Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
Carys, Cadell, and Duncan sat at a small table in the garden outside a café in Oxford, killing time and waiting for Godrik, Laura, and Naida to reach them by car.
“Do you think she’ll be sick again?” Duncan asked. “Randall is a good driver, but all cars have steel.”
“Hopefully it won’t be too bad,” Cadell said. “Perhaps the heightened magic the Morrígan is cultivating in the Brightlands will help Naida while she’s here.”
“It would be one nice side effect from all this,” Carys said.
They were meeting a colleague of Carys’s in Oxford—a professor she’d consulted with on her doctoral thesis—and while it only took an hour by train, with London traffic, it was likely going to be closer to two hours for Randall to reach them in the car.
But the train was far too much metal for Naida’s comfort. She could just barely handle the Audi in Duncan’s mother’s garage, so Laura had bundled her in as much wool clothing as possible and packed her in the back seat like a large woolen burrito, ignoring Randall’s curious stares.
“What time do we meet your friend?” Duncan glanced at his watch.
“It’s another half hour or so,” Carys said. “I’m just glad Dr. Beck was able to meet with me on such short notice.”
Luna Beck was a mythology professor at Oxford who specialized in early Celtic mythology, which had come in handy when Carys was doing her thesis research.
“And I’m so excited to meet her in person.” Carys smiled. “We’ve had video chats but never actually met.”
“At least you know what she looks like,” Duncan said.
Cadell was perched stiffly on the wooden bench that overlooked the lawn stretching out from the café located on the back side of a church off High Street.
It was summer in Oxford, and there appeared to be more tourists than students. Carys heard plenty of American accents around her along with languages from around the world.
Duncan poured her a refill of Earl Grey tea from the Brown Betty teapot on their table, glancing at Cadell as he poured. “Try not to look like you’re hunting for rabbits, old man.”
Carys pressed her lips together so she didn’t laugh.
Even when her dragon was in human form, Cadell still looked somewhat raptor-like. His angular cheekbones and prominent brow gave him the look of a fierce bird of prey. The piercing golden eyes didn’t help.
“I’m not hunting rabbits,” Cadell said. “I’m waiting for Laura and Naida.”
“You look ready to eat that stray cat, man.” Duncan refilled Cadell’s cup as well. “Have some tea.”
“I prefer coffee.”
Duncan muttered something under his breath in Gaelic, and Cadell said something back in guttural Welsh.
Before they could start arguing in different languages, Carys decided to distract them. “Did you know that Dr. Beck is the current expert on the fourth branch of the Mabinogion? She’s probably published more papers on Blodeuwedd than any other writer.”
Cadell and Duncan turned to her with confused expressions.
Perfect.
“What’s the Mabinogion?” Duncan asked.
“Who is Blodeuwedd?”
“It’s a thirteenth-century collection of oral traditions and folklore that chronicles much of early Welsh mythology,” Carys said. “And Blodeuwedd is the adulterous wife of a Welsh hero who plotted to kill him but instead was turned into an owl.”
Cadell nodded silently. “Appropriate.”
“Obviously I grew up knowing most of the stories in the Mabinogion, but then as I studied more, I became more interested in the links between different traditions and their common threads.”
“Because the same stories reoccur all over the world,” Cadell said.
Duncan smiled. “You’re saying folklore doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes?”
“Exactly!” Carys smiled. “My doctoral thesis was on the parallels between Blodeuwedd and Persephone. Both women in arranged marriages who exhibited two natures, one light and one dark.”
“Huh.” Duncan tapped his teacup to hers. “I do enjoy listening to you fly your nerd flag, Dr. Morgan.”
Carys beamed. “Thank you. Hopefully you’ll enjoy meeting Dr. Beck too.”
Cadell was back to staring at the cat on the edge of the lawn. “That’s not a cat.”
Duncan turned to look at it. “It very clearly is a cat.”
“No, it’s not.” He stood up and started walking toward the animal, which darted into the bushes and out of sight.
“We have got to get him back to the Shadowlands,” Duncan muttered under his breath.
“Maybe there’s a gate nearby,” Carys said quietly. “I’m still not sure it’s good for Naida to be here.”
“I’d agree except that of all of us, she can sense the gates more clearly on this side,” Duncan said. “Even ones that are dormant. For right now we need her.”
Carys spotted Godrik’s silver and black hair over the top of a tour group. “I see them.”
Laura and Naida were on either side, sticking close to the large man as the crowds grew busier.
“Good.” Duncan finished his tea and stood. “We’re headed to the Bodleian Library then?”
“No, the Weston,” Carys said. “Dr. Beck has a reader card for the Bodleian, but she reserved space at the Weston for the manuscript she wanted me to look at.”
