The Silver Mist: A Wild Hunt Novel, Book 6 Page 21

  “I do. Right here,” Angus said, holding it up.

  “Give it to Ember. I care about you, mate, and I trust that you are no coward, but I am afraid that when you see the Cailleach, you might just go a little bonkers on us, given what she’s done to Fiona.”

  Angus let out a choked sound, but handed the stone to me. It felt heavy in my hands, chilled and polished in a way that resonated from deep within the stone.

  “You mean, what I’ve done to Fiona. Brighid left no doubt in my mind that this is my fault, and what’s happened to my wife lies directly on my head.” He sounded like a convicted man, facing execution.

  Herne turned to him, glancing over the seat. “Listen to me. I know what Brighid said, and in one respect, she’s right. But ultimately, the Cailleach remains to blame. She didn’t have to take possession of Fiona and she didn’t have to work through her. That was a choice that the Cailleach made. Granted, it’s the most natural choice for someone of her nature, but the Cailleach is the one who made the final decision.”

  “Thanks, but I know in my heart that if I hadn’t left Corryvreckan this wouldn’t have happened. I shirked my duty. I chose to blow it off like it was nothing. I just wish Fiona hadn’t been the one to pay for my stupidity.”

  Herne stared at him for a moment, then with an almost imperceptible shift, said, “All right, let’s get this show on the road. We want to be done before dark.”

  He hopped out of the car, shouldering his bow and quiver. As I emerged from my side of the car, Viktor crossed the driveway to help me on with my snowshoes—a new set, given both Raven and I had lost ours when we tumbled into the pit. I didn’t want to use them again—they were difficult in some ways, and bulky—but the snow was too deep to wade through. Once we were all strapped into our snowshoes, Angus led the way.

  “I can feel her, just like I could always tell where Fiona was.” He set off into the thicket that surrounded the house, where we had encountered the padurmonstris and the schnee-hexe.

  I looked around nervously, expecting the grigit to come bounding out at any minute. But it was quiet—too quiet. The trees felt watchful and wary, and the magic running through the copse had grown so thick I could barely breathe. This wasn’t the magic of the padurmonstris, though. This was the magic of the Cailleach.

  “How will we know when she’s near?” I asked, although in my bones I had the feeling there would be no doubt. She was everywhere around us, in the wind and the snow and ice. “Does she have to be in human form to shoot her?”

  “Yes, but she already is,” Herne said. “She’s taken over Fiona and is using her as a vehicle.”

  He said it so quietly that for a moment it didn’t register, and then I understood. He wouldn’t be shooting the Cailleach with the arrow. He would be shooting Fiona.

  I looked at Herne, and he met my gaze with a silent nod. Letting out a soft breath, I held the stone closer to me, trying to focus on anything beyond the thought that we were going to kill Fiona. Selfishly, I was grateful it was Herne who had the arrow, because I didn’t know if I could do it. I didn’t know if I could shoot someone who was ultimately—at heart—a good person. Fiona hadn’t chosen to open herself up to the Cailleach, and even though Fiona’s actual spirit—her essence--was lost inside the snowy Force, she still looked like Angus’s wife.

  At one point, as we pressed deeper into the thicket, I thought I saw something to the side. I paused, sweeping aside a branch of a fir tree. Behind it, I caught sight of an extremely large rabbit, almost the size of a small dog. It rose up on its haunches and met my gaze. There was intelligence behind that look, and I realized this was one of the padurmonstris. It seemed to be hiding, though, and I got the distinct impression that it was hoping I would ignore it and leave it alone. I slowly lowered the branch again, wincing as a shower of snow came tumbling off the tree, dousing me with the cold white powder.

  Herne glanced at me and I shook my head.

  “Padurmonstris, but I think it’s hiding from the Cailleach.”

  “I don’t blame it,” Herne said.

  I was beginning to wonder how large this thicket was. It seemed to be bigger once we were inside of it.

  “She’s near,” Angus said. “I don’t think you’ll have to summon her, Herne.” His voice echoed bleakly.

  “I can feel her,” I said, closing my eyes. “Why isn’t she hiding?”

