Divided against Yourselves (Spell Weaver) (5 page)

Have you ever seen your worst nightmare come to life right in front of you? Well, now I had, in living color—hell, in 3-D.

Whatever Morgan wanted, it had to be evil. Yet how could I refuse her anything when she could kill Gianni with one flick of the wrist. She might be a soulless witch, but she was pretty good with a knife, and there was still that faerie speed to contend with.

“I can probably save Gianni even if she cuts his throat,”
thought Nurse Florence, knowing that Morgan couldn’t hear our thoughts.

“Probably isn’t good enough!”
I shot back. Anyway, I knew how much energy Nurse Florence had needed to expend on breaking the spell on me. If Morgan seriously hurt Gianni, Nurse Florence would have to struggle with his injury and with the effects of the potion that would get in through his wound. She was good, but even she probably couldn’t pull that off, especially when she so desperately needed rest.

“Ah, Taliesin!” said Morgan as if we were chatting about the weather. “I wasn’t expecting you so soon, but I have never been so glad to see you. Your playmates don’t seem to understand how to negotiate. Perhaps I will do better with you.”

“Release Gianni, and we will talk,” I said as levelly as I could. Morgan laughed in that glacial way she had, and everyone in the room, even—or did I just imagine it?—Carla, seemed to cringe.

“I let the boy go once, and you almost immediately refused to help me. In fact, you tried to keep me from my sister. No, the boy stays right where he is until you take the most solemn oath I can contrive to help me.”

I knew just as well as Morgan that supernatural oaths—with a little help from an appropriate
tynged
—were binding. I couldn’t just pretend to agree and then go back on my word. The situation was much like the medieval stories about selling one’s soul to the devil…in more ways than one!

“Give me the word, and I’ll take her out,”
muttered Shar, who was standing right next to me. If he threw “Zom” at her with all his strength, it would cut through any possible magical defense and probably at least wound her, given the cramped space she was in…but she could probably at least nick Gianni before the sword hit her.

“Don’t do anything yet!”
I replied sternly. I could feel Shar’s impatience, but he respected my order. Just to be sure, I gave everyone the same order. I could feel the questioning responses, but I ignored them. The guys wanted to get Morgan, just as I did, but before I had even gotten to the room, they had accepted a stalemate rather than hurt Gianni. The others wouldn’t like the order any more than Shar did, but they too would obey it rather than see an innocent little kid die. As for Nurse Florence, I couldn’t picture her sacrificing Gianni either. I was especially thankful I was dealing with Nurse Florence rather than Vanora, who unquestionably would have wanted to get rid of Morgan, no matter what the cost.

“All right, Morgan, I’m listening. What exactly is it that you want from me?”

“Send your playmates out in the hall first. My words are for you alone.” To underscore the fact that she was not making a request, Morgan moved the knife just a little closer to Gianni’s throat.

“Out of the question!” answered Nurse Florence forcefully, before I could say anything. “What keeps you from killing Tal and Gianni if we leave?”

“I was under the impression that Taliesin was able to fight his own battles,” said Morgan with obvious disdain for Nurse Florence. “In any case, I could just as easily ask you what keeps me safe if they all stay? Five swordsmen, each with a magic sword and each within striking distance? What keeps them from killing me?”

“I do!” I replied as strongly as I could manage. “Morgan, these are my men,” I continued in terms she could understand. “They will not strike unless I give the order. And I pledge I will not without giving you prior warning that I am ending the negotiations—unless you yourself attack one of us, Gianni included.”

“Your guarantee is not entirely reassuring, since you are the one who determines how long it will run…but as a show of good faith, I will accept it, if you will be bound by a
tynged
to that effect.”

“I will,” I replied. We each raised our right hand, golden sparks crackled between our palms, and I felt the
tynged
grip me. Nurse Florence stared at me, clearly understanding I needed to give Morgan some ground in order to have any hope of saving Gianni but just as clearly not liking the situation.

Wanting to avoid another interruption from Nurse Florence, I continued quickly. “Now, Morgan, I ask again, what do you want from me? I half expected you to have found your sister and been gone by now.”

Morgan looked at me, clearly puzzled. “But Taliesin, I thought you had realized I have found my sister. There she is.” Morgan gestured toward Carla, who looked especially helpless to me.

Morgan’s words hit me like sledge hammers. I thought I had prepared myself for anything she could throw at me. Obviously, I was wrong.

CHAPTER 3: YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE—I WISH!

All of my friends acted as if they were holding their breath, waiting for some response from me…but words failed me. Finally Morgan lost patience with the shocked silence around her.

“Evidently I have over-estimated you, Taliesin. You saw this girl’s earlier lives awakened on Samhain, before Ceridwen gave her that second blast that left her in this trance. You knew that at least in one of those earlier lives, she was a sorceress, because you felt her power, and you saw her try to contend with Ceridwen on your behalf. Why is it so hard to believe that she could be Elaine?”

“For one thing, she was speaking Italian, not Welsh.”

Morgan shook her head sadly. “I told you when first we encountered each other tonight that my sister had traveled through Europe, looking for ways to increase her magic. She ended up in Italy. Remember, I also told you that she went by a new name, Alcina.

“Alcina is just a character in Ariosto’s
Orlando Furioso
!” protested Nurse Florence. “The Order has never found any evidence that she was a real person, much less that she was your sister, Elaine. That’s just one way Ariosto linked his subject to the matter of Britain. Surely you don’t think we are that gullible.”

Morgan looked at Nurse Florence even more contemptuously than before. “I was not speaking to you!” she replied in the most regal tone she could manage. Then, switching her attention back to me, she said, “Most people think that I am just a literary character. Most people think you are just a literary character, Taliesin. Yet here we are, just as real as those who doubt us. After all you have seen, after all you have lived through, how can you deny the possibility that Alcina is real and that she is my sister?”

