by Hiatt, Bill
“Ah, Taliesin!” said Morgan as if we were chatting about the weather. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon, but I have never been so glad to see you. Your playmates don’t seem to understand how to negotiate. Perhaps I will do better with you.”
“Release Gianni, and we will talk,” I said as levelly as I could. Morgan laughed in that glacial way she had, and everyone in the room, even—or did I just imagine it?—Carla, seemed to cringe.
“I let the boy go once, and you almost immediately refused to help me. In fact, you tried to keep me from my sister. No, the boy stays right where he is until you take the most solemn oath I can contrive to help me.”
I knew just as well as Morgan that supernatural oaths—with a little help from an appropriate tynged—were binding. I couldn’t just pretend to agree and then go back on my word. The situation was much like the medieval stories about selling one’s soul to the devil…in more ways than one!
“Give me the word, and I’ll take her out,” muttered Shar, who was standing right next to me. If he threw “Zom” at her with all his strength, it would cut through any possible magical defense and probably at least wound her, given the cramped space she was in…but she could probably at least nick Gianni before the sword hit her.
“Don’t do anything yet!” I replied sternly. I could feel Shar’s impatience, but he respected my order. Just to be sure, I gave everyone the same order. I could feel the questioning responses, but I ignored them. The guys wanted to get Morgan, just as I did, but before I had even gotten to the room, they had accepted a stalemate rather than hurt Gianni. The others wouldn’t like the order any more than Shar did, but they too would obey it rather than see an innocent little kid die. As for Nurse Florence, I couldn’t picture her sacrificing Gianni either. I was especially thankful I was dealing with Nurse Florence rather than Vanora, who unquestionably would have wanted to get rid of Morgan, no matter what the cost.
“All right, Morgan, I’m listening. What exactly is it that you want from me?”
“Send your playmates out in the hall first. My words are for you alone.” To underscore the fact that she was not making a request, Morgan moved the knife just a little closer to Gianni’s throat.
“Out of the question!” answered Nurse Florence forcefully, before I could say anything. “What keeps you from killing Tal and Gianni if we leave?”
“I was under the impression that Taliesin was able to fight his own battles,” said Morgan with obvious disdain for Nurse Florence. “In any case, I could just as easily ask you what keeps me safe if they all stay? Five swordsmen, each with a magic sword and each within striking distance? What keeps them from killing me?”
“I do!” I replied as strongly as I could manage. “Morgan, these are my men,” I continued in terms she could understand. “They will not strike unless I give the order. And I pledge I will not without giving you prior warning that I am ending the negotiations—unless you yourself attack one of us, Gianni included.”
“Your guarantee is not entirely reassuring, since you are the one who determines how long it will run…but as a show of good faith, I will accept it, if you will be bound by a tynged to that effect.”
“I will,” I replied. We each raised our right hand, golden sparks crackled between our palms, and I felt the tynged grip me. Nurse Florence stared at me, clearly understanding I needed to give Morgan some ground in order to have any hope of saving Gianni but just as clearly not liking the situation.
Wanting to avoid another interruption from Nurse Florence, I continued quickly. “Now, Morgan, I ask again, what do you want from me? I half expected you to have found your sister and been gone by now.”
Morgan looked at me, clearly puzzled. “But Taliesin, I thought you had realized I have found my sister. There she is.” Morgan gestured toward Carla, who looked especially helpless to me.
Morgan’s words hit me like sledge hammers. I thought I had prepared myself for anything she could throw at me. Obviously, I was wrong.
CHAPTER 3: YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE—I WISH!
All of my friends acted as if they were holding their breath, waiting for some response from me…but words failed me. Finally Morgan lost patience with the shocked silence around her.
“Evidently I have over-estimated you, Taliesin. You saw this girl’s earlier lives awakened on Samhain, before Ceridwen gave her that second blast that left her in this trance. You knew that at least in one of those earlier lives, she was a sorceress, because you felt her power, and you saw her try to contend with Ceridwen on your behalf. Why is it so hard to believe that she could be Elaine?”
