Better. The word welled up in Fallon, full of hope. Ciaran could come back when someone needed him. He could fix anything. She could call him back, and he could fix Mama, too. The thought was almost too wonderful to hold.
"Mama, how do I make it work?" she pleaded, her heart pounding. "How do I make the magic? Tell me."
"At the feast of Beltane, go to the castle of mist, to the hearth Ciaran is said to have carved with one blow of his sword. It's there that the fires of legend, the fires of hope are still kept alive. Place the pin in the center of the hearth, and wait until the light of the full moon strikes the jewels. The glow will dance, writhe skyward, set ablaze by magic fire. Then, call him, Fallon. With your heart, with your soul, with all the courage inside you. Can you remember that, my little one?"
"Yes, Mama." It was only three days until Beltane, Fallon thought. Three days until she could make magic.
Mama was trembling all over. "You're so... so very young, Fallon-my-heart. So small to understand..." She caught Fallon's hand, held it tight. "You must remember, this is a sacred trust. Just because you have the power to call Ciaran doesn't mean you should. Only once in three hundred years can Ciaran step out of the mist. If you call him, it must be for something important, something so large, so vital, that no mortal can manage."
No mortal could make Mama well, Fallon thought fiercely. The doctors had tried and tried.
"You can't call Ciaran back to mend a broken fence, or tie the tongue of some cruel little girl into knots. You can't summon him for the thousands of things we all have to endure."
Fallon imagined summoning Ciaran, sending him charging down on the mean-spirited Alberdale twins. She would have liked to see those girls bristling with big, long javelins. But Mama was looking at her so pleadingly, and so very sick.
Fallon let the image go. "I won't call him, Mama. Not unless things are terrible bad. I promise." But what could be more terrible than Mama being so sick?
Relief settled over her mother's face. The breath rattled in her chest. "I know that I can... can trust you. That you'll make me so proud—even in heaven. Fallon, I'm... so very tired, all of a sudden," Mama said in barely a whisper. "You will come back to me tomorrow, won't you, little one?"
Fallon tightened her hold on the brooch. "Yes, Mama. I'll come." And suddenly she wanted to. The Room couldn't scare her anymore, not now that she had Ciaran's pin. She'd come see Mama like Hugh did, every day, and bring her flowers and Mama's stories would chase the shadows away until Ciaran came and made her well again.
She couldn't remember ever being so happy as she gave her Mama a kiss on the cheek then climbed down from the bed.
She sneaked past Nurse, and out into the sunshine, running through banks of flowers over the hills, clutching the precious secret inside her.
She would take the brooch where it would be safe, to the castle where the sea crashed and the mist whispered inside her. She would tuck it in the secret place she'd found, behind a loosened stone. She shivered with delight and waited. Three days. Only three days before the magic could come.
* * *
Sunlight priedopen Fallon's eyelids with sharp fingers the next morning. She burrowed her face into her pillow, waiting for Nurse to start scolding. It was late, and Nurse was bound to be cross.
But then Fallon remembered. Her lips curled in a sleepy grin. She didn't care if Nurse was cross. She was going to see Mama this morning.
She struggled up out of the tangle of coverlets, then stilled, her forehead crumpling in confusion. Someone else was sitting in Nurse's chair by the fireplace.
Hugh. He was hunched over, his thin face all blotchy beneath a mop of sandy-blond hair, his eyes so red it scared Fallon. But she stiffened her backbone like Ciaran had when he faced the fairy king. Soon she wouldn't have to be afraid ever again.
"I have to go see Mama," Fallon told Hugh as she climbed out of bed. "She promised to tell me more stories today."
Hugh's eyes got so bright it almost looked as if he were crying. Hugh never cried. Fallon's chest hurt. His mouth twisted, all tight, as if he were trying to hold something in.
"Fallon—" Hugh's voice broke over the words. "Mama's dead."
Fallon heard a scream deep inside her, where no one else could ever hear it. No, no, no... Mama was going to get better. Beltane was coming with it’s magic fire, and Fallon was going to bring her the first spring flowers and Ciaran was going to make Mama well.
But heaven with its angels and saints had stolen Mama away to where fairy-magic could never touch her. All Fallon had left were the stories Mama had told.
Chapter 1
It was time.
Once every year, Fallon drew the mystic golden circle from it's hiding place in the stone wall and cradled it in her hands while the spring winds of Beltane sang to her alone. But never once did she dare the magic of the ancient brooch.
Sixteen full moons had sailed on sixteen more Beltanes, each spinning its own special enchantment. But this night was different. Fallon sensed it.
Druid-trees breathed warning. Standing stones reached out long fingers, awakening unquiet spirits that clung to every shadow, hollow and glen. Billows of mist swirled up past Fallon's knees, and branches caught at her skirts as she made her way up the path that ran perilously close to the cliffs.
Come closer... She could hear the ghosts of drowned sailors calling from the Soul Cages beneath the crashing sea, luring her nearer the crumbling ledge that plunged to the jagged rocks below.Just one misstep and you will be ours.
