Morrigan (22 page)

Morrigan huffed. “It’s a little too late for
them to start making decisions for me. Besides, they should have
considered that before they sent a dashing young werewolf to be my
guide on this journey,” she teased.

Tiarn smiled and squeezed her hand as she
fumbled to adjust the bulge in her belly, trying to make it look
natural. The cloak was a little bigger than the leggings she had
lost back in the last village, so it was harder to get it just
right. Once the task was accomplished, she took one last look
through her backpack and decided it was time to leave it behind.
The only things she had left that she wanted to take with her were
Alden’s raven, her sketchbook, and her father’s letter. She placed
the little carving securely in her bustier and hid the book under
her cloak with the note tucked inside its pages.

When she was ready, she pulled her hood up to
hide her jet black hair. It was so much like her mother’s that it
would be a dead giveaway this close to the castle where the people
had probably seen Ceridwyn often. She tried her best to keep her
face in shadows and follow Tiarn’s lead as they made their way down
the gently sloping hill that led to the bustling town below. The
cats followed them, but stayed at a careful distance. They even
chased a few mice in an attempt to blend in with the other strays
that stalked the square. Morrigan knew they could take care of
themselves, yet she still felt the urge to look over her shoulder
every few minutes, just to make sure her beloved pets were still
with them.

The village was very much like the one
Brigid’s Inn had called home, just on a much larger scale. There
were merchants selling wares in the marketplace, but instead of
simple garden vegetables, there were exotic fruits from faraway
lands. Instead of dyed wool, there were the softest silks in all
colors of the rainbow. The weapons were not plain iron carved by
the force of the blacksmith’s hammer, but fine metals decorated and
encrusted with gold and jewels.

The homes along the edge of the market and
further into the town seemed to get larger and fancier. Some
boasted as many as three stories, and most were made from stone.
They didn’t have straw roofs, but they did have flowered gardens
and guardian statues of lions and other beasts that took their
posts a little too seriously, based on their horrific faces. Most
of the people who walked down the street were dressed in fine robes
made from velvet and silk, and they seemed to hold their noses up
in the air as they passed the more lowly merchants. They were
obviously the noble men and women, and there was no doubt Tiarn and
Morrigan stood out like a pair of beggars amidst the
aristocrats.

In addition to the magnificent homes, the
streets were dotted with at least a dozen different temples, each
dedicated to a different deity. Morrigan knew one of those temples
was their current destination. Getting there shouldn’t have
presented a problem when so many people came and went from the
places of worship, but mixed in among merchants and nobles were
more than a handful of armed guards. She instantly recognized
Caedmon, the soldier who had insisted no one harm her back in the
woods. She couldn’t tell if he was on duty, but at least he didn’t
have the magic hounds at his feet. He seemed to be bartering for a
new cape. The one he wore was still cinged from his last encounter
with Morrigan, and his face was marred by a few dark bruises.

The solider must have felt the intensity of
her stare. He turned, and his eyes narrowed as he scanned the crowd
warily. Morrigan wrapped the black cloak more tightly around her
shoulders and was glad she had still been wearing her modern day
clothes when they last met. Thanks to Alden, she was able to blend
in much easier.

Tiarn noticed a few familiar faces in the
crowd as well, and that prompted him to move a little quicker down
the cobblestone path. He probably would have broken into a sprint
if he thought it would go undetected. He took her arm and guided
her swiftly through the maze of people who dominated the square.
There had to be at least a few hundred villagers milling around,
which was working to their advantage because it helped them to
blend in more easily. But even a powerful witch, a werewolf, and
two Guardians wouldn’t be able to overcome so many humans, and
there were most likely a few magical beings mingling among the
humans as well.

The castle still seemed impossibly far off in
the distance, but Morrigan knew their plan included a shortcut.
Tiarn led her to one of the temples that dotted the long winding
road. They entered quickly and even the cats were able to slip in
without being seen. They hid in one of the corners behind an altar
filled with offerings of fruits and wine so no one would notice
them. The building was one of the more extravagant in the cluster
of temples in the village. It had gigantic pillars made from marble
and carved with ornate engravings of flowers and vines. The
cathedral ceilings were almost impossibly high and glittered as
though the stars themselves had a hand in their making. She had no
idea what type of architecture it involved, but she knew no
technology from her so called modern world was its equal.

