Divided against Yourselves (Spell Weaver) (19 page)

Since no one in Santa
Brígida would have presumed to get between Carrie Winn and what she wanted, the adults quickly said their good-byes and left, with the Rinaldis taking Gianni along, even though he clearly wanted to hang out with me. That left Morgan; Vanora; Nurse Florence, who came up in the stands as soon as everyone else had left; Dan; and Shar. Glancing behind us, I could see Stan, Gordy, and Carlos all hurrying across the field in our direction, Stan and Gordy having stopped to pick up my sword and Dan’s.

I had expected that Morgan might try to make a quick exit in the face of such overwhelming potential force, but she stood her ground, eying Vanora and Nurse Florence particularly defiantly.

“Morgan, what is it you want?” asked Nurse Florence. She was trying for an emotionally neutral tone, but I could tell she could barely restrain herself from a much more abrupt rejoinder.

“I have made it quite clear what I want,” replied Morgan icily. “What is not clear is what you people want.”

“You gone,” said Vanora simply. “You have no right being here.”

Morgan turned on her, eyes flashing. “And you have no right trying to keep me from my sister! Did you think I wouldn’t notice I am now cut off from her? What gives you the right to do that?”

“Just a precaution to keep you from running off with her and trying the reversal spell on your own.” Vanora looked back at Morgan unflinchingly.

“I can’t,” replied Morgan tersely, inviting an obvious question, but not bothering to answer it. By now Stan, Gordy, and Carlos had reached us and handed Dan and me our swords. Morgan seemed unconcerned by the accumulation of armed force all around her.

None of us wanted to give her the satisfaction, but finally Nurse Florence asked, “Why can’t you just find enough casters and do the spell yourself?”

“Because, water witch, Ceridwen showed quite a sense of humor in designing that spell. She never thought she would need to use a reversal spell, so to make the original spell as easy as possible to cast, she made the reversal spell as hard as possible. Not only does it require a high power level, as you already know, but it also requires a caster who has been a target of the original spell. So unless Taliesin’s playmate over there,” she said, indicating Stan with a dismissive gesture, “has suddenly become a caster, or my sister has developed the ability to cast spells while in a trance, Taliesin is the only person who can cast the spell and make it work. Others can lend their power, but Taliesin must be the driving force.”

It seemed out of character for Morgan to admit to such an obvious weakness. Perhaps she was lying, trying to catch us off guard. There was really no way to tell. I couldn’t read the mind of someone as powerful as Morgan unless she wanted me to.

“So you see, I need Taliesin to get Alcina back, and since only I know the spell involved, he needs me to get Carla back…unless, of course, he doesn’t.”

That last phrase put me on high alert, as it did Nurse Florence and Vanora. The others didn’t understand that Morgan was voicing the suspicion that I had mastered the spell myself and didn’t need her. But how could she know? And, if she did know, or at least suspect, what was she doing giving us such an obvious shot at her? What did she think would prevent us from killing her if we didn’t need her knowledge of the spell?

“Don’t look so shocked, Taliesin,” she continued. “Your shield work wasn’t all that good that night at the hospital. I couldn’t hear or see from where I was, but I could
feel
that very distinctive spell. You must have done it. Somehow, I know not how, you have learned it just from watching me cast it. And you plan to use it without me, to keep my sister from me forever. Don’t deny it—the look in your eyes is a complete confession.”

The last time we had confronted Morgan, we had to consider the safety of Carla and Gianni. This time there were no innocent bystanders to worry about, and we had more than enough power to capture Morgan before she could do any more harm. I could see Vanora at least pondering the same idea and coming to the same conclusion. One sorceress, even one as powerful as Morgan, wouldn’t stand much of a chance against three other casters and five or six warriors (depending on whether you wanted to count me as a warrior also) with magic swords. Surely this was too easy!

