The Forest of Aisling: Dream of the Shapeshifter (The Willow Series Book 1) (21 page)

“Aaron, you’ve done so much.  It’s because of
you we’re able to figure this thing out.  We’d be totally in the
dark.  Even though I never met my grandmother, I’m sure she wouldn’t want
you blaming yourself for any of this.”  I reached my hand out and pressed
it to his shoulder.

When he looked up at me, I could see through his
glasses, his hazel eyes, clear and focused.  “Thank you Willow, that’s
kind of you to say.”  He turned his head and stood up.  “You remind
me of her.  I see a lot of Shannah in you.”  He smiled and held my
hand, gripping it tightly, then looked to Bram with renewed purpose. “All
right, we need to find the water pendant.  Let’s think where she may have
put it.”

“I’ve been to Grandma’s house twice and didn’t see
anything like the pendant Bram has.  Of course I was only there for a
short time.  Maybe I can get Dad to take me back so I can search around,”
I offered.

Aaron pondered my suggestion. “It’s possible she
hid it somewhere in the house, but knowing Shannah, I think she may have felt
that was too predictable and easily discovered.”

“Right, but if the mist was beginning to take
effect, she may have had no other choice.  She might have been too ill to
put it anywhere else,” Bram added, joining his father.

Father and son debated back and forth, considering
any and every possibility for a hiding place, while I sat back on the step
thinking about Shannah.  Her face flashed across my mind – the youthful
face from the pictures Grandpa had shown me – and I tried to put myself in her
shoes…to contemplate what I would do with something as powerful as the pendant.

My focus then moved to my shoes as I began
clicking my heels, thinking of Dorothy Gale and “no place like home
.
” I
ran the scenario over in my head…almost too sick to move, the need to hide a
powerful, but small object, responsibility…responsibility…responsibility.

 “I have an idea.” I jumped up and stood in
front of Bram, ensuring that he could see my face. “I was just sitting here
thinking
, what would I do in this situation?
 And if I am like my
grandmother – like you say I am, Aaron, then, if I couldn’t hide it in my
home…I’d never let it out of my sight,” I said, feeling sure that Shannah was
somehow giving me a hint as to where the pendant might be.

“Meaning what?” Bram questioned.

Aaron was smiling which led me to believe he knew
what I was thinking.

“Meaning, I wouldn’t let go of it.  The
pendant has to still be with her.”  I felt excited and convinced I was
right, almost as though Grandma had whispered it in my ear.

Bram’s face tightened into a puzzled expression of
doubt.  “I don’t know, Willow, you may be reaching there.  I mean,
the people at the funeral home would have found the pendant on her and removed
it before they buried her.”

“Not if she wanted to be buried with it. 
Maybe she told Conor or someone, or maybe she left a note saying she wanted to
be buried with it, I don’t know.  As resourceful as you say my grandmother
was, I got to believe that she would make sure that the pendant was safe…even
if it meant going to the grave with her.”

I searched Bram’s face for understanding and saw
only uncertainty.  He just wasn’t buying it.

“Willow, it doesn’t make sense.  Why would
she do that?  That would leave us doing exactly what we’re doing now,
which is trying to figure out where the pendant is.  By taking it to the
grave with her, that’s as much as setting the Fomorians up for victory.” 
Bram’s eyes were wide and intense, desperately trying to point out fault in my
assumption.

“Aaron, when exactly did Lucy turn her pendant
over to Grandma?”  I asked.

Aaron raised his head in thought then lowered his
glasses, looking at his son. “I believe it was just before she got sick. 
Go ahead, Willow, tell us more,” he said calmly, signing at Bram and nodding.

“Bram, I don’t think that she expected to die but
everything happened so quickly she had to act fast, right?”

He bowed his head in agreement. “Right.”

