Through the Door (18 page)

“Riona
is
my real name,” Riona said from the front seat. “And Rohan’s isn’t too far off. It’s Ruadhan. He really has less gray, though,” she said with a smile, reaching over to ruffle the hair at the nape of his neck.

“Right, you don’t really look this way either,” Cedar said.

“I do,” Finn said. “One of the perks of actually being young is that it’s okay to look that way. But you’re right about the rest of them, for the most part.” He grinned. “Felix got his old fisherman look off a postcard he saw in a gift store. In reality, he’s…well, let’s just say I hope you don’t ever have the pleasure of seeing him in his true form. He makes the rest of us look like trolls.”

“Yes, well, he does have a flair for the dramatic,” Riona said. “Most of us just appear to be an older version of ourselves. Felix is the only one to completely reinvent his appearance.”

“And what’s his real name?” Cedar asked.

“Toirdhealbhach,” Finn answered. “It’s a bit of a mouthful.”

“No kidding,” Cedar said. “So, when we find this painting, how are we going to destroy it? Is it just like a normal painting?” Cedar was quite sure that nothing she encountered on this trip was going to be “normal.”

“We’re not going to destroy it,” Rohan said from the front, his first words since they had started driving.

“What are you talking about?” Cedar asked. “We
have
to destroy it before Eden sees it!”

She looked at Finn to back her up. He remained silent.

“What?” she demanded.

“We can’t destroy it,” he said. “We need it. Right now Eden is our only hope of ever getting back to Tír na nÓg.
She’s the only one who can create the sidh, and she’ll need to see that painting.”

“Are you insane? Eden has been kidnapped by one of
your
people, who’s trying to use her to return to some all-powerful psychopathic mass murderer in your world. The painting is the only way she can get there. If we destroy it, Nuala won’t be able to use Eden. She’ll let her go!”

“We don’t know that,” Rohan said. “Like you said, for all we know, this is the only route to Tír na nÓg in existence. We cannot risk destroying it—not if we ever want to go back.”

“We can make another one! Brighid commissioned that painting; can’t you just do the same after we have Eden back?”

“It’s Brighid’s power that makes the painting so close to reality,” Rohan said, his passionless voice contrasting with Cedar’s. “We have no guarantee that she would help us create another one.”

“You haven’t even asked her!” She saw Rohan glance at Finn in the rearview mirror. “What was that, your ‘Hey, Finn, keep your dog on a leash’ look?” she snarled. “I know there’s some sort of bigger battle-of-the-gods thing happening here. I get it. I know you don’t care what I think, but I
need
to get my daughter back. I need to keep her safe, and she’s not going to be safe with that picture floating around, no matter who has it. I’ll destroy it myself if I have to.”

None of them answered her, and it felt pointless to continue tirading against the silence. She bunched her jacket up against the window and shoved her face into it, too upset to sleep but too tired to think straight. She closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to see Eden again, how tightly she would hold her.
I found your father, Eden,
she thought.
But now I can’t find you. Must I always be without one of you?

She awoke to the sound of tense voices. The car was stopped on the side of the road, and Finn and his parents were standing outside, talking with Murdoch and Felix.

“It might just be a local,” Riona was saying, “or a traveler who ran out of gas.”

“Not bloody likely,” Felix growled. “We need to be prepared for the worst.”

Cedar got out of the car and walked over to them. “What’s going on?” she asked.

Finn answered. “We’re here—close to where Deardra lives. But it looks like we’re not alone.” He nodded his head down the road, where another car sat abandoned.

Cedar was instantly awake, panic coursing through her veins. “Nuala,” she said. “She got here first.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” Riona said soothingly. “Why would Nuala need a car if she has Eden with her?”

“Eden wouldn’t know how to bring her here, would she?” Murdoch asked. “She’d have to drive at least part of the way.”

“I don’t know,” Cedar said, looking wildly around them. “I’ve been thinking about it…and, well, you can find a satellite image of almost anywhere on earth online, and photos too. If they have Internet access, they can go anywhere Nuala wants. I think Riona’s right. Why would they need to drive?”

“Standing around isn’t going to help. Let’s go. Everyone on alert,” Rohan said.

Cedar continued to survey the area as she followed the others down a narrow path through a field. They had driven from Dublin to the west coast of the island. A long way off, Cedar could see a round tower and some tiny white dots she
took to be sheep. Behind them was field after field of grass and stone, not a tree in sight. In front of them were more fields, but she could see the ocean stretched out in the distance.

“Where are we?” she asked Finn, who was walking behind her and bringing up the rear of the group.

He gestured back toward the road. “We’re nearest to the village of Staddle, if you can even call it a village. Cluster of houses, really. The closest actual village is Doonacuirp. The people in these parts are few and far between.”

Despite the cool breeze, the sun was shining. Cedar lifted her face to it, willing it to warm her and give her strength. Finn touched her arm. “Let’s let the others get a little bit ahead,” he said, standing still for a moment as the rest of the group moved ahead of them. “I sketched you doing that once, lifting your face to the sun. Do you remember?”

“I remember,” she answered, thinking of the tin of memories she had thrown away. She glanced at the retreating back of Felix, who had been walking in front of her.

“Cedar, don’t you see that I had good reasons for not telling you the truth about who I am? You wouldn’t have believed me,” Finn said.

She looked at him incredulously. “Did I really seem that fragile to you? I believe you now, don’t I? I’ve been exposed to impossible things every day for the past week, and I haven’t flipped out or run away screaming. I’ve believed it, because as crazy as it sounds, all of it makes sense.” She glared at him. “Is that why you left me like that? Because you thought I wouldn’t believe you? You didn’t even give me a chance!”

