by Jodi McIsaac
“Yeah, but I’m not supposed to make them, especially not without a grown-up around.” She stuck out her tongue at the thought.
“I see. And where did this sidh lead you?”
“Well, that’s the weird part,” Eden said. “I was with my new friend Niall. He was teasing me for being born on Ériu, and I wanted to show him that there is magic stuff there too. So I took him to see the Merrow.”
“Oh, my child,” Helen whispered. “And what did you see?”
“We went to the hut on the rocks near their home, which is where I stayed last time I visited them. But it was different this time, like none of the magic was working. And then one of the Merrow just floated past us and banged into the window. It looked like she was dead. And Niall’s dad is a healer, and he said there’s this really sick guy in Felix’s house who’s from Ériu. And he thought maybe they had something to do with each other. No one saw us,” she added hastily. “I was really careful.”
“Shhh, it’s okay,” Helen said. “You were right to tell me. I’m not upset—how could I be when the sidhe make it possible for us to have our lessons together?” She smiled kindly at Eden.
“So…what does it mean?” Eden asked.
“Part of me wants to just tell you that your mother is looking into it, and it will all work out fine.” The lines on Eden’s face deepened into a scowl. Helen continued. “But I know how much you would hate that, so that is not what I am going to say. You have been through a lot, Eden. And someday, perhaps, you will be queen. So it is important for you to know what is going on and why. You will no doubt have to make difficult decisions yourself someday.”
Eden felt a burst of pride at Helen’s words. Then she listened as Helen told her of an ancient bargain that had been struck with the power of eight magical jewels, a deal that bound the lifeblood of the Unseen to humanity’s belief in the magical realm. It seemed like one of the fairy stories she had been fond of back in Ériu—before she had discovered that her own life was a tale of magic and adventure.
“What is my mum going to do?” she asked when Helen finished.
“She believes she can find the jewels,” Helen said. “And then she plans to destroy them.”
“Why didn’t my mum tell me? I bet I could find the missing jewels!” Eden exclaimed. “I helped them find the Lia Fáil!”
“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I believe this one is a task for the queen alone,” Helen said.
Eden flared up at once. “You’re just like everyone else!” she said, scrambling to her feet. “No one thinks I can do anything! What’s the point of having this stupid ability if I’m not allowed to use it?”
“Sit. Down,” Helen said, in a voice so steely Eden obeyed at once. “You want to be taken seriously? Stop acting like a child every time you don’t get your way.”
Eden stared down at the ground, tears filling her eyes. She blinked furiously, trying to keep them from spilling over.
“You will be very powerful one day,” Helen told her, her voice softer. “You already are very powerful. But the reason that power is not coming to the fore is because you are not yet ready to wield it. Focus on becoming ready, and your power will develop. But you cannot force it or demand it. It has only been a few months since you found out your true identity. Enjoy who you are instead of always wanting to be more. Learn how to focus, how to concentrate. Learn patience, understanding, and compassion. Then you will be worthy of the power the universe has seen fit to grant you.”
Eden blinked hard again, but she could not stop the tears from coming. She sobbed quietly, feeling so many different things at once and having no idea how to stop them. She felt Helen’s arm wrap tentatively around her shoulders, and she leaned into the embrace. Helen felt nothing like her gran, who had been soft and comfortable, like a living, breathing pillow she could nestle down into. In contrast, Helen was thin and bony, and had obviously not hugged many children in her life. But she was the only one still alive who understood her…or at least that’s how it felt.
After a minute, Eden stopped crying and straightened up.
“Now,” Helen said. “Shall we see if we can find your older self in there?”
Eden nodded eagerly. “What should I do?”
“Let’s start by sitting up straight. That’s right. Now close your eyes.”
For the next half hour, Helen led her through a series of exercises to help strengthen her mind. Eden concentrated as hard as she could, and she was thrilled when Helen told her that she was making excellent progress.
“Your mind is very strong, little one,” she said.
“I think it’s because the older Eden is helping me!”
“Perhaps. Let’s see if she’ll talk to you. Close your eyes, and try to connect with her deep within your mind.”
Eden closed her eyes and thought hard about the last time the older Eden had spoken to her. She tried to remember the sound of her voice, the way it had made her feel. She sat still for what felt like a really long time, until she started to get restless. But just before she opened her eyes in defeat, she felt a stirring deep inside, and then the familiar voice spoke to her.
Hello, little me.
“Hi!” Eden said out loud, still keeping her eyes screwed shut. “I found her! Helen, she’s here!”
“That’s wonderful, dear, keep talking to her.”
“I found the druid lady you told me about. She’s teaching me how to do this, just like you said,” Eden told her older self.
I knew you could do it. You’re very clever. Do you mind if I talk to her?
“Sure! I’ll tell her what you’re saying.”
I’d like to talk to her directly, actually.
“Oh. Um…how?”
You just need to give me permission. It will be like you’re having a short nap. That’s all. Then I’ll wake you up when I’m done.
“But I want to hear what you’re saying!”
I’ll tell you all about it later, I promise. You won’t miss a thing.
“Well…okay. I guess. Go ahead.”
