Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (48 page)

Past the tree line I saw the brightness of fires burning in the darkness. Glowing forms circled the fires passing the time just as humans would— talking, playing games, singing along to the beautiful melody of a lyre floating through the trees. They were all dressed in white, and they all shone just like Ara and Dayne.

We passed a fire that was very near the path, burning a cool silvery blue instead of the normal red. The men around it sat up unexpectedly, surprised at the sight of us.

“It’s Dayne!” A disbelieving voice called out.

“Dayne?”

“Dayne!”

“Dayne.” A chorus of his name carried the news through the woods.

“Welcome home, brother.” Ara said trying to look down her nose at Dayne, but managing to look only at his waist instead. She snorted in disgust and turned her head away.

We left the forest and falling petals behind when we came to an elevation of rocks that glittered with the violet purple hues of amethyst twinkling in whatever source lit this enchanted world. Dayne led the way across their slick surfaces with ease, a familiar path he must have traveled many times before.

At the very top, we reached a flat area. A breeze of movement rustled behind us, and I turned to see a gathering of the forest people silently following our progress. They floated over the rocky surface without so much as a whisper, quiet as shadows in the dark.

Dayne and Ara stood on either side of me, facing an altar of carved stone. It looked like it belonged in the pulpit of the grandest cathedral in the world– out of place in its woodland surroundings.

On the altar sat a regal looking red fox, his head tilted as he studied something in the distance. Dayne cleared his throat and the fox turned his smart gaze to us. A smile spread across the foxy lips, more human than animal.

In an instant, the snout turned to human lips and the body of the fox became that of a man. He was glorious, illuminated in a single beam of light as it shone down on him in the ethereal light. I recognized King Finvanna from his portrait. He looked so lovingly at us the fear that had tightened my stomach melted away.

“My son, you have returned.” He floated instantly to Dayne in one swift motion, grabbing his hand and bringing it to his lips.

“Father.” Dayne acknowledged him with a stiff bow, but looked ahead.

Father? I looked at Dayne with disbelief. This was a big part of the story to leave out. King Finvanna was Dayne’s father? Which meant Dayne was a prince? Which meant I had kissed a fairy prince?!? I bit my lip and stared at the ground with the memory, feeling even more inadequate in my surroundings.

“What have we here?” His gaze floated to me. Every move he made was effortless.

“Dayne has a girlfriend.” Ara beamed in her nasty way, too happy to play the tattletale.

“Enough, Ara,” Dayne spit the words out.

“Dayne, that’s no way to talk to your sister,” Finvanna scolded as an afterthought as he took me in. “Interesting. Why is she here, Dayne?”

“Dayne’s been hiding her. He thinks she’s one of us.” Ara let a little laugh escape.

“I see.” His hand reach out and swept quickly across my cheek. My body snapped to attention with the surge of power that charged through me. The motion was so quick I might have missed it if it weren’t for the sudden shock. His hand was back at his chin in an instant. I remembered what Dayne had said. Luckily, I was too occupied with the thought that my boyfriend was in fact a prince to think much about myself.

Finvanna looked me up and down once more. He looked from Ara to Dayne and smiled.

“It’s so nice to have you back, son,” he said as he backed away from us and held his arms out to the side. He flung his head back to the sky and let out a great cry. An eagle’s call rose up to the heavens so loudly I was sure they heard it in Clonlea.

A rustle of leaves high above floated down to where we stood and a great eagle appeared, circling around us, surveying the scene before landing on Finvanna’s outstretched arm. As soon as the talons gripped his arm, they turned into slender fingers and the body of the bird became Daoine, regal and stunning before us, silhouetted in her own beam of light.

“My son! I didn’t expect you so soon.” Daoine reached out to Dayne, taking his head in her hands and placing the gentlest of kisses on his cheek.

Jerking around, like she smelled something bad, she stared at me. “You brought an interloper with you?” Her anger flared, igniting the flame of her red hair. It glowed in the air around her. A gasp of shock rippled through the crowd and Arabette beamed victoriously at my side.

Ara glanced at me with a hateful sneer wrinkling her beautiful face.

“No, mother, she’s no interloper. Feel her.” Dayne had thrown his body between us. Now he reached out for her hand and guided it to my chest. He looked at me intently, being sure I remembered his instruction.

I forgot about Ara and focused on Daoine, her beauty, her grace, her powerful presence.

Her touch was soft, like Dayne’s. I felt her boredom, jaded by an unnaturally long life. I felt her pleasant surprise when she saw how awe struck I was by her. “I see.” She opened her eyes and looked me over. “She is not known to me.”

“But, she is not human?” Dayne questioned his mother.

“No, but I am unsure of her kind,” Daoine studied me in a lackadaisical way. I couldn’t help but wonder if she was bored with life, or had seen this all before. “Where are you from, child?” She picked up a lock of my hair and twirled it around her finger.

“America.” She put the hair back down on my shoulder.

“Pretty,” she sounded just like Arabette. “Your parents?”

“I’m adopted. I don’t know them.”

“They were from Ireland. She was born here.” Dayne looked from Daoine to me smiling as he said this, obviously encouraged by how this was going.

Daoine reached down and picked up the locket that lay against my chest. She ran her finger over it and then looked back at me. “We will consult the oracle. You will remain here until we have decided.” Without another word she turned and retreated to Finvanna. Hand in hand they disappeared into the woods behind the stone alter.

