Among the Unseen (18 page)

When the world settled again, Cedar found herself in a musty wooden barn with dirt floors and the reek of animals. It was completely dark except for the light of a torch being held by a small man cowering in one of the corners. The light shook, creating strange shadows on the walls of the barn. Cedar looked around for Brighid; this was her memory, so she had to be there. Then she realized why the man was cowering—Brighid was emerging from the shadows directly across from him, and her countenance was terrifying.

“For your sake, I hope I misunderstood your message,” she said in a voice that was dark and low and deadly.

The man in the corner cowered even more, and Cedar wondered if his torch would set the barn on fire. When he spoke, his voice came out in a squeak. “I am but the messenger, O Mighty One,” he said. “Cleos, who was in charge of the jewels, is dead.”

Brighid towered over the man. Her fury was almost palpable, yet Cedar could tell she was trying to keep it contained. “Tell me,” she demanded.

“They were in the cover of the Great Book of Colum Cille,” the man began, his voice trembling on every word. “It was the safest place for them—that book is protected day and night.”

“Colum Cille,” Brighid repeated. “Is he still alive?”

The man looked confused. “Of course not,” he answered. “That is, he died many hundreds of years ago.”

“The Order of Druids assured me they would be kept safe!” Brighid raged. “They were to never be left alone!”

“They weren’t, O Mighty One,” the man pleaded. “Cleos was with them nearly all the time, and when he had to attend to other duties, I would take over. There have always been two druids with the jewels, just as you commanded.”

Brighid’s voice was dripping with venom. “Then how did you manage to lose them? Was it the Northmen? Your skills should be enough to ward off any attack.”

“It was no man who attacked him,” the druid said. “We found Cleos still alive in the rubble of the church. Before he died, he told me the book had been taken from him by a red-haired…god. We found the book, but the cover—and the jewels—are gone.”

Brighid froze in place, her eyes still fixed on the quavering man in the corner. Cedar watched as the truth impaled her friend like a stake. All the anger she had been directing at the druids now turned inward—and toward the red-haired lover with whom she had shared her secret. She closed her eyes, and Cedar felt a deep ache in her stomach. She, too, knew the searing pain of betrayal.

“What should we do?” the druid asked.

“Speak of this to no one,” Brighid said; then she stalked back into the shadows and disappeared. Cedar stood confused for a moment, wondering why she was still there, until the light the druid was holding started to spin around her. When she opened her eyes, she immediately recognized where she was.

They were back in the Hall in Tír na nÓg, but it was larger and grander than the one where she now held court. It was night, and the marble pillars shimmered like starlight. Between them were pillars of white fire that gave off light but no heat. Something akin to a firefly flew around Cedar’s legs. But her attention was quickly drawn to those sitting in the center of the courtyard. There were eight men and women, but they were more resplendent than anyone Cedar had ever seen, even the other Danann she knew. Then she realized: these must be the Elders. She had heard many of their names as she tried to learn the history of her people, but she had no idea which one was which. She knew Brighid, who was standing in the center of the circle, was also an Elder, but she seemed smaller in both stature and countenance than these other beings. Perhaps it was because Cedar had always seen her in human surroundings or because she now regarded her as a friend, not a goddess. It was as if the Elders emitted raw power just by existing. Brighid was wearing a simple white toga with a gold clasp at the corner. The Elders, on the other hand, were dressed in rich, intricately embroidered robes and gossamer gowns as delicate as butterfly wings.

They sat calmly, serene expressions on their faces, regarding the maelstrom before them. Brighid paced angrily inside the circle, her agitation channeled into every movement.

“We
must
get the jewels back from Asgard!” she said, spit flying from
her mouth. “They were stolen from us!”

“They were stolen from
Ériu
, where
you
left them, in the care of
humans
,” one of the Elders pointed out, his calmness a stark contrast to Brighid’s fury.

Brighid stopped pacing for a moment and glared at him. “I left them in the care of my most trusted druid and his successors,” she retorted. “I hid them as best I could.”

