REALM'S END (BOOK OF FEY 1) Read online

  The sleeping chamber door opened and James stepped in with a long tapered lit candle, sending its light deep into the darker corners. “Till the fire picks up I thought a bit of light would be welcome.” James sat the candle down on the bedside table, “for the eating of course,” he said, grinning from ear to ear as he hurried from the room. He returned shortly, balancing a plate of food and a clay jar of cider. “A wee bit of cider tonight I don’t suppose would hurt us,” he said, shutting the door behind himself, with a well-placed kick of his bare foot.

  Meredith pulled back the covers and reached out taking the plate of food he handed her. She always enjoyed watching him parade around naked, his sparse chest hair a mix of black and grey gleaming against his sun burnt skin. She was sure there would have been much more naked parading about if they had been a young married couple without a half grown child underfoot. “Well give me a drink husband,” she said smiling. “I’m fairly parched from doing my wifely duty,” Meredith teased.

  James’ laughter rang out in the quiet room. “Duty, woman that was surely way past any duty, you might call it, that was what could only be called your pleasure.” He bowed low, teasingly, before he settled himself in the bed next to her. “I checked on Gwenth. The lass is still sleeping, and I’m glad of it. I don’t mind saying, earlier, I felt the fear on me that she might walk in on us,” he laughed. “You know, a thought like that can ruin a man if it comes at the wrong time,” he said, taking a piece of the roasted lamb and popping it into his mouth, and licked his fingers clean of the meat’s juices. “She has a blasted stick in bed with her. I swear it almost looked as if it was glowing when I peeked in. Sometimes I wonder about that girl,” he said smiling at his wife.

  “Don’t worry so, she is finding her way to adulthood. I do have to admit to you love, Gwenth and I had another row today. Something’s changed though, I’m usually beside myself about it all but I’m feeling more optimistic. I believe it will eventually sort itself out.” Meredith leaned over and reached across James bare chest to pick up the jar of cider from where it stood on the bedside table.

  “I worry about that, you know. What if she never accepts you,” he said, his voice turning thick with emotion.

  Meredith swallowed the heady cider and considered James’ fear. Her intuition told her that it all would somehow be ok. She’d at last recognized the underlying truth that her sisters pointed out to her. She finally knew to the depths of her soul that accepting the love she had for this mortal was somehow part of the key that would free them all. “No it’s going to be ok. She’s just been hurt as any child would be. As time goes on she will come to grips with the love we share.”

  “Hmm, if you say so, wife of mine.” His eyes twinkled, as he reached out for more of the meat. “God the meat seems so good tonight, why is that? Did you make it differently?”

  “No, no, same as always, maybe it’s just your hunger giving it flavor.” Meredith laughed, as she reached under the covers and stroked his muscled thigh.

  “Here now,” he hollered in surprise. “Aren’t you too tired for that?”

  “Aye, if the truth be told, I am.” Meredith leaned in to kiss him, his lips slick with meat juices, “I find though I can’t ever quite get enough of you, either.”

  They finished the rest of the meal in silence, each caught up in the privacy of their own thoughts. When they were done eating, James set the plate down on the floor, and blowing out the candle he pulled Meredith into his arms. “Aye, I feel the same way myself,” he said, kissing her deeply. “Let’s just lie here and watch the fire. You could tell me about when you were a wee lass, maybe it will help me with Gwenth somehow. Girls are so much more difficult than boys I think. With a boy you just cuff his ear and go on. Girls are so blasted emotional.”

  Meredith lay against James’ great muscled chest and listened to his heart beating. “Someday husband I will tell you about my childhood, but not now. Let’s just lie here and enjoy the comfort of the night.”

  “Aye, let’s.”

  Outside, the sea wind had risen, it was blowing hard against the cottage walls and off in the distance they could hear the water slamming into the cliff side; but here, in their room the fire was warm, as were their two hearts, and both felt at ease in a way they had never known before. It wasn’t long before James’ breath deepened and he nodded off to sleep.

