Aengus took Mother and I to a very little-used room of Bri Leith where Father stored his war chariots. There were no mirrors leading to the Stone of Destiny and we wouldn’t make it in time if we ran. Riding was the most logical choice to keep our head start. He chose a light model meant to serve one man. Pulling it fell to me since Uncle Aengus knew how to drive the chariot and donning a horse glamour would disguise me better from onlookers searching for the Key.
Falling back into animal transformation took some coaching as Aengus readied the tack necessary to strap me in. My hands and feet closed into hooves while my midsection expanded into a wide barrel. I pushed through the harness and nickered against the oppressive leather pressing tight against my much longer face. Aengus and Mother rode in the basket. She balanced the sacred treasures in a satchel Aengus conjured for her. We took off across Midhe with as much magical haste as I could muster.
Hills and tree groves flew by as I followed my uncle’s lead north. We reached three quarters of the way to the Stone when a flock of many-colored birds flew from Tara. A falcon caught sight of our chariot first and screeched an alarm.
There’s an enemy upon us! I sent the message through the mental link Aengus established while strapping me in.
I see them. Aengus pulled me to a sharp right turn, then left. The assailant changed course in the air and follow us, shrieking as they went. I can’t waste power on enemies, yet.
I pumped my legs into a harder gallop and leapt over the crest of the next hill. Mother shrieked with the maneuver, but I couldn’t afford to check behind me to see if she or the treasures were still safe. My nostrils flared with each breath and I panted through my mouth to suck enough air into my larger lungs. The Stone of Destiny rose like a small spire over the horizon.
They aren’t attacking, they’re tracking. Aengus’ nerves pressed me through the link. It’s as I feared. They will draw an army.
Another winged creature raced after the falcon, an eagle with a much larger shape and an array of fiery feathers. I feared all four of my legs would give out speeding against a foe of that size.
The eagle opened its talons as it gained on the scout. I expected them both to dive at us and scoop up the chariot from the ground with all of us attached. The larger raptor cast its shadow over the falcon and closed its claws around it with a sickening crunch. Then it dove for us.
My foreleg tripped and I skidded to a halt. Aengus and Mother went rolling out of the chariot, scattering the treasures.
The eagle opened their wings at the last moment, sending a hot gust at us as they landed. The bright feathers unfurled into a set of garb of the same color and a woman that glowed with the heat of a roaring forge. Aunt Brigid.
Brigid saw to Aengus and Mother first as I shifted to my human shape. She uncurled Aengus from around my mother and inspected both of them. Any accidental injury from the Spear of Lugh or Nuada’s Sword might prove fatal to either of them.
I untangled myself from the fallen chariot’s torn harness and cradled my arm to my chest. My newly formed right shoulder ached but I could still move it.
“We must reach the Stone before the coronation.” Aengus gripped my aunt tight with urgency. “Riona cannot have the Key. The humans will end us.”
“I’m aware of the situation.” Brigid helped Mother collect the treasures from the ground and reassemble them into the satchel. “Etain, did you consent to do this ritual even though it means your death?”
“I want to move on and save my son,” Mother said, holding the treasures to her breast. “That is my wish.”
“Very well, then as your caretaker I must aid you.” Brigid frowned as she turned her disappointed eyes on Aengus. “You carry Daire the rest of the way. I’ll lend you my power should you need it. I will deliver Etain. Keep a wide formation so no one suspects our cooperation. Alter your mood to produce clouds we may hide within. Haste is our priority.”
As soon as Mother climbed to Brigid’s shoulders, my aunt unfurled her feathers once more and gripped the treasures in her talons. She beat her wings until she carried Mother into the gathering clouds above.
Aengus hoisted me onto his back and his appendages sprouted leathery flaps and a long tail. Spines grew from under me and his soft cloak turned to the rough scales of a wyvern. He preferred more fantastic beasts with his larger transformations.
Flying proved easier and quicker than the chariot as Aengus rose high enough for the air to grow thin. The wisping clouds licking his belly gave us a fair amount of cover from the birds scouring the world below.
How long until we arrive? I reopened the mental link between us, taking advantage of the few moments of peace.
Soon, princeling. My uncle banked left and revealed the Stone below. Aunt Brigid had already perched along its perimeter.
I wanted to say something before this plays out. I gripped the hard spine in front of me in readiness for his upcoming dive. I don’t hate you. You have wounded me and I’m not sure how our friendship will recover. But I still love you, despite that.
