I cleared my throat to get their attention. “So Daley, how old are you anyway? Cuz you sound positively ancient. You’re not Ty’s Dad, you know.”
“I’m old enough to know better.”
“Better than who? Me? Or someone who buys her outfits at Bondage R Us and got her butt kicked by a girl carrying a box of pastries.”
“From what I heard, nobody got their butt kicked, as you so politely put it. Boudica recognized she was facing someone reckless and untrained and made the smart decision to back down. The only smart thing she did, I agree, but still a lot better than throwing magic around in front of a bunch of civilians. She chose to walk away from a confrontation that might have hurt someone.”
“She didn’t walk. She ran.”
That might be a little bit of an exaggeration.
Daley looked disgusted. “Is that something to be proud of? If you knew anything at all about what you’re doing then you’d know how wrong that is. It isn’t fear to stay clear of a rabid dog.”
“Am I the dog in this scenario?”
“Don’t be stupid. You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t think I do. And Boudica didn’t back off because she was smart. She was scared. I think she knew she couldn’t take me. But if you don’t believe me, maybe you’d like to give it a try and see how far you get.”
“Are you challenging me?”
Strange emotions colored hot pink and candy apple red seemed to fill the air. “Not a challenge—a promise.”
And could I be any more clichéd?
“Stop it!” Tynan stepped between us. With shame, I realized I’d forgotten he was even there. Glancing back at Daley, I saw sparks glistening in his hair and a hot light glowing in his eyes. Looking like that, I could believe he was the god of thunder.
“Ah, I thought I heard voices.” Taliesin appeared in the foyer and I wondered how much he’d heard. “Tynan, please tell Miko to bring the harp to the study.” Tynan nodded and went up the stairs.
“You two, come with me.” The bard’s tone was icy.
I guess he heard enough.
“I’m sorry. And it’s twenty-one,” Daley murmured as we followed Taliesin.
“What?”
“I turned twenty-one last April, so not so old after all.”
My heart jumped again. I had no name for the colors I was seeing/feeling.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Taliesin led us to the study. I pretended to examine the books in the bookcase and endured the awkward silence until Miko burst in carrying her leather bag over one shoulder.
“Finally! Now we can get some answers.” She stopped and frowned. “What’s wrong?”
Tynan pushed past her. “Rhi and Daley were fighting.”
Peter’s arrival spared me from responding. “Hey, Rhi. Did you see Mom and Dad?”
I punched him in the arm hard enough to make him wince. “I saw your mom. Don’t ever make me hide anything from her again. They bought your story. That’s not what we talked about though. I’ll tell you about it later.”
Peter looked curious but didn’t press it. We turned together to face Taliesin who was sitting at the desk with his fingers steepled—his favorite pose. I held his gaze to make sure he read the message of our solidarity. Peter might be drinking the Kool-Aid here, but he was still my best friend.
Taliesin’s lips twitched. Satisfied, I sat on the couch and Peter plopped down beside me.
“I am pleased Rhiannon has returned. I have used the time during her,”—the bard paused, eyes glittering—“delay to consult with an earth magician who has devoted his life to the cataloguing of the various types of magic currently present in this world. He agreed that Rhiannon’s connection between magic and color—both in her own perception, and in its manifestation to others—may be unique. I have also spoken with Morgana to try to determine Rhiannon’s true parentage. She confirmed that Viviane had never had a child of her own. She had thought her sister had simply taken in a foundling for her own inscrutable purposes.”
I was surprised. I’d thought Morgan Le Fay—or Morgana as he called her—was Taliesin’s enemy, and yet apparently he could pick up the phone and give her a ring any time he wanted to chat.
“What does it even matter? Whoever my real parents were, they obviously didn’t want me.”
Taliesin shook his head. “It matters a great deal. No Greylander or earth magician would give up their child willingly. Children of magic are precious.”
“So what happened then?”
