Authors: Kathy Morgan
Chapter Thirty-one
S
tating only that it was complicated, Caleb refused to say any more on the subject until they returned to the castle. When they got there, he took her hand and guided her toward the formal gardens. As they walked along the familiar path, shafts of golden sunlight quivered through the trees’ naked branches, spilling warmth over all the cold, empty places in Arianna’s heart. Being here with him like this again was a miracle, like having all her dreams come true in a single moment in time.
In the garden, he led her to a carved stone bench in front of a rocky wall smothered in a tangle of woodbine and ivy. As he tugged her down beside him, he touched a silencing finger to his lips, then pointed out a pair of pheasants browsing the fuchsia hedges nearby.
“I know you’re anxious to learn of your mother,
mo chroí,
” he said, pulling her close. “But for you to have a hope of believing what I’ve to tell you about her, there are other things you have to understand first.”
With his melodic brogue, he wove a tapestry, an epic tale of a people of mystery and magic. When he had finished reciting the story of the
Geis
, he sat quietly and considered her, keeping her hands captured by his as if he feared she might run away.
“Can you understand now,
a ghrá
? The blood condition I told you about is a curse on my people resulting from the Enchantment. ‘Twas that which killed my mother as she birthed me. Why I feared touching you. That you would conceive my child and die in agony, suffering the same deadly fate as herself.” He reached out and hooked a lock of hair behind her ear as if he could no longer keep from touching her.
Arianna remembered her father’s words.
“The Lord has other sheep not of our fold.”
“I’ve always had a feeling that there are other…dimensions…I guess you could say. And it doesn’t surprise me that God would have other creations. What I don’t get, though, is all that crazy OCD stuff you were doing about me driving myself into town?”
“My concern stemmed from my belief that you might be the Woman of Promise prophesied to dissolve the
Geis
. And the possibility that the stalker, whom we now know was Conor, was possessed of a Minion sent forth by the spirit of the Beast to stop her.”
Arianna stared up at the man she loved, her head spinning. Surely, he wasn’t saying that this curse, this…this ‘gesh’ thing…was anything more than an old Irish legend.
A fluttering in her mind. “That’s
exactly
what I’m saying,
cailín
.”
She snapped a look at him so fast she almost wrenched her neck.
Holy crap!
So he really could read her mind.
“Okay, so let me see if I’ve got this straight,” she said, her tone measured. “You say it’s safe for us to be together now. So, that must mean that someone else is this…‘Woman of Promise’. In the last few days, she’s somehow managed to locate the ancient artifact and resolve the blood curse thing. So, we can safely be intimate now. Have I got that right?”
Caleb cleared his throat. Rubbed the side of his nose. “Well, not exactly.”
Arianna frowned. “Well, then what,
exactly
?”
He took a deep breath. “Before I can explain that, I’ve a bit more of my people’s history to share with you.”
“There’s more?”
He gave a solemn nod. “The night we met, do you remember mentioning the fifth group of people to settle Ireland?”
“Of course.”
“Well, they were my ancestors, Arianna. The
Túatha de Danann
.”
Arianna sat in stunned disbelief. “You’re claiming to be descended from
the Túatha de Danann
? The
fairies
?”
“In a way, but let me explain. As you’re aware, the
Túatha de Danann
are a race of people whose very existence has become an obscure argument between the historian and the mythologist. The former believes we were mere mortals—renowned in the arts, skilled artisans, poets and mighty warriors—now sadly extinct. The latter, as you so eloquently stated the night we met, insist that we transformed into the faerie people.”
Arianna swallowed thickly.
“There are yet others who believe we’re fallen angels. Cast down to the earth—neither pure enough for heaven, nor wicked enough to be condemned to everlasting torment. Others assert we were born of the gods and arrived in Connaught in, quote,
ships of fire,
unquote—which is more the truth. Not the ‘gods’ part.” He paused here for effect. “But the spacecraft.”
Arianna paled at the implications. “So, you’re saying you’re…you’re….” She just couldn’t force herself to say it.