Finn reached out to put his hands on her shoulders, but she twisted away. “I tried to tell you!” he protested. “I told you magic was real. I thought if I could at least convince you of
that…but you wouldn’t listen. I wanted to tell you everything, and I would have, but like I said, there are rules—”

“Rules?” Cedar said, her voice carrying over the empty landscape. “
That’s
your excuse? Since when have you cared about rules?” Her voice thickened and grew quiet, but lost none of its ferocity. “You
lied
to me, Finn, the whole time we were together. It was nothing but a charade to you—but it was real to me. Now everything has changed, and not just because of Eden and the sidhe. I don’t know who you are anymore.”

Finn’s expression darkened. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “You have
no idea
what I have done to protect you, what it has cost me. You’ve known nothing but peace your entire life. I have been at war since I was two years old.” He exhaled loudly in exasperation. “Open your eyes, Cedar! This isn’t just about you! It’s not even just about Eden! There are millions of lives at stake! So forgive me if I didn’t completely turn my back on my own people and let them all be damned.”

“If yer done shoutin’ at each other, we should be moving along,” Felix called from several feet ahead. The others had stopped and were waiting for them, well within hearing range. She hurried to catch up, her face burning, and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

When they stopped again a short time later, they were standing at the edge of a tall cliff overlooking the ocean. Everything about the place seemed profound to Cedar—the silence, the hugeness of the sky, the ocean that divided the world. A dilapidated hut sat perched on a pile of rocks off shore to Cedar’s right, the only visible indication that humans had ever set foot in this part of the world. Cedar could see more green fingers of land jutting out into the water around the
shoreline, and she felt something very old and deep stirring inside her. This was where gods and giants, warriors and fairies had lived, loved, and fought for millennia. The looks on the others’ faces told her they were having similar thoughts. This land had once been theirs. She felt very small, standing among these ancient beings and gazing out at the vastness of the ocean.

“Why Halifax?” she asked Felix, who was standing beside her. “When you escaped from the war, why did you choose Halifax?”

“It’s where the sidh took us,” he answered, still staring out across the water. “And so we stayed.” His voice was somber, and had lost the folksy accent he affected as part of his old man persona. “There are other reasons, of course. It’s complicated. But one of them is because Ireland would be the first place Lorcan would look for us if he found a way to open another sidh. It was best to stay hidden, somewhere he wouldn’t think to look for us.”

Cedar saw Oscar waving at her, and she waved back. Felix went over to speak with Riona, and Oscar came over to stand next to her. “Hey,” he said. “Ready to meet the Merrow?”

Cedar shrugged, trying to act more casual than she felt. “Oh, you know, I meet magical creatures every day. Mermaids are no big deal.”

“Ha!” Oscar laughed. “I’ve never met them either. Mother has a few choice names for them, none of which are fit to be said in the presence of a lady,” he said with a mock bow.

Cedar raised her eyebrows. “All that matters is that they can help us,” she said. “How do we find them?”

“You’ll be doin’ no such thing, I’m afraid.” Felix had rejoined them, Riona by his side.

“The Merrow are on even worse terms with humans than they are with us,” Riona clarified. “They won’t talk to us if you’re with us. I’m afraid you’ll have to stay up here while the others go down and talk to Deardra. It will take some careful diplomacy to convince her to give us the picture. Having a human among us won’t do us any favors.”

Cedar’s stomach twisted painfully. “No way. What if that car really does belong to Nuala? What if Eden is down there? I
have
to go,” she protested.

“We can handle it, Miss Cedar,” Felix said, his voice gruff and accented once more. “If your wee one is there, we’ll bring her back, but you’ll be best helpin’ us by stayin’ out of the way, if you don’t mind me sayin’ so.”

“But Eden won’t even know who you are!” she said. “If there’s any chance of her being down there, I need to be there too.”

“Cedar, listen to me,” Riona said. “I hate to put it so bluntly, but if Eden has been here, she’s probably already seen the painting, and they’ll be gone. There’s nothing you can do. And if she hasn’t been here yet, we need to get that painting before she sees it. The Merrow won’t even show themselves if they sense a human’s presence. If you want to help Eden, you have to keep out of sight.”

Cedar closed her mouth tightly and stared out over the ocean. Riona placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “We might not be too late,” she said. “I’ll stay up here with you. Let’s just wait and see what happens.”

Finn came over and kissed his mother on the cheek. He gave Cedar a long look and then joined the others, who were already climbing down a golden rope that led over the edge of the cliff.

The vegetation was sparse and there was no place to hide, so Cedar settled down on her stomach and peered over the edge, her heart racing. She watched as the others descended one by one and gathered in a small knot at the base of the cliff. Riona lay beside her. Together, they looked on in silence.

The Tuatha Dé Danann approached the water slowly and stopped at its edge. Anya and Rohan stood side by side in front. Behind Anya stood Murdoch and Oscar, and behind Rohan were Felix, Finn, and Molly. Cedar glanced over at Riona and saw that her eyes were trained on her daughter.

“Why are Oscar and Molly here?” she whispered. “Aren’t they a bit young?”

Riona’s forehead creased, but she didn’t take her eyes off the group below. “When you live forever, or for centuries, at any rate, ‘young’ doesn’t mean quite the same thing. Once you pass thirteen of your years in our world, you are expected to shoulder the responsibilities of an adult, but you may also partake in the pleasures. Besides, if there is to be another war, they will need to know how to gain allies. Now watch,” she whispered.

Cedar looked back down at the shore. Anya knelt and placed her hand in the water, and then stepped back and stood beside Rohan. For a moment, it seemed like nothing was happening. Then there was a disturbance beneath the waves and a large bubble floated out of the water and hung in the air before them. The bubble appeared to be empty, but a voice came from it, clear enough for Cedar and Riona to hear it. The voice said, “Who calls on our queen?”