Redcap laughed. “Well, I think you’d better start. Viviane instructed the child to scatter her ashes on a lake right after a blue moon. Oh, and did I mention that L’Inconnue de la Seine came all the way from Europe through watery Paths to wait for her? I’d already guessed what the girl was before we came here.”
Peter sat down on the couch. “What’s he talking about?”
Redcap seemed to be enjoying himself. “Let me illuminate. Viviane allowed what was left of her power to dwindle until death so she could hide herself and this girl from her brother. Why would she make such a sacrifice? Viviane and Cernunnos were alike, cold and unfeeling. Seduced by the power this world gave to her, Viviane turned her back on her brother and bound her power to the worship she received from humans. When that worship faded, so did she. Fated to finally die, she gave what was left of herself in the care of a child. A child she instructed to throw her ashes into a lake. A lake made special by Viviane’s love for it.”
“A sacred pool,” Morgan murmured.
“Yes, a sacred pool where she could be reborn in renewed power. Perhaps L’Inconnue felt the approach of Viviane’s remains and was angry a greater water goddess might encroach upon her territory.”
Peter shook his head. “How does that prove this Cernunnos guy is Rhi’s dad?”
Morgan was pacing now. “When Viviane and I made our allegiances here, my brother swore revenge upon us. We were three sisters born of magic. Of all the creatures I have met through the long ages of the world, only he has the power to unmake us—or perhaps make us. If even a particle of Viviane’s body remained and a portion of her spirit lingered, Cernunnos might be able to raise her up and restore her. Magic could birth Viviane again, but he would never do this for her.”
“His child might have the same power,” Taliesin said gently.
Everyone was watching me. I wanted to disappear but I forced myself to respond. “He’s the silver-haired man. I saw him once when I was little. We hid from him. Mom never told me, but I guessed he was my father.”
Taliesin sighed. “I had heard rumors that Cernunnos could cross the Wall in some manner. Viviane was known for her powers of concealment, just as a lake appears to be one thing on the surface, but its depths are hidden.”
Morgan was Amazonian and I had to crane my neck to look up at her as she accosted me with questions. “What did you do when you scattered the ashes? Did you say anything? Did Viviane give you any other instructions?”
“She asked me to scatter her ashes in the lake, that’s it. That’s what I did.”
Morgan glanced at Redcap and he nodded. “After L’Inconnue tried to drown her, Rhiannon threw the ashes into the lake and then passed out.”
“And you saw nothing after that?”
“No, but Viviane has gone from me. It’s not impossible that it was part of her plan.”
The woman looked worried and it made me angry. “I’m not saying I believe it’s possible, but don’t you want your own sister back?”
Morgan turned away and Redcap answered. “Viviane was the Lady of the Lake and Arthur worshipped her before he came to understand who and what she really was. Still, because of that, she has power over him. If she were restored in her full strength, who knows what she would do; her allegiance was always as uncertain and as changeable as the waves.”
Morgan made an impatient gesture. “It doesn’t matter now. Either Viviane didn’t know the nature of the spell she needed, or she died before she could show the girl what to do.”
“So you admit that Rhiannon could be Cernunnos’ child?”
“It is possible and impossible all at the same time. It would explain a great deal about my sister’s behavior, though not my brother’s. Which then begs another question—who is this child’s real mother?”
My dream told the truth; my birth mother had abandoned me to Viviane.
A strangled yelp interrupted my thoughts. Peter had picked up the journal from the desk and was now staring at the portrait of Cernunnos with his finger on the page. He lifted it to show me what was written at the bottom. One word was scrawled in the corner in pencil. I’d missed it before. I’d been too busy staring at my father’s face.
“C’mon! Merlin? Really?” Peter asked plaintively.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
“Yes, he was known in my time as Merlin.” Taliesin took the book from Peter’s hands and closed it before gesturing for him to take his seat. “I had forgotten how powerful that name has become in this modern age, but I assure you, he was no kindly mage with a pointed hat and long beard. I have shown you the story before in broad strokes, but these are the finer details. Perhaps it will help you to know that Cernunnos was also Anubis in Egypt, Hades in Greece, and Pluto in Rome. When he tired of this world, he alone was not diminished by leaving his worshippers. His power seemed endless.”