“For one thing, she was speaking Italian, not Welsh.”
Morgan shook her head sadly. “I told you when first we encountered each other tonight that my sister had traveled through Europe, looking for ways to increase her magic. She ended up in Italy. Remember, I also told you that she went by a new name, Alcina.
“Alcina is just a character in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso!” protested Nurse Florence. “The Order has never found any evidence that she was a real person, much less that she was your sister, Elaine. That’s just one way Ariosto linked his subject to the matter of Britain. Surely you don’t think we are that gullible.”
Morgan looked at Nurse Florence even more contemptuously than before. “I was not speaking to you!” she replied in the most regal tone she could manage. Then, switching her attention back to me, she said, “Most people think that I am just a literary character. Most people think you are just a literary character, Taliesin. Yet here we are, just as real as those who doubt us. After all you have seen, after all you have lived through, how can you deny the possibility that Alcina is real and that she is my sister?”
“Suppose Carla was your sister in a previous life,” I replied coldly. “What do you want to do with her? Her condition is incurable. There is nothing you or I can do about that.”
“Ah,” said Morgan triumphantly, “wrong again! I can cure her—with your help. I have been watching you ever since Samhain…from a safe distance, of course. I learned more of you and more of your world, as well as improving my knowledge of your English language, which I had started learning when Ceridwen first approached me. During the whole time I was watching, I was also feeling the pull of my sister’s blood, as I told you. I wasn’t sure at first that my sister was your Carla, but I had my suspicions. The seer in Annwn who verified that Alcina had returned also told me something else: that you and I could bring her back from this deep sleep in which she is now trapped. For once, Taliesin, we are on the same side.”
My first reaction was disbelief, naturally. After all, Morgan was a master manipulator who would not hesitate to shape the truth into what she needed it to be. Already though, there was a nagging “what if?” growing inside of me.
“To cure her we would need to know more about the spell Ceridwen used to awaken those past-life memories in the first place, and that knowledge died with her,” I pointed out.
“You know Ceridwen recruited me for an ally. I was eager enough to join her, but even eager as I was, I did not forget my ability to bargain. I obtained Ceridwen’s promise of help to find the soul of Lancelot, but I insisted on more than that, and so eager was Ceridwen to ensure her victory over you that she would have given me almost anything. She was more than willing to teach me her new knowledge of magic, including the studies she went through to perfect the awakening spell.”
The horrible part was that Morgan could be telling the truth. At first I had thought her magic on Samhain was Ceridwen’s magic, because it differed so much from the traditional spell-casting she had performed back in the days of King Arthur. Ceridwen must have given her at least some knowledge. If Morgan had gotten the secret of awakening from her, then perhaps Morgan could help Carla.
“You’re bluffing!” scoffed Nurse Florence.
“Shall I demonstrate, then?” Morgan raised her left hand, a familiar, sickly red glare dancing from finger to finger.
“No!” I shouted.
“We need no demonstration.”
“Tal, she could be fooling us,” thought Nurse Florence. “Don’t agree to anything.”
“But, what is she can help Carla?”
“Remember that who she wants to help is Alcina. What if she can reverse the effect of the second blast of the awakening spell? You’ve told me yourself that a strong past-life memory can take over the present-life body if the will of that past self is strong enough. Can Carla withstand Alcina?”
Since the Alcina persona, if that was really who it was, had taken over immediately on Samhain, probably not. On the other hand, Stan had the same experience after being hit with the awakening spell; he had been taken over by an Israelite warrior. I had helped him recover, and in the end I had reinforced Stan’s willpower enough to give him control and force his other selves to join with his present self again.
If I played this right, I could save Carla and prevent Morgan from reviving Alcina! I really could.
