Give the Devil His Due (The Sanheim Chronicles, Book Three) (21 page)

“Here,” she said.

Quinn smiled again.

“Dublin,” he said. “We’re in Dublin. That might explain some of the structures in the cornfield.”

“Whatever it was, Kyle changed it,” Carol said. “I don’t know exactly what was here before.”

“Weird that Sanheim gave him the capital city,” Quinn said.

“You need to stop thinking of it in mortal terms. It’s not Sanheim’s capital.”

“So where is Sanheim’s capital?”

“Here,” Carol said, pointing to a spot on the west coast. “In the real Ireland, it’s called Doolin. It’s a small town in the middle of nowhere, known mainly for good Irish music. It’s near the Cliffs of Moher, a particularly dramatic piece of the coastline.”

“If I win this fight, I’m totally making you tourism director,” Quinn said.

Carol looked exasperated.

“That’s the other thing,” she said. “Do you think you can really beat Sanheim?”

“Isn’t that what this is about?” Quinn asked. “You said Kate was coming here. We’ll be the Prince of Sanheim again. And we’ll challenge Sanheim, like Sawyer planned to do.”

Carol closed her eyes in frustration.

“You keep forgetting, don’t you?” she asked. “You’re dead. Kate is coming, but even if she succeeds — and I think she will — that doesn’t change the fact that you died. You aren’t the Prince of Sanheim anymore.”

“But we’ll be together,” Quinn said weakly.

“Good for you, sugar,” Carol replied. “But it doesn’t change matters of life and death. Kate might be able to take on Sanheim herself, though I have my doubts about that, but it doesn’t change what you are. To challenge Sanheim, the Prince must be alive — both parts of it.”

Quinn looked at her in despair.

“Than we’ve already lost,” he said. “I thought…”

“Then you thought wrong,” Carol said. “This isn’t about stopping Sanheim.”

“I refuse to believe that,” Quinn said. “There has to be a way. She’s the ‘last.’”

“Quinn, you don’t even know what that means!” Carol said. “I don’t even fully understand it. I just know the prophecy and that she fits the criteria. She’s the one who’ll march on the underworld and attempt to open a gateway. Or she’ll slaughter everyone on earth.”

“Wait, what?” Quinn asked, suddenly alarmed.

“Never mind,” Carol said. “That’s unlikely. But my point is that she’s coming to rescue you, not wage a war. This is Orpheus and Eurydice, not Alexander the Great.”

“You lost me,” Quinn said.

“In Greek myth, Orpheus broke into Hades in order to take back his dead wife, Eurydice,” Carol said. “He could do so only on the condition that he not…”

“Look back at her,” Quinn said. “I remember the story now; I just didn’t recognize their names. But as I recall, he ultimately failed.”

“As far as I know, it’s never been done,” she said.

“Well, Crowley and the Spider broke into here,” Quinn said.

“So they could conquer it, not so they could bring someone back,” Carol said. “That’s not Kate’s plan. At least I hope not.”

“How do you know what her plan is?”

“I don’t,” she said. “I don’t have any insight into what’s happening in the mortal world. I just know the prophecy said she was the last, and that she’ll likely use her powers to come here. What she does then… I’m only guessing. I’m betting she’ll walk through the portal, grab you, and get out.”

“Can I even go back?” Quinn asked. “I’m dead.”

Carol shrugged.

“Hell, honey, I don’t know,” she said. “When it all comes down to it, I’m just a small-town girl from West Virginia. Most of the advice I dished out as a psychic was how to keep your man, not how to resurrect your dead boyfriend.”

“But you said she might die,” Quinn said.

Carol nodded.

“We need more information,” she said. “When Kate comes through that portal, Sanheim will have an army waiting for her. He’s not going to let her take you out from underneath his nose.”

“If I’m dead, why does he give a damn? You just said I’m no threat to him.”