“Obviously, it was not well enough. Nevertheless, this is hardly an issue we can go to war against Odin about. Most of us didn’t even know about the existence of these jewels until today. You cannot choose to act alone and then expect the rest of us to pay for your mistakes, Brighid.”

“This isn’t about me living on Ériu,” she snapped. “If Odin destroys those jewels, the enemies of the Unseen will be able to track them down and exterminate them. They must be under our control! We don’t know what he plans to do with them! I’m not asking you to wage war on Asgard—I’m just asking for permission to go there myself and bring them back.”

“In the state you’re in, Odin would certainly interpret your visit as an act of aggression,” pointed out another E
lder.

“What is the matter with you all?” Brighid raged, waving her hands wildly in the air. “Don’t you care about what happens to the Unseen? They are our allies…our friends!”

“They made this decision,” said one of the Elders as she rose to her feet. “As did you. If you had come to us for counsel, we would have advised you against this foolish plan. What possessed you to bind these beings to humanity in the first place?”

“It was the only way. You would not let me raise arms against the new church, and you also refused to let the Unseen flee to the safety of Tír na nÓg. It is
your
inaction that is to blame!”

“We all must fend for ourselves at some point or another. It is no different for the Unseen. They did not rise to our aid when the Milesians attacked us.”

“Is that what this is? Revenge?”

“Of course not,” another Elder snapped. “But we cannot be held responsible for the fate of every creature in every realm. Besides, it appears they do not need us—they have you. But I must say, to bind one’s existence to the faithfulness of humans is an act of madness. You cannot possibly trust the humans so much.”

“You do not know them like I do,” Brighid replied, her shoulders back, her chin thrust forward. “You do not hear their stories, their songs, their poems. So long as humans exist, the Unseen will be safe.”

Some of the Elders exchanged dubious glances. Clearly, they did not share Brighid’s confidence. But one of them approached her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, as if to offer her comfort—or lead her away. “Then there’s nothing to worry about, is there?” the woman said. “What does it matter if the jewels are in Asgard or here or on Ériu?”

“It
does
matter!” Brighid retorted, shrugging off the woman’s arm. “Odin is crazed over the loss of his followers—if he destroys the jewels, the bond will be broken. The church is growing in strength, and they have lost none of their zeal for wiping out those who follow the old ways. If the bond is broken now, the Unseen will be destroyed. The jewels need to be kept
safe
.”

“I’m sure if he went to the trouble of stealing them, he won’t be in any hurry to destroy them,” interrupted another Elder. Some of them were looking at Brighid with sympathy, but others were exchanging amused glances, as if her melodramatics were not new to them. “But I am curious. How did he come to know of the existence of these jewels in the first place, hmm?”

Brighid’s shame and rage were almost tangible, even through the memory. “He has his ways of knowing things, just as we have ours.”

“There is no cause for us to anger Odin,” said the first Elder who had spoken. “We do not need to wage war over the fate of the Unseen. I forbid you from going to Asgard, Brighid. Though you have chosen to live on Ériu, you are still one of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and I am still your High King.”

Brighid’s voluptuous mouth was a thin white line. After a moment of stony silence, she gave him a terse nod.

CHAPTER 15

C
edar awoke with a start. She was still clutching Brighid’s hand. The sky was a clear blue, and Cedar squinted in the bright sunlight.

“Are you okay?” Finn asked at once. Felix elbowed him out of the way and placed his hand on Cedar’s head.

“She’s fine,” he said after a moment. Then he gently untangled her hand from Brighid’s.

“Is she still alive?” Cedar asked. Felix nodded.

“What did she tell you?” Jane asked.

“She took me inside her memories—several of them. I saw why the spell was set, how it was cast, and I watched as she entrusted the jewels with a monk named Colum. I think he was—”

“Colum Cille,” Helen said eagerly. “You might know him as Saint Columba. The greatest of Ireland’s saints. It was he who began work on the Book of Kells. You saw him?”