  Meredith lay staring at the fire. She knew life was full of incongruities, on one hand love had come into her life, bringing with it a delight she had never known in her crow form and yet on the other hand she was here to help or force the girl to break through the curtain that hung between at least two time lines, in order to bring a new race of people into this world. Meredith shivered, the dangers were great. She must help Gwenth and keep her safe at the very least for her husband’s sake, she feared even his great strength would not be enough to survive a second death of a loved one.

  As a child, Meredith had always been enamored of the story of the red-haired girl who saved the Fey. In the ancient myth, the crow people were said to have aided the youth in bringing the Fey forward. The story had always been vague how the girl had traveled to and from the other timelines, but tonight when Meredith saw the letters glowing on the branch, she knew the branch could only be from the Great Rowan. In her tribe it was still a matter of contention if the Rowan was the tree of life or the tree of knowledge. Even now after a millennium had passed, the scholars of her people still argued over the tree. The physical tree had long ago been destroyed, so how did a branch from the original tree come to be on the shore of Scotland in 1753? Meredith couldn’t answer that question. She felt herself beginning to doze off, when she realized the Rowan branch might be the means that allowed the girl to travel back through time.

  Time to Go

  Meredith forced herself to lie still and breathe evenly as she tried to sort out what had awakened her. By the long shadows, the hour was clearly late. The fire was only warm embers, now. James had rolled away and was snoring softly on his side. Yet something had awakened her. What it was, she couldn’t say, but as she lay listening to the keening wind, it abruptly came to her that Gwenth was in some sort of trouble. When she looked with her inner sight, she could see the girl’s energy field, it was clear Gwenth was caught in a kind of time vortex and if left unchecked she would break through the barrier tonight. Cold dread ran through Meredith; she knew in her bones that the girl wasn’t ready. Why didn’t I explain more to her? Quietly she dressed and slipped out of the room. First, she must stir up the fire and then she would call her sisters to help.

  Stopping before the peat Meredith snapped her fingers and the fire roared up. A voice whispered from the flames. “Hurry sister, we have had a devil of a time trying to wake you. We could hear your thoughts, as you awoke. Don’t punish yourself; there is no time for that now. Besides, it will do neither you nor the girl any good. You are right though,” the voice stated. “She will go tonight. So odd, don’t you think?”

  Another disembodied voice joined in from the fire. “Yes very odd, why do you suppose we didn’t notice this earlier today?”

  Meredith blushed. “Well, sisters I think that it came about from both a dream she had and perhaps from my own answering my desires. She is stronger than any of us have suspected. I could see the magic laying against her skin like a great coat hanging about her shoulders earlier tonight, but why her mother never trained her is beyond me, and now I have shirked my duty as well. I’m sending her off without a single clue of how to protect herself. I fear her death will be the ruin of my own dreams.”

  Laughter broke through the fire. “So you gave in to your heart at last. That’s funny in the extreme dear sister, but even so I’m not sure how it could compel the child to cross the broken stream of time. I think you are too quick to take the blame. Perhaps it was always tonight and we missed the signals. Gods know, the universe doesn’t always communicate in a clear way.”

  Meredith ran into Gwenth’s room and carried the slee
ping girl and her magic branch into the cottage’s main room and laid her down in front of the hearth. Meredith sensed as much as felt a fever burning behind the girls’ eyes. She went to the water bucket and brought back a damp cloth to wipe her brow with.

  “Sister, why are you not using your magic? There is no time for this running about.”

  She wiped Gwenth’s brow with the damp cloth, and considered what Hectain said. She couldn’t say why she had wasted precious time running back and forth, when clearly magic was faster. They would have to discuss it later; right now there was no time to waste.

  “So she is to travel the road of sick to go there,” Reval’s voice called out from the fire, “that is too bad. It is so much harder to control the illness for those caught in the human form.”

  Hectain’s voice asked through the flames, “Why not make us more whole, sister, so that we may be of better help to you?”

  “No, I can’t waste any energy now sisters, your spirits will have to be enough. I have laid a sleep spell on her father; see that it stays in place, please, so that I may be here wholly for the girl.”

