Through the Door (19 page)

Anya stood perfectly still as she answered, “I am Aine, water warden of the Tuatha Dé Danann. With me are Ruadhan, Fionnbharr, Mallaidh, Muireadhach, Osgar, and
Toirdhealbhach. We wish to speak with Queen Deardra concerning a matter of some urgency.”

The bubble hovered for a moment longer, then disappeared once more beneath the waves. At once, a dozen Merrow rose to the surface. They were beautiful, with skin as white as pearls and long, flowing hair spreading out in the water around them. Though the color of their hair varied widely, they all had strands of red woven throughout their tresses. The Merrow in the center swam forward and walked onto the shore, her tail separating into two long legs. She stood before the Tuatha Dé Danann, clothed in nothing but her long hair and a delicate circle of pearls and gold that rested on her head. She addressed Anya formally.

“Well met, Aine, water warden,” she said, “and your companions also. It is not often that I am inundated with so many visitors from the Tuatha Dé Danann.”

Cedar held her breath, straining to hear the Merrow’s words.

“Others have come before us?” Anya asked.

Deardra tilted her head in what may have been a nod. “Are the Tuatha Dé Danann so disorganized? A small party arrived yesterday on your behalf. I have already given them what you seek.”

Rohan stepped forward and addressed Deardra. “Did this party consist of a woman and a child?”

“Of course. And a delightful thing the young one is,” Deardra answered with a small smile. “They are still here now, if you wish them to join your group for your journey home.”

When Cedar heard this, a cry escaped her lips and she started to scramble to her feet. Riona yanked her back down fiercely and hissed at her to wait.

On the beach, Anya’s voice shook as she spoke. “I am afraid you have been deceived, Queen Deardra. They are not a part of our group, nor are they ambassadors or messengers from the Tuatha Dé Danann. The woman is a traitor, and she has stolen that child. The child’s father is here.” She waved a hand, and Finn stepped forward. “We have been searching for them. Fionnghuala wishes to use the child to reignite the war in our world, and to bring it to these shores.”

Deardra looked at Anya carefully. Cedar wished she could see the expression on her face more clearly.

At last, the queen spoke, and there was an icy edge to her voice. “This is why I choose not to involve myself and my people in the affairs of the Tuatha Dé Danann,” she said. “You are like beasts or humans, always fighting among yourselves, never speaking with the same voice. I do not even know who among you is your leader. Is it you?” she spat at Anya. “Or is it the child?”

She smiled as the others exchanged glances. “Just because I don’t
care
about your affairs doesn’t mean I don’t
know
about your affairs. I should think you would want the girl to return to your world, given the prophecy you all cling to so desperately.”

“And what do you know of our prophecies?” Rohan asked, taking a step forward and lowering his voice.

“I know the words the poet Cairpre mac Edaine spoke as he abandoned your land with the rest of your Elders,” said Deardra. “‘The dyad that should not be will rise from the ashes and purge the land of the coming poison,’ blah, blah, blah. You certainly
are
the ashes, I’ll give him that. And I
did
hear you’d managed a human-Danann hybrid. I’m assuming that is the child whom my maids are entertaining. I should have known. She doesn’t come across as one of the Tuatha Dé
Danann. As I said, I found her quite charming. Perhaps it is an improvement on your race to breed with humans.”

From her view above, Cedar could see Finn shifting his weight from side to side, and his hands twitching. “What prophecy?” she whispered to Riona. “What are they talking about?” Riona merely put a finger to her lips and continued looking intently below.

Suddenly, Finn moved so that he was directly in front of the Merrow queen. “My daughter is being held captive against her will and mine, and she is in your domain. Give her up at once, or you will be an accomplice to this act of villainy.”

“I do not take sides in your war, Danann,” Deardra said, her lips curled back over her pearly teeth. “I will do as I please in my own domain and with those who have entered it.”

“She is just a child!” Finn said, the muscles in his face straining and constricting his voice. “She was taken by someone who would use her to see this whole world destroyed!” He was trembling from head to foot. “You said you were fond of her. Will you do nothing to help her?”

Deardra stared at him through narrowed eyes. Then she opened her mouth slightly and slowly exhaled.