“Then a whisper of an unknown magic reached his ear. On a small and insignificant island in a cold sea, a young king named Arthur struggled to unite a nation. Despite what the storybooks say, there was no sword in any stone. It was Viviane who gave him Excalibur—a mysterious talisman of earth magic—and he became the Earth King. Cernunnos came to him and named himself Merlin—even I did not recognize him as one of the old gods of my people. He guided Arthur as his friend, but he sought to control and limit him as well.”
“Arthur’s power could not be contained and when he no longer heeded his mentor, the Lord of the Grey Lands sent Morgana to ensnare him with her beauty. You know the rest.” He took Morgan’s hand. “Instead, she told Arthur the truth. She changed her name to Morgan le Fay as a warning to her brother that she had come into her own power, but I remember her by the name she bore when first we met.” Morgan pulled away, visibly moved. “She and Arthur had a child—a boy—and named him Mordred. They made plans to invade Avalon even though the Lady of the Lake turned against them for it and reclaimed Excalibur.”
“Cernunnos was forced to resort to deception. He appeared to Mordred as Merlin and convinced the boy his father meant to rule both worlds as a tyrant—a truth wrapped in a lie. Mordred demanded Excalibur from Viviane as his birthright.”
“In the midst of the last great battle on the borders of Avalon, Mordred stabbed his father through the heart with the sword and then fled and was never seen again. Excalibur was destroyed and the Lady of the Lake took what remained and hid it away. The Earth King could not be killed by his own magic, but instead fell into an enchanted sleep. Morgan le Fay honors the oaths she made to him on the day they met and guards him still until she can find the key to waking him.”
Morgan brushed a tear from her face. “Thank you, my dear bard, for seeing me with such charity despite all that has passed between us.”
“Always,” he whispered.
With a sigh, she walked over to me and placed her cool hands on my temples.
“What are you doing?”
“I am helping you. My gift is the ability to sense the power in others. I guide them in accessing it and am able to take some for myself to shape with incantations for my own purposes.”
That sounds like the politically correct way of saying she steals it.
Morgan laughed softly. “Do not look so worried. I can also draw my magic from places and objects of power, and for those I train, it is a gift given willingly in thanks. You, however, donated so much raw power to the heavens yesterday that even the efforts of Taliesin’s electrically charged protégé could not clean it all up. Now hush. When Taliesin releases the binding, I will help you regain control over yourself.”
“How?”
“By going into your mind.”
Hell to the no.
Without warning, indigo disappeared and sparkling color rushed in. I must have closed my eyes because everything else disappeared. Disoriented, I felt like I was drowning.
“Rhiannon! Calm yourself. Keep your eyes closed and concentrate on me and me alone.”
I forced myself to obey. To focus, I placed my hands over hers and her form appeared
in my mind in colors even more chaotic than the ones flowing around me. Unlike Daley and the Cŵn Annwn, the outline of color around her seemed fractured and disjointed.
“I can see you.”
“And what do I look like in your mind?”
“Colors all around you and through you, hundreds of them.”
I felt her hands shift as she turned to speak to Taliesin. “She must be seeing what could be described as my aura. I had thought such an ability was only a foolish tale told by charlatans, but it would explain how emotion, power, and essence are visible to her.” Her voice addressed me again. “What else do you see?”
“Color everywhere.”
“And where does this color come from? Are you seeing the rest of us here in this room?”
I paused. “I don’t think so. I mean, I sort of have a sense of people sometimes, but it doesn’t come clear until I touch them. At least, that’s what happened before.”
Redcap’s voice was close. “Here, let me try.” His hand brushed my shoulder and I gasped as a fleeting vision of him lined in warm gold and blood red flickered across my mind.
“I saw you!”
Morgan gave an unladylike snort. “Yes, the redcap’s nature is very vibrant. I am not surprised you could see him so easily.”