That’s sweet of you. Aengus tucked his wings and we began to fall. I’ll make up for what I’ve done…somehow.
We plummeted and the wind lashed against me almost too hard to hold on. The impact of his wings cutting our descent threw me into the thankfully soft grass around the Stone of Destiny’s platform.
“Daire and Etain have to set up the ritual themselves. I will guide them through it while we erect a barrier.” Aengus waved Brigid into position. Mother went to the platform with her satchel of treasures clutched in her arms.
That rough hewn rock surrounded by decorative knotwork bound the walls of Tir Na Nog together and anchored the whole island. Its oppressive power pulled me as I drew nearer. The Key’s dormant energy woke within my belly, pulsing to match the Stone’s magic.
“First Daire,” Aengus directed as he knelt to draw Ogham script into the ground, “instruct your mother to place the treasures at the same three points they would occupy if it were a large triquetra. Make sure each faces its province of origin.”
I took Mother’s shoulders and guided her to the northeast portion of the circular platform. “The Spear of Lugh here, for Uliad.” She set the long shaft down with the point facing toward Manannan’s realm. Then to the western portion. “The Dagda’s Cauldron here, for Connacht.” She set the Cauldron on the very edge of the circle. Lastly, the southeast, as south as we could face it while following the pattern my uncle described. “Nuada’s Sword of Light, for Mumhan.” Mother unsheathed the weapon, making it brighten to life as she placed it with the blade going outward like she had done with the Spear.
“Where…” Mother twitched under my fingers, shuddering. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sending you back with your family,” I said, trying to reassure whatever personality she’d reverted to. New tears stung at my eyes. “Trust me, please.”
“Home? You’re finally sending me home?” Mother relaxed under my hands as she happily sighed. “And I can see my husband and my parents? My dear little Tainy?”
“I pray you will.” I gulped as I awaited Aengus’ next order.
“Good, very good.” Aengus’ barrier crackled to life. The spark of his magic flowed through the area between him and my aunt in a perfect circle. “Etain, stand by the Stone. Daire, stand across from her, feet touching the earth. Good. Focus on the grass, the soil, the powers of Tir Na Nog itself.”
I knelt and buried my bare fingers into the grass, channeling its power into me, through me. My breaths slowed to an even pace and the entire isle’s essence touched mine.
“Here starts the difficult part,” Aengus said. “You have to draw on the Key’s power. Find it within the core of yourself and make it manifest.”
“But I need the High King’s authority to do that,” I said. “Without it I cannot manipulate the Key.”
“The Key is always inside of you and right now there is no High King. You aren’t going to open anything. Channel its energy into a shape. With that shape, you will have to…” He trailed off.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You know where my heart is, little swan.” Mother finished the thought, eyeing me with renewed clarity. “Aim true. Finish it clean.”
“I will, Mamai.” I breathed deep, closing my eyes and focusing on burrowing deep into myself. Those pulses it shared with the Stone of Destiny should guide me to its resting place. I knew its color, a brilliant white light like the Spear, the Sword, and the Cauldron. Visualizing myself as varying shades of emerald threads that stretched into the earth helped me fall into a trance. A speck of white peeked through the green and I followed it. The tendril led to an orb. I pulled at the light, but pain stabbed through my liver.
“I…I found it.” I grunted. “I can’t get it out.”
“Coax it, Daire!” Aengus strained against something as he spoke. A thud followed and the earth trembled underfoot. “It’s your power, like your flowers.”
I opened my eyes, losing track of the orb but gaining a new appreciation for my situation. Maya pounded on the barrier in her Aos Si garb and shouted something inaudible. A collosol ram with gold wool backed up, dug its hooves into the earth, then careened against the magical shield. Father.
“Hurry,” Mother said as her shoulders spasmed. “He’s coming! Don’t let him keep me here any longer.”
I refocused on entering that trance, finding that light. How would I sway my flowers? They depended on me to be calm, level, in control. They trusted me to take care of them and bent to my will in return. My emotions were anything but calm, split between holding the tether to Tir Na Nog itself while harnessing a power I had only used under certain conditions. Panic and dread at my task warred in my chest while doubt murmured spiteful declarations. I would fail. Mother would fade to nothing. I should have let myself die. No one could depend on me. The weight was too much.
Another of Father’s blows rattled my concentration as it pitched me backward. Tir Na Nog’s tether nearly snapped.
