Bound In Blue: Book One Of The Sword Of Elements (23 page)

CHAPTER FORTY TWO

“That was cutting it a bit close.” The others were gone, but Excalibur lay where I’d dropped it. I picked it up and was surprised at how much lighter it felt, as if it had been struggling against the pull of Arthur’s power too.

Goodfellow ignored my sarcasm. “I need to close the Path off from the other end before he follows us here. This Path has multiple branches, and with any luck, he won’t know which one we took.” He glanced back at me. “I’m sorry for my part in everything, Miss Lynne.”

I didn’t answer because it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was getting to Tynan in time.  The Green Man gestured for me to walk forward and without any transition I stepped into the clearing in the woods behind the mansion. I looked back but Goodfellow was gone.

I ran into the house and the sound of voices led me to the study. Tynan lay on the couch and Daley kneeled beside him, holding his hand. Taliesin hovered over them. Peter and Miko stood by with helpless looks on their faces.

Tynan’s face was just like Mom’s right before she died.

Daley looked up at Taliesin and his eyes were frantic. “Do something!”

“I can try a binding. If his powers are bound, perhaps his spirit will follow.” The bard went still and then his shoulders sagged. “It is too late. I cannot find him.”

I put Excalibur down on the desk. “Let me try.” The bard hesitated and then nodded.

Someone had bandaged Tynan’s wound but it was messy and loose. A pain went through me.

Rowan would have done it right. He would have put ointment on the wound and spoke words over it and Tynan would already be getting better.

Fluorescent yellow panic blinded me for a moment, but I took a deep breath and calmed myself. I‘d claimed Tynan in that cave, body and soul. If I couldn’t find him, no one could.

I placed my hand on the bandage and blood seeped through it and stained my palm. Shivering with revulsion, I closed my eyes and discovered that Taliesin was right—Tynan’s splintered colors shivered in a dance of chaos along a pale rope leading to darkness. A green thread still connected us, but it was pulled tight and looked ready to snap.

Blood magic is the greatest magic of all.

“What?” I opened my eyes and looked around, but everyone stared back blankly. The voice was in my mind.

Blood magic is the greatest magic of all.

It wasn’t Morgan’s voice, even though she’d said the same thing to me. It wasn’t Viviane’s either. I had a brief vision of grey, twisted trees and I knew—it was the voice of the woman who had given me away.

“Peter, get me Excalibur.” Because I wished it, the sword let him pick it up. Taking it from him, I made a small nick in my palm and my blood joined Tynan’s. Excalibur flared gold and then went back to its silent, sleeping state. I lifted my hand, but Taliesin grabbed my wrist. I looked up at him in surprise.

“The gods know I love this boy as if he were the son of my body, but think about what you are intending to do! Blood magic is old, dark magic. Only the greatest among us can wield it, and if you have not noticed, the greatest among us are beings capable of monstrous acts. Arthur was felled by it—held in deathless sleep for centuries—then raised up to unnatural life. Each time it is used, there is a price. Eventually there must be a balancing and an accounting.”

I hesitated. “He’ll die if I don’t do something.”

A jolt of angry electricity ran through me and thunder shook the windows. “Then do it!” Daley commanded.

I pulled away from the bard and slammed my hand down onto Tynan’s chest.

I must have closed my eyes again because it was dark. Even my sense of his aura was gone. All I could feel was the blood seeping from the cut in my hand and the pulse in my wrist pounding. Louder and louder it pounded—Tynan’s had joined it. As the blood spread out from my splayed fingers and mingled with Tynan’s, I realized I hadn’t closed my eyes at all. Blood was all I could see.

Taliesin’s voice pierced me. “For one such as you who sees power, emotion, and thought as color, what does the essence of life look like?”

He was right to ask. Blood was life. Blood was everything—every color that ever was or ever will be. I shook my head; I was too far past speech to explain.

My awareness of Tynan’s aura returned, but the green bond between us was too weak to hold him back from Death much longer. I thought I’d claimed him back in the cave, but I was wrong. That was why Morgan’s spell defeated me then and Death was defeating me now.

Blood magic is the greatest magic of all. More powerful even than Death.

I concentrated on the blood flowing from my hand and sent it into Tynan’s body, forcing the molecules in my blood to meld with his until we were one. Looking into his body from the inside, I was horrified. Tynan’s heart was a torn, pulpy mass. As I watched, it faltered to a stop and I knew it would never beat on its own again. As his heart died, I did the only thing I could do.

I gave him mine.