There was silence. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn’t feel my body anymore.
It is beautiful, how you see it. My vision of the woman solidified and her voice was now coming from inside my head.
You can see what I see?
I am inside your consciousness. For the moment, I perceive what you perceive. My mental impression of Morgan sighed. As I can also perceive that you are indeed his daughter. While your colors hold no meaning for me, I can sense the echo of my brother’s soul in them. Of your true mother . . . She paused . . . there is something almost familiar about it, but I cannot capture it.
Color swirled around me like a rushing stream. What is all this then?
I do not understand what it is, let alone what it means, but it does seem to have a source.
A source? We aren’t anywhere! We’re in my mind!
Yes, but this is your mental picture of a true reality. She pointed to an ebony strand spinning through the others, leaping and diving like a fish. I do not like the look of that. What does it feel like to you?
I only had to think of the color to have it in my hand. The headache I’d endured all summer spiked.
It’s pain. My pain.
Follow it.
Releasing the ebony, I imagined myself sinking deeper into myself. Morgan disappeared. Following the dark flow, I arrived at a wall of ice edged in silver. Color stained with ebony leaked from a broken area in the center.
Viviane created this spell, but it is failing. Morgan’s voice was faint and far away.
You can see it?
No, you are too far within yourself for me to reach, but I can sense her touch.
What is it?
Some sort of barrier, I believe. What do you perceive?
I approached it cautiously. It’s damaged. I remembered how I felt something break when the harp screamed the prophesy at me. Panic rushed through me once again. Where are we, Morgan? My brain? My soul?
Who can say? It is a question more for science than magic. What I can tell you is that my sister created this to protect you from something. She was silent for a moment. We do know that at least some of what you perceive is power.
I noticed colors similar to Daley’s and the Cŵn Annwn. Was this only a mental representation of what I’d done to them? What about all the other colors?
Morgan continued. But if that is true, why would Viviane try to protect you from it? Why would she not want you to have power?
I thought of the ebony and how it tainted all the rest. Where it touched the icy barrier, the surface appeared rotten and putrid.
Maybe because of the pain.
There was urgency in Morgan’s voice now. If you are right, then whatever is seeking its way in—whatever you take in—also wounds you. It is beyond me to remake my sister’s construct, but I can strengthen it. She murmured words in a language I didn’t understand. Take this and bind the corruption.
A ball of light materialized in front of me. With a thought, I guided it to the weeping lesion.
What will happen? Am I healing something in my mind or in my body?
I do not know.
Anger sliced through me and a bright red separated itself from the other colors in response. Viviane had made this barrier to block my full abilities, I was sure of it. I had a sudden intuition that this particular shade of red—if I could grasp and shape it—could be used to ignite the flesh of an enemy. White horror filled me and the terrifying color paled and faded away.
As the spell spread across the barrier like an ointment, I surged up through myself back into consciousness. When Morgan slipped her hands out from under mine, I opened my eyes, blinking at the light.
“Were you successful?” Taliesin asked.
Morgan sat down on the edge of the desk and crossed her long, slim legs. “Perhaps. I believe Rhiannon draws power from those around her like a sponge; you were not far wrong when you suggested the leanan sidhe as having similar abilities. Viviane created a barrier to try to keep the girl from doing so, yet over the years she has unknowingly collected remnants from those she has encountered. She sees them as colors, though I have no idea of the reality of this or if she shapes them as she perceives them. Though this ability must be her heritage from my brother, I believe Rhiannon is part human and cannot safely contain the power she is heir to.”
She looked at me. “I think Viviane was trying to protect you from yourself and perhaps those of power around you too. Why she did not tell you—did not teach you how to control it—I cannot say.” Morgan’s eyes were round and pale as moons. “With Viviane’s death, the spell is failing. I have done what I can, but you will need to be vigilant or you will be a threat to both yourself and others. I will seek for answers concerning this strange ability and will help you where I can; we are blood and I am bound by that.”
Her eyes became fixed, unblinking. “Remember this always: blood magic is the greatest magic of all.”
