The God's Wolfling (Children of Myth Book 2)

by Cedar Sanderson

  There was a quiet knock at the door.

  “Who is it?” Linn asked, still staring at the ceiling.

  “Your mother.”

  “C’mon in Mom.” Linn was still trying to sit up when Theta closed the door behind herself.

  “Stay put.” Linn felt her mother pick up the uninjured leg and pull her shoe off. Then she unlaced the other one and wiggled it gently off.

  Linn gritted her teeth.

  “That bad, huh?” Theta asked. “Can you get up enough to get out of clothes? Then I will do more healing on you.”

  “Oh, I’m ok...” Linn rolled to her side and levered herself up. She felt like she was made of jello. “I was fine until I got in here, anyway.”

  “Your body needs to rest.” Theta said firmly, helping Linn undress. “You slept for three days, yes, but it still needs more time.”

  “I’m leaving tomorrow.” Linn rolled under the covers. “I have to be better then.”

  “I know you are.” Theta leaned over her and brushed loose hair off her face. “I’m proud of you, kiddo. But listen to your body, and don’t push too hard. If you collapse, what happens to your quest?”

  “Yeah.” Linn closed her eyes. “I’ll be goo...”

  If she dreamed, she never remembered it afterward.

  When she woke up in the morning, she popped up out of the bed. She had remembered something important. Well, important to her, anyway.

  Linn scrambled back into her modern clothes, and went looking for her mother. She found her having breakfast in the kitchen with Bronwyn.

  “Mom!” Linn bent over and gave her a sideways hug. “Where is Bes?”

  “Wondered when you would ask that. Sit, eat.”

  Linn sat, and Bronwyn pushed a plate at her.

  Theta propped her chin on her hands. “Bes is... incognito right now. He left a note for you. And you know, Linn, he wouldn’t have left you alone unless it were absolutely necessary.”

  Linn nodded and took the folded piece of paper. She opened it and laughed. “He’s written it in hieroglyphics.”

  Linn showed it to Bronwyn. “Oh, my... how colorful. Can you read that?”

  “No, not really. But I can puzzle it out, and I know it means he’s in good humor.” Linn put it in her pocket for later. “Bronwyn, what do you put in your eggs?”

  The brownie lady chuckled, pleased. “A pinch of thyme, my dear. Does my heart good to see you young people enjoy your food.”

  “You’re a really good cook.” Linn assured her, cleaning her plate.

  Linn went to the library after she’d had her breakfast, sure she would find Dee there. The room looked empty when she walked in, but there was a faint rustling behind the shelves.

  “Dee?” Linn walked into the maze of shelves, then around another corner. “Good grief, I had no idea it was this large.”

  Linn stared down a narrow passageway that led off between innumerable shelves on either side. The same chaos that you could see in the first room prevailed here, too. “Dee? I’m not coming in there after you, I’ll get lost!”

  “Keep your pants on,” came faintly from the stacks.

  “I’m hardly undressing in the library.” Linn put her hands on her hips. “Did you sleep last night?” she demanded as her friend walked toward her, cobwebs lying across her hair like a veil.

  “Yes.” Deirdre was carrying an armful of vellum scrolls.

  “Stop...” Linn pulled the upper edge of the web, white with dust. “I swear, you’re married to your job. Look at this!” She held up the tattered web.

  Dee dissolved in giggles. “I really need to clean, don’t I?”

  “This isn’t really your library,” Linn pointed out.

  Dee piled the scrolls on the empty table. “Well, actually...”

  “Wait a minute. Have you eaten?” Linn interrupted, suspicious.

  “Not yet. But-”

  “I knew it! C’mon.” Linn tried to pull Dee toward the door, but the coblyn dug in her heels.

  “If you’d listen to me! Merrick is bringing a tray. And yes, this is my library. Mac’Lir offered me the librarian position.”

  Linn let go of her friend’s arm and felt her own mouth drop open. “Dee!”

  Deirdre laughed. “Hypatia is coming to give me some help in a week. Pretty neat, huh?”

