Athina cursed loudly, causing Dael to stare at her in mute astonishment. Concentrating, she redirected all her focus towards the missing horse, hoping against hope that it would survive the storm and the wrathful Phaerie; scanning the shadowy depths beneath the trees in the certainty that it would not be able to remain airborne for very long in the face of the violent elements.
After a time of fruitless searching, she was positive she saw something: a glimpse of colour that was surely not a natural part of the forest. Dael had seen it too. He leant forward to peer into the vision in the fireplace as they waited for the next flash and what it would reveal. ‘Was that an animal?’ he said.
In the next dazzle of lightning, Athina saw clearly. Two miserable-looking horses, one a light bay, the other a prettily marked roan that had caught her eye in the first flash. She bit her lip, disappointed. They were Xandim, for a certainty, but they were not the one she sought. They were standing dripping under the outspread boughs of a large pine, and with them, scarcely visible in the shadows near the trunk, was a huddled figure.
They had only time for the briefest of glances before the lightning died away, plunging the image into darkness once more. Athina frowned. ‘Was that one of the Phaerie?’
‘Maybe.’ Dael kept his eyes fixed on the darkness in the fireplace.
‘And were those two beautiful horses the legendary Phaerie steeds I’ve heard about?’
‘Looked like it.’
Athina shot him a searching look. ‘You don’t need to worry, you know. You’re safe with me. They might have had you once, but I’ll never let them take you back.’
Dael managed a smile, but she could see that the sight of the Phaerie had unnerved him. ‘I don’t want to look any more,’ he said. ‘I’m going to bed.’
When he had gone, the Cailleach sighed. Poor Dael, she thought. I hope that in time he’ll come to trust me to keep him safe from his former masters. In the meantime, let me see if I can find out what a lone Phaerie and two Xandim horses are doing in the forest on a night like this. I didn’t notice him leaving the Hunt. I wonder if he has any friends nearby?
It didn’t take her long to find the second stranger. Another Phaerie - a woman this time - with a superb black stallion. The Cailleach frowned. What were they doing out in the forest on such a foul night? They certainly weren’t acting as though they belonged to the Wild Hunt. She scanned further. There - what was that? Amid the trees?
When she looked closer, she saw the faint radiance that had caught her attention: a phantom glimmer of magelight, shining through the walls of one of three tents clustered together in a clearing. A jolt of excitement shot through her. She had finally found one of the three! She used her scrying powers to penetrate the walls of the tent, and saw the young Wizard with the long, dark-red hair talking with a strange young man, in whose features both Wizard and Phaerie were mingled.
Relief flooded through Athina. She had found another of those she sought. And she was absolutely certain that the third woman, the mysterious, unidentified member of the trio, would not be far away.
As she moved her vision away from the tents to scan the surrounding area, the Cailleach finally blundered into the one she was seeking, who was sheltering beneath the overhanging branches of an enormous hawthorn on the edge of the clearing. But wait - surely she must be mistaken? Those weren’t people beneath the tree, but horses. Yet the tingle of recognition was so strong, how could she have made a mistake? She looked again, sending her vision beneath the branches of the tree. Several patient animals stood there, but one of them, the dappled grey . . .
Athina gasped. ‘That’s the one!’
Suddenly everything became clear. ‘That’s why I could never identify her before,’ she muttered. ‘The last thing I looked for was a horse.’ A radiant smile spread across her face. It seemed that the Fates had been hard at work and had managed quite well, for once, without her assistance. But her task was not done yet. The Xandim had been imprisoned in their equine forms for time out of mind, so how could this one possibly influence the future of the world? And what about the other two Phaerie she had seen sheltering, in their separate misery, beneath the trees? She could sense that, in some way, they would be important to the grey mare.
Before she could see what happened, however, the images in the fire became dim and hazy. Athina blinked. ‘It can’t be getting misty out there,’ she muttered. Then, with a jolt, she realised that the haze was not within the Seeing, but was coming from the fireplace itself. Before her eyes, it began to pour out into the room, rising and spinning in the air to form a tall, columnar shape that began to glow with a coruscating radiance, sparkling with a multitude of iridescent hues.
The Cailleach gasped. ‘Uriel!’
‘My sister.’ The voice echoed, deep and resonant, in the vaults of her mind. It was not filled with censure, but with a deep regret.
‘You’ve come to tell me that you and the others want me to go back.’ Athina sighed.
‘Beloved one, you must. When we gave birth to these worlds of ours, we gifted them with self-determination and free will. They are our children, but they must learn and evolve of their own accord. It is not fitting for us to return here, tampering with fate. You know in your heart that this is true.’
‘But this child is heading for self-destruction,’ Athina protested. ‘I foresaw it in the Timeless Lake! Why was I vouchsafed such a vision if not to render our creation all the help I could?’
‘I do not dispute that, my dear sister,’ Uriel said, ‘but any assistance you give must come from within your own realm in the Elsewhere. The Guardians dare not venture into this mundane reality; not because of the risk to its inhabitants, but due to the danger to ourselves. Already this place has changed you, infecting you with emotions and attachments that are unnatural to our kind. And ultimately your interference here will avail you nothing, Athina. This world must grow and develop as it will, and its inhabitants must pursue their own fate. However much you try to interfere at this time, their destiny will ultimately be shaped by them alone.’
Though Athina knew he spoke the truth, she still could not bring herself to let go. Though Uriel, of all her siblings, was the closest to her heart, in that moment she almost hated him for making her face the truth. ‘But Uriel,’ she protested, ‘what if they destroy this beautiful world that we created with such labour and love?’
‘Even if they do, it is their world to destroy,’ Uriel reminded her gently. ‘I am more concerned for you, Beloved. If you try to stay here, you will change and diminish, losing your powers one by one until you are trapped in this place for all eternity. Already the changes are beginning - I have arrived here just in time. Your first mistake lay in loving this world so much that you took the physical form of one of its inhabitants, instead of the pure energy that is our natural state. You must not compound your error any further or you will coarsen and dwindle to the same level as your mundane creations. You know as well as I do that there is no climbing back from such a fall. You will cease to be a Guardian, and be lost to us for ever.’
Uriel was right. In her heart she knew it - just as she knew that he had not come to condemn her or punish her, but because he knew she was in deadly peril, and was desperate to save her. ‘Do the others know what I have done?’ she asked him softly.
‘Not yet. I came as soon as I found out, in the hopes of persuading you to return before the others discover your error.’
Athina sighed. ‘Uriel, I am grateful for your discretion in this matter, and for your timely reminder that I do not belong here. I know I must leave now - but what of this poor world?’ She turned her face away from him, too overwhelmed by grief to say any more.