Echoes from the Veil

by Colleen Halverson

My chest tightened, seeing the love and attentiveness in his gray eyes, and I wrestled with the betrayal, the lie I had to perpetuate to see this mission through.

  Clearing my throat, I reached out and squeezed his hand, softening my voice. “I am a bit hungry, actually. Would you mind finding me some food?”

  Finn nodded and flashed me a hopeful smile, then left the tent.

  I turned to Eamonn. “We need the glamour now.”

  He nodded, beckoning to Una, who took a deep breath then stepped toward the Druid.

  Eamonn grasped my hand, his skin already humming with power. “You won’t have long once I put the glamour on. Maybe an hour.”

  “If everyone does what I need them to do, then we won’t need an hour,” I said.

  Worry was stamped on his pale face. “Take Una’s hand.”

  He muttered a few words. My blood ran cold and Una’s features faded into my own. I stared at her as if staring into a mirror, resisting the urge to throw up, my reflection staring back at me uncannily. Steadying myself, I studied her to make sure every detail mirrored my own. We needed to convince the Fir Bolgs I was far off on the battlefield and not trying to reach Thornton and the device.

  I startled for a moment, glancing at my spear. “What about—”

  Regina smiled, drawing a replica from behind my back and placing a carbon copy of my spear in Una’s hands. “We thought about that.”

  I nodded, my face reddening. Details. I was always so bad about the details.

  “Malachy has a dragan waiting for you two,” I said, gesturing outside the tent. “Lucky bastards. Go get your Game of Thrones on.”

  They fled the tent, joining the forces already positioning on the battlefield. Finn would discover the ruse soon enough. He would be angry, but I hoped he would understand why.

  I turned to Eamonn, swallowing hard.

  “I’ll free Grainne first,” I said.

  Eamonn nodded.

  “And if things get bad, it’s just a drop of Morrígan blood into the vial?” My voice sounded impossibly small.

  I didn’t want to sacrifice myself, but I didn’t know what else we could do to destroy the device. I couldn’t put anyone else in that position. We were buying time as it was, but the Fir Bolgs could likely detonate the thing at any point if they wished. If we didn’t have time to dismantle it, then I would have no choice.

  “Aye,” Eamonn said, his eyes reddening. “I want to come with you. Maybe there’s a way I could—”

  I shook my head. “Absolutely not. They need you here. And… Finn will need you if I don’t come back.”

  “You don’t have to do this.”

  I flashed him a weak smile. “I’ll meet you on the battlefield.”

  I hope.

  I closed my eyes and surged through the astral plane, pushing through the ward like a knife through Jell-O, and returned to Teamhair, to the highest tower, to the place Finn and I once made love. Standing there again, I realized how different I was now. That woman had been so scared, so shaken and battered by fate. I clenched my spear tight, staring out at the battlefield below, at the army gathered at the foot of Teamhair. My army. I had pulled them together somehow, and now they would win it all. Not just for the Faerie realm, but for all of us. Above, the black hole gyrated and expanded, the lightning shattering the sky. It was the war making it worse, the chaos feeding into it.

  I had to finish this. Quickly.

  I reached out, the ward only about six feet away from my fingertips. Everyone was in place below, Una just a tiny dot, Regina beside her. I could barely make out the weapon in Regina’s hand, a rifle of course. Good. She could smoke out Fir Bolg snipers. A dragan stood there waiting to take flight with Regina and Una once the ward broke, and the Fianna in riot gear waited in formation, ready to dodge the bullets that were sure to come.

  Everything was as it should be.

  I got quiet, sensing the magical threads weaving in and out in tendrils of pulsing energy. I sought the strongest thread and pulled, the ward shattering beneath my power. With a deep sigh, I opened my eyes, relishing in the satisfying destruction of all that magic. With the collapse of the ward, Una and Regina raced to the dragan, a strange silence sweeping across the field.

  It’s too quiet.

  I leaned out the window, my gaze tracking across the frontline. A loud explosion burst through my ears as the first of the landmines exploded, great blasts throwing up turf and roots through the smoke and flames.