  Merrick walked in with the tray of food. “Hey, Linn. Dee, where do you want this?”

  “Did she tell you she’s the official librarian now?” Linn turned on him.

  He nodded. “The last one died of sheer old age when I was about three. Hopefully Dee will get some interesting books in, now...”

  “So that’s why you’re buttering me up?” Dee was back in her chair with a plate, eating.

  “Maybe.” The boy gave them both a wolfish grin. “That, and mission intel. You could save our hides.”

  Linn grinned back at him. “That’s why I’m here.”

  She was feeling excited about it, today. Going off to save the world? A whole lot better than wasting away surfing and in school. They weren’t going to have to fight goblins again, just figure out ancient technology, and the prospect of that had her positively drooling. Up until now, everything was based on hints she had worked out, from Coyote, Deirdre’s uncle, and other things. That, and a stubborn refusal to accept ‘it’s magic’ as an answer for anything.

  “I don’t know what I have for you.” Dee poured tea, hot this time.

  “Nothing?” Merrick took the cup she handed him. “Thanks.”

  “Not nothing. I worry that it’s worse than nothing, though.”

  “Dee, stop twitching, and let’s see if the group makes sense of it. Where are Blackie and Spot?” Linn sat back on her personal pile of stones.

  “Still asleep, last I saw.” Merrick offered. “Big pile of fur on the bed.”

  Linn chuckled. They did rather resemble oversized housecats at times. “Merrick, you grew up here too, right? With Dee?”

  He shook his head. “My mam took me to Earth, to Ballentrae, when I was four. She worried about me, here.” Merrick looked into his teacup as though seeing something for a moment. “She didn’t think the wolf-shifting was natural.”

  That explained a lot. “I’m sorry.” she offered.

  He shrugged. “I had the stories, and then last year, Dad brought me here again. It’s- I loved Mam, but...”

  He drank his tea. Linn leaned forward. “Is your mother...?”

  “No, no... just still on Earth. It was time for me to grow up, but she didn’t want to let go.”

  “Um.” Linn wasn’t sure what to say, now. Here her mother was, patching her up and sending her back off to the wars.

  “Eh.” Merrick tossed back his tea. “Dee, break it to us gentle.”

  “Well, I went looking for clues based on what Mac’Lir said about technology. I know the gods are all under a geas not to talk about where they came from, except in the vaguest of terms.”

  Linn nodded. She’d found that out from Bes and her grandfather shortly after learning part of the secrets of her own ancestry.

  “Hang on. Why can there be a geas if there isn’t really magic?” Merrick asked. “I mean, all my life I’ve known I was under one, so? How is it possible?”

  “Programming, I think.” Linn set her cup back on the tray. She was beginning to really look forward to home, soda, and coffee. “If as I suspect what we know of as magic are really clouds of microscopic robots, processing on the quantum movements at an atomic level...”

  Blackie walked in. “Then that explains me,” he added without missing a beat. “Did you guys eat it all without me?”

  “Well, it certainly explains why you can eat so much and not be fat as a tick.” Linn watched him pile a plate.

  “Gotta fuel the magic.” He answered around a mouthful of food, settling into a chair.

  Linn rolled her eyes. She almost preferred him silent and four-pawed. “Where was I?”

  “Explaining how robots control our brains.”
Deirdre added helpfully.

  “It’s not control, it’s conditioning. For some reason, the first people who came to earth didn’t want to talk about where they came from, or why. But what I can’t figure out is why all of them seem to have agreed to the limitations.”

  “Maybe they didn’t.” Merrick shrugged when they all looked at him, “I don’t think I would have.”

  “Which means something forced them. Like your family was forced into protecting Mac’Lir’s children all those years ago.”

  He squirmed a little. “You do know I’m still under that geas, right?”

  “What, you don’t want to protect children?” Blackie asked with a smirk.

  Merrick glared at him. “Yes, but only if I get a choice in the matter!”

  Linn stepped in between them. “We’re completely off topic. Dee never got to say what she learned.”

