stone bowl in my jacket flushed heat against my chest as it amplified the energies. It was becoming too much. The combined sensory input was overwhelming—the faith stone, the dark mass, the stone bowl, and the spear all activating at the same time. A balance existed—I could sense that—but the middle of a fight was not the time to learn. I jumped away and landed alone farther up Tide Street.
Joe popped in next to me. “You okay?”
I nodded. “Taking a breather. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
He hovered toward the fighting. “Kicking ass is what you’re doing. Nice moves for a glow bee.”
Several Dananns swooped through the air along the street, keeping low on the roofline. They were setting up some kind of formation but didn’t seem to be advancing. “I don’t get what they’re doing. What do they care about the Tangle?”
Joe swiveled in place, watching as they alighted on the buildings. They weren’t firing. “Purging, m’friend, oldest game in the book. Don’t like the neighbors? Purge ’em. Don’t like the next town? Purge it. Don’t like the next county? Purge it. Damned Dananns never did know how to make friends with anybody.”
“But why the Tangle? I can see the beef Maeve has with the Consortium, but the Tangle? It doesn’t care about international crap,” I said.
Joe glanced at me slyly. “Well, it does tend to hide rogues and thieves that do.”
The Dananns lined the sides of the street. I had a few more jumps in me before I gave up to exhaustion, but that moment was getting close. “But Maeve doesn’t know about Ceridwen.”
“Speakin’ of, here she comes,” said Joe.
Ceridwen reached the end of Tide.
I didn’t understand what she was talking about. I wasn’t a favorite of Maeve’s, but taking down an entire neighborhood to get at me didn’t make much sense.
The spear shuddered in my hand. Annoyed, I frowned. Now wasn’t the time for Ceridwen to try her hand with it. I pulled back, clamped my mind on the spear’s essence, and held it in place. It shook away from me, pulling my arm up. I struggled as the spear dragged and pulled away from me. “Knock it off, Ceridwen,” I shouted to her.
Dananns dropped into the street and faced Ceridwen. If she heard me, she ignored me. The spear bounced and leaped in my hand like an animal on a leash. I decided to give in and do what she wanted and leave. I visualized Meryl’s office, tapped the spear—and was knocked on my ass. A surge of essence flashed back at me, shutting down the jump. The spear burned hot in my hand and vanished.
Furious, I faced Ceridwen. She didn’t have the spear. As one, the remaining Dananns dropped onto the street. I circled with my sword, keeping an eye on Ceridwen. She wasn’t as close as I’d like. The Dananns didn’t fire. They faced me on all sides, cutting off any escape. “That was a stupid mistake,” I muttered.
Joe hovered in close behind me. “What happened? Where’s the spear?”
The Dananns raised their hands in unison, golden essence sparkling across their palms.
“It’s gone. It had to be Bergen Vize. He’s the only other person I know who can use the spear like that. He’s alive. The bastard’s alive,” I said.
Joe’s wings brushed against the back of my head. “Well, that’s rude.”
I had no hope of fighting off dozens of Dananns. I shrugged off my jacket and held it out. “Get this out of here, Joe. There’s no way I’m letting them get it.”
He swooped in front of me. “Geez, Connor, we can get you another jacket. Let it go.”
“It’s what’s inside,” I said.
He took the jacket as the Dananns released their essence. Streaks of burning light arced through the air. They tangled into each other, weaving in and out.
“Where should I take it?” he asked.
I swept my sword at the forming net. Strands broke and frayed, but more took their place. “Anywhere but here.”
He flew level with my face. “You’re asking me to leave you again.”
“They’re not going to kill me, Joe. They would have by now. Go, before it’s too late,” I said.
He hovered up. “I’ll be back with reinforcements.”
With a shout, he swept in a circle around me, brandishing his sword into the faces of the Dananns. He popped out as the net fell. Essence bindings draped over me, searing my flesh. I fought against them with the sword, but there were too many. The net brought me to my knees. I cut a swath through, managing to free my head and my sword arm. The Dananns moved closer, replacing the destroyed strands. The bindings became heavier, forcing me to the ground.
Three dark figures appeared in the air over me, and I recognized the archdruids from the Common. They dropped with the slow precision of levitation spells. I swore under my breath as they held their right palms out and, as one, shouted,
My eyelids drooped as the command to sleep fell over me.
39
The sleep spell lingered like a fog. Awareness tickled at me as it faded. The dark mass pulsed in my head, a mild warmth against the cool light of the faith stone. My eyelids lifted with gritty slowness. Essence bindings held my arms and legs to a chair, immobilizing tethers that didn’t constrict but had no give. I sensed someone in the room. I stared at an empty chair facing me. My vision blurred, then focused on a man to the right. He wore a white robe trimmed with a blue-and-gold knot pattern, the uniform of office of an archdruid.
Archdruids achieved the highest rank in a druid grove. They advised kings and queens, and their knowledge could turn war into victory or defeat. I had been taken down by a druid-triad, three people working together whose combined abilities were more than the sum of their parts.
“How long have I been out?” I asked.
He didn’t answer, his eyes half-closed as he maintained the vestige of the sleeping spell on me. The sound of a door opening broke the silence. A gust of essence rolled over me, a female Danann fairy whose signature was more pronounced than anything I had ever sensed. The archdruid glanced over my head, nodded, and excused himself. The woman didn’t move or speak, and I assumed she was one of the Fianna taking over guard duty.
When I had reached the point where I wasn’t thinking about her anymore, she moved, striding across the room to the empty chair. The sleep spell deadened my full reaction, but I’m sure she saw it in my face.
“I am Maeve,” she said, as if she needed an introduction.
The freaking High Queen of the Seelie Court at Tara was sitting four feet away from me. Dressed in black leather battle armor with silver filigree shaped in ancient Celtic swirls designs, the woman who ruled all the Celtic fey, who challenged the Elven King and changed the political landscape of an entire hemisphere by existing, reclined in the chair like she was taking afternoon tea with friends. Her wings rippled and undulated to either side, layer upon layer of gossamer membranes lifting and lowering in a mesmerizing display of color. She didn’t have her helm on, allowing her long black hair to fall and pool at her waist. I couldn’t look away from that face—expressionless yet sharp-featured, and pale, almost pearlescent. Hypnotizing was the word. Even at a glance, it was easy to see how she had captivated the world. In her right hand, she held the spear.
I flexed my wrists in their bindings. “I’d shake, but I’m a little indisposed.”
She flicked her fingers. A ball of essence puffed through the air, and the bindings vanished. I rubbed my wrists and stretched my legs. Both my daggers were gone. I nodded at the spear. “I believe that’s mine.”
Maeve looked at the spear as if she had only then realized she held it. “This? Take it.”
The streak of essence that registered my access to the spear glowed in my mind. I summoned the spear with a mental command. It glided upright across the room and into my hand. The dark mass jumped in my head as if jostled awake. A small smile creased Maeve’s lips, and the sleep spell amplified. She clenched her fingers, and the spear jumped back to her. I didn’t feel it leave my hand. “Before you held the spear, it was Ceridwen underQueen’s. Before her, it was mine. No one owns the spear, and anyone it chooses remains chosen.”
I stood, unsteady on my feet. “Thanks for the info. I’ll be going now.”
She thrust her hand at me. “Sit.”
