Powerful Magic (54 page)

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"This has happened once before."
 
Pacing, feeling like a caged lion in the too small confines of Rhiannon's council chamber, Kenric continued talking.
 
His words were more to reassure himself than the others.
 
He had to find Megan.
 
The alternative was unthinkable.

          
"The last time I met Myrddin, on the road.
 
Before I knew how to control my power.
 
Before--" His voice cracked, broke.

          
Taking a deep breath, Kenric straightened his shoulders and continued.
 
"Before I believed Megan came from the future."

          
"That was when you found her in Lord Brighton's keep?"
 
Edmyg, calm and serious, sat at Rhiannon's right hand.
 
 
Kenric knew a flash of irrational fury.
 
Of course Edmyg could sound composed.
 
He had not lost his soulhalf.

          
Immediately ashamed, he bit back the angry retort he'd been about to make.
 
Instead, he nodded.
 
"Yes."
 
He held up a hand, anticipating the next question.
 
After all, they'd been over this ground once before, to no avail.

          
"You claim you don't know how you found her."
 
This from Arwydd, the sage teacher.
 
Of all the beings present in this room, man or faerie, Kenric believed Arwydd would be the greatest help.

          
"No."
 
Stopping long enough to spread his hands, Kenric fought back panic.
 
Panic
.
 
Him, one of the fiercest warriors in England or Wales.
  
He resumed his pacing, knowing it was probably driving the others crazy, but not caring.
 
Right now, it was the only thing keeping him sane.

          
"Do you think Lord Brighton has her?"
 
Edmyg continued to use his soothing voice in much the same manner as one trying to tame a savage beast.
 
"After all, he did offer for her."

          
"And was turned down."
 
Kenric snarled.
 
"Lord Brighton would not dare.
 
He knows the repercussions should he attempt such a foolish thing."

          
"Then where is she?"
 
Arwydd scratched his head.
 

          
Rhiannon stood, bringing them all to silence with one regal wave of her hand.
 
Kenric wondered if he was the only one who realized that this would be the first time she'd spoken since they had entered the room.

          
She looked only at Kenric as she spoke.
 
"I believe she has been returned to her own time."

          
His heart sank.
 
He had not wanted to think on it, not wanted to even consider the possibility that...
 
Ah, but there it was.
 
He did not sense her here, no trace of her essence lingered to show him where to follow.
 

          
She was not here.
 
Not in this place, not in this

time, not within his reach.

          
Stifling a growl of frustration, he barely kept from showing his rage.
 
If she had gone forward in time, then he would follow.
 
Immediately.
 

          
He didn't realize he had spoken out loud until Arwydd shrugged, his expression carefully blank.
 

          
It could be done.
 
There had to be a way.
 
And he, Kenric of Blackstone, would find it.

          
Relaxing, he forced himself to look upon his options
  
dispassionately.
 
It was all a matter of learning how.
 
This he could do.
 
After all, he'd learned how to fight and vanquish Myrddin.

          
The others, taking his silence as permission to go, began filing out the door.
 
As the council chamber emptied, he focused his thoughts inward.
 
Methodically, he searched through the magical knowledge he had learned for something, anything, that might help him find the answer he sought.
 

          
But he came up empty. Inside he felt empty too; hollow and yearning for Megan.

          
When all had left except Arwydd, Rhiannon placed a small, elaborately carved wooden box on the table.
 

          
"What is this?"

          
She motioned at him to touch it.
 
He did, feeling ancient magic in the smooth curves and polished wood.
 

          
"This comes from the Hall of Legend."

          
Not comprehending, he continued to run his fingers over the wood, wondering if the warmth emanating from it was real or imagined.
 

          
Arwydd stepped forward, his expression reverent.
 
"It is older than anything in this palace.
 
Since time began it has been bequeathed from Faerie Queen to Faerie Queen."

          
Kenric frowned.
 
"But Faeries live... forever."

          
Sadly Rhiannon shook her head.
 
"It may seem like that, to a human with their short life span.
 
But you my brother, know better than that.
 
Our mother's passing is why I have had to assume the heavy mantle of Queen all these years."

          
After a moment of respectful silence, Arwydd cleared his throat.
 
"The box." he reminded.

          
Once again Kenric smoothed the sleek wood.
 
"How does it open?"
 

          
Rhiannon shook her head.
 
"I do not know.
 
Some time ago, a dream led me to the Hall of Legend.
 
The entrance was not barred to me like it usually is.
 
I found the box inside.
 
It was already open, as if it waited for me.
 
When I touched it, I knew the time had come to use what I found inside."