She was right, Eden thought—it is like falling asleep. And then there was nothing.
Helen watched Eden nervously. She had tried to follow the conversation even though she could only hear one end of it, so she wasn’t surprised when Eden’s eyes flew open, and an older, deeper voice came out of the little girl’s mouth.
“Hello, Helen.”
“Hello. Is Eden all right? The little one, I mean.”
“She’s fine, yes. She gave me permission to talk to you through her. You’ve done good work with her, and quickly too.”
“She learns fast. Tell me, how—”
“We don’t have a lot of time—though she is perfectly safe, this might wear her out. I’ve been wanting to speak with you.”
“Why me?”
“I need a druid to help me—or my younger self, that is. I want to come out.”
“Out?”
“I want to be released from this childish body, and I want to walk in the waking world, not just in Eden’s dreams. Can you do that? Can you let me out?”
“But then…what will happen to the little one?”
“She will cease to exist in her current form. But remember, she and I are one. She’ll be the same person—only older.”
“But she’ll no longer be a child.”
“No. She’ll be me.”
Helen looked into the brown and gold-flecked eyes that were staring back at her. They didn’t look like the eyes of a little girl, and it made her strangely sad. She had only known Eden for a couple of days, but she’d begun to enjoy the child’s enthusiasm…and trust. The eyes that regarded her now were shrewd and a little wild. And yet, the girl had promised to send her home. Would she be losing that chance if she refused to help?
“I can’t do what you’ve asked of me,” she told Eden. “I want to help you—I want to help the child—but I don’t have the ability to release you. I can teach her how to focus, how to tap
into her power, and how to speak to you, but only she can set you free.”
There was another long silence, and then Eden spoke, her adult voice sounding strange on her child’s tongue. “I feared as much.”
“What is there to fear?” Helen asked. “Let her enjoy being a child. You must know that adulthood brings with it many responsibilities—and much grief. Do not rush her into what she does not understand.”
“I will wait…for now. But I grow more restless each day. Soon, she may have no choice but to accept who she is meant to be.”
That afternoon Eden told Niall about the jewels and the Unseen. They were sitting on a thick branch in the woods behind his home, their feet dangling in the air.
“Whoa. That is so cool,” Niall said in an appropriately awed voice.
“I told Helen that I really want to help, but she says I need to stay here and concentrate on developing my abilities,” Eden complained. She had risked telling Niall about her secret meetings with Helen, and he’d promised not to say anything. She liked having a friend to share her secrets, though she still wasn’t ready to tell him about the older Eden. When she had “woken up” from letting her older self talk to Helen, she’d been exhausted. Helen had been cagey about what they’d discussed, and she’d sent Eden back to her room for a nap soon afterward.
“Yeah, my parents say that to me all the time,” Niall said. “I mean, not about the jewels and all that, but I’m not allowed to do much more with my ability than run messages for my dad. Some of them are pretty important, though,” he added quickly.
A blue butterfly floated past them and landed on the end of the branch. Eden started to move toward it, but as soon as she shifted her weight, it lifted off and started doing loop-the-loops in the air in front of her, as if it were deliberately trying to tease her.
“I wish I could learn how to fly,” she said.
Niall laughed. “You can wish all you want, but that’s never gonna happen.”
Eden scowled at him. “Why not?”
“Because you can only use the abilities you were born with,” he said.
“Maybe,” Eden shrugged. “But Helen says I’m super powerful, so maybe I’ll be able to learn new things too.”
“Let me know when that happens,” Niall said with a grin. He leaned back against the trunk. “So you gonna go look for them?”
“For what?”
“The jewels, of course! You said you wanted to.”
Eden picked at one of her fingernails. “No,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t know where to look. And…well, I don’t mind using the sidhe around here in Tír na nÓg or going places with you, but I think I’d be scared to travel all around Ériu on my own.”
Eden wondered if he’d call her a sissy, but he nodded and said, “Yeah, you don’t want to run into any more dead Merrow or anything.”
“What about that guy that your dad is looking after?” Eden asked Niall. “The…what’d you call him?”
“The gancanagh,” Niall answered. “What about him? He’s still really sick.”
“Maybe we should go visit him,” Eden said.
He narrowed his eyes at her. “No way. We’ll get caught.”
“No, we won’t,” she said. “Felix is still away, and your dad is back at the house with your mum. I can make the sidh, and we’ll look through it to see if anyone is around before we go through. I’ve only been in Felix’s living room, but you’ll know how to find the sickroom from there, right?”
“I don’t know about this,” Niall said, but Eden had already jumped down from the tree, landing on the ground like a cat on her hands and the balls of her feet. Niall had been teaching her how to do it, and she had picked the ability up quickly. “What are you going to say to him?” he asked.
Eden shrugged. “I dunno. We can cheer him up. Maybe we can ask him what a gancanagh is. Besides, if I’m queen someday I’ll need to know about all these things.”
Niall gave her a skeptical look. “You know you’re probably not going to be queen for like a million years, right?”
Eden made a face at him. “I’ll still need to know,” she said. “You coming or not?”
Niall jumped down from the tree. “Okay. But we’d better not get caught.”