“I do not know, but it is a great and worrisome mystery that you should end up being cared for by Viviane. She was known to have long ago put aside any real interest in the human world. You are the second child I have encountered with unknown magic parentage.” He gestured at Tynan who looked down so the sweep of his hair hid his face. “I do not believe in coincidences.”
The mauve swirling through me was speckled with other, darker colors, but I shrugged. “I don’t understand why any of this is important.”
It was Daley who answered and his voice was angry again. “You don’t understand because there are things no one here has told you yet.” Surprisingly, it wasn’t me he was mad at; he was glaring at his father. Taliesin nodded for him to continue. “About time,” Daley muttered before turning back to me. “You might have destroyed that Cŵn Annwn. At the very least, you changed it. I could feel the power leave it like an electric charge in the atmosphere before it dissipated. You shouldn’t have been able to do that to a hound of Avalon.” Sparks of static electricity were flying from Daley’s hair. Since no one else seemed worried he might set the house on fire, I wondered if they could see the manifestation of his power the way I did. “The Cŵn Annwn were created from mortal dogs to serve Cernunnos. If one falls, his power revives it; their power is his power.” He paused for a moment to let that sink in. “There’s no precedent for what you did except in the tales of the very darkest of creatures.”
I swallowed hard. “What creatures?”
It was Taliesin who answered. “I have never encountered one outside of myth, but the Leanan Sidhe were said to have the ability to steal the life force out of a man, leaving only an empty shell behind. What you did could be described in a similar way. I think you can understand why this might give us cause for concern.”
My head began to pound. “What do you want me to do?”
“Can you show me how your ability manifests itself?”
“I don’t know. I’ve always seen my colors when my emotions were strong. I thought that’s all it was—some kind of weird synesthesia. Maybe since my colors tell me something about myself, they can also tell me things about other people, like their abilities. I don’t know how I made a color actually appear.”
“Perhaps your power is strong enough to create a reality out of your perception. Or perhaps your special ability is the power to make corporeal some essential nature of magic we have not understood till now. You will never know unless you try, Rhiannon.”
“OK.” I stood and closed my eyes. Faint traces of the indigo binding still lingering in the house distracted me—it was like looking through glasses smeared with oil. I opened my eyes in frustration. “I can’t.”
Daley had crossed the room to stand beside me. “Boudica said you grabbed her and I saw you touch the Cŵn Annwn.” I nodded and he took my hand. “Try again, Rhiannon.”
His use of my full name did strange things to my insides and when I closed my eyes again, I saw streaks of hot pink shooting through the indigo. The outline of his form appeared in my mind, lined in blades of cyan and orange lightning. I jumped as electricity passed between our entwined fingers.
“What do you see?” he asked.
“I see you.”
A pause. “What do I look like?”
I answered without hesitation. “Lightning. Cyan light and orange flame so bright it’s almost colorless. And a stormy sky—charcoal and blue lined with silver.”
After a moment of silence, Tali
esin spoke. “Can you touch what you see?”
I heard the hiss of Daley’s indrawn breath and white fear shivered across my vision of him. “What if I hurt Daley?”
The bard’s voice was cold. “You did not hurt Boudica.” Either Boudica didn’t know what I’d done to her, or hadn’t admitted to it.
“You can do it.” Peter’s voice was closer; he stood beside me now and I could see the bright green thread connecting us. Trust and confidence seemed to flow through it.
“I’ll try.” I tightened my grip on Daley’s hand and lifted it in front of my closed eyes. In my mind, lightning danced over our fingers and around a small ring of light on my wrist.
The wheel charm.
The light flared and my interior vision was blinded as my wrist seemed to catch fire. I tore my hand out of Daley’s, but I could feel some of his power come with it. There was a moment of resistance and a strange aqua iridescence swirled around me, but then Daley’s power was mine. Opening my eyes, I gasped for breath and then froze.
A ball of lightning lay in my palm.
