Aerenden: The Child Returns (Ærenden) (40 page)

“Meg!”
Nick called from beside her. His hands gripped her shoulders, holding her when
she convulsed again. “I sense danger. We have to leave.”

She
could not speak. Her muscles felt weak and she collapsed to the floor. Drawing
her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them, and prayed for the
pain to stop.

“Meg,”
Nick begged her, laying a hand on her back. “What’s wrong? Your pain, it’s—”

“Everywhere,”
she moaned. “Everywhere,” she repeated, and then the screams started outside.
Nick’s panic changed into a chilling fear that only added to her misery. His
touch disappeared and she heard him moving around the cottage. He returned to
her a moment later. After slipping her nightgown over her head, he dressed her
in her travel clothes, and then lifted her into his arms. She felt the rough
material of the backpack strap brush against her cheek and struggled to
comprehend its meaning through the excruciating pain now echoing within her
body. She felt the pain from tears and breaks, from sharp stabs, and agonizing
burns. And she felt them stop, only to start again from another direction. They
rolled over each other, a constant battering of rough waves that drowned her.
She forced a painful breath into her lungs, struggled to hold her focus on her
own feelings, her own sensations, and lost. She felt dizzy, or was Nick
running? She could not tell. She screamed from the agony, or were those the
voices of the villagers? The sounds and pain blended together and she could not
tell if they belonged to someone else or if they were her own. Even the warmth
of Nick’s body melded with the burning pain searing her skin. She heard talking
and wondered if she had begun to hallucinate.

“What
are you doing here? You should’ve gotten her out. She’s more important than I
am.”

“She
won’t survive without you. She’s feeling all of this. It’s too much.”

“But your power—”

“I
can’t get her to focus on it. Grab your kit. Do you think we can teleport
without being tracked?”

“We
can’t risk it. Set her down.”

Meaghan
felt the unyielding wood of a chair, and then the sharp smell of burning rubber
as it assaulted her nose. She recoiled from the odor, regretting the reaction
when her head slammed against the back of the chair. Pressing a hand to the
base of her skull, she winced when she felt a welt.

Fingers
covered hers. “It’s all right,” May’s voice came from beside Meaghan’s ear.
“It’s only a minor injury.”

“Good,”
Nick responded. “Meg, open your eyes.”

She
did as he asked and his face filled her vision. “Focus on my power,” he said.
Her eyes drifted from him to his mother, who knelt beside the chair. Nick
placed a hand on her cheek and guided her focus back to him. “Do it, Meg. It
won’t be long before you’re overwhelmed.”

She
closed her eyes again. She could already feel the emotions pushing their way
past the fringes of her control, clawing at her sanity—another sharp blow
to her gut, another slash of pain in her mind, a fire of agony spreading across
her legs. They swelled and then they faded, dissolving as soon as she found
Nick’s power.

She
opened her eyes, but not all of the emotions left her. Her own panic and fear
built each time another scream pierced the air. Through the window of May’s
kitchen, Meaghan could see fires devouring buildings and villagers running
through the streets as they tried to escape. One man stopped to stare at them.
Blood coursed down his face, streaming from a gash in his temple. His eyes met
Meaghan’s, and then he turned from her. He stumbled a few more steps before he
collapsed to the ground. A bolt of lightning streaked by, illuminating a woman
in the distance and then she, too, was gone.

Meaghan
felt fingers clutch her arms. They dug in and pulled her to her feet, but she
did not look at them until they shook her.

“Meaghan!”

Meaghan’s
gaze trailed from the fingers up arms clad in flannel sleeves to the ashen skin
of May’s face.

“Can
you walk?” May asked.

“I
think so.” Meaghan’s hand shook, but it obeyed her command as she drew it up to
grasp May’s arm. If it worked, her legs should too. She tried not to notice the
fire springing to life outside the window. The guest cottage roof had sparked.
The house would not be far behind.

“We
need to run for the woods,” May instructed. Her grip disappeared, replaced by
another, more familiar touch. Nick urged Meaghan forward, tugging her through
the kitchen and the living room, then out the front door.

It
happened again, as it had little more than a week before. The brisk air slapped
her face, shattering the numbness encasing her. She followed Nick. She ran from
the house resembling the one where she had grown up and she could not separate
the past from the present, Earth from Ærenden. In her mind, night turned to day.
The scent of snow filled the air instead of ash. Clouds filled the sky instead
of stars. Death filled the living room behind her instead of flames.

She
sought the SUV, but found the blood-spattered faces of children littering the
grass where the driveway should have been. They stared at her, frozen like
dolls discarded in play. She wanted to scream, but her voice remained trapped
in her throat.

The
ground exploded beside her, showering her in dirt and she snapped her eyes from
the bodies to the cloaked figure to her right. He held no club. Blue
electricity served as his weapon, and she knew she would not evade death so
easily this time. She caught her breath, then surged forward as Nick’s hand
pulled hard on hers. The ground heaved where she had stood, blown apart by the
bolt meant for her.

They
fled, chased again by three Mardróch. Meaghan saw them each time she glanced
over her shoulder, but they appeared as creatures in a dream. Nick dragged her
behind him through village streets and alleys, twisting their way to an escape.

Fire
consumed all but a few buildings. It cascaded light through the sky, reflecting
orange against thick, black smoke. Meaghan traced her gaze along the roofline,
past chimneys crumbling under their own weight, and windows exploding from
heat. She saw men jumping from balconies, and women wailing over the bodies of
their loved ones. She felt numb to it, distanced from the horror and the belief
of it.

