Ann Gimpel (26 page)

“Why couldn’t you do this when Slototh nearly killed me?”
she demanded, clinging to a thread of sanity in a river of sexual sensation.

“I tried.”
Dewi sounded defensive.
“He blocked me.”

Desperate to escape the dragon’s body, Aislinn took a different tack.
“Let me go. Distant cousins, my ass. You and the Minotaur know one other.”

“You might say that. Hush. I am done talking—until after.”

Helpless, trapped inside Dewi, wave after wave of erotic fascination rolled through Aislinn as the dragon positioned herself for that immense cock. Aislinn wanted to run, but couldn’t figure out how to separate herself from the dragon. She wanted to stay and have the Minotaur fuck them forever.

Dewi wriggled back against the Minotaur and twisted her tail aside, seating him inside her. Fire belched from her mouth, and she roared her delight. The Minotaur settled his hands on Dewi’s haunches. He lifted them as he slammed himself home over and over again. Just when Aislinn thought she couldn’t stand another second of sharing her body with the dragon, Dewi’s body spasmed, giving Aislinn the most intense orgasm she’d ever had in her life. It shattered her, felt incredible—and wrong. As wrong as sex with one of the dark gods would have been, no matter how her body reacted.

I’ve got to get out of this.
“Dewi! Let me go right now. Damn you. If you ever want me to do anything with you ever again, release me from your body.”

“But you enjoyed him as much as I did,”
Dewi panted deep in her mind.
“I did it for us. We can share your Celt the same way.”

“Not a fucking chance. And I say bullshit. You did it for you. I don’t care how many hundreds of years it’s been since you got laid. I want out of your body. Now.”

Aislinn felt herself shrinking. Arms took form, then legs. Shakily, she stepped away from the dragon and her consort, noticing they were still coupled. From the looks of things, they’d be going at it for hours. The Minotaur’s breath caught as he jammed himself into Dewi. Gripping her scaled sides, he threw back his head, laughed, and told her he’d forgotten what a little vixen she was.

Little vixen?
Not exactly her view of Dewi. If she hadn’t been so intent on escape, Aislinn would have laughed till her sides hurt.

She slipped deeper into the tunnel. She had to find Fionn. What she didn’t understand was why she hadn’t found him yet. She’d been following the Seeker magic. She clapped a hand to her head. Perhaps some of what Slototh had said was true. He’d told her the labyrinth perverted magic, made it bounce back in unusual ways.

“Maybe I marched right by them and didn’t take the right side tunnel,” she mumbled.

“Where are you going?”
Dewi demanded.

“To find Fionn and the others.”

“I could help—once I’m done here.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”
Aislinn snorted.
Right. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever trust her again. Or let her into my head for anything.

She considered retracing her steps, but changed her mind and pulled magic to jump back to the chamber next to the front door. If Seeker magic wouldn’t do it, she’d use her Seer gift and ask it to take her back in time to when Fionn and Rune had entered the prison.

More than anything, the length of time it took her to return to the chamber told her how far underground she’d been. Much farther than where Slototh had dragged her. Something nagged at her. The dark god’s name. She could think it now and say it without struggling not to puke. Did that mean he was neutralized? At least for now? She dared to let herself hope.

Settling near the open, arched doorway, she reveled in feeling sunshine on her back. Was it still the same day, or had she been underground so long that it was tomorrow? She shook her head hard. It didn’t matter. The only thing that did was finding Fionn, Rune, and the others.

Unbuckling her pack, she shoved it under her butt. She still felt sore and stretched from the Minotaur’s bulky member. How the hell had Dewi done that?

The same way Rune merges with me.
The difference is he respects me. She doesn’t.

Recalling exactly what Fionn had done when he’d led her into her Seer magic, she closed her eyes and summoned a trance state. When she thought she had it, she asked the magic to show her Fionn leading his company through this very room. Spectral bodies marched past her. Ones that got close dissolved when they ran up against her, only to reanimate on the other side. She sent her astral self trailing after the last of the company.

Shades blocked her way, but she shoved though them. Her astral projection wasn’t warm, so she didn’t have anything they wanted. The ghostly company went into the prison itself, not down where she’d been. As Aislinn followed them down long, stone walkways, she was amazed how large the place was.