As lovely as the temple was, Morrigan had to
wonder why they were there. When Tiarn had told her the explicit
directions given by Hecate, he had said there was a shortcut
through the temple. A quick glance around the large singular room
revealed no doors other than the one they had passed through.

“Where are we going now?” she whispered.
There were several worshippers in the temple paying homage and she
certainly didn’t want to attract their attention.

“Kneel!” Tiarn ordered and didn’t even
attempt to keep his voice at a lower volume. “We must kneel before
the Goddess Ceridwyn, Mother of All, and ask that She bring forth
our child from Her Cauldron of Life pure and healthy. We must ask
for Her blessing though we are most unworthy!”

Morrigan hadn’t entirely caught onto his
plan, but she had to assume he knew what he was doing. With a
shrug, she knelt down in front of the carved effigy of a beautiful
woman. The face, though chiseled from stone, had eyes that were so
lifelike they seemed to study Morrigan as she bowed at her
feet.

Directly in front of the Goddess stood a
large cauldron, which was also carved from stone in stunning and
elaborate detail. All the creatures from creation poured forth from
the bubbling cauldron. From the smallest insect to modern humans,
it seemed every living thing was represented in the remarkable
artwork. Ceridwyn held a long scepter in her hand which she used to
stir the magic brew. The statue was beyond beautiful. It was
rapturous. It instantly invoked within Morrigan a sense of rebirth,
which was only fitting since she was about to start a new life with
her mother in a completely new and alien world.

Morrigan didn’t speak as she studied the
sculpture. She sat with her eyes downcast and her head bowed as she
waited for Tiarn to give her some direction. The hard marble floor
was cold even through the heavy material of her gown. Her knees
were starting to ache from the constant pressure on them. It seemed
like they were waiting for hours, though in reality it was probably
closer to twenty minutes. Her back was beginning to ache when the
last patron vacated the temple, leaving Tiarn and Morrigan alone
with the foreboding image of the Goddess Ceridwyn and her
cauldron.

As soon as the villager was out of sight,
Tiarn leapt up and ran to the temple entrance. He strained to push
the large doors closed before someone else arrived. There were no
latches to lock out intruders, but she supposed it would at least
slow someone down if they had to open the massive doors. She wasn’t
sure why Tiarn wanted to trap them inside the temple. Even Danu and
Dagda had come out and were giving him speculative glances as they
licked their paws.

“Tiarn,” she asked, frustrated. “What are you
doing? We don’t have time for this.”

“I thought I had explained this before we set
out. We are taking a little shortcut to the castle courtesy of your
mother and her namesake.”

“Well, I think you have the wrong temple.
There is no way out of this place expect for the doors you just
closed.”

“A secret shortcut would not be much of a
secret were it out it plain view for the whole world to see,” Tiarn
told her. He walked toward the cauldron and grunted as he leaned
against it. It seemed quite pointless because it was firmly bolted
to the ground and definitely wasn’t going anywhere. “I know there
is a way to open this blasted thing. I just need to figure it
out.”

Morrigan rolled her eyes as she watched him
struggle. She was sure he was crazy and that he was going to break
the statue, his back, or possibly both. He strained and huffed in
his efforts to move the massive fixture. Then, suddenly, his eyes
flashed with realization. Instead of trying to move the whole
cauldron, he started to fiddle with the top of it, touching each of
the animals and birds in turn. Finally he grasped the carving of
the man. There was a loud groan as he turned the figure clockwise.
The top of the cauldron creaked open. The figure of the man had
been the latch that held it closed. Morrigan inched her way over to
peer inside the cauldron, which was just large enough for one
person to fit through. Far below, she could make out the dim glow
of torches lined up along walls of mortar and pestle, and just
below them, a glassy black film that must be stagnant water.

