Enchanted Moon (Moon Magick Book II) (21 page)

“Heremon’s?” Daniel asked. “What did you see? Who
found the drawing?”

Before Quinlan could answer, he drew in a sharp
breath. Ailyn as well. Her gaze transfixed on Daniel’s face as it morphed back
into the youthful one she’d come to know.

“Christ’s blood, Danny,” Quinlan hissed, shooting to
his feet and backing away. “What black magick are you tempting, lad?”

Daniel scrubbed a hand over his face, then cracked a
weak grin. “I dinna ken the truth of it, Quin, but I practice no dark art. I
vow it.”

Quinlan sliced his hand through the air. “How does a
man age by decades, then suddenly regress to his youth if not by dark art,
Daniel?”

Daniel stood, a menacing curl to his lips. “I dinna
take kindly to your tone, Quin.”

“Oh?” Quinlan stepped closer. “What will you be doing
about it, lad? You’ll be telling me the truth or you’ll be facing my blade,
that’s what.”

The air fair crackled with their animosity. Ailyn
withdrew a few paces, entirely uninterested in their power struggle. Daniel
knew things she would soon have to know, but that would matter not without her
pendant. She
had
to find it. She had
to stop her mind from spinning. Kristoph’s power was greater than she ever
could have imagined. Had Tullah known? Ailyn thought such power had died out
generations ago. But, in truth, how would any Fae know of such power unless
they themselves wielded it? She certainly had no such magick in her veins, blue
blood or not.

The keen sense of truths she wouldna like to hear barreled
toward her, would not recede no matter how many steps she took. When both men
looked her way, Ailyn gulped.

“There is no running from what comes, Ailyn,” Daniel
said.

Quinlan didna speak. He didna need to. She could see
every emotion play over his face. The worry, the disappointment. The
determination. If she wanted to run from this, if she had any real choice to,
he’d be hunting her down and making her face it.

Colm would, too, were he here. Had she been asked if
she would face her duty or run, Ailyn would never have guessed she would be so
desirous to flee. Having two worlds’ fates at a person’s feet had a way of
making her fidget, though.

“We must assume that they have the pendant, Ailyn,”
Daniel said. “Looking for it now will only waste precious time.”

“They?” Quinlan asked before she could.

“The rite you saw the night that Ailyn crossed
through. They mean to join the bloodstone, the pendant, and the so—”

“The pendant?” She shook her head, dread crawling up
her stomach. “But the pendant merely acts as a compass, nothing more, only
pointing to the stones’ locations.”

“It is the moonstone, sunstone, and bloodstone that
must be brought together.”

Ailyn swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, tight. “Aye.
Three stones. Not the pendant.”

“The pendant unlocks the powers of the bloodstone, but
only if the third force wields it, aligning it with a full moon at one of the
four equinoxes. Each equinox thins the veil between the worlds. When the Fae
and mortal worlds were cleaved in two—”

“Third force. You mean to say third stone,” Ailyn
said.

Daniel shook his head, his eyes intent. He stepped
closer. Quinlan followed suit, his stance wary.

“The text speaks of the third power in such a way
that, aye, at first translation I thought it three stones. Breanne agreed. But
when I returned—”

“Returned?” she demanded. How could he cross through?
How could he go without her?

“Aye, returned. Not from your world, Ailyn. I haven’t
the power to conjure the veil.” He waved a flustered hand through the air.
“Suffice it to say I’ve been granted access to archives that mortals were
banished from a millennia ago. The Fae as well.”

“Not good enough,” Quinlan said, crossing his arms,
his chest flexing with tension. “We have time sufficient for at least a
thorough explanation, Daniel.”

The younger man’s jaw ticked. He opened and closed his
hands into fists. “Fine, then. Have it your way, Quinlan. Samhain is less than
three days away, friend. Every moment we waste here puts lives at greater risk.
Yours. Mine. Hers.” He stabbed a finger in Ailyn’s direction.

Quinlan bowed forward a few inches. “Be certain to
include why that matters, lad, because as weary as I am of these riddles, I
imagine Ailyn is threefold.”

