Circe's Gifts

Chapter 27

Circe felt the trouble come closer. She rose to her feet and stood like a mighty oak, arms, outstretched, unmovable as the world spun around her. Darkness and light changed and changed, but she could not say it was really day and night passing in their true times. It didn't matter to her: she fought a battle that could not be counted in the passing of suns.

The dark creature that the human had inadvertently called out knew that she waited for him now. The creature knew she did not want it in her world, where it would destroy and feast on all that she loved. No, it would not get into her world without a fight.

Part of her still wondered and worried about her friends, and not just because of their relationship. The more she dealt with the whispering of this creature, the more certain she became that Mother had been right. Tiernan, for whatever reason fate called on him, was important to the coming battle. She could feel his presence almost more strongly than the others now. She could tell that somehow her battle and his future were linked.

Time, she thought suddenly and almost felt weary just for the thought of time passing. Tiernan was part of the world of time, unlike my friends and me.

She didn't know what that thought meant.

Something tested at her borders again, feeling, perhaps, that her mind had wandered a little. She slapped the thing away with a blow that must have hurt. It came back in anger, wasting power against her. Good. She could deal with the human, but the other thing followed behind the mage drew closer. Her magical boundaries would not keep that one back. The dark creature came hunting her in a place where she forbade hunting of any sort ... and it thought that was funny.

She allowed the creature to feel a little of her despair. She allowed it to think the battle frightened her.

She lured it closer.