Aoife and Scathach, Shadow Twins by Michael Scott

Author:Michael Scott [Scott, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

10

The Lia Fáil.

Nels recognized it immediately: the Stone of Destiny. At the heart of every legend was a grain of truth, and Nels had just discovered the truth about Tir Tairngaire.

Every child in Tir Tairngaire learned how Cernunnos had stood with his hand upon this crystal and created the world. It was one of those stories told and retold around the camps, but Nels had always dismissed it, relegating it to tales of lost cities, vanished islands, and mysterious otherworlds where the skies were filled with silver discs. Yet if the Lia Fáil was real, that meant that every other legend—the gods and monsters, the lost worlds, and magical gateways—must also have some truth to it.

The Lia Fáil pulsed crimson and black, and a thick bloodred smoke curled across the ground toward him.

Nels stepped into the mist, sending it coiling around him. The drover could feel the ancient power flow across his skin, easing the ache of knotted muscles and wrenched shoulders. His skull itched abominably. Running his hand over it, he felt the rasping fuzz of hair he had lost in his youth. Stepping closer to the stone, he could feel the flesh on his face tightening, muscles rippling beneath the skin, and when he touched his forehead and cheeks, the deep wrinkles and grooves around his eyes and mouth were missing. He spat out a rotten tooth and discovered that the space was already filled with a new one. His hands cramped as missing fingernails appeared, and the deep scars across his palms, caused by decades of gripping leather reins, were turning pink with new flesh.

Nels knew what was happening: the stone was healing him, rejuvenating him, making him younger, stronger.

The Lia Fáil.

Like everyone on Tir Tairngaire, he had grown up hearing the legends of the stone and the stories of the generations of adventurers and mystics who had sought the crystal. Some of the temples to Cernunnos had tiny crystal relics, chips supposedly taken from the stone, each of them capable of working miracles. Priests of the Horned God paid handsomely for these crystal artifacts from the Time Before Time.

The big man put his hands on his hips and tilted his head to one side, looking at the stone with suddenly clear eyes. His vision was crisp, the hints of cataracts at the corners of his eyes now gone.

The Stone of Destiny. Here was his fortune. But he would not sell it. He had no need to. There were a hundred ways he could use this stone. A thousand ways. A stone like this could make a man wealthy….No…a stone like this could make a man a god.

Why, with the power of the Lia Fáil, he could challenge Cernunnos himself for the world. And not just this world: with the power of the Lia Fáil he could create his own world or any number of worlds. Here was his destiny.

Nels dropped the club to the ground and stepped up to the Lia Fáil, arms wide….

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