The iron gate, p.9
The Iron Gate, page 9
part #2 of The Iron Soul Series
Aiden made a considering face as he pondered the statement and sighed, “That would serve me right for ignoring most of Grandfather’s stories from ‘the old country.’ Aisling always paid more attention to them than me.”
“Is your grandfather dead?” Bran asked, looking over at Aiden.
“No,” Aiden answered quickly with a shake of his head. “He lives at Lakeside, it’s an independent living center. We visit a couple of times each month.”
“Maybe part of our project should be talking with him about growing up with these stories,” Bran suggested with a growing smile. “That would be distinct.”
“Oh!” Nicki squealed, sitting up straighter on the sofa and nearly sending her tablet crashing to the floor. “That’s a great idea! Oral histories are a really important part of understanding the tradition of stories. We could record an interview with him!”
“I’ll talk to him,” Aiden promised before Nicki could get too excited. “Just calm down before you hurt yourself.”
A crash from upstairs followed up a masculine muffled shout made Aiden look up and sigh while Nicki chuckled. The noise continued for a few more moments until Professor Bosco came down the stairs and into view in the entryway. Aiden started to rise from his chair, but his father headed for the door with the two small suitcases.
“Bye, kids!” Professor Bosco shouted. “Aiden, don’t let Aisling drink a whole bottle of pop again!”
“Yes, Dad,” Aiden called back, sinking back into the armchair. “See you on Thursday!”
The door closed a moment later with a thunk and Aiden shook his head, turning his attention back to his book. Alex tried to hide a smile as she looked down at her book and flipped it open to the Ulster Cycle and glanced over the long list of names. It was all she could do not to sigh as she adjusted her tablet on her lap so that she could start typing a few notes.
A rush of steps on the stairs made Alex look up quickly just in time to see a preteen girl come half running half skipping into the room. She had dark brown hair tied in a pair of pigtails and a wide smile that resembled Professor Bosco’s. Alex had never met Aiden’s younger sister but had heard a bit about the girl from Aiden. Yet it had been from Morgana that Alex had learned that Aisling Bosco had battled and beaten cancer when she was younger. As she watched the preteen rush over to hug Nicki, glance at the books laying open on the table and quickly take in Bran and herself, she wouldn’t have guessed that the girl had ever had cancer.
“Hi, I’m Aisling,” she greeted Alex and Bran with a smile. “You’re Alex and Bran right?”
“That’s right,” Bran replied with a nod and a small smile of his own. “It’s nice to meet you Aisling.”
The girl looked at Bran, her eyes dropping to the cane and the metal leg braces that he wore. For a moment the girl’s eyes darkened, and her smile faltered before she turned back to her brother. “Mom and Dad just left,” she informed him with a grin.
“I know, I heard them,” Aiden replied calmly. “And that means I’m in charge and no I won’t be agreeing to any crazy requests.”
Aisling rolled her eyes dramatically at her brother and picked up one of Nicki’s books. “Celtic mythology huh? What class is this for?”
“We have to do a presentation on Celtic mythology for our world mythology class,” Nicki explained patiently. “We’re just getting started with an outline of some of the core elements.”
“Make sure you talk about the Otherworlds,” Aisling told Nicki. “Grandpa likes to talk about some of those stories, and I don’t think there’s anything like it in other mythologies. The Greeks were big on sex, not alternate realities and parallel dimensions.”
“Aisling!” Aiden snapped with a horrified look on his face only to receive another eye roll.
“Bro, I’m twelve, not five despite what you and Dad think. It’s stupid that Mom and Dad even made you be here tonight.”
“They don’t want you alone overnight,” Aiden countered seriously. “That’s just not safe, Aisling.”
“Then you could have come over later,” Aisling told him, crossing her arms over her chest and glowering at her brother. “You didn’t need to bring your study group over.”
“This is more comfortable than the library,” Nicki interrupted with a grin as she slumped back dramatically on the sofa.
“Nice try,” Aisling muttered, glancing at Nicki before looking back at her brother.
“Look,” Aiden said slowly after taking a deep breath. “Mom and Dad… Aisling, they worry about you being alone. It’s not that we don’t trust you, we worry. We’re always going to.”
Something in her brother’s tone made Aisling’s shoulder’s slump, and she sighed loudly. Aisling tilted her head to look at the screen of Nicki’s tablet, still slumped over the back of the sofa. “The Irish fairies huh,” Aisling observed, leaning on her elbow with a bored expression. “Grandpa told me about them. The Túatha Dé Dannan were the original gods of Ireland according to myth. They came to the island in dark clouds. When the new Celtic people defeated them, they were forced to live underground after the victors claimed the surface.” Alex looked up at Aisling, twisting her body so that she could see the girl’s face. Aisling seemed pleased with the attention and continued with a smirk, “Of course the stories changed after the Christians came. Then the fairies were believed to be fallen angels who either sided with the devil or wouldn’t take a side. That’s why some are truly evil and torment humanity while others are more neutral and occasionally kind.”
Aiden looked over at his sister with a small smile. “I’ll be sure to tell Grandpa that you remembered his stories.”