“From another world,” he confirmed simply, his tone reasonable, considering he was claiming to be descended from space aliens. “You see, an asteroid was on a collision course with our planet, many millions of light-years from the earth. As there were no other sentient life forms in our solar system, in our galaxy, no planets sufficient to support life, our scientists began sending out probes, searching for a new home for our inhabitants. Finally, a signal was received back that such a place existed at the far reaches of the universe. A small planet powered by a sun much like ours, except that our sun shined as blue due to a difference in size and distance. Essentially, earth’s atmosphere was the same as ours.”
Arianna rubbed her throbbing right temple.
“Lifetimes passed,” he continued unabated. “Generations were born, lived and died during the endless journey to earth. The starship finally arrived here about four thousand years ago, landing in a technologically backward world in a time before recorded time.”
Arianna could feel her stomach churning.
Caleb carried on. “Through the countless millennia our people traveled through the stars, the solar irradiation began to alter our genetic makeup. Many of our inherent traits were lost—the ability to shape-shift, for example. To teleport over great distances. The ability to pass through solid objects. To fly. And yet other traits became even more enhanced: the power to levitate, to communicate and travel telepathically, to read minds. To bring another under our control through a mesmeric thrall. And to command the elements,” he finished, somewhat sheepishly.
“The lightning…” Arianna murmured. “I didn’t imagine it.”
“’Twas the only way I knew to get you away from the danger,” he admitted evenly. “And that awful night on Inishmore, you’d died before I could get to you. Manipulating the lightning was the method I used to restart your heart.”
In a crazy, insane, totally bonkers sort of way, everything he was saying was beginning to make sense. There were the waking dreams, of course. And the mind reading. And losing consciousness in the SUV on her way to the cottage that first night. She couldn’t deny having experienced the lightning blast, and what she had believed was a near death experience that night on the Island. Not to mention that she had been sensing something…otherworldly…about him from the moment they met.
Other
worldly indeed, she thought, choking back a hysterical giggle. “So, you’re telling me you’re not human. You’re a space alien from another planet.”
Caleb’s warm chuckle sounded so normal, so familiar, it began to melt the block of ice that encased her heart. “We’re of a different race, my love, but of the same species as the people of earth. Homo sapiens, and ourselves created in the image of the very same God whose mighty Hand shaped the dust on this planet into a living soul. Also, after making our new home here, we began to intermarry. As generations passed, our DNA intermingled with that of the people whose origins are of the earth.”
“Until the gesh,” Arianna remarked.
“The
Geis
, yes. You see, in our world there’d been no Garden of Eden. No fall from grace, or original sin. No serpent spawning his wickedness. Our magic was pure, innate. Powers invested in us were as those Christ spoke of during his sojourn on earth. A kind of natural faith sufficient to move mountains.”
“Or spill snow over a thousand acres,” Arianna interjected thoughtfully.
Caleb raised a shoulder. “That, as well. Our magic is divinely inspired, far different from the abomination of diabolic incantations, the malevolent witchery of spell casting employed by those such as the Druids.”
“Black magic, you mean.”
“Mmm. While there are those who believe our people originated from fallen angels, in actuality, the ancient Druids were the ones descended from those God expelled from heaven. Those who mated with the daughters of man, creating giants. ‘Twas the reason for the Great Flood. To cleanse the earth of their progeny. But again, after the Flood, the Evil One caused more soulless beings to be born. Because these Formorians were of their father, the devil, they were eternally damned. Afterwards, God prevented them from ever again mating with the women of earth. Whilst our people, who with sinless hearts arrived here from the stars, were permitted by the Creator to do so. Our magic was pure and powerful. More powerful than the satanic black magic of the Evil One. Therefore, when pronouncing the Enchantment that would ultimately set the Evil One free of the Pit, ending the dominion of man upon the earth, the High Priest of the Druid Formorians included the prohibition that made our intermarrying and producing offspring with the women of earth a deadly act.”
“Whoa,” was all Arianna could muster.