Must have housed thousands…

Finally, she saw dazed humans, wandering from cell to cell, and her heart leapt. They were here after all. It was the damned labyrinth that had confounded things. Her joy faded as she watched them. It was like they’d been hypnotized, eyes glazed, staring straight ahead. Fionn! Where was he? Or Rune? He should be easy enough to find. She tried calling, then realized no one would hear her. She needed her body for that.

Because she didn’t have to wait for the spectral soldiers to show her the way, Aislinn sped back to her body, shoving shades out of the way as she went. The disorienting thump as astral and physical bodies collided practically flattened her. She wondered how long it had been since she’d eaten.

Pushing the thought away—there’d be time to eat later—she took off at a lope for where she’d found the humans. The shades were more than an annoyance this time. She was warm and breathing. They wanted what she had, so they swarmed her, clawing at her with skeletal fingers. One sliced her with a knife, but the cut wasn’t deep. She kicked the blade out of his hand and pocketed it so he couldn’t jump her from behind. Enemies who were already dead were such a pain in the ass.

Shoved hard from the rear, she sprawled face down on the floor, spitting out dirt. God only knew how many had piled on her and pushed her down. Aislinn reached for her magic, but it was useless against shades, since they were beyond feeling pain.

“Let me go,” she begged. “You have to let me go. Friends are trapped in this building.” She wondered if telling them that was a mistake. Shades fed on life. If they didn’t already know a bunch of live bodies could be found nearby, she’d just torn the lid off that can.

“And you’ll be a’lettin’ her go,” a low, melodic female voice with a strong Irish lilt said. “Now. I won’t be a’tellin’ you agin.”

Aislinn gasped as the weight holding her down evaporated like dew on a hot morning. She’d know that voice anywhere. Getting to her feet, she ignored the cut places on her hands. She searched the gloom, didn’t find what she sought, so she cranked more lumens into her mage light.

“Mother? I know you’re here. Show yourself.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

T
ara Lenear stepped out of the mass of shades. Her red hair was still long and luminous. Her golden eyes glowed with delight. She held out her hands. The nails were cracked, the skin split and desiccated. “Ach,
mo leannán
,” she crooned. “I never thought to see you agin in this life.”

Aislinn’s throat thickened with unshed tears. “Thanks, Mom,” she managed brokenly. “If you could keep the rest of them off me, I have people to rescue.”

Cold, dead fingers closed on Aislinn’s hand. She squeezed back. Stepping close, she hugged her mother. Underneath the stench of dead meat, she could still pick out the smells she’d always associated with Tara: lavender, cinnamon, and musk.

“Could I be helpin’?” her mother asked.

Aislinn didn’t have to think long. Having her mother by her side again was impossible to refuse. “Sure. Let’s go.” She sprinted down the corridor.

When she got close to where she’d seen the humans Aislinn opened her mind, questing for Rune, and found him.
“Where are you?”

“Locked behind a magic barrier.”
He growled.
“Fionn is here, but something is wrong. I cannot rouse him.”

Aislinn didn’t think she’d ever heard anything quite so welcome as the wolf’s voice in her mind.

“Who are you talking to?” Tara demanded. Her eyes narrowed. “Fionn who?”

I can’t tell her everything. It will take too long.
“Mother, I know you have magic. It’s where mine came from. Can you help me find a barricade held in place by a spell?”

Her mother’s head snapped up. It seemed she was scenting the air. “The dragon,” she muttered. “That
uafásach
dragon is down here somewhere.”

“No shit.” Aislinn snorted. “She’s not the problem, Mother. Focus! I have to find Fionn.”

“Really, why? Watch your language, child.”

Aislinn blew out a frustrated breath.
I do not have time for this
. “It’s Fionn MacCumhaill, Mother.”

“Och aye, why dinna ye say so? He was my betrothed, afore your Da. I ran like hell to get away.” Tara Lenear faded from sight.

“Glad we’ve got that straight,” Aislinn muttered, staring after her mother.

