Born of Oak and Silver (The Caradoc Chronicles) (14 page)

Lost in our own thoughts,
Cian and I closed the final distance that remained between us and the meeting area. Men had already begun to assemble.

S
oberly, we walked en masse up the well-warded path to the top of Ben Bulben. The wards hummed with the warning of something being amiss as we passed them. I was surprised to find that the hike was much shorter than I had expected. Before I was ready, the rocky path ceased in the midst of a cluster of carefully cultivated and uncharacteristically massive fennel bushes.

I took in my surroundings. A
side from a few random bushes, grass, and protruding rocks, the top of Ben Bulben was relatively flat. This gave a stark contrast to the imposing set of standing stones that stood as dark sentinels, surrounding a massive boulder that lay directly at their center.

“Come, we do not have much more time.” Bram motioned for us all to follow him as he walked briskly toward the standing stones.

I followed, looking uneasily at Cian, who was still wearing my father’s dark-gray felt hat. I was grateful that he had not left my side. He looked as distressed as I felt.

“Stay close to me
, Cian. If anything goes wrong, I’ll shield us both,” I told him. I was not a coward, but even then I did not want to face something so unknown alone.

Bram’s voice broke the
silence as he instructed us further. “Fan out around the stones, each of you stand with a stone at your back. Be sure to always keep that stone there, and stay within the circle of the standing stones.”

Without hesitation we all
obeyed.

I found myself in front of a
n undistinguished stone, Cian on the left and Liam on my right. A sliver of sun still remained on the horizon. A biting wind whipped over Bulben that had even the most stoic of men setting their jaw fixedly against its chill.

In the center of our circle, B
ram walked thoughtfully around the massive boulder that was sunk into the center of the standing stones. This boulder held a Silver that linked our world to Faery.

I could feel the earth under my
feet, almost undulating in rebellion against what it knew was likely about to happen. The Druids were the protectors of the Earth, and she welcomed our care. What I was currently feeling was directly related to the Silver and what had already—and might again—come through. The Earth was not pleased.

There were
thirteen of us standing before the thirteen stones. Bram at our center made fourteen. Bram had included his two oldest sons, Braesal and Ewan, as well as three of their own sons in our numbers. The others were men that I had come to know through my time at Castle Drumcliff as an absorptive apprentice. Bram had chosen well in balancing the Masters’ strengths and weaknesses. The only two links in this chain that I doubted were standing side by side—Cian and me.

Bram again circ
led the stone, this time looking every man in the eye as he passed them. When he came to me, his look was both wise and knowing, speaking silent volumes of his confidence in my abilities. I didn’t believe him. Before I could show him as much, he passed his gaze on to the others.

“Gentlemen, luck is with us
,” he said. “Fourteen is the number of Masters necessary to afford us the greatest potential for success –one of us for each stone. As I dictate, please focus and lend your energies to what I shall be commanding.” Bram then turned away toward the Silver.

From
where I was standing, I was able to view him from the side. I was able to see his face, and more importantly, what he was doing.

He took a long and extremely sharp blade from the sheath at his belt. The runes that had been etched along the blade seemed to glow as they caught the last rays of the fleeting sun. He began the invocation, speaking loudly so that all present could hear.
He asked that the Earth allow us her power that we might be permitted to protect and serve. And, remarkably, he prayed that God would be with us as we attended to this most grievous task at hand. When he had finished, ever so slowly, he ran the entire length of blade against his wrist.

The blood instantly welled and flowed from the wound. He pointed his fingers toward the earth, allowing his blood to drip freely onto the dark soil. He then lifted h
is completely bloodied fingers and began to draw runes in an arc on the boulder’s surface before him.

When he had
finished, the façade of a rock no longer remained. Instead, within the runes, a reflective, silver surface much like a mirror loomed ominously before him. The Silver was not yet open, and showed no signs of being in the same state as Liam had described it before. No glimpse into Faery could be seen. We assumed Silvers were like one-way mirrors. Anything on the right side of the doorway could see into our world without obstruction, but we could never see them. Bram was taking a marked risk in so plainly standing before the Silver just as night was about to commence. From the moment the sun fell, the Sidhe would be able to come through at will.

Bram pulled a handk
erchief from his trouser pocket and swiftly bound the wound on his wrist tightly. However, he never permitted the dagger to leave his hand. Just as the sun finally dipped below the Earth he stood upright, the dagger held at the ready in his right hand, and in quick succession he began to call the elements.

The E
arth was already at hand, wetted with a sacrifice of blood, and so it did not require much effort to ask for its compliance.

Next
he called Fire. Originating from nothing, but appearing instantly on the ground in front of Bram’s feet, it consumed the entirety of Bram’s offering.

Wind arrived
, bursting forth from the sky in a single cyclone. It fell upon Fire with a massive “whump” that you could feel echoing in your heart and head. My ears popped from the massive concussion.

Finally he called Water
. In a similar fashion to Fire, it welled up freely and pooled upon a ground that was undoubtedly solid rock.

With W
ater now present, the ground at Bram’s feet began to boil.

Bram coaxed, and soon the boiling earth
began to churn and ball. The mud soon peeled away, revealing a swirling mass of swelling colors. Bram stooped down and gently took the color-infused lump into his hands. Speaking in an ancient and all-but-forgotten language, he moved toward the Silver and reached forward to press the seething conglomeration into the doorway.

The mass attached
itself easily to the Silver, and began to spread of its own volition. It covered everything within Bram’s bloodily drawn runes. Bram stepped back, a greater distance than what he had before, and waited while the surface of the Silver began to emit sounds that sounded much like logs within a crackling fire.