“Well, he isn’t exactly acting that way,” she said. “Besides, Kate is a threat to him, at least nominally. Even if she’s a small threat, he’ll want to stamp her out.”

“So we need to be there when she arrives,” Quinn said.

“Yes,” Carol said. “But there’s one big problem.”

“Which is?”

“We don’t know where Kate will be arriving,” she said. She gestured to the dirt map of Ireland. “It’s a big place and I have no idea where she’ll come through. We can help her. We have a small battalion of scarecrows who are anxious to fight for you now. We can’t win a large battle, but I don’t think Sanheim will be expecting us at all. We could give Kate the time she needs to get you out.”

“Or attack,” Quinn said. “We could surprise Sanheim and attack.”

“It won’t work,” Carol said. “As my father used to say, that dog won’t hunt. You need to get that idea out of your head.”

Quinn looked away, unconvinced. There was something they were missing, he was sure of it.

“So how do we find out where she’ll be?” Quinn asked.

“There’s someone in this world who knows.” Carol said. “It’s just a rumor, but I think it’s true. As far as I can understand, he’s the only one who knows where the portal opens. We find him, and he can tell us where to go.”

Carol pointed to a spot on the map to the south.

“He’s being kept here,” she said. “It’s called Dun Cumhacht, the Fort of the Ancients,” Carol said. “I’ve only seen it once. It will be hard to get into, even harder to break someone out of. But it’s…”

“What’s his name, Carol?” Quinn asked. “Who are we trying to break free?”

“Crowley,” she responded. “We have to talk to Robert Crowley.”

Chapter 17

When Kate walked back into Tim’s apartment, he almost didn’t recognize her. Her clothes and appearance were the same, but her attitude, the whole atmosphere around her, felt completely different.

The person who had left was confused, edgy and distracted. But as soon as she walked through his door, Tim could see that was no longer the case. She didn’t seem suddenly cheerful, but she was calm, serious and focused. Her eyes no longer wandered off, looking at people who weren’t there. When she greeted Tim, her body was still.

Tim realized it was the first time Kate had seemed calm since Quinn’s death. She still looked sad, but no longer out of her wits.

“What happened to you?” Tim asked after a moment.

She nodded at him.

“Very observant,” she said simply.

Kieran entered the room, obviously having just woken up.

“Is she back yet?” he asked and the question died on his lips when he saw Kate.

“I’m back,” she said and the double meaning was clear to Tim. Whatever hell she’d been through appeared to be over. “It’s time to get down to business.”

Kieran looked at Tim in obvious surprise, but for once held his tongue.

“Okay,” he said. “Where do you want me to start?”

“I want to know everything,” she replied. “But primarily, I want to know where I need to go.”

“Well, first you need the spirits,” Kieran said, “and I thought we could...”

“That process has already started,” Kate replied crisply.

Tim realized that Kate’s approach to Kieran had shifted as well. She wasn’t exactly warmer to him, but her voice had a more business-like tone to it. The obvious hostility was gone, or at least submerged.

“Uh, when?” Kieran said. “We thought you were out killing hobos or something.”

Before Kate could respond, the light bulb above her burst.

“Odd,” Tim said, “I just replaced that.”

It was rapidly followed by the lamp next to them and then the light in Tim’s small kitchen. Within a minute, the power in the building flickered off. Tim looked at Kate expectantly.

“I’m going to assume you had something to do with that,” he said.

“Not directly,” she said. “You may not see them, but we have company now. They took a bit of time following me from the battlefield.”

Kieran looked from Kate to Tim.

“There are ghosts? Here?” he asked.

Kate nodded, and seemed to take a certain pleasure in his discomfort.

“How many?” Kieran asked.

“You probably don’t want to know. The question I have is, how many do I need?”

Kieran’s eyes widened.

“It was that easy?” he asked.

From across the street there was a loud bang and Kieran jumped. Tim looked unperturbed.

“That was the transformer across the street,” he said. “The entire block is going to be without power.”

