Dark Isle (Celtic Legacy Book 2) (11 page)

“No! Has she been bitten?
We cannot let her die, Aednat needs her!
”
Then she
cursed, and I would have giggled if I hadn’t been in so much pain.
“
W
e must stop it or she will go to the other side
.
It’s too dangerous
,
”
Aednat said, her voice seeming very far away though she stood right in front of me.

She crouched next to me
, but
I couldn’t see what she was doing and
there was someone tugging on my arm.

I turned and the pain in my shoulder was gone. A woman stood where Cora’s body had lain.
Brilliant red hair and deep, soulful eyes were set in a strong, yet very feminine face. She was clothed in a long blue dress that almost looked as if it were layered with scales.

“Hello, Quinn.” Her voice was Cora’s, but how?
Then again, what did it matter except that she was here with me.

I threw my arms around her. “I knew you couldn’t be gone, not really.”

“You are dying, Quinn. But it is not yet your time
,
”
s
he
said, her hands smoothing down over my hair
,
and then cupping my face. “It is not yet your time. You must fight to live.”

What was she talking about? I wasn’t dying, I was standing right there, with her. She turned my head with her hands
,
and I
saw
my body
.
Luke
was holding
me tight, his blue eyes swamped with fear
; b
lood trickled from my shoulder and a
streak
of
black sludge dripped from my mouth.

Aednat crouched beside
my body, her mouth
against my wound
.
Luke kept shaking his head
;
he seemed disgusted. After a moment he let me go and
grabbed
Aednat
by the throat and pulled her
away. She spat black liquid, and I realized she was trying to draw the poison.

“
Let her go
!” I said. But they ignored me, as if I wasn’t there.

Cora turned me away from them. “They cannot hear you. And soon I will leave you
too
.
T
he voices of your ancestors will come for you. But you must fight them, Quinn. You are our only hope against the evil in this world
.” She kissed me lightly on the forehead.

“Please Cora, I still need you
,
”
I said, my voice cracking with emotion. “Don’t you un
derstand, you were more to me than jus
t a friend.”

She shushed me. “You have strength in you yet that is untapped. Trust your heart, Quinn.”

A sharp wind blew between us and she was gone.

I only had a moment to wonder what would happen.
Between one blink and the next I no longer
stood
in the forest, but on a wide plain, the ground trampled flat by a multitude of feet and hooves. A scent of cook fires and bu
r
nt meat reached me along with the distant clang of metal
.

We are your past, Quinn. Will you
come
with
us?
A chorus of voices asked suddenly
.
I sensed a deep and abiding love within them, for me. The kind of love I’d
always wanted from my mother. A
pleasant
ache began in the middle of my chest and spread outwards to my limbs.
You will be safe here, with us.
I felt as though s
omeone
had
told me I should
stay,
but who and why escaped me.
A warm light enveloped me, stealing away the resistance I had to staying. Here there was no pain, no anger, no heartache. Already
the
life that I’d lived up until that moment began to unravel, all the hurts and regrets disappearing. I stumbled towards the warmth, hands outstretched. “I don’t want to hurt anymore
,”
I whispered.

You won’t
, not
anymore child. Come with us.

One by one I watched my most recent memories be pulled away from me. Bres, Luke and Cora and all that I’d experienced to bring me to this point.

Then
, just the bare
flicker of a memory
showed me
Ashling
,
clinging to me as a nightmare devoured her night’s sleep. “Tell me you won’t leave me
,
”
s
he
whispered.
Green eyes spilled over with tears as her fingers dug into my arms. Little sobs hiccupped out of her as I soothed the night terror away.

As if I’d been doused with ice water, my feet stopped and I shook my head.
“No, I can’t
stay with
you.”
I
told the voices.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t. I can’t leave her.”

You would follow your destiny? It will mean your death in the end. A far worse death than the one you
’re
fac
ing right
now.

Taking a long slow breath, I let it out and lifted my chin. “
I don’t know if they truly need me or not, but I am going to fight for them.”

Them?

“The ones who love me.”
A
myriad of chuckles whirled around me.

You must stay while your body fights to live. Then, perhaps you will not have a choice. The poison is strong
;
it may be that you will stay with us no matter your desire.
But let us show you some of the past.
If you survive
, you
will
need to know
this
.

I nodded and the
world shifted slightly.