“The rest you know from Irish folklore,” Caleb concluded. “Our people were defeated in battle by an invading force, the Milesians, who were after offering us a treaty of sorts. That we may choose either to share the upper earth with them, or keep for our exclusive holdings the land beneath the hills and seas.”
“This is where the faeries come in,” Arianna breathed.
“’Tis. Many de Danann warriors, heavy-hearted from the
Geis
-imposed separation from the women they loved, chose to retreat beneath the earth. For some reason we’ve never fathomed, the change in habitat served to rehabilitate the full scope of traits lost to our people on the journey to earth. Reverting to purely magical beings, these earth spirits constructed a habitation of echoing lakes and golden palaces patterned after our former world. As the years passed, it became apparent that those who had transformed, who remained tucked safely away from the sun’s radiation, became nearly immortal. Beings known today as the
daoine sidhe
…or, as you said in English, the faeries.”
Faeries
. Arianna blinked and stared at him. “So, you’re telling me you’re a faerie prince.”
Caleb paused. “No. Though, for a few minutes, whilst coming to your rescue….”
“So, I wasn’t hallucinating that night on Inishmore,” she said slowly. “You really did fly through the clouds.”
But what about my mother? If she isn’t dead, why did I see her ghostly form rising from the waves below Dun Aengus?
She must have looked as skittish as a wild colt, because Caleb turned to face her then, his hands gently gripping her shoulders. “‘Twas a spirit you saw that night, all right,” he said matter-of-factly, answering her thoughts about her mother. “A spirit, sure, but not a ghost.”
At this point, Arianna pulled away from him and shot him a quelling look. “I don’t know how you
do
that. But would you mind staying the frig out of my head?” His mouth twitched, but he hid the smile. Begrudgingly, she asked, “What do you mean, I saw a spirit, but not a ghost?”
Caleb breathed in through his nose. Exhaled. “You’re mother’s descended from the
Túatha de Danann
, Arianna, just as I am. Only she’s from the other branch of the family. She’s a water sprite, my love, otherwise known as a merrow.”
“But that would make me…”
“Half-mortal, half-fey…like myself.”
Okay, I’m going to wake up any minute now.
“The day your mam left you and your father, she was lured by the call of the sea. Not to her death,
a ghrá
, but to her eternal home, the enchanted land from whence she’d come. A place called in the Gaelic
an
Tir fo Thoinn
…or the Land Beneath the Waves.”
Arianna’s heart began to thud dangerously; her breath was coming in short, sharp gasps. The damn man was going give her a panic attack. Or a coronary. The tale of fairies and an evil enchantment wasn’t bad enough. Oh, no. Now he’s claiming her mother’s a freaking mermaid. A picture formed in her mind: the lovely woman in her visions with a giant fishtail. Crazed laughter bubbled up her throat, but she swallowed it.
“A
merrow
, Arianna,” Caleb corrected with only the slightest hint of impatience. “Not a mermaid with the tail of a fish.”
She jerked a look at him. “I told you to stay out of my
head.”
“Anyways, a merrow is one of the
sidhe
,” he went on as if speaking to an impressionable young child. “Or, in English, the Irish faerie world. She’s of the branch of the
Túatha de Danann
that chose immortality, those preferring to dwell beneath the hills and seas in spirit form.”
“So, how could she have given birth to a…uh…
mortal
?” She stumbled over the word.
She felt the sun warm her face. All around them, woodland creatures flitted through the underbrush, rustling the dried autumn leaves, squeaking and chattering. Normal, everyday sounds, she thought, in a world gone irretrievably mad.
“It’s possible for us to move back and forth from one dimension to the other at will,” Caleb explained. “’Twas what I did when you were in trouble on the Island. The only way I knew to find you, to reach you in time.”
“I’ve wondered how you knew to come. How you got there with no boat, no helicopter. But every time I started to contemplate it, it all seemed an irrelevant blur.”
“I planted a suggestion that you wouldn’t seek out those details.”
She could see it in his eyes. His awareness of the dire implications of that admission to a woman who prided herself on her independence. “So you can control me, manipulate my will,” she whispered. “Just like that.”