“So what was Marta trying to do?” Aislinn asked around a mouthful of food. She’d waited for Fionn to start talking again, but he’d been silent.
He laid down his spoon. “Because she didn’t see how she could tackle the dark gods—”
Aislinn snorted and nearly choked. “No shit. At least if you’re a woman, you can’t get anywhere close to them without forgetting about everything but opening your legs. Wonder if Perrikus’s mother has the same effect on men.”
“She does. For the love of God, woman, stop interrupting after you’ve asked a question.”
Aislinn shot him a look that she hoped was all injured innocence. “I get why Marta targeted the Old Ones. What I wanted to know was how she planned to get rid of them. There.” She clapped her mouth shut. “I won’t say another word.”
“You just did.” But he was smiling. “Apparently, there’s an energy balance the Lemurians need to maintain Taltos. She was trying to subvert it enough that they’d have to leave.”
Aislinn opened her mouth to ask how, but bit her tongue.
“Excellent.” His smile grew broader. “You may not be learning, but at least you’re trying.”
“Good to get credit for something,” she muttered sotto voce.
“Anyway, there’s a harmonic running through Taltos. Its source is an underground tunnel—probably the place you met Dewi. Marta planned to disrupt it for long enough to change its oscillation and pitch permanently. I think Dewi was essential to her plan, but I’m not positive about that.”
“That’s all it would take?” Aislinn was incredulous. “Another harmonic would make them leave?”
“Marta seemed to think so,” Fionn said thoughtfully. “I am not so certain. The Lemurians are the Third Race. I believe them more resilient and resourceful than that, but I may be wrong.” He scraped the bottom of his bowl. “If a different harmonic only severed their connection with the dark, it wouldn’t really matter if they left.”
“If they’re the Third Race, what am I?”
“Fifth.”
“Who was in between?”
“Didn’t they teach you anything in school?” He looked genuinely surprised. “That would be those who sank along with Atlantis.”
Biting off a snarky comment about it being hard to get an education after the world imploded, she asked, “Would you like more?” He nodded, so she took his bowl and ladled more dinner into it.
“What I really should do,” he said, “is confer with some of the others. Now that we’ve sat and talked things through, it would be foolhardy for any of us to test the gateway without knowing more than we do.”
“The other who?”
“Celtic gods.”
Oh, sorry I asked… “How are you going to travel to Ireland?”
He gave her another odd look. “The same way you met Dewi: astrally.”
Aislinn thought about it. She wanted to do something other than wait around while a bunch of ancient gods chewed the fat, but the stakes in this game were particularly high. If they went in hell for leather and screwed up, no one else would even know where they’d gone. And if they died, all of Marta’s painstakingly gathered knowledge would be for naught. She raised her gaze to his. “How long would you be gone?”
Something like relief lit his face, and she knew he’d been afraid she was going to put up an argument. “Not more than a day or so. Depends who I can raise on short notice.”
“When do you plan to leave?”
“Are ye so anxious to be rid of me, then, lass?” His eyes narrowed. “Doona be getting any ideas in that flame-red head of yours. Ye will wait here with the bond animals till my spirit returns to my body.”
“Stop with the Irish already.” She blew out a breath, then sucked in another to buy herself time to get her temper under control. She didn’t understand how something as simple as an Irish dialect could make her feel things so acutely.
“Okay.” His gaze hadn’t left her face. “You didn’t answer me.”
“No, I don’t want to get rid of you—at least, not most of the time. And I will be here when you get back. Unless you take years or something. Then I might not be.” Getting up, she carted their dishes over to the sink and walked back to the table.
He drained his water glass, pulled a flask out of a pocket, tipped it to his mouth, and swallowed. He held it out to her, but she shook her head. “Come hug me, lass.” He opened his arms invitingly. “I would prefer to feel you against me through the night, but I will leave now. I fear there’s not much time to waste.”