A wandering human bumped into her. Aislinn grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a good jolt of magic. His eyes cleared. “Shit,” he mumbled. “What happened? Last thing I remember, I was marching behind Ted…”

Aislinn released him. “Wake up everyone you come across. Once you wake another, tell them the same thing. Out is that way.” She pointed back over one shoulder. “Just keep taking right turns. It should start to look familiar once you come to the parts before you ran into this ensorcellment.”

Knee deep in lifting what fortunately had been a weak spell for every human she saw, Aislinn didn’t pay any attention when her mother’s bony hand closed over her shoulder.

“Ye never did listen well. I tell you, I’ve found ’em. Come wi’ me.”

Heart in her throat, Aislinn raced after her mother. Tara floated rather than walked—and she moved fast.

“Ach, ’tis here.” Tara threw up her hands. They crashed down soundlessly on something invisible. “I canna break it. What’s left o’ my body isna strong enough.”

Aislinn’s magic was already spinning outward. She felt the shape of the working immediately. It was intricate. Because it might be booby trapped in some way that would blow all of them to kingdom come, she felt her way carefully, wishing she wasn’t so hungry and tired. She was more likely to make mistakes when she couldn’t think straight.

Fionn’s there,
she told herself.
Just on the other side of this.

“Can ye no’ see the working, Daughter?” Tara asked.

Aislinn looked at her mother. She’d been so intent on unraveling the convoluted magic that she’d nearly forgotten about her. The first layer had fallen. Many more crowded beneath it, each seemingly more interwoven than the last. “Tell me what you see.” She met Tara’s gaze, so like her own, golden in the glow from her mage light.

“’Twould be easier to start from the bottom corner, just over there. Ye needn’t dismantle the entire thing. Just a wee hole big enough to crawl through would do the trick.”

Mom was always smart.
Aislinn shuffled over to inspect the place her mother had indicated. Excitement coursed through her. The weave was grainier there, not so tight. She started snipping strands with her Mage gift, letting it show her the next one in line.

“It’s big enough,” she told Tara. “I’m going through.”

“Careful, lass. Ye—”

A whine and the scrabble of claws on stone broke into her mother’s words. Rune launched himself at Aislinn and drove her to the ground. She closed her arms around him. He licked her face over and over again, and she realized she was crying.

“Quick,” she said, “I need to see what’s happened to Fionn.”

“This way.” Rune belly-crawled back through the opening, with Aislinn right behind him.

The air felt thick inside the working. Tendrils dragged against her, cooing soothing nothings.
“No worries. None at all. Lie down. Rest. You are so tired. Rest is what you need. Rest and dreams…”

She fought the casting. It was like something out of fairy tales, where the princess slept for a hundred years. Anyone not paying attention would fall asleep.
Let’s hope a kiss is all it takes to wake Fionn…
She crawled to where he lay crumpled against a rock wall, one arm thrown across his face.

“Fionn!” She shook him. Tears streamed down her face. She reached for him with her heart, laid her face next to his, and showered him with kisses while she ran her hands over his familiar body.

“Won’t work.” Rune stood next to her. “I’ve licked him, bit him, talked to him. I don’t understand what happened. One minute, we were leading a company. The next, we stumbled through something that felt like sticky spider’s webs. Fionn seemed to recognize what it was. He cursed and tried to backtrack, but he couldn’t seem to focus his magic on the wall that closed behind us.”

“Whatever this is doesn’t affect you?” Aislinn considered how she could leverage that if it were true.

“No.” Rune verified her suspicions. “Not me, but Bella’s just as far under as Fionn.”

“Bella!” Aislinn felt ashamed. She’d totally forgotten the bird. “Where is she?”

Rune trotted to a dark corner. Aislinn followed and scooped up the raven, who’d frozen into position, her head under one wing.

“Do you have any idea what happened to Gwydion and the others?”

“No.”

Cradling Bella against her, Aislinn tried to link with Fionn’s mind. It was closed to her. She tried again, pushing hard with her Mage gift. Then with her Seer gift. It was like running up against a castle wall. She took his hand. Thank God it was warm. Something he’d said slammed into her. She’d blithely told him she could Heal him, and he’d replied only if she found him in time. Then there’d been that part about his body being severed from his soul.

She rocked back on her heels. She needed Gwydion or Arawn or Bran. Someone who knew more than she did. Even Dewi. No, scratch that. She didn’t trust the dragon as far as she could see her.

