Caledonia Fae 04- Druid Lords (14 page)

That she would make such a request
did
stun Munro. “Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Rory said. “She said neither of us could bond with anyone else, but we might bond with each other again.”

Munro scowled. The bond had been unnatural. Only by using her rare talent for druidic affinity had Flùranach been able to circumvent the usual magical order and seize Rory’s bond. The magical assault had been a selfish and violent act. “What did you tell her?”

“I said no.” The hesitation in Rory’s voice told Munro there was more going on. “I don’t see how I can trust her.”

The previous day, Munro had heard Rory shouting in his sleep. The terrors were nothing new, but over the past few months, his restless and haunted dreams had become less frequent. Now Munro understood why the nightmares had returned. “If she’s going to be a problem, send her back to Oszlár. She can stay with the keepers and join us when we need her. There’s no reason she has to live at the Hall.”

“We need her all the time,” Rory said. He sounded tired. “We should be searching for more druids every night. Even if she slept at the keepers’ place, I can’t avoid dealing with her.”

The decision was up to Rory, but Munro didn’t like seeing his friend so torn up like this. He didn’t respond. They started travelling over more uneven ground, and the conversation slowed as they picked their way more carefully.

After a while, Rory spoke again as though they’d never even paused. “I almost hit her last night.”

The admission made Munro falter for a second, but he recovered quickly. Where was this going? “Listen, mate,” he said, but Rory cut him off.

“I wouldn’t. She caught me off guard. I’m still so mad. I’m having trouble sorting everything out.”

“I’m sending her back to Oszlár,” Munro said. He couldn’t let Flùranach hurt Rory, but he wouldn’t stand by while Rory smacked her around, either. This situation was a disaster waiting to happen.

“When you bonded with Eilidh, did she say the words first?” Rory asked.

Munro looked at his friend. Would he actually consider bonding with Flùr? “No, I did.”

“And did the magic make you…do what she said?”

“No,” Munro said. “Nothing changed until she said the words too.”

“I guess the process works differently when you’re naturally compatible.” Rory fixed his gaze on the horizon. The huge Otherworld moon shone blue in the eastern sky. “Do you think if Flùr said the words first, I’d be safe? She couldn’t control me if she submitted before me, right?”

Munro reflected on the idea. None of them really understood the ancient bonding magic. What Flùr and Rory were considering was a perversion of the ritual. No one could predict what might happen. “I don’t know. But what if the reversal meant you had the power to control her?”

“What do you mean?” Rory asked.

“What if going through with her proposal meant she would be forced to obey you, had no choice but to agree with you, and the bond compelled her to please you? You admitted your impulse to hit her. Do you trust yourself not to abuse that power the same way she did?” This whole plan sounded like a bad idea.

“I won’t hurt her,” Rory said.

“Why are you considering this?” Munro said. “Yes, we need her. We all accept that. Well, everyone but Aaron does. But your bond isn’t required to obtain her help.”

Rory kept silent for some time, but after a while he said, “I’ll never have what you and Eilidh do. I’ll never bond naturally. This may be my only chance to reach my potential, to live more than a natural human lifespan, to achieve the magical competency you take for granted.”

“Look,” Munro said. “You need to understand. Even my bond with Eilidh isn’t always wonderful. Having someone in your mind all the time is a pain. I sense her whims and disappointments. I accept that she has the power to end me with a simple thought. Our bond demands ultimate trust. Something deep drove us to make that commitment.”

“Are you saying you had no choice?”

“I probably had a choice in the beginning, but I didn’t understand what I was getting into. The pull was primal and nearly impossible to resist. For you and Flùr to bond again, I’m assuming she’d manipulate your magic like before to force the link.” He changed direction to lead them around a hill. Towering pine trees loomed overhead. A dense forest threatened to slow them even further.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Rory said.

“Do you think she’s manipulating you with her astral talent? She’s capable of it.”