  The boys subsided. Linn didn’t think they were really angry with one another, but this silly sparring was going to have to stop. They had been picking on one another since they had first met.

  “I think you’re going to Iceland. Land of ice and fire, and all that. I also think I know why Mac’Lir awakened now.” Dee unrolled a vellum scroll.

  Linn bent over it. Deirdre pointed at a little fleck on the map. “The bit here... it’s a volcanic island off the coast of Iceland.”

  “How old is this map?” Linn asked.

  “I’m not sure... no date on it. Or not that I can see. There’s squiggles.”

  Linn could see them around the edge. “So what does this have to do...?”

  “This same island reappeared just a few years ago.” Dee unrolled a very modern map on top of the old one. Linn could see the familiar logo in bright yellow letters.

  “You think that is where Mac’Lir was?”

  “It would explain why he’d vanished entirely for so long. For a while, after legends say he went over the sea, he’d come back when called. Then, even that stopped.”

  Linn looked at her. Dee had paused dramatically. “What?”

  “Because the island had sunk beneath the sea again.”

  “So we’re going to an island that could sink again at any minute?” Merrick got up and looked at the map. “One good thing, I doubt the goblins can get there on their own.”

  “But we’d better hurry.” Linn sighed. “Speaking of which, what time is it?”

  Chapter 14

  Mac’Lir was in his Great Hall, leaning on one elbow in his throne. He didn’t look like he had slept, or breakfasted, either.

  “Daughter of Fire.” His voice was deep and tired.

  Linn stepped up onto the dais again. She wondered why there was never anyone but her up on this thing, close to him. “Mac’Lir.”

  He smiled up at her. “You are too big to ask you to sit on the arm of my chair, child. And yet... not old enough to send you out on this errand. But I have no choice. There simply isn’t time, or enough of us...”

  “It’s okay, sir.” Linn wasn’t sure why she was reassuring him, but then he got that twinkle back in his eye.

  “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

  Linn shook her head, wondering what he was getting at.

  “Good.” Mac’Lir reached down next to his chair and picked something up. When Linn could see it, she realized what it was. The swan bag.

  He put it in his lap and stroked the white feathers. “All I have left of her.”

  “I know the story.” Linn said quietly.

  “Oh, do you?” He looked at her, his stormy eyes bright.

  “Granny Clinch told us.” Linn looked at the bag. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “She’s still with me, while I have this. And...” He closed his eyes. “You have the sight?”

  Linn closed her eyes. She could see a blue and green light from the bag. It was deeply imbued with power, from two sources. One was him, the other must have been Aoife. She opened her eyes.

  “I see what you mean.” She felt very serious all at once.

  “The wonderful thing about her gift to me, is that when you reach into this bag, you pull out what you really need. Almost magic, isn’t it?” Mac’Lir winked at her.

  Linn suspected her mother had been telling tales. “Almost,” she agreed.

  “Are you ready to go?” He opened the mouth of the bag.

  “I think so. We’re wanting to get it over with.”

  “Reach in. You’ll find what you need.”

  He lifted the sack so it hung free, reaching down to the floor in front of him, the white feathers shimmering. Linn took a deep breath and reached down, into the empty folds. She didn’t believe in magic, it was silly.

  The bag hit the floor with a thud, and she touched a nylon handle. Linn wrapped her fingers around it and lifted, and Mac’Lir held the bag open with both hands now, and her bundle was good-sized. Linn watched as Mac’Lir stroked the feathers again before he tucked the bag away.

  “What have you got?” He leaned forward.

  Linn was holding a black case, rectangular, black nylon over steel, it felt like. She set it down and popped the clips, then knelt to open the case. Inside the top of the case were pockets, zippered, with first aid supplies in them. In the bottom of the case, in shock-resistant foam, was an odd looking laptop.

  “What is that?” Mac’Lir asked as Linn pressed the power button.

  “It’s a computer.” Linn told him. “I’m not sure what some of these cables are for.”

  She held up a handful of neatly bundled cords. On one end, they were ordinary USB tips, the other ends weren’t familiar at all. The computer chimed.

