experience. Penelope gave me a more serious look, “Besides, there is a very good reason why we need to go now… before I deliver.”
An hour later we had reached the great stone. As always it stood forebodingly over the road near the east side of the palace. Nothing had changed.
“Should I call Moira to open it for us?” I asked.
Penny shook her head negatively and approached the stone. “She said to show you this spot.” Her hand rested upon the stone in a place roughly three feet from the ground. The stone was discolored there, a slightly different shade of grey than the rest.
I examined the area closely but I could detect nothing. No sign of magic or anything else, other than rough grey stone. “There’s nothing here.”
“You have to say the password,” Penny told me.
“And that is?”
“It’s your name… just your first name,” she replied. “She told me that she set the password a thousand years ago, Mort, just before she fought Balinthor.”
“Then why would she choose my name… oh!” I had just remembered that the man she had loved then bore the same first name as I did. Leaning closely I placed my hand over the spot and spoke, “Mordecai.”
Runes appeared, lightly etched in the stone around my hand. They were delicate and only visible to my magesight but I recognized the pattern. It was similar to the one in my house, the pattern that guarded the secret room in the library, shielding it from magesight. It must work in a similar manner to Walter’s invisibility when he uses it just to avoid magical detection, I thought.
I put the thought aside for later and used my hand to activate the runes. A modest doorway appeared in the rock near where I stood. The door itself was solid stone but even as I watched the massive granite door slid away into the interior of the great monolith, leaving an open passageway. Penelope stepped forward and led me inside.
Having entered, my mind immediately began to explore the interior, for it became visible to my magesight once I was past the outer enchantment. The corridor led ahead for almost ten yards before ending in a small chamber, one that was devoid of any furniture or adornment, save for a strange object in the center. My arcane senses could make little of it other than its strange egg-like shape, that and the fact that it glowed intensely with powerful magic.
Penny spoke as we walked down the tight hallway, “Moira built this place to guard something precious to her. It was the last and greatest of her tasks before she sacrificed herself to defeat Balinthor.”
The sense of anticipation built until at last we emerged into the chamber and I could look upon the thing it held with my own eyes. The room was dark but for the glow of the enchantment around the pedestal in the center of the room. “Lyet,” I said softly, creating a gentle glow above my head.
Now that my normal eyes could see it was plain what was there. A stone pedestal rose up and held a wooden cradle. The entirety of it was wrapped within a powerful stasis field enchantment. The runes were inscribed carefully around the entire pedestal, sealing the cradle and its occupant within a pocket of frozen time.
I stared at Penny in wonder, awe, and with a considerable amount of trepidation. “Is that what I think it is?”
Penny’s eyes were brimming with tears, “No Mordecai, not ‘it’, she. This is Moira’s daughter.”
To say I was shocked was an understatement. Flabbergasted might have been a better term, if I had been capable of speech. “How…?”
“She held off facing Balinthor until she delivered her child. That is why she didn’t help Gareth fight him previously… she was pregnant. She built this place to protect her child and waited… until she could place her child safely here… before she attempted to defeat the dark god,” she elaborated.
A number of things began to fall into place within my mind. Moira’s secret purpose, her occasional willful initiative, and now that I thought about it… even her very existence. “She created a copy of herself, not to protect her knowledge, but to protect her baby,” I said aloud. “But she’s hidden it for so long… why tell us now, and why did she tell you first?” As I spoke my mind raced ahead while my eyes slid downward from Penelope’s sad eyes to her heavy belly.
“Her daughter is a newborn, Mort. She needs a mother… and a father. You already bear the same name her father had.” Penny rested a hand atop her bulging abdomen. “We can raise them as twins, brother and sister.”
I looked down on the small infant, partly shrouded by the glow of the enchantment. My vision was blurry though I wasn’t entirely sure why. Reaching up I found that my cheeks were wet. “Let me remove this enchantment,” I said suddenly.
“No Mort!” Penny said grabbing my arm. “You silly goose, you have to wait till I give birth!”
I was fairly disoriented. “Why?” I asked without thinking.
Penny placed my hand on her chest. “So I can feed her… babies get hungry.”
I left my hand there. It was a good place and I was in need of comfort. I couldn’t help but find some irony in her reply however. I had spent half my life thinking of bosoms, and yet the first time they were the answer to a question I failed to consider them.
Penny pulled my hand away at last, “You’ll have to behave yourself more once the children get older.”
Children, I thought, and the room swayed around me.
Edward died later that week. The story that was told was that he died quietly in his sleep. I had planned to wait a few more months… but I had a feeling I would have my hands full soon. One child was scary enough, but two… twins, that would be a monumental task. I wasn’t quite sure I would be up to it, and only time would tell what sort of children Matthew and Moira would be.
