She was so still that I had to stop myself from checking for her pulse. I’d felt it in her as I had carried her over. Once we had them on the ground, Danu instructed us to remove their clothes, and then we had to go. I hesitated as I stood to leave.
“I have them,” she said softly. “Go stand with your people, and join hands. Instruct them to push the power they wish to give me, and I will accept it. You cannot be with the babes for this. It’s my turn to help them. This I can do; this is also the least I can do for you, my daughter. I promise no harm will come to them.”
I had no choice.
With my heart in my throat, I walked away from my babies, knowing that their lives rested in my mother’s hands. When we once again stood with the crowd, Adam took my hand, as Ryder accepted my other one.
Ryder thankfully repeated Danu’s instructions to the crowd, and the entire group started reaching for the closest person’s hand until we all were together as one. I felt the hum of power as they began to send it to the Tree, and I hissed with the amount of it as I felt it touch the Tree.
“It’s coming to me,” I whispered to Ryder. The intense feeling of power that the Tree fed to me was both scary and intoxicating.
“Breathe,” Adam said softly.
“Can you feel it through me?” I asked as the power continually entered my system. I was unsure of how much I could handle, or if, as a Goddess, I even had limits. Adam shouldn’t have been able to feel what I was feeling anymore. That bond severed with the death of my old body.
“No, but if you don’t breathe and release the monster grip you have on my fingers, they’ll break.”
“Oh,” I said and loosened my hold on his hand.
I heard gasps from the crowd, and then whispered excitement as the Fae got their first look of Danu. It had to have been a choice on her end to allow them to see her. I smiled as whispered words about what she looked like started through the crowd. Every one of them was wrong, which caused a smile to flitter over my lips.
She kneeled down and dug her fingers into the earth, pulling off a chunk of moss, which she used to cover Kahleena. Danu’s words were layered, her voice barely above a whispered thought, but it played in my mind because she wanted me to hear it.
“My littlest warrior, you must be strong,” she said as she placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before bringing fingers covered in what looked like gold paint over Kahleena’s cheeks, and then her forehead. “Blood of my blood, heed me now, for I bless this little one,” she said in a hushed tone. “Blood of my blood, I call you now, I bless this child of Faery and beg you to heed my call!” she shouted, which scared Kahleena, and the small babe began to cry. “I bless thee, Kahleena Larissa, daughter of mine. I bless you for all time,” she said before she picked her up and held her beneath the Tree, then lifted the small babe in her hands up to the Tree as if in a supplication or benediction.
As we watched, the Tree gave off a shimmering ray of light, which looked like the Fairy dust from Peter Pan. I felt it, and knew it was the land of Faery’s blessing, as well as the trees. The land had accepted her.
“Oh, thank God,” I said breathlessly.
“Strange choice,” Elijah said from right behind me. “Considering the facts and all,” he amended wryly as I turned and looked at him without releasing Adam or Ryder’s hands.
“I believe in him,” I whispered. “I told you where I was raised,” I finished, turning back as Danu continued the ceremony with the boys. When it was finished, all three had been blessed. It didn’t mean they’d live, or that they were safe from death, but the Fae children that had made it to Transition over the last thirty or so years all had Danu’s blessing and the acceptance of the land.
I looked around as the Fae released the hands of the others as the ceremony ended, and Danu disappeared from their view. Ryder and I made our way to where she stood, once again invisible to the others. I kneeled on the ground and looked up at her and the ancient Tree behind her.
“You created this Tree before you created any of the races before us, why?”