“A little,” he admitted.
Jago came up and took Maiya’s hand. “I told you it was time to save my mother,” he said.
“You did.” Munro stared at them both, and they turned together as someone else approached the circle.
“Over here!” Huck shouted, staggering forward. He looked haggard and drawn, his face covered with long whiskers. In his arms, he carried a very pale Demi.
“Put her on the ground,” Jago ordered Huck, who obeyed instantly. The other druid met Munro’s eyes, looking bewildered.
“We’ve been searching for you,” Munro said.
Huck nodded, but his gaze was drawn back to Demi. He looked up at Jago. “You’re Jago? Can you save her?”
“I am, and I can.” He took out a small metal disk and placed it on Demi’s chest. Munro watched as he sent a burst of blood power through it, combining his druidic talents with his faerie flows in a way Munro had never seen before. Demi sucked in her breath loudly, then coughed, wincing as if in terrible pain.
“Maiya,” Jago called.
She nodded, flicking her hand in the air as she wove a braid of power she sent toward Demi. The unconscious druid visibly relaxed. Maiya turned to Munro. “He’s the healer. I can only help with the pain.” Drawing her father aside, she said, “There’s so much I wish I could say to you.” For the first time since he’d laid eyes on his adult daughter, she looked uncertain. “But you told me not to. You made me promise.”
He chuckled. “Do you always do what I tell you?” he asked.
A sad smile twisted her lips. “I’ve always tried.” She flew into his arms. “I miss you so much, Daddy.” When she finally let him go, her blue eyes glistened with tears. “I can only tell you one thing, and then I have to go.”
He nodded, sad to realise he couldn’t stay with her longer, but then, he’d see her again as soon as this was over. He’d have the pleasure of watching her grow into this beautiful, strong young woman. He’d never felt so proud, so eager for the future.
“Five hundred years ago, the first druid king saved more than fifty thousand lives in one day.” When he didn’t say anything, she added, “They called him the Iron King because of the crown he wore. We faeries don’t generally like iron talismans. It doesn’t work well with our power. But you wear it well.” Her eyes flicked to his crown.
Finally, he couldn’t keep refusing what seemed to be inevitable. Everyone from the past, present, and future seemed to be conspiring to put him on a throne. He couldn’t stand there and look at his daughter, so fierce and beautiful, and deny what must be. “What do I need to do?”
She smiled. “Mother said you fought taking the throne.”
“I’m done fighting,” he said, touching her cheek. “What do I need to do?”
“The people of Danastai were trapped because of this man,” she said, casting a glare toward Ewain. “None before could stop him, but I knew I could. Thanks to you.”
“I helped!” Jago said. “Did you see all that sword action?”
She grinned but didn’t answer him. Instead, she delved into Flùranach’s power once more, turning the temporal flows. “You led the lost and dying through The Way, just moments before the temporal gate was destroyed forever. The Danastai people will be your people. When we get there. I have to go. No one else from the past can be allowed to see me,” she said.
“What about me?” Ewain asked her. “Are you planning to hold me? All I want is to return to my own time.”
“Your time?” Maiya laughed bitterly. “For crimes against the Otherworld, I arrest you by the authority given me by Rìoghachd nan Ceòthan. The Druid Council will decide your fate.”
“What—” Munro started.
“Don’t ask,” Maiya said. “I promised you I wouldn’t tell you about the future. You said you didn’t want to know.”
Munro nodded. “But the past?”
“Yes. We can do a little bit about the past.”
Jago stood reluctantly and returned to Maiya’s side. He bowed to Huck. “Take care of my mother.”
“I will. Always,” Huck said.
Jago nodded. “Tell her not to be too hard on me on my hundredth birthday. I didn’t mean to burn the palace down.”
“Jago!” Maiya shouted. “You promised.”
He ducked playfully, then cast a wink at Huck. “It’ll be a good time though. You’ll see.”
“We have to go,” she said, elbowing him in the ribs.
“Yes, my queen,” he replied with a florid bow. To Munro, he said, “Tell my mother I love her. It’ll be a hard few weeks, but she’ll survive.”
“Not another word,” Maiya said with a sharp glance at Jago.
“Of course,” Munro said.
Maiya gave him a serious nod. “I’ll hold the gate long enough to get you through. Use Flùranach’s temporal flows to activate The Way and return to your own time. Can you do that?”
“No!” Flùranach said. “I’m going with Lord Ewain. We are to be bonded. You can’t make me leave him.”
Maiya sighed sadly. “I not only can do so, I must. Thousands of lives are at stake, and trust me, you don’t want to go where he’s going.” She grasped Flùranach’s flows again and shifted the Otherworld. Then, without warning, she, Jago, and Ewain walked past the border and out of existence.
The greyness outside turned to twilight of a different place and time. Flùranach screamed.
