Alec hopped closer. He stretched and flapped his great, dark wings their full span. His ebony feathers shone beneath the fluorescent lights. “By the way, I have a message for ye. The mothers bid ye come to them before the next new moon.” He swaggered along the edge of the desk, speared a paperclip in his beak, and tossed it across the room.
Ciara smoothed an escaped curl away from her face as she turned to study Alec where he rummaged through the shiny objects scattered across the desk.
The news of a summons from the keep of the goddesses did not bode well at all. And why was he acting so nervous? The bird weighed each of his words before he spoke as though fearing he might be overheard. Something was up. There was no way this summons could be good news. Ciara slid her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and sauntered closer to the fidgeting raven.
“Why do they want me to return to the keep? What did they tell you, Alec?”
Pecking at the keys on the computer keyboard, Alec paused in his rifling to fix her with a beady eyed glare. “All I know is they want to speak with ye, and they ask that ye come to them with all due haste. Ye know they are not in the habit of taking me into their confidence. I’m no’ exactly their favorite being.”
“That’s never stopped you from finding out the truth before. Remember the Stones?” Ciara gave him an encouraging wink as she nudged the great black bird. Alec had stolen the secret of bending time and space from Brid and shared it with the mortals. Ciara shivered when she remembered Brid’s anger. It was a wonder Alec had survived.
“Aye. I remember the Stones. It’s a wonder I am standing here talking to ye at all. I’m surprised they didna curse me into some sort of recurring wart on the crack of some Highlander’s arse. At least all they did was ban my ability to return to human form.”
Ciara glanced down at her clothing and groaned. She’d have to discard her favorite twenty-first century clothes. The silky black T-shirt, the curve hugging jeans...the enlightened plane would literally shudder if she didn’t change her apparel. Once she’d shown up donned in skintight leather and the veils of the keep had frozen into solid sheets of the blackest ice. The coldness of the goddesses’ combined disapproval had frosted everything over within the enlightened plane for eons.
“Alec, I know you. There is no way you would just blindly follow their commands. You’ve never been able to mind your own business. Your inability to adhere to complete obedience is what stripped you of your powers to return to human form in the first place. I can see the wheels turning in that wicked little mind of yours. Now tell me what you know.”
Alec shifted from the shape of a raven into the form of a peaceful snowy owl. With an innocent blink of his wide owl eyes, he swiveled his head away. “Ciara—I mean, Vengeance—I am truly hurt that ye’ve taken such a tone with me. Haven’t I served ye faithfully all these years, for more centuries than I care to recall?”
Suspicion surged through her being.Ciara?He’d called her Ciara. Ciara shoved her face so close it almost touched the snowy owl’s hooked beak. “Ciara? No one’s called me by that name in centuries! Not even Cerridwen or Brid. Out with it, Alec! Tell me what you know about this summons, or I swear to you, I will seal the veil to this world when I leave and you’ll be trapped here forever in this madness.”
She couldn’t believe he’d called her that! She had abandoned her given name eons ago when she’d grown so frustrated with the charge she’d been given. At first, she’d felt honored when the goddesses had asked her to travel through the worlds, righting wrongs and punishing evil. However, as the ages passed, the corruption coursing through the many worlds in her care had only grown more severe.
The futility of it all ate away at her heart. She’d had to abandon most of the worlds and concentrate on saving just one. It had torn at her very being to abandon so many innocents. But the evil and greed taking over the realities was more then she could master alone.
Ciara had settled on saving Danu’s mortals. She’d seen the depths of love and creativity these complex beings could attain. But as the world matured, the humans changed for the worse, and Ciara couldn’t understand why.
Her prey tonight was just one example. He was just one of the millions who’d been eager to destroy and corrupt without a second thought. He’d destroyed the lives of his own as well as the lives of countless other creatures unfortunate enough to cross his path. Ciara hadn’t found a shred of remorse in his heart. His soul festered black and rotten. Without hesitation, he’d reduced the lives he’d tainted to mere numbers flashing on a screen.
Ciara had grown weary; her retaliations became more futile with every passing century. She might save a few innocents with her actions, but she had begun to think her quest a waste of time. With every tyrant she felled, ten more sprang to take their place. Danu’s world had become a place of darkness.