A strange tingling went through me as if her words were the echo of something I was supposed to remember.
Morgan Le Fay stood and kissed Taliesin on the lips before turning and walking out the door.
Redcap winked at me as he followed her. “Until we meet again, mo leanabh.”
Tired and depressed, I said my goodbyes and went home. Later that night as I lay in my own bed staring up at the ceiling, I thought about what I’d seen before I returned to the conscious world.
Morgan’s spell seemed to heal the barrier, but a single ebony spot remained.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
The world fell into a pattern: days at school and nights and weekends at the mansion. And while I sometimes felt a prickle up my back as if someone was watching me, there were no more howls, paw prints, or bathtubs full of seaweed.
October arrived rainy and cold. Leaves flared briefly to early, vivid life and then were struck down into the gutters. Binnorie’s prophesy wasn’t mentioned and neither was my parentage. I assumed everyone who’d missed the big news had been told that Cernunnos was my father, but no one mentioned it. Perhaps they were all being polite.
And maybe they’re just afraid the wrong word might set off the ticking time bomb.
Taliesin had assigned my training to Boudica and after a week, I wondered if it was to punish her or me. She wasn’t openly hostile, but I could feel her dislike. Boudica was of the wax on wax off school of training and I repeated seemingly insignificant tasks until I wanted to go Karate Kid all over her ass. I practiced holding still for as long as I could. Once I achieved thirty minutes of complete stillness, we began again with me balancing on one foot. I was still struggling to achieve even one minute in that position. She had me solve complicated puzzles and then break them up and do it
again until I wanted to scream. Apparently no one trusted me to try to access even the orphaned colors that remained behind Viviane’s barrier until I demonstrated some discipline.
I just got better at faking it.
One of the best things about the mansion was the indoor pool and as the weather got worse, we all spent a lot of time there. The sight of Taliesin in Hawaiian print swim trunks was disconcerting.
Rowan in his Speedo made me want to gouge my eyes out.
Miko was afraid of the water and the closest she would go was to sit in her bikini on the edge of the shallow end, showing off her pierced navel in the center of her toned tummy. Peter did back flips and belly flops to impress her. Tynan swam solitary laps while Daley would practice a dive or two and then dry off and leave.
Tynan.
Things had gone awkward between us. Tynan was gorgeous and clearly into me, but he wasn’t Daley.
Isn’t the handsome guy with a secret past and hidden sadness practically the foundation of modern pop culture?
Because Daley was sad—I’d seen proof of it. I often stayed overnight in the room that was now unofficially mine. About a week after Binnorie’s prophesy, I was almost asleep when a flash of lightning jolted me awake. When no thunder followed, I knew it was him. I tried not to look, but I couldn’t help myself and I slipped out of bed and went to the window. Daley stood at the edge of the property staring up at the sky and I was shocked to see moonlight reflecting off tears on his face. The tingle of his electricity on my arms was almost like touching him and for a moment he was outlined in color. Ashamed of myself for spying, I was about to turn away when I noticed an iridescent aqua webbing across him. It was the same color I encountered when I took his power, but it clashed with the others; it didn’t seem to belong.
I returned to my bed, but I couldn’t sleep. The strange color made me uneasy and restless.
I wasn’t the only one struggling to figure things out. According to Miko, Tynan’s abilities had become even more unpredictable and unstable. He had lost the ability to call a Cŵn Annwn from the Wall. We found that out when Taliesin tried to arrange another test of my abilities. After a week of moping around the mansion, he created fire from air when he snapped his fingers. Rowan clapped him on the shoulder and declared the mystery solved—Tynan was a pyromancer. The next day, he couldn’t make a spark no matter how hard he tried. Again, Rowan clapped him on the shoulder and promised they would figure it out eventually. And so it went—Tynan would exhibit a powerful ability that would just as quickly disappear and Rowan would try to make him feel better about it. Taliesin would remain noticeably silent.
Sword of Elements Series Boxed Set 2: Bound In Blue, Caught In Crimson & To Make A Witch Page 14