  And then the screams began.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I startled, backing away and readying myself to travel out of there and back to the battlefield. Everything I had imagined had come to pass. The cries of the wounded and dying caught the whipping breeze like a dirge, and I scanned the frontlines for Finn, for Una, but smoke clouded my vision. My palms itched, and tears pressed against my eyelids as I weighed the choice.

  The dust and debris settled, and I let out a long exhale as I spotted Finn, M16 ready, sword at his hip, with Una and Regina beside him. The Druids were already assembling to break through the ramparts of Teamhair, the dragans circling out of range but ready to attack. I ran my hands through my hair, my body shaking.

  Focus, Elizabeth.

  How was I supposed to concentrate when so many people were down there risking everything for me? No. Not for me. For Tír na nÓg. For the fabric of the universe. I’d led them here, and I needed to trust them to fight.

  Turning away from the battle, I closed my eyes and sought out Thornton—sought him out as I should have from the beginning. No more cat and mouse. No more hiding. No more second-guessing. The Fir Bolgs had enslaved Thornton to open a portal into the Tree of Life, to do the dark magic they couldn’t do, messing with things they didn’t understand. What did it mean to break the world, sever the universe into another, tear off a branch of our dimension? Walls, branches, and worlds. I wanted a new future beyond these boundaries.

  Thornton’s energy was faint and corrupted, like a thin shadow in the evening. When I opened my eyes, I startled backward, sucking in a breath. I no longer stood in Tír na nÓg, but back at Finn’s castle ruins in Connemara, the sound of the wind and the ocean drowning out my cries of disbelief. As my eyes focused, I realized the scene was off somehow, the colors a bit too vivid, the ruins a bit too exaggerated. Thornton had created this strange world, and I was somehow in the broken corners of his mind.

  “Elizabeth!” a small voice cried.

  Grainne lay on the ground bound in glowing ropes, her face bruised, but otherwise alive. This was why I couldn’t reach her. Thornton had hidden her away in whatever weird dimension he had created. I rushed toward her, drawing out my spear to cut her bonds.

  “Are you all right?” The words had barely left my lips when a great wind rushed up and pushed me back.

  A figure stepped out of the woods. Thornton. He appeared even more emaciated than before, his waxy skin molded to the bones of his face.

  “I’ve been waiting for you,” he said, his long fingers lacing together as he approached me.

  I pointed to Grainne. “Let her go. I know it’s me you want.”

  Thornton nodded, his fingers playing with something small and shiny.

  The device.

  “Do the Fir Bolgs know you have that?” I demanded, standing my ground.

  “Those pathetic rodents? It was easy to create a decoy for them.” He let out a low laugh, and the sound of it made me shiver. He circled me, a smile spreading across his horrible face. “They may have taken me prisoner, but they gave me magic beyond my wildest dreams. They want to sever ties with the Tree of Life, and I want to wield it. Our paths have converged, but our goals are quite different.”

  From his stained robes, he brought the device to his ear. “Tick tock, tick tock. Time is running out for you, my dear.”

  “Let Grainne go, and
I’ll do whatever you say.” My mind ratcheted down my next move. Stop time, grab the device, destroy it. But I had to make sure Grainne was free first.

  He raised the device in the air. “You’ll do exactly as I say,” he snarled.

  “I swear,” I said with a long exhale.

  He waved at Grainne, and her bonds dissolved. She staggered to standing, rubbing her wrists. She raced to my side, calling out the spell to make her sword appear.

  Thornton staggered back, as if someone had dragged him. “My master calls,” he said with a sneer.

  When I blinked again, Grainne and I stood in a dark tower in Teamhair, a great pentagram carved into the floor. Candles flickered all across the wall, and in the shadows stood a group of Fir Bolgs. Thornton stood in a corner, his body a skeleton and his dirty robes hanging from him. He looked even worse than in the strange world I had found him.

  Balen, the Fir Bolg leader, stepped forward, his blond hair shimmering against the length of his jaw. “What I wouldn’t give to kill you right now, Elizabeth Tanner.”

