by J F Rogers
Chapter Forty-One
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KAI HEADED OUT TO rally those who’d been banished around the island. Maili got to work making bows and arrows and teaching archery. Cahal and Wolf taught the refugees how to fight with weapons and in hand-to-hand combat. Evan and Rowan educated the refugees and the dark pech on the fasgadair, their strengths, weaknesses, the power they have over unbelievers, and how to kill them. We’d become a fasgadair-exterminator academy.
Maili showed me how to handle a bow, but the arrows kept flopping to the ground. Either I didn’t nock it in the right place, or I didn’t anchor it to my mouth correctly. Or I released the tension incorrectly. Amazing how delicately you had to release it, but I got the hang of it. The arrow shot ahead every time. Now if only I could hit the target.
“You’re doing well. Your body needs to get used to setting up and releasing the arrow first. The aim will come. Just keep practicing.” Maili retrieved an arrow from her quiver and shot it across the field into the center of the target in one swift movement.
Show off. She probably learned to shoot a bow when she was three. That was her village’s weapon of choice. It made sense. They were a bunch of tree dwellers.
My mind kept returning to the prior night’s dream. Who was my other brother? Why did this fasgadair care? Theories tumbled in my mind. I could ask Cataleen. But then she’d wonder how I knew about them at all. I didn’t feel like explaining my travels back in time. Truly, I didn’t feel like talking to her at all. How could she keep all this from me?
I nocked an arrow, anchored it to my cheek, focused on the stuffed sack with the giant X, and released. “Ow!” The string smacked my forearm…again. The giant red blotch had deepened in color. What was I doing wrong?
My arrow stuck in the bag far southeast of center. I’d overcorrected from the northwest. But at least it hit the bag and didn’t go sailing past. Again.
Enough of this. I rubbed my sore forearm as if that helped. Time to find out who my other brother was.
I pulled Pepin aside. “I need to go back to Turas. Will you help me?”
He tugged on his beard. “For what purpose?”
“There’s something I have to do.”
Head cocked to one side, he continued watching me.
I glanced around to ensure no one was listening. “It’s a family thing. You saw my birth. I have to go back. I have to find my other brother.”
The braid swung like a slow time keep as he shook his head. “You heard the angel’s warning. We’ve tempted fate too many times. We need to reserve Turas for emergencies only. And we’ve a battle to prepare for.” He nocked his bow. “I’m sorry, Fallon.”
I sighed. Time to have a conversation with my mother. “Do you know where Cataleen is?”
“I think she was gathering water from the lake.”
I headed down the path. My mother was coming up with two pails.
“Are you headed down to fetch water?” She glanced at my empty hands. “You seem to have forgotten your pails.”
“No, I–I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh good. Here.” She handed me a full pail.
I heaved the sloshing bucket and stepped in line with her.
“So, what did you want to talk about?”
“I wanted to ask about my brothers.”
She dropped her bucket. “Oh!” She picked it up before spilling its entire contents. “Well, the buckets are only about half full every time I return anyway. Here.” She grabbed my bucket and dumped some water so both buckets were a little more than half full. “Should make the walk back easier.”
Folding my arms across my aching chest, I left my bucket on the ground. “So, what about my brothers?”
She set her bucket down. Rubbed between her eyes and sighed. “Did Sully tell you?”
Nope. Didn’t want to get into that. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I–I just—It’s been eighteen years. I didn’t know what to say…or how to say it.” She reached out to touch my face.
I backed away. “Tell me now.”
“Tell you what?” Tears welled in her eyes. “That I had three children and two were taken from me?”
A pang stabbed my chest. I wasn’t trying to make the woman cry. “I—” I tried to force words past this horrid thing attacking my chest. “I just want to know about my brothers.”
“I saw Declan again after I returned to Ariboslia when you were three.” She smiled, her gaze somewhere else. “He looked just like your dad.” She shook it off and picked up her bucket. “But I still don’t know what happened to my other son. I tried to find out, but…no one seems to know. Not even Declan’s father, and he’s who left with them that night.”