A surge swept through me more painful than anything I’d ever experienced as all the colors stranded behind the barrier in my mind emptied out of me in a great rush. I felt my back arch in a terrible spasm and then Peter’s hands on my shoulders holding me down. Waves of hot and cold flowed across my fingers as color erupted from them. The power of my blood could save Tynan, but only if I survived too, and I wasn’t sure the pain wouldn’t kill me. My heart beat so hard I was afraid it was going to burst.

It was beating for two.

Tynan’s life returned to him like sparks over charred and almost cold wood, but it wasn’t enough. The trickle of blood from my hand wasn’t enough. How much more could I give and still be the anchor he needed? I pushed down the fluorescent hues of panic. I could do this, but I needed more power. I needed the power of a god.

“Help me, Daley.”

I felt him hesitate, but then Peter’s hands were gone and Daley’s replaced them on my shoulders. For a moment it was like being tasered, but then I was filled with thunder, lightning, and storm-painted seas. If he ever mastered all these abilities, he would be as powerful as Morgan le Fay. His platinum was the power to control the wind and I took just enough of it to sweep as much of Tynan’s spirit as I could find into his body.

I could do anything while Daley was touching me.

The only color left in me was a trace of Taliesin’s indigo binding. It still lingered in the house and had seeped past the barrier in my mind. I used it to bind Tynan inside his own body.

My heart slowed to its normal pace, but the sound was off, as if a second beat followed the first an infinitesimal amount of time later. I thought of an old song I’d heard on the radio once.

Two hearts beat as one.

Taliesin’s whisper made me open my eyes, but I couldn’t look at him. “You are now bound closer than brother and sister, or parent and child. You will never be free of him until he dies. And he will die the moment you do.” I wasn’t sure how he knew, but I knew he was right.

I didn’t wait for Tynan to wake up. I didn’t want to be there when they told him about Rowan. I didn’t want to be there when they told him his mother had killed him. Grabbing Excalibur, I left. Peter’s concern followed me through our bond, but I ignored it.

Trudging down the driveway, I was surprised to see Thomas Redcap standing at the end of it, frowning. He wasn’t wearing his cap and without its constant shadow, his face was soft and young.

He smiled in greeting. “It’s good to see you alive and, well, alive after all that has happened,
mo leanabh
.”

“I’m not even going to ask how you know about that. And I’m not your child, Thomas.”

He examined me closely. “No, I suppose you’re not, Love. Not anymore.” His smile turned rakish and his accent thickened. “But that can be a good thing now, can’t it?”

My cheeks went hot. “What are you doing here?”

“I haven’t the faintest. The death of a Great One called me, but now upon my arrival, I find that all here are living souls.”

“Not all of us,” I whispered as I thought of Rowan’s body lost and forgotten in some distant cave.

Redcap sighed. “Ah yes, the druid. A good man by all accounts, but I do not come for the likes of him. I felt the son of Arthur die.”

“Yes, he died,” I said. “But then I made him live again.”

Redcap’s hand darted out to claim mine. Lifting my fingers to his lips, he bit one lightly.

“What are you doing?”  I asked breathlessly, but I didn’t move my fingers away from where they rested on his bottom lip, one of them bloodied.

He turned my hand over and kissed my palm on the small wound on my hand. I breathed in quickly when I felt his tongue flick at the blood covering it. Golden eyes rimmed in red gazed at me in wonder. “You are a goddess, love. Forgive me, for I couldn’t help but try to take a part of you for myself.”

Pulling away, I stumbled and dropped Excalibur. It hit the pavement with a dull clank.

I’ve really got to stop dropping this thing.

Redcap bent to pick it up, but his eyes widened as the rough metal refused to budge. He burst into laughter and the sound was sunshine and apples and warm blood.

“I understand everything now,” Thomas Redcap said.

CHAPTER FORTY THREE

Whatever it was that Redcap understood, he didn’t share it on the trip up to the lake. He was in a good mood though and enjoying the burger he’d asked me to drive through and get for him. I glanced over at him as he was finishing; he was a neat and fastidious eater.

I shivered as it reminded me of what else he delicately harvested and ate.

Pushing the thought away, I asked Redcap where his car was and why didn’t he drive himself if he was so keen, but he laughed again and turned up the volume on the heavy metal station he was forcing me to listen to.

Arthur’s awake and preparing to conquer the world and I’m transporting a bloodthirsty Greylander with bad taste in music to cottage country. In the off-season!