At first, Munro thought she was merely reacting to being left behind, but when he saw the contortions of her face, he realised she was in physical pain. “What is it?”
“The flows. I can’t touch magic.”
“Dear god,” Munro said. The Way connected Colorado and Danastai. Without the Mistgate connection, it had resumed its normal path, but Maiya had sent them into the past. They were in Danastai ten thousand years before, just after Ewain had been imprisoned for the first time. Munro thought it was a very good thing that this gate was going to be destroyed. He just hoped Maiya would wait until he was a safe distance away.
Chapter 20
Munro looked at the other three. How in the world was he supposed to get into the city and convince tens of thousands of faeries to come with him? And all alone too. He glanced at Huck, who still hovered over Demi. At least she had a slightly better colour to her skin now. Munro hoped Jago had spoken the truth and Demi would survive. He supposed it was unlikely the boy would lie, but he did have trouble wrapping his mind around the bizarre paradox of the things he’d just seen.
“How far is the city from here?” Munro asked Flùranach.
She was so lost in her own mind, weeping with pain, that she barely heard him. He wrenched her flows. Her power was still there, but it appeared as though it had been locked away. Fortunately, he could still see the threads she herself could not. He took her astral power and cleared her mind. His touch wasn’t gentle or expert, but her eyes focused.
“I need your help, Flùranach,” he said. “Now. How far is it to the city?”
“Why should I help you? You’ve destroyed my one chance at happiness.”
He grabbed her by the arm and forced her to stand. “Because if you don’t, we all die here in the ancient past. Now move.” She dragged her feet, refusing to comply. He hated doing it, but he knew he didn’t have much time. Using her own power of influence, he turned it on her. “You will help me save these people.” To Huck he said, “Stay with Demi. We’ll be back.”
His touch with astral influence wasn’t as effective as her own, but it was enough to turn the tide. “Of course,” she said vacantly. “This way.”
The anguish of losing the flows clearly still troubled her, but she managed to show him the way to the city. Even from a distance, he could see how different it looked in ancient times. It had tall towers and was full of life and colour. He looked at Flùranach. “We are going to need to get their attention.”
He sensed her inner conflict. She was still controlled by his influence, but she didn’t want to help him. If Munro was goin
g to make this happen, he would have to do it in spite of her, not with her assistance. “Give me an illusion,” he said. “Light up the sky. Do it now.” He hated forcing her, but what choice did he have?
“I can’t touch the flows,” she said, her tone pleading.
He took hold of her astral power. When he activated it, she lifted her arm to the sky. A beacon of light shot up toward the stars.
“Come on,” Munro said. He and Flùranach rushed down to the city. If things hadn’t been in such a state of chaos, he felt certain they would have drawn stares, but the lack of access to the flows had crippled some faeries, caused others immense pain, while some just wandered in shock.
“I came to help,” Munro shouted. “We need to evacuate the city. Follow me!”
Now he did draw stares, blank ones, along with confused looks.
Flùranach laughed mockingly. “They don’t speak English. Modern English hadn’t even been invented ten thousand years ago.”
“Ewain speaks English,” Munro said.
She laughed. “Ewain was human-born and from a much later time, closer to your own. Don’t you understand? When the draoidh built The Way, they created a temporal gate. They sent themselves back in time as well as to another dimension. How could you not have figured that out by now?”
“Shit,” Munro said. “Okay. You tell them. Make them believe you.” He pushed as much influence on her as he could, worried she would tell them all to go jump in a lake of fire or something.
She gasped under the weight of his pressure. Turning to face the crowd that had begun to gather, she spoke in the ancient fae tongue, gesturing to the beam of light behind them in the distance. Munro manipulated her magic to amplify her voice across the entire city.
“Tell them to help one another. Those hindered less should help those who can’t travel on their own.”
Flùranach continued to talk, and the public square burst into motion as people began to run. The small crowd turned into a throng. It was soon too crowded for him to be able to see, and he worried if he didn’t move then, he never was going to be able to leave. “Let’s get going,” he said to Flùranach.
She shouted one last statement and the crowd parted, allowing them to return the way they’d come. The two of them led thousands of people toward the plains.
When they reached The Way, Huck stood and picked up Demi. She was conscious, but still looked weak. The entire area was completely bathed in light like it was high noon. “All right. Let’s do this,” Munro said.
He looked at the enormous group of standing stones. They almost appeared to have grown larger, but that couldn’t be true. Munro glanced to Flùranach. Her jaw was set stubbornly. Once again, he’d need to do this by force. He hated it, but he wasn’t going to let tens of thousands die because she was angry and spiteful.
Not everyone would fit inside The Way, of course, so he would have to hold the place in two times at once, but Maiya’s actions had showed him that was possible. Without her faith in him though, her words of encouragement from the future, he wasn’t sure he would have believed he could do it. The Iron King? He was curious about what she’d seen, and even more so about what she wouldn’t tell him, but for now, those thoughts would wait.