“Well, think about it…she’s ill, probably barely
able to move.  She has the pendant.  She knows the Fomorians are
rising.  She doesn’t know if she’ll recover, and in case she doesn’t, she
needs to hide the pendant.  What does she do?” 

“Why wouldn’t she arrange for Da to get it?”

“I’m thinking everything went down very
quickly.  Kelleigh said they saw her a couple days before she died and
that she was fine.   All I know is that I felt horrible after the
encounters I’ve had with the mist and I’m sixteen years old.  How must she
have felt at seventy-five?” A sharp pang rose up in my stomach as I thought about
what Grandma might have had to endure.

“As well as how many attacks may have been
launched at her,” Aaron added.  “Along with the fact she was still acting
as the earth guardian.  It appears that she may have assumed the role of
both guardians, something unheard of as far as I can tell in my research. 
The burden that was placed on her body and mind…”  Aaron stepped over to
me and gently draped his arm over my shoulder.

“I guess she just didn’t have time.  I mean,
she got my pendant to Aaron; maybe she hoped Lucy would reconsider and
return.   Who knows?  But something tells me that despite it all
–or maybe because of it all – she made sure the pendant would go with
her.  Am I wrong or did you say, Aaron, that if the Fomorians get all
three pieces of the pendant then the end, really is inevitable?”  I
blurted out, practically choking on my own words.

Aaron looked at me with a glassy expression and
shook his head.  “I never told you that, Willow, or you, Bram,” he signed
to his son, “but that’s exactly right.  The pendant is the key to the
return of Balor’s Eye; not just a piece of the pendant but the pendant in its
entirety.  Once each part of the Triquetra is in its rightful place, its
power transfers to the holder.  I never told this to either one of you.” 
A surprised look covered Aaron’s face.  “How did you know?”

How did I know?  I wasn’t able to answer that
question.

“Does it even matter, Da?” Bram interjected.” It’s
kind of obvious that’s what may happen, right?”

Aaron agreed, but I could tell by his expression
he wasn’t going to let go of the fact that I somehow had knowledge that should
be unknown to anyone but himself.  I wondered how I knew this, but
couldn’t give it too much thought, with everything else we were trying to deal
with. 

“Back to the pendant.  Willow, did you bring
the box from the park?”  Bram asked.

I remembered my backpack and pulled it out of the
car. I unzipped the top pocket and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the box
safely tucked inside.  I took hold of it and walked over to Bram, holding
it out to Aaron.  He carefully opened the box and removed the key. 

“Wait here,” he said as he headed towards the
house.  After several minutes he returned.  He stood in front of me,
taking hold of my hand then placed the earth pendant in my palm. 

I stared down at the piece of jewelry.  Varying
images flashed through my mind with one in particular freezing me in
place.  Grandmother.  I thought of her wearing this very necklace for
all those years, and of all the family members who wore it before her.  A
lump of emotion formed in my throat, threatening to spill out and render me a
complete basket case.  I choked it back and blinked my eyes, refusing to
give in to the tears.  Not here, not now, later, when I could allow the
emotion to wash over me privately.  I raised it over my head and let it
hang around my neck.  I held onto the pendant, raised it to my lips, and
kissed it, then tucked it under my shirt. 

Aaron gripped my shoulders. “Your grandmother
would be very proud.”

Bram wrapped his arms around me and kissed my
cheek.  “She sure would,” he agreed.

We all stood quietly for a few minutes, then
continued our conversation, wondering where the water pendant might be. I felt
convinced that Grandma still had it. I flipped my phone back and forth between
my hands, my mind racing for solutions, when a single thought seemed to answer
the question.

“Lord, it’s all making sense,” I said as I
absent-mindedly scrolled through the last few text messages on my phone.

 “What?” asked Bram and Aaron at the same
time.

“You know they’ve exhumed Grandma because of the
questions surrounding her death.”

Both O’Neill’s nodded simultaneously.

