upward and grinned. “Not only that, but to beat the sun in its rising as well. Interesting.”
“You know too much in these depths for an old blind priest.”
“I know much,” Donato said. “It is a lonely life, but life is a rarity here. It draws me.”
“It is a life well suited for the Lord’s work, my old teacher,” Cormac said, grasping his shrunken friend’s frail hands. “You look well, Donato.”
“I am,” the Cardinal Seer said, squeezing firmly back. “And the portal is well, I assure yeh, Cardinal Vicar.”
“Nothing from the other side?”
“The same as the day I first saw it,” Cardinal Ramirez said. “But I see much, yeh understand. A problem has arisen if yeh are here. One of the other portals?”
“Seattle.”
“Ahh. McAllister. Is he alive?”
“He is. And the portal is safe,” Cormac answered. “There have been, however, some…interesting events.”
“And yeh want to know if Annwn mirrors that knowledge?”
“Yes.”
“Let us go then. No time to dilly-dally. Birds and worms, yeh understand?” Cardinal Ramirez cackled.
The blind man led the Cardinal Vicar through rising passages, the air growing drier with each step. The walls evolved from rough-hewn stone to delicately carved friezes; embedded holes bore sarcophagi, and wooden caskets housed undisturbed remains. Some of the world’s most renowned men were buried in the catacombs, interred forever in the bowels of St. Peter’s.
The Cardinal Seer did not deviate through the domain of the dead.
They eventually came to a door with elaborate scrollwork, bands of rune-encrusted iron wrapping its thick timbers. The Seer whispered a word accompanied by a tender touch and the door swung open.
Cormac stepped into warmth.
A fire blazed from a hearth in the corner of the room, casting its glow over two plush chairs and a bed pushed up against the wall. Shelves containing books of various sizes and colors lined the other walls. A pedestal sat centered in the middle of the room, holding a Bible as old as any Cormac had seen.
“Come in, come in. Make yehself comfortable.”
“A humble man with a humble lifestyle. I envy you sometimes, Donato.”
“I am well cared for, and I enjoy the peace here in a way those who live above me could never comprehend. When a man becomes my age, all he wishes is a warm meal, a soft bed, and well-read books.”
“You still have so many of them?” The Vicar looked around. “But you’re—”
“Blind? I know that, Cormac,” Donato said with amusement. “Rossi reads to me when he isn’t out carousing a young man’s life.”
Donato had been one of Cormac’s earliest teachers, a man whose faith outshone his extensive scholarship. Despite his advanced age, the Cardinal Seer served the Church in a way only a handful of people had over the centuries, ultimately keeping the world safe from an unimaginable threat. The Cardinal Vicar had been one of the older man’s first projects—having come into Cormac’s life at its darkest hour—and it now appeared Ennio Rossi, the young knight of Rome’s portal, had become the Seer’s new crusade.
“Where is the knight?” Cormac asked.
“Eh, not quite sure. I have not heard him return, although with the many girlfriends he has, I doubt he had a hard time finding a place to sleep.”
The Cardinal Seer moved to where black velvet draped a circular object hanging on the wall beside the bed. Reaching up with shriveled hands, Donato removed the shroud to reveal a round mirror with a wide silver frame that shone with an ethereal inner glow. Celtic runes of an ancient sect danced in the firelight; the glass of the mirror glimmered like ice. Cormac shivered. He had the impression of something dark looking back at him.
“Care to join me?” Donato asked over his shoulder. “It has been some time since yeh’ve used the Fionúir Mirror.”
“No, to do so always makes me ill,” Cormac said.
The Seer chuckled. “I’ll sweep the surrounding countryside of Caer Llion. I doubt I will see anything. Philip is a weasel when it comes to privacy.”
Cormac stood apart, watching. With only the snapping of the fire’s embers echoing in the room, the Seer stared with blind eyes into the mirror, beyond his own image. He breathed slower and his face slackened, becoming like a statue. The white film over his eyes faded and disappeared altogether to reveal eyes so brown they were almost black.
Cormac shuddered. It was always a shock to observe it happen.
Several minutes went by. Nothing happened.
Then the depths of the mirror began to swirl, starting slowly but speeding to a pace that knotted Cormac’s stomach. The