  “Because she knows that we won’t stop. She knows that this showdown will happen, regardless of her plans. If she were to just pick up and run off, Herne could summon her back thanks to Brighid. The Cailleach is afraid of no one, and she considers herself stronger than Brighid, so she’s hoping that she’ll beat us at our own game.” Angus stopped in his tracks. “Do you know why Brighid gave you that arrow? Other than wanting to stop the Cailleach?”

  I shook my head. “Why?”

  “In the lore of my ancestors, it’s written that when Brighid first went up against the Cailleach, the Triamvinate decreed that if the Cailleach broke free, the one onus placed upon her was that she must answer Brighid’s challenge. If an arrow was offered in the hunt for the Cailleach, the Cailleach must face the challenge. If she wins, she goes free.”

  Angus looked so stricken that I wanted to give him a hug.

  “That’s why my family was entrusted with the stone. If she somehow avoids the arrow, if the marksman cannot shoot to a true aim, then she’ll run wild. Herne must hit her in the heart.”

  So there was more at stake than we thought. If we missed, the Cailleach would be free to do as she would. And there would be nothing we could do about it, at least as far as Angus seemed to think.

  “Why didn’t Brighid give us two arrows, then? To increase our chances?”

  Herne glanced at me. “These arrows cost Brighid a great deal more than a bit of metal. Each one is infused with her blood, and when it hits its mark, she feels the pain of the victim. She feels the death caused by her own arrows. In this case, she will feel the rage and anger of the Cailleach as she is driven back into her stone, as well as any pain Fiona’s body endures. All of that will reverberate through Brighid’s psyche. It’s not an easy thing to bear. Which is why she gave the arrow to me. I’m almost always true with my aim.”

  I let out a long breath. In a sense, the goddess Brighid had offered us a double-edged sword that would rebound against her. That alone sent a deep sense of reverence for her through me.

  “How much farther do you think we have to go?” Yutani asked. He was looking nervously around the thicket.

  “We don’t,” Victor said. “The mountain has come to us.”

  As we turned, there, facing us from beneath a tall fir tree, was Fiona. The Cailleach had come to meet the challenge.

  ANGUS LET out an anguished cry as Fiona laughed. He glanced at Herne. “Give me one last chance to get through? Please?”

  Herne nodded, but his voice was brusque when he spoke. “You have one chance. And Angus, if I have to, I’ll have Viktor hold you back.”

  Angus stepped forward, holding out his hands. My heart broke for him as I watched.

  “Fiona, my wife. Please, please try to break free. This is my fault. This is all my fault. If you can hear me, Cailleach, Ice Queen of Winter, please let her go. If you have to take over someone, let it be me. I’m the one to blame. I faltered in my duty. Set my wife free, and I’ll take her place willingly.” He fell to his knees, holding out his hands, as he begged for Fiona’s life.

  My stomach clenched. For both Angus’s and Fiona’s sake, I prayed the Cailleach would have some sense of mercy, but I didn’t hold out much hope. The Cailleach was a Luo’henkah, far beyond human emotions, and even her joy in being free wasn’t the same as human joy. I wanted to run to Herne, to cling to him as we watched and waited, but I didn’t dare interrupt him.

  Herne fit Brighid’s golden arrow into his bow, and now he waited.

  Fiona—the Cailleach—turned to Angus, who was kneeling on the ground before her. The look in her eyes was one
of swirling frost and ice, the smile on her face sly.

  “You ask for mercy. And yet you have held me against my will, Keeper of the Corryvreckan stone. You have been my warden and prison keeper, like your father before you, and his father before him. And so on into the depths of history. But yet, you also gave me the chance to break free.” The sly smile turned ever upward. Fiona looked over at Herne. “You are a fool, to care so much for what one man feels.” With that moment, she jumped. Fiona dropped to the ground as a silver mist rose out of her body and plunged into Angus’s form.

  Abruptly, Angus shot to his feet and turned, his hand out. A silver beam shot forth, filled with spikes of ice aimed directly at Herne. Herne dodged, swinging his bow to bear again, but Angus was off and running. He darted behind a tree.

