Divided against Yourselves (Spell Weaver) (25 page)

Just when I felt my strength would not hold out, the first flock (if such a mixed group of birds could be called a flock) launched its attack, flying at the dragon’s left eye, beaks and claws ready to do damage. Granted, no one bird could do that much, but there were dozens of them, and the dragon was forced to close the eye to avoid their attacks. In less than a minute, another group of birds forced a similar closure of the right eye. The dragon was now effectively blind and needed to fly upward to avoid crashing.

Normally, the dragon could have easily outrun the birds, but now, supercharged by the power of the forest, they kept up with the dragon, menacing its eyes each time it tried to open them. Their location meant that they could not be attacked by fire, and they managed to evade the dragon’s attempts to swat them away with its claws. Looking carefully, I could see the aura of forest power that surrounded them, as all the trees and animals for hundreds of miles focused their strength into their small, winged brethren.

I must have been more tired than I thought, because for a few seconds I missed the fact that I was surrounded by faeries. I had a hard time figuring out why they had broken off pursuit.

“The forest will take care of the dragon,” said Sir Arian, answering my unasked question. “Even such a creature as that will tire eventually, and anywhere it lands, the forest will attack it. There will be much destruction, but the forest will prevail in the end. It always does.” I wished for a moment that the forests on Earth were as capable of defending themselves. Perhaps the polluters would think twice then—or perhaps, like the dragon, they would bring about their own destruction.

“As for you,” Sir Arian continued, “let us help you back. You did well to lead the beast away from the others, but your strength is spent.”

My male ego wanted to protest, but I knew I could never fly back on my own without resting, and we really couldn’t afford that time, so I let two of the faeries take my arms, and though I kept up enough magic to float, I let them provide the motion and the steering.

As we flew back, I was astounded at how many miles we had flown—and at the scale of the devastation the dragon had left in its wake. I felt more than a little twinge of guilt as I looked down at what must be several acres of burning forest.

“Do not worry,” said Sir Arian. “The forest will heal here much faster than it does in your world. Visit in a few months, and you will hardly be able to tell that there ever was a fire. His assurance made me feel a little better, though I wished I could have thought of another way to get rid of the dragon.

The flight back seemed longer than covering the same distance earlier had, perhaps because the faeries could not carry me as fast as I had been able to fly, at least during the first stages of my mad dash away from the dragon. However, we did eventually reach our party again, though by this time darkness had descended. The guys were surprised by the faint glow around each of the faeries, and though I had seen it before, I was still moved by its unearthly beauty.

Nurse Florence was upon me almost before my feet touched the ground. “Tal, are you all right?”

“Very tired,” I replied quietly, “but otherwise unscathed.”

“You know you took a terrible chance—”

“Taliesin did what he had to do,” interjected Sir Arian. I was so used to having to defend my own—admittedly sometimes impulsive—actions that it was a rare treat to have someone else defend them. “Had the dragon remained here, some of you would almost certainly have died, and at the very least, you would have been trapped here until the dragon’s master arrived. Taliesin’s decision to lead the dragon away was both necessary and brave. Now there is a chance for all of us to get out of here alive.”

“The dragon’s master?” asked Dan.

“Yes, dragons have their own domains and do not normally invade the territory of Gwynn or any other ruler in Annwn without very good reason. Someone must be responsible for this incursion.”

“A chance to get out alive?” asked Nurse Florence. “Is our situation that dire?”

Surprisingly, Sir Arian chuckled at the question. “We have faced two powerful and deadly menaces in the same afternoon, and our journey is not even half over. You tell me.”

“Well, I could take advantage of Annwn’s rather flexible geography and gate us home,” said Nurse Florence. “I was about to do just that when the dragon struck. Perhaps this route is no longer safe, as Sir Arian is suggesting.”

“But if we do that, we have to start all over again,” I pointed out, “and we have to worry about Morgan nonstop until we do. I have a different suggestion, if Gwynn will give us his permission.”