Maya forced herself against the barrier again, anger and confusion written across her clenched jaw and fists. If I couldn’t follow through on Mother’s wishes, Father would see to it that my cherished friend took Mother’s place.
Mother held fast to the Stone behind her. New panic lit her eyes as she pleaded to me with them. She wanted to leave us and had begged for it enough to Father, Brigid, and Aengus. Were she in the mortal realm, I could keep her comfortable until her natural passing. In Tir Na Nog, we didn’t have such luxuries. The debt I owed her for staying by my side so long stretched between us. I had to give her peace.
A lullaby Mother sang to me as a boy came to mind, one I often repeated to my plants. I hummed the tune as I envisioned that orb again. It danced through the tangled green threads of my other magic, creating prismatic rainbows. It crept from core, down my arm, and escaped from my hand. I sang the words as I molded it into a sharp, thin point. The raw energy narrowed to my will.
Father jammed his horns into the barrier. Aengus supported himself by his elbows as his power shuddered. Aunt Brigid fell to her knees and stubbornly held her trembling hands high. Shards of the luminescent barrier crumbled into sparkling vapor.
I tested the grip of my new needle. The Key’s handle proved solid enough to hold. I had to believe that it could pierce as well.
The ram retreated further, preparing for another assault. Aengus and Brigid’s stamina visibly waned. One more forceful push and the whole shield would falter.
I closed the distance between us in a couple short strides. I drew her into my arms and buried my face in her neck.
“Thank you, little swan,” Mother said, soft and sweet as ever.
I didn’t trust myself to reply as my throat closed up and hot tears streamed down my cheeks. She knew how I felt. I found her heart beat beneath her ribs and plunged the Key into it.
Mother yelped and clung to me as she spasmed. Her last quivering breaths brushed my cheek. Her fingers went loose and limp. The white light of the Key winked out. It was finished.
I fell under Mother’s weight, holding on so tight. Her hair muffled my sobs and soaked in my tears. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I cried over and over again into her neck. Her rose gold locks faded to a ghostly white and her supple limbs turned skeletal. Those long years she’d lingered caught up all at once until she turned to nothing but ashes and bones in my arms.
Something shook the hard foundation under me and Father’s mournful howl broke through my grief. Next I looked up, he had traded his wooly coat for his cloak and knelt beside me. He stared at the pile of precious dust and bones in my lap with his gold eyes desolate and his fists pounded into the platform.
I smothered my face in my hands and dug the heels against it so as to bruise. I was worthless, worse than nothing. I hadn’t even tried to stall to save her. She was gone, despite how Father and I tried to hold her with us. We would never die, never experience whatever lay beyond, never see her again.
“This isn’t your fault.” Strong arms wrapped around my back and hugged me into a firm chest. Father’s tunic shadowed me and I felt his deep voice rumble against my cheek, thick with rage. “This all started long before you.”
“Daire…why?” Maya this time. She must have come over after witnessing my atrocity. “What’s going on?”
I couldn’t face her and hid inside Father’s embrace. My words came out a whimper.
“Aengus’ ritual required a sacrifice.” Father pulled me closer. “It should have been you. Just reward for your wretched mistress.”
“We…we must mourn later.” Aengus trudged to us and pulled on our arms. “The coronation party is here.”
Father rose and I scrambled after him.
Four chariots with two horses a piece crested the hill. Riona stood out at the head of the row, her hair billowing behind her like a bloody banner. They galloped toward us and would overtake us in minutes.
“Is the ritual done, Aengus?” My panting aunt came up beside us, her smithing hammer gripped tight.
“There’s nothing else to do but run.” Aengus sighed and shrugged. “I’ll hold them back so you lot can escape, for what that’s worth.”
“My magic should prove most resilient against Riona’s chains,” Brigid said. “I will stand with you.”
“No, Sister,” Father said. When Brigid began to put him in his place, he cut her off. “Riona hates Aengus and I more than you. Resilient or not, the two of us are a more fitting distraction. I entrust Daire to you. Keep him safe.”
Brigid glared at her younger brother as he dared to order her about. She turned it on me next, but I seemed to softened her and she nodded her assent. “He will not leave my sight.”
“But Father—” I protested.
The royal chariots reached the bottom of the hill and their horses trumpeted whinnies of challenge. I couldn’t pick out my sister from them anymore even though they had gained on us.
Aunt Brigid yanked my wrist and dragged me behind her. Maya took off after us.