  Meredith knelt next to the fevered Gwenth concentrating, snapping her fingers she undressed the girl, with her magic. When she had her naked, she rubbed a soothing lotion of mint and moonwort into her pale skin. She hoped the lotion might aid in breaking through the fever or at least keep the fever from ravaging the girl’s physical body and the moonwort would also assist Gwenth in traveling the broken road of time. Meredith then covered the naked Gwenth with a lamb skin sewn bright with the blue-black feathers of crows; all from Corvine that died during great acts of magic over the past millennia. The cape was seeded with the old magic and would assist the girl without being asked or commanded, it would just naturally assist her own unspoken desires. Gwenth still grasped tightly to the limb, which had begun to grow in earnest now. The small buds that had sprouted earlier were now breaking into leaf all up and down the length of the branch. In the last several hours the shaft had grown substantially, its growth clearly tied to the ramping up of the magical vortex. Meredith’s hands shook, for she understood the need to hurry was great; the branch could not be allowed to reach maturity here, for in its unchecked growth it would destroy the world in this timeline. Meredith realized the wind had begun to blow harder. The cottage seemed to heave under the crushing weight of the wind but the stones so far continued to hold against the gale.

  “Are you ready sister? There is no more time,” the sisters’ voices called out in unison from the fire.

  “Yes. On the count of three I shall throw the stick into the blaze and you will hold the house here in this timeline and hopefully together. One, two, three.” Meredith tore the limb from Gwenth’s grasp and threw it into the flames.

  Suddenly there was a great whoosh and the room was plunged into darkness, the fire was completely snuffed out, no starlight penetrated the shuttered windows. Outside everything became eerily quiet as if the wind and water had been stilled. The silence lasted for all of a split second, yet Meredith’s fear nearly consumed her for she knew their past, present and future hung in the balance. Just as suddenly the moment passed, and the house began to shake as the gale force winds were once again beating against the cottage walls. The stones began to ring out, as though they were being pummeled again and again by a large sledge hammer. Meredith felt the air change, she felt herself being pulled into a different time. “Hold us sisters,” she cried out. Then there came a loud pop and overhead part of the roof gave way. Meredith looked up it and saws the corner of the roof being pulled away as if by a giant hand. The ridge pole broke loose and began falling into the room. Meredith leaned over the girl, using her body to cover and protect the child from the falling debris. It was as if the wind had grown hands, and the fingers of the wind were like sharpened claws tearing at their skin and hair. Meredith felt her clothes being shredded and feared that if the girl didn’t cross soon, they both would die standing upon the doorstep of time.

  “Sister, we’ve still got you, though the fire is very low here. Can you not build up the blaze on your side?”

  “No, Reval, we are being torn apart here. I dare not move from the child’s side. I’m hoping the winged cape will help her, though it hasn’t had long to bond with her. I think its need to protect is our only hope in saving her now,” Meredith screamed over the wind! “Hang on tight sisters, I feel another surge coming!”

  Outside, the wind grew more aggressive and began to beat against the stone walls as though it could and would destroy the building. Meredith could hear the stones ringing out as if struck like a bell, with each growing gust. She began to fear for she knew none of them were strong enough to stave off this brutal assault, or to keep the girl from harm’s way much longer.

  Suddenly Gwenth sat up. She clutched the winged cape to her breast; her dark eyes stared vacantly into Meredith’s eyes.

  Meredith saw by the firelight, the girls eyes were no longer the vibrant green. It was clear to Meredith, whoever inhabited the young woman’s body, it wasn’t Gwenth.

  “Princess, you may have taken on too great a task this time, even for the tribe of Corvine. It would bring ruin on this world if I let her stay, Gwenth said, in a voice not her own. Turning towards the fire, Gwenth reached over and leaning forward at the waist hooked her fingers around the butt end of the Rowan branch. The air stilled abruptly, the wind died back as if it had never blown, at the same time the fire roared to life. Gwenth turned slowly back to Meredith. “It is good you love him, for we both know the girl may not return,” and clasping the branch to her breast, she spoke the words, “home,” and with a loud thunderous clap, Gwenth disappeared.

