Others think it may be a Creneach, solidified by some magic, or else a mythical creature snared by a spell, or. ." He stopped, tapping his staff on the rocks as if testing their stability. "Its origin doesn't matter. It only matters that it's here. This is the center. This is where the mage-lights are strongest."
"What do I do?" Jenna asked. She clutched her right arm to herself. It felt colder and more lifeless than ever, though there was no pain. She could only move the fingers with great effort. The scars on her flesh were pure white, as if etched with new snow.
"You rest," Seancoim told her. "And sleep if you can. When you're ready, I'll tell you all I know."
Chapter 53: Bethiochnead
SHE hadn't thought she could sleep, but she did.
In her dream, she was with Ennis in Ballintubber, entering Tara's Tavern. Coelin was there inside, and Ellia with several small children around her, all of whom looked like miniature Coelins. Everyone was singing and dancing, and Ennis and Jenna joined in with them. In the midst of the dancing, without warning, the door opened with a sudden crash like thunder. A form stood there in darkness, cloaked in black with its face hidden and sending a surge of unreasoning fear through Jenna. She grabbed Ennis by the hand and they ran-that agonizing, skin-crawling slow run of dreams where the legs refuse to cooperate no matter how hard you try. Somehow, she and Ennis retreated into the fireplace and through another door at the back of the chimney, which led them outside again. It was raining, and Kesh was barking and running circles around her. Mac Ard was shouting something from inside the cottage (for when Jenna looked about, they were back at the old house), only when she glanced up it was her father Niall whose face she saw at the window. Her mam was outside with Jenna, and Jenna felt a stab of jealousy because Ennis was so close to Maeve, his arm around her waist. .
Jenna woke up, feeling a sense of incredible loss sitting heavy on her chest as the remnants of the dream faded quickly in the light of reality-It was late afternoon, and the clouds had cleared. The statue cast a long shadow that reached the cliff edge and disappeared. She seemed to alone, though Seancoim's pack was next to hers. She sat up, the blanket around her shoulders, and saw Denmark come flapping out of the woods. The crow circled the statue once but didn't land on it, coming instead to rest on a nearby boulder. The bird cocked its head at her; a moment later, she saw Seancoim and Toryn walking up the slope from under the emerald cave of the oaks. She stood, shivering a bit despite the warm sun, as they approached. Toryn was staring at her; she ignored him. Seancoim handed her an apple. "Here, you should eat something. Did you sleep?"
Jenna took a bite of the apple, letting its tart sweetness awaken her, and shrugged. "A bit." She glanced at the statue. "What do we do now?" she asked.
"That depends on you. You're still resolved to try? You realize that only a few times has anyone gone through the Scrudu and survived?"
"And none of those were Daoine," Toryn added. When she glanced at him, he smiled.
"I don't care about me," she told them. "If I die, I can be with Ennis. If I don't, then maybe his death will mean. . will. ." She stopped. The heaviness returned to her chest, not allowing the words out. Seancoim nodded as Denmark hopped up into the air and, with a flap of black wings, landed on the old man's shoulder.
"All right," he said. He came over to her and hugged her. She let herself fall into his herb-scented embrace, her arms going around him. "You can do this," he whispered to her. "You can."
He released her, his blind gaze looking past her out to the sea. "Stand in front of Bethiochnead, Jenna," he said. "Take Lamh Shabhala in your hand, and open the cloch. That's all you need to do. The rest. ." He patted her cheek, smiling gap-toothed at her. "You'll have to tell us, after-ward."
He walked with Jenna around to the front of the statue. She could hear the waves roaring against the rocks; she could feel the wind tousling her hair and
the sun warming her face; she could smell the salt breeze mixed with mint and loam. The colors of the landscape seemed impossibly satu-rated, the green of the grass like glowing emerald, the limestone ribs of the land speckled with white and red and soft pink. She wondered if she would ever see them again. She wondered how much it would hurt.
Her hand closed around Lamh Shabhala. She willed the cloch na thintri to open, and felt the power go surging forth. one was still standing near the cliffside, but the land now ended several ’feet farther out. And the statue. .
It was no longer ruined and half missing. The legs and chest rippled with carved tendons; the feet were cat-clawed, seeming to tear into the rock on which the creature sat. The body was scaled, feathered and brightly painted: the red of new-shed blood and the blue of a child’s eyes the simmering yellow of the yolk of a hen’s egg. The expanse of wines spread majestically from its back, ribbed and fingered like some gigantic bat’s, with black, leathery skin pouched like sails between the ribs. The tail was complete, with a barbed, bulging tip at its end.
The head had a long muzzle, the mouth partially open to reveal twin rows of daggered white teeth. The ears were like a cat’s also, though be-tween them were scales like staggered rows of painted shields; its eye-brows were two fans of spines, meeting above the muzzle and running back over the middle of the skull. The eyes were frighteningly human; the large, expressive eyes of a child, and as Jenna gazed at the statue, the eyes blinked and opened. Though the mouth didn’t move, a low, stentorian voice purred.
"So. Another one comes after all these years."
Jenna could feel the power flooding from the statue; above, the mage-lights curled, visible even in the bright sunlight. The trees of the forest beyond writhed and swayed as if they, too, were alive and capable of pulling roots from ground and capering about. "Who are you?" Jenna asked. Her voice sounded thin and weak in this charged atmosphere.
The eyes blinked once more. A shimmering change rippled through the body from spiny crest to curled-claw feet and when it passed, the thing was no longer painted stone but living flesh. It stretched
like a cat waking from a nap, the wings snapping and sending a rush of wind past Jenna. "I am An Phionos," it said. "I am the First, and you are now in my world."
Its voice was Ennis'.
"Stop that!" Jenna shouted at the creature, and it reared its great head, the mouth curling in a near-laugh, the eyes flashing.
"Ah, my dear Jenna. Do you think you're so strong that you can com-mand my obedience?" it asked with seeming mirth, still with Ennis in-flection and tone. Then the mocking amusement left, along with the memory of Ennis' voice. An Phionos hissed, steam venting from its nos-trils. Mage-lights flickered around it in a bright storm. "Are you stronger than me, Jenna? Do you remember Peria's fate? Do you remember how she screamed as I crushed the life from her? I give you this boon: release Lamh Shabhala now, before it's too late."
Jenna's fisted hand trembled around the cloch.
She could feel An Phionos bending its will to her, insinuating itself into her muscles and prying at her fingers, loosening them. Yet with the intrusion she also caught a glimmer of the entity's mind, and she realized that, despite its fury and insolence, An Phionos didn't actively seek her death. It had no choice as to how it must act. "Why do you do this?" she asked, gasping as she fought to keep hold of the cloch.
An Phionos laughed, a bitter and wild sound. "One should never offend a god," it answered. "Their revenge is swift and eternal, and that's why I sit here forever waiting. You, at least, have a choice-let go of the cloch and live, Jenna, or continue to hold it and die."
"And if I hold it and don't die?"
"That won't happen. But if you do… there are depths within Lamh Shabhala that you have only glimpsed, and the shaping of this entire age could be yours." Again the laugh. "I hope you don't think that's a gift. It would be the greatest burden of all." An Phionos bent down close to her. The scent of rotting meat drifted from its mouth. "Release the cloch, Jenna. I have nothing for you but pain." An Phionos' hold on her hand vanished; it sat back on its haunches again. "Make your choice now."