Cedar nodded. “Yes. We were on Iona, I think, and they were just starting to build something—a church, maybe. She left a druid there to watch over the jewels.”

Helen’s gaze was envious. “I have studied the Book of Kells my entire adult life. To witness the founding of the great monastery at Iona…”

“What happened then?” Jane prompted. “Did you find out who took the jewels?”

“This is going to sound really odd,” Cedar said.

“Odder than everything else we’ve gone through?” Jane asked.

Cedar had to smile. “You’re right. I guess it’s on par. Brighid had a lover.” She stopped, wondering how much stranger her world could get. “Thor,” she finished. The rest of them exchanged glances, and she wondered if they were doubting her. “Like, from the movies. She told him about the jewels. He stole them and took them to his father in Asgard.”

“
Thor?
” Jane asked, her mouth gaping open. “
Asgard?
Are you serious?”

Cedar nodded. “I know it sounds crazy, but—”

“But no crazier than Tír na nÓg and stones that roar and portals in space,” Jane finished for her. “I get it. But holy jeez. Is every superhero movie I’ve ever seen real?”

“Hardly,” Felix answered. “The Thor from the comic books is a very, very loose interpretation of the actual Thor from Norse mythology. He’s the only one of the Avengers who exists in real life.”

Jane looked at him curiously. “You know who the Avengers are?”

He shrugged modestly. “I’m more of a Batman guy, myself.” At this, Jane actually giggled, but then she turned bright red and stared down at her Doc Martens.

“Brighid tried to get permission from the Elders to go to Asgard and get the jewels back, but they refused,” Cedar continued. “They basically told her that she and the Unseen had made this bed and now they had to lie in it.”

Felix rubbed the back of his neck. “That sounds like them, all right.”

“You saw the Elders?” Finn asked.

“I’m assuming that’s who they were. This all seemed to happen a really, really long time ago. That memory was definitely in Tír na nÓg, though; we were in the Hall.”

“I actually remember that day,” Felix said. “I wasn’t in the Hall, but everyone was talking about some scene that happened between Brighid and the others. She didn’t come back to Tír na nÓg very often after that.”

“Why wouldn’t they let her go to Asgard?” Jane asked.

“They thought it would start a war between the two worlds—Asgard and Tír na nÓg,” Cedar said. “And they said that if Brighid was so sure that the humans would continue to believe, it didn’t matter where the jewels were, as long as Odin didn’t destroy them.” She grimaced at the irony. “And now that’s exactly what we’re trying to do.”

“Did she tell you how to get there?” Felix asked quietly.

Cedar felt unsettled by the tone of his voice. “No,” she said. “Is it…hard?”

“It’s impossible,” he answered. “Asgard used to be connected to this world, just as Tír na nÓg was connected to it by the sidhe. The bridge was called Bifrost. But it’s been closed for centuries.”

“How did it get closed? Can we reopen it?” Cedar asked.

Felix shrugged. “No one knows. But I’m assuming it was done on Odin’s end. Maybe he wanted to sever all ties with humanity. It’s hard to say with Odin. He’s temperamental, to say the least. But I don’t think it’s something we can easily reopen…It’s based on the magic of their world, not ours.”

Cedar stood and started pacing around the balcony. She could feel the eyes of the others on her, but she ignored them. Brighid had told her there was another way, and then she’d shared these memories with her. Why would she have done that if it weren’t possible to get to Asgard?
You have a knack for achieving the impossible
, Brighid had told her. But how? What did she need to do?

“Have you been to Asgard?” she asked Felix. “Do you know what it looks like?”

Felix shook his head. “No,” he said. “I thought of that, but I don’t know if the sidhe would work, anyway.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“The sidhe are meant for traveling from Tír na nÓg to Ériu, or within either world…just as Bifrost was intended for travel between Asgard and here. I don’t know if travel between the two Otherworlds is possible.”

