Chapter 36
L uckily enough, Bethany managed to find Finola amid all the chaos in the hillfort.
“Everyone’s saying that Princess Eithne attacked the king and escaped,” Finola said, her eyes twinkling with excitement. “I don’t suppose you would know anything about that, would you?”
Despite all her worries, Bethany laughed. It was hard to feel sad around Finola.
“If you agree to take me home with you, I’ll tell you all about it,” she offered.
“Deal,” Finola said promptly. “I’ve already got the cart loaded up. Shall we get on the road?”
The back of Finola’s cart was loaded with vegetables and sacks of grain. She’d clearly taken advantage of Dunadd’s market. But there was still room for Matthew, who happily made himself comfortable on a pile of old sacks. They set off, rolling down the road from Dunadd. The landscape was more familiar to Bethany this time, so she let herself relax back onto the seat. It wouldn’t be long before she was back home at the cottage. She could finally just get on with life.
“I want to hear everything that happened,” Finola said. “I see that you found little Matthew. Was he where you expected?”
Bethany drew a deep breath. How much could she tell Finola? She’d told Comgall the truth; it felt wrong to hold it back from someone who’d been such a good friend. But it was still a risk. Time travel was impossible, as far as these people were concerned.
“Don’t worry on my account,” Finola said. “I know enough about where you’re from. Or when, rather. Skip that part and tell me about yesterday. After you left me at the gate.”
Bethany’s shock must have shown on her face, because Finola laughed.
“It’s hard to surprise me, young lady. That footprint truly has seen stranger things. And so have I. You would be amazed at the kind of women my cottage seems to attract. I’ve seen it all. At least you’re human.”
“Well, then,” Bethany said slowly. “I had better start from when I walked into the tent and saw Dubnus standing there.”
She spilled out the whole story. It felt easier this time, the second time she had explained everything. Except, of course, she now had to add on the story of Tomás and Eithne’s betrayal.
Finola was an excellent listener, making all the right sounds at all the right places. Bethany’s reluctance turned to enthusiasm, and the story became more confident as she went on.
She had just reached the most dramatic moment when something shifted in the cart behind her. She and Finola looked at each other, startled. Then Bethany turned around. Matthew had jumped out of the still-moving cart. He rolled in the dirt of the road, then clambered upright and set off back to Dunadd at a run.
“Stop!” Bethany shouted. Finola pulled the cart to a halt and Bethany jumped down. She caught up with her son in just a few strides, but he refused to slow down, even as she tugged his arm.
“Matthew, stop,” she said. “What’s the matter?”
“We have to go back,” he said, marching doggedly on.
“We aren’t going back,” Bethany said gently. “We’re going to stay at Finola’s cottage. You like it there, don’t you?”
“You don’t understand!” Matthew said, shoving her hand off his shoulder. “Daddy’s back!”
His words hit Bethany like ice water.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Matthew was crying now, silent tears streaming down his face as he pushed onward.
“Daddy’s coming back,” he said, eyes stubbornly fixed on the gate at the top of the hill. “We have to stop him!”
“You can’t know that for sure,” Bethany said, but she had started to jog alongside him.
“I know,” he told her.
She could not doubt him. Bethany grasped his hand and they ran together.
“Help us!” she shouted to the guards at the gate. In a fit of panic, they came rushing out, almost pushing each other out of the way in their rush to get to the hill.
“Help my son, please,” Bethany gasped, already winded. “We need to get up to the inauguration site.”
They ran all the way up through the hill fort, Matthew up on the shoulders of a tall young guard. Bethany’s lungs burned like they were coated with liquid fire, but she would not stop. Matthew knew .
“Put me down!” Matthew shouted as they reached the tent. The guard couldn’t understand him, of course, but he seemed to understand the message. Hand in hand, Bethany and Matthew burst back into the tent where everything had changed just the day before. It was empty, but that strange sense of power filled the air. Something was about to happen.
“Well done, Matthew,” she whispered. “It looks like you got us here just in time.”
And then Lucan appeared. His shape shifted and blurred for a moment before solidifying beside the footprint. He was breathing hard, but he still managed a predatory smile.
“Why, hello Matthew,” he said. “How nice of you to make this so easy for me. We’ll go now, shall we?”
He reached for Matthew’s arm at the same time as Bethany grabbed her son. Matthew screamed.
And once again, the world shimmered and changed. Bethany clutched Matthew in a panic. She couldn’t see properly, couldn’t hear anything except the rush of passing time.
Everything settled back into place. She was still in the tent, still with Matthew and Lucan. But another man, tall and young, had appeared beside the footprint. Strange tattoos curled around his wrists and across his cheekbones. For a second, he looked at Bethany with bright blue eyes. Then he grabbed Lucan around the waist, pulling him backwards. Caught off guard, Lucan stumbled and fell. In a blast of blue light, he vanished.
Bethany stood frozen. What had just happened?
“It’s okay now, mummy,” Matthew said softly, squeezing her hand. “Daddy’s gone. He can’t take me anywhere.”
“No,” Bethany said, shaking her head as reality started to catch up with her. “He could come back at any time! We have to get out of here, fast.”
“With your help, I can keep him away,” the stranger said. “I will guard the paths through time, and you have the power to close this portal forever.”
“You can stop him coming back?” Bethany asked, clinging to what little she understood from his words.
“I can,” the man said. “But only because you taught me to be strong. I can never thank you enough.”
Bethany stared at him.
“What do you mean?” she asked. “I’ve never met you before in my life.”
Although, there was something oddly familiar about the man.
He smiled at her.
“My name is Matthew,” he said. “Goodbye.”
He vanished in another blaze of that same blue light.
Matthew?
With a gasp, Bethany realised that he had been speaking English.
But she had no time to worry about that.
“Power to close the portal,” she muttered. “Power to close - but how?”
She edged closer to the footprint. What if it sucked her away instead, flew her through time and left Matthew here alone? Her breath was coming too fast now, and dark spots danced at the edge of her vision. She could do this. She had to do this. But how?
“Blood is the answer,” Matthew said calmly.
Bethany swung to stare at him, her eyes wide.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“You need blood to seal it,” he said, looking at her as if it was obvious .
Suppressing a shiver, Bethany reached for the tiny knife attached to her belt. This was madness. Bleeding all over a rock, on the advice of a seven-year old boy?
But Matthew had not spoken with the voice of a child. So Bethany took a deep breath and cut a shallow slash across her palm. It stung like hell, but she reached forwards and pressed her palm against the footprint.
Nothing happened.
And then she realised what she was not feeling. That sense of power, that electricity in the air, had gone. The footstep felt like it had in the future. Quiet. Dead.
“It’s closed,” she said, hearing the wonder in her voice.
Lucan was a resourceful man. But even he would struggle to return to this precise time and place. She was as safe here as anywhere. Especially if that mysterious man kept his promise to watch the paths - whatever they were.
Matthew.
She looked down at her little boy. He met her eyes with his own, bright blue and full of secrets.