So, I’d need Turas. I needed to know. Not because the fasgadair in the mind-link wanted me to. Somehow, my brother was an important piece in this battle.
But Pepin wouldn’t help me. Perhaps I didn’t need him. I’d seen the motion he made over Drochaid’s face once embedded in Turas many times. Did it have to be a pech? Perhaps I could try.
I helped my mother carry the water to the camp, then returned to my things for my water bag and a roll I’d saved and headed into the woods toward Turas. At least I hoped I was headed toward Turas. It had been dark when we arrived, and I couldn’t be sure. But I had to try.
“Going somewhere?” Kai’s voice came from behind.
I jumped and turned to him. “I—uh—When did you get back?”
“I just arrived. Are you going back to Turas?”
“Uh.”
“Why?”
“I–I just—”
Kai laughed. “Just let me join you, and you can explain along the way.”
****
Good thing Kai came with me. I wouldn’t have made it back on my own. After a few hours trudging through the woods, we came to a clearing, and Turas rose before us. We crossed the green hills to the stones.
“I’m not sure if this will work without Pepin.” I placed Drochaid in the depression. “But I’ll try.” I touched Drochaid as I’d seen Pepin do and swirled my finger over its face in the same manner. Nothing happened. My shoulders sagged. “I guess it does need a pech to operate it.”
“Don’t give up so easily,” Kai said. “Don’t you have to say the date to get back to 1521?”
Duh. I took a deep breath. “Let me try again.”
Swirling my finger, repeating the date aloud, and imagining Turas whole was challenging. Like patting my head and rubbing my stomach at the same time. A brain tweak. It took longer than normal, but the stones groaned and twitched.
“It’s working.”
I wanted to shush him but needed all my concentration. The stones gained momentum and converged into a wall. When they stopped, Stonehenge was complete.
I released the breath I’d been holding.
Stonehenge was whole. We made it. 1521. A baby’s cry rang out through the air, and the sensation of being in a thick fog of pure evil swept over me. It filled my lungs with each breath and coursed through every blood vessel, both exciting my senses to act and lulling me into a deep depression.
“What was that?” Kai ran toward the sound.
“No! Don’t leave the circle!” I fought the desire to drop to the ground and cry myself to sleep.
Kai stopped short, arms windmilling. He’d almost crossed the outer wall. He regained his balance. “But there’s a baby here.” He pointed outside the wall to a wriggling blanket. Arms poked out, fingers spread. The cry intensified.
A wolf growled.
Kai stepped back.
The wolf neared the baby.
“I have to save it.”
“No! Get back here. We have to leave.”
“But—”
“It’s not real. It’s a trick. We have to go. Now!”
Kai returned to the inner circle. Close enough. I swirled my finger over Drochaid and imagined my room in the farmhouse in th
e past, my mother, the babies.
We arrived as Declan’s father loaded the boys up, one in each arm. The evil spirit disappeared and seeped from my system. I shuddered as my spirit detoxed. My mother held me close, sobbing. Tears slid down my father’s face. He sat on the bed next to Cataleen and gathered her into his arms.
Without a word, Declan’s father walked away. I shut out the image of my parents in pain and followed him down the stairs, out of the house, and into the night. He traveled the path to the megalith. Declan senior pulled out an amulet, not Drochaid, and laid the crying babies in the grass. He crawled through the megalith, his head and upper torso vanished. He paused. Then the rest of his body followed. His arms reappeared, grabbed one baby, and dragged him through, then the other.
I imagined us going through the megalith. It worked. We arrived on the other side where Declan’s father was gathering both babies back into his arms. He resumed his trek through the field of retreating grass. Each step he took the grass disappeared, then reappeared as he passed. The grass didn’t move for Kai and me.