“If you have a request to make, make it, Taliesin,” urged Sir Arian. “Even if you did not have his respect before, you would certainly have it after today.”

“Let us ask Gwynn for permission to spend the night in his castle. I doubt even Morgan could attack us there.”

“If Morgan Le Fay is responsible for these outrages, she is already in more trouble than you can imagine,” said Sir Arian. “For her to attack Gwynn’s castle would be inconceivable. And I believe Gwynn would readily extend his hospitality. But how does that serve your ends? His castle lies farther to the east than your goal—much farther, in fact.”

“I am proposing a change in goal. I think you are right, Sir Arian: the road ahead is too dangerous. On the other hand, going back to our own world is dangerous as well. I suggest instead that we rest the night in Gwynn’s castle, assuming he will have us, and then tomorrow we perform the reversal spell on Carla.”

“What? Here?” said Nurse Florence incredulously.

“You yourself reminded me of how much easier it is to perform magic in Annwn than back in our world. Once we have Carla back and have prevented Alcina from taking control, we can go back to our world and deal with Morgan without having to worry about her finding some way to get to Carla first.”

“There is wisdom in what Taliesin says,” observed Sir Arian approvingly.

“Yes, I must admit the plan is well-thought-out, especially for being spontaneous,” conceded Nurse Florence. “There are those in the Order who will be upset by it, but frankly you know more than any living person about how the post-awakening traumas can be handled. Assuming Gwynn can lend us some casters to give us the power to pull off the spell, I don’t see any problem with this idea.”

Gordy looked a little puzzled at all this. “But if Gwynn’s castle is farther away than the gateway to the Order, isn’t the trip going to be even more dangerous?”

“Unlike the Order’s headquarters, Gwynn’s castle doesn’t require that we start from two days away,” replied Nurse Florence. “The geography of Annwn is hard to explain if you aren’t used to it, but basically the distance from one place to another in Annwn is stable. That is, Gwynn’s castle will always be the same distance away from where we stand right now. However, Annwn’s geography is more…flexible…in relation to our world. From here I could put us back in Santa
Brígida or in London equally easily, even though they are thousands of miles apart in our world.”

“Wow, so we could go anywhere?” asked Khalid, eyes wide with wonder. There was something amusing about a boy who was half djinn being so easily awestruck, but I had to remember that he had never had any real contact with the otherworldly part of his heritage.

Nurse Florence laughed. “Anywhere I have been, anyway. I have to be able to see the place in my mind to connect this spot in Annwn to the place we want to go. And any place besides Santa
Brígida takes more time to set up. I kept the image of
Santa
Brígida fresh in mind for the return trip; I’d have to visualize a new destination to properly connect it with this spot in Annwn.”

“I had best find another owl and send Gwynn a message,” said Sir Arian a little nervously. “There is no telling how long this calm will last, but I do not think too long.” With that he shot upward and disappeared into the darkness.

“Assuming Gwynn says yes, how do we get to his castle?” I asked.

“Well,” replied Nurse Florence, “he has an understanding with our Order that enables any of us to enter Annwn wherever he happens to be, as I had to do when we were asking for weapons for the battle with Ceridwen, but we are supposed to reserve that kind of interruption for occasions when there is no other choice. Once we get his permission, I would rather use more polite means. There is a fixed gateway to his castle at Glastonbury Tor. I can take us there from here, and then we just need to pass through the gateway at the Tor. Let’s see, if I am figuring this right, it is about four in the afternoon in Santa
Brígid
a, which makes it about midnight at Glastonbury. That’s good. At least we won’t appear in the middle of a flock of tourists. My superiors in the Order really would be bent out of shape by that.”

“If we can appear in Glastonbury, why can’t we appear in Cardiff and end up at your Order, so you won’t get into trouble?” asked Shar.

“It’s good of you to worry about me,” said Nurse Florence with a smile, “but I won’t get into trouble if we don’t cause a big scene at Glastonbury. Anyway, remember the Order’s security arrangements make that impossible. We can’t get into the Order through Annwn except by using their fixed gateway, which we have to travel a minimum of two days in Annwn before we can use.”

