“I wish we didn’t have to pass through it again,” Drake said.
He had been quiet since the cave. I wondered if I had made him feel as though he were missing out on Scarlet. The cruel, hard part of my heart hoped he felt awful. The logical side told me to let go of the bitterness, but I wasn’t sure how to exist without it anymore.
“Let’s hope the Watcher can tell us something we need to know,” Brendan said.
“The cave wasn’t so bad,” Dymphna said. “I expected it to be worse.”
“Cara helped.” Drake stared at his full plate. “If you’re all finished, let’s talk to the Watcher and get moving.” He rose and left us.
“Finish eating,” Brendan said. “He’s just in a mood.”
When we had finished, we headed into the living room, where the Watcher was waiting by the fire. I had slept in that room, felt a great many different emotions in that room. The Wife had brought in chairs so that we could all sit around the Watcher in a semi-circle.
“This blight is a problem then,” the Watcher said when he was done with his pipe.
“Just a little,” Bran said shortly.
“Did we cause it?” Brendan asked. “Are we to blame for the rift widening?”
“Yes and no.” The Watcher reached down to fondle the ears of his lanky hound. “The rift widened, and that is cause for alarm, but it couldn’t have caused this much damage in such a short time, or I would never have let you pass in the first place.”
“Then what is it?” Rumble asked. “What’s destroying the land?”
“Something is accelerating the problem,” the Watcher said.
“Like a god?” I asked.
The Watcher nodded, shifting uneasily in his seat.
“Can we close the rift?” Drake said. “Is that possible?”
“It could be.” The Watcher closed his eyes for a moment. The Wife returned to the room, and he opened his eyes again.
“Tell them,” she said. “Tell them about the Lia Fáil.”
The name was familiar. “The monument thing?” I asked. “The stone landmark?”
“It is a stone,” the Watcher said. “But it’s not the same as what you seek.”
I frowned, confused.
“What do we seek?” Dymphna asked.
“The stone of destiny,” the Wife said. “The real Lia Fáil.”
“Real,” the Watcher echoed.
“I don’t understand,” Bran said.
The Watcher heaved a great sigh. “There’s a monument in the human realm known as the Lia Fáil. They say it sings when a true king of Ireland stands on it. But it’s a rendition of an imagined treasure.”
“So it’s not real,” Drake said flatly.
“As with most things, fae treasures are not what they seem. Someone dedicated a monument to the Lia Fáil, but the true stone of destiny looks… common at first glance. It’s a small stone, one of the legendary treasures, and it has a great deal of power.”
“How does it work?” Brendan asked.
“The stone is of the earth,” the Wife said. “It could stop the rift. It would use up vast amounts of its power to do so, but it could seal the rift forever.”
“In theory,” the Watcher added. “We don’t know for sure. The treasures are dangerous and contrary. They won’t be handled by those they dislike, and only the true ruler of the realm can reveal their real power.”
I glanced at Brendan and Drake. Which one was the true ruler? “So, where is it?”
The Watcher smiled. “That I do not know. They say the treasures were hidden in four corners of the realm to stop any one faery from consuming all of that power. Those four treasures combined would change the world.”
“Could they beat a god?” I asked. Everyone looked at me.
“She asks good questions,” the Wife said, her ruddy cheeks lifting into a broad smile.
“The human.” The Watcher smirked. “They say four gods hid four treasures to protect themselves, but nobody knows for sure. Many have tried to find all four treasures. Did none of you ever hear the stories?”
Brendan nodded. “But they’re myths. Nobody has seen any of the treasures in a long time. Why would anyone believe them to be something other than children’s stories?”
“Fairy-tales,” I murmured.
“What makes you think they even exist?” Drake asked. “Or that we could find them? How could a stone seal the rift?”
“The legendary treasures are no ordinary objects, even though they may seem so at first glance. They are glamoured to protect themselves.”
“Then how will we find them?” Bran asked.
“And why do you believe this stone could work?” Rumble asked.
The Watcher hesitated for a moment before looking at his wife. “Bring it to me.” She left the room, and he went to the display cabinet and pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. He drew on it then showed it to us. It was a kind of Celtic knot overlaying a cross.
“Those four circles are on an old heirloom of Fiadh’s,” I said.
“They represent the elements,” the Watcher explained. “The fae were much more attuned to the world around them in the past. Many of the old ways have been lost. This is an ancient image, a replica. The original is sentient, living. It represents the realm and its power, and it changes constantly.”
He sketched an outline of the realm around the image to demonstrate. The cross touched all three courts, as well as neutral territory. That had to be a coincidence.
The Watcher tapped the page. “The cross is the centre of the realm. Some say that area used to be known as the crossroads. Each loop represents one treasure: earth, fire, air, or water. The white space on the page is the void. It’s energy at its purest.”
“What does that tell us?” I asked, fascinated by the image.
“For those of us who Watch, it tells us everything important.”
I frowned at the phrasing. “Exactly how many things do you Watch?”
He lit his pipe. “She’s right. You do ask good questions.” But he didn’t answer.
