The Silent Goddess: The Otherworld Series Book 1 (10 page)

“Course I do,” Warren said confidently.  “He’s uh- uh- What was his name again Pete?”

Pete let out a wheezing cackle followed by a coughing fit.  He looked down at the chewed cigar then threw it down at Darry, Remy and Warren like it suddenly offended him.  The three wrestled in the mud cursing and punching each other to get to the cigar.

“Ignore the Ratboys,” he told Duncan.

“Was there something you all wanted?”  Duncan asked trying to be polite by hold onto his waning patience.

“See you came back without the girl lover boy,” Pete teased eliciting an angry growl from Duncan.  “I meant no offense,” he said holding up his gnarled hands in surrender.  Duncan relaxed slightly.  “Touchy this one, huh?”  He said to the Ratboys below who were now fighting over a new piece of garbage.  “Listen,” he said struggling to his feet.  “We Fir Darrigs maybe smelly but we ain’t stupid,” he said as a new round of curses bellowed out from below.  “Well I’m not stupid,” he clarified.

“Good to know.  Now if you’ll excuse me-“ Duncan said trying to escape the Ratboys and their smell; but Pete’s next words stopped him.

“Did you know there’s a Redcap in town?”

Duncan froze.

“Huh, thought you Riders could sniff out trouble,” Pete muttered.

“A Redcap?” Duncan asked over his shoulder.

“Yep, real nasty one!  Been a while if ya know what I mean.”

Duncan shuddered at the old man’s words.  A Redcap meant the Unseelie had eyes in Salem.  “Where?” Duncan asked.

Pete took an involuntary step back as Duncan turned to face him.  Duncan could imagine what he looked like to the old Fir Darrig.  The warrior that dwelled in him was clawing to come out.  His eyes would turn a dark steely gray; his face would grow taut with grim determination as bloodlust pumped through his veins.  His chest began to heave as his lungs tried to capture more oxygen to feed his tensing muscles.  His hand opening and closing the familiar itch on his palms as his sword arm craved to feel the extra weight of his sword and shield.  At this moment the Battle Crow rode him hard whispering of victory and the spoils of war.

A calming hesitant hand rested gently on his shoulder.  Duncan’s eyes snapped open catching the cloudy blue-eyed gaze of the old Fir Darrig.

“It’s possible he is unaware of her, like attracts like.  We who align ourselves with the Seelie have been gathering here.  And-,” He pointed a twisted finger at a small figure walking down the street.  “We are not the only ones.”

Duncan recognized the small woman from the night before.  In the darkening twilight the shimmer of her druid blood seemed to pulse around her as it expanded and contracted.  Duncan could almost hear the sizzle of her magick.

“Druids,” Duncan whispered.

“Druids and more,” Pete agreed with a nod of his head.  “This is a battle in which you may have many unsuspecting allies,” he said giving Duncan’s shoulder a squeeze.

Just then a fist load of ocean bottom muck landed at their feet on the dock.

“Darry,” Pete barked.  “Why our mother ever thought she needed to spawn your ugly cow ass-“

The rest of Pete’s rant was tuned out as Duncan focused his attention on Annie’s friend Kat.  He wondered briefly if she realized that she wasn’t just playing at magick, but that she was magick.  The druids were taught magick at the roots of their sacred trees.  They in turn taught the Sidhe how to control and harness the energy that ran wild through nature.  However powerful the druids were they could not stop their mortal clock from ticking.  As the natural, human world evolved their magick became less and less needed as man built machines to take the place of magick.  But their dormant power flowed like water through their descendants until the time came when the world would have need of it again.

Duncan thought back to when he was a boy, before he knew the Fae were more than just the little people who dwelled in the hills that surrounded his village.  There had been a wild man who had lived in the woods, a hermit who lived in a cave.  He claimed to be a guardian of the veil, the magickal barrier that separated the Otherworld from the natural world.  The Tuatha De Danann or Sidhe had retreated from the natural world giving up their adopted homeland to the sons of Mil, a race of conquering men from across the great sea.  The Tuatha de Danann left behind some of the most powerful druids to guard the natural world like they had once guarded the ancient four cities.  Could this girl, like the Wildman in the woods be one such guardian?  Or was she like the ancient magick she carried asleep?

