The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (27 page)

She had an idea of what that someone else was.

Long ago, the Tuatha de Danaan would enlist enchantresses as a sort of bodyguard for a Legend who might be powerful magically, but weak physically.  The enchantress would protect what would be considered an important being, doing so with little altercation as the enchantress could manipulate and persuade any trouble in the form of a passerby to keep on his way. 

This enchantress must have and still did protect a very powerful Legend. 

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
T
HREE

“I shall pursue whatever I watch. I shall destroy those I have my eye on.”

The Morrigan, Táin Bó Cúailnge

The woman’s gaze immediately rose to Kade and her blue eyes folded in wrinkles as she smiled wide.

“Two visits in one week?” she cried, pulling the door fully open. “I must have won the lottery.”

“Afternoon, Robina,” Kade leaned in past Morrie to peck a quick kiss on the elderly woman’s cheek.  Morrie watched the exchange with a curious frown darkening her brow. “Did ye miss me, love?”

Robina still smiled with uncontained adoration at Kade. “Always.” She followed Kade’s flickering attention and turned her smile to Morrie. “Hello.”

“This is someone you know?” Morrie asked Kade. 

She didn’t like feeling blindsided, but in all of her excitement, she hadn’t stopped to heed Kade’s warnings.  He
had
told her to stop. 

 “Aye.  I know everyone in the village, but this house is different,” he answered her and then turned to the woman. “Robina, please meet Miss Morrie Brandon,” Kade placed that hand of his at what had now become its second home on Morrie’s lower back. “Morrie, this is Robina.  She tutored me when I was a lad.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, my dear,” Robina offered her hand.  Morrie took it, returning her smile.

“You as well.”

Folding her hands in front of her, Robina looked between Morrie and Kade with a knowing quirk of her lips. “You must be the lass Nan spoke of.”

Morrie glanced up at Kade to see his cheeks color with a light blush.

“Is she home, Rob?” he asked.

“Aye. Come in, the both of ye, please.” 

She stood aside to allow them in, her smile never fully fading. 

Kade had to duck down to enter the home nudging Morrie ahead of him. 

It was warm, if not too dark inside and felt as though it had been lived in for a very long time. 

Robina led them to a small room in the back of the cottage where a fire was dying out in the hearth. 

There were shelves full of books and potted plants on every ledge available.  A faded sideboard held an array of framed old black and white photos. 

The most prominent being a photograph of a beautiful young woman standing next to a young, handsome boy, her arm around his shoulders. 

The boy had dark hair and dark eyes and Morrie spied the similarities in him with Kade.  He must have been around ten-years old when the photo was taken, but it looked so much older. 

A moment out of time.

 A few arm chairs sat askew at angles with the room’s corners, but in the middle was one worn, overstuffed armchair filled with blankets.  From their folds, small and withered hands deftly worked a string of yarn around a pair of silver knitting needles. 

Robina stood at attention behind the chair and said, “Nan, ye have visitors.”

From that mound of blankets, Morrie felt her strongest reading of magic yet.  She didn’t have to see the small head of gray hair peaking from her afghan cocoon to know a Seer was buried beneath. 

Seers were immortal and yet this one looked ancient.  Another glamour.  Had something changed with the immortals over the last few centuries? 

Morrie wondered if she hadn’t crossed paths with her once upon a time, both under a different guise.

“So, Ah see ye’ve started tae heed my warnins’, lad,” a weak voice croaked from the mound. 

“Yes, Nan,” Kade answered and with gentle moves Morrie didn’t think him possible of possessing, he slid over to the chair and gripped the working hands, needles and all, in his own and kissed the Seer’s forehead.

He leaned away, but kept the woman’s hands in his. 

Glancing over his shoulder at Morrie, he said, “Nan, I’d like you to meet…my friend, Morrie Brandon.” 

Morrie nearly scowled at the way he emphasized the word, friend, wondering why she reacted like it had hurt and what that meant, but silenced the doubts to step up and nod. 

“Hello, nice to meet you.”

“Morrie, this is Nan.  She was my governess long ago.”

A spark lit the old woman’s eyes upon seeing Morrie and the little gray head rose to reveal sharp shoulders and bony arms wrapped in a lace shawl. 

The power of the gods meant that Morrie could travel among and interact with any man or immortal without her nature being revealed and yet something in the way this Nan looked at her, the recognition in her eyes, made her wonder…  Morrie was certain they had never met before, but it made her doubt her own anonymity.

Which was just silly, Morrie was safe from both of these Legends; they held no power over her.  Even as a Seer, the hag could tell any man or Legend his fate, but only another god could foretell the future of a god. 

Kade let Nan go to pull two chairs close together.  He gestured for Morrie to sit in one while he took the other. 

“So you were Kade’s governess?” Morrie asked.      She wondered if Kade knew his governess wore a glamour.

Her suspicions about Kade were growing, becoming more tangible thoughts rather than possible hints.  She was certain something was amiss with his brother, but now she wondered about Kade, as well.

“I’ve looked after Kade since he was a child.”