The wheel charm no longer burned where it was hidden beneath my sleeve, but the lightning I held was almost too hot to endure.
Taliesin frowned. “An illusion?”
Daley leaned down to touch the power in my hand with a cautious finger and then straightened and backed away. “It’s real,” he gasped. “She took a part of me.”
I stepped towards him and held out my hand. “Take it! Take it back!”
He recoiled from me. “What did you do?”
Taliesin stood and put a hand on Daley’s shoulder. “What did it feel like, my son?”
“Like she was clutching at my soul!”
“Be calm. How much did she take? Will you be all right?”
Daley took a shuddering breath and then seemed to get himself under control. “Not much. I’ll be fine.” There was no expression in his voice.
I had to say something. “Daley, I’m so sorry.”
Taliesin interrupted, “No need to apologize, Miss Lynne.” He returned his attention to Daley. “Could you have stopped Rhiannon if she had tried to take more?”
Daley’s face was now a calm mask. “Maybe. I’m not sure.”
“Take it back,” I begged again.
“I don’t know how.” Daley turned away.
Crimson rage smeared across my vision. Putting all the force I could find behind it, I threw the ball of lightning at the ground. There was a crack of thunder, and then the acrid smell of wool burning. We all stared silently at the black hole in the Persian carpet. Peter stepped on a small tongue of flame to extinguish it.
Miko cleared her throat. “Well, not to say that wasn’t interesting, but I think we should try the harp before jumping to any conclusions. The leanan sidhe left gifts of creativity for what they took, but I don’t see Daley rushing off to write a poem.” The fairy pulled the harp out of the bag. “Binnorie’s been difficult lately, but she agreed to let all of you see and hear her. Just let me talk to her for a second.” I didn’t like how she called the harp by the drowned girl’s name.
The minutes stretched on as Miko whispered to the harp. I was getting restless by the time she stopped in frustration.
“She’s not listening to me . . .”
CHILD OF BLOOD!
An awful screeching filled the room and Rowan and Boudica rushed in through the door to see what was going on. Pain shot through me as if something had been pulled tight until it broke. The harp continued to wail.
Have mercy on us Child of Blood, Eater of Bones and Life!
Have pity on us Destroyer of Worlds and Scouring Wind!
He has waited long and you cannot evade.
You will rise to meet him or choose to fall.
On this hangs death on the right or the left.
The voice quieted and took on a singsong quality.
One will go forward alone.
One will return to the beginning.
Choose rightly and blood will run like a river.
Choose wrongly and it will pour out like the sea.
But do not say you were not warned by me.
The harp fell silent.
Boudica crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me with raised eyebrows. “Well that was reassuring.”
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
The harp was silent, but everyone else had a lot to say.
Boudica was yelling. “It’s a prophesy! Are you telling me you know every prophesy ever made?” That was directed at Taliesin on a rising pitch that sent pain shooting through my head.
Rowan motioned at his wife to stop but his face was worried. “You have to admit it sounds like it could be a prophesy.”
Taliesin ignored them both. “Miko, Binnorie is your charge. Was it a prophesy or has she finally gone mad after all these years?”
Miko hugged the harp to her chest. “She’s not mad. Not yet. It has to be a true prophesy.”
Daley snorted. “Since when has any prophesy ever been ‘true’? You know as well as I do that prophesies are as slippery as nixies.”
Boudica shrugged off her husband’s arm and strode over to me, but I had trouble seeing her past the streaks of acid orange flashing in front of my eyes. “It’s a prophesy and we know who its target is.” Vicious crimson burst into my head. “I say we stop worrying about what the prophesy was about and just get rid of the who.”
“Bo . . .” Rowan admonished.
Pain was coming in waves now, crashing against me so fast I could barely catch my breath. Everything was color; everything inside me and around me. Emotion, power, thought—I could see it all now and it was blinding. A part of me yearned to take the essence of what I perceived into myself. A part of me knew it would burn me from the inside out until my mind was just like the smoldering, stinking hole in the carpet.