“And now they’re bringing in a forensic
pathologist to explain why there’s no decomposition of her body…” My voice grew
tight as I began to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

“Oook…,” urged Bram, looking at me as if I’d gone
a little crazy. “Go on.”

“Think about it!” I raised my hands, wishing I
knew how to sign, grateful that Aaron was there to interpret.  “Shannah
isn’t decomposing because she has the pendant!  It makes sense,
right?  The pendant is protecting her body even though she’s dead. 
Is that possible, Aaron?”

Aaron took a deep breath and walked over to the
car.  He flicked a random leaf from the shining black hood of the BMW
before finally looking back at Bram and me.

“By God, Willow, I think that’s it.  It makes
perfect sense.  The pendant is still protecting Shannah in the only way it
can…to prevent her body from decaying or at least by slowing it
down.   I can’t believe that didn’t occur to me!” Aaron said, tapping
himself on the side of his head before signing to Bram.

“If the pendant is doing that, then why wasn’t it
able to protect her while she was still alive? This is something I hadn’t
considered, Da – does this thing protect us?”  Bram stepped between Aaron
and me and pulled the pendant out from under his shirt.

Aaron reached over and rested his hand on Bram’s
shoulder, considering the question, then began signing to him.

“Obviously it can’t protect you from the powers of
the mist; we know that from what happened to your grandfather. Protect isn’t
the right word.  What it must do is keep the abilities alive in the
guardian who is still in possession of the pendant.  Perhaps just by doing
that, it’s somehow slowing down the whole degenerative process.  Nothing
in the ancient records has been written about this so I can’t be sure.”

“Maybe nothing like this had ever happened before,
or at least it wasn’t recorded. We’re basically writing the book now, eh, Da?”
Bram said, tucking the pendant back into his shirt.

Aaron smiled and patted his son on the back. 
The two were so similar, not just in appearance but in mannerisms and even the
tone of their voices.  It occurred to me… the importance of family and why
Lucy may have felt way too lonely to take on the enormous task before
her.  Even though Shannah and Bram and Aaron were there, being the last
surviving member of your family would take its toll.

Bram stepped over and laced his fingers through
mine.  “So, how do we go about retrieving the pendant then?” He tightened
his grip as he posed the question.

“There’s only one way; I have to go in and see
Grandma at the morgue,” I stared at Bram with determination in spite of the
inner trembling I felt.

Bram and Aaron exchanged nervous glances before
looking at me.

“Are you quite sure you’re up for that Willow?”
Aaron wondered aloud.

“There’s no other way.  The hard part will be
convincing my Dad to let me go see her.”

“Plus, will the garda allow it?” Bram added.

“Only one way to find out.  We need to hurry
before the pathologist gets there. Once he’s there then I’m sure I won’t be allowed
to see her. I need to get back to the hotel and try and talk Dad into letting
this happen.”  I tucked my phone into my pocket and headed towards the
car.

Aaron opened the door and put his arm around my
shoulder.  “I’ll wait here, Willow, unless you’d like me to come.” 
Looking into his eyes I could see firsthand how Bram came to be so
understanding and compassionate.  He had a great role model.

“Thank you, Aaron. I’ll have Dad with me. 
I’ll just wing it from there,” I replied, pulling the car door shut.

“All right then.” He smiled and patted the back of
my hand.

Bram jumped in and started the engine, then signed
something to his father.  I was curious what he said but decided against
asking.  He looked at me, grabbed my other hand, kissed it, then slowly
backed out onto the road.

“Can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” said
Dad, second-guessing his decision to allow me to see Grandma.

We walked slowly through the swinging doors of the
historic Killarney government building.  The attendant at the front desk
motioned for us to step up to where he sat.  Dad explained to him that we
were there to meet with Sergeant Taylor.  He pointed us in the direction
of the sergeant’s office.

Before we entered the office I pulled Dad back and
leaned in to his shoulder. “Thanks, Dad, this means so much to me.” He offered
a quick hug, then opened the door. 