“Some kids get fairy tales, and others get the really really old kind of fairy tales,” Aisling replied. Then Aisling looked over at Bran with a thoughtful expression. She nodded towards his leg, “How’d that happen?”
Alex flinched at the blunt question, but Bran didn’t seem bothered by it. Instead, he calmly answered, “Car crash.” Bran paused and studied Aisling for a moment. “My mom still feels guilty about it since she was driving. She worries a lot.”
Aisling nodded in understanding, her eyes darting to her brother before returning to Bran. “That’s rough,” Aisling told him. “I had bone cancer so I couldn’t walk right for a long time. First the wheelchair and then the braces.” The preteen fixed her eyes on Bran and leaned forward slightly. “I’m sure you’ll walk without that brace someday.”
Silence hung in the air of the living room as Alex held her breath and slowly looked towards Bran. He was looking at Aisling with a stunned expression that grew serious after a moment. Nodding to Aisling, Bran smiled slightly, and Aisling nodded in return. Then in sudden mood change, Aisling swung around to her brother.
“Mom left money for ordering pizza; I’ll go do that!” Aisling scrambled around the coffee table and headed back towards the entry hall.
“She’s optimistic,” Bran observed slowly, still looking a bit stunned.
“She beat cancer,” Aiden replied with a smile. “She’s allowed to be.”
“Well it made for a nice change someone not beating around the bush,” Bran said before dropping his eyes back down to his book.
“Grandpa says that coming so close to death left Aisling with insight into the world,” Aiden explained softly as he studied Bran’s reaction. “That she saw things more clearly. He called it being touched.”
“Maybe,” Bran replied thoughtfully, “We know of stranger things.” Bran adjusted himself in the chair. In the stillness of the room, the sound of the metal brace moving seemed to echo.
Looking down, Alex tried not to blush as she remembered her reaction to seeing Bran for the first time. She’d tried not to stare, but his leg brace and cane had been one of the first things she’d noticed about him. Before their eyes had met and she’d had a vision of dried flowers, jazz music and the smell of baking. Alex paused; she didn’t know much about Bran. She knew he’d been injured in a car crash, one he’d survived only due to a magical vision that had compelled him to grab the wheel from his mother. Of her new friends, he was the only one whose family she’d never met, and he’d never mentioned his father.
They all read through their books and internet articles in silence, occasional snorts and laughs interrupting the stillness. Nicki huffed and shifted on the sofa next to Alex, bringing her feet up onto the cushions. In the kitchen, there was some sound of movement and Alex heard Aisling’s muffled voice across the house. An outline of the various stories that made up the Ulster Cycles swirled in front of Alex’s eyes.
“Pizza’s ordered,” Aisling announced as she wandered back into the doorway of the living room. She was looking down at her cell phone and waved from the doorway. “Let me know when pizza gets here,” Aisling told Aiden before heading for the stairs.
Her footfalls hit the stairs with loud rhythmic thumps, making it sound more like she was jumping up the stairs. Aiden grimaced at the noise, looking towards the stairs while Alex tried not to laugh at the expression on his face.
“Younger siblings,” Alex observed with a chuckle and a small smile.
“You can say that again,” Aiden muttered. “How much younger is yours?”
“Ed is four years younger than me,” Alex answered. “And to be fair, I’m three years younger than Matt.”
The sounds of Aisling faded slightly after a door closed above their heads. Aiden glanced up towards the ceiling and then back at the book in his hands. Shaking his head, he wrote something down in the notebook on his lap.
“So have Morgana and Merlin told you anything about plans?” Aiden asked suddenly, looking back at Alex.
“What?” Alex asked, blinking in confusion at Aiden and frowning as Nicki and Bran turned their attention to her as well. “Why would they?”
Nicki chuckled softly and shook her head at Alex. “You’re Morgana’s favorite,” she answered with a soft smile.
“I am not,” Alex protested, surprised by the idea. While the Professor had certainly warmed up to her and no longer intimidated Alex as she had the first day of history class, Alex certainly didn’t consider them close.
“You are,” Bran told her with a nod, meeting her eyes and revealing the seriousness of his statement.
“Yeah,” Aiden chimed in. “She watches you most closely during magic lessons and always smiles when you manage something new. With us, she’s a bit more… distant.”
“I don’t think so,” Alex replied with a shake of her head and a slight blush. “But anyway to answer your question, no they haven’t told me about any new plans. Why, do you think something is changing?” she asked after a moment of consideration.
“They don’t pay as much attention in magic class,” Bran answered calmly. “And we’ve pretty much got control over our current magical manifestations. I’m pretty good at moving objects, Nicki’s got water control and freezing it down, and Aiden can juggle his fireballs.”
Aiden and Nicki both smiled at the descriptions of their powers. “And you’ve got control over forming your energy balls. I figure they’ll have you trying to take over our powers soon.”
“I hope not,” Alex exclaimed with a shiver of nervousness. “I don’t want to risk hurting you guys. In the tunnels when I took over the Sídhe’s magic and turned it against them… I didn’t have much control. I barely remember it, but it was explosive. Honestly, I think I’m lucky I didn’t hurt any of the kids I was trying to save.”
