Darach (10 page)

"If Eoin had lived… do you think they would they have taken him for his Fire?" Realization coursed through Darach as he spoke. Somewhere between wanting to use Cariad Fire for his own purposes, hating the Cariad as leeches on normal society, meeting Ceithin, and the last few minutes, something fundamental had changed inside him.

Unspoken was the fact
he had
accepted as truth
the Council
had
taken Trystyn, stolen the brother and son for their own use.
It
unnerved him to think
his
formerly unshakeable faith in the Council was being rocked by the things he was learning from Ceithin.
H
e had spent so many years fearing
the
Cariad, hating them, thinking they were
aberrations and here he was, forgetting
it
all. What about this man
shook
his faith so cleanly?

Ceithin had taken a moment to consider Darach's question, and Darach held his breath. Temper began to climb inside him, temper and not a small amount of thinking the Council he trusted had betrayed him.

"Maybe. I don't know. Council members need amber Fire."

"And you have never found Trystyn?"

"No. I had no sense of him in the City when I was there and I couldn't read anything in the Council. I can't even see his Fire inside me." Ceithin stopped, bowed his head and clenched a fist against his chest over his heart. "I am convinced he's crossed to the Otherworld, either by choice, or by force."

Ceithin sounded so sad. It physically hurt Darach to see others in pain. It always had. But he sensed a shadow of the other man's pain inside himself, and the reaction it evoked was primitive and intense. How would he himself have felt if his brother was missing, if he had no idea of where he could be, or even if he was alive? He pushed the reaction down. He had questions he needed to ask, and now it seemed Ceithin was ready to give answers.

"
He wouldn
'
t choose to cross
,
would he?
No one would choose that.
Kian only went because
one
of the
Eicio
that
escaped
through to
that
side.
"

"
Maybe
it
was the only way he
thought
he would be safe, maybe he was forced to go, but I just know he
'
s in the same world
where
Kian
has gone
.
"
H
e leaned forward
,
confiding in the enclosing dark
.
"
I feel it
in my bones.
He
'
s i
n the
Otherworld
with Kian and his Hunter
. M
aybe he is even
fighting the
Eicio
with them
.
"

"I want to cross over to get him, get them, and bring Kian home. I need your help, or your father's help, and when I go, I could see if I sensed your brother. As a thank you?" Uncertainty tinged his final words.

"You don't need any help to get there, youngling. You just need to harness your Fire and the element."

"How do I—"

"I will show you but it will take a while, all depending how quickly you learn."

"I will listen." Darach was eager to prove he could learn. He was so close to passing through and reaching Kian.

"There is one thing."

Silence descended as he stopped, and Darach felt the irritation of wanting to know rise in him.

"What?"

"If you are crossing to find Kian, then, youngling, in order to find Trystyn, I am going with you."

Chapter 6

The lessons were going well, according to Darach's way of reckoning, badly if Ceithin's moaning was anything to go by. Ceithin was irritable and antsy and just annoying.

He had been in the village three weeks already. Wearing clothes borrowed from a Cariad boy who couldn't have been a day over sixteen, Darach looked like he belonged but he just didn't feel it. He had explored the village as much as he could, talked to everyone, smiled, was gracious, but still he felt like an outsider. The Cariad were friendly but cautious around him, apart from Ceithin's family, of course. They were both friendly and accepting. The village didn't have a name, but the entire valley was named in Ancient as the Valley of the Rainbows.

Despite myths to the contrary, it appeared the Cariad weren't as nomadic as they were made out to be. Llewellyn's generation was the fourth to live in this valley, with its strong wards and ancient barriers. The origins of the name for the valley were in the rainbows to be seen in each of the seven waterfalls. Given the number of waterfalls tumbling into the river traversing the vale, a flickering constellation of constantly changing color filled the air every time the sun blessed them with its presence through the sketchy clouds. The falls, the pools, and the winding river fascinated Darach and scared the life out of him at the same time. Water might well be what Ceithin insisted was Darach's element, but gods, just the thought of it, the water over his head, and not being able to swim caused fear to course through him. He hated water any bigger than a bath, and clearly, water hated him right back.

"Use the element as well as the Fire. I keep telling you—"

"
Telling me doesn
'
t help
,
Cariad
,
"
Darach snapped, his patience as thin as Ceithin
'
s,
"
Y
ou may believe
that
Ancient rubbish but I don
'
t, and if I can
'
t do this water element control, then I can
'
t. I have my Fire under control now
. Isn
'
t
it
enough
for me to cross?
"

"Your Fire is not under your control by any stretch of your limited imagination."

Darach sighed. He had heard the whole "you know nothing" speech a hundred times these last few days.

"
A
nd your Fire is
nothing
without your element.
"
Ceithin added dramatically.

"I can't believe Kian mastered this any quicker."

"He didn't."

Darach frowned. What did Ceithin mean he didn't?

"He didn't need to, not when he could pass through thin barriers on All Hallows. You could always wait?"

Darach dismissed the idea of waiting another ten months to cross for the grand rescue and instead tried harder to concentrate.