“The first Rhiannon rode a pale horse,” Tynan murmured. “Some say she was the goddess of death.”
Daley frowned. “That’s not helpful, Ty.”
“Has anyone noticed how many horses there are where she lives?” Boudica spat.
Peter jumped to his feet. “That’s my home you’re talking about and what have horses got to do with anything anyway?”
Rhiannon, listen to me, we cannot be seen. Hide in the shadows and be still and silent.
The angry voices faded away and I could hear only her. Not Mom—Viviane. My mother was dead. It was a goddess that had left the remnants of her voice in my mind. The tattered mist of her spell slipped away and rage filled me—rage at what she’d done to me, rage at all the things she’d kept from me. Crimson swept through the other colors and overwhelmed them. Drowning in it, I grasped at a thread of bright green winking through the maelstrom.
Peter!
He turned to look at me. Everyone else went silent.
Taliesin took my hand and felt for the pulse in my wrist. “Rowan, call 911.”
Miko stared at me with round eyes. “Where did all the blood come from?”
“What blood?” I asked. At least I tried to before I choked on the viscous mass in my mouth. I was covered in blood. With trembling hands I felt my ears, eyes, and nose; it was everywhere.
“It pours out like the sea.” Boudica murmured.
“Enough!” Taliesin roared and the agony in my head jumped in response. “Rhiannon, can you hear me?”
Of course I can. You could pop an eardrum with that thing.
I nodded.
“Are you in pain?”
I nodded yes again, but it wasn’t the point. I lifted my hands to show him. “It’s not blood,” I said as clearly as I could. “Something inside me broke.”
Taliesin stepped back in surprise. “Hang up the phone,” he barked. The druid muttered some excuse into the receiver and put it down.
Peter took my hand. “I heard you calling me in my mind. What can I do?”
I couldn’t speak. Color was coming faster; streaming out of my mouth and dribbling out of my nose, eyes and ears.
Peter grabbed my shoulders as I thrashed backwards in a desperate struggle to breathe.
“RHIANNON!”
The power of the bard’s voice made the color rushing through me tremble and falter. I managed to take a deep breath.
“Can you regain control?”
I shook my head violently.
“Tal,” Rowan said, “if she can’t stop it, it’ll kill her as surely as losing that much blood would.”
Taliesin’s eyes widened, but his voice was calming. “I will have to try to stop it for you. Do you understand what that means?” I nodded again. He never moved, but a blanket of indigo dropped over me. Color dissipated like smoke and I coughed the rest out of my lungs. Miko handed me a tissue and I dabbed at my face—real blood had added itself to the flow.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
With a hiss, Boudica stomped out and Rowan followed her with a murmured apology. Peter let me go, but his hands were trembling.
When Taliesin stood and stumbled, both Tynan and Daley rushed to help, but he waved them away. He leaned against the desk and passed a hand over his face. “I am fine, but it is taking all my strength to bind whatever that was.”
“Should I get Rowan back?” Tynan asked.
The bard sighed wearily. “Later.” He glanced at the bloody tissue in my hand. “Do you know what happened?”
I struggled to find the worlds. “I’m not sure. When the harp screamed, it felt like something inside me broke. I could see everything as color—my thoughts, my feelings, all of you—it was overwhelming.”
“And what you perceive, you are somehow able to manifest in reality.”
“I guess. But there was so much of it. I’m not sure where it was all coming from.”
Taliesin sighed again. “With Rowan’s help, I can contain this for a day, maybe two. You must gain control within that time. You cannot risk another deluge; that was real blood mingled with it.” He shook his head. “I have never experienced magic as a physical entity. It is both fascinating and terrifying.”
The knuckles on Miko’s hands were white as she gripped the harp. “But if it was all just a manifestation of Rhiannon’s power, where did it go?”
Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch Page 12