by Hiatt, Bill
Mrs. Rinaldi, who would have tried to make a leper feel welcome if one had shown up at the game, launched into a discourse about how her parents and her husband’s parents had all immigrated to the United States, so she knew a little bit about how that situation felt, and she would be happy to show Morgan around any time, maybe go shopping for some American-style dresses—oh, and really, Morgan simply must come over for dinner some time soon.
While Morgan was feigning interest in Mrs. Rinaldi’s friendly banter, I glanced over at my mom, who was not looking friendly at all. In fact, she had taken a step or two away from where Morgan was standing. Her expression, if not actually fearful, was profoundly uneasy. My dad hadn’t noticed yet, but I was betting Morgan would notice if she looked in that direction, and the last thing I needed was Morgan realizing that my mom was developing some magical ability.
Dan had maneuvered over to the fence separating the stands from the field, ostensibly to talk to Eva, but really to be closer to Morgan if the situation required it. Shar, whom I hadn’t noticed earlier, had appeared from somewhere; probably he had come to give Khalid a ride home and spotted Morgan. Of Khalid himself, there was no sign. Since he had been trying to avoid Morgan, he had probably taken off as soon as she moved in his direction.
It would have been harder to play soccer while wearing a sword, so Dan and I had left ours in the locker room, but I now realized that might have been a mistake. Shar was armed, though, and Zom was the most effective weapon against Morgan we had. He had inserted himself into the group Morgan was chatting with and had his hand on his sword, a clear enough signal to Morgan that the group was under his protection, and by extension, under mine. Of course, Morgan knew that. I was sure her presence was a none-too-subtle threat.
I did a quick mental check. Gordy and Stan were still in wrestling practice, and Carlos was still in swim practice. I sent them a quick message that Morgan was in the stands near the soccer field and that they should come as quickly as they could. I also sent a quick SOS to Nurse Florence. Then, not waiting for her response, I went through the gate and up into the stands, nominally to say hello to my parents, but really to find out what Morgan was up to.
Morgan feigned surprise when she saw me approach. “Why, isn’t that Taliesin Weaver? I have heard so much about him.” My dad looked pleased; my mom, something close to horrified; her maternal instincts, now magically reinforced, were clearly sounding the alarm.
Faking courtesy, I extended a hand and said, “Pleased to meet you, Ms.—?”
She took my hand, playing with my palm in a flirtatious way nobody else could see. “Call me Morgana, Taliesin.”
“What brings you here, Morgana?” I asked in my best innocent tone.
“I have family in the area. I came for a visit and thought I should try to experience some of America while I was here.”
Dan had tipped off Eva that something was up, and now he was moving in our direction. Eva had taken off, possibly to get help. Without even looking, I could feel Nurse Florence getting closer.
“I have to say,” continued Morgan, “that the people here are so friendly, I’ll definitely stay until I’ve really had time to do some catching up with my family.” Translation: Until you give me Alcina, or at least agree to try, you’ll never have a moment’s peace, because I will find ways to threaten everyone you care about.
“What is she doing here?” Nurse Florence’s thoughts resounded in my head. It was risky to communicate mentally with Morgan so near, since she could conceivably overhear, but I could feel that Nurse Florence was “broadcasting” very narrowly, targeting just me, so I did the same.
“As near as I can tell, making clear how much I have to lose if I don’t do what she wants.”
“What do you want to do?”
“There isn’t much we can do as long as she’s surrounded by innocent bystanders. I guess the short answer is get her alone.”
“Taliesin,” said Morgan loudly. “Is your mind wandering? I was just asking what you were going to do this afternoon. I thought perhaps you could give me a tour of the high school. I’ve never seen an American high school.”
“I’m sorry, Morgana, but I’m afraid I can’t today. I have…things to do.”
“Taliesin visits our daughter, Carla, every day,” said Mrs. Rinaldi. “She’s in a coma. He comes every day, without fail. He is an angel.” Normally I would be embarrassed by Mrs. Rinaldi gushing about me. Today I was too stressed-out to worry about it.