Tara materialized by her side. “Och aye and ’tis thick in here. We need to drag him outside this enchantment.”

“Are you sure we won’t hurt him?” Aislinn locked gazes with her mother.

Tara cocked her head to one side in a gesture Aislinn remembered so well that it tore at her heart. “Nay. But we canna leave him in here. That will kill him for certain. Mayhap not kill,” she amended, “but he will sink so deep, ’twill no longer matter. Where did ye get the bird?”

“It’s Fionn’s bonded one.”

“Aye, then, and it must be the same one. A nasty piece, she was. I am certain time has not improved her temperament.” Tara Lenear chuckled coldly. “Mayhap we could be leavin’ that one asleep.”

Between her and her mother, they managed to drag Fionn outside the enchantment. Rune tried to help, but all they did was fall over one another. Aislinn had to make the hole bigger, but not all that much. She made a second trip for Bella and tucked the bird into a protected corner. Head spinning from weariness, Aislinn sank to the stone floor next to Fionn and caught her breath. He looked about the same. She watched the rise and fall of his chest and tried linking to his mind again.

Why can’t I get in?
She rocked back on her heels and dredged through every magical possibility she knew, but nothing fit her needs. “Do you know what’s wrong?” Aislinn eyed her mother, floating a few inches above the floor.

“Aye.”

Aislinn waited, but Tara didn’t say anything else. “Are you going to tell me?”

The shade that had been her mother shrugged. “It willna matter. I doona think ye can fix it.”

“Tell me anyway.” Aislinn drew one of Fionn’s hands into her lap.

Rune whined. “I am sorry. The air did not feel that…tainted to me, or I would have warned him.”

“Not your fault.” Aislinn turned toward Tara. “Come on, Mom. Talk.”

“Hmph! Ye used to be more respectful.”

“Sure, when I still had a normal life and two parents.”

Her mother looked so sad that Aislinn wished she’d kept her mouth shut.

“The avenging one knew all of you were coming,” Tara said at last. “He had a scrying pool—”

“How do you know that?”

“And how else, Daughter? I spied on him. He were no friend to the likes o’ us. We had little enough left, and he would have been stealin’ even that if we would ha’ let him.”

All that is discarded…
“Go on,” Aislinn said softly. Compassion for her mother thrummed through her. “I won’t interrupt again.”

“He knew the four Celts. I heard him cursin’ them roundly from that obscenity of a bedroom of his. Particularly Fionn. For some reason, Slototh hated him with a fury. He set traps for the Celts—breathed their names into them, he did. T’others, he just let wander, confused. I’m thinkin’ he dinna believe humans would be canny enough to find their own way out.”

Well, that settles what happened to Gwydion, Arawn, and Bran.
“Mom, hold up a minute. I know I said I wouldn’t interrupt, but since you know the feel of Slototh’s traps, would you mind seeing if you can find the others?”

“I will.” The wolf took off at a lope before she was even done talking.

Tara shook a finger at her. “Ye shouldna say the wicked one’s name aloud. ’Tis bad luck.”

Aislinn laughed bitterly. “Yes, I’ve had more than my share of that. You said you know where Fionn is. Why can’t I reach him now that he’s lying right in front of me?”

“Fionn barricaded himself deep to keep the evil one out. He could be in the
Dreaming
. He might be elsewhere. All I know is that he isna here. I canna feel him, though I sense his warmth.” Tara hesitated. “Ye need Gwydion, master enchanter that he is. Or the dragon.”

Aislinn clenched her jaw. The last thing she wanted was to ask Dewi for help, not after the trick she’d pulled with the Minotaur, but she wasn’t about to let Fionn waste away wherever he was, either. “There’s got to be another way,” she muttered.

“Where did ye learn about magic, Daughter?” Tara’s question had an edge to it.

“It was either embrace it or follow you into the vortex.”

“Oh.” A pause, then, “I am sorry. I dinna prepare you verra well. But I couldna find a way back to a world without your Da in it.”

Aislinn reached out a hand. “It’s okay, Mom. You didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“Och aye, but I did.” Tara jabbed her bony index finger skyward. “The Seer gift, it runs strong in me. I told Jacob we should stop goin’ to anything linked to the Convergence, but he insisted.” One corner of what was left of her mouth turned downward. “I never could refuse that man anything.”