“There,” she said, waving her hand toward the water behind her. “I will leave her for you to fight over. We are not of this world, nor are we of yours, and your troubles do not concern us.” She turned and looked out over the water, and the others followed her gaze.

Cedar cried out as she saw Nuala’s and Eden’s heads break the surface of the water outside the ring of Merrow, close to a small rocky island that held a ramshackle hut. Their hands were flailing in the water, and they both coughed and spewed seawater back into the ocean.

“Eden!” she cried, starting to scramble to her feet again. Riona yanked her down, and Cedar’s knee connected painfully with the rocks underneath her. She struggled to stand up again, but Riona’s grasp was unmovable. “Let go! She can’t swim!” Cedar pleaded.

“You cannot be seen!” Riona hissed back. “Anya will help her. You
must
stay hidden.”

But it was Nuala who held Eden afloat as they both gasped for air. Nuala’s eyes fell upon the shore, and then several things happened at once. Rohan and Finn started to run along the shoreline toward Nuala and Eden, moving so quickly Cedar could barely follow them with her eyes. Murdoch pulled a handful of small silver daggers out from the inside of his jacket and followed on their heels. Oscar stood transfixed for but a moment, and then pulled out his own long dagger and took off after his father. Felix and Molly followed close behind. Anya held out her arms toward the ocean and started chanting in a loud voice words Cedar did not understand. Deardra stepped in front of her. “These are
my
waters!” she said.

Then Nuala, still holding Eden afloat in front of her, took a deep breath and shouted, “Tuatha Dé Danann! The Merrow are your enemy! Attack them!”

Rohan and Finn spun around to face the others. “No!” Rohan roared. “She lies! Close your minds to her!
Nuala
is the enemy!”

Everyone on the beach stopped as if momentarily stunned. Each face was creased in concentration. Cedar held her breath and looked over at Riona, who had the same look of paralyzed torment on her face as the others. Below, Oscar whirled about and flung his dagger down the beach toward Deardra. Cedar watched it fly through the air for an impossibly long time,
as if the laws of gravity did not apply. Then it connected with its target, sinking itself hilt-deep into Deardra’s bosom. The queen’s mouth opened but no sound came out. Then she collapsed at Anya’s feet, a pool of violet blood forming around her and running into the water. Instantly, the water near the shore started to seethe as dozens of Merrow rose to the surface, hissing and screaming in tortured, high-pitched voices.

Meanwhile, Riona had regained control of herself and was watching the scene below with a look of horror on her face. More and more Merrow swarmed to the surface, and the water churned and started to rise, turning into a giant wave that towered over the rocky beach. Anya lifted her hands into the air once more and started chanting. The wave stopped cresting and started to recede, taking the still-screaming Merrow with it. Then one of the Merrow gave an order, and immediately the others started emitting loud, forceful bursts of sound that almost pierced Cedar’s eardrums. She saw Anya crumple as if she had been shot. Felix and Molly rushed to her side and tried to pull her back, away from the Merrow’s invisible projectiles, but they, too, stumbled as the Merrow continued their onslaught. Cedar watched as Molly disappeared in a thick cloud of smoke that hung close to the ground, obscuring Anya and Felix from view.

Farther down the beach, Oscar was continuing his attack on the Merrow. His dagger out of reach, he was wielding melon-sized rocks with unwavering precision, cracking the skulls of at least a dozen Merrow before a spear sank into his side beneath his raised arm. Murdoch roared with rage and threw his entire handful of short daggers at once, each of them finding a target in a Merrow throat before dislodging
themselves and soaring through the air, dripping with purple blood, back to their owner.

Riona looked at Cedar. “Stay here!” she commanded. Without another word, she turned and made a running leap off the edge of the cliff. Cedar screamed and scrambled to her feet. Riona was falling, her arms outstretched, but then she twisted in mid-air and in a burst of feathers transformed into a hawk, screeching as she dove to join the melee below. Darting at the eyes of the Merrow, she danced through the air, avoiding the spears, tridents, and deadly bursts of sound being flung at her. Anya had emerged from the cloud that was Molly and was advancing toward the water’s edge, while Murdoch continued his assault on those brave enough to stick their necks out of the water. Anya raised her arms once more and the water started to push back, exposing dry land underneath. Rohan was dragging Oscar’s limp body behind a large rock close to the cliff’s base, and Felix was running toward him with a speed that did not belong to a man of his apparent age. Cedar looked around for Finn but couldn’t see him. Then she looked back at the ocean and saw that Nuala was fighting the turbulent waters, moving herself and Eden slowly toward the rocks beneath the hut.

