Epona knelt. She took Tegan’s face between her hands and kissed him gently on the forehead. The phantom pain in Aine’s back instantly cooled.
“My Goddess!” Tegan cried. His body was trembling, but his eyes were no longer haunted with pain and grief. “Forgive me for not being stronger.”
“Tegan, my son, your strength is a deep, quiet well that rests within you. It nourishes without drowning your judgment. And when it’s needed, you pour and pour from it. I am well pleased by you.”
Then Epona turned to Aine. The healer began to kneel, but the Goddess’s hand on her arm stayed her.
“Not long ago I gave you a choice, my daughter,” the Goddess said. “As with the mate of your soul, I am well pleased by you.”
“I killed those women.” Aine’s voice was choked.
“You did. Again, you had a difficult decision to make and you followed your heart. Would it help you to know that the people of Guardian Castle made their own decisions, and because they invited darkness into their midst they have been corrupted by evil? For many years to come they will pay the consequences of their choices. The ones whose spirits you set free are lucky. Their death was painless. Others will not be.”
“So you forgive me for it?”
“You had my forgiveness before you asked it.” The Goddess smiled. “Your life has been short, but you have a strong spirit and you are ready for the journey ahead of you. So Aine, Healer and daughter, I give you one last choice.”
Epona took Aine’s hand and led her over to where Tegan sat looking strong and whole again, though he no longer had his beautiful expanse of wings. The Goddess joined their hands before she continued.
“I give you the choice of your destiny. You may warn Partholon of the coming Fomorians or you may escape from this world into one where technology rules and the beings here are merely stories of myth and magic. If you stay in Partholon you will not be safe and your love will not be accepted. If you escape to the world of technology, you will begin new lives and grow old together. Know before you choose that I will bless your decision either way. I give all of my people free will-even my champions.”
Aine met Tegan’s eyes. She didn’t need to ask him. Their bond told her that his choice was the same as hers. She didn’t blame him for it. It was who he was in the deepest well of his soul. She should know-she held that soul safe for him.
Aine looked into her Goddess’s eyes. “We choose Partholon.”
Chapter Nineteen
Epona’s smile was blinding in its brilliance. “Well done daughter! You have passed my final test. You’ve chosen the difficult task, to save my people. And because of your courage, you will actually have both worlds-and by living in the one, you can know that in time you will save the other. And you will need this. It is your destiny to keep it safe until the day Partholon has need of it.” The Goddess made a graceful gesture with her hand and the funeral urn floated to Aine. Startled, the Healer reached for it, but it slipped through her hands to clang against the floor of the cave.
Chagrined, Aine hastily picked it up, horrified to see that a hairline crack had appeared in its base.
“Forgive me Goddess!” Aine cried.
Epona laughed joyously. “Little Healer, you couldn’t be more perfect. I want you to remember this urn. The next time you see it you will know that the time of your destiny is near.”
“I don’t understand,” Aine said miserably.
“You will. Just remember that this urn must return here with its likeness, and you and Tegan will be the ones to ensure that happens.”
Before Aine could ask any of the many questions swarming through her mind, the Goddess placed one hand on her forehead and one on Tegan’s. “Go with my eternal blessing.”
Aine, Tegan, and Epona’s urn disappeared.
Fifty years later. Northwest Oklahoma not far outside the town of Locus Grove.
The enormous mansion was a sprawling Victorian, as out of place in the Oklahoma countryside as it would have been on top of a slate colored mountain range. It was once beautiful, but age had cracked and crinkled it until it reminded some people of an old smoker’s skin.
The ancient couple who had lived there loved it.
“Do we really have to leave this place?” The old man asked his wife. “I hate to see all of our things auctioned off like this.”
“It’s better this way-easier,” she said. “Besides, our job here is almost over. Look, it’s already happening.” She motioned for her husband to join her at the window. Together, the two watched the scene in the backyard unfold.
“My God! What the bloody hell is this?” A man with an accent cried, placing the item haphazardly back on the table.
Another man picked it up and blanched in horror as he, too, saw the hairline crack in the urn’s base.
“Sir, you are correct. Please accept my apologies for this damaged merchandise. Your bill will be corrected immediately.”
The old woman smiled as she watched a beautiful girl with wild red hair approach the man and speak with pretended nonchalance. “Excuse me, but what will happen to the pot now?”
“It will be re-auctioned, as is, of course,” the man said.
The couple continued to eavesdrop on the events of the auction, but only until the redhead bought the urn and drove off their grounds with it tucked into the seat beside her.
“She did look amazingly like the Incarnate on the urn,” the old man said.
“That’s because she is the Incarnate on the urn, or at least she will be very soon.”
“Hard to believe someone so-” he paused, trying to decide on the right word, “-modern is going to stop the Fomorian invasion.”
The old woman laughed. “At first she’s going to believe that she’s divine by mistake. As if Epona makes mistakes!”
“The Goddess’s ways are not always clear,” he said.
“No, but they are always interesting,” she said. “Shall we finish this, love?”
Instead of answering her, he approached his wife. Facing her, he took both her hands in his own. “It has been a long, full life, hasn’t it, Aine?”
“It has been, just as our Goddess promised.”
“Because through her will we were able to escape and save Partholon,” Tegan said.
Not only through my will, but also through your strength and willingness to sacrifice yourselves to defeat evil. Epona’s voice filled the room with ripples of magic and love. Now, my children, it is time you came home.
Still grasping hands, the old couple’s bodies began to shimmer, and then their crooked, wrinkled forms fell away, leaving a beautiful dark haired woman with eyes the color of a spring sky, and a tall, lean man whose wings unfurled majestically as he threw back his head and laughed with absolute joy. Tegan took Aine into his arms and kissed her passionately as they faded from the modern world to reappear in their Goddess’s verdant meadows, where she welcomed them with song and laughter and love.
P. C. Cast
