Always Forever (87 page)

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you," he said gently, but his voice only agitated
them further.

The woman jabbered in a language he didn't understand until he caught
one word: Samhain.

As he repeated it, the woman froze, her eyes widening. "Samhain," she said
again.

And then the elements began to fall into place: the house, the basic peasant
clothes of the woman and children, the language. Somehow the gate had flung
him into the distant past, amongst one of the tribes that modern scholars had
lumped together under the catch-all title of Celts.

He closed his eyes and rested on his sword as he fought the rising panic. His
first thought was that it couldn't be true, but everything he saw, heard, smelled,
told him otherwise. Then the impressions came thick and fast: isolation, utter loneliness amongst people who would consider him an alien or a madman, the brutality
of life in those times, of Ruth, whom he would never see again, of his friends, and
his world. Slowly, he went down on to his knees, unable to bear the weight.

His torment was disturbed by the woman gradually advancing. She pointed
tentatively. "Nuada?"

She was indicating the Sword. He held it up, nodding. "Nuada Aigetlamh."
It was the god's sword; of course she would be familiar with it.

She suddenly pointed towards the open door and jabbered once more, excitedly this time. There was little else for him to do but follow her direction.

Outside, a wild electrical storm lit up other roundhouses clustered nearby.
Frightened horses and cattle added to the deafening cannon-fire of thunder. A
terrible wind tore across the landscape, though there wasn't even the faintest
hint of rain; in the gale was the familiar stink of corruption that had surrounded
Balor.

He looked round, overcome with the strangest impression someone familiar
had only just left the vicinity. Despite the grinding sense of disconnection, he
felt uncannily good, and he knew why. His deep perception showed him the
Blue Fire was stronger in the land, and the buildings and the animals than he
had ever seen it before. That was why the wound in his side had healed. As a
Brother of Dragons he had tapped into it.

And with that realisation came another thought: he recalled Tom telling
him there were no coincidences, no accidents. Then why had he been saved?
There was no obvious answer, but he had the strangest feeling that somebody
had wanted it to happen for him.

As he tried to decide what his next move would be, he became aware of a faint
golden glow approaching across the dark, storm-torn countryside. It was
Niamh. His shock was palpable until he accepted this was long before she had
sacrificed herself to save them all.

She came up to him sharply, an unfamiliar contemptuous expression
inscribed on her face. "Fragile Creature!" Her words were the arrogant bark of
someone used to complete deference. "Is that the Sword of my brother?" As
always, he understood her words in a way that transcended language.

It was intriguing to see the difference in her. Here she was more like the
worst of her kind, cold and aloof with a hint of cruelty. "It was once. It's my
Sword now."

Fury tinged her features. "How can a Fragile Creature dare to touch so powerful an object? How can you dare to take it from my brother, and now, when
he needs it most?"

"I'm a Brother of Dragons."

This puzzled her a little. "I have not seen you amongst that dismal brood."

His spine prickled as connections began to be made. "What's happening?"
he asked, listening to the noise that was almost masked by the storm.

"You do not know? It is the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh. This night the
future of the Golden Ones will be decided, when the Night Walkers are finally
driven into the sea after their bitter rule."

"And the future of the Fragile Creatures," he added wryly.

She didn't deem his comment worthy of any acknowledgment.

And then everything fell into place, with a frisson that was so acute it
shocked him. The mysterious comments that he would not find rest at the end
of his struggle. The hints that he had a wider role to play in leading humanity
towards the next level. Tom telling him to use his memories as a source of
warmth in troubling times.

He steeled himself, letting the obligation settle into his bones. Then he
said: "Take me to the battle."

"You mean to fight?"

"I intend to do what I can. And to be there when Balor is finally destroyed."

She appeared quite taken aback by his bravado; a little warmth broke into
her frosty features.

"My name's Jack." His heart was already soaring as he realised the solution
to his predicament. "I think we're going to become good friends."