After introductions Taylor led us down a series of
hallways and to an elevator.  It said
Service elevator, closed to the
public
.  We entered the small chamber and watched as Taylor pressed
the button to the basement level.  He looked Dad and me over grimly
without saying a word.  Dad met his stare and smiled.

Once we were in the basement, Taylor escorted us
to a set of green doors at the end of the hall.  Over the doorway, the
word MORGUE stood out in intimidating letters. I felt myself gasp slightly,
which caused Dad to tighten his grip on my hand.

“You’ve got exactly thirty minutes. 
You’ll find Mrs. Whelan through
there; first door to your left.  My sympathies, sir, miss,” mumbled the
sergeant, which came as a complete surprise considering the way he looked at us
on the elevator ride.   He shook hands with Dad, gave me a slight
nod, and left us there at the entrance to the morgue.

Dad grasped my hand firmly. “You’re sure about
this, Willow?” he asked again, about the tenth time since agreeing to my
request.

“Yes, like I said, I never got to meet her, and
considering the situation we’re in right now, this is the closest I’ll ever be
to her.  You said yourself that it was like she was sleeping, she looked
so peaceful. Give me this chance for closure with my grandmother.”  I
returned his grasp with one of my own, hoping to impart to him how important
this was – in more ways than he even realized.

I wondered if I should confide in him, tell him
the whole story then and there.  I knew it wasn’t the time, it certainly
wasn’t the place, and I would tell him, just not right then.  I had to
stay focused on the task at hand, which was retrieving the water pendant.

He slowly pushed open the door which led into
another hallway with four other doors, all closed.  Grasping my hand, he
walked to the first door on the left and turned the knob.  Before he
opened the door he looked back at me and swallowed hard.

I stepped into the cold, dank room.  Directly
in front of us was a large metal table.  I focused my attention away from
the table, and who was on it, to the cabinet-type doors lining the back of the
wall, six of them.  I couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else was in those
cabinets.  Lord knows I’d seen my share of horror movies with zombies and
such resurrecting from the morgue, but this room lacked that scary-movie
atmosphere and had a sterile, depressing feel to it.

I felt somewhat nauseous and lightheaded from the
smell of what I could only assume were chemicals used to treat cadavers. 
I also felt depressed thinking about all the lifeless bodies that found their
way to this green, steel-furnished room before they were finally returned to the
earth.  Death hadn’t played much part in my life at all up until
then.  My mom’s parents died when I was little.  I could barely
remember them.  And when Dad’s friend Tony died last year, even though I
went to the funeral with my parents, it didn’t really affect me.

Mom had a way of approaching death that, looking
at it now, I could fully appreciate.  Whenever one of our pets died she
would have us do a small ceremony in which she spoke about its spirit returning
to Mother Earth.  She taught me that death was as natural as breathing and
not to be feared.  Standing there in a room that literally reeked of
death, I wished I had the same approach to mortality.

“You ok, Wil?” The sound of Dad’s voice brought me
back and reminded me of what I had to do.

I nodded and stepped near where my grandmother
lay.  A crisp white sheet lay over her body up to her shoulders.  The
floral-patterned hospital gown covering her contrasted with the atmosphere of
the room.  It was pretty, cheerful.  The room was anything but. 

I made my way to the side of the table in order to
look at Grandma’s face.  I froze and felt as though I was captured in some
kind of dream.  To finally look into the face of the woman who had been so
much a part of my world this past week, and would be from now on, was almost
too much.  I felt light-headed and grabbed the side of the cold steel
table to brace myself.  Seeing my unsteadiness, Dad stood behind me and
took hold of my shoulders.

“You don’t have to do this, Wil,” he whispered
into my ear.  Part of me wanted to look up at him and say ok and turn and
run out.  Just like I did my first day of pre-school when I stood crying
at the door.  He wrapped me up in his arms and told me I could wait and
start school the next day. Only there was no putting this off until the next
day.