  “Well, this isn’t right.” She frowned at the screen. A blinking cursor was the only thing showing.

  “All I know is that it will be what you need.” The king settled back. “I must ask if you can leave as soon as possible. I have heard back from my men in the field, and they say the goblin army is on the move. But they don’t know yet where the goblins are going.”

  “And you’re afraid they are headed to where your, er, secrets are?” Linn shut the computer back down by pressing the power button until the cursor went away and she could feel through her fingertips that the hard drive had stilled. She zipped the case back up and stood. The first aid supplies had her worried. She’d been trained, they all had, in the basics. But if the swan bag gave what was needed, it implied they were important.

  “Yes. Please hurry, Daughter of Fire. You will understand when you reach your destination.”

  He held out his hand, and she solemnly took it. Then she walked out of the room, Blackie and Merrick falling in behind her. She was headed for the gate, and then they would take the High Path. Mac’Lir’s touch on her hand had reactivated the feather marking he’d given her, and Linn could feel the warmth of the power as it keyed to where they were going.

  At the gate, she faltered, looking out over what was left of the garden. There were no bodies... she wondered for a fleeting moment how on earth they had moved the massive troll. But the flowers and herbs she’d seen that first day were mostly gone. Bare patches of earth mystified her, until it dawned on her that it must have been troll blood, or maybe just clean-up of remains. Linn swallowed hard, and dragged her mind back to what they were doing now. Which shouldn’t involve goblins, and swords, and blood. Linn wondered what had happened to Lambent, but now was not the time.

  “Ready? Stow your gear.” She had showed them how to do the trick with the in-between places her grandmother had taught her. Linn had her backpack there, and now the computer case. She really hoped she didn’t need a change of clothes, she didn’t have one with her any longer.

  Then she stepped calmly forward, and into the High Path, the boys on her heels. Linn could feel her stomach tighten, and the feather on her palm tugging. This time, she knew they had to hurry, and had a lot more on the line.

  The boys behind her were silent. She knew they were nervous, too, even if they wouldn’t admit it. She really hated never knowing what
they would find at the end of the path. As it turned out, it wasn’t much. The tiny island wasn’t wet all over, but you could see all of it from where they stood on the lip of the shallow caldera. A tiny trickle of steam rose from the center of it, and Linn decided that they had better avoid that. Every time she moved, a slide of the loose pumice cascaded into the caldera, making her nervous. She was more used to the solid lava flows of the Hawaiian Islands, although she’d seen this in a few places. It wasn’t a good place to be walking around.

  “I have no idea what we are looking for.” The wind took her words away, but Merrick nodded. They were both wearing heavy coats now, having pulled them from storage on their arrival, and realization that it was bitterly cold. Blackie, in cat form, had puffed his fur out until he was half-again as large as he had been, and gone prowling. Linn and Merrick had made their way around the rim of the caldera without seeing anything more than clouds of seabirds.

  “Use your other sight.” Merrick shouted. “I don’t know about you, but I’d like some shelter. He can’t have been out in the open on this nub of land for centuries.”

  Linn nodded mutely. It was a good suggestion. She held out her hands. “I don’t want to fall!”

  With Merrick’s warm hands grasping her wrists, and hers on his sturdy forearms, she closed her eyes and looked for power with her own.

  “Darn. Nothing. We’ll have to move again.” Linn’s eyes snapped open, and she looked at Blackie, who was prowling with his nose to the ground, for all the world like a dog.

  Merrick followed her gaze. “I could do that.”

  “You could, if you want to sniff seaweed and bird droppings.” Linn chuckled at the look on his face. “Or you can make sure I don’t blow off this rock while my eyes are closed. Let’s move over there.”

  She pointed. He didn’t let go of her hand while they moved to the other side of the caldera, a process which took some time. Linn decided she didn’t mind. It kept her hand warmer, and it turned out two people were better balanced working together than separate. He stopped and held out his free hand, and she took it. Then he took a step closer to her, startling her.