  I raised my chin. “So why don’t you?”

  “Because it’s become clear to me you are the only one who can open the portal into Mag Mell.”

  A Fir Bolg yanked on a rope, and a curtain fluttered to the floor, revealing a tall mirror, but instead of my reflection, there swirled a faint gray and lavender mist.

  “That’s the way into Mag Mell?” I asked. “That’s what you’ve been working on all this time?”

  Thornton stumbled forward, his breath wheezing and rattling in his lungs. “Creating a portal is one thing. Stepping through it is quite another.”

  Balen walked over to the mirror and ran his palm against the gleaming frame. “No one can simply enter Mag Mell. One must either be dead or invited by the gods. But you…” He turned to me, his black eyes penetrating my boiled armor. “You can go anywhere as an Aisling. You need no invitation. This is a back door to that dimension.”

  The logic seemed a bit thin. “How can you be sure?”

  “We’re not.” Balen shrugged. “But we’re willing to take that chance if it means shrugging off your filthy human world forever.”

  “Why do you want that so badly?” I demanded, trying to stall.

  Balen snarled. “Our world has been invaded time and time again. We have been enslaved. Persecuted. Our way of life and traditions nearly destroyed.”

  “We can change all that.” I tapped the butt of my spear against the floor, eyeing Grainne. “We can create a constitution. A pact—”

  He cut me off with a sharp wave of his hands. “As if we Fir Bolgs would ever desire to form bonds with the Tuatha Dé Danann. With humans.” He spat the last word out like poison.

  “No. Once we break free of this dimension, we will create a new world where the Fir Bolgs reign supreme and all will worship us as the one true race of pure-blood Fae.”

  “This pure-blood Fae is bullshit,” I said. “There’s no such thing and you know it.”

  “Silence!” His face turned a furious shade of purple. “The time is now. We cannot wait any longer.” He turned to Thornton. “Are you ready, wizard?”

  Balen marched toward the mirror, his hand clutched onto his hip. He ran his hand over the gilded edge, a twisted smile spreading across his face.

  I glanced at Grainne from the side of my eye, and she squeezed the pommel of her sword. Balen nodded toward a guard, and the sound of a bolt sliding into a crossbow echoed through the chamber. He aimed an arrow straight at Grainne’s head.

  “Come, Elizabeth,” Balen said, the device in his hands. “Join hands with the wizard and me. Take us to the other side. Fuse your power with his, or your friend dies.”

  I let out a long exhale and nodded, walking forward. I took two steps and with a rush of energy, stopped time, slowing down the very air in the room. I charged Balen, drawing my spear, and thrust it into his gut before he had time to take another breath. Time in the room sped up again, and an arrow whizzed by Grainne’s ear. She sliced through it, sending her sword whirling in a great arc before landing in the guard’s side with a sickening, fleshy sound. Another guard barreled into her, knocking her down. With a grunt of rage, she recovered quickly, rolling and pouncing back to her feet and thrusting her sword into the back of the guard. The Fir Bolg screamed then shook with a hideous death rattle.

  A rush of guards ran toward us, and I lifted my hand, flinging them against the wall, their armor clanging against the hard stone. I glanced back toward Thornton and raced toward him, my sword aimed straight for his chest. He held the device in one hand, his other hand pressed against the strange lavender light in the mirror, his fingertips lighting up the smoke like a flame. I pierced his flesh with a mortal wound, but he merely smiled, the device lighting up in his palm. With his other hand, he grasped my wrist, his fingers like a vise against my skin. I wrestled to break free, but he pulled me backward. I tried to draw my spear, but before I could blink, Thornton let out an animalistic growl and yanked me forward. We plunged into the portal and into the darkness beyond.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I landed with a hard thud, all the oxygen banished from my lungs. I blinked, grasping for my spear, scurrying backward, and seeking out Thornton. I peered into the darkness, but I sat alone in a tunnel like the rabbit hole straight out of Alice in Wonderland, roots, snails, and worms twisting through the damp earth. It stretched out forever on both ends, and tiny pinpricks of light illuminated far in the distance.