“I don’t think so,” Rory said.

“But you aren’t certain.” Munro knew he couldn’t be positive. Humans weren’t capable of detecting fae magic, especially mental manipulations. “Huck told me what he overheard of your conversation with her.” Rory flushed, but Munro didn’t know the reaction came from anger or embarrassment. “I can’t tell if you’re trying to talk yourself
into
or
out of
bonding with her.”

“I’m not sure either,” Rory admitted. “I hate that we’re at their mercy. Sometimes I think we shouldn’t have left Caledonia. At least there, we had Eilidh’s protection.”

The same thing had crossed Munro’s mind. But the druids made the decision to leave because they needed to establish themselves and not be beholden to any one queen. They took a risk in doing so, but the Halls of Mist was sacred to the fae. No one would attack them there. “Staying with Eilidh might have been easier,” Munro said. “But we need the queens’ respect. Plus, living at the Halls of Mist, we are granted access to most kingdoms’ gates. That’ll be important as we search for druids. If the queens considered us part of Caledonia, there’s no way we’d get free rein.”

“I wish we had our own gate to the human realm, like a back door. If things did go south, at least we would have a way home.”

“The other day, I talked to Oszlár about the Source Stone. He asked if we were thinking about making our own.” Munro repeated the conversation and recalled his failure to discover anything of use.

“Maybe the thing to do is to make an Otherworld gate. They seem less complicated than the portal.”

Munro couldn’t think of a reason not to try. There were no gates directly from the Halls of Mist to the human realm, but he didn’t know why not. “When we cross through with Demi, we should look at the borderlands gate more closely.”

On the rest of the journey, their talk moved towards Demi and what her talents might add to the knowledge the druids had gained over the past year. Then they drifted into mundane chatter about their latest efforts to create new talismans. Both men shared their frustrations that their capabilities hadn’t grown faster. Their techniques had refined, but too much of their time had been spent getting set up, arranging for servants and supplies and the day-to-day running of the Hall. At least Munro and Rory didn’t have to see to the fae who came from all over, hoping to be compatible with the only unbonded druids, Aaron and Huck. Of the two, Huck put less into making himself available for that. Munro wasn’t quite sure what pull the human realm had on the American. He still returned repeatedly, as though looking for something. Did Huck even understand why he went back so often?

Over the next hill, Munro stopped abruptly. A large, beautiful faerie city spread out before him, a castle dominating the far side. Eilidh called him from inside like a beacon in his soul. No matter what difficulties they had, the communication problems or the cultural clashes, being close to her felt like coming home.

∞

Getting Lisle Hartmann to
Centraal Station
took longer than Huck would have liked. Although pretty spritely for her age, she couldn’t move like a druid who’d been breathing Otherworld air for six months. Even worse, she kept arguing that she should’ve stayed.

“I must go home in case they come back,” she said.

Huck urged her on and bought two tickets to Hook of Holland. They had to be on the next train if they wanted to catch the last ferry to Essex. “If they’re in the human realm, Flùr will find them and meet up with us,” he said in a low voice. “Nobody will be returning to that house for a while.” As an afterthought, he added, “I’m sorry.”

"Everything is your fault," she said. Her words rang clearly despite her thick German accent. “You led Ulrich to us.”

Huck led her down to the right platform, and they waited for the train. The whine of electric train engines as they whizzed by in the darkness combined with the rumble of them moving over steel tracks. Had he led the prince right to Demi’s front door? Had Ulrich or one of his men followed him over the German border into the Netherlands? He didn’t know for certain, but he had difficulty imagining that was the case. Surely he would have had an inkling someone was following him. Besides, there was that strange figure outside Demi’s house that first night. Whoever it was, they’d been there before him. Still, if he’d moved more quickly, he should have gotten to Demi before Ulrich had the chance.

“How did he get in?” Huck asked. “I thought your wards would keep him away. Flùr couldn’t get past them.”