The hag seemed to grow stronger with each passing moment and Morrie itched to discover if the wrinkles and gray hair were a façade.  A simple swipe of her powers would remove any glamour and she was tempted.

“So Kade is like a son to you?” Morrie prompted, trying to prod more information than the hag was willing to give.  She hoped to coax answers from what the Seer didn’t say.

“No, he’s meant much more to me than that.”  Had Nan’s voice lost some of its gravelly quality?  Was it clearer and more youthful? “How do ye know my boy?” Nan asked Morrie, her look pointed.

Morrie glanced at Kade before answering. “I work for his brother.  I’m a horse trainer.”

“Morrie’s been hired tae find the horse that’s been terrorizing our loch,” Kade explained. 

Nan quirked an eyebrow at him and the two seemed to share something unspoken. 

Morrie didn’t like it.

“Hunting horses, are ye?” Nan asked her.

Morrie opened her mouth to reply—with what, she didn’t really know because there seemed to be a bit of anger behind the old lady’s question—but Kade jumped in.

“It’s the same one from the papers.  We’re out asking around tae see if anyone has seen him about.  Seems he’s been eluding our Morrie since her first night here.”

“Yes, I imagine he would,” Nan replied.

“Oh, so you know of him?” Morrie asked, hopeful. “Have you seen him?”

“Aye, I know o’ the beast, but no, I’ve not seen him around here.  I’ve only known him to stay near his loch.”

She considered Kade and Morrie, almost as though she studied the two of them and Morrie sat up, noticing the way she and Kade had both leaned in towards each other.

Kade was his own solar system, ever pulling her into him.

“Ye two work well together, aye?” Nan asked, still with that intense gaze.

“Well, we haven’t caught the horse…” Morrie muttered and seemed to earn a hint of amusement from the old soothsayer.

“Morrie and I had a connection,” Kade grinned. “From the first moment we met, she took me in hand.” 

Her cheeks flamed at his insinuation.  The bastard!  Never letting her forget their first meeting.

“Too bad we won’t get to explore that further,” she added with a curt politeness. “Whether this horse is caught or not, I leave by the end of the month.  Hopefully before Halloween.”

She mumbled that last sentence, adding it more for herself than the conversation.

“Aye, ye have always had a mind tae leave,” Nan all but sneered, causing Morrie to stare at her in shock.  Nan smiled sweetly. “Horse trainers are a migratory lot, going where the work is, right?”

“Uh…right.”  Did this Seer know her true identity? 

Morrie felt panic crawl up her throat, she’d never been found out before. 

And the realization that she would be concerned over such things flared across her chest, heating her cheeks. 

She’d had it. 

No more of this mortal doubt and concern.  She would use her powers to reveal the Seer for what she was and know for sure….She would strip the glamour with magic of her own…She would use her powers…She…

Morrie blinked.

While there was quite possibly conversation still going on around her, she no longer paid attention, her eyes roaming as she sat in confused introspection, searching for something she hadn’t touched in so many years.

Too many years, apparently. 

Morrie had forgotten how to use her powers. 

Her eyes grew wide at the realization and again she racked her brain, like trying to remember an elusive word, for that way back to her magic. 

But nothing.

Had she abstained so long her magic had…atrophied?  Was that even possible?

She searched within her again, fisted and flexed her hands on her knees until her knuckles switched from red to white.  A tremble began to run down her legs.  Was she sweating?

“Kade, lad, could ye help Robina bring in some water from the well out back?” Nan asked, sinking back into her tired, fragile state and Morrie was certain it was for show. “I could use some hot tea.”

Kade frowned, but stood.  “Aye, Nan.  Ye two ladies try not tae chat too much,” he grinned at Morrie before shuffling after Robina.

Morrie watched them both leave, her breathing loud as she tried to control her anger.  As soon as she and Nan were alone, she turned on the Seer.

“Remove your glamour,” she ordered, hoping the Seer would oblige, as Morrie seemed to not be able to use her magic to remove it herself. 

And if anyone knew Morrigan, the Goddess of War and Sex, was without power…she shuddered.

But her identity was safe. 

The wrinkled visage slipped away to reveal a round, youthful face with large brown eyes and hair like spun gold.  Nan, the Seer, slipped out from her blankets and sat up straight. 

It was the same woman in the old photos on the sideboard.  And if Morrie had to venture a guess, she would say that the other woman in the photos was a younger Robina. 

“I’d heard you were a blunt bitch,” Nan said, matter-of-fact.

“How do you know who I am, Soothsayer?” Morrie narrowed her eyes at her. “Your powers don’t work on the gods.”

“Mayhem and destruction follow in your wake, Morrigan,” Nan answered. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure you out.” 

That might have hurt Morrie’s feelings but she had always taken pride in her work when she was a goddess.

“How many others like you are there here?”

Nan smiled beatifically. “I won’t tell you that, goddess.  And since you don’t already know, I’m going to assume you’re keeping your powers hidden.  Parading as a human, hmm?  So I don’t have to worry about you using your powers on me, but I will warn you against using them on Kade.  You’ve done enough to that boy, already.”