Her
eyes turned from a brick wall scarred black and splattered with blood, and came
to rest on the only face that could soothe her. Her mother stared back at her.
Vivian had cut her hair. The long, red locks she had cherished now framed her
face as a delicate bob, but her eyes remained the same. They narrowed at
Meaghan, and then widened with alarm.

A
scream shattered the sky from their left, another from their right. A child’s
cry for his father bounced down a side street, following them as they broke
through the back line of houses and chased the moon across the field. They had
almost reached the forest. Meaghan wondered how they had arrived here so
quickly without a car. It had taken Nick hours the first time.

She
lost his hand as he surged forward, but she kept his pace. She followed him
into the tree line, deviating to avoid a log, and her feet hit something solid.

She
tumbled forward. Small stones and twigs bit her palms, and then her body came
to rest over whatever had tripped her.

Rolling
off the object, she scrambled around so she could see it, then caught her
breath when moonlight illuminated blonde hair and a beautiful face that did not
belong here. Tawny eyes stared wide at Meaghan, though they had lost the
capacity to see.

“Cissy,”
Meaghan whispered, her voice no more than the small breath she could manage.
Her fingers touched the cold, pale cheek of the woman she had met only hours
before, and reality settled over her. This was not the past on Earth. This was
the present, and the people of Ærenden were dying around her.

She
sucked in a breath, then another, and in her panic, let go of her hold on
Nick’s power. May’s grief and anger assaulted Meaghan first, then pain flooded out
all other emotions. It burned, a bath of acid, and Meaghan screamed before she
collapsed to the ground.

“Can
you carry her?” May asked.

“Yes,”
Nick responded. “The vitalizing salts won’t work again?”

“I’m
afraid not,” May said, though her voice had begun to fade. “She’s too far gone
this time. Tilt her head back.”

Meaghan
felt fingers behind her neck before the glass rim of a small vial pressed against
her lips. Bitter liquid filled her mouth. She swallowed from instinct and
within seconds, the world faded into blackness.

§

“W
HAT
THE
hell happened?”

Meaghan
kept her eyes closed. She turned her head, heard the backpack rustle underneath
her, and stopped moving, afraid the noise would give her away. Holding her
breath, she tried to sense the emotions surrounding her. Aggravation, concern,
and fear came from those talking. Pain still came from many different
directions, although it had dwindled to only a few dozen people. One stopped
and then another dulled into death. She curled her fingers, felt dry leaves
crush into her palm, and realized she lay on the ground.

Pain
built within her again. When fresh agony stabbed through her head, she reached
for Nick’s power, trusting he would be there and emotional silence rewarded
that trust. It washed over her, calming her, and she almost wept with relief.

“The
raid overwhelmed her power,” she heard May respond to the question.

“She’s
unconscious,” said another voice.

“I
gave her something. She’ll be awake soon.”

“But
not able,” a third voice spoke. Meaghan recognized the gravel in it, and
realized the Elders were talking about her. “I think we may have introduced her
as our Queen prematurely,” Angus continued. “We should have waited to ensure
she could do the job.”

“She’s
the Queen,” May told him. “Waiting to introduce her wouldn’t have changed
that.”

“Because
of her lineage? That’s not a good enough reason. She isn’t capable. We need to
replace her.”

“With
whom?” May shot back. “Or are you volunteering?”

“I
have as much right to the throne as she does,” Angus replied.

“Not anymore. You haven’t
since your mother—”

“This
isn’t up for debate,” Miles interrupted. His voice held a warning that hung in
the air, silencing even the song of a bird high in the trees. “She’s our Queen
and that’s final. The only thing that needs to be decided now is who will be
her Guardian.”

“Nick—”
May began.

“Has
proven his power can’t truly help her,” Miles interrupted. “Since he also can’t
control her, we need someone more experienced to take over. We need someone who
can train her so something like this doesn’t happen again.”

“You
can’t. They have to stay together.”

“Why?”
Miles asked. “What aren’t you telling us?”

May
sighed. “They’re wed.”

Meaghan’s
eyes snapped open. Nick glanced at her and she realized he had sensed she had
awakened. His hand moved a fraction of an inch at his side, and she obeyed his
request to stay still.

Miles
stared at May for a moment before he spoke. “That’s not possible. Nick wouldn’t—”

“They’re
prophesied.”

Miles
hissed in a breath of air in surprise at the news, but Angus only smiled. “She
no longer has a claim to the throne then,” he said. “As my mother did, Meaghan
has to give it up for wedding a Guardian.”

“Not
if their wedding was prophesied,” Sam told him. “They didn’t have a choice in
the matter.”

“You
can’t be certain it was,” Angus argued. “There’s no proof.”

“Nick
still has his powers,” May said. “The impossibility of that is proof enough.”

Angus
narrowed his eyes. “He
says
he has his powers.”

“How dare you! My son
doesn’t—”

Miles
placed a hand on May’s arm to calm her. “I’ve known Nick since he was an
infant. I don’t doubt his integrity. He wouldn’t lie if it would put Meaghan in
danger.”

Angus
pressed his lips together. “I’m not so easily convinced. He hid the wedding
from us for a reason.”

“He
didn’t know about the prophecy yet,” May objected. “The secret was held by the
royal family.”

“He
still should have told us,” Miles said. “After seeing the confusion Adelina and
Ed’s wedding caused them, I’m willing to overlook his transgression, but it
does make me certain of the need to replace him as Meaghan’s Guardian.”

May
shook her head. “Please don’t punish him for that. He planned on telling you
today.”

“I’m
not punishing him,” Miles responded. “Meaghan needs more experienced
protection. She needs someone who understands the importance of sharing everything
with the Elders.”

 “Who
did you have in mind?” Sam asked.

“May.
Unless you want the job.”

“I don’t, but we need to
put this to a vote. Nick is—”