Yeah, well, you could have figured that Morgan would not just walk into our midst without a plan of some kind. She had evidently prepared the area to connect quickly with Annwn, and those of us magical enough to have sensed that kind of connection were too busy worrying about Morgan to notice. Because she had prepared in advance, she was able to vanish with a single gesture, not wait to build up enough energy to open a gateway. Nurse Florence and even the usually unflappable Vanora seemed at a loss for what to do next.

“Let’s try to follow her!” I shouted. I couldn’t move into Annwn by myself because Arawn’s ban against me was still in effect, but in theory Nurse Florence or Vanora might be able to pull all of us through and land us near to the spot in Annwn to which Morgan had escaped if we moved fast enough. It was clear, though, that neither shared my enthusiasm for the idea.

“Tal, we can’t do that without knowing what she has on the other side. This whole situation feels like a trap to me,”
replied Nurse Florence.

“Yes,”
added Vanora.
“Clearly she wants us to follow. At a guess, she wants to lure most of us to our deaths. You she wants to capture, at least if she was telling the truth, because she needs you for the spell.”

“And if she is still at large, she can threaten anyone she wants to in an effort to get me to help her,”
I thought angrily.
“We can’t leave her free to strike out at whomever she likes.”

“I’m not the one who let her live on Samhain,”
thought Vanora quietly.
“Some of your men had the opportunity to kill her and did not take it.”

“Enough bickering!”
barked Nurse Florence with surprising vehemence.
“It may not be wise to follow Morgan, but we do need to act quickly to thwart her. Vanora, have you finished negotiating with Gwynn for safe passage and protection through his land?”
Vanora nodded quickly.
“Then our first priority should be getting Carla to Wales. Morgan is evil, maybe even crazy, but she isn’t stupid. Once Carla is safely away from us, Morgan will focus her efforts in Wales, and the Order is much better able to defend their headquarters than we are to defend the hospital or any other site.”

“Or Morgan will take hostages and force us to get Carla back from Wales,”
I pointed out.
“In fact, if she isn’t stupid, that’s the most likely thing she’ll do.”

By now the guys were pretty restless. They knew enough about our protocols to know I was probably communicating with Nurse Florence and Vanora mentally, but they were impatient to know what was happening. I gestured to them to wait just a minute.

“Taliesin, what exactly do you want us to do? Walk into an ambush? Viviane tells me she and your warriors almost didn’t make it to the hospital a couple days ago because of just such an ambush—and that was just one of Morgan’s contingency plans. I would bet Morgan has an even larger force at her disposal now.”

“Where is she getting these allies? When we met her in Annwn on Founders’ Day, she had empty suits of armor fighting for her.”

“We can discuss how Morgan handles her recruiting later,”
thought Vanora in her most grimly final tone.
“Now, do you want us to get Carla out of Morgan’s immediate reach, or not?”

“We need to move Carla,”
I agreed, still frustrated that we had not tried to capture Morgan right away.
“But if we all head in the same direction, Morgan is going to figure out what we are doing pretty quickly. You ladies will need to provide some magical distortions to keep her from knowing with certainty where we are.”

“Not a problem,” replied Vanora.

“Well, this next request might be. Neither I nor the guys will want to leave our families and friends unless we know they are safe. OK, so we can’t go after Morgan now. And you can’t ward the whole town against her.”

“Yes, you know that kind of spell will never stretch that far.”

“But your security force is pretty large, and you have them wired for certain kinds of magic, correct?”

Vanora looked stunned for a moment.
“Clever, Taliesin!”
she replied.
“But how did you know that?”

Because I’m not as stupid as you seem to think I am,
I thought to myself. To her I replied,
“Because I have noticed your security men—and the kind of vibes they put out. It wasn’t hard to figure out you had created some kind of magical network using them. Remember, you also asked me and Stan quite a few questions that suggested you were contemplating just such a project.”

“Why, yes, the experience with new forms of magic that you and Stanford have worked out was indispensable in fleshing out what I wanted to do. But how is the nature of my security force relevant?”