“Suppose Carla was your sister in a previous life,” I replied coldly. “What do you want to do with her? Her condition is incurable. There is nothing you or I can do about that.”

“Ah,” said Morgan triumphantly, “wrong again! I
can
cure her—with your help. I have been watching you ever since Samhain…from a safe distance, of course. I learned more of you and more of your world, as well as improving my knowledge of your English language, which I had started learning when Ceridwen first approached me. During the whole time I was watching, I was also feeling the pull of my sister’s blood, as I told you. I wasn’t sure at first that my sister was your Carla, but I had my suspicions. The seer in Annwn who verified that Alcina had returned also told me something else: that you and I could bring her back from this deep sleep in which she is now trapped. For once, Taliesin, we are on the same side.”

My first reaction was disbelief, naturally. After all, Morgan was a master manipulator who would not hesitate to shape the truth into what she needed it to be. Already though, there was a nagging “what if?” growing inside of me.

“To cure her we would need to know more about the spell Ceridwen used to awaken those past-life memories in the first place, and that knowledge died with her,” I pointed out.

“You know Ceridwen recruited me for an ally. I was eager enough to join her, but even eager as I was, I did not forget my ability to bargain. I obtained Ceridwen’s promise of help to find the soul of Lancelot, but I insisted on more than that, and so eager was Ceridwen to ensure her victory over you that she would have given me almost anything. She was more than willing to teach me her new knowledge of magic, including the studies she went through to perfect the awakening spell.”

The horrible part was that Morgan could be telling the truth. At first I had thought her magic on Samhain
was
Ceridwen’s magic, because it differed so much from the traditional spell-casting she had performed back in the days of King Arthur. Ceridwen must have given her at least some knowledge. If Morgan had gotten the secret of awakening from her, then perhaps Morgan could help Carla.

“You’re bluffing!” scoffed Nurse Florence.

“Shall I demonstrate, then?” Morgan raised her left hand, a familiar, sickly red glare dancing from finger to finger.

“No!” I shouted. “We need no demonstration.”

“Tal, she could be fooling us,”
thought Nurse Florence.
“Don’t agree to anything.”

“But, what is she can help Carla?”

“Remember that who she wants to help is Alcina. What if she can reverse the effect of the second blast of the awakening spell? You’ve told me yourself that a strong past-life memory can take over the present-life body if the will of that past self is strong enough. Can Carla withstand Alcina?”

Since the Alcina persona, if that was really who it was, had taken over immediately on Samhain, probably not. On the other hand, Stan had the same experience after being hit with the awakening spell; he had been taken over by an Israelite warrior. I had helped him recover, and in the end I had reinforced Stan’s willpower enough to give him control and force his other selves to join with his present self again.

If I played this right, I could save Carla and prevent Morgan from reviving Alcina! I really could.

A few days ago, the idea of making any kind of deal with Morgan would have been unspeakably repugnant, but circumstances were different now. I think Nurse Florence sensed my wavering, but I ignored her mental protests and focused all my attention on Morgan.

“If you have been watching me, you know I want Carla cured, but I have a hard time trusting you. You pretended to run into me by accident tonight, but if you have been watching me as long as you say, you would have known I would come to visit Carla.”

“True enough, Taliesin—but you are rather late tonight, aren’t you? I expected you to be already gone when I got here.”

And so I would have been normally. Gianni’s unexpected arrival slowed me down just a little.

“You also pretended not to know exactly where your sister was at first.”

“Until I stood right by her bed and held her hand, I could not be absolutely sure that Carla was truly Alcina. The seer gave me no help on that. Alcina could have been someone else. You know how faint any sign of consciousness is in this girl,” Morgan said, pointing at Carla again. “Even the call of blood is weak. I had to be very close to be certain. I wasn’t trying to lie to you, Taliesin. Nor was I trying to create this awkwardness here.” She nodded in the direction of the helpless Gianni. “I had hoped to have a conversation under better circumstances.”

“Prove that to me by letting Gianni go,” I said in as commanding a tone as I could muster. “I can’t take your protests of good intention very seriously when you threaten a young boy.”

Morgan’s smile was cold enough to freeze even White Hilt’s fire. “You ask far more than you are willing to give, Taliesin. Have your men sheathe their swords, and I will give Gianni to you.”

“Do it,” I said to the guys.

“Tal!” said Shar in alarm. While he held Zom, he was immune to Morgan’s magic, but sheathed, the sword did not protect him.

“Morgan, another
tynged
I think. No one in this room will harm anyone else in this room until I declare the negotiation at an end.” Since we outnumbered Morgan seven to one, that agreement was favorable enough that she should be willing to take it, and she did. The guys and Nurse Florence nodded agreement, some of them rather sullenly.

For this
tynged
all of us raised our right hands, and again the golden sparks crackled, this time in an eight-pointed star formation. (Only someone who knew magic could set a
tynged
, but anyone could be bound by it.) Once I was sure the
tynged
had taken hold, I gestured for the guys to sheathe their swords, which they did with a notable show of reluctance. Actually, with the
tynged
preventing them from harming Morgan while our talks continued, they could just as well have kept their weapons out, but Morgan wanted them away, so away they went. I did notice that Shar kept his hand on Zom’s pommel so that he remained protected. That didn’t violate Morgan’s demand, so I let it pass. After all, he was the one she nearly killed before.

Looking around to satisfy herself that there was no sign of treachery, Morgan gently let the sleeping Gianni down on the edge of Carla’s bed. Stan and Gordy pulled him over to our side of the room, and Nurse Florence got him situated in the room’s only chair. I did a quick brush across his mind to make sure that he was only sleeping and not under some more malicious spell. Then I turned again to Morgan.