“I doubt she or her mate is aware of their magick Dark Warrior, Keeper of my mistress’ heart,” said a soft cultured voice.

Duncan searched the area for the face he knew that voice belonged to.  He saw nothing but two swans, even Pete and his Ratboy brothers had vanished.

“As it been that long then?” the voice asked.

“Caelia? Show yourself,” he demanded.

Her tinkling laughter answered his demands.  “Have you so quickly forgotten my curse that your eyes cannot see me as I am now?”

At that reminder his eyes found and focused on the pair of swans.  One of the swans wore a silver chain around its neck, a bond and a curse laid upon her by Annie herself when she was still Sidhe.

“Have you come to betray her again?” Duncan sneered.

“No,” Caelia answered quietly her graceful swan head hanging in shame.  “I have come to accept my shame and the part I have played in this tragedy.  Like you I have been used as a pawn my presence here is by my own doing. I have come to make right the wrong I have done.”

Duncan scoffed down at the swan as hatred burned in his eyes.  “Your jealousy, your betrayal ruined her,” he spat then quietly he added, “ruined me.”

Caelia was once beautiful and loved by Annie.  She knew of Annie’s romance with Duncan, she had promised to keep it secret to protect them both, but in the end she had betrayed them both. 

Annie’s retribution had been swift; cursing her former confidant to remain forever a swan until she could show that she deserved forgiveness.

“My betrayal runs deeper than you know Duncan,” she admitted so quietly that at first Duncan thought he had imagined her words.  “I cannot say much more for my soul is bound by more than one curse,” she said louder her voice gaining strength and bravery.  “He may have lost his grasp on her for a moment but he is coming.”

“Who, Caelia? Who is coming?’

Her graceful body turned away from him slowly swimming away.  She put more space between herself and the shore before turning back to him once more.  “Kill him Duncan, when he comes kill him.”

The air around him crackled and sizzled as if the clouds and the atmosphere were releasing an electrical charge.  A gust of wind blew off the ocean, the scent of discharged energy mingled with salt and a faint metallic smell filled Duncan’s nostrils.  A loud crack followed by a thunderous boom echoed off the surrounding buildings making his chest pound with the reverberation of the sound.  He flinched at the sudden sound of thunderstorm gathering just off shore.  His eyes focused on the thickening black clouds rolling over the ocean towards him.   A powerful darkness was coming.

He searched his surrounding but found himself alone; there was no Pete, no Ratboys, and no Caelia or swans.  He was momentarily confused, the sound of thunder had left his ears ringing and at the moment he could hear nothing but that high pitched sound.  He gritted his teeth against the growing frustration welling up inside of him.  He had been visited by Fae claiming to be friendly.  He knew little about Pete and the other Fir Darrig.  Their kind tended to dwell in the polluted waterways of the natural world.  Since there were no such places in the Otherworld they had chosen to remain in the human realm.  Their kind was not usually so corporative with the Sidhe and the Seelie court as they were distant cousins of the Formorians. 

The Formorians were an ancient race of Fae who once dwelled on the Emerald Isle.  They were defeated and banished by the Tuatha de Danann, and hence the split of the Fae with half belonging to the Seelie and the other half making up the Unseelie.  The Fir Darrigs were one of the few groups of Fae that sat somewhere in the middle.  The fact that they were offering assistance was troubling enough; add in Caelia and her cryptic warning into the mix and Duncan was left wondering why enemies were aiding him.

A light tap on his shoulder pulled Duncan’s attention from his internal turmoil focusing him on the present.  “Didn’t your mother ever teach you to come in out of the rain?”

Duncan looked down at the small woman standing in front of him.  She held a small but sturdy black parasol over her equally black head of hair that whipped around her face.  She smiled brightly up at him her plump cheeks indented with dimples, her blue eyes dancing with laughter.  She waved a stubby little finger under his nose as she spoke in a whisper.  “I know what you are,” her voice had a childlike sing-song quality to it.