The Wife returned and held up what looked like a painting in a frame. It was the same image, but the white space was filled with black splotches, and the lines on the cross were wobbly in some places and smudged in others almost as though they were being slowly rubbed out.
“This is the original,” the Watcher said, “and it tells us that we are suffering from a blight that will swallow up all of the energy and power in the realm.”
“The magic is being lost?” Brendan asked.
Drake’s expression darkened. “Or stolen?”
“We are being lost to a void of darkness. Look at the circles of the knot. Air and water are almost completely overwhelmed, but the blackness never touches earth and fire.”
“That’s why you believe the stone will work,” Drake said.
“Exactly. Fire may burn the darkness away, but earth chokes it. Fire needs to be created and wielded whereas earth exists all by itself. The stone is earth and therefore the greatest chance.”
“But even if we find the stone and close the rift, the existing blight will remain,” Rumble said.
“Unless it’s dealt with,” the Watcher said.
“If the stone is earth, can’t it cleanse the earth?” I asked.
“Too much power will be lost when the rift is sealed. The stone of destiny will take centuries to recover from that.”
I looked at Brendan, who nodded encouragingly. “I found a stick that cleans the darkness from people. Just holding it sort of takes some of the taint away. The Miacha told us the wood comes from the first tree, so we thought if we could find such a tree, then—what?”
The Watcher’s face had turned red. “She found a stick, says she.”
“It couldn’t be the Sleá Bua,” the Wife said. “How could she just fall over something like that?”
“The Spear of Lugh,” the Watcher said with a laugh. “The fire element. A legendary treasure with the means to burn the
void away. Yes, the tree could work.”
“It’s not a spear,” I said. “It’s just a pointy piece of wood.”
“Perhaps you haven’t looked at it carefully,” he said. “The treasures won’t reveal themselves before it's the right time. That’s not how the magic works.”
“Then how does it work?” I demanded. “Because I don’t understand any of this.”
“Where did you find the spear?” the Wife asked.
“Sadler had it.”
“Then it can’t be the Spear of Lugh,” Drake said. “She found it in the Darkside, the very place that’s been destroyed by the blight.”
“It’s how it’s wielded that counts,” the Wife said. “But you’re mistaking fire for earth. Fire is used. Someone would have to use the spear to make it work. Earth, on the other hand, is always there. The tablet will naturally clean the earth around it.”
A thought struck me. “Was Sadler trying to collect the legendary treasures?”
“For himself or his god?” Brendan muttered.
“We need to find that stone,” Drake said. “We need to seal the rift before this void completely engulfs us. If Sadler’s god is using it against us, then we need to take that power away.”
“What part of the realm is untouched by the blight?” Dymphna asked.
Brendan stared at his hands. “Yvette’s home hasn’t been affected.”
“And nobody thought this was weird?” I shook my head. “Wait. What if it really is in the human realm?”
“If we can’t find the stone, we’ll go to the human realm,” Drake said. “But we should make use of this clue. The stone can’t be harmed by the void, at least not yet, so we should look at the obvious places.”
“I need to speak to Yvette about those old books anyway,” Brendan said.
“We’re going to have to travel to the Great Forest to meet with the Guardian,” I said. “She can’t be that far from there if she’s in a part of your territory.”
He nodded. “Is there anything else you can tell us?” he asked the Watcher.
“I’m sure there are plenty of things.” The Watcher frowned. “The stone of destiny has a strong relationship with the land. And there was once no separation between the realms. The faery realm and the human realm coexisted for the good of all. Back then, the land was called Inis Fáil. We were one. We were many.”
“The island of destiny,” I said. “Just like the stone.”
The Watcher smiled at me. “That’s it. And they say it was the stone that separated the realms. But the stone’s power isn’t just division of places. The stone heals and replenishes.”
“If it can divide the faery realm from the human world, it could properly separate the Fade from this realm,” I said.
“Some say four gods created four treasures,” the Wife said, “but we only know for sure that Brighid was the cause of that creation. She represents fertility and growth—healing, as it were—and your aim is to repair the rift. These treasures should protect the realm.”
“Brighid’s the one who separated the realms and doomed the fae,” Brendan said darkly. “She took our power because we didn’t deserve it, and she used a treasure to do that, not protect us.”
“Perhaps there was a lesson to be learned there,” the Watcher said. “But the fae are always slow to learn their lessons, are they not?”
Brendan fell silent under the Watcher’s knowing gaze.
“The stone and the island are linked,” Drake said. “This is why you believe it will work.”
“Well, the stone separated one world from another, and the Fade is a world, of sorts. The stone is my best suggestion.”
“What about the other two treasures?” I asked. “What are they?”
“There’s the Claíomh Solais. That’s the sword of victory. He who wields it—and is worthy, mind you—can never fail. That’s air. Water is the Coire Dagdae—Dagda’s Cauldron. Some say a mortal once drank the blood of so many enemies out of the Coire Dagdae that he turned into a god.”
I shuddered. “Can any of those help us?”