“Yeah, but you’ll need to learn how to control it at some point,” Nicki reminded Alex in a gentler tone. “And it won’t be in battle, I’m sure, they’ll just have you start with a few experiments.”
“And that might not be what the professors are planning,” Aiden added quickly with a wide grin. “No sense worrying about it right now. We were just curious if you knew any other mage news.”
“No,” Alex snapped, feeling a familiar icy knot settle in her stomach that had become more and more frequent around Jenny. She hated the thought that it would become normal around her fellow mages now. “I don’t have any other news.”
“Okay then,” Nicki said with forced cheerfulness. “Then let’s get started on this project. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want anything less than an A in my chosen field of study.”
“And now you’re about to see Nicki’s dark side,” Aiden joked, giving Alex and Bran a mock serious expression before looking towards Nicki fearfully.
“I have so much blackmail material Bosco, don’t make me call your lovely girlfriend,” Nicki retorted without looking at Aiden, keeping her eyes fixed on her tablet screen.
“When you call my girlfriend it’s to flirt with her,” Aiden countered with a laugh, but he raised his book once again with a smile.
When Nicki glanced back at Alex, she gave her friend a small smile to ease whatever worries the redhead may have had. Looking back at her book, Alex took a slow breath to calm down and tried to focus on reading more about Celtic mythology. Suddenly above her head, loud pop music began to play. They all looked up, and as Aiden groaned, slumping back on the couch, Alex giggled.
9
The Test
809 B.C.E. Shores of Loch Torridon
Arto’s eyes traced the rocky shore as the boat moved smoothly along the coast. Mountains loomed just past the edges of the water, sloping up towards the sky with snow covered peaks. Despite the summer sunshine, there was a chill in the wind that Arto wasn’t able to shrug off. No matter how many times he came to the north, he was always surprised by how cold the summers could be. Above them, the fast winds pushed clouds beyond them allowing the sun to shine down again. Turning his face up towards the sun, Arto barely contained a bored sigh. When they’d left their camp this morning, their escorts had been certain that they would reach their destination today and Arto desperately hoped that they were right.
At first, taking one of the big trading boats north along the west coast had been a treat and much more relaxing than the usual walking they did. He’d gotten a rare chance to spend several days with the same people and hear about their daily lives rather than just hearing about the Sídhe. In total, the crew had fourteen strong men who were happy to tell him about their families, but at the moment they were all focusing on the strong tidal currents rocking the boat. Glancing upward, Arto tried to amuse himself by finding shapes in the clouds, but he’d grown tired of that activity after the third day at sea. He huffed slightly and looked back at the shore, but even the scenery was becoming dull.
Normally they walked which while exhausting meant that he could always talk to Morgana or Merlin. His mentor had a tendency to test his knowledge of magic or make up puzzles for Arto to solve, but usually, it was Morgana that solved them. He’d been more than a little surprised when news had reached them that a trading ship was waiting to take them north due to the urgency of the situation. It may be boring, but Arto had to admit it was a big improvement on his usual trips. The boat was nearly six feet wide and almost forty feet long made of elegantly fitted pieces of wood. Despite knowing little about wood crafting, Arto had been able to appreciate the workmanship. Covering the hull were stretched animal hides, adding another layer of protection from the water. Down both sides of the boat were fourteen men all paddling while Arto watched. He’d tried rowing a few days ago but had tired rather quickly, not used to the motions.
Behind him Arto could hear Merlin and Morgana speaking, their voices carrying softly on the wind. They were debating the merits of something new that Merlin wanted to try with Morgana pointing out every little thing that could wrong. A smile tugged at the corner of Arto’s mouth as he caught fragments of the conversation. Listening to or watching his mentor and his sister was almost always amusing. They were very different with Merlin’s greater age and status often irritating his sister who insisted that she had greater knowledge of the Sídhe. Merlin liked action and often encouraged him to test himself, while Morgana was cautious and preferred for Arto to stay away from danger. As his sister’s voice grew angrier, Arto shook his head and quietly wondered if they would ever get along. Absentmindedly, his fingers traced over the leather sheath of Cathanáil resting on his lap before moving up to the hilt. Arto glanced down at his sword and studied it for a moment, taking in the way the gold glinted in the sunlight before sighing once again.
One of the rowers suddenly leaned over towards Arto and called over the wind, “We’re nearly there, the shore where we’re taking you is just around this mountain!”
“Thank you, Manias.” Arto gave the man a grateful smile.
He glanced over his shoulder in time to see his sister and Merlin stop speaking and begin to gather up their things. Merlin nodded to him and adjusted his staff across his lap as Morgana tightened her cloak around her shoulders and put her bag over her shoulder. Nodding to them, Arto slung Cathanáil over his back and slipped his bag back over his shoulder. He tugged carefully on his sword to confirm that Cathanáil was secure. Satisfied, Arto turned towards the front of the boat again and watched the cliff side with more interest as they paddled around it.