Drawing a shaking breath, Ciara extended her arm to the owl and glanced around the bleak heartlessness of the corporate office. “I’m sorry, Alec. You know I would never abandon you to this hopeless world. But please, Ineedyou to tell me what they want. I know you have to have an inkling of what they’ve plotted. You’ve always been my best spy.”
Alec returned to his favorite shape of a raven and hopped onto her arm. He stretched and rubbed his beak against her chin, as he chirruped in her ear. “I know ye wouldna leave me behind in this place. Ye still have a heart as big as the universe even though ye think ye buried it long ago. But truly, Ciara, all I can tell ye is they say they have a new charge for ye, and it seems much better than this sorry business ye already do. They said something about changing the course of mankind’s destiny. I swear to ye that is all I truly know.”
“Mankind’s destiny,” Ciara repeated, her gaze falling to rest on the lump of the dead man sprawled across the floor. “Mankind’s destiny is to be consumed by his own greed until he destroys everything in his path.”
Alec churled and crooned, rubbing his feathered head against her cheek. “Come with me, Ciara. At least hear what they have to say. They know ye need a respite from your charge. They know ye wear thin with this duty they’ve given ye. Perhaps they just want to ease your pain and give ye a bit of rest.”
Ciara drew a heavy breath. “All right, Alec. Let us leave this place and see what they have to say. Perhaps the goddesses have thought of a better way to save this misbegotten world and all that’s in it.”
* * *
Ciara shiftedinto the dimension in front of the gilt-encrusted mirror gracing the entryway wall. She examined her glamour one last time to ensure she’d not throw the fortress into another ice age. Her properly clothed reflection smiled back at her with an approving nod. Her mothers would find this attire acceptable, much better than the leather chaps and spike-heeled boots of her last visit. Brid hadn’t quite appreciated the biker chick look.
Smoothing her hands through the fluttering layers, Ciara twirled in front of the mirror. The silken gown floated around her body, the deep violet veils swirling about her curves highlighting her fair, creamy skin. She’d wrestled her mane of dark curls into an intricate braid pulled away from her face. She’d seen the Goddess Brid restrain her own flaming tresses into this same complicated weave resembling the knots of the Celts. Ciara patted her hair and turned once more in front of the mirror.
Yes. She felt sure her mothers would approve of this presentation. She’d modeled her proper appearance after her mothers’ attire. They might be immortals but they never changed when it came to style.
Drawing a deep breath, Ciara closed her eyes and shivered before turning to make her way out to the balcony. The scent of heather wafted through the air mixing with the briny crisp air filtering in from the sea. Ciara smiled. Visions of magical Alba danced through her mind at the very scent. Brid and her beloved Scotland. Even here in the goddesses’ keep, Brid kept her favorite things close to her heart by stroking the senses.
Ciara tapped her fingertips atop the railing of the balcony and glanced around the keep. This was ridiculous. Just because immortals had an eternity, why did they always make everyone wait? She peered through the corridors, fidgeting back and forth across the balcony. They asked her to hurry and yet now they made her wait. With a sigh, Ciara paced, flipping her hands through the layers of her gown. Some things never changed. They had summoned her, said it was urgent, and now there was no sign of anyone about. Ciara huffed, drumming her fingers along the railing a bit harder. Cerridwen and Brid always had a flair for the dramatic.
She paced back and forth across the striated black-marble floor, her footfalls clicking with every step. It had been several centuries since she’d been back to the goddesses' keep but very little about the fortress had changed. Watching the three obsidian dragons holding the brazier of eternal burning coals in the center of the room, Ciara darted back and forth across the room at different speeds until she bored with taunting the beasts. Their glowing red eyes followed her every move. She’d never truly trusted those three. She’d seen Cerridwen leaning close to them once and nodding as though they’d whispered in her ear.
At the sight of the crimson veils fluttering down from the unseen ceiling, Ciara’s curiosity grew. The brilliant veils rippled and billowed in the gentle breeze sifting in from the sea. The mother goddesses’ mood determined the color of the veils. Whatever was going on, Mother Brid’s emotions must be in a stir to color the keep in such a vivid hue.
The black marble floors, the matching columns, and wide steps sparkled with flecks of silver and gold but at least the keep itself appeared to be warm. That in itself was a good sign. If the mothers were displeased, the entire keep would be a solid sheet of ice.