Morgan eyed me appraisingly. “Yes…an angel is exactly what he seems to be.” Gianni giggled a little at that, as if he had somehow picked up on her ironic undertone.
“Well, angel,” continued Mrs. Rinaldi, “I think Carla would want you to show this nice stranger around and make her feel welcome.”
“I’m sure Tal would be more comfortable giving the tour some other time,” interjected my mom, much more firmly than she normally would have. I glanced over in her direction and could tell she had realized that Morgan was the source of her uneasiness.
“Actually, another day might be better,” I cut in quickly, hoping to distract Morgan from my mom.
“Another day it is then,” replied Morgan. “But I will hold you to that.”
With the exception of my mom, none of the adults seemed interested in bringing this conversation to an end. That all changed with the sudden arrival of Vanora, playing Carrie Winn as usual. Just like Ceridwen before her, Vanora swept in, and all adult attention focused on her. She chatted for a few minutes with the Rinaldis and my folks, to Morgan’s obvious irritation, then introduced herself to Morgan and invited her on a tour of the city! As an exercise in turning the tables, that was pretty neat. Morgan could hardly refuse the invitation, though it would separate her from all the innocent bystanders she wanted to continue toying with.
Since no one in Santa Brígida would have presumed to get between Carrie Winn and what she wanted, the adults quickly said their good-byes and left, with the Rinaldis taking Gianni along, even though he clearly wanted to hang out with me. That left Morgan; Vanora; Nurse Florence, who came up in the stands as soon as everyone else had left; Dan; and Shar. Glancing behind us, I could see Stan, Gordy, and Carlos all hurrying across the field in our direction, Stan and Gordy having stopped to pick up my sword and Dan’s.
I had expected that Morgan might try to make a quick exit in the face of such overwhelming potential force, but she stood her ground, eying Vanora and Nurse Florence particularly defiantly.
“Morgan, what is it you want?” asked Nurse Florence. She was trying for an emotionally neutral tone, but I could tell she could barely restrain herself from a much more abrupt rejoinder.
“I have made it quite clear what I want,” replied Morgan icily. “What is not clear is what you people want.”
“You gone,” said Vanora simply. “You have no right being here.”
Morgan turned on her, eyes flashing. “And you have no right trying to keep me from my sister! Did you think I wouldn’t notice I am now cut off from her? What gives you the right to do that?”
“Just a precaution to keep you from running off with her and trying the reversal spell on your own.” Vanora looked back at Morgan unflinchingly.
“I can’t,” replied Morgan tersely, inviting an obvious question, but not bothering to answer it. By now Stan, Gordy, and Carlos had reached us and handed Dan and me our swords. Morgan seemed unconcerned by the accumulation of armed force all around her.
None of us wanted to give her the satisfaction, but finally Nurse Florence asked, “Why can’t you just find enough casters and do the spell yourself?”
“Because, water witch, Ceridwen showed quite a sense of humor in designing that spell. She never thought she would need to use a reversal spell, so to make the original spell as easy as possible to cast, she made the reversal spell as hard as possible. Not only does it require a high power level, as you already know, but it also requires a caster who has been a target of the original spell. So unless
Taliesin’s playmate over there,” she said, indicating Stan with a dismissive gesture, “has suddenly become a caster, or my sister has developed the ability to cast spells while in a trance, Taliesin is the only person who can cast the spell and make it work. Others can lend their power, but Taliesin must be the driving force.”
It seemed out of character for Morgan to admit to such an obvious weakness. Perhaps she was lying, trying to catch us off guard. There was really no way to tell. I couldn’t read the mind of someone as powerful as Morgan unless she wanted me to.
“So you see, I need Taliesin to get Alcina back, and since only I know the spell involved, he needs me to get Carla back…unless, of course, he doesn’t.”
