Warriors of Ethandun by N. M. Browne Read Free Book Online

took hold of her mind. Its presence made it very hard forher to think, let alone speak. She felt dizzy with the need to touch the object that was so full of it, but she used all her willpower and held back. Magic waited for her beyond the Veil.
    â€˜What are you going to do with that thing?’ Her voice trembled a little although she tried to sound normal. Dan probably thought she was still shaken because of Lucy and the tree, which she was, but the thought of the magic shook her more.
    â€˜What do you think? Should I just rub it?’ Dan said. There was the distant sound of an ambulance arriving. ‘I hope Lucy is OK.’
    â€˜Of course she is. I didn’t snap anything and she was still breathing.’ Ursula’s reply, she knew, could have been more sympathetic. She couldn’t think of anything but the smell and taste of magic thrumming in the air. She tried to sound casual, as if Dan’s answer was not the most important thing in the world. ‘So, what are you going to do about the Veil?’
    â€˜You really want me to raise it? Even after all we’ve been through?’
    â€˜For God’s sake, Dan, just
do
it. Yes. I want you to raise the Veil – how clear do I have to be? I nearly killed someone, probably would have done if you hadn’t stopped me. What do you want? Us to be joined at the hip for the rest of our lives so you can keep me out of trouble?’
    The truth was she didn’t think she could live without magic. Since Taliesin had shown her that it still lurked in her own world she kept detecting its elusive scent, carried in the wind, rustling through the grass – fragments only,stray filaments of power. It set her whole body on edge, made her desperate for more.
    Dan looked hurt. ‘You want to go back to Macsen’s land? To King Macsen?’
    Yes, yes, she wanted to scream but she managed to hold herself back. Dan was being unusually slow – she had said so, hadn’t she? Did he want her to spell it out?
    He paused. ‘Do you want to do the honours?’
    She shook her head. Of course she did! But Taliesin might have given the crystal ball to Dan for a reason. Perhaps it would only work for him.
    â€˜OK then.’ Dan did not look happy. He was risking a lot, she knew; in Arturus’s land his magical gift for empathy, for mind-reading, had almost driven him mad. In Macsen’s land he’d been mad too, when he’d been a berserker. He must have been worried about what another trip through the Veil would do to him. But he was all right; they’d got through. They’d manage. She knew that he would not deny her what she wanted. She saw it in his face, briefly unguarded. He’d take any risk to give her what she wanted, and what she wanted was magic.
    He held the orb in his left hand and rubbed it with his right. Nothing happened. Distantly Ursula heard more sirens and she could see that a panda car had arrived in the car park.
    â€˜Hurry up, Dan! They’ll be looking for me. I don’t want to be done for assault or, worse still, attempted murder …’
    â€˜I can’t concentrate if you talk. What do you have to think about to raise the Veil?’
    â€˜Wanting it. Wanting it desperately,’ Ursula said, but it was more than that. She thought back. Raising the Veil was a kind of prayer. It was difficult to explain, maddened as she was by the presence of the orb, by her own craving. She tried to calm herself down and to remember how to do it. She spoke more slowly. ‘You have to be still – inside. You have to want it but you also have to ask permission – from, you know, from God, I suppose …’ Her voice tailed away, embarrassed. Opening the Veil wasn’t like opening a door. It was hard to explain, impossible to share. It was almost too private. Thinking about it made her ashamed; she doubted her motives for opening it this time. This time her motives were wholly