“We won’t,” Eden assured him. She opened a sidh and peered through the shimmering patch of air into Felix’s living room. She was pretty sure he was gone, but if he caught them, she could always say they had just come to visit. The room was empty. She grabbed Niall’s hand and pulled him through.
“See? No one’s here,” she whispered.
“You don’t know that,” he said, looking around nervously.
“It’s just Felix’s house—I’ve been here bunches of times. You have too! You said you help your dad all the time! There’s nothing to worry about.”
“I’m not worried,” he said defensively. “I just don’t get any special treatment when I break the rules.”
Eden wrinkled her nose. “I don’t, either.”
“Yeah, right,” he muttered, but he led the way into the twisting maze of hallways and doors until he stopped in front of one. “This is it,” he whispered. They pressed their ears against the door, listening.
“I don’t think anyone’s in there,” Eden said. She put her hand on the latch and turned it. The room was empty, except for a bed and a long table and a set of cabinets against the wall. Her mother would have called it modern. Eden would call it boring. But the man on the bed…he was not boring. He looked like he’d once been incredibly handsome, but now he was more like a skeleton with skin stretched over it. Eden tiptoed over to his bedside, all nervousness gone.
Hello, who do we have here?
The voice in Eden’s head made her jump. It was as if older Eden had suddenly thrust herself at the forefront of Eden’s consciousness. Eden looked down at the man again. Clearly the older Eden found him very interesting.
“Hi,” she said.
The man opened his eyes, which were as black as ink, and blinked a few times. He seemed to be having trouble focusing on her. “Hello,” he said at last, and his voice came out all thin and raspy. “Who are you?”
Eden cocked her head, waiting to see if older Eden would say something else, but she didn’t. “I’m Eden,” she answered. “This is Niall. What’s your name?”
“Irial,” he croaked. “Why…?”
“We came to visit you,” Eden said. “You probably don’t get a lot of visitors.”
One of Irial’s cheeks lifted slightly, as if he was trying to smile. “You’re right,” he said.
Niall was still glancing nervously at the door, but Eden was transfixed. Irial’s forehead was shiny with sweat, and there was a strand of curly black hair stuck in it. She reached out to brush it off his forehead, but he flinched away.
“I wasn’t going to hurt you,” she said, withdrawing her hand.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s just…a habit. Most people can’t touch me.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“I’m a…gancanagh,” he said.
“What’s that?”
He seemed to be searching for the right words—or maybe just the energy to speak. “Women—human women—fall in love with me very easily.”
“Really?” Eden asked, fascinated. “Just by touching you?” Niall made a face, which she thought was rather juvenile.
Irial nodded stiffly.
“I know why you’re sick,” Eden said.
He raised his eyebrows. “Indeed?” He made a garbled sort of sound that she thought was maybe a laugh. “Then you know more than I do.”
“They haven’t told you? You made a deal that you would be safe as long as the humans believed in you,” she explained. “But now they don’t, so you’re going to die.”
“I don’t remember making any such deal,” Irial said. His voice was starting to fade even more, so Eden had to lean in close to hear him.
“It was a long time ago, and it wasn’t just you—it was all of the
Unseen. But don’t worry: my mum is going to save you,” Eden said.
“And your mother is…?”
“The queen,” Eden said. “She’s going to find and destroy the magic jewels that made the spell. Then you’ll get better.”
“Ah, yes. Your mother is very brave. And very kind.”
“She is,” Eden agreed. Then she asked, “Why do they call you the Unseen? I can see you just fine. Is it only humans who can’t see you?”
Irial started to shake his head, but then winced in pain. “Oh, they can see us well enough if we choose to show ourselves to them. No, it’s because in the great dealings of the gods we have been left to our own devices. The Danann, in particular, prefer to pretend we do not exist. Until now, that is. That’s why your mother is so special.”
“Not all of us are like that! My dad told me that while he was on Ériu, it was his job to find all of the other magical creatures and make friends with them.”
A faint smile passed over Irial’s features. “Ah, yes, I heard there was a rogue Danann making the rounds a few years ago. Didn’t have the pleasure of meeting him myself, though. You, your father, and your mother seem to care more than most. Not that it matters. Soon, we’ll all be dead.”
“No, you won’t,” Eden said stubbornly. “My mother is going to save you. And if she can’t, I will.”
CHAPTER 12
Cedar stared between Abhartach’s insensate form and Felix, not registering at first what the dwarf had told them. She had been so certain this plan would work. Then she swiveled on her heel and faced Finn. “The druid lied to us. I knew she couldn’t be trusted!”
“We don’t know that for sure,” he said. “Maybe they were stolen by one of us—maybe Abhartach can’t find them because they’re in Tír na nÓg.”
“Or maybe Helen thought she’d send us on a wild goose chase, looking for magic jewels that don’t exist. Can he try again?” she asked Felix. “What if I bring him more blood?”
Felix shook his head. “He says he gave it everything he has, that he does not have the strength to look again. But Cedar, I have to agree with Finn. Helen may have made the whole thing up…but it’s just as possible that they were removed from Ériu sometime in the last thousand years—either by the person who stole them or someone else, maybe even one of our people.”