That last phrase put me on high alert, as it did Nurse Florence and Vanora. The others didn’t understand that Morgan was voicing the suspicion that I had mastered the spell myself and didn’t need her. But how could she know? And, if she did know, or at least suspect, what was she doing giving us such an obvious shot at her? What did she think would prevent us from killing her if we didn’t need her knowledge of the spell?
“Don’t look so shocked, Taliesin,” she continued. “Your shield work wasn’t all that good that night at the hospital. I couldn’t hear or see from where I was, but I could feel that very distinctive spell. You must have done it. Somehow, I know not how, you have learned it just from watching me cast it. And you plan to use it without me, to keep my sister from me forever. Don’t deny it—the look in your eyes is a complete confession.”
The last time we had confronted Morgan, we had to consider the safety of Carla and Gianni. This time there were no innocent bystanders to worry about, and we had more than enough power to capture Morgan before she could do any more harm. I could see Vanora at least pondering the same idea and coming to the same conclusion. One sorceress, even one as powerful as Morgan, wouldn’t stand much of a chance against three other casters and five or six warriors (depending on whether you wanted to count me as a warrior also) with magic swords. Surely this was too easy!
Yeah, well, you could have figured that Morgan would not just walk into our midst without a plan of some kind. She had evidently prepared the area to connect quickly with Annwn, and those of us magical enough to have sensed that kind of connection were too busy worrying about Morgan to notice. Because she had prepared in advance, she was able to vanish with a single gesture, not wait to build up enough energy to open a gateway. Nurse Florence and even the usually unflappable Vanora seemed at a loss for what to do next.
“Let’s try to follow her!” I shouted. I couldn’t move into Annwn by myself because Arawn’s ban against me was still in effect, but in theory Nurse Florence or Vanora might be able to pull all of us through and land us near to the spot in Annwn to which Morgan had escaped if we moved fast enough. It was clear, though, that neither shared my enthusiasm for the idea.
“Tal, we can’t do that without knowing what she has on the other side. This whole situation feels like a trap to me,” replied Nurse Florence.
“Yes,” added Vanora. “Clearly she wants us to follow. At a guess, she wants to lure most of us to our deaths. You she wants to capture, at least if she was telling the truth, because she needs you for the spell.”
“And if she is still at large, she can threaten anyone she wants to in an effort to get me to help her,” I thought angrily. “We can’t leave her free to strike out at whomever she likes.”
“I’m not the one who let her live on Samhain,” thought Vanora quietly. “Some of your men had the opportunity to kill her and did not take it.”
“Enough bickering!” barked Nurse Florence with surprising vehemence. “It may not be wise to follow Morgan, but we do need to act quickly to thwart her. Vanora, have you finished negotiating with Gwynn for safe passage and protection through his land?” Vanora nodded quickly. “Then our first priority should be getting Carla to Wales. Morgan is evil, maybe even crazy, but she isn’t stupid. Once Carla is safely away from us, Morgan will focus her efforts in Wales, and the Order is much better able to defend their headquarters than we are to defend the hospital or any other site.”
“Or Morgan will take hostages and force us to get Carla back from Wales,” I pointed out. “In fact, if she isn’t stupid, that’s the most likely thing she’ll do.”
By now the guys were pretty restless. They knew enough about our protocols to know I was probably communicating with Nurse Florence and Vanora mentally, but they were impatient to know what was happening. I gestured to them to wait just a minute.
“Taliesin, what exactly do you want us to do? Walk into an ambush? Viviane tells me she and your warriors almost didn’t make it to the hospital a couple days ago because of just such an ambush—and that was just one of Morgan’s contingency plans. I would bet Morgan has an even larger force at her disposal now.”
“Where is she getting these allies? When we met her in Annwn on Founders’ Day, she had empty suits of armor fighting for her.”
“We can discuss how Morgan handles her recruiting later,” thought Vanora in her most grimly final tone. “Now, do you want us to get Carla out of Morgan’s immediate reach, or not?”