“But haven’t any of the Tuatha Dé Danann been there? Didn’t you
have meetings with the other gods or something?”

“It might have happened, but I was never privy to such knowledge. I’m pretty sure none of the other gods has been to Tír na nÓg. I think that if such meetings happened, they would have been here on Ériu. Neutral ground.”

Cedar considered this. Even if Brighid was right and there
was
another way, she was running out of time. Soon all of the Unseen would be gone, and there would be no one to save. “Listen,” she said to the others. “We don’t know how to get to Asgard, and we’re running out of time. I think we should stick to my first plan—proving that magic is real. By the time we figure out how to get to Asgard—if it’s even possible—most of the Unseen could be dead. We have to act
now
.”

“Try,” Finn said quietly.

“Try what?”

“Try to open a sidh to Asgard.”

She stared at him. “You kn
ow I can’t. I don’t know what it looks like.”

“Maybe you don’t need to.”

“Of course I do—we’ve already tried to get places I can’t see, and it doesn’t work.”

“Why don’t you just try, Ceeds?” Jane asked, standing beside Finn. “Eden used to need a door, and now she doesn’t, right? So maybe if you try hard enough, you won’t need to know what it looks like.”

Cedar closed her eyes, took a long, deep breath, and tried to calm the disquiet inside. She imagined that she was alone, back in her poppy field under a gentle morning sky, about to practice a new skill. She repeated the name over and over again in her head:
Asgard
,
Asgard
,
Asgard
. She tried to imagine what it would look like, even tried to remember how it had appeared in the movie she’d watched with Jane. But she could not picture even that clearly. She concentrated on the warm center of power she felt right beneath her rib cage and placed her hand on it. Then, without opening her eyes, she made a motion with her hand, imagining a door opening in the air in front of her, imagining the eight jewels lying on the other side.

When she opened her eyes, there was nothing there. Her eyebrows knit together, and she fought the ridiculous lump that was growing in her throat. “See?” she said, her voice breaking. “There’s no other choice.”

“Eden can do it,” said Helen, who had been silent throughout their exchange.

“What?”

“Eden can open the sidh to Asgard. I am almost certain of it.”

Cedar narrowed her eyes at the druid. “Why would you say that? How do you even know about Eden?”

“I’ve heard the guards talking about her,” Helen said. “
And
I have the Sight. I’ve seen her in my visions. And it is my belief that her powers far outstrip your own, if you’ll forgive me for saying so. If she were to try, I think she would succeed.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Finn said. “It would take less than a minute for her to try, so we won’t be wasting too much time. If it doesn’t work…then I’ll do as I promised.”

Cedar wanted to object. She didn’t want Eden to get wrapped up in this. What if Eden failed, and then blamed herself for Brighid’s death? But if she
didn’t
fail…well, maybe they should give her a chance.

Wordlessly, she made a sidh back to Tír na nÓg and stepped through it, leaving the others to follow her into the outer common room of her home.

“Where’s Jane?” she asked as Finn, Felix, and Helen emerged from the sidh.

“She said she’d stay with Brighid,” Felix said, his face soft. “She didn’t want her to be alone if…”

“I’m glad,” Cedar said. “Someone should be with her. Stay here. I’ll go get Eden.” She stepped into the inner courtyard, shoving willow branches out of her way as she rushed toward Eden’s room and opened the door. She tilted her head up and called, “Eden!” There was no answer. It was still morning in Tír na nÓg, but Eden should have been up by now. When she reached the top of the tree, though, her daughter was nowhere to be found. Cedar picked up the glittering starstone that hung from a knot in the tree next to Eden’s bed. She raced back down the stairs and into the courtyard, then knocked on Rohan and Riona’s door. After a few minutes, Riona appeared, looking at Cedar with surprise.

“There you are!” she said. “Rohan!” she cried over her shoulder. “She’s here!”

“What has happened?” Rohan said, looming behind his wife. “What have you done?”

Cedar drew back, stung. “I just need Eden,” she said. “Do you know where she is?”