          
Curious, Kenric searched for a latch or some hidden mechanism that would release the lid.
 
By accident or by design, he must have found it, for it popped open.

          
It was empty, save for a scroll of yellowed parchment bound by a faded ribbon that might long ago have been blue and a scrap of even older parchment, curled with age.

          
Kenric read the scrap first.
 
"The scroll herein contains a powerful spell.
 
It may be used only once, in the hour of greatest need.
 
Use only when half-human, half-faerie must become a whole, and the power of love is needed to vanquish darkness."
  

          
"Yes."
 
Rhiannon nodded, her voice a shaky whisper.
 
"And so I used it to bring Megan to us."

          
The words she did not say echoed in the chamber.

          
It may be used only once.

          
Megan.
 
Even her name had his throat aching with longing.
 
"How did you know?"

          
Rhiannon and Arwydd glanced at each other, both of them appearing uncomfortable.
 

          
"A vision."
 
Rhiannon said finally, seemingly engrossed in the study of her fingernails.
 
"The same vision I always have when it is time to link soul mates, only this one spoke of the fulfillment of the legend, of love and of war."

          
Though more questions hovered on the edge of his tongue, Kenric pushed them away.
 
Impatient, he untied the faded ribbon with clumsy fingers.
 
A sense of foreboding stuck him, the same sense that apparently gripped both Rhiannon and Arwydd.
 

          
He hesitated before unrolling the scroll.
 
"This is it, then."
 
No question this, but a statement that needed only his sister's confirmation.
 

          
With reluctance, Rhiannon gave it.
 
Odd, but she seemed almost afraid for him to know the spell, as if now that the battle had been won it would not be safe to use it.
 
Hah - how could she not know that he would brave the fires of hell itself if it would bring Megan back to him.

          
Fumbling, he opened the scroll.
 
When he’d finished, he stared in shock.

          
The scroll was blank.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

          
"It's blank."
 
Shock gripped Kenric, shock and the absurd sense that someone played a horribly misplaced jest. Fighting back panic, he turned the paper over, searching for the magical words that would bring Megan back to him.
 
Nothing.
 
"Blank."

          
"I was afraid of that."
 
Rhiannon whispered.
 
He could barely hear her for the roaring in his ears.
 

          
"What?"
 
he bellowed.
 
"What does this mean?"

          
Shoulders shaking, Rhiannon turned away from him without answering.
 

          
It was Arwydd who spoke, Arwydd who told him.
 
"As the other message says, the spell was meant to be used only once.
 
Rhiannon used it to call Megan to you.
 
Therefore, it has vanished."

          
“It can’t.
 
Use it again."
 
Kenric beseeched his sister's back.
 
"Please.
 
Surely you remember the words.
 
Use it again. Bring Megan back to me."

          
"I cannot."
 
She turned tear-swollen eyes to him.
 
"It was complicated and I do not remember it."

          
The roaring in his ears grew louder.
 
"Some of the words, then.
 
Surely you remember some.
 
Say them.
 
Return her to me."

          
Rhiannon only hung her head, crying softly.

          
"I am sorry."
 
Arwydd moved closer, laying a fatherly hand on Kenric's shoulder.
 
"We would if we could, but we do not know how."

          
He could only stare at them in shock, in disbelief.
 
"There is a way," he told them firmly, keeping his voice even toned, when all he wanted was to howl from frustrated anguish.
 
"There has to be a way."

          
Neither contradicted him.
 
For a moment the only sound was the sound of his half-sister softly weeping.

          
"There is a way,” he said louder, knowing the power of words.
 
"And I will not rest until I find it."

#

          
In the weeks following Megan's disappearance, Kenric did not return to the world of humans.
 
He remained in Rune, Arwydd patiently tutoring him in every bit of magical lore they could find.
 
Nothing, not one spell, addressed traveling through time.
 

          
Rhiannon took him to the Hall of Legends, which remained open to her.
 
He wandered there, among artifacts so ancient that their meaning had been forgotten, books and scrolls written in a language no longer understood, and engraved runes so worn by time they were no longer legible.
 
Nothing spoke to him, nothing explained the way to bring his soulmate back.

          
Countless times he read the story of the legend, in all its versions, and every telling ended the same.
 
The war

between evil and good would be fought by half-human, half-faerie.
 
He and Megan, Rhiannon and Edmyg; each had been so clearly outlined that he wondered how any could have failed to see it.
 
The manuscripts stopped short of naming them.
  

          
He found oblique references to Megan's journey through time, though the legend only mentioned that she would travel a great distance, one never before traveled by humankind.