She could have kissed him. Part of her resented being
talked about as though she were not even present, but her relief was too great
to dismiss. When Daniel turned on his heel back to the fire, she followed.
Quinlan stoked the flames. Daniel gathered his bundle of parchments.

Chapter Nineteen

 
“I’ll be
asking you to remember. I love my sister dearly, but her gifts touched my life
at a young age, and it changed me….”

In truth, the Fae had touched Daniel’s life, Ailyn
surmised, as she listened to his tale. When Daniel was but a boy, a Fae
sorcerer called Finn had been given to Breanne. Given, because when the
sorcerer crossed the veil, he became a cat, much like Colm had become a wolf.
Heremon, the king’s Druid, refused to return the cat, perhaps appreciating how
few Faerie folk came through to the mortal realm, and that those who did were
up to mischief and mayhem.

As a consequence, Heremon granted aiding the cat by
one condition—that Breanne must release him from the curse of
transformation as a matter of her study in becoming an Ovate.

Finn had little choice but to agree. Years passed with
no success. Finn grew impatient and took matters into his own paws, er, hands.
Ailyn had to smile at Daniel’s ability to jest over what must have been quite
difficult. Finn manipulated the young Danny into betraying his sister.

She could see in his face as he spoke how heavily the
betrayal weighed his heart, heavier for all the memories, the doubts had to
have been enormously burdensome on a young man. He also carried the stain of
Finn’s magick inside him. Dark magick.

Finn had attempted to wield the bloodstone’s powers,
had gone to the ultimate lengths to do so.

When years later, Breanne presaged a gathering of
mortals—a sect intent on rejoining the two cleaved worlds, she bade
Daniel to aid her. Secreting the bloodstone’s location wasna enough, Breanne
had seen. They needed to understand how the sect.

Breanne’s scrying had presaged she should procure
Danny’s aid. Ailyn wanted to ask what his unwitting collusion with the banished
Fae man had done to him, but she couldna bring herself to. Perhaps it was his
guarded tone, or his visible shame as he recalled his actions. Ultimately, the
details of it mattered not. All that mattered was what he’d discovered in the
examination.

“They are the guardians of Tara.”

Ailyn’s confusion must have shown.

“You know it as
Temair
.”

The source. The realm of gods and goddesses. Aye,
Ailyn knew it. She was surprised mortals knew of it, though. They seemed to
have turned their backs on true magick, stealing Fae forces instead. Clearly,
she needed to reevaluate what she thought to be true about this race of men.
None of her direct experiences supported the tales she grew up with. How did
she reconcile such deeply ingrained beliefs, though?

Glancing at Quinlan’s somber face, ever aware of the
hiccup his handsome features sent through her heart, she thought perhaps it
would not be so difficult. Aye, if the land and people were like that she’d
seen, those she’d met, a Faerie could be tempted to stay. But at what price?

“Each warrior guards a portal to Tara. Each portal is
unlocked through knowledge. Each warrior protects the sacred texts of another’s
portal, creating a web that would take incredible skill and strategy to
successfully unravel.” Daniel grew animated as he explained, his hands weaving
through the air as though the web hung there before them, plucking invisible
items from its imaginary strands. “I can see the portals. And after many, many
years, I earned access to part of the history and prophecies of Tuatha de
Danaan. I translated and transcribed anything that I saw as relevant to
Breanne’s visions and scryings.”

A shiver raced over her arms. The smoke from the fire
wafted upward, the flames lighting the night along with the nearly full moon.

“The page Jamison found was yours?” Quinlan asked,
taking all of this in quite well compared to his disbelief over her being
Faerie. But then, how far a stretch were portals to the underworld from the
ethereal experience their lovemaking had been?

Ailyn glanced around her into the darkness. Kristoph
could be watching, lingering, and waiting to strike. Mayhap losing the pendant
now protected them, though. She prayed to Morrigan to watch over them, to give
her courage to face her foe.