“An’ what am I lass?” he inquired.

Her bright eyes darted left than right as she crooked a finger at him beckoning him lower.  He obliged ducking his head as she rose up on her tip toes.  Then cupping a hand to her mouth whispered one word in his ear. 

“Fae.”

Duncan yanked his head back, some of his hair tangled into the spokes of her umbrella yanking them from his head.  He rubbed the stinging sensation with his hand as he contemplated whether or not to tell her the truth.  His conversation with the mysterious and now absent Pete drifted back to him and Duncan decided to play Kat’s game.  He stopped rubbing his head and motioned for Kat to give him her ear so he could whisper his own secret in to it.

“An’ I ken what you are druid,” his tongue easily slipping back to its natural brogue.  His truthful words were rewarded with a startled gasp as Kat took a step back.  He allowed a wicked grin to touch his mouth as she tried to stare back at him innocently.

“I am a witch,” she said defiantly.  She raised her chin and planted a fist on her hip.  The pose made her look like a child pouting and Duncan had to fight the urge to laugh.

“An’ I am Faeriedae.  The difference being small and large at the same time,” he returned crossing his arms over his chest mimicking her stance with a more adult one.

She punched a fist down towards the ground and stomped a foot in an attempt at anger and intimidation.  It had the opposite effect on him.  When she scowled fiercely at him he raised his hands in surrender to placate her.

“Okay I’ll go first but I have a question.”

She raised an eyebrow at him and gave him an impatient look.  When she didn’t verbalize an objection he continued.

“Let us suppose that I am what you say, how did you know?”

She cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes as she studied him.  “You’re a lot like her, but she’s dimmer somehow.  It’s almost like you,” she said poking a finger at his chest, “are more powerful than her.”

“And?” he prompted ignoring the finger that was now trying to push into his chest.

“Damn you are solid muscle under there,” she muttered.

He flexed the muscles in his chest and watched as Kat snatched her hand back studying the tip of her finger.  He let out an impatient sight.  “And?” he asked again.

“It’s in the eyes.  You both have weird swirly eyes,” she said as her focus remained on her finger.  “Huh,” she muttered to her finger. 

“What?” he asked curiously as he began to inspect the tip of her index finger.  Other than noticing she nibbled on her nails he saw nothing strange.  Instead of answering she turned her finger back towards him slowly pushing it at his chest again.  She flicked her eyes up to his silently asking permission. He nodded his head and her hand continued forward her fingers uncurled and she laid a flat palm against his chest.  Her small hand lay warm and still on him for a moment before she retracted it.

“I don’t get it,” she said to her palm.  “I thought you were stronger than her because you were easier to see spot.  But you feel weaker?”  She said questioningly looking up at him. Something in his eyes made her stutter as the next words out of her mouth came out rapidly.  “Well I mean you’re really physically strong judging by all that flexing muscle rippling under that shirt.  By the way those really weird eyes of yours are getting even weirder.  Are they gray?  Are they blue?  Nope now they are really-,“ Duncan clapped his hand over her mouth.

“I am Faeriedae,” he said placing his other hand on his chest.  “It means dark gift of the Fae. Or lost one,” he explained as he removed his hand from her mouth.  She tried to ask a question but he silenced her with a quick sound.  “I was born mortal.  But once I crossed into the Otherworld I became Fae.  Annie is Sidhe or more correctly she is the
bhanphriosa
or princess in your tongue.”

“Annie’s a Faerie princess?”  Kat whispered in awe before the absurdity of her words made her giggle.  A fierce glare from Duncan silenced her.

“In a way yes but you would know her more as a Goddess.”

“Oooh, which one?” Kat asked gleefully.

“Names have power.  I have no idea what using her true name would do especially since she is under a dark enchantment.”

“Who would have the power to do that to a Goddess?”

“That is what I am trying to find out.”

Kat nodded thoughtfully.  “Have you come to rescue her then?”