I could feel the heat of Redcap’s gaze on me as if he couldn’t stop looking at me. The nick on my finger and the wound on my hand burned.

When we arrived at the lake, Redcap was out of the car and almost down the hill as if he couldn’t wait for whatever it was he was expecting to happen next. “Grab a blanket if you’ve got one, Love,” he called over his shoulder, “and bring the sword.” When I caught up with him, he was already sitting on the dock with his eyes half closed against the weak sun. I did a quick check of the drowned trees before stepping back as far from the water as I could.

“Sit down, Rhiannon.” There was something in his voice that made my heart beat faster, but then I felt the echo of Tynan’s follow it and ice washed over me. “She’s down there, yes.”

L’Inconnue de la Seine.

Placing Excalibur in the center of the dock, I sat down and pulled the blanket over my knees. “Why are we here?”

In a sudden movement, Redcap pulled me back against his chest, grazing my temple with his rough cheek and wrapping his arms around me. “You’re cold,” he explained.

I held myself stiff for a moment and then relaxed. Redcap would keep me safe from L’Inconnue.

“Do you remember the day we met here?” His breath was warm. “You were a child then. A dangerous child I thought, but beautiful. Now you’re a woman and I’m in awe.” His lips brushed my ear and my colors swirled in confusion.

“What are you doing?” I whispered.

“Only what you want me to and nothing more,” he answered and nipped my ear with his sharp teeth.

“Stop!” I scrambled away from him and grabbed Excalibur.

We stared at one another. He was dangerous—I’d always known that—but I’d been drawn to him too. It didn’t matter though. I wasn’t ready for what he was offering me.

Redcap sighed and looked away. “I’m sorry,
mo leanabh
,” he said rubbing at the shadow of his beard, “I shouldn’t have done that. It’s just you remind me so much of one I lost long ago.”

Something blocked the sun. “Touch my daughter like that again, Redcap, and you will lose something else.”

The Lady of the Lake stood on the water with her cloud of dark hair rising in the wind.

“Mom!” I jumped to my feet, torn between amazement and embarrassment. “Morgan said it was possible, but I didn’t believe it.” Despite all my anger and disappointment, I wanted to touch her, but she was out of reach.

Viviane smiled. “You did well, Rhiannon. I had lost all power, all weight in this conflict over the fate of two worlds. But the moon wanes and dies only to be reborn again, and the tide recedes and then returns. I knew the Redcap would come at my death and consume my spirit and then you would spread my ashes here as I instructed.”

Redcap stood and gave her a little bow, but winked at me as he straightened. He wasn’t the least bit embarrassed. “I didn’t know why I was drawn to this place. And then I met you here and you were attacked by L’Inconnue. She wasn’t trying to kill you; she was trying to get us both into the water. The raw power inside you was the spark that lit the flame of the spell and Viviane left me when I jumped in to save you.”

“It was some time before my spirit and my body were rejoined, and still not perfectly.” Viviane gestured down at herself and I could see the lake through her flowing gown and white limbs. “Perhaps I will never leave this place until the true death of my kind claims me, but I have regained the power to do what must be done.”

Moisture ran over my lips and I realized I was crying. Viviane cocked her head at me as if my tears puzzled her. “Do not cry for me, Rhiannon, for I am content. I was one of three sisters, but of us all, I had the least of love within me. It seems to me now that we were each incomplete in some way, but I cannot puzzle out the mystery of it. Much that I was and knew is lost forever. Still, what love I had, I gave to you. Being your mother for a time has given me that gift and I am grateful, but I must now give you a gift which one day you may curse me for.”

Redcap motioned for me to approach. “Excalibur returns to the Lady of the Lake,” he proclaimed.

I picked up the shaft of lumpy metal and reached out over the water to give it to her. Taking its weight easily, Viviane examined it. “I am glad the Green Man kept our bargain, but it is difficult to again see the totem in this state. In the depths of the sea, I formed Excalibur from metal that fell from the sky, but I did not give it life. That task fell to another. Yet I knew its destiny was to save us from my brother’s dominion. I believed Arthur was Excalibur’s ordained master, but he disappointed me.”

“He’s awake,” I said.

She smiled sadly. “I know. I felt it. I felt your peril. And yet, here you are.”

“Morgan let me go.”

Viviane gazed into the sky as if she could see her sister there. “Do not judge Morgana too harshly; she fights her fate as best she can. Love is Morgana’s downfall, and yet she has had more of joy with both Arthur and Taliesin than I have had in all my days.”