“We need to move Carla,” I agreed, still frustrated that we had not tried to capture Morgan right away. “But if we all head in the same direction, Morgan is going to figure out what we are doing pretty quickly. You ladies will need to provide some magical distortions to keep her from knowing with certainty where we are.”
“Not a problem,” replied Vanora.
“Well, this next request might be. Neither I nor the guys will want to leave our families and friends unless we know they are safe. OK, so we can’t go after Morgan now. And you can’t ward the whole town against her.”
“Yes, you know that kind of spell will never stretch that far.”
“But your security force is pretty large, and you have them wired for certain kinds of magic, correct?”
Vanora looked stunned for a moment. “Clever, Taliesin!” she replied. “But how did you know that?”
Because I’m not as stupid as you seem to think I am, I thought to myself. To her I replied, “Because I have noticed your security men—and the kind of vibes they put out. It wasn’t hard to figure out you had created some kind of magical network using them. Remember, you also asked me and Stan quite a few questions that suggested you were contemplating just such a project.”
“Why, yes, the experience with new forms of magic that you and Stanford have worked out was indispensable in fleshing out what I wanted to do. But how is the nature of my security force relevant?”
“That depends entirely on what you have made them capable of doing. I think they could provide protection for the whole town if properly deployed.”
Again I had caught Vanora by surprise. “Well, borrowing one of your ideas, I can see through any of their eyes if I need to. I can channel spells through them also, enabling me to cast from a greater distance than would ordinarily be possible. I also made them somewhat spell resistant, though they couldn’t stand against a really powerful magical attack. Naturally, there is also a very specific tynged in place to keep them from betraying us. But Taliesin,” she continued, shifting to a more patronizing tone, “I designed my ‘network’ to be effective over a short distance, so I could more easily ward Carrie Winn’s castle or—”
“Use them as a security detail to protect yourself,” I interjected cynically.
“Or you, if the need arose.”
I decided to let that claim go by without comment, since until now I couldn’t see what threat Vanora would have needed to protect me against.
“But the problem is, their links to me were designed for short distances. I don’t think they are strong enough to cover the whole town.”
“Oh, I’ve poked at them a little bit, Vanora, and I think in a pinch they can pick up your signal across the length of this town…and I think you know that.”
“I know no such thing—”
“Well, I d
o!” I cut in, ignoring her protest. “Their connection with you may not be as strong, but it will be workable, and you’ll have a few hours to reinforce it. That’s time enough for some formidable magic preparation if you use those hours well.” Vanora was a lot older and more experienced than I was…in this life. However, this was one of those moments when I was perfectly willing to play the I-was-the-original-Taliesin card.
“But I have to prepare for Carla’s removal—”
“Nurse Florence can make what arrangements are needed,” I replied, without even waiting for her confirmation.
“The ‘network’ won’t function well while I’m in Annwn—” began Vanora, sure that she had a winning argument.
“Which is exactly why you aren’t going to Annwn.” If I thought I had seen Vanora at her most shocked earlier, I was wrong…but she was certainly at her most shocked now.
“Were you under the impression that you could give me orders?” she sputtered.
I continued as if I had not heard the question. “Here’s the plan. The rest of us make preparations and then proceed to Annwn with Carla. Vanora will deploy her security detail across the town, with at least one group near each of our families and the others distributed as mobile reinforcements. Vanora can shift quickly from one man to another, scanning for Morgan. And if Morgan manages to slip through, whatever target she tries to hit, she’ll be facing several armed men, and even she isn’t fast enough to dodge bullets.”
“You’ll need some of those men…and me…in Annwn, Taliesin,” said Vanora in a very forbidding, I-have-spoken kind of tone. “We cannot afford to lose Carla to Morgan. And we cannot afford to let anything happen to you. You have irreplaceable abilities, as well as a much greater destiny—”