Earth's Requiem(109)

“Could I be helpin’?” her mother asked.

Aislinn didn’t have to think long. Having her mother by her side again was impossible to refuse. “Sure. Let’s go.” She sprinted down the corridor.

When she got close to where she’d seen the humans Aislinn opened her mind, questing for Rune, and found him. “Where are you?”

“Locked behind a magic barrier.” He growled. “Fionn is here, but something is wrong. I cannot rouse him.”



Aislinn didn’t think she’d ever heard anything quite so welcome as the wolf’s voice in her mind.

“Who are you talking to?” Tara demanded. Her eyes narrowed. “Fionn who?”



I can’t tell her everything. It will take too long. “Mother, I know you have magic. It’s where mine came from. Can you help me find a barricade held in place by a spell?”

Her mother’s head snapped up. It seemed she was scenting the air. “The dragon,” she muttered. “That uafásach dragon is down here somewhere.”

“No shit.” Aislinn snorted. “She’s not the problem, Mother. Focus! I have to find Fionn.”

“Really, why? Watch your language, child.”

Aislinn blew out a frustrated breath. I do not have time for this. “It’s Fionn MacCumhaill, Mother.”

“Och aye, why dinna ye say so? He was my betrothed, afore your Da. I ran like hell to get away.” Tara Lenear faded from sight.

“Glad we’ve got that straight,” Aislinn muttered, staring after her mother.

A wandering human bumped into her. Aislinn grabbed him by the shoulders and gave him a good jolt of magic. His eyes cleared. “Shit,” he mumbled. “What happened? Last thing I remember, I was marching behind Ted…”



Aislinn released him. “Wake up everyone you come across. Once you wake another, tell them the same thing. Out is that way.” She pointed back over one shoulder. “Just keep taking right turns. It should start to look familiar once you come to the parts before you ran into this ensorcellment.”

Knee deep in lifting what fortunately had been a weak spell for every human she saw, Aislinn didn’t pay any attention when her mother’s bony hand closed over her shoulder.

“Ye never did listen well. I tell you, I’ve found ’em. Come wi’ me.”

Heart in her throat, Aislinn raced after her mother. Tara floated rather than walked—and she moved fast.

“Ach, ’tis here.” Tara threw up her hands. They crashed down soundlessly on something invisible. “I canna break it. What’s left o’ my body isna strong enough.”

Aislinn’s magic was already spinning outward. She felt the shape of the working immediately. It was intricate. Because it might be booby trapped in some way that would blow all of them to kingdom come, she felt her way carefully, wishing she wasn’t so hungry and tired. She was more likely to make mistakes when she couldn’t think straight.



Fionn’s there, she told herself. Just on the other side of this.



“Can ye no’ see the working, Daughter?” Tara asked.

Aislinn looked at her mother. She’d been so intent on unraveling the convoluted magic that she’d nearly forgotten about her. The first layer had fallen. Many more crowded beneath it, each seemingly more interwoven than the last. “Tell me what you see.” She met Tara’s gaze, so like her own, golden in the glow from her mage light.

“’Twould be easier to start from the bottom corner, just over there. Ye needn’t dismantle the entire thing. Just a wee hole big enough to crawl through would do the trick.”



Mom was always smart. Aislinn shuffled over to inspect the place her mother had indicated. Excitement coursed through her. The weave was grainier there, not so tight. She started snipping strands with her Mage gift, letting it show her the next one in line.

“It’s big enough,” she told Tara. “I’m going through.”

“Careful, lass. Ye—”

A whine and the scrabble of claws on stone broke into her mother’s words. Rune launched himself at Aislinn and drove her to the ground. She closed her arms around him. He licked her face over and over again, and she realized she was crying.



“Quick,” she said, “I need to see what’s happened to Fionn.”

“This way.” Rune belly-crawled back through the opening, with Aislinn right behind him.

The air felt thick inside the working. Tendrils dragged against her, cooing soothing nothings. “No worries. None at all. Lie down. Rest. You are so tired. Rest is what you need. Rest and dreams…”



She fought the casting. It was like something out of fairy tales, where the princess slept for a hundred years. Anyone not paying attention would fall asleep. Let’s hope a kiss is all it takes to wake Fionn… She crawled to where he lay crumpled against a rock wall, one arm thrown across his face.