He must’ve taken a more direct route to Notirr. It didn’t take as long for him to arrive as I took when I arrived in Ariboslia last year. Then again, I had no idea where I was, where I was going, or what I was doing. Declan’s father was on a mission. Despite the delicate bundles he carried, they must’ve felt like weights growing by the pound, weighing his arms down. Regardless, he kept to a good clip.
Just before the sun came up, we arrived at Notirr. But rather than go inside, Declan’s father hurried along the road, past the village. He ducked behind a clump of bushes, put the babies down, and retrieved bottles from his sack. He fed each baby, took a few bites of jerky, then lay on the ground to rest, pulling the babies close.
Should I hang out here while they sleep? Couldn’t I skip this part?
Couldn’t hurt to try. I noted the sun’s height rising in the sky as a point of reference. Then I imagined it a little higher. It moved. Declan’s father and the babies still slept. Just a little higher. Then, they were gone.
I swiveled around, panicked. Then chastised myself. All I had to do was imagine the sun lower and find them. But a baby cried not too far away. Declan’s father crept through the woods along the road.
When the sun reached its full height, clomping hoofs came up the road. Declan’s father crouched. Then he stood and rushed to the carriage. The man clicked his tongue. Something about him was familiar. The horses shook their heads, snorted, and came to a stop.
“Achaius!” Declan’s father called out.
It was the same guy I met last year? Only in this time, he was closer to my age. His hair was still unkempt, but his face was smooth, his teeth white as he smiled.
“Are you on the way to Notirr with Treasach?”
“I am.” He craned his neck to see what Declan’s father carried. “What have you there?”
“I apologize. For the safety of these babies, I can’t tell you where they’re from. Just know I’m trying to protect them. In fact, I wish to keep one as my own. But I need it to appear that they came from Gnuatthara.”
Achaius had been transporting babies and elderly when I met him a year ago. I had no idea he’d been rescuing Treasach for so long. Not that I’d asked. Or cared.
After raising an eyebrow, Achaius nodded. “Place them in the baskets in the carriage. There are no adults this time, just babies. But they’ll be okay. They’re almost there. And better off than how the Treasach left them.” He muttered that last part under his breath.
Declan’s father adjusted the babies in his arms. “We need to keep the boys separated.”
Again, Achaius raised his eyebrow.
“’Tis a long story. Please trust me, Achaius. They both wear matching blue ribbons around their wrist. Please ensure one is delivered to Notirr, to my family. The other must go to another village.”
Achaius sighed. “Very well. I’ll bring the next one to Ardara.”
After he placed the babies into the baskets inside the carriage, Declan’s father waved and retreated to the woods. Achaius made clicking sounds at the horses and held their reins. The horses resumed their walk.
I imagined us inside the carriage with the babies. The rocking must have lulled them to sleep. As I tried to determine which ones were my brothers, the carriage moved on without us. We hovered above the road outside. I imagined us inside again, found one of the blue ribbons, then wound up outside again. Enough of that. Following was easier than staying inside…just like with the dinghy. This was the past. Even if something happened, there was nothing I could do.
We waited while Achaius dropped Declan off at Notirr. So, Declan was the one in the ducky blanket. He and the other baby were identical. But I wasn’t one to judge. Most babies looked the same.
Achaius returned to the carriage and took off to the northwest. A direction I’d never been. We continued to follow the carriage up a slight, yet steady incline.
I wanted to fast-forward all of this, but I might lose them. I didn’t want to waste time. Although, that wasn’t possible since, no matter what I did, I’d return to Stonehenge at the same time I left.
But the demons now knew we were messing with Turas. And now they were messing with us. Knowing what kinds of stunts they’d pull to get us to leave the circle made me feel better. But what if something they found worked? What would happen if a demon got a hold of us in the spiritual realm? I shuddered.
The sun had disappeared behind the distant mountains when we came to a quaint village atop a steep hill. Homes like those in Notirr ringed the space, but these were compressed, side by side and atop one another. Down the slope, more homes and paths lined the hill. The road on which the carriage came to a stop was probably someone’s roof.