“I’m ok, Dad, just wasn’t prepared for her being
so… so real.” 

I
looked into the face of Shannah Whelan, my grandmother, my father’s mother, the
woman who held back a force of evil so powerful that, as a rule, would take
three people blessed with powers handed down by the Celtic god of light, Lugh
himself.  And here she did it pretty much alone, with Bram trying to
accept and master his own fate and Lucy taking leave of hers.

Dad was right; she did look peaceful.  Along
with that she literally had a kind of glow.  There was something almost
iridescent about her skin, an aura to it, beginning at the surface and rising
into the air an inch or so.   Looking her over, I became aware of a
feeling of calm within my own body.  I looked back at Dad, wondering if he
was feeling the same sensation. 

“Are
you
ok, Dad?” I asked, looking into
his eyes, seeing such sadness there.  I realized that the sense of calm
eluded him.

“Sure,” he answered, still holding onto my
shoulders.  “Just have so many regrets.  I guess I always thought I
had time to make things up to her.  It broke her heart when I left but I
just couldn’t stay anymore.”

I spun around and wrapped my arms around my
father’s waist and held on tightly.  The steady, rhythmic beating of his heart
echoed in my ear.  His pain was almost palpable and I wished I could take
some of it away.

We stood there for minutes, just holding each
other in the presence of the woman who not only brought us into this world but
kept it safe for us to live in.  I finally looked back to her lying on the
table and realized I needed to find the pendant… fast.  Time was running
out.

I asked Dad if he could please give me some time
alone with Shannah to which he immediately replied, “No, not a good
idea.”  But after a few minutes of reassuring him that I was ok and that
this was something I felt I absolutely needed to do, he finally agreed.

He stepped cautiously to the door and looked at
his watch.  “You’ve got five minutes, Willow; I’ll be right outside the
door.”

I nodded and felt a twinge run through my
body.  It wasn’t that I was afraid; being near Grandma and her aura filled
me with a sense of calm.  It was the thought of it all, the whole morgue
thing, my grandmother lying here in front of me, dead for days now and still in
the same physical condition as the day she passed away.  It reminded me of
Sleeping Beauty.  And when I looked once more at Shannah’s face, I thought
that’s exactly what she was…a Sleeping Beauty.

Her graying hair was pulled back and part of it draped
over her shoulder.  Wispy curls covered her forehead with her former
auburn color peeking through in random spots.  Her skin was like alabaster
and, considering her seventy-five years, fairly wrinkle free.  She had a
rose tint to her cheeks and lips and her dark eyelashes softly brushed her high
cheek bones.  She truly did appear to be sleeping.

I reached out and gently touched her left hand,
almost fearful that I would wake her.  Her skin was cool –not cold and
very soft.  It felt as though she could reach out and take my hand at any
moment.  There was nothing creepy or frightening about her, only sadness
that I hadn’t had a chance to know her and that she had to endure the
terrifying force of the Fomorians alone.

I shifted my focus from her face to the sheet
lying on top of her and gingerly grabbed the corner of it, pulling it down to
expose her petite, hospital gown-clad body.  She was barely five feet
tall, if even that, and very small framed.  I shook my head envisioning
this tiny woman taking on the horrendous thing in the mist that I’d seen
earlier. 

I scanned her body, beginning with the obvious
areas where she might have been wearing the pendant, both wrists and
ankles…nothing. Taking a deep breath, I ran my fingers under the neck of her
hospital gown, hoping to find it there.  I came upon the metallic feel of
a serpentine chain that lay against her pale skin.  I ushered the chain
out from under the gown and was disappointed to find only a simple locket at
the end of it.  I flipped it open to see two pictures. On one side was a
picture of Shannah and Conor on their wedding day.  The other side held
the same family portrait I’d seen at Grandpa’s house, only this picture was
complete, unlike the one at Grandpa’s with the torn corner.  The little hand
resting on Grandpa Conor’s was that of another small boy.  He looked like
Dad; the similarities were unmistakable.  It could only mean one thing…Dad had
a brother. I stared at the picture, wondering what had happened to the other
little boy and why the big secret. I flipped the locket closed, knowing now was
not the time to try and discover what that secret was.