My eyes took in the
new
scene below
me
. A battle
raged
and from my vantage on a hill overlooking the carnage I could see that it was going to be a close draw. The numbers were fairly even, and the lines didn’t move much.
Across
from me, the ocean roared over massive rocks, the waves slamming into the backs of the people
fighting there
.

“What is this?”

The
last major
battle between the Tuatha and the Fomorii.

Squinting, I lifted my hand to shade my eyes. “I can’t see what’s happening.” That was a mistake.

My body was shoved forward
and
I was
instantaneously
in the middle of the carnage. Battle cries and the crash of swords overwhelmed me
;
I ducked and dodged, doing my best to avoid getting hit.

You cannot be hurt.

“I’m not taking any chances!” I yelled, running towards an overturned wagon. Hand over hand I pulled myself up on the partially busted side. With great care I stood on the top of the wagon and stared out around me.
But I didn’t understand what I was seeing
.

Tuatha
were fighting Tuatha. There were no
one-
eye
d
,
one-
legged
Fomorii in the fray.
As if reading my mind, the voices answered my unspoken confusion.

Just wait, you will see what happens.

A large number of men suddenly swelled in from the hills above us, driving the now smaller army back to the water
’
s edge. At the front of
the retreating, smaller, army stood a
figure I knew well.

Balor
’s
violet eyes
were
full of the fire of
battle
.
He
even gave a small smile
, as
he
traded blows with a larger opponent
.

A man from
the larger
army stepped forward
;
I wondered how I’d missed him before.
All I could see of him from behind was his s
hining white braid and a sword that glowed in his hands.

Leaping down, I ran to the edge of the sand where I could see both him and Balor.
The glowing Tuatha engaged Balor and they fought for a few moments. I was mesmerized by the sword
;
it seemed that Balor was too. He faltered
,
and the glowing Tuatha knocked his sword aside
.
Balor lifted his hand.
“Well, Nuadha, you have us at your mercy. What will you do?” Balor
asked
. He
picked up his sword and
leaned on
it
,
as he smiled at Nuadha.

Nuadha lifted his sword and a hush fell over the huge crowd. “
As punishment for your attempt on the life of our oracle, I curse you
,
and your Fomorii,
Balor
.”

The warriors standing with Balor
began to writhe
as he
watched
in
open
-
mouthed horror
. Their bodies contorted and twisted
, and I realized I hadn’t been watching
Tuatha fight Tuatha. In no time at all,
the Fomorii
had transformed into the monsters I knew, b
linking single bulbous eyes and leaning heavily on their over long arms.

“Let all know you
for the
monsters
you are; for the battle hungry, death seekers that you have taught your people to be
,
”
Nuadha said.
He lifted his sword. “Balor, you and yours will be spared the curse, and thus be the reminder to your people of how you once were, and by whose hand they fell from grace.”

The world stilled for a breath and then Balor rushed Nuadha with a war cry. Nuadha lifted his shining sword to meet
his opponent.

There is a
nother place we must take you
,
t
he
voices said and everything started to go fuzzy.

“Wait! I want to see!” But we had already left.

Sand
shifted
under my toes, hot sand that had baked in the sun for too long. I hop
p
ed on one foot and then the other. A flash of creamy white
to the left of me
caught my eyes.

Lir stood in the waves
wearing
a
cream
-
coloured shirt that
gave glimpses  of
a
his
chest covered in white scars;
a small eddy
of water
swirl
ed
around him
. I
n this full light his face looked even more like my own. I ran into the water, never taking my eyes from him. Even if he couldn’t hear me, or see me, I wanted to be close to him. A geyser of water shot into the sky
off to the side of us
.
T
hen
Balor
,
his arms folded over his chest
,
stood across from
Lir
,

“What do you want
,
Lir?” Balor growled. “You already made it quite clear you weren’t interested in helping me.”

My father nodded. “That holds true, but I would offer you another alternative. One I think might be of interest to you. You know of the prophecy?”

Balor nodded. “Of course. Evils of the land wiped away
,
and all that
ridiculousness of a
C
hosen one
.”
His sarcasm was not lost on me or Lir.

“You know that the Tuatha are now changing it?”Lir asked, his blue and gold eyes reflected in the water around him.

Balor’s mouth dropped. “What? How can that be? The prophecy was for both Tuatha and Fomorii!”

“Of course. But things change and people rise to power
who
should not.
That a
child of the serpent will rule, they
won’t
deny.
It
is too important to them.
But the other aspects…
”