* * *
Aunt Brigid led us toward the nearest wood. The green boughs would shield us from flyers and force the chariot riders to abandon their vehicles to continue chasing us. They wouldn’t offer us shelter for long, though. Did she have a plan for beyond then?
“Leave us, wench!” Brigid shouted over her shoulder once she spotted Maya. “You will only draw Riona. We cannot afford that.”
“I didn’t break Midir out to be left behind.” Maya kept stride with us, even with her shorter height. Our energy was too spent to go much faster than her.
“You helped put him there from the start,” Brigid shot back.
“She’s coming because I have an unfulfilled deal with her,” I interjected. “As soon as we find somewhere safe, I must send her home.”
“Nowhere is safe.” Brigid led on toward the trees.
The ground quaked and I halted to keep my balance. Behind me Father and Aengus stood hand in hand against the line of monarchs. If they spoke I couldn’t hear it from that far off. Streams of Glowing Ogham weaved through the air in front of them.
Someone took my hand and tugged. Maya. I tore my gaze away from Father and raced on.
Soon we crossed the treeline. My lungs burned and Maya coughed the deeper we went. Aunt Brigid paused her dogged flight and we hunched over, catching our breaths. My aunt patrolled in front of us like a stalking cat. So far our luck held. It couldn’t continue much longer.
“Daire, what do you need to make that portal?” my aunt asked.
“I believe I can make one without a reflective surface, right here.” I only just noticed how light I felt with the Key’s power humming through me. It spoke to me and begged to be utilized, tested, played with. I’d never sensed its unrestrained will before.
“Send the girl to her world.” Brigid rubbed her hammer’s handle the same way Father fiddled with his sword’s pommel. “We mustn’t linger any longer with her.”
Maya rested against a thick trunk with sweat dripping down her brow and staining the underarms of her dress.
I nipped the inside of my cheek. The plan had been to go back with her and establish a life of my own with her as my guide. Circumstances being what they were, it seemed our friendship was to be cut short. “Are you ready to go home?”
“That’s it? But what about…” Maya trailed off and her attention shifted down, past my feet to a cluster of shrubs. “Rio—”
I glanced beyond the bushes. A fox’s tracks disappeared into them.
Chains rattled as a band of them swung over my head. They hooked around my neck and a knee rammed into my back. It choked me and the iron ate into my windpipe.
I clawed at the smoke rising around my face.
Riona loomed over me, shrouded in her toxic aura.
Brigid and Maya went stock still. My aunt set her hammer in its loop at her belt while Maya held up her hands in surrender.
“Think this through, lass,” Brigid said, calmer than the rage blazing in her red eyes. “You need his power. If he dies, so does the Key.”
“Give back she who you stole.” My sister pulled the chain tighter.
I gagged, inhaling too little air. Every moment they stalled the links stung like hot prodding needles.
“This is between us.” Maya dared to edge closer. “He didn’t do anything. Let him go.”
“You still defend him after they took you?” Rio jerked toward Maya and her hold loosened enough for me to wheeze another breath.
“They didn’t kidnap me. I left on my own.”
“No. They’ve warped you against me.”
Brigid slid to flank Riona and reached for her hammer. I worked my fingers under the links.
“Enough tricks,” Riona hissed as she tugged the chain taut. It pinched and burned the tender skin around my nails. “Dear one, come here. We’re going home.”
Maya spotted Aunt Brigid readying her attack. She darted between her and my sister. “Just put him down and I’ll go back with you.”
Aunt Brigid hooked her arm around my friend. She put her hammer’s head to Maya’s comparably fragile skull. “Better yet, give him to me or I kill your pet.”
“Don’t touch her!” Riona’s wide gaze darted between Brigid and Maya like a cornered animal. “You wouldn’t want to lose another child under your charge.”
“Without him you lose your masses.” Brigid’s weapon glowed as bright as she. “I have no such need of your changeling.”
The chain slacked, enough for me to get a firm hold on it. My hands could resist that pain for a few moments more. I shoved it over my chin and sprinted at Maya and my aunt.
The Key’s power surged through me as I dove, ready for me to harness. A white halo yawned open behind them. Inside it matched a modern bedroom I’d pulled from Maya’s dreams. I tackled them both backwards.
My aunt caught sight of the portal and moved with me like a coiled snake. The three of us passed through. A hard floor caught us in a tangle of limbs on top of each other.
The halo hung suspended in the air, full of green spring forest. Riona screeched and streaked for it.
I slammed down the lid on my power.
Both Tir Na Nog and Riona blinked away.