highway.
It was my invention to make the Kelpie the sworn enemy of the Dullahan, who is an Irish mythological creature similar to the headless horseman. Traditionally, the Dullahn chases those who are about to die. When he (or she) stops their horse and calls out the victim’s name, they immediately perish. Obviously, I changed this a bit. The Bean Nighe is a figure from Scotland who is essentially as I represented her, though she cannot turn into a goddess. She is a messenger from the Otherworld, washing the clothes of those about to die.
Sulis is a Romano-Celtic god from Bath, England, where the famous Roman baths are located. She is an example of how Roman and Celtic religion meshed during the Roman occupation of Celtic Britain. She presided over the spring that fed the baths, receiving sacrifices and also requests for vengeance. The archaeological record suggests that people viewed her as both a mother-goddess figure and also one who would exact revenge if you inscribed your request on a clay tablet and left it for her to find. These are known as the curse tablets, and about 130 were found at Bath. They are primarily related to theft and some of them are quite extreme. A famous example is one that reads, "Docimedis has lost two gloves and asks that the thief responsible should lose their minds [sic] and eyes in the goddess' temple."
It seems the Docimedis was really pissed about those gloves.
One of my favorite parts of the book was the riddle at the lake where Ana had to find the correct objects and put them on the flat stone platform. This is meant to represent one of the most famous Celtic sites in the world—La Tène at Lake Neuchâtel in Switzerland. This site is so important that a whole subset of Celtic culture was named after it. The discovery of the site is really cool too.
In 1857, the level of the lake dropped substantially due to drought. Over the course of several decades, historians discovered thousands of weapons, along with the remains of dwellings built on pilings (wooden posts) out in the water. There are several interpretations of the site that try to answer why thousands of weapons were found underwater. I chose the interpretation that they were sacrificial objects.
As Ana was entering the sacred grove, she noticed some pillars inset with skulls. This is a nod to the famous site of Roquepertuse in southern France. The site likely dates from the 5th and 6th centuries BC and contained many amazing Celtic artifacts, including columns that were inset with human skulls. Though this was a bit of a random inclusion in the book, I chose to add it because I wanted to reflect how far and wide Celtic culture spread.
Lastly—Boudica, the warrior who gave Ana her torc. Boudica is my favorite historical figure and an important cultural icon in Britain. She was the brave Celtic warrior queen who rallied her people, the Iceni tribe, to fight against the Roman occupation of Britain in AD 60 and 61. Prior to this, her people had a truce with Rome. After the death of her husband, Rome violated that truce. In one account, they flogged Boudica and raped her daughters.
As a result, Boudica rallied her tribe and several other neighboring Celtic tribes. The Celts were a loose conglomeration of tribal kingdoms at this point and there was no single central leade
r. They agreed to follow Boudica, however, and what resulted was a campaign across Britain in which Boudica’s army successfully destroyed several Roman cities. They were so successful that Rome nearly withdrew from Britain entirely. Boudica might have won the whole war and forced Rome to retreat, but she lost the Battle of Watling Street in AD 61. After this, she either killed herself to avoid capture or died of illness.
It’s an amazing story with a crappy ending, if you as me. The first book that I ever wrote, a paranormal romance, told the story of Boudica reincarnated in modern day. She got a second chance to beat the Romans once and for all, and it was very satisfying.
I think that’s it for the history and mythology in Celtic Magic—at least the big things. I hope you enjoyed the book and will come back for more of Ana, Lachlan, Rowan, and Bree!
For The FireSouls, my awesome friends on Facebook.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Lindsey Loucks for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you! Thank you to Kelly H., Nadine M., Gisela S., Skye M., Lita A., Julie S., Alisa S., and Marina S. for your help with the German.
Thank you to Orina Kafe for the beautiful cover art. Thank you to Collette Markwardt for allowing me to borrow the Pugs of Destruction, who are real dogs named Chaos, Havoc, and Ruckus. They were all adopted from rescue agencies.
Glossary
Alpha Council - There are two governments that enforce law for supernaturals—the Alpha Council and the Order of the Magica. The Alpha Council governs all shifters. They work cooperatively with the Alpha Council when necessary—for example, when capturing FireSouls.
Blood Sorcerer - A type of Magica who can create magic using blood.
Dark Magic - The kind that is meant to harm. It’s not necessarily bad, but it often is.