“Dra— Cadell!” Duncan shouted. “We’re off, old man.”
They started toward Godrik, Laura, and Naida, but as Carys turned, she collided with a swiftly moving woman wearing large glasses and sent the smaller woman’s massive handbag tumbling to the ground.
“Oh, I am so sorry.” Carys immediately bent and started gathering up the papers that had fallen on the sidewalk. “I didn’t even see you there.”
“It’s my fault entirely,” the woman said. “I was rushing to meet a colleague and—”
“Dr. Beck?” Carys sat back on her heels, took in the woman’s heart-shaped face and the mass of dark hair piled on her head, and suddenly realized who she was. “It’s me! Dr. Morgan.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Dr. Beck’s Irish lilt grew stronger. “Of course you are. Your hair is longer of course. I don’t know why I didn’t realize—”
“I always braid it. And you usually wear yours down for meetings.” Carys laughed and finished gathering the papers, shoving them into the bag. “My friends just arrived, so perfect timing.”
She stood with Dr. Beck and held her hand out to the woman. “It’s so good to finally meet you in person.”
“And you as well. Please, call me Luna.” She shook Carys’s hand while wrangling her overly full handbag on her shoulder. “Welcome to Oxford.” She clapped her hands together. “Finally!”
“You must call me Carys.” She turned to Duncan. “And this is Duncan. He’s…” Her mouth fell open, but nothing came out.
“I’m her boyfriend.” Duncan held out his hand and shook Dr. Beck’s. “It’s new.”
Luna’s eyebrows flew up. “Oh, you’re lovely and Scottish. Very pleased to meet you.”
Carys found her voice again. “And this is my friend Cadell.”
A shadow fell over the small woman when Cadell reached them, and Luna looked up and up, her eyes widening as her gaze met Cadell’s.
Her mouth formed a small O, and she took a step back.
Cadell crossed his arms over his chest. “She’s fae.”
Carys blinked and looked at the dragon, then at the delicate woman to her right. “Dr. Beck?”
“You brought a dragon to Oxford?” Luna whispered. “My dear Dr. Morgan, why did you do that?”
“Fortunately it’s summer.” Luna Beck set down the massive bag holding her papers and books on the table in the seminar room. “If it was in the middle of term, finding space in the library on short notice would be impossible.”
Dr. Beck had reserved a seminar room at the Weston. The glass windows looked out over the reading room, but once the door of the seminar room closed, even the quiet shuffle of activity in the reading room was cut off.
“We can speak freely in here.” She sat at the head of the large table. “So a dragon, a wolf, and a fae are visiting the Brightlands.” She looked around the table as everyone sat down. “And you…” She nodded at Laura. “You’re not without your own magic either, are you?”
Laura said, “I’m pauwau inwe of the Yurok tribe in Northern California.”
Luna nodded. “Wykanush Lalem then,” she said. “You’re from the Salmon People in the Pacific Northwest?”
“Yes.”
“A shadow-walker?” Luna asked. “A go-between?”
“Exactly.”
Luna glanced at Cadell. “We’ve needed her like for years in Briton.”
“We do not disagree on this,” Cadell said.
“Why are you in the Brightlands?” Carys asked. “It’s probably none of my business but—”
“Oh, it’s such a boring story.” Dr. Beck laughed. “My fellow fae could probably guess.” She looked at Naida, who was starting to regain her color as she sat near Luna.
Naida smiled sadly. “You fell in love?”
Luna shrugged her narrow shoulders. “Aren’t we predictable? All that magic in our own home, and we fae end up chasing pretty faces in this one. A tale as old as the trees.”
“Was he… she a human?” Carys asked.
“Of course, dear. Nigel and I were married for nearly sixty years before he passed.”
Carys blinked. “You don’t look older than forty.”
“Of course I don’t.” Dr. Beck smiled. “I’m still fae.” She leaned on the table. “That said, a few weeks ago, I did look a bit older than I do now. In the past few days, I’ve had a bit of what my students would call a glow up.” She raised her eyebrows.
Carys immediately felt the sting of professorial judgment. “Yes. About that…”
Dr. Beck continued, “Now a wolf and a dragon are sitting in the Weston Library, a friend from California is asking about early sources on the Morrígan, and a giant barrow has risen next to Stonehenge.”
Cadell’s voice was blunt. “Barrows happen. Sometimes.”
“Not overnight.” Dr. Beck continued to stare at Carys. “Anything you want to share, Dr. Morgan?”
“So a couple of years ago,” Carys started, “I met a nice man from Scotland who was traveling in California.”
Dr. Beck smiled at Duncan. “How lovely.”
“Not me,” Duncan muttered. “My Shadowkin.”
“Oh.” The professor’s eyes went wide. “Ohhh.”