Serendipity: Imbolc & Incantations Page 7

  Siarl had already realised that since the end of last year, he’d definitely ruffled a few feathers, simply with the questions he’d been asking. He certainly wasn’t going to give anyone an irrefutable reason to get rid of him. He was already determined to get to the bottom of the odd things that had been happening - most of which appeared to revolve around Seren. But it had recently occurred to him he needed to do it a little more surreptitiously and keep his cards close to his chest.

  As he rounded the final corner to the entrance of the building, Siarl stopped dead in his tracks and clutched his pounding head. Suddenly there was the most horrendous pain; his bones felt like they were being squashed and he was scarily short of breath. What in hellfire was happening to him?

  He fell to his knees, causing a commotion in the antechamber. Desperately pulling at his shirt collar and tie, he tried to suck in more air as his vision started to blacken and fade.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Just before he lost consciousness, Siarl was aware of a single set of footsteps hurrying towards him. Staccato heels rang sharply on the stone floor like bullets.

  “In memoria liberate!” The words rang out clear and forthright in traditional Latin, and Siarl was aware of a pair of shapely calves standing in his narrowed line of vision.

  Then, whatever it was which had overcome him was gone and he could breathe again.

  An elegant hand tipped with blood-red nails wrapped around his bicep. “Here, let me help you,” a sultry feminine voice purred.

  Siarl got to his feet and brushed himself down before looking into a pair of startling blue eyes. “Thank you, Dellah,” he replied, acknowledging the beautiful sorceress and extending a courteous hand.

  The woman slid her fingers against his and squeezed, holding his hand for a lot longer than necessary.

  “Are you okay, Siarl?” she asked, touching his arm again and standing so close that she breached his personal space.

  “I’m sorry,” he replied, raking his fingers through his hair and smoothing it down in order to break her hold, then moving slightly to create more distance between them without it looking like he was being rude. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  He’d known Dellah Nightshade since she’d been made an elder a couple of years ago, but she’d never come on to him like this before. Perhaps in the past he might have been flattered. She was exactly the kind of pairing that would be looked favourably upon, ticking all the right boxes. But with the dreams of Seren still fresh in his mind, Dellah’s sudden interest just made him feel uncomfortable.

  “Why don’t you come to lunch with me,” she invited, her sultry voice full of suggestive innuendo. “I can… feed you and make sure you don’t have a relapse.”

  Siarl inclined his head graciously and gave her a reserved smile. “As much as I would like to, I think I need to get back to the academy and lie down. Whatever just happened rather took it out of me,” he declined apologetically.

  “You do look a little pale,” Dellah agreed, moving in again and touching her fingers to his cheek. “But do you think it’s wise to be travelling under the circumstances? I feel obligated to take care of you,” she fluttered her long lashes, and her eyes were beguiling. “I’d hate anything to happen to you that I could have avoided.”

  For a moment, Siarl almost changed his mind. She was so very captivating and alluring. But wasn’t there something he needed to attend to?

  His mind was fuzzy and suddenly the thought of spending time with this enchanting, sensuous woman was incredibly tempting. Did he really have anything better to do? And those eyes of hers were truly mesmerising.

  Siarl was on the brink of capitulating when a shudder of pure dread slithered through his consciousness, snapping him out from her bewitching gaze. He bowed his head, breaking her intense stare and shaking away the cobwebs.

  What in hellfire had just come over him?

  Something was seriously wrong back at the academy. He could feel it.

  “Sorry,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “But I’m really not up to anything more than a rest.” He glimpsed her through his fingers and for a moment he was certain her face contorted into an ugly fury, but when he lifted his head, it was gone, and she was all seductive charm and concern again. Perhaps he was mistaken.

  “Well, I don’t live far from here,” she said with a beaming smile. “Why don’t you come home with me until you’re feeling better?”

  She was giving him that look again, and Siarl could feel himself being drawn in. He rubbed his hands across his face in an attempt to avoid eye contact and recited a silent anti-hex spell. He wasn’t entirely certain what was going on right now, or quite what the source was, but one thing he did know for sure was that he needed to keep his wits about him, his mind clear, and get back to the citadel immediately.

  “Thank you, that’s very kind,” he said with a smile and a look of pure satisfaction crept across her face, but somehow it wasn’t entirely comforting. “But I’m sure you understand that there’s nowhere quite like home when you’re feeling out of sorts. And besides, I have a car waiting.”

  And there it was, the ugly rage again. So he hadn’t imagined it.

  Siarl hurried to extract himself before the woman could waylay him any further.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I really need to be going,” he said politely, not wanting to seem like he was impatient. “Perhaps next time I’m here we can catch up.”

  “Of course,” she replied, rather stiffly, now that he had turned her down, but Siarl didn’t have time to worry about her right now. That was something he’d have to consider at greater length after he found out what was going on.

  “And thank you again,” he said graciously, nodding to her before turning and walking away with a deceptive slowness. It wouldn’t hurt her to think that he really was rather the worse for wear.