“It is not the moonstone, sunstone, and bloodstone at
all. Esher pointed as much out to me. He guards the southern portal and has
grown quite a bit intrigued by your journey, Ailyn. Your pendant has quite an
interesting legacy.” Daniel’s features aged as he said the last.

Quinlan and Ailyn shared a worried glance. “Perhaps
this isn’t the ideal time to share the history, though, Danny.”

Nodding quickly, Daniel put a hand to his chest. His
knuckles grew knobby, his skin mottled with age spots. “Aye, the effects are
worse this time. I rushed, you see. The immortal realm isn’t meant yet for man
to enter in physical form. It’s hard on a body.”

A pang shot through Ailyn’s chest. What could she do
to ease his burden? “You’ve done so much for my people, Daniel. I haven’t the
words to express my gratitude.”

He waved her off. “Horse shite, is what that is. Never
mind your thanks. I have my own reasons for seeing this through, Ailyn. But I
appreciate your intentions. Trust that I will be well and am a man who has
chosen this path.”

She grinned at him, loving his friendship very much in
that moment and for the first time, truly feeling the gratitude she had spoken
of.

“In three days, the full moon will shine upon Samhain.
The veil will be thinnest. The sect that opened it to allow you through will
thin the veil ever further, attempting to destroy it altogether. They need the
bloodstone, your pendant, and a third element—a blue-blooded Fae to
unlock the bloodstone’s powers with the pendant. The key.”

Fear slid down Ailyn’s belly. “Maera.”

Daniel nodded.

“Once they bring together the elements and part the
veil, the two worlds will collide. To destroy the veil altogether, they must
destroy the triad.”

“They’ll kill her,” Quinlan said.

Again, Daniel solemnly nodded.

“They might have all three elements as we speak,”
Ailyn said. “I’ve no idea if Maera and Colm are safe.”

“They’re safe,” Quinlan assured her. “One of the
king’s
galloglas
is protecting them. I asked for
Jamison’s help afore I followed you and Daniel.”

Daniel’s eyes widened. His brow furrowed. He dug
through his bundle of pages. “You said Jamison found one of my parchments at
Heremon’s. Where?”

“In a hidden panel near the fireplace. Why?”

Daniel’s features morphed back into youth. “You saw
him find it?”

“No.” Quinlan’s expression darkened. “I was searching
the bedchamber.”

“Where does Kristoph fit in all this?” Ailyn asked,
interrupting them.

“Perhaps he promised them power. Access to the Fae
realm. I’ve not found any text indicating as much. Neither has Breanne presaged
answers to that.”

The muscle in Quinlan’s jaw ticked. He was looking at
her, but not seeing her. His mind was elsewhere. Wherever it had gone couldna
be good. He nigh exuded doom.

“What of the blood I found?” he asked Daniel.

“Blood?” Foreboding snaked through her belly. “What
blood?”

The now-young Daniel winced. “Practice for the actual
sacrifice. According to Esher, a very specific dispensing is ascribed to the
spell.”

Ailyn’s foreboding grew. “What blood?”

Quinlan glowered at her. “At Heremon’s. In one of the
rooms. It doesna matter now. Only that we discover its purpose.”

“The sect actuated the veil, allowing Ailyn, Maera,
and Colm through.” Daniel paged through his bundle, retrieving a parchment with
a drawing of the sacred pool they’d come through.

“Kristoph, as well,” Ailyn said. “Unless he has
another means to pass.” She almost added that if Daniel could pass through,
then Kristoph could too, but she had to remind herself that that was not where
he’d gone. He’d not entered her realm at all. He’d found one of the doorways to
Tara. She realized Daniel was shaking his head.

“I’m not certain Kristoph is the mastermind behind
this plot,” Daniel said, tapping his chin and staring into the fire’s smoke.

“It must be him. Maera must have known, or found out
somehow. Surely that is why she went to the glade. That is why she went through
the veil. Because her mother died that night, the queen. Kristoph was Queen
Tullah’s foremost advisor.”