“No!” Cedar screamed. “She’s getting away!” She ran over to where she had seen the others climb down a thick rope, but all that was left was a thin golden thread. She put her hands around it, but it was no thicker than a strand of sewing thread.
How did they do it?
she asked herself. She grabbed the thread again. “Help me!” she yelled at it. “I need to get down!” Still it remained limp in her hand. Tossing it aside, she slid onto her stomach and without another thought lowered herself over the edge, searching for a toehold. She tried to remember what she
had learned during her weekends of rock climbing while at university, but this was a far cry from those excursions, with their safety harnesses and anchors and belayers. The rock face was almost perfectly vertical, and Cedar knew one false step would send her plummeting to the rocks below. But she merely tightened her grip and searched for the next hold.

Suddenly, she heard a cry coming from one of the Merrow, louder than any of their screams thus far.

“Human!”

Cedar froze. She knew she was completely exposed. There was no possibility of hiding or climbing back up to the top. Then she cried out in pain as something hard hit the small of her back. A trident clanged off the wall just inches from her head. Barely clinging to the rock, she turned her head and almost released her hold in terror.

Beside and above her loomed a creature more terrible than anything she had ever seen. Its body, as large as the cliff she clung to, was covered in green scales and large, round, pulsating suckers. Claws as long as her arm extended from each of its dozen fingers. Instead of a mouth, the creature had a swarming mass of tentacles, as if it were in the process of swallowing a giant octopus. Two golden eyes protruded grotesquely from atop its head, and a pair of dragon wings unfurled from between its shoulder blades. A harpoon struck it in the neck but the weapon just glanced off, as if it had hit the rock wall. The creature turned its eyes on Cedar, and she screamed, her fingers losing their grip on the rocks. A tentacle shot out and wrapped around her, but instead of devouring her or thrashing her against the rock as she had expected, the beast lowered her to the ground. It set her in a crevice in the rock wall and rolled a large boulder in front of her. Then it
turned and, with a deafening roar, moved its massive body toward the screeching Merrow.

Cedar stared after it in horror, shocked to still be alive. Then she remembered why she had been trying to climb down the cliff in the first place.
Eden.
She hoisted herself up and over the boulder that was blocking her way and ran as fast as she could down the beach, ignoring the stabbing pain in her back where the Merrow had struck her. She watched as Nuala and Eden reached the island and rested for a moment on the rocks, both of them panting. Then Nuala stood and dragged the girl to her feet. Eden’s eyes were wild with terror. Cedar sprinted the last few feet to the shore and started to wade into the water. “Eden!” she called as loudly as she could. “EDEN!”

Eden turned her head in the direction of the sound and screamed back, “Mummy!”

“Eden, I’m coming! Hold on!” Cedar yelled as she tried to run through the water.

“Stop!” Nuala raised a hand toward Cedar, and she felt herself immobilized.

It’s just a spell,
she told herself.
You can move. You want to move!

Nuala yanked Eden back against her side. “We can go now, Eden. We can go to Tír na nÓg, where your father is waiting for us. You’ve seen what it looks like, now all you need to do is open the door!”

“Mummy!” Eden screamed again, trying to get out of Nuala’s grasp.

“No!” Nuala screamed back at her. “We are going home! You open that damn door or your mother will drown.”

Eden sobbed hysterically while Nuala dragged her up the rocks and to the hut’s door. “Open it,” Nuala hissed.

Cedar fought against the fog in her head.
Think about Eden. You have to get to her.
“Eden, don’t!” she yelled, and felt her body start to free itself.

She saw Eden reach for the door, which was barely hanging onto its hinges, and push it open.

“Why isn’t it working?” Nuala yelled. “You stupid child!” She slapped Eden’s face. “I said open it!”

“I’m trying!” Eden screamed back.

“We don’t have time for this!” Nuala said. “Just get us out of here!”