Through Flùranach, Munro issued commands to the faeries immediately behind him, then asked them to help others through. The word began to spread down the miles between the city and The Way.
Wrestling Flùranach’s power, he grabbed her temporal flows. They were wild and difficult, but watching Maiya had showed him what to do. The flows were stronger inside the Way than out, and as soon as the shift began to occur, he found it much easier, possibly because Danastai was only cut off from the flows in the past, not in the present. As he swung them through the ages, the flows came, and Flùranach’s power grew.
When they synched with the present time, a sense of rightness settled over Munro. Holding The Way in two times at once required all his strength, but on his command, Flùranach ordered the Danastai to begin their passage through.
A group of ten soldiers were amongst the first, and Munro sent them back to check as many places as possible and take as many of their comrades as could cope with the loss of the flows in Danastai. They saluted and bowed deeply to him, then returned to their own time while other citizens continue to pass through The Way, walking from one side into the next.
Huck said, “I don’t think I can help here, and Demi and I need water. Is there any in the city?”
Munro fought the fatigue that was already forming as he grappled with Flùranach’s power, forcing her to hold The Way open. He reached out and grabbed her hand, and found the contact with her skin made the work easier. Sighing with relief, he turned to Huck. “Yes. Follow them. There’s a stream between here and there. Once I’ve got everyone to safety, we can figure out how to get them back to the Halls of Mist. I can’t see anyone wanting to stay in this city as it stands now.”
Huck glanced through the gate. “They’re going to be so confused when they get there and their homes are gone.”
“One thing at a time, mate,” Munro said. “First we’ll save their lives, then we’ll explain the rest.”
Before he left, Huck said, “By the way, thanks. It’s good to see you. We wouldn’t have held on much longer. I still don’t understand why those monsters took us captive in the first place.”
“I’m not sure. All I know is they seemed to be Ewain’s creatures.”
“They wanted something from us. Do you know what?”
Munro shook his head. “Maybe they wanted a leader. Maybe when he left, he left them with some instructions? We may never know. I just hope destroying the Cup destroyed them all.”
Huck nodded. “Anyway, thanks.”
“You can thank Maiya and Jago. They did most of it, even in our time.” He chuckled. Something told him that those kids were going to be a handful to raise, but he was looking forward to the job.
Suddenly, he heard Eilidh’s voice in his head. I’m coming, my love. He sighed with relief. “Eilidh’s close by. She’s on her way from the city. She’ll help you.”
Huck nodded, bewildered. “Okay. I’ll meet her halfway.” With that, he joined the line of Danastai faeries heading through The Way.
Munro did his best to nod reassuringly at the citizens who passed by. They stared but kept moving. He would have had Flùranach speak encouragement to them, but he couldn’t spare the energy. Although touching her skin made it easier to delve into her power, she resisted him at every turn.
He continued holding The Way. A half hour or so later, Eilidh appeared, and her presence gave him strength. She rushed to him and embraced him. Again, Munro was struck by how much Maiya had looked like her mother. In spite of his weariness, he smiled. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“Me?” she said. “You vanished. If not for our bond, I would have thought you dead.”
“Again.”
“Don’t joke!” she said, but her anger vanished instantly and she smiled. “Who are all these faeries?”
Munro explained briefly, although it seemed stranger in the retelling than he would have thought possible. He didn’t yet tell her about having seen Maiya as an adult. That would require more energy, and she would have questions he wasn’t prepared to answer yet. “There’s more to explain, of course, but I need your help for the moment. This is harder than it looks.”
“Anything, my love.”
“The Mistgate is open?”
“Yes. Almost as soon as you vanished, I felt your presence shift some distance. We checked several places in this general direction, but I suspected I would find you here. When I saw the light in the sky, I followed.”
“Help get these people through the Mistgate. They can take refuge in Rìoghachd nan Ceòthan.”
Eilidh nodded. “Leocort is with me. I’ll tell him what to do.”
“And help Huck too. I’m not sure what he and Demi have been through, but they look like hell.”
Eilidh smiled and shook her head. “I’ll give some instructions, and then I’m going to come back and send you strength. You always help everyone else, with never a thought to yourself.”
“I’m only doing what you would do: what I have to.”
With a glance at Flùranach, who was bound under the pressure of Munro’s influence, Eilidh nodded. “I won’t be long.”
More than a night and day and part of another night passed before the people stopped coming. Danastai soldiers, Caledonian Watchers, and Mistwatchers all passed in both directions, carrying the sick, children, and the elderly, as Munro held the door open. He felt certain he would not have been able to do it without Eilidh. She sat on the grass with him in the centre of the standing stones, using her power to refresh his mind, subduing Flùranach’s will, and bringing them both food and water.
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