"Friends? With a Fragile Creature?" she snorted.

After the battle he would return to the home of the gods T'ir n'a n'Og,
where time could pass much slower than it did in the real world. And while he
aged only slightly, the centuries would tumble by in a mad parade until he
could once again step back into the world to take Ruth in his arms and meet
their future together. The paradox made his head spin. For a while he would
exist in two places at once: in the real world, where he would be born and grow
to maturity; and in Otherworld, waiting for the culmination of the confrontation with Balor so he could step back into the Fixed Lands to reclaim his life.
Could he sit idly by in Otherworld, knowing the suffering that would be
inflicted on humanity during the Age of Misrule? Could he wait there when he
might be able to save Witch's life? Or would he cross over earlier, to meet his
younger self and change the course of history? Was that at all possible, or would
existence come crashing down around his ears? It was a conundrum that would
have to wait.

Now he knew why Niamh had appeared in his childhood bedroom, guiding
him along the path he had eventually walked, why she had been filled with such
a deep love that had made no sense for the little time they had known each other.
Between now and then, they would become friends, and he would bring
humanity to her, and she would in turn convince other members of the Tuatha
De Danann to come over to the Fragile Creatures, something that would have
such great import so many years down the line. And eventually, although he
would aim to prevent it, she would learn to fall in love with him.

In the meantime he had so many things to do: establishing the reputation
of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, convincing them to prepare for the return
of the Fomorii, ensuring the first steps were taken on the path to godhood.

And then one other thought came to him that filled him with warmth. In
just a few brief centuries' time he would see Tom again. Tom, who had kept so
many secrets, hidden his character and his emotions for the sake of those around
him. They would become the best of friends and he would finally pay the
Rhymer back for saving his life.

"Come on," he said to Niamh, "let's go to war."

His one hope was that the world he eventually returned to would not have
been bequeathed to the worst of humanity; that the old, bad ways had simply
slotted back into place. "I'm wishing," he whispered aloud, his eyes closed. "I'm
wishing for a place where the good things have the upper hand: love and honesty
and friendship and wonder and hope. I'm wishing enough to change the world."

In a bleak room filled with hard men, a cold wind blew. For as long as anyone
could remember they had dreamed the world their way; and it was a world filled
with lies and power and money, of subtle manipulation and limpid promises,
where Fragile Creatures were held in place by a little of this and a little of that,
but never anything that mattered. Yet beneath their arrogance lay fear, for
sooner or later the scales might fall.

A lie was needed to cement their rule. A Big Lie. Lives were shattered in the
telling of it, families torn apart, good men and women twisted out of shape. But
the hard men were right to be afraid, for even in the worst of all worlds, good
men and women aspire; and inspire.

With that same arrogance, the hard men believed no one could be moved
by a world without money or power; dreams were for children; dreams had no
power. And so they released the means to their downfall. The Lie proved more
seductive than the world they had wished; it was filled with love and wonder
and friendship and hope and faith; and meaning; a world where anything could
happen.

A wish was all it took; because if you wish hard enough you can change the
world.

The Lie became the Truth, and everything that hadn't happened, had happened. Five people quested through untold hardship; they plumbed worlds
beyond imagination, rubbed shoulders with gods and beasts; and in the end
brought the magic back home.

This is how it was, and is, and will be.

The cold wind blew the bad things right away. The hard men no longer
existed. The hard men never existed. Their world was just a bad dream; and only
bad dreams have no power.

The Blue Fire is in everything.

And the world turns slowly towards the light.