  The flames leapt up out of control, the sisters used the energy to see through the flames. The devastation that had been waged against the cottage was apparent. Everything was in shambles. The roof was torn apart and rain poured through the great gash soaking all it touched. The wind had forced sand through any crevice it could find, so that now all surfaces had the worn look of something scoured by wind over many lifetimes. Pottery and dishes lay smashed into bits, blanketing the wood floor with their sharp shards. The sisters let out a collective sigh, Gwenth was away and they had all witnessed a visitation from one of the old sacred ones. They’d been mesmerized as they watched the old one speak through the girl, but they had allowed their guard to slip once the elder had come through. Suddenly Hectain and Reval gasped out loud, for behind Meredith the human man walked out naked from the bedroom. They had let the sleeping spell slip. “Oh dear,” they said in unison.

  “Oh dear what,” the man asked?

  Meredith turned and saw James standing near the sleeping room door completely nude, she blushed. “Oh I was just saying oh dear about the roof of course,” she said trying to gain her feet. “That was a bad storm,” she said. Waving off her sisters behind her back, she stepped carefully but quickly around the overturned chairs and over a pile of fallen stone and hurried across the room to his side.

  “I seemed to have slept through most of it,” he said taking her into his arms. “You must have been quite frightened; I can feel you trembling. James pulled Meredith closer. I think the wind must have come down the chimney; your hair looks grey in this light; probably from the ash.”

  Meredith tried to push her rising fears away as she snuggled into James’ warm body. “Yes it was frightening, but I’m fine now. As for my hair,” Meredith said pushing it away from her face, forcing the wild locks into some semblance of normal, “I’m sure it is just ash.”

  “Is Gwenth ok? Have you checked on her yet,” he asked, walking toward the young woman’s door?

  Meredith caught her breath as James quietly nudged the door open. What could she say to him that would make any kind of sense? She groaned a little, but tried to put a smile on her face. She may well have to put another spell on James till Gwenth returned.

  “Ah, good she’s still sleeping. God the girl must be as tired as I was to sleep through a storm lik
e this.”

  Meredith couldn’t believe her ears. Hurrying to the doorway she peeked in and saw the girl stretched out as if asleep. Meredith felt her curiosity growing. Though she could clearly see Gwenth’s body sleeping, she knew the girl was not really there at all. Meredith shook her head; trying to clear her senses. This was indeed a powerful magic, she shivered again, for the realization of that knowledge only increased her sense of fear.

  The air suddenly felt charged, as if a powerful force had entered the room, and the fire roared out of control again in the fireplace. James appeared to be stuck mid-sentence. Meredith turned and there stood her two sisters, their faces turned downward, but she saw they both peeked up in order to see her face, for next to them stood the King of the tribe Corvine. He glared dangerously at her.

  Meredith hastily bowed to the king, “Father.”

  “Meredith, what insanity has caused you to mess with the streams of time? Did you really think that we would not notice?” The king cautiously walked through the debris and stopped in front of his youngest child.

  Meredith felt her anger welling up. She had not often challenged her father, the King. “Yes, well I suppose father, we did think you might not notice, or perhaps we thought that you would not care, even if you did notice. So have you come then to slap my hand, or banish me from the kingdom of Corvine, or perhaps you’d like my tail feathers?”

  Meredith’s sisters stood sullen and silent by the fireplace. Their eyes rested on the floor, and they only dared allow themselves quick darting glances at the two people filling up the energy in the room.

  The King’s shiny black boots made not a sound as he strolled about the cottage that now lay in shambles. His blue black hair lay tied loosely at the nape of his neck. A cape decorated with a crow wings worth of feathers hung lightly about his shoulders, while it would have been an odd piece of clothing on any human, on the King of the Corvine it was regal. The cape acted like a bugle to any passing crow or any passing God for that matter. This more than any other feature about him declared his monarchy to those whom he met, for it was a sacred piece that had been handed down since time immemorial, from Corvine king to Corvine king. It was this cape he now pulled closer about himself as he glared at his youngest offspring. There was no doubt as to his anger as he looked haughtily at his youngest child. “Let’s try this from a different tact, shall we daughter? Perhaps you should count your blessings that I did notice. For had I not, you would have been hanged as a witch, by these mortals. As it is I will still have to muster quite a spell to diffuse the fear all this energy has already raised.”