A few days ago, the idea of making any kind of deal with Morgan would have been unspeakably repugnant, but circumstances were different now. I think Nurse Florence sensed my wavering, but I ignored her mental protests and focused all my attention on Morgan.
“If you have been watching me, you know I want Carla cured, but I have a hard time trusting you. You pretended to run into me by accident tonight, but if you have been watching me as long as you say, you would have known I would come to visit Carla.”
“True enough, Taliesin—but you are rather late tonight, aren’t you? I expected you to be already gone when I got here.”
And so I would have been normally. Gianni’s unexpected arrival slowed me down just a little.
“You also pretended not to know exactly where your sister was at first.”
“Until I stood right by her bed and held her hand, I could not be absolutely sure that Carla was truly Alcina. The seer gave me no help on that. Alcina could have been someone else. You know how faint any sign of consciousness is in this girl,” Morgan said, pointing at Carla again. “Even the call of blood is weak. I had to be very close to be certain. I wasn’t trying to lie to you, Taliesin. Nor was I trying to create this awkwardness here.” She nodded in the direction of the helpless Gianni. “I had hoped to have a conversation under better circumstances.”
“Prove that to me by letting Gianni go,” I said in as commanding a tone as I could muster. “I can’t take your protests of good intention very seriously when you threaten a young boy.”
Morgan’s smile was cold enough to freeze even White Hilt’s fire. “You ask far more than you are willing to give, Taliesin. Have your men sheathe their swords, and I will give Gianni to you.”
“Do it,” I said to the guys.
“Tal!” said Shar in alarm. While he held Zom, he was immune to Morgan’s magic, but sheathed, the sword did not protect him.
“Morgan, another tynged I think. No one in this room will harm anyone else in this room until I declare the negotiation at an end.” Since we outnumbered Morgan seven to one, that agreement was favorable enough that she should be willing to take it, and she did. The guys and Nurse Florence nodded agreement, some of them rather sullenly.
For this tynged all of us raised our right hands, and again the golden sparks crackled, this time in an eight-pointed star formation. (Only someone who knew magic could set a tynged, but anyone could be bound by it.) Once I was sure the tynged had taken hold, I gestured for the guys to sheathe their swords, which they did with a notable show of reluctance. Actually, with the tynged preventing them from harming Morgan while our talks continued, they could just as well have kept their weapons out, but Morgan wanted them away, so away they went. I did notice that Shar kept his hand on Zom’s pommel so that he remained protected. That didn’t violate Morgan’s demand, so I let it pass. After all, he was the one she nearly killed before.
Looking around to satisfy herself that there was no sign of treachery, Morgan gently let the sleeping Gianni down on the edge of Carla’s bed. Stan and Gordy pulled him over to our side of the room, and Nurse Florence got him situated in the room’s only chair. I did a quick brush across his mind to make sure that he was only sleeping and not under some more malicious spell. Then I turned again to Morgan.
“Now, Morgan, short of awakening someone’s previous lives, how can you prove that you have the knowledge you claim?”
“Well,” replied Morgan slyly, “I can hardly just tell you how the spell works. Then any collection of spell casters with the right amount of power would do the job. You wouldn’t need me.”
“What do you suggest then?” I asked impatiently.
“Let me raise the power again without casting it at anyone,” suggested Morgan. “Taliesin, you have felt this spell yourself. You and the water witch over there have both seen it in operation. Surely you can sense enough from such a display to test the truth of my words.”
“It’s too risky!” pronounced Nurse Florence immediately. This time she spoke aloud instead of just thinking. I couldn’t help but be a little irritated at the obvious attempt to force my hand.
“The tynged would stop me from actually aiming it at anyone,” said Morgan to me, pointedly ignoring Nurse Florence.
“Raise the power!” I said to Morgan, also ignoring Nurse Florence, whose face betrayed more shock than I had ever seen before. I felt more than a twinge of guilt. After all, Nurse Florence had saved my life more than once. Even more compelling, she had risked her life to save mine. Still, Carla’s coma was my fault. If I could find a way to cure it, I was going to take that way.
