And if this priest couldn't sense her presence, what chance would the reapers who guard hell's gate have of seeing her?
The answer, I suspected, was a big fat zero.
There is magic at work, he continued. Magic that is powerful and dark. It has the taste of hell, and yet this place runs through it.
This place? What the hell did he mean by that?
And then it twigged. Lucian. Maybe he'd not only been teaching the sorceress Aedh magic, but dark magic as well. He'd been trapped on Earth for centuries after all – certainly more than long enough to become proficient at all types of magic, be it light or dark.
And maybe she was his very last throw of the dice. Maybe, if all else failed, the destruction of the place that had become his prison was part of his ultimate end game. That, and the destruction of the Raziq's grand plans for freedom.
The shadow that was the sorceress ran through the left arch and disappeared. I swore. Time had run out. We had seconds left, if that, to stop her.
Can you stop the intruders hidden within that magic? Or, at the very least, contain them?
Here, yes. At the gates? No.
Naturally. I mean, it wouldn't be that fucking easy now, would it?
Why not? I thought Aedh priests are the guardians of the gates?
I am not what I once was, he said, his voice so heavy it seemed to press down on me. I can contain the things that chase you, but I am no longer able to enter the portal's sacred space.
Why not?
Because I will be forced to move on, and this place would be left unprotected.
Are you all that is left?