My heart began pounding as I grew anxious, unable
to find the pendant.  Had I been wrong in thinking Grandma had it with
her?  It had all seemed so logical at the time, but now staring down at
her, I felt like an idiot.  Of course someone from the funeral home would
have removed it, or else it would be on her.  How would I ask them about
it? Could Grandpa have it?  My mind was racing and panic began to overtake
me.  What were we going to do if we couldn’t find the pendant?

The door to the room opened and Dad stepped in
“Time to go, Wil. They need to get her ready for the pathologist.”  He
stepped over to the table, took his mother’s hand in his, and, bending down,
kissed it lightly.  He then leaned over to her left ear and began
whispering softly.  When he finished he kissed her once again on the
forehead, then stepped to the open doorway.

I bent over and rested my cheek against my
grandmothers and silently begged her to help me figure out the pendant’s
location.  I closed my eyes, praying for an answer.  When I opened
them, they were immediately drawn to the back of Grandma’s neck and something
silver resting there.  As I straightened up I brushed her hair aside and
saw the tip of the pendant poking out from the neck of the hospital gown. 
I lifted it and found it attached to the clasp on the back of her necklace.

“Let’s go, Willow,” Dad said, still standing at
the doorway, his back to me.

I tried to undo the clasp and retrieve the pendant
but it wasn’t cooperating.  Short of pulling it straight up and off
Grandma, there was no way to get it.  If Dad saw me doing that he’d think
I was completely insane.

“Dad, please just give me one more minute.” I turned
back to look at him and brushed a tear from my cheek, a tear I hadn’t even
realized was there.

He turned and stared at me for a second, then
stepped out and closed the door without a word.

I looked down at my grandma. “Thank you,” I
whispered, and then pulled the chain forward and around until I could undo the
clasp, releasing the water pendant.  I returned the necklace to its place
resting under the hospital gown and pulled up the sheet just as it had been
before.  I leaned down once again and kissed my grandmother’s cheek. “I
love you Grandma.”

As I turned the doorknob to leave the room I
looked back at my grandmother for the last time, and what I saw took my breath
away.  The aura that had been so pronounced on her was rising from her
body like a sheer transparent cloud.  It hovered there a split second,
then completely disappeared.  I stepped back over and saw that the
radiance that had encompassed her before was now gone.  She no longer
appeared to be sleeping; she now had the appearance of someone who had passed
away.  Our assumption that the pendant was somehow preserving her,
protecting her, was true. 

“Good-bye Grandma,” I said aloud and felt a sense
of peace at her finally being able to rest.

Clutching the water pendant in my hand, I knew I
needed to get to Bram and Aaron as soon as possible.  Dad had planned to
meet Eagan and spend some time with Grandpa at the hospital, and suggested I
join them.  I wanted to see Grandpa, but time was of the essence.  I
was racking my brain for an excuse when Dad turned on the radio.

There was a news broadcast warning residents of
Killarney of a powerful thunderstorm making its way into the area.  The
situation was serious; the newscaster was advising all residents to seek
shelter, that hurricane force winds were expected.  Local meteorologists
were having a difficult time explaining the odd weather phenomena that had
literally “come out of nowhere.”  Over the course of less than forty-eight
hours two lakes in Northern Ireland had practically dried up, leaving fisherman
and marine biologists scrambling, trying to rescue the aquatic life – and here
in Killarney torrential rains were creating flash floods in town and
surrounding areas.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Dad said
as he adjusted the radio tuner. “Two extreme weather disturbances just miles
apart…bizarre.”