Нора Робертс - Blood Magick

When Branna said nothing, Iona opened the door. “Get inside,” she snapped to Fin. “You don’t even have a jacket.”

“I was warm enough.”

“You’ll be warmer yet if I kick your arse,” Boyle warned him. “What’s all this about taking off after Cabhan on your own, in some fecking funnel of fog.”

“Just a little something I’ve been working on, and an opportunity to test it out.” Fin shook back his hair, rolled his shoulders. “Brawling with me won’t change anything, but I’m open to it if it helps you.”

“I’ll be the one holding you down while he does the arse kicking.” Connor yanked off his coat. “You’ve no right going off after him on your own.”

“Every right in this world and any.”

“We’re a circle,” Iona began.

“We are.” Because it was Iona, Fin tempered his tone. “And each of us individual points of it.”

“Those points are connected. What happens to you, affects us all.” Meara glanced over at Branna, who continued to fuss with tea and biscuits. “All of us.”

“He never knew I was there, couldn’t see I was following, watching where he went. I was cloaked. It’s what I’ve been working on, and the point of trying it.”

“Without letting any of us know what you were about?” Connor tossed out.

“Well, I didn’t know for certain it would work till I tried, did I?”

He walked to Branna. “I used some of what I have of him in me to conjure the fog. It’s taken weeks—well, months, come to that—for me to perfect it as I only had bits of time here and there to give to it. Today, I saw a chance to try it. Which isn’t so different, if you’re honest, from taking a ride out into the woods just to see what may be.”

“I wasn’t alone.”

“Nor was I,” he countered just as coolly. “I had Merlin, and used his eyes to follow. He’s taunted us, and you gave him back a bit, for you know, as we all should, if we look to be doing nothing at all, he’ll know we’re doing a great deal more. Why else did I make such a show of dispatching the rats?”

Irritation vibrating around him, he turned, lifted his hands. “Is there so little trust here?”

“It’s not lack of trust,” Iona told him. “You scared us. I thought at first Cabhan had ambushed you, but Branna said you’d made the fog yourself. But we couldn’t see you, we didn’t know where you were. It scared us.”

“For that, deirfiúr bheag , I’m sorry. I’m sorry for causing you a minute of fear on my account, any of you, but you most especially who stood for me almost before you knew me.”

Iona released a sigh. “Is that your way of getting out of trouble?”

“It’s only the truth.” He moved to her, kissed her forehead. “I admit I followed the moment, saw a chance, took it. And taking it, we know more than we did, if that’s any balance to the scales.”

“He’s right,” Branna said before anyone else could speak. “It may take time for me to cool my anger, as it may for the rest of you, but if we’re practical—and we can’t be otherwise—Fin’s right. He used what he has and is. I wondered why you showed off so blatantly for Cabhan. It was a bit embarrassing.”

At Fin’s cocked brow, she gestured to Connor. “Take this tea tray by the fire, would you? The jars on the work counter are sealed, but I don’t want food near them.”

“He used the elements, one after the other, fast—zap, zap,” Iona explained. “Wind, fire, earth, water. It was pretty awesome.”

“Considerable overkill,” Branna said tartly, “but I see the purpose now.”

“Since it’s done, it’s done.” Boyle shrugged, took a mug of tea. “I’d like to hear what we know that we didn’t, and as no one’s in a bloody battle, I’ve only a few minutes for it, as I’ve work still to do.”

“He ran as the shadow wolf, leaving no tracks in the snow. Fast, very fast, but running, not flying. I think he conserves the energy.” Fin took a biscuit, then paced as he spoke. “He only flew to get over the river, and as he spanned it, my mark burned. It costs him to cross the water, and now I know when I feel that, as I have before, he’s crossed back to our side of it. He took the woods again, turned toward the lake. It tired him, as he ran a long way, then I felt the change, felt it coming so slowed, pulled Merlin back toward me. The wolf vanished. He’d shifted into another time. His own time, I’d say. And his lair.”

“Can you find the way back? Sure and you can find the way back,” Connor continued, “or you wouldn’t look so fecking smug about it.”

“I can find the way to where the wolf shifted, and I think we’ll find Cabhan’s lair isn’t far from there.”

“How soon can we go?” Meara demanded. “Tonight?”

“I happen to be free,” Connor said.

“Not tonight.” Branna shook her head. “There are things to prepare for if we find it. Things we could use. What we find, if anything, would be in our time. But . . .”

“You’re after going back, once we find it, on going back to his time.” Boyle frowned into his tea. “And take him on there?”

“No, not that. We don’t have all we need, and the time has to be our choosing. But if we could leave something in his cave—block it from him, use it to see him there. Hear him. We could get the name. And we might learn his plans before he acts on them.”

“Not all of us,” Fin countered. “It’s too risky for all of us to go back. If we were trapped there, it’s done for us. Only one goes.”

“And you think that should be you.”

He nodded at Branna. “Of course. I can go back, leaving no trace in the cloak of the fog, take your crystal, as that’s what’s best for seeing, and be out again.”

“And if he’s in there?” Iona gave Fin a light punch on the shoulder. “You could be done.”

“That would be why a couple of us—at least a couple,” Connor calculated, “find a way to draw him out, keep him busy.” He grinned at Meara. “Would you be up for that?”

“I’d be raring for it.”

“So . . .” Grabbing a biscuit, and another for his pocket, Boyle considered. “The four of us go where Fin followed today, and hunt from there. Connor and Meara catch Cabhan’s attention so he’s after them, and the lair’s clear of him. If we find it, Fin takes this crystal, shifts in time back to the fecking thirteenth century, plants the thing in the cave, comes back, and we’re all off to the pub for a round.”

“That’s the broad strokes of it.” Branna patted his arm. “We’ll fix the small, and important details of it. So we don’t go until we do. None of us go near the place.” She looked directly at Fin. “Is that agreed?”

“It is,” he said, “and I’ve some ideas on a few of the details.”

“As have I.” Satisfied, and only a little angry still, Branna took a biscuit for herself.

16

IT WOULD TAKE NEARLY A WEEK BEFORE BRANNA WAS fully satisfied, and those days took precious hours away from perfecting the poison. Still, she considered it all time well spent.

The timing would be tight, and the circle would be separated at several stages—so every step of every stage had to be carefully plotted.

They chose early evening, so routines could hold and they’d still have an hour or more of light before dusk.

In her workshop, Branna carefully placed the crystal she’d chosen and charmed in a pouch.

“You must place it high, facing the altar, where it will reflect what’s below,” she told Fin. “And you must move there and back quickly.”

“So you’ve already said.”

“It bears repeating. You’ll be tempted to linger—as I would be in your place—to see what else you might find, what else you might learn. The longer you’re there, in his place and in his time, the more chance there is of you leaving some trace, or of him sensing you.”