“My warmest greetings to you,
gentlemen,” a sensual female thrilled from somewhere in the shadows. All of us started, and looked around frantically as the scent of jasmine and sandalwood filled the air.

I looked at Cian, and then
to the others. Even without seeing her, I could tell that they were lost to her already. The only one who seemed to be alltogether immune to the voice and heady scent was Bram. My reaction, although different from the rest, still consisted of a twinge of desire in my loins; but unlike everyone else, it was followed by an almost overpowering revulsion.

“
How perfectly fortuitous for me to have found so many handsome, powerful, and capable males virtually knocking on my door.” Maurelle stepped fearlessly from the shadows and into plain view within the circle of Druids and standing stones.

The moment they laid their eyes upon her
, all of the men dropped to their knees. They reached worshipfully toward her perfect body.

Bram
failed to notice. He remained focused on the crackling Silver, continuing to mutter his incantation despite Maurelle’s proximity.

As one of the only two
of us who were able to remain standing, I once again looked over our fallen group of men and swallowed the knot of terror that was rising in my throat. All of their eyes spilled great tears of blood.

“Bramwyll, how wonderful it is to see you again. I trust that you are doing well
.” Maurelle waited patiently for his response.

When Bram failed to turn and look at her,
she was piqued.

“Bramwyll, I am disappointed in you. It is very rude not to greet so close a friend
as I after we have spent so many years apart. Especially when we consider how gracious and kind you have been to me in the past,” Maurelle chided.

She
was as beautiful as ever. The wind toyed lightly with her long curling blonde hair as she gracefully moved. Her smile was exactly as beguiling as I’d remembered it to be, and her eyes still that same iridescent shade of ethereal blue that both beckoned and promised paradise. She was supple, but lithe and tall—a typical characteristic of the Fae.

My boyish self had remembered her as a giant, unequalled in size, irresistibility, and loveliness. But, to the man that I had become, she was
now a few inches shorter than me. Somehow this small leniency allowed me some strength to resist the complete embodiment of femininity and desirability that she was.

All this time,
Maurelle had been slowly walking toward Bram. But suddenly she stopped. She stood no less than ten feet away from him, so entirely still that she gave up the pretense of needing to breathe. Her head tilted slightly to the side as her smile changed from one full of promise to another that was completely filled with joy.

I wasn’t sure which was more damning to a man’s soul.

Her eyes turned toward me, locking me within the full rapture of her elation. “Daine, ah, I had hoped that I would find you here.” She sifted so as to be instantly in front of me, moving so quickly that I was not able to mentally register her moving.

“My, my,” she breathily whispered, pausing to nibble her delectable bottom lip as sh
e looked me seductively over. “What an unequally handsome man you have become. Even as a child I found you to be absolutely tempting, but now . . . now I am delighted that I find you to be utterly intoxicating.” She leaned forward, pressing her lush breasts against my chest, and looked up and into my face dreamily. She lifted a hand to seductively trail it along my face.

I
shivered. Deep and into every recess of my core I felt her touch.

“And look, no tears
.” She pulled her hand away from my face to show that it was not marred by a single drop of blood. “I have waited an eternity for a mortal who was male enough to endure me in my untempered state.”

My hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her forcefully
toward me. She pressed against my body. I heard her faint gasp of surprise and pleasure, and smiled my own back at her. Slowly, I tipped her chin so that her face would meet my own. Her mouth parted in eagerness, and I felt my own willingness stirring undeniably throughout my mind and body. I looked at her plump lips, and then into her bewitching eyes.

I dipped my head low, running my lips and nose along the side of her neck and up to her ear. I breathed deeply of her sce
nt. It was more arousing that I could have ever imagined. I paused by her ear, nuzzling her a bit before I whispered, as softly as my voice could manage, “Not a chance in Hell.”

I lifted my head away and smiled down at her sincerely, still twirling a lock of her
golden hair between my fingers.

She laughed, entirely amused at my unexpected rebuff.
“Do not be so sure of that, Daine. You forget that you are marked as mine,” she countered, still wearing that joyful smile that would be the undoing of most men, as she slipped elegantly from my hands. “However, contrary to your assumption, you are not presently the most pressing man of interest.” She turned and moved a few paces away from me.

I watched in absolute horror
as she began to reach down and offer comfort to the entirely incapacitated Cian. He lifted his face to hers, shuddering with convulsions of rapture at her briefest touch.

When I was able to see his face as he adoringly looked up at her, it was
marred by an unstoppable river of bloody tears. I stepped from my place before the standing stone. I would not allow her to toy with him a moment longer.

“Daine! D
o not move from before the shadow of the stone or you will break the circle!” Bram commanded me from where he stood still watching as the Silver slowly fractured. Great beads of sweat dripped from his face and beard with his effort.

I was torn;
Cian was in severe danger. But I knew that if I broke the circle, so too would be the rest of the human population. Against my instincts and loyalties, I returned to my place before my stone and watched helplessly as Maurelle hovered affectionately over Cian.

Maurelle began to speak to Bram and
me. “As you can see, Daine, Bramwyll has graciously provided me with several choice examples of his own to choose from. It would be tremendously rude of me not to partake of the gift he has so generously offered—wouldn’t you have to agree, Daine?” She looked down at Cian, her gaze full and tender. “And, I must confess, the allure of youth is simply undeniable.” She smiled at him, and Cian replied with a grotesquely bloody and contorted smile in return.