Нора Робертс - The Becoming

“There’s another.” Sedric laid a finger in the center of the dance in the Far West. “It’s a kind of door, but inside only. Entering here, you can travel to any place in Talamh. It needs precision and care to use, as without that you might come out in front of a galloping horse or, as I did once as a boy, on a crumbling cliff ledge in a high wind.”

“It could save considerable time when it’s needed,” Keegan considered. “I’ve never heard of this.”

“It was rarely used even when I was a boy, and its location closely guarded. As I was told more than one who used it in long times past came to harm, even death by not calculating with accuracy. And as it closes behind you, you have to make your way back by other means.”

“One-way trip,” Breen mused. “That wouldn’t help Odran, as he’d not only have to know about it, he’d have to be inside Talamh to use it.”

“Yseult may know.” Marg frowned at the map. “And may have found a way to use it to move freely in Talamh.”

“If so, she won’t find it free to her now. We have the base there, so will keep close watch.”

“There was another.”

“Was?”

Sedric nodded at Keegan’s question and stood to bend over the map. “It lost its light before my time, before the time of the old wizard who trained me in the portals. It may have been lore more than truth, but somewhere in the forest in the Capital. Here, I was told, held the fourteenth portal of Talamh. There may have been more in the long past, but I never found them. And I looked,” he added with a small smile. “In my adventurous youth. Though I never found this one, as told to me, I felt some echo of what had been.”

“Where did it lead?”

“I don’t know, nor does anyone, to my knowledge. I found nothing written on it, no song, no story, no legend other than what I was once told. What I once felt.”

“We have those traveling outside, and even without that, we don’t seal the other portals. If Odran’s planning to use one to attack, he’d know. While he doesn’t, we have an advantage. Mahon, we’ll need guards, trusted and seasoned ones, for each portal.”

“On both sides.”

“Aye. At least one, at all times, who has the gift of sensing a change in them. We have Fey who chose other worlds, but Fey they are, and they’ll stand. We’ll send travelers through, portal to portal, to see if he means to go through another world to get here.”

“The portals won’t be a secret and sacred trust,” Mahon pointed out. “The council may try to block the strategy that reveals them all.”

Keegan just raised his eyebrows. “Have you met my mother?”

With a laugh, Mahon lifted his hands. “You’re right, of course. It’s this one …” He circled his finger above the forest on the map. “It’s a worry.”

“It is, aye, it is. Why would a portal lose its light? And why is there no story or song about such a thing?”

“A time before time,” Harken said. “A time before Talamh made its choice, before magicks were scorned or persecuted? And if its purpose became the dark, would it lose its light?”

“We’ll put scholars on such matters, but that’s my thinking. Did Odran choose a world to make his own with only one way in and out? Or did he take it, as we’ve never found another portal leading there, because of this?”

“Two portals at the Capital,” Breen said, “and both in the forest? Both to the dark? It’s the only place I see on the map where two are—or may be—so close together.”

“Could they be connected? That’s what you’re thinking,” Morena said. “The locks on the portal to banishment, to the Dark World, have never been breached. But if this is somehow part of it, or connected, could he open both?”

“Fear.” Marg looked up from the map. “It may have been fear of what stood behind the portal that stopped those from long ago from recording it, from speaking of it. Perhaps they themselves destroyed it somehow to keep what they fear on the other side. Or what lived on the other side was so dark it swallowed the light.”

“It’s said Odran fell into the Dark World when cast out,” Aisling reminded them. “And wandered there century by century until he found his way out.”

“And this may have been his way.” Keegan nodded. “Scholars will scour the great library for any mention of this. If I were planning to attack, what better place to destroy than the Capital, what he sees as the power source of Talamh?”

“It’s not,” Harken said, “only the symbol of its laws and its justice. The power of Talamh is its heart.”

“He’ll never take its heart. Sedric.”

“I’ll go, aye, of course. I’ll do my best to find it. Not so young as I once was, but wiser.”

“We’ll go.” Marg took his hand. “I can help with this. You’ll look after what’s mine while I’m gone, Taoiseach.”

“I will.”

“The boys are up. I hear them,” Aisling said as she rose. “I’ll take them home, away from plots of wars.”

“I’ll need Mahon awhile longer.”

“I know.” She ran her fingers down Mahon’s warrior’s braid, kept her other on the child growing inside her. “I’m with you on this, mo dheartháir . Be sure of it.”

As Aisling went out, Breen rose. “If I could have just a few minutes to tell Marco I’ll be here for … however long. He said he’d take Bollocks down to the bay.”

“There’s no need. I need Mahon to help choose who might travel and where, who will guard and where, and Sedric, who may know of portals we don’t. I’ll call you again, as council, when all’s in place.”

“They don’t need me either. I’ll go with you. Safe journey,” Morena said to Marg and Sedric. “And good hunting.”

“Come home soon.” Breen moved over to hug them both. “And safe. Find the tree of snakes.” She pulled back abruptly. “I don’t know what that means. I just know you should look for it.”

“Then we will.”

“Snakes,” Morena said as she pulled Breen outside. “A tree made of snakes?”

“I don’t know, but that’s disturbing. And it can’t be that. Someone would have noticed a tree made of snakes long before this.”

“You’ve the right of that. He’ll send my father, my brothers. My father traveling for certain, as he’s done so in so many worlds. And my brothers to guard.”

“You’re worried for them.”

“I can’t be.” Shaking it off, she held out an arm. Amish soared to it. “It’s who they are, and what they are. And if Odran comes, I’ll be lifting up a sword. I’ve grown up knowing that day may come. So.”

She raised her arm so Amish took flight. “We live today, and a fine one it is. We’ll watch the beauty of my hawk, spend time with your good dog and our friend. As Mahon will likely be off dealing with all this most of the evening if not the night, Harken will go to Aisling’s cottage to keep her company and help with the boys.”

“I think he’s one of the best men I’ve ever known.”

“He is, in all ways. I love him,” she said simply. “And I’ll go to his bed tonight, as we’ll both need it. I’ll ask you to invite me to dinner first.”

“Sure. You’re always welcome.”

“I can’t tell my grandparents any of this, and it scrapes at me. I find yet another reason I wouldn’t want what Keegan has. You can’t tell Marco.”

“I know, and yeah, it scrapes.”

“We’ll have leave soon enough to tell them, and that’s a more worrying time. And so …” The hawk flew back to her. “And there’s that good dog playing in the water with the Mers, and another good man sitting and watching. We’ll take the rest of this fine day with them, won’t we?”

“Yes. I’m glad I’ve got you, Morena.”