“I’d wager that the entire city is going to lose power in a matter of hours,” Kate said. “Spirits can wreak havoc with electronics. Something to do with electromagnetics. Terry Jacobsen told me that last year. I’ll try to have them wait for me a little further from civilization next time.”

“They’re coming to you?” Kieran asked.

“Yes, but I’m not going to wait for them,” she said. “Starting today, I'm taking a tour of every Civil War battlefield in the region. As the Horseman, I can travel quickly. Once I put out the call, they’ll respond, and they’ll bring others. But that raises the question of how many I need.”

Kieran ran his fingers through his hair and looked perplexed.

“You’re the only Prince of Sanheim to do this by yourself,” he said. “I don’t really know. I’d say the more the merrier. Maybe five hundred would do it?”

Kate laughed out loud.

“Trust me,” she said. “I can do a lot better than that.”

“Isn’t this going to tax your energy?” Tim asked. “Kieran said it took a lot out of you to raise the dead last year.”

“The raising takes energy, but once they join her, they actually add to her strength over time,” Kieran answered. “In theory, the more she calls to her, the stronger she’ll be.”

“And she needs them to open the doorway to hell… I mean the underworld?” Tim asked.

Kieran nodded.

“Yes,” he said. “But if she’s talking big numbers, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Which leads me to my second question,” Kate said. “Where do I take them?”

It was Tim who answered her.

“We discussed this earlier, but you seemed... unfocused,” he said. “Kieran has identified several places where he feels the walls between this world and Sanheim’s underworld are thin, particularly around Halloween.”

“There’s the Kostnice in the Czech Republic,” Kieran said. “Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye, St. Mary’s Close in Edinburgh. All of these spots have experienced significant ghost activity, combined with a tragic history. Any of them could work. Crowley used Dunvegan, for the record. But there does seem to be one place with an even weaker barrier than those. It’s arguably our best bet.”

“Oweynagat,” Tim said. “It’s translated from Gaelic as the Cave of the Cats.”

“I remember your mentioning that before I left,” she said, “but I admit I wasn’t listening. Is the cave filled with cats or something?”

“No, I think it’s just a name,” Kieran replied. “The ancient Celts believed it was a holy cave that led straight into Mother Earth. More important for our purposes, they thought spirits and ghosts came out of it every year on ...”

“Sanheim,” she finished.

“Exactly,” Kieran said. “It became a place of worship. The Celts believed it was a doorway between this world and the Land of the Dead. And Kate, I’ve been there. After I...”

“Killed Quinn and ran away like a coward,” Kate said, but her tone was matter-of-fact.

“Right,” Kieran nodded. “After that, I flew back home. Once I started doing some research, I learned of this place and went to visit. It’s in County Roscommon in Ireland. It’s basically a big mud pit now, but the cave is still there. Well, a part of it is anyway. There was a cave-in at some point when they were installing some electric power-lines above it.”

“So much for respecting their ancestry,” Tim said.

“Anyway,” Kieran continued. “I went there and... I felt its power, Kate. I walked in and I’d bet my life it’s the doorway we need.”

Tim resisted the urge to remind him that he was, in fact, betting his life. If this didn’t work, Kate might not be crazy anymore, but he suspected her capacity for mercy would be limited.

“So that’s where we’ll go,” she said. “When?”

“When in doubt, go with a classic,” Kieran said. “All the legends say Halloween is the weakest point between our world and the afterlife. Seems to me it’s our best chance.”

“That gives us 21 days,” Kate said. “I plan to make the most of it.”

“One practical question,” Kieran asked. “How are you going to get these ghosts over there? It’s not like they can take a plane. They’d probably kill the power before it ever got off the ground.”

“We won’t need one,” Kate said. “I’m not sure we can fly exactly, but hovering above the water doesn’t appear to be a problem. I tested it on my way back from Ball’s Bluff, just to be sure.”