  The wind was picking up, shrieking around us as a nearby cedar, laden with snow on its boughs, creaked and moaned as it toppled forward, falling toward us. Viktor grabbed hold of my arm and yanked me away as he stumbled back in the snow. Yutani dodged to the side, and Herne managed to jump away as the tree landed, its heavy trunk merely a couple yards from him.

  I turned to Viktor. “Fiona! We have to pull her away.”

  Viktor nodded, leaping over the trunk and running toward Fiona’s prone form. Herne was chasing Angus, bow in hand. Yutani brought out what looked like a tranquilizer gun, trying to take a bead on Angus’s form. I followed Viktor as he carried Fiona over to the shelter of a nearby tree. He looked at me.

  “Stay with her.”

  “No. There’s something I can do against the Cailleach that you can’t. You stay with her.” I summoned up my Leannan Sidhe self. I gave her full rein, because I knew she could handle the snow better than I could. I had nothing on the Cailleach when it came to snow magic, but there was something I could do to disrupt her.

  As I looked up, I could see the swirl of energy following Angus, and I could feel the connection between the Cailleach and the storm. If I could suck the moisture out of the air, it might have an effect on her.

  I focused on the clouds, focused on the water in frozen form, and bade it to transform, because I knew I couldn’t manage to make it all dissipate. I couldn’t bust the clouds apart.

  With a shimmer, the snow suddenly turned to heavy rain, saturating the ground around us. It was coming down in buckets, but rain I could work with. I aimed it at the face of the Cailleach, to blind her with a wave of water. I wasn’t sure exactly whether it was working, but Angus suddenly froze, then turned to me.

  “You dare disrupt my power!” Angus’s voice echoed through the copse, low and resonant.

  It was then that I remembered that he had his own magic and the Cailleach could use that.

  Oh crap. I started to run, heading toward the fallen cedar so that I could take shelter behind it. The Cailleach, still in Angus’s body, let out a shriek, wiping the rain away from his eyes.

  Herne swung around, bringing his bow up, taking a bead on Angus.

  When I saw what he was doing, I froze, and began to laugh at the Cailleach, waving my hands to get her attention. As she focused on me, she held out one hand and another stream of ice spikes came sailing my way. Herne took that moment to let fly the golden arrow of Brighid, and it spun through the air, slicing a path directly into Angus’s heart. I dropped to the ground, barely escaping the hail of ice. As the spikes whistled overhead, I huddled behind the tree.

  A shriek echoed through the thicket, piercing the air, so loud that it made my eardrums hurt. I pressed my hands to my ears, still huddling on the ground. And then I remembered the stone. I had dropped it when I ran over to Fiona. I sat up, terrified, but saw that Yutani had managed to grab hold of it and he was holding the stone out. A silver mist was rushing toward it, escaping from Angus’s body, slamming into the stone. Angus fell to the ground, the arrow piercing his heart as a pool of blood began to stain the fresh snow.

  A moment later, everything fell silent around us. The Cailleach was trapped within the stone again. And Angus was dead.

  YUTANI STARED AT THE STONE, then silently held it out to Herne, who took it and packed it into his backpack.

  “So is that it? Is she in there?” My shoulders were tense as I waited for the Cailleach to reappear. The storm had immediately begun to ease up, but I didn’t trust it.

  Herne nodded, his expression bleak. “Yes, we trapped her.”

  “And Angus?” Yutani asked.

  “I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. She wasn’t in possession of his body long enough.” He lifted his head, a bleak expression filling his eyes “I just killed one of my oldest friends.”

  I wanted to go to him, but he needed space. I could feel it. I ducked my head, staring down at Fiona. Viktor knelt beside her, lifting her up in his arms. He took hold of her wrist, feeling for her pulse. After a moment, he shook his head.

  “She’s dead.”

  “She was so entwined with the Cailleach that when Angus goaded her into fleeing Fiona’s body, it killed her. My guess is her soul is still entwined with the Cailleach’s.” Herne walked over to kneel by Fiona’s side. He gently brushed her eyes closed. “Rest well, in the arms of the winter crone.”

  There was a sound behind us and I glanced over my shoulder. Brighid was standing there, a fiery flame against the snow. Three tall elves stood behind her.