Again Morgan raised her left hand and engulfed it in the unhealthy red glow. Nurse Florence and I reached our minds out, poking gently at the force. Instinctively, my mind recoiled from it at the first touch. Glancing quickly around, I saw that Stan had reflexively backed away, and even Carla seemed to twitch in her bed, though I might have just imagined a reaction on her part. Still, the power Morgan wielded definitely felt the same as Ceridwen’s awakening spell.
Fighting my instinctive aversion to that magic, I sent my mind back into its heart, seeking to understand its nature, visualize its workings. When at last I had satisfied myself that this spell did not just feel the same, but was the same, I pulled back out again, and, conscious of how rude I had been to Nurse Florence, I waited for her confirmation of what I already knew. Not having been the victim of the spell, she needed to study it longer, but after a few more minutes, even she had to agree.
“It is the same power,” she admitted. “But that only proves that Morgan knows how to cast the spell, not that she knows how to undo it.”
“Really?” replied Morgan angrily. “Do you really think I would be foolish enough to accept only part of the information about the spell as payment?”
“Based on what Ceridwen said at the time, her agenda only required being able to cast the spell. She had no need to undo it. Perhaps she never created a way to undo it.”
Nurse Florence and Morgan glared at each other. Well, I could hardly expect them to be friends, and I kept telling myself Nurse Florence was right to be cautious, even though my heart cried out to stop talking and start curing Carla.
“My ‘agenda’ is more diverse than hers,” replied Morgan finally, again addressing me exclusively. “I pressed her for a way to reverse the spell, and she taught me one.”
“Then why not just use it?” I asked. “What made you think you need me?”
Morgan sighed. “I said there was a way to reverse the spell. I didn’t say that it was easy or that I could do it alone. You may recall the spell seems to take very little effort to cast, a rather unusual characteristic for a spell of such power. But power must always be paid for somehow. Ceridwen paid for it by making the process needed to reverse it insanely difficult. Observe!”
The reddish glow on Morgan’s hand turned green, and, before I could move a muscle, the greenness whipped out, grabbed onto something within Carla, and pulled. The guys drew their weapons, and Nurse Florence raised
her hands as if to use magic.
“I’m not hurting her!” Morgan snapped. “I said observe! What do your senses tell you?”
I don’t know how much the guys could see, but I could see clearly that the green whip had latched onto a tendril of redness from within Carla and was pulling on it steadily, but with absolutely no effect. Again I sent forth my mind into the force Morgan was using. I tasted its nature, and I knew immediately that it was the opposite of the power in the awakening spell. I studied its workings even more diligently than I had probed the workings of the first spell.
After a few minutes Morgan extinguished the green glow. She looked visibly more drained than she had just a few minutes before that. “As you can see,” she said tiredly, “there is a way to pull the second dose of that spell out of her and restore her to consciousness, but I cannot do it by myself.”
“How about removing both castings and returning her to normal?” asked Stan. I was surprised at first, but then I realized where he was going with the question. I thought I had patched him up pretty well after his awakening, but clearly there was something about his own earlier lives he wanted to be rid of. I don’t know how I missed it earlier. I could see it clearly enough in his eyes now.
In sharp contrast to the way in which Morgan reacted to Nurse Florence’s questions, she smiled indulgently at Stan’s. “Removing the second casting, difficult as it is, is easier than removing both. The second does not…what is the word? ‘Stick’ I think…yes, stick quite as hard; it doesn’t dig into the soul in quite the same way. Two or three strong casters would probably be enough to remove the second. Removing both would require all the rulers of Annwn to work together, which they haven’t done for more than a thousand years, or you would need a smaller number of casters of such great power that their like has never been seen among men, nor even among faeries.”
“And we are just supposed to trust you that this is so?” asked Nurse Florence in her most abrasive tone.