She wrinkled her forehead a little as she considered other possibilities. “The spells involved wouldn’t prevent us from going from anywhere in Annwn to other locations in Cardiff, but…uh, it’s hard to explain…if we traveled that way, the headquarters simply wouldn’t be there, or at least we would never be able to find it.” Shar looked puzzled, and even I was having difficulty following the explanation. “The headquarters isn’t really in our world; it exists in a little world of its own. It connects to Annwn, and it connects to our world, but both connections are deliberately complicated by all kinds of magical rules. If the headquarters existed only on Earth, such elaborate security would be impossible.”

Nurse Florence had made the mistake of explaining the workings of the headquarters in a way that got Stan asking about the physics of the situation, and I immediately tuned out, as I think did almost everybody else, though Khalid listened with rapt attention. Fortunately for the rest of us, Sir Arian returned in just a few minutes with an invitation for all of us to come to Gwynn’s castle.

After that Nurse Florence visualized the summit of Glastonbury Tor, and, once she had the area clearly in her mind, it was not long before she was able to open the now-familiar glowing portal, and we passed through it as quickly as we could. The faeries accompanied us, though they appeared more nervous than when they were facing the dragon. At least since the introduction of gunpowder in Europe, faeries and other similar beings had traveled to Earth less and less—a bullet would normally be faster than even the fastest spell caster.

When we emerged, we were standing right next to Saint Michael’s tower on the summit of Glastonbury Tor. As much as I knew the logistics would have been more difficult during the day, I wished that I could have seen the view. I could see a few lights, from what I assumed to be Glastonbury itself, to the west of where we stood, but that was about it. Everything from the rolling green expanses nearby to the Black Mountains in Wales was hidden by the night. It was a clear night, and there was enough moonlight for the guys to be impressed by the tower, now missing both doors and roof, but still an impressive mass of stone rising several stories in the air, with some of its upper-level carvings faintly visible. Even at night I would have liked to sightsee just a little, but naturally Nurse Florence wanted to get us to Gwynn’s castle as soon as she could—and the faeries seemed to want that even sooner. I wondered if the faint faerie glow would be visible from a distance, and, if someone did see it, would that spawn yet another UFO story? (The Tor had produced its share over the years!)

Suddenly a glow erupted in the center of the tower, more intense than the typical portal to or from Annwn. Nurse Florence and Sir Arian ushered us through as quickly as they could, and we quickly forgot any missed sightseeing opportunities on the other side once we beheld Gwynn’s castle.

Stepping out of the gateway from Glastonbury Tor, we found ourselves in front of the barbican, the outer gateway into the castle itself. The gate itself was flanked by two low towers, in which, judging by the arrow slots in the wall and the faint glow that came through them, clandestine faerie archers lurked, waiting for the slightest sign of trouble to open fire. Through the open gate I could see a long bridge flanked on either side by high walls, on the parapets of which more faerie archers walked, equally ready for action.

At Sir Arian’s orders, the gate was opened for us, and we were quickly ushered through the barbican, across the fixed bridge, and to the drawbridge, which was already being lowered by the time we got there. As we walked across, I noticed that the water in the moat, which could not have been that deep, had the look of enormous depth to it, as if one who fell into it would sink forever. Once across, we were in a large courtyard, bigger than Camelot’s had been—and Camelot had been pretty big by the standards of its day. Upon the massive outer walls were yet more faerie archers. I had lost count by this time, but I knew this was one castle I would never want to mount an attack against.

Toward the back left as we entered was a huge square tower that had to be the keep, the military center of the castle. To the right lay an even larger building, clearly where Gwynn’s residence and court lay. Some of you have doubtless seen the ruins of medieval castles, and a few of them give a pretty good idea of how impressive the castle would have been originally. None of the ones I had ever seen, even as the original Taliesin, at which point the castles were still whole and functioning, had even come close to this.