Darach eyed the crystal bowl of tepid water sitting next to him. Ceithin was adamant Darach should have some mystic mumbo jumbo control over the wet stuff. All he wanted, apparently, was for Darach to move the water from one crystal bowl to another. So far, Darach had magiked it to steam, ice, and some unnamable gloop that turned pink and shriveled to nothing. Not a good start.

"Every Fire has two sides, Darach. You would be stronger if you used both."

Again with the Ancient crap. This was all getting a little bit too much, and a petulance rose in Darach he had absolutely no control over. "What if I don't want to?"

"Gods, what the hell do you mean 'not want to'? How can you not want to learn what makes you strongest?" Ceithin looked confused, verging on horrified.

"Not everyone is as obsessed by the mystical balance of nature as you." He emphasized the mystical part with a wiggle of his fingers and saw the instant narrowing of Ceithin's eyes.

"Darach," Ceithin said with a sigh, "no one is trained to fully utilize all of their Fire anymore, and yours is probably running at fifty percent. The Cariad and the Council are maybe the only people left who remember both sides. You need your element to pass over."

"Everything has its time. Maybe we don't need this element thing anymore. Maybe we should just try crossing anyway," Darach said stubbornly, even though inside he wasn't sure why he was even arguing the point. There was just something about Ceithin that brought out his inner child.

"It's your time, Darach, and if we tried to cross over now, you would be torn to shreds in an instant."

Angry at his inability to control the water, his limited options, and the damned understanding voice Ceithin was using, Darach scrambled to stand. "I want to stop this. It's a waste of time."

"You can't just stop."

"I can't do it."

Ceithin followed him to his feet. Then, in a movement so fast Darach had no time to counter
it
, he was swept up and over Ceithin
'
s shoulder, any words he was trying to say swallowed in a sudden gasp of fear. He struggled
and
kicked out, but a quick smack to his ass and muttered words from his companion and he couldn
'
t speak. He
tried
to speak
,
but no sound escaped his mouth. Not again! He
'
d
had enough of Ceithin
'
s control streak! He kept struggling, trying to see where the
Cariad bastard
was taking him, but all he could see were bushes and trees, and
when he ended up with a mouthful of green leaf from a passing branch, he decided to shut his mouth and stop trying to talk at all. The
ground they crossed was uneven
but Ceithin didn
'
t stumble. Darach might be shorter than Ceithin but surely he wasn
'
t
that
light? Ceithin hefted his weight without as much as a grunt and trudged along steadily.

Fear caught him tight
ly
in his gut as he heard the noise over the protestations in his head, a roaring noise
. W
ater
. A
freaking waterfall. Surely Ceithin wasn
'
t going to take him to water
.
Annwn
, he couldn
'
t swim,
and
he hated water. The scream of terror clawed the back of his throat
,
but he could make no sound. Desperate, he startled wriggling to the point where he
very nearly
slipped from Ceithin
'
s grip.

Too late! The water was there. He could smell it, and he screamed soundlessly as Ceithin dropped him on his ass into it. He hit the bottom. It hurt, and his open mouth filled with water. Panic spiraled, and his breathing stopped—just stopped. He pushed from the bottom, felt hands pulling at him, shouting words that made no sense.

"…stand up… stand up… It's shallow… Darach, stand up."

His Fire pushed outwards suddenly and blindingly and a clash of his with scarlet forced him to stand, gripping Ceithin who stood with a face creased in concern.

"
What in
Annwn
?
"

Darach opened and closed his mouth. He wanted to explain, but the death grip he had on Ceithin was probably explaining more than he could say. With a flick of Ceithin's hand, suddenly Darach had his voice. "I can't swim, you son of a whore!" he shouted, pushing at Ceithin who just pushed back.

"It's no more than hip high," Ceithin said, laughter in his voice.

"I hate water."

"
How in
Annwn
can you hate water? It
'
s your
element
.
"
Ceithin seemed genuinely perplexed
, his jaw slack with surprise
.

"I don't feel like it's my element."

"Well, you should." Ceithin's voice rose in agitation. "You're just not trying hard enough."

"
I
was
trying
.
I tried harder at this than anything before.
"
Temper coiled in Darach
,
and he clenched his fists, the need to h
it
someone close to the surface.

"You're not trying!" Ceithin shouted. Abruptly, he stopped in mid-shout. His gaze dropped to the water around Darach, his eyes widening.

Darach followed the look, and shock stole his anger in an instant. Blue Fire darted in streaks and bursts from
every inch of Darach
'
s body
that
was touching water, shooting out into the fall lake, snatches of white dancing on the surface. Every so often
,
a small whirlpool of water was created, while, in other places, a spiral tower of droplets rose before their eyes. And
everywhere,
everywhere
,
tiny rainbows formed as the sun h
it
each individual water spout
. It was
so beautiful
, absolutely
stunning.

"What did I do?" Darach looked back at Ceithin, bewildered, feeling weak at the knees and still gripping his assailant tightly. "What am I doing?"