A loud banging knock came upon the small wooden door of Epona's humble cottage. Knowing who it was, Epona rose from her place by the fire and opened the door. A flash of black passed by her and she turned around to look Maeve straight in the cold blue eyes.
The one thing that Maeve and Epona had shared as children was startling blue eyes, like the mid summer sky on a clear day. Over the years Maeve's eyes had hardened to an icy blue, leaving no resemblance between the golden, warm hearted Epona and the dark, cold Maeve.
"You!" growled Maeve, her voice low and gruff. "You damn pixie!" Maeve's voice rose and roared through the small kitchen in which they stood. Epona just stood calm, and remained unperturbed by Maeve's outburst. "You interfering little wench, you can't keep your damn powers to yourself!" Maeve's voice had quieted, the roar replaced my and icy statement that sent shivers down most mortal's spines. It was a tone not to be argued with.
Epona raised an eyebrow at Maeve, slightly amused. "I've been interfering?" she asked, her voice light and almost playful, yet still direct. "What about the demons you sent to accompany Eirwen?"
Maeve looked a little confused at this statement, and paused before replying sharply. "What do you know of Eirwen?"
Epona just shook her head slightly, as though pitying Maeve. "You don't think I would be following the daughter of the King? Well perhaps that statement is incorrect. You don't think I would be following Eirwen?" Epona laughed at Maeve's stricken expression. "It was I who provided the cottage in the first place."
Maeve glared at Epona a moment and tried to look unshaken by what Epona had said. However, to Epona's trained eye, to the eye of someone who had grown up with this woman, Maeve was clearly upset by what she had said.
"I'll take care of you, you interfering wench!" Maeve advanced towards Epona, her eyes blazing a deep scarlet, as the candle light flickered on them. Epona just stood in the doorway calmly. Quietly Epona lifted out an amulet, which shimmered gently. The amulet was in the shape of a horse, a special charm she had seen at the market a few years ago. Within the amulet lay all of Epona's strength and magic, and she grasped the charm firmly.
Maeve stopped short when she saw the amulet Epona had pulled out. Aiming the front of the charm at Maeve, a bright gold light came streaming out. This blast of gold light hit Maeve square in the chest, causing her to fall backwards. Epona stepped forward as Maeve shrieked and then cursed. "You shall never be fully rid of me! Not while Eirwen still lives!" Then Maeve began to whimper until she disappeared altogether.
Once Maeve was gone, Epona tucked the amulet back underneath the front of her dress, sighing. She had hoped it would not have resulted in that. Since Maeve was one of her blood, Epona could never actually kill Maeve. She could however, send her into hell and trap her there. Besides, mused Epona, do I really want to kill my only sister. But even Epona knew that sometimes that was what was needed.
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I watched as Epona blast a bright light at Maeve, who disappeared. This intrigued me, and I called to Epona through the mirror. She walked calmly to the mirror and answered my call.
"Yes child?" she asked. "You called?" I nodded before speaking.
'What just happened?" she smiled at my question. "Did you see that?" her voice was amused slightly. "Maeve has been locked from this realm. However." she paused and an expression of concern covered her face. "You must find Eirwen." her voice was authoritive and commanding.
"But I am still Queen. Shouldn't I have the rule?" I sneered. Epona glared at me. "You are supposed to be the guardian for Eirwen until she is of age to rule herself. "She replied sharply. "So you have illegally taken throne and are doing a horrible job of ruling." The image of Epona's face in the mirror flickered out and was replaced by an image of a starving family, while a tax officer looked down on them, a coin purse in his hand.
This horrible image humbled me right away. "What can I do?" I asked Epona. the horse goddess smiled grimly before answering. "You must find Eirwen."
'But…" I started to protest. Epona held up a hand before replying. "You asked me what you should do and I have told you. Whether or not you follow those instructions is beyond my control." Then abruptly the image turned blank again.
I was a little angry at Epona indifference to my own welfare. Unbidden the image of the starving family flashed into my head. My conscience pressed down on me and I faced the mirror again. This time I summoned up an image of Eirwen. The mirror remained blank for a moment, as though searching. Then an image of Eirwen appeared. She seemed to be in a small cottage. She was in the kitchen tidying up. That was a sight to see, a princess tidying up a house. As I watched a pair of strange yellow like creature came into the room. They began talking, and I invoked the sound piece of the mirror. Their voices came through loud and clear.
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Eirwen had just finished cleaning the dishes from the dinner that just had when Bendura and Creadain entered the room. These two socialized with Eirwen the most, and she could easily recognize them. Creadain was male and was more grotesque that Bendura. He also had a thin scar running down the side of this face, from an incident with Keir long ago.
Both had a very serious expression on their face, and they beckoned Eirwen forward. She placed the dishtowel down and walked over to the long table in the center of the room. They sat down and motioned for her to do the same.
"We have some disturbing news." Creadain began his raspy voice now familiar to Eirwen. Eirwen looked at them alarmed. Bendura continued, "We have received news that the one who is now Queen, Redynvre is planning on killing you. We feel that you must beat her at her own game." Bendura finished and both demons looked expectantly at Eirwen.
"You mean you want me to kill Redynvre? But why I mean…" she trailed off, helpless. The demon smiled at her and Creadain spoke. "It won't be easy, but you can manage with our help."
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I stared at the mirror. Could it be deceiving me? The mirror had never told a lie before, yet I hoped that this recent news could not be true. Then my anger began to build up.
I caused the mirror to go blank and walked across the room to my bed, where I plopped down. Out of the corner of my eye, something sparked. I turned and looked straight at a big red apple. It was the same apple that Epona had given me before I left, the one I had replicated to cause Eirwen to run away.
That was it!
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Maeve crept slowly into the dimly light room. A chair faced the wall and tufts of dark hair peeked out from behind the dark red velvet armchair. Slowly she walked past. The figure in the chair rose and Keir glared at Maeve, who quailed under his gaze.
"So…" he began, his voice hard and cold. Maeve nodded, and made as if to continue walking. Keir began walking forward. "You fool!" he cried, his eyes blazing fiercely. "I needed you on the Upper Realm and now you are trapped here!"
"I had no choice, I mean she's my sister, and well I couldn't react, she had me cornered…" Maeve began babbling, trying to make an excuse.
"That is no excuse." Keir's voice struck through Maeve's ramble like a knife to a blind mouse's tail. "My demons are better suited than you at this." He sighed. "Well I supposed you could be useful down here too."
My Reviewers!
Scoutcraft Empress:No that is not bad, in fact thts how I want you to feeland you are allowed to feel sorry for Maeve (hint, hint) well thanks for your review!
Moonlight Enchantments: glad the summary helped. glad you liked the chapter. hope you like this one too!