Without warning, Viviane sank into the lake. I tried to look for her in the depths, but the water was strangely opaque. Redcap and I waited in awkward silence and the arm he draped around my shoulders for warmth was now light and impersonal. Finally she emerged, the water streaming from her hair and a magnificent sword in her hand. She offered me the hilt, but I hesitated.

“Take it,” Redcap urged me. “Take it before she fades.” He was right—Viviane was now transparent. I took the sword and then with the other hand she passed me a jeweled scabbard. Excalibur glittered in the dying light, but I felt nothing from it, not even a hint of the gold I’d sensed before.

She seemed to read my mind. “Yes, Excalibur has been remade, but it must still be quickened. You must temper it in the fire at the heart of the world and then you must find your true mother to guide you in how to use it. I go now to regain my strength. Do not come back here again until the end.” She began to fade.

“Wait! What does that mean?” The only mother I’d ever known was leaving me. It hurt worse than the first time because I knew it was her choice, that it had always been her choice.

“Go in peace and remember that as I was able, I loved you.” Viviane disappeared into the water.

“Wait!” I yelled as Redcap restrained me from diving in after her.

“Stop!” He shook me hard to get my attention. “Look!”

Where Viviane had disappeared, another figure surfaced, pale and menacing—L’Inconnue de la Seine. The creature had changed. Her hair now flowed over her white shoulders and the ghastly smile had relaxed. Through a splash of bright horror, I saw that her eyes were open and alive.

Redcap pulled me away from the edge. “Viviane has a new daughter now, and she will not let you disturb her mother’s rest. We’d best leave before she remembers she once walked on land.” We backed away and the creature watched us with gleaming eyes until we were off the dock before she slipped back down into the lake.

I sheathed Excalibur and followed Redcap to the car where he got into the driver’s seat without asking and began to drive. The heavy weight of the sword lay across my legs while anger simmered inside me and burned away my tears.

“Why couldn’t she tell me? Why couldn’t she give me what I needed, just once? I don’t care if she’s the damn Lady of the Lake! She owes me more than that.”

Redcap gave me a concerned look. “I wasn’t lying when I told Morgan that things were missing from Viviane’s essence. I now believe she used her power to excise certain memories. She no longer has the answers you seek, Rhiannon.”

“But why?”

He shrugged. “To protect you in case Cernunnos ever found her, I suspect.”

“Does it make me a bad person that I don’t care about that right now?”

He sighed. “No, love, it just makes you very young and there’s no shame in that.”

And there it was, the elephant sitting in the front seat between us.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Redcap. He’d saved my life and I was drawn to him, but he was a monster. Closing my eyes, I leaned my head against the cool glass of the window. The colors of regret filled me, but I wasn’t sure if they were mine or his.

I woke up when we pulled up in front of my house and Redcap muttered, “I’ll see you in safely.” As we went inside, I noticed that either Redcap wasn’t enough of a monster for the holly to keep him out, or the plant was somehow sentient enough to know he was with me.

He looked around and frowned. “Viviane lived here?” He seemed surprised and my cheeks went hot.

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing. It doesn’t seem like her, that’s all. This is cozy though.” He seemed to be picking his words carefully.

By “cozy” he means cramped, old, and ugly.

Anger swept through me, but there was no color left to call up fire with. “That’s just great! I get the second class mother and the second class house. And I suppose you’re my second class stalker. Pervert actually. What are you? A thousand years old? More? It’s gross. Or maybe you’re just a second class monster since you don’t even have the guts to eat the corpses you collect. And now I’m stuck with this second class sword! What am I supposed to do with it? Use it as a big, stupid letter opener?” I threw Excalibur on the couch.

Without warning, I was pushed hard against the wall; Redcap had me pinned. One hand held my wrists above my head and the other trailed across my cheek. I winced as his sharp fingernail pierced my skin.

“The Great Ones are always cruel. Never doubt that you stand first class among them,
mo leanabh
. But better an honest monster than one who hides behind a pretty face.”

As I stared into his gold and red eyes, I had an impulse to apologize, but the sting of the scratch on my cheek stopped me. There was a low growl as Seolan came out of the bedroom. He was no match for Redcap, but the look in the man’s eyes told me we weren’t in any real danger.

I was the one who had hurt
him
.

Redcap released me and walked away, his back straight and stiff. He opened the door and hesitated, but didn’t turn. “May the next time I see you be at the moment of your death, Great One,” he whispered, pulling the door closed behind him with a soft click.