  Siarl summoned his transport, but even after he’d left the building, he could still feel eyes on him. He put on a bit of a show as he opened the rear door and lowered himself carefully into the back seat. Let whoever was watching continue to think he was suffering the ill effects of whatever had afflicted him. That suited his purpose entirely.

  As soon as the vehicle sped away, Siarl turned to the driver. “I hope you don’t mind if I close the dividing window. I’m rather tired,” he explained before he pressed the button to raise the barrier. He didn’t doubt that the driver could still see him, but the darkened glass suited his purposes and gave him enough obscurity to carry out the rest of his plan.

  While it was entirely possible that the driver was nothing more than he appeared, the fact that a car had been sent to collect him for a meeting that didn’t exist had all Siarl’s senses pinging. The entire set up reeked of a conspiracy designed to get him away from the citadel for as long as possible. Why hadn’t he queried it at the time? After all, it made no sense to take the extended time it would take to use traditional transport, rather than teleportation, for a meeting that was supposedly an emergency.

  Damn, he was an idiot for taking it all at face value. His only defence was that this was the Mage Council, and he’d always accepted them as beyond reproach. And while he wasn’t certain that the elders of the Senedd themselves were culpable, he was no longer quite so trusting. He might not know exactly who was behind all this, but they weren’t going to play him for a fool any longer.

  Taking a moment to pretend he was taking a nap and lull the driver into a false sense of security, Siarl conjured a double of himself. It was a crude replica that wouldn’t fool anyone for very long. There wasn’t enough time to create anything more than the rudimentary, but all this clone needed to do was sleep and leave the car when it arrived. Nothing complicated, and if it raised any suspicions, hopefully it would be attributed to the aftereffects of what he had just suffered.

  With that in place, Siarl teleported directly to the citadel using the lingering but rapidly fading connection he had through Seren’s familiar to guide him.

  C
hapter Sixteen

  Siarl was confused and cautious when he apparated at the far edges of the academy’s grounds. Not only that, but there was nothing to see except patches of grass and snow.

  He turned in a circle, wondering if he’d somehow managed to teleport to the wrong place.

  When Dellah had used the mind liberating spell, she had effectively severed Siarl’s connection with Seren. The more time that passed, the weaker it became until now there was just the barest echo and he could only pick that up through the bond his own familiar had with hers.

  He called out to his raven, Midnight, now. The bird’s black form flew swiftly through the sky and landed on his outstretched arm.

  “Fly high, Midnight,” Siarl instructed. “And look out for Seren or her familiars. She’s supposed to be right here.”

  The raven flew up and spiralled around, searching the entire area with his superior vision. Finally, he let out a sharp squawk and dived towards the earth not far from where Siarl stood.

  ‘Over here.’ Siarl heard the words in his mind as the bird flew towards what Siarl now distinguished as a small orange heap lying half buried in snow. He ran towards the motionless fox, scanning the wider area for any sign of Seren but seeing nothing.

  “What about Seren?” he asked of Midnight as he skidded to a halt and dropped to his knees beside Carrot, heedless of the mud and snow saturating his pristine suit.

  ‘I saw no sign of her,’ came the daunting reply.

  “Explore the entire grounds while I see to the fox,” Siarl ordered. “I’ll check the citadel when I’m done.”

  He reached out a hand and laid it on Carrot’s orange fur, shocked at how cold the animal was. Hellfire and damnation, surely, he couldn’t be…

  Siarl detected a faint and thready pulse, but at least it was there.

  “Meet me back at her turret when you’re done,” he instructed, looking back at Midnight as he shrugged out of his suit jacket to offer the fox some much needed warmth.

  The bird took off and Siarl spared him just the briefest of glances before he brushed the snow from around Carrot so he could pick the animal up.

  “What in coven’s name…” he swore out loud when he noticed the fox’s front paws seemed to be buried in the earth. But not as if Carrot had been digging, more like the earth had just closed up over him and set around his legs like concrete.

  Siarl searched, looking for any kind of fissure that might enable him to pull the poor creature out, but there was none.

  Finally, Siarl lost his patience. Using magic in a situation like this where the circumstances were unknown was risky, but he didn’t see any other option. Carrot was in bad shape and chilled to the bone. Leaving him here any longer would be just as dangerous.

  If anything happened to the fox, Seren would be devastated and besides, he may well need the animals help to locate her if she wasn’t found soon.

  Every sense in his body screamed that she was in some kind of jeopardy, and Siarl was already trying not to panic about the fact that Carrot was here and Seren was not. He knew damn well she would never have been separated from the fox, and she certainly wouldn’t have left him here like this, unless she’d had no choice. The certainty of that knowledge had bile eating at his insides, and he had to work hard to keep his anxiety at bay.

  He knew he’d be of no use to anyone if he didn’t hold it together. Still, as his brain rattled through possible spells, far too sluggishly for his peace of mind, he knew he’d never been closer to falling apart in any of his many lives.

  “Trowch y tir…” he started before stopping short and shaking himself. For the love of the oracle, he wasn’t thinking straight.

  With a shaking hand, he drew a circle around the area and started again.

  “Trowch y tir caled hwn yn hylif,” he finally chanted in his native Welsh, invoking a spell to turn the ground fluid. It was the safest option he could think of to free the fox, but his scattered mind almost liquified the entire grounds, rather than just the spot in question.