  She gazed down at Angus’s body, then over at Fiona, a sadness in her eyes so strong that it made me want to weep. In fact, I realized I was already crying.

  Herne waded through the snow to hand her the stone.

  Brighid held it up, then walked over to Angus and knelt by his body, her gown spreading across the snow like a carpet of spring moss. “Away to the Summerlands, fair Angus.”

  “What about Fiona?” I asked as Brighid grasped hold of the arrow and, bracing herself, pulled it out of his heart. A fresh spatter of blood spread across the snow, thin fingers of red staining the white like a blush of roses.

  “She sleeps within the stone, bound to the Cailleach.” Brighid looked up at me, her emerald eyes mirroring my own. “Sometimes there is no remedy, Ember Kearney. Sometimes, life is what it will be, regardless of what we hope for. Their daughter awaits my return. She will move to Corryvreckan and take over the post of her ancestors.” She paused, then glanced over at the thicket. “The Cailleach left behind a part of herself.”

  We followed her gaze. There, dancing through the trees, was a ghostly spirit who looked like Fiona, but she was translucent, spinning through the soft snowfall, oblivious to our presence.

  “Who’s that?” I asked. “That can’t be Fiona, not if she’s tangled with the Cailleach.”

  “The Cailleach spun off a daughter, who will wander in Fiona’s form. She’s an elemental spirit, a Luo’henkah like her mother, but she’s young and new.” Brighid watched her for a moment. “There’s nothing we can do about her. It will take centuries for her to evolve. Until then, we’ll set up someone to watch over her.”

  “A daughter?” Herne stared at the spirit. “How is that possible?”

  “Fiona was one of the magic-born, and had a great deal of power. The Cailleach must have taken hold of that force and infused a part of her own self into it. But the daughter is autonomous. I cannot control her like I can the Cailleach.” Brighid stood, shaking her long red hair, her curls tossing in the wind. “But I can give her a name. And once a thing is named, there is a chance to gain control over it.”

  “What will you call her?” Yutani asked, coming to stand next to me.

  “Isella, the Daughter of Ice.” Brighid turned back to us. “Well done, Herne. You forfeited much with your actions, but you have saved countless lives from the Cailleach’s fury. Each time she escapes, she grows stronger, and she grows more angry at her entrapment. One day I fear my arrows will no longer be able to contain her. Until that day, however, we will do what is needed to keep her under guard.”

  “May that day never arise,” Herne said. “What about Angus’s house?”

  “
I will arrange for the contents to be returned to Scotland, to his daughter. His other son has drifted away from the family line, in terms of duty, but his daughter holds true and she will do what her father could not.”

  Two of the elves respectfully picked up Angus’s body, and the third scooped Fiona into his arms. They returned to Brighid’s side. With that, the four of them began walking toward a particularly dense patch of undergrowth.

  “I will call you when I have need of your services,” Brighid said over her shoulder before vanishing in a swirl of mist and smoke.

  We were alone. As we stood there, a noise behind me caught my attention. I turned to see the padurmonstris—the rabbit I had seen—peeking out. I lifted my fingers to my lips but nodded to it, and it inclined its head back toward me.

  We stood there for another moment, watching as the bloodstained snow slowly vanished beneath the new snowfall. Then, as Isella spun in circles, we turned our backs on her and walked out of the thicket, leaving it to the elementals and the creatures who called it their home.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  A ll the way back from Angus’s house, we had remained silent. There was nothing to say. We had lost both Angus and Fiona. Isella had been born, spinning off from her mother. The Cailleach was under control, but given all that had happened, it seemed a hollow victory.

  Back at the hospital, we gathered around Rafé’s bed. He was awake and able to talk, though he was bruised up pretty badly, and with a broken leg, broken arm, and broken ribs, he wouldn’t be running around any time soon. But at least we had saved his life.

  Angel sat on the bed next to him, his good hand in hers.

  “Can you remember what happened? How did they find out you were a spy?” Herne asked.

  Rafé tried to adjust his position. A veiled look passed through his eyes. “They knew, Herne. They knew that I was a spy. I’m not sure who told them, but somebody did. Somebody who knew what we were planning.” He paused, then shook his head. “They have someone on the inside, somewhere.”