“That depends entirely on what you have made them capable of doing. I think they could provide protection for the whole town if properly deployed.”

Again I had caught Vanora by surprise.
“Well, borrowing one of your ideas, I can see through any of their eyes if I need to. I can channel spells through them also, enabling me to cast from a greater distance than would ordinarily be possible. I also made them somewhat spell resistant, though they couldn’t stand against a really powerful magical attack. Naturally, there is also a very specific tynged in place to keep them from betraying us. But Taliesin,”
she continued, shifting to a more patronizing tone,
“I designed my ‘network’ to be effective over a short distance, so I could more easily ward Carrie Winn’s castle or—”

“Use them as a security detail to protect yourself,”
I interjected cynically.

“Or you, if the need arose.”

I decided to let that claim go by without comment, since until now I couldn’t see what threat Vanora would have needed to protect me against.

“But the problem is, their links to me were designed for short distances. I don’t think they are strong enough to cover the whole town.”

“Oh, I’ve poked at them a little bit, Vanora, and I think in a pinch they can pick up your signal across the length of this town…and I think you know that.”

“I know no such thing—”

“Well, I do!”
I cut in, ignoring her protest.
“Their connection with you may not be as strong, but it will be workable, and you’ll have a few hours to reinforce it. That’s time enough for some formidable magic preparation if you use those hours well.”
Vanora was a lot older and more experienced than I was…in this life. However, this was one of those moments when I was perfectly willing to play the I-was-the-original-Taliesin card.

“But I have to prepare for Carla’s removal—”

“Nurse Florence can make what arrangements are needed,”
I replied, without even waiting for her confirmation.

“The ‘network’ won’t function well while I’m in Annwn—”
began Vanora, sure that she had a winning argument.

“Which is exactly why you aren’t going to Annwn.”
If I thought I had seen Vanora at her most shocked earlier, I was wrong…but she was certainly at her most shocked now.

“Were you under the impression that you could give me orders?”
she sputtered.

I continued as if I had not heard the question.
“Here’s the plan. The rest of us make preparations and then proceed to Annwn with Carla. Vanora will deploy her security detail across the town, with at least one group near each of our families and the others distributed as mobile reinforcements. Vanora can shift quickly from one man to another, scanning for Morgan. And if Morgan manages to slip through, whatever target she tries to hit, she’ll be facing several armed men, and even she isn’t fast enough to dodge bullets.”

“You’ll need some of those men…and me…in Annwn, Taliesin,”
said Vanora in a very forbidding, I-have-spoken kind of tone.
“We cannot afford to lose Carla to Morgan. And we cannot afford to let anything happen to you. You have irreplaceable abilities, as well as a much greater destiny—”

I didn’t know where all the destiny crap was coming from, so I decided to ignore it.
“We won’t lose Carla. And I don’t think Morgan will manage to kill me, but if she does, she does. Better that than Morgan slaughtering my family while I’m away.”
No, I wasn’t at all eager to die, but I knew what I was capable of, what the guys were, and what Nurse Florence was—and we had some of Gwynn’s men as well, and his safe passage. That seemed more than enough to deal with anything Morgan could throw at us, even if she was smart enough to figure out where we were, yet foolish enough to risk Gwynn’s wrath.

Vanora, who I thought was probably used to having her way even before she started being Carrie Winn twenty-four seven, was clearly annoyed by my taking control of the operation. I absolutely, completely, didn’t care, as long as she did her job. The truth was I was tired of being ordered around like an unruly teenager. OK, technically I was a teenager, but I also had thousands of years of experience, including the life of the original Taliesin. I, not Vanora, really knew how Morgan’s mind worked. I also had a greater understanding of magic than Vanora did. She was a powerful caster; that much I would happily admit. But even to construct her innovative network, she had needed my help. Who was she to dismiss me as a mere boy?