  The hard earth shimmered and bubbled and finally gave up its hold on the bedraggled animal. Siarl lifted Carrot away quickly, wrapping him more securely in his jacket before teleporting back to Seren’s quarters.

  A quick scan showed no sign of her, but he called out anyway. “Seren? Are you here?” There was no reply, and he hadn’t really been expecting one.

  Turning towards the empty hearth where Brigid’s footprints were still visible, he snapped his fingers sharply. “Fire!” he pronounced shortly, not wasting his time on anything more convoluted. The result was the same; a crackling blaze sprang to life in the fireplace and Siarl lay Carrot down to warm in front of it before hurrying to the bathroom.

  After filling the sink with warm water, Siarl searched around for towels, conjuring them impatiently when he couldn’t find any. Then he returned to the fox, picking him up carefully and discarding the jacket onto the floor before he lowered the shivering animal into the makeshift bath. Massaging warmth and circulation into his paws, he carefully washed off the dirt and mud at the same time.

  Carrot whimpered pathetically, but even that small sound of distress was music to Siarl’s ears.

  “Easy boy,” he crooned to the fox. It wasn’t the first time he’d tended to the creature, and the bond was still there. As Siarl laid healing hands - a gift from his mother’s bloodline - onto the animal, he could feel Carrot relax and accept the magic.

  Finally opening his eyes, Carrot looked trustingly at Siarl and the sorcerer gave a small smile of relief, then hurried him into the shower to rinse him off.

  Only when he was completely finished and started rubbing Carrot down with the towel in front of the fire did he attempt to broach the subject of Seren. He’d vowed to give the poor animal time to recover. As it was, the fox beat him to it.

  ‘Seren… you need to find her… save her!’

  “Where is she, what happened?” Siarl asked, dropping onto his knees next to the weakened familiar.

  ‘A… magical cage appeared… to try and stop her, then… it sucked her into the ground.’ Carrot stammered, panting heavily between words.

  Siarl shook his head, his eyebrows beetling together, still trying to understand exactly what had occurred.

  “Where Carrot? Where did all this take place?”

  ‘Where you found me. The earth closed up around her, trapping my paws as I tried to get to her.’

  “What on earth was she doing to provoke such a reaction? I didn’t get any alerts of high magic being used. I don’t understand.” Siarl raked his fingers through his hair in frustration, trying to be patient with the wounded fox, even though every instinct screamed at him to be doing something… more.

  But he couldn’t do anything until he knew what he was facing.

  He sucked in a ragged breath and forced a tentative calm into his turbulent mind.

  ‘She set up an altar for Imbolc, but she used the sun drawing to disguise a magic circle…’

  There was a long pause, and Siarl had to keep himself from shaking the fox impatiently to get answers.

  ‘Everything she used was disguised. A double meaning in the words of the Imbolc spell…’

  Everything within Siarl went cold. Suddenly, even before Carrot had fully finished confirming his worst fears, Siarl realised that this was no simple accident.

  ‘… A powerful incantation to protect against the encroaching forces of black magic.’ The fox fell silent, and Siarl struggled to get his head around everything that had been revealed.

  Seren had been clever. She’d used a regular ceremony that no one would blink an eye at, to invoke a powerful protection spell in such a way that it should have gone undetected. And it had… to an extent. Neither the Mage Council nor the school board had been alerted to the use of higher magic, but somehow the dark forces had… and they’d tried to stop her.

  “Why didn’t she get out, Carrot?” Siarl queried. “Why didn’t she use her powers to free herself from the cage a
nd the hole?”

  ‘Because she refused to break the incantation. She insisted on seeing it through to the end, even while the earth was swallowing her,’ he replied, closing his eyes, sadly.

  That was when Siarl finally understood the depth of Seren’s commitment.

  Pain ripped through him, the likes of which he’d never known before. He rocked on his knees and fell forwards, bracing his hands on the hard cobbled ground to steady himself as a reality that he didn’t want to acknowledge set in.

  His mind was mired in disbelief, but the anguish he felt; the desolate, yawning emptiness that suddenly gaped ahead of him, assured him it was true.

  She had given her life for her beliefs in an attempt to save the magic realm.

  His beloved Seren was gone, and he hadn’t been here to save her.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Seren Starlight, that was almost the waste of a perfectly good life, I’ll have you know!”

  The voice rattled through her thumping head, making her wince.

  Seren tried to open her eyes, but they seemed to be glued shut. Her chest hurt and every part of her body felt like it had been squeezed in a huge vice from her head to her feet. Even her hair seemed to hurt.

  “Well, that’s because it has been, for all intents and purposes,” the voice said again. How did it know what she was thinking?

  She just wanted to close her mind to everything, switch it into blissful oblivion and rest.

  “Uh-uh. None of that, young lady!” the rather strident voice persisted.

  “We can’t afford to let you sleep right now. The incantation might not stick.”

  Seren tried to push the voice away. Maybe this was the afterlife, and that’s why it was so irritating. Whatever the facts, the voice continued its incessant chatter.