Crouched in a dark stone corridor, clutching Fionn’s hand, with her mage light suspended off to one side, Aislinn wanted to scream at her mother. To remind her she’d had a duty to her daughter as well. She bit back bitter words. This wasn’t the time. Besides, it wouldn’t change anything. Anger was an indulgence, and she barely had enough strength left to keep herself conscious and moving forward.

“Where did you get yourself off to?”

Gritting her teeth, Aislinn answered Dewi.
“I am in the prison itself, many hundreds of feet above where I left you. Did that…thing leave?”

“He really is quite sensitive—”

“Can it. Is he gone?”

Dewi chuckled.
“He is asleep. I must have worn him out. Men are so fragile that way. Open your mind so I can find you.”

“In a pig’s eye. You’ll have to find me the old fashioned way or not at all.”

The dragon didn’t answer.

“Well, either she’s on her way here, or we got lucky and she’s mad at me and not coming,” Aislinn mumbled.

“Who?”

“Your old nemesis, the dragon.”

Tara’s expression softened. Aislinn took a good look at her mother. Most of her face from her cheeks upward was still intact. It was only lower down, where gashes interrupted what had once been living tissue, that she didn’t look like herself. Wounding was permanent for shades. Since their blood no longer circulated, they couldn’t heal themselves. Flesh rotted where skin no longer covered it.

“I loved her when I was little.” Tara’s eyes filled with a faraway look. “She took me flyin’.”

“What happened?”

Tara threw up her hands in a Gaelic
je ne sais
gesture. “I dinna care for my future bein’ mapped out from afore the day of my birth. Dewi never gave me a minute to myself. I couldna keep secrets from that one. Once I was old enough, I left. Then I met your Da and rewrote my future.”

Aislinn’s Seeker gift pinged a sour note. Her mother had left some things out. She opened her mouth to ask what pieces Tara had omitted, when she heard Rune’s claws scrape against stone as he rounded a corner.

“I bit my way through,” he crowed. “Got Gwydion. He was trapped, but not asleep. Not deep, anyway. He came round as soon as I nipped him in a few key places.”

Footsteps sounded, bare skin slapping against stone, punctuated by the tap of a staff. “There ye are,” the mage growled at the wolf. “I told you to wait for me. I am still foggy from Slototh—” Gwydion’s mouth fell open. “Tara MacLochlainn, as I live and breathe. Lass, ye’ve been killed. Why are ye not on the far side of the veil?” He hastened to her side and gathered her close. Strong emotion rippled through the muscles in his face and jaw. Dead or no, Gwydion liked having her mother in his arms. He looked like a dying man who’d been given a second chance.

Rune nudged her hand. “I’m going to find the other two.”

Aislinn bent and kissed the top of his furred head. “Thank you.”

“Thank me when all are safe.”

Aislinn turned back to Gwydion and her mother. “You loved her,” she blurted, seared by sudden understanding. Tara hadn’t told her that part. It was what she’d been hiding. Her mother had been promised to Fionn, but she loved Gwydion. Tara had solved the problem by running away.

“Aye, lass.” Gwydion still clung to her mother’s shade. “And I love her still. Fionn never did. He wanted her simply because of the ancient prophecy.” Resentment churned beneath his words.

“She was neither of yours,” Dewi boomed. “The MacLochlainn belongs to me. Now and always.” She slapped Aislinn none too gently as she lumbered past her. “You would do well to remember that, girl.”

Aislinn lurched to her feet. “How the hell did you get so close without me hearing you?”

“I can be silent when it behooves me,” Dewi informed her haughtily and grabbed Gwydion’s shoulder with a taloned foreleg. “Give me the MacLochlainn.”

Tara spewed a string of curses in Gaelic, grew progressively less substantial, and walked through the wall behind Fionn.

Good for you, Mother!
Tara had told the dragon she’d see her in hell before she’d be owned by anyone or anything.

“Ye great stupid snake,” Gwydion shouted. “Now see what ye’ve done. Ye frightened her just as ye did when she was but a wee bit of a girl.”