“Again! Your fault!” she spat.

Huck looked at her. He couldn’t deny it, even if he hoped her accusation wasn’t true. A train came to rest in front of them. They stood aside as passengers streamed out of an open door. At the first opportunity, he led her inside, guiding her gently by the elbow. “I wasn’t even there,” he said as they made their way to a four-person section with two seats facing each other, separated by a table.

The old lady parked herself by the window, clutching her knapsack to her chest. Huck took the aisle seat facing her and chucked Demi and Jago’s packs down next to him. He watched Mrs Hartmann closely. She was like iron, sitting rigidly, glaring towards the platform. When the train began to pull away from the station, she looked at him. “She moved the ward for you, to let your faerie in.”

Dread and guilt filled Huck’s stomach. Demi must have forgotten to put the stone near the door again. Such a small thing would’ve been easy to overlook, he supposed. With everything going on, the upcoming move. Especially if she couldn’t detect the wards magically. She probably took their presence for granted. But still, Mrs Hartmann was right. Everything was his fault. If he’d stayed away, Demi would be safe.

No words of apology came, although remorse washed over him. What could he say to make any of it all right? “We’ll get them back.”

She resumed staring out the window, her expression hard and tinged with grief. Clearly, she didn’t believe a word he said.

The rest of the journey passed as though they were strangers who happened to share the same destination, which, he supposed, was the case. In many ways, her willingness to travel with him in the first place surprised him. Maybe she did have some hope he’d find Demi.

After a tedious couple of train changes, they finally arrived at
Hoek van Holland
railway station. Huck looked at his watch. They had cut the timing close. Fortunately the train station was next to the ferry terminal, so they hurried over to book their passage. He bought tickets for five, reserving a family cabin for Lisle, Demi, and Jago and a standard, two-person cabin for himself and Flùranach. He handed Demi’s and Jago’s tickets to Lisle. She accepted them in silence.

They waited as long as possible to board the ferry. He was worried she might refuse to board without Demi and Jago, but she followed without protest. Her gaze, however, never left the entrance. When the doors shut and the boat pulled away, her face fell as hope crumbled within.

Huck wanted to tell her not to give up, but the reassurance sounded stupid, even in his head. His hopes now rested on… “Flùranach,” he said aloud, catching a glimpse of her familiar red hair. Her fae traits had been disguised, but he recognised her easily.

She wove towards them through a group of standing passengers. His gut clenched when he realised she’d come alone.

“I tracked them to the German gates,” she said when she got close enough. “I would have pursued them, but the Ashkyne Watchers would not allow me through, even with my keepers’ token.” She stole a glance at Lisle. “Forgive me, elder,” she said. “I did not think I should fight them. They were many more than usual. They claimed Prince Ulrich had been killed and told me the gates were closed to all.”

“You did all you could.” Huck said.

“I’m sorry,” Flùranach said to Lisle, but the old lady sat in stony silence, staring at nothing as though a light had extinguished within.

The expression on Flùranach’s face changed as she considered the old woman. “You are a druid,” she said.

Still, Lisle didn’t respond.

Flùranach looked at Huck with surprise. He hadn’t realised, either, and Demi hadn’t told him. At least this explained why Lisle had been so accepting of Demi’s story about Ulrich. What Huck didn’t know was if the woman’s powers were unlocked. If the old woman’s abilities had never initiated, they would after contact with Flùranach. Assuming, of course, she ever roused from her grief-stricken trance.

Huck’s thoughts turned to Demi as they journeyed across the North Sea. Where was she? Why had Ulrich’s men grabbed her, and what would they do with her and Jago? He assumed they’d be taken to Konstanze. He couldn’t be sure how Konstanze would deal with them. Jago was her family, after all. He’d never heard of a half-human faerie before, so he didn’t know how the boy would be regarded. Either way, they had a tricky path ahead. None of the possible outcomes passing through his mind struck him as good.