Beyond the layered homes lay miles of open fields and a lake surrounded by trees. Mountains loomed above the tree line. Not a bad place to grow up.
A man approached. “Achaius!”
“Hello, Greer!” Achaius hopped down, greeted Greer with a quick hand grasp, one back pat, man hug. He then turned to the carriage and fetched a baby without the ribbon. He gave the baby to Greer. “We have two babies this time. Do you have room for them?”
“We’ll make room for them. Not to worry.”
Achaius lifted my brother from the carriage and placed him in Greer’s other arm. “Do you need help with them?”
“Oh. I can manage.” Greer smiled at the babies. “Come. Let’s feed you.” He sniffed and wrinkled his nose. “After a wash and clean clothes.”
“I apologize.” Achaius bowed. “The goal is to get them here safely.”
“I understand.” He jostled the little ones, cooing. “You’re near the end of a long journey. How about a meal and a warm bed for you too?”
“That’s kind, Greer, but I must be going.”
“If that’s your wish.”
Achaius dipped his head. “I wish you well, my friend.”
Greer dipped his head in response. “You as well.” He tightened his grip on the babies and bounded up stairs between two homes, came to the next tier of homes, walked down the left path, and entered a small door.
A woman gasped and grabbed the baby in the bear blanket. My brother. “I’ve never seen a blanket like this, have you?”
Greer shrugged, and two older children came running.
“Can I see, Mama?” The littlest, probably five years old, stood on tiptoes to see the baby in her mother’s arms.
Her mother stooped so she could see.
“Oooh.” She smiled. Big eyes full of hope gazed up at her mom. “Can we keep it?”
“Well, I don’t know…” The woman sighed and hugged Greer’s arm. “We’ve plenty of children to feed around here.”
“I was thinking, perhaps one more wouldn’t be too much,” Greer said. “I received that promotion to the council.”
“What about the other baby, Da?” the older brother asked.
�
�We’ll find him a good home.”
The woman smiled. “Well then, what shall we call…?” She gazed at Greer. Her face a question mark.
“Him.”
“What shall we call him?”
“How about Alastar, after my father?” Greer suggested.
The woman smiled. “Alastar it is then.” She held the baby so he faced his new siblings. “Kids, meet your new brother, Alastar.”
So, my brother’s name was Alastar. The smells coming from the kitchen made my stomach growl. Yet again, I felt the passing time and was getting tired and hungry. But I didn’t want to give up now. I had to know what happened to my brother. Who was he now? Was he still alive?
The bread. I had bread in my satchel. Good thinking, Fallon. I reached in and removed a roll. I might need the other later. This might take a while. I broke the roll in half and offered one to Kai.
“Thank you.” He took a bite. “So, your other brother is called Alastar?”
“I guess so. Are you okay to keep going? I want to know who he becomes.”
He lifted his remaining bread in a salute. “Now I am.”
I imagined the same home and the same boy only at around five years old. The scene didn’t change much. The same furniture still sat where it had five years prior. Fabulous smells still came from the kitchen. My stomach growled once again. I tore off a bite of my bread.
Something crashed in the other room, followed by a loud thump.
I pictured us in the other room. A small boy wearing an apron, covered in flour lay in a heap on the floor. He looked like Declan must’ve looked at this age, but his eyes were purple, like mine. Pain twisting his face, he pulled himself up.
Greer raced into the room. “Alastar.” He ran to the boy. “Are ye all right, lad?”
“Aye.” He nodded, allowing Greer to help him up.
“What happened?”
“I needed more salt.”
Greer brushed his son off then moved to the cabinet and hauled out a bag of salt.
“How many times have I said not to climb the cabinet? If something is too high to reach, ask for help.”
“I know, Da.”
“What are ye making for us tonight?” Greer sniffed. “It smells wonderful.”