Quinlan stood and began pacing the length of the
circle around the fire, pausing at each turn. Daniel stroked his chin, looking
at her, but not really seeing her. His mind seemed to be chewing over what
she’d said.

“The logic is sound, aye,” Daniel said at last. “If I
could speak to Maera and discover what she knows, we could ascertain Kristoph’s
involvement.”

Ailyn felt certain it was he. Who else could benefit
from such a plot except a man hungry for dominance and power? What other Faerie
had such powers and also had ties to the throne? She refused to believe it
coincidental that the night of Tullah’s death, the sect empowered the veil and
Maera went through.

“Kristoph murders the queen,” Quinlan said, his stance
wide, the fire casting menacing shadows up his form. “Maera somehow discovers
his scheme and comes through to stop him?”

Ailyn stood. “Aye. I follow her through. Colm follows
me. Why are you shaking your head?”

“The pendant. You swore none knew of it.”

“I’ve protected it, aye.”

“Not so well that I didna glimpse it at Breanne’s.”

Heat flushed her cheeks. She clenched her jaw a
moment, fighting the urge to dismiss his inference. But she couldna. “I canno’
swear that none have seen it over the years. But I can promise none would know
what it is. Not even I knew until Daniel shared his knowledge. I only know it
holds magick and to conceal it at all costs.”

“Exactly.”

Ailyn shook her head.

“If the pendant is the critical element to the spell,
the sect knew this all along.”

The foreboding in her belly deepened. She began
shaking her head.

“You didna follow Maera through by coincidence, Ailyn.
You did so by design. The question is, who intended to draw you through?”

“You’re mistaken. Colm forbade me to look for Maera.
He sent me back to the keep and ordered me to find Kristoph.”

Quinlan slowly walked toward her. “D’you oft take heed
of his orders, lass?”

Ailyn sank back down to the rock. Daniel handed her a
new parchment, its edges very worn. The tattered document trembled in her
hands. She could only watch Quinlan, though, her mind tumbling. Denying.
Refusing to believe her brother could have intended for her to pass through the
veil. Colm wouldna put her in danger. Colm wouldna know of the pendant.

But he had.

He’d known. Then he’d gone.

She glanced about in the dark, her skin prickling.
Had
he gone? Her gaze darted back to
Quinlan’s. Sympathy shone in his eyes alongside the firelight. He squatted
before her, tugging the frayed parchment from her lap and looking at it. Giving
Daniel a single nod, he reached for her hand.

Ailyn only stared at it. “Why would Colm collude to
have me here?”

“I dinna ken the answer to that, lass. Only he can
answer. I only know I’ve doubts and questions mounting. I do know I have vowed
to keep you safe. Perhaps even I am meant to. If what Daniel has gathered can
be trusted, then a power greater than any I can imagine is being sought. Men
murder, torture, and destroy in the name of power.”

Quinlan withdrew his hand and eyed Daniel. “How
quickly can you get us there?”

“Get us where?” Her mind yet swam with dread and
denial. Her brother, Maera, Kristoph. She couldna fathom that they could be
entangled together. Yet that night, riding with the guard, a night that felt
so, so long ago now, she’d sensed something amiss with her brother.

Daniel ignored her question. He stood, took the
parchment back, and returned it to his stack, rising. “We’ll have to hurry.”

Quinlan grasped her hand and forcefully led her. Ailyn
forwent, resisting. The weight in her stomach occupied her. If she couldna
trust her own brother, whom could she trust? The thought drove her to halt.
Quinlan stopped as well, facing her.

“I ken, lass. You dinna have to speak it. I can only
imagine what you must be feeling. What fear, what pain. I dinna ken why fate
has thrown us together, but I do believe this—there is a purpose to it. I
need you to trust now. I need you to put your faith in me one final time. I vow
to you, you willna regret it.”

Her feeble resistance crumbled. Aye. Ailyn nodded,
swallowing. She had naught to lose. She did not yet fathom what they were doing
or why, but her mind wouldna allow room for it anyhow. Daniel led them through
the southern-point copse of trees. The shadows and dark surrounded them.
Silence surrounded them.