“She went to Niall’s,” Riona said. “Is Finn here? He said he would bring you back.”

“Nice,” Cedar muttered. “He’s in the front room. We have a druid with us, so I didn’t want to bring them inside.”

“A druid? Why—”

“I don’t have time to explain,” Cedar said. She held up Eden’s starstone. “She didn’t take this with her. Can you tell me how to find Niall’s house? I need to get her. We’re just…trying something different.”

Several minutes later, Riona and Cedar were knocking on Atty’s front door. Finn and the others had stayed behind in case Eden came back early.

Atty looked surprised to see them when she opened the door. “Riona! Queen Cedar! What an unexpected pleasure. What can I do for you?”

“We’re here to get Eden,” Riona said. “She came here this morning to play with Niall.”

Atty looked taken aback. “I’ve been here all morning, and I haven’t seen her.”

“How did she get here?” Cedar asked, turning toward Riona.

“She made a sidh. I saw her go through it. It brought her right outside of this house. She waved to me to show me that she’d arrived and that Niall was home, and then she closed it.”

“Well, I haven’t seen Niall all morning, either,” Atty said. “I assumed that he was playing out in the forest, like he usually does in the mornings. But it’s strange that he wouldn’t tell me Eden was coming over.”

Cedar’s stomach started to feel uneasy, but she pushed the feeling away. Just some miscommunication, was all. Eden and Niall had gone off to play and forgotten to tell his mother where they were going. “I’ll go look for them,” she said.

“They usually don’t go far,” Atty said, pulling on a cloak and joining them outside. The three women walked through the forest, calling for their children. After several minutes, it was clear that Eden and Niall were nowhere within earshot.

Cold hands reached in and wrapped themselves around Cedar’s heart. She told herself to breathe, that it was impossible for this to happen again.

“Cedar?” Riona was looking at her with concern. Cedar realized she was clutching her stomach.

“I’m sorry, I—” She sat down hard on the nearest log, her head swimming, her breath coming in quick, shallow gasps. The next thing she registered, Riona was kneeling beside her, murmuring something comforting into her ear. Cedar tried to pull herself together. This was no time for panic. She need to be cool, collected…
regal.
She had to find Eden and get to Asgard. She stood up and waited for the wobbling in her legs to subside. Then she took a deep, cleansing breath and made a sidh back home. When she stepped through it, Riona and Atty on her heels, Felix and Finn rushed over. She waved them off.

“We can’t find her. She went to visit Niall this morning, but we can’t find either of them. Her starstone was still in her room so we can’t use it to get a hold of her. Let’s split up. Finn, go to your brother’s and see if they’re at his place. Felix, do you think they might have gone to your house? I saw Niall there once. Probably best to check.” She opened sidhe for both of them, and they set out at once.

“I’ll get Nevan,” Rohan said. “Eden’s mind is closed to her, but she might be able to contact Niall telepathically.”

“Good idea,” Cedar said.

“I can look for her as well,” Helen said. She had been standing behind the others, half concealed by the shadows in the corner of the room. “But I’ll need someplace quiet. I’ll go back to my room.”

Cedar hesitated, but then nodded. While she couldn’t think why Helen would want to go back to her cell, she didn’t have time to worry about it.

“I’ll escort you on my way to Nevan’s,” Rohan said, and the two of them left.

Cedar went back to Eden’s bedroom, on the extreme off-chance her daughter had left a note or some sort of clue. But there was nothing. If she had planned on being gone long, surely she would have taken the starstone. She could feel the cold edges of panic creep in again, but she pushed them aside. A child who could travel through portals at will was unlikely to stay in one place for long. She sat down on Eden’s bed and picked up the latest book her daughter had been reading:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
. They had read the first three books in the series together, but Cedar hadn’t had time to read this one with her.
This is the last time
, Cedar said to her daughter silently.
This is the last time I’ll involve you in something like this, I promise. You deserve a childhood
.