“What is it? Where does it go?”

“It is the moat that leads from the castle.
It is where the waste is dumped. And according to the directions I
received from Hecate, it will lead us directly to the servant
chambers of the castle.”

“It’s a sewer?” Morrigan exclaimed. “Oh, no!
You can’t actually expect me to jump into that water.”

Tiarn gave her a devilish grin, and she could
tell he was enjoying what he must have considered a royal moment.
In actuality, it had more to do with growing up in a world where
sanitation was the staple of society, even for a foster child who
had been shuffled around all her life.

“It is the safest way to the castle,” he told
her. “It will lead us to your mother and we will bypass the main
entrance and most of the guards. Very few people know of this
passageway. It is a secret Hecate has guarded well. I do not think
even Arianrhod knows of its existence.”

“But I . . . I mean . . . .” Morrigan
couldn’t think of any way out of it. “There’s no other way, is
there?”

“I’m afraid not, Princess. It’s a shame you
will have to ruin your dress.”

Morrigan huffed and rolled her eyes again.
She took off her heavy cloak, which would only weigh her down in
the water, and wrapped her sketchbook up inside of it. She hid it
in an obscure corner of the room, behind a collection of vases that
hadn’t seen fresh flowers in quite some time. She knew the book and
her father’s aged letter would never survive this part of the trip.
She could only hope she would find them in her hiding place when—or
if—she was able to return to the temple. Once her treasures were
secure, she came back to Tiarn and gave him a dirty look.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

Tiarn bowed down low. “Ladies first.”

Morrigan swallowed back her inhibitions,
closed her eyes, and jumped feet first into Ceridwyn’s
Cauldron.

Morrigan closed her eyes and held her nose as
she plummeted into the murky waters below. The water wasn’t as deep
as she expected it would be. Her feet brushed the ground, and once
she came up for air, she realized she could stand, and it only came
up to just past her chest. There was no fear of drowning, but the
thin layer of slime and the stagnant smell of the water left much
to be desired. It had been days since she had a chance to take a
real bath or wash her hair, but this was hardly a cleansing dip.
She tried not to think about the fact she was swimming in other
people’s excrement. She tried even harder to ignore the mysterious
squishy objects that kept brushing against her hands. She was glad
it was too dark to see the true color of the water.

Morrigan had just managed to get the water
out of her eyes when she heard Tiarn shout a string of curses that
was followed by a guttural growl and a loud hiss. Before she could
ask what was going on, a very agitated Danu practically landed on
her head, swiftly followed by a blur of golden fur as Dagda landed
in the water beside her with a loud splash and angry screech. The
two of them gave Morrigan dirty looks and they struggled to doggie
paddle. If she wasn’t so miserable herself, she would have laughed.
They looked like a pair of giant, half-drowned rats. She was way
too uncomfortable to see the humor in the situation. Her gown held
a lot of water and really weighed her down, and her heavy
metal-tipped boots weren’t helping. Still, she wasn’t about to
strip down in the pool of filth and go skinny dipping.

Morrigan struggled to wade through the water
to give her pets a reassuring ear scratch, which didn’t seem to
appease them very much. A second later, Tiarn dove in, splashing
the lot of them in the face with the slimy water. She coughed and
gagged when a little of it got up her nose. She glared at him as he
floated toward her, and even the cats hissed in furious unison. He
was so casual about the whole thing; you’d think he was taking a
dip in an indoor swimming pool.

“Watch it, would you?” Morrigan grumbled. She
was surprised at how her voice echoed and bounced from the stone
walls. It was like they were inside a cave. “This stuff is so
gross. How far do we have to go before we get out of here,
anyway?”

Tiarn gave her a wicked smile. “Are the
accommodations not to your liking, Princess?”

Morrigan rolled her eyes and glanced down at
the endless corridor that was only dimly lit by a string of
torches. “Not at all. It stinks and I can barely see, but I guess I
shouldn’t complain. At least there is some light. How do these
torches stay lit anyway? I don’t see anyone around monitoring
them.”