“I’m sure they could if they were easy to find. You’re lucky to have one.”
“If it’s the right one,” I said. “Could the spear cleanse the earth?”
“I think the spear was intended to cleanse the body.”
“I used it for that. Black liquid was repelled from the man's body.”
“Really now,” the Watcher said, eyeing me carefully. “That’s interesting. And did he die?”
“He was already dead. He was being kept alive by magic.”
“A dark magic then,” the Wife said. “The dead don’t belong in this world.”
“No, they don’t,” the Watcher said. “But we’ve heard stories.”
“The ships?” Drake asked.
The Watcher nodded. “And if it’s a god you’ve angered by using the spear, then you had better hurry before he figures out it’s the stone you’re after next.”
“And if he comes at us again?”
“Then you’ll need all four treasures just to stand a chance.”
***
We slept in the Watcher's kitchen that night, but we stayed awake for a long time trying to digest what we had been told.
“It’s a lot of maybes,” I said. “But we’ve no other options.”
“It makes a twisted kind of sense,” Dymphna said. “For all we know, this stone separated the Fade from the rest of the world in the first place.”
I felt myself growing excited. “I think we can do this. But the spear. Could it really be that pathetic-looking stick?”
“The stick you used to kill Deorad,” Drake said in a flat voice, “was a legendary treasure.”
“I dread to think what would have happened if she had used a dagger.” Brendan looked at me. “You truly have the strangest luck.”
“What happens to the stone when we’ve used it?” Rumble asked.
We all looked at each other. Four treasures with immense power existed while three kingdoms struggled to maintain their own power. The treasures could change everything.
“We… we’d have to hide it again,” I said. “If somebody with the same desires as Sadler finds all of the treasures, the rest of us are screwed.”
“If we found them all, we could each keep a treasure,” Drake said, “and leave the last to be hidden by the Watcher.”
“Do we trust each other enough with a treasure?” Brendan asked.
“We might have to,” Drake said. “If we don’t find the stone, we’ll die. All of us—humans and fae.”
“Is this why you hate Brighid?” I asked Brendan. “Because she separated the realms?”
He frowned. “There are many reasons to hate Brighid, but that one is as good as any.”
I shivered at the coolness in his tone. What if we used the stone and managed to piss off Brighid? Then I thought of another possibility. “Anya’s always saying that Brighid had a plan for me, for us. What if this is it? What if we were all led to this point just to clean up Sadler’s mess?”
“Then why couldn’t she have stopped Sadler in the first place?” Bran asked.
“Free will,” Dymphna said. “The options are put in front of us, but it’s up to us to make the choice. For right or wrong, our choices led us here.”
We were quiet after that, and one by one, everyone fell asleep. Brendan sat up and stared into the fire the longest. I watched him as I nodded off. And when I slept, I dreamt of a goddess with three heads whispering to me to hurry up and find the stone of destiny before it was too late.
Chapter Seventeen
The plan became this: travel back through the tunnel to the Darkside, go to the Great Forest and look for the Guardian whom nobody really believed I had met, find out where the First Tree came from, and then go to Yvette’s home—wherever that was—to seek out the stone that probably wasn’t there. I had a strong feeling that if the stone were connected to Brighid, it would be hidden in the human realm. But everyone
else was dead set on the stone being in the faery realm.
“What if he’s lying?” Bran asked as we approached the tunnel.
“He’s not,” I said firmly, moving ahead. I didn’t wait for the others.
The journey was worse this time, partly because I was too busy thinking about what the Watcher and his wife had told us. When I ignored everything around me, the misery didn’t touch me at all, but I had forgotten about everyone else.
We reached the other side in silence. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bran trembling. I looked at him in concern. The way the periwinkle in his veins had dimmed worried me. He toppled off his horse even as I was dismounting to go to him. I reached him first. He shook violently, his lower lip trembling and his hands clutching at his arms in an attempt to warm himself up. His teeth chattered. I pressed my hands against his cheeks and felt how cold he was. One of his wings was bent awkwardly beneath him, so I pulled him into a sitting position.
“It’s over,” I said, wrapping my arms around him. “It’s over, Bran. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”
He didn’t say a word, and I concentrated on every time I had laughed and felt warm. It came easier this time, as though practice made it second nature to use my emotions and memories as a tool.
I murmured words in his ear, and he wrapped his arms around me, too, holding on tight. Colour returned to his wings, and the shivering gradually stopped.
“You okay?” I asked, pulling away to look at him. What had Brendan been thinking by bringing him with us?
Bran nodded, his face young and vulnerable and shocked. He looked over my shoulder and cleared his throat then made to get up. I realised I was basically sitting in his lap, so I moved aside and helped him to his feet. I noticed everyone else watching.
“What?” I said, brushing imaginary dirt off my trousers. “Let’s go.”
I didn’t wait. I climbed onto Dubh’s back and let him lead us out of there and away from that awful tunnel.
***
We rode until late. We had almost reached the Hollows when we stopped.
“It's strange,” I whispered, “how different everything is since the first time we came here.”