Baigent, Michael, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The Messianic Legacy
(Corgi)

Bently, Peter (ed.). The Mystic Dawn: Celtic Europe (Time-Life)

Bord, Janet and Colin. Mysterious Britain (Thorsons)

Briggs, Katharine. An Encyclopedia of Fairies (Penguin)

Brydon, Robert. Rosslyn-A History of the Guilds, the Masons and the Rosy Cross
(Rosslyn Chapel Trust)

Bulfinch. Bulfinch's Mythology (Spring)

Bushell, Rev. William Done. Caldey: An Island of the Saints (Lewis Printers)

Campbell, Harry. Supernatural Scotland (HarperCollins)

Carr-Gomm, Philip. The Druid Way (Element)

Celtic Mythology (Geddes & Grosser)

Coghlan, Ronan. The Encyclopedia of Arthurian Legends (Element)

Cope, Julian. The Modern Antiquarian (Thorsons)

Cotterell, Arthur. Celtic Mythology (Ultimate Editions)

Crisp, Roger. Ley Lines of Wessex (Wessex Books)

Crossing, William. Folklore and Legends of Dartmoor (Forest Publishing)

Davies, Margaret. The Story of Tenby (Tenby Museum)

Dunning, R. W. Arthur: The King in the West (Grange Books)

Earl of Rosslyn. Rosslyn Chapel (Rosslyn Chapel Trust)

Fitzpatrick, Jim. The Book of Conquests (Paper Tiger)

Graves, Robert. The White Goddess (Faber & Faber Ltd.)

Hadingham, Evan. Circles and Standing Stones (William Heinemann Ltd.)

Hardcastle, F. The Chalice Well (The Chalice Well Trust)

Hicks, Jim (ed.). Earth Energies (Time Life)

Witches and Witchcraft (Time Life)

Hopkins, Jerry, and Danny Sugerman. No One Here Gets Out Alive (Plexus)

Kindred, Glennie. The Earth's Cycle of Celebration (Self-published)

Knight, Christopher, and Robert Lomas. The Hiram Key (Century)

The Second Messiah (Arrow)

Lamont-Brown, Raymond. Scottish Superstitions (Chambers)

Larousse. The Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology

Mann, Nicholas R. The Isle of Avalon (Llewellyn Publications, USA)

Matthews, John (ed.). The Druid Source Book (Brockhampton Press)

Matthews, John, and Michael J. Stead. King Arthur's Britain: A Photographic
Odyssey (Brockhampton Press)

Michell, John. New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury (Gothic Image)

Sacred England (Gothic Image)

Miller, Hamish, and Paul Broadhurst. The Sun and the Serpent (Pendragon Press)

Porter, Roy. London: A Social History (Hamish Hamilton)

Radford, Roy and Ursula. West Country Folklore (Peninsula Press)

Richards, Julian. Beyond Stonehenge (Trust for Wessex Archaeology)

Rutherford, Ward. Celtic Mythology (Thorsons)

Seafield, Lily. Scottish Ghosts (Lomond Books)

Siefker, Phyllis. Santa Claus, Last of the Wild Men (McFarland & Company, Inc.)

St. Leger-Gordon, Ruth E. The Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor (Peninsula
Press)

Stewart, Bob, and John Matthews. Legendary Britain (Blandford)

Stewart, R. J. Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses (Blandford)

Tabraham, Chris (ed.). Edinburgh Castle (Historic Scotland)

Urquhart Castle (Historic Scotland)

Various. Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain (Reader's Digest)

Westhorp, Christopher (ed.). Journeys through Dreamtime (Time Life)

White, Richard (ed.). King Arthur in Legend and History (Dent)

Wilde, Lady. Ancient Legends of Ireland (Ward & Downey)

Zink, David D. The Ancient Stones Speak (Paddington Press)

Many online resources were a valuable source of reference. Since my research,
some have closed, the ones remaining are:

Celtic Deities and Myth-www.eliki.com/ancient/myth/celts/

Kaleidoscope-Celtic Mythology-www..softanswer.corn/pans/celtic/mythology.html

Knights Templar-www. brjeffreys. freeserve. co. uk/knights/knights. htm

Knights Templar Index-http://homepages.enterprise.net/paulmagoo/index.htm