“It’s nice to have you home, son.” Daoine’s majestic voice lingered in the air.

“UGH!” Ara punched her hands down at her sides and stormed off in a huff. Dayne turned to me.

“I think it’s going to be okay.” He brushed my hair away from my face and cupped my chin in his hand.

Relief washed over me and I let out a little sigh as I fell into his chest.

The crowd that had gathered began to dissipate, chattering excitedly as they left the amethyst rocks.

“I can’t believe he’s back,” a woman said.

“I know. I thought he was gone for good,” her companion answered

“I wonder what this means?”

LisTirna’s prodigal son had returned.

Dayne picked up my necklace just as Daoine had done. “This is from your birth parents, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Come with me. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” He took me by the hand and led me along a lush path lined with powder puff blooms of white and pink that illuminated our way through the tangle of woods. Like a grand church cathedral, looming branches of blue-green trees bowed overhead, forming the aisle we walked down. We came to the banks of a stream, silently snaking its way along the iridescent forest floor that alternated in the same blue and green hues of the forest. In the distance, a glimmering waterfall poured into the valley from between two pointy, purple peaks.

Dayne dropped my hand and began to shrug out of his clothes. I turned my head out of habit, but my eyes involuntarily opened, and I found my head slowly turning back, hoping to catch a glimpse of the chiseled body I imagined beneath his clothes. To my surprise and obvious disappointment, I saw nothing. The glow that illuminated his skin burned hottest at his center, shining so brightly it obscured his torso and anything that might be inappropriate for my eyes.

“Where are you going?” I asked, sinking to my knees on the bank beside his clothes, running my finger through the multicolored tufts of mossy-soft grass.

“I won’t be gone too long,” he winked and ran to the water’s edge. My playful Dayne was back, having been relieved to find his mother so welcoming. He was giddily happy, the black cloud of dread and guilt no longer shrouding his features. It actually seemed like he was enjoying himself, now that the future of our fates seemed a little more certain, and he ran to the water with all the excitement of a little boy.

I caught a satisfied smile on his face just before he sprung from the bank, forming the perfect swan dive, just as Arabette had when she entered LisTirna, and disappeared beneath the water.

The last ripple of his splash had just reached the bank when the rustle of leaves startled me.

“Faye? Is that you?” I spun wildly around, shocked to hear a familiar voice in this unfamiliar realm.

A woman made her way from the cover of the enchanting forest. A calm and dream-like peace rested on her brow. Her hair was tied up in silky ribbons of watery blue. A billowy gown of the same color circled around her with puffy cap sleeves at her shoulders. I knew she was not Sidhe. There was no illumination encircling her. She did not compete with the beauty of her surroundings. She merely complimented them.

As she came closer, I noticed something familiar in the way she moved, but it wasn’t until her lips parted in the innocent smile that had been just as radiant in our world that I recognized my friend.

“Christine!” I exclaimed when she stood before me, just as beautiful and wholesome as she ever was. “You’re alive!”

I rushed over to her and grabbed her up in a hug, so happy to see her and feel her and know she was okay after all the weeks Clonlea had spent trying to find her.

She did not return my hug, standing still as the trees in a dream-like trance, her body swaying with mine, but not as it should. I stepped back from her, looking her up and down to be sure it was really Christine.

“I heard you were here. With Dayne?” She asked in a voice that was not her own. It was slower and softer, more pronounced than before, a dream-like way of speaking.

“Yes, but what about you?” I thought about all the posters plastered around Clonlea, the desperate searches her parents made every weekend. “What are you doing here?” I couldn’t imagine how she could have slipped past Dayne and into this world.

“The man from the dance was no man.” A contented smile rested on her lips. “I am happy.” Her words totally confused me. Of course, we hadn’t been best friends, but this was not the girl I remembered at all. She didn’t talk like a normal 18 year old. Her words had the rhythmic lilt of some ancient Gaelic tongue.

“He brought you here?” I didn’t have to ask. I knew exactly which man she was talking about. A chill raced through my body as I pictured the ice-cold eyes that had haunted my dreams for weeks. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had known all along he was the one that had taken Christine. A fact Dayne had to be aware of too, but the last few weeks of my life had been filled with so many unbelievable revelations it had completely slipped my mind to ask. My stomach knotted in a familiar way, knowing I had failed to save sweet Christine...again.

“What about your parents? They’re sick with worry. Couldn’t you at least let them know you’re okay?” I thought of Mary and how she had stared at April and me the night we picked herbs. How could Christine be so calm and unfeeling about her parents’ heartbreak? This was not right at all. I wanted to shake her and wake her from this spell she was under.

Her slender, graceful arms drifted up in front of her, as if under a spell all there own. Floating in her head like falling feathers, her eyes focused on two beautiful bracelets circling each wrist. The carved white stones glowed against her skin, illuminated like the Sidhe.

“I cannot.” The words were dreamy and weak. I ventured a hand out to touch them, and she pulled them from my reach with a measured gasp. Her head turned slowly back to the forest, as if someone had called her name. Was she being watched?

I looked closer at the strange bracelets around her wrists. They pressed tightly against her skin, no clasp to open them. They were not bracelets given as a token of love. They were handcuffs holding her here against her will. Even prison was beautiful in LisTirna.