"Which raises a question. Arawn is Lord of the Otherworld, and Matilda spent half her time in his realm when she was alive, and she was half Cwn Annwn herself. Yet the Otherworld isn't where she went when she died, or he'd have been fine with that."
"I've never gotten the sense Arawn's like Hades or Osiris, an actual ruler of the afterlife, living among the shades and spirits. That's another answer I won't get until I choose a side. My guess, though, would be that his realm is not the afterlife itself but more like the gates to it."
"The castle you saw."
"The first time, yes. Not this time."
"But I did see something in there, and I heard laughter, voices, music. It didn't sound like any version of hell. Which the Otherworld isn't. It's just a generic afterlife, not for good people or bad."
"Right," I said. "So, yes, whether the castle and the music came from the afterlife or Arawn's actual realm, I have no idea. Presumably, on her death, Matilda went into the afterlife, as a spirit, and there was nothing he could do, no way to bring her back or visit her there or . . . My head hurts now."
"So we have some clues."
"Exactly. We also have cell service, so I'm calling on the almighty power of the internet. See if folklore can give us a head start."
I typed in my keywords and was reading a website when my cellular provider finally realized I was back in the land of the connected and released my texts and voice
mail messages. I had both. All from the same person.
"Uh . . . well . . ." I said, reading one of Gabriel's texts. I showed it to Ricky.
Please call immediately. Found information. Do not investigate before calling.
"Little late for that, huh?" I checked the other messages, which were iterations of the same theme.
It was nearly midnight, Atlantic time. Two hours earlier in Chicago, but I still sent a query to be sure Gabriel wasn't busy.
The phone rang thirty seconds after my text whizzed off.
"So, not busy?" I said.
He made a noise that I interpreted to mean it was a ridiculous question. It wasn't even ten at night. He'd hardly be sleeping. As for the possibility he was out enjoying his evening . . . Yeah, Gabriel's idea of an evening "out" would just mean he hadn't made it back from the office yet.
"Patrick believes he knows what you may be dealing with there," Gabriel said. "I'm not convinced he's correct, but on the possibility he is, I wanted to speak to you immediately."
"Gwragedd Annwn."
Silence. I continued, "Literal translation, dames of the Otherworld. Welsh guardians of the passages between the worlds. Water fae. Sometimes considered Welsh mermaids because lore has them luring human husbands, but otherwise, there's little resemblance. The Gwragedd Annwn aren't fish-like in any way, and they live in lakes rather than the ocean. Am I close?"
"Your identification matches Patrick's, yes, though the lore, as always, is slightly off. They're known to tease human men, but the concept of seducing them as husbands is, of course, ridiculous."
"Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?"
Ricky, who was listening in, chuckled. From Gabriel, I got dead silence. Then, "There's nothing in the lore to suggest any connection to cows . . ."
I bit my lip. Ricky managed to turn a laugh into a snort that had Gabriel saying, "Is that Ricky?" and "Is he all right?"
"He's fine. It was just a cough. Forget the cows. The point is that I'm correct with the basics, right? This is a water-based Welsh fae who guards a passage to the Otherworld. And what I saw--the cavern and the castle and even hearing bells--I found in the human lore, too."
"Yes, from what Patrick told me, you're dealing with an actual passage between the worlds. One you absolutely do not want to go near."
"This way to certain death?"
"That would be the theory, which I strongly urge--in fact, insist--you do not test."
"I wasn't planning to. That's why you warned us off, then?"
"That and the association with . . ." He faltered. "With Arawn. Which would connect it to . . ."