  “Thornton!” I screamed, racing randomly in one direction until I ran out of breath. My voice echoed beneath the ground, calling over the quiet shifting sounds of earthworms through the soil surrounding me, the occasional drip from the dirt roof above. I had no idea where Thornton had dragged me, but I had to find him, find the device, and do what had to be done. The wizard had brought us one step closer to the Tree of Life, and I had to stop him.

  “Elizabeth?”

  I gasped, whirling around to find Bel, his suit, once torn and covered in mud, now immaculate, the gray fibers almost shimmering silver.

  “What are you doing here?” I took a deep breath, almost tripping over a root.

  He reached out to steady me. “I would like to ask you the same thing. I assume you’re after that wizard.”

  I blinked. “You know him?”

  “He’s been poking around here for quite a while now.”

  “A while?” I spluttered. “But I just got here. We—”

  “You’re in the root system now. It works differently for everyone.” Bel walked forward, motioning me to follow.

  “The root system?” I panted after him.

  He raised his hands to the ceiling. “Welcome to the Tree of Life. The Spiritus Mundi. Akshaya Vata. Etz Hayim. The oak. The bodhi tree. The acacia of Iusaaset. There are so many names for it, and it looks different to everyone who enters it.” Bel patted the soil wall and rubbed a bit of dirt between his fingers. “Your vision is very humble.”

  I shrugged. “Well. I mean. It’s a tree.”

  Bel chuckled. “Something like that.”

  We walked on for a few steps.

  “So, are you like my guide?” I asked, edging closer to his side.

  “No,” he replied. “There is no map in the Tree of Life. No place of origin or destination.”

  “Oh.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “I need you to do me a favor.”

  I cleared my throat. “Yeah, of course. But I really need to find Thornton first, if that’s okay. He has a bomb, and I think he could send this whole tunnel crumbling down upon us or, you know, destroy the universe because—”

  Bel raised a hand and pointed to a door that had suddenly appeared in the wall of the tunnel. Actually, hundreds of doors had appeared, each one different. A gilded door, a rusted barn door, a humble red door with a knob in the middle. I gasped, clutc
hing my throat. I had dreamed this before it all started, before the sky had torn apart.

  Bell placed his palm against the gleaming ivory surface. “I need you to take me through this door.”

  I pulled at the silver handle, but it didn’t budge.

  “Ah,” I said, chuckling. “You need an Aisling thing.”

  He sighed. “Yes. An Aisling thing. If you’re up for it.”

  “Okay. Yeah, sure. But maybe you didn’t hear what I said about the end of the world because—”

  He turned to me, and the shimmering light surrounding him turned to a blinding glow that strained my eyes. “Take me through this door.”

  I hesitated. “Is this door to Mag Mell?”

  Bel nodded.

  “But I was told you could only enter Mag Mell if you…died.” I looked up at Bel. “Am I dead?”

  “I have sought you out here, Elizabeth,” he said. “That changes the rules. You are welcome in this place because we need you.”

  I nodded and then closed my eyes, collecting his energy close to mine. Energy? More like gathering the sun itself, the magic almost splintering whatever bonds I created to pull him to me and bring us through the door. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself standing in the midst of a glorious garden, flowers of every color surrounding us. Irises, hydrangeas, lilies, daisies, lilacs, all mix of blooms blending together in heavenly shades of pink, purple, soft oranges, and white. Verdant leaves filled the blue sky muted by dusk or dawn. I couldn’t tell which. The intoxicating smell of honeysuckle hit me with a wave of sweetness, and I breathed in the clear air. I took a step, and I felt as if I swam in a sea of life, the energy of the garden releasing with each bud bursting free, its sweet scent dancing in the breeze.

  The sound of singing echoed in my ears, and recognition struck as I realized it was the song I had heard in the London Underground, the music I had heard when I prayed to Danu. I turned to Bel.

  “She’s here,” I whispered.

  He breathed in deeply, wandering toward the singing as if bewitched by some spell.