Page 58 of Heart of the Wren
“No, please.” Lorcan squeezed me more tightly.
“Come with me,” I said. “Come with me.” I took his hand and together we went back to the small bedroom.
I shoved the door but it thumped against a bed frame. The mattresses had returned. And the boxes of old clothes. Gone was the flowered wallpaper, and the doll, and the buttercup yellow pillow. And hanging on a bedpost was a dishevelled moss green jumper.
Chapter 34
DARA
EXPLAINING IT all to Bullseye took some time and more than one glass of whiskey. He kept vacillating between thinking we were all mad to thinking we were all part of some cult. Through it all, Lorcan hardly spoke. He sat in his armchair and stared at the floor.
I wanted to take Lorcan upstairs, tuck him into bed, and assure him everything would be alright. But I knew better. “I need your help, Carol.” I led them all into the kitchen. I didn’t want to contribute more to Lorcan’s worries but I didn’t have much choice. If Clíona wasmanifesting in a physical form and playing with the fabric of reality, we were nearing a climax. The clock was ticking. “Lorcan dug up some ancient gold and now something very old and very powerful is either angry with him or has taken a shine to him. I think she’s playing out the story of the warrior.”
“The story from your book?” Carol asked. “Clíona elopes with a warrior named Ciabhán but is left in his boat where a wave drowns her.”
“That’s the one. I’ve seen a lot of water imagery in my meditations and visions. It makes a certain amount of sense. But we’re so far inland…”
“There’s a boat in the shed,” Eddie said.
I thought all the blood had drained from my body. “Under no circumstances can we allow Lorcan anywhere near the shed. If she’s trying to take him away with her, she might bring him there first. She might use the boat as a gateway to the Otherworld.”
“If? Might?” Carol asked. “You’re giving usifand might?Didn’t you say you talk to your gods and goddesses all the time?”
I rubbed my head as I paced. “Not all the time, just every now and then. But since I’ve come here I haven’t been able to make contact with them. It’s, I don’t know, it’s out of their jurisdiction. This is Clíona’s territory and she won’t talk to me directly. Although, I think we can lull her back to sleep but I need your help to do it.”
Carol eyed me up and down. “Why me?”
“I had a vision when I was meditating. I wasn’t sure what it meant at the time but I think you’re the key to fixing this. Your ESP. Your gift.”
She swallowed and hugged herself. “What do I have to do?”
“I can show you, it’ll be easy for someone like you."
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Bullseye said. “What is she going to have to do? Is it safe?”
“I’ll be with her the whole time. I won’t let anything bad happen to her.” I hoped I sounded convincing. “Lads, can you clear a space? Push the furniture right back out of the way.” I rummaged around my pockets for a stick of chalk and began drawing a circle on the kitchen tiles.
“You’re mopping this all up when we’re done,” Lorcan said.
I laughed, mostly out of relief to hear him talking again. “We need to contact the goddess Clíona,” I said. “I don’t know if I can do it on my own: she’s very strong and it might take too long to reach her. But you’re like a shortcut to the other side, Carol.”
I sat cross-legged, and she knelt in front of me. I decided to keep my clothes on, for the sake of expediency.
“Breathe deeply. And, like I showed you upstairs, see the coloured numbers counting down in your mind. Breathe In. Breathe Out. Good. Very good. We seek contact with the goddess Clíona.” I encouraged Carol to repeat the phrase three times. Each one louder than the last.
On the final intoning, she shuddered. “An electric shock went up my spine. I can see circles. Waves. In my mind. Like radio waves? They’re pulsing out of me.”
“Good!” I said. “Amazing. Brilliant. You’re a natural! Keep thinking about Clíona. Keep her name in your mind. Keep—”
The room plunged into darkness except for the circle of chalk which began to glow like a neon light.
Carol opened her eyes. “What’s happening?”
I slowly got up. “We’ve made contact.”
Above us, the darkness rippled and I was filled with the sense of being on a loamy forest floor, beneath a canopy of trees. Specks of light broke through, growing larger and larger until all round us the darkness receded and we found ourselves on a rock in the middle of a vast emerald ocean. The waves rippled and sparkled into the moonlight.
Carol took a step forward but I gently took her by the elbow. “Stay in the circle. It isn’t safe.”
