The Collector 3: Cauldron Read online

  “Colm!” she shouted, recognizing the man.

  “Yes ‑‑ and no!” he said with a grin as he hefted his spear and turned to face the hosts of Queen Maeve.

  The queen looked up in astonishment as a great shout of alarm rose from her men. When she saw who faced her she turned pale. “You!” she screamed, and raced to regain her chariot. As one, the others turned about and began to flee the scene.

  Colm sighed and lowered his spear. “I’ll never get a good fight if they keep running away like this.”

  “Your time will come, Cuchulainn,” said the voice of the crow.

  “Cuchulainn?” Kate gasped.

  He nodded and looked at the creature where it had perched on a bush nearby and frowned. “It’s not like you to spoil the prospect of a good battle, Morrigu.”

  “Battle? Hah! Slaughter would be nearer the mark. It’s too one-sided when you get involved, you young hound,” the crow said and sniffed. “Besides, I have my reasons, so.”

  With a wink at Kate, the crow flew up and blinked out of existence with a tiny thunderclap of inrushing air. A louder noise came from the direction of the barrow, but Kate was too distracted to pay it much attention.

  “Who was that?”

  “Morrigu, goddess of battle, in one of her favorite guises.” Cuchulainn gave Kate and Matt a rueful grin. “Don’t mind her. The gods have their ways. I’ve been gone three months by the reckoning of this place and nothing has changed.”

  “What were you doing in our time?”

  “I was looking for you to fulfill a prophecy. It was said a dark one from over the sea would come and take the cauldron from the red-headed queen. At first, I thought it was your grandfather, but that proved wrong. My father, Lugh Light-Hand, prompted me to find my way to your time, but he was very vague as to how I should return. When I came to this place I found Maria Byrne already here and trying to get back to her time. We, ah, helped each other to do so, but she refused to see me after we reached your world. I think it was all too much for her after losing your grandfather. Of course, you know what I had to do to return and bring you two here.”

  “Yeah, well.” Kate tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked sideways at him. To his credit, Cuchulainn pretended not to notice her embarrassment. “It was fun.”

  “So it was,” he said. “But ‘tis not something I care to repeat.” He jerked his head toward the barrow and Kate saw to her incredible pleasure that the entrance was gaping open. “Go now, good Katherine, brave Matt. Thanks to Morrigu, your way is open once more. Go back to that strange land of yours with the thanks of Cuchulainn to carry you on your way.”

  Matt smiled, grasped Kate’s arm, and led her into the cool depths of the barrow.

  An unearthly silence fell, and the light grew dim. As they picked their way deeper into the mound, the spirals and pinwheels began to glow and turn. Kate took Matt by the hand and led him onward. “Remember what we had to do to get here?” she whispered, and he nodded. “Back then it wasn’t exactly voluntary. Was it really only a few days ago?” He nodded again and grinned as they came to the central chamber. She stepped close, and he took her in his arms. “It wasn’t voluntary then,” she said, and kissed him deeply. Drawing back she smiled. “But it is now!”

  He held her close, and they kissed again, and the world went away and away. The silence was supreme, but the spirals and sigils turned and glittered with the sound of starlight as Matt drew Kate’s clothes from her body and laid her upon the great altar slab. His face showed as a pale outline in the weird light as he gazed down at her with love in his eyes. He undressed, his poor, battered body whole once more, and lay down beside her.

  She touched his face, feeling the stubble rasp under her fingertips. His foot ran in long languid strokes up and down her leg. Warmth sprang up between her thighs, and she sighed with contentment. Even the smooth, hard surface of the stone beneath her back was no discomfort now she was with her man.

  He kissed her cheeks, her lips, throat, as his hand wandered over her breasts and belly and down, to slip between her thighs. She felt his fingers slide up and down her pussy lips, and the moisture grew inside her at his touch. He stroked her labia, and moved two fingers inside, as he kissed her, his thumb rubbing lightly over her clit.

  She moaned and kissed him hungrily, her tongue twining with his as her back arched against his firm body. Matt’s lips found her nipples, and he teased them with tongue and teeth as his fingers continued to work magic inside her. Kate wondered if the powers she’d bestowed on him would last beyond this world but decided she didn’t care. They were together, and that was all that mattered.

  He slid up and over her and between her thighs, and she parted them to accommodate him. A moment of fumbling, a giggle from Kate, and then he entered her. “Oooh, yeah!” she gasped, feeling the thick heavy shaft part her lips and stretch her. And still he came, until she felt her cervix yield to the tip of his cock.

  With long, slow, leisurely strokes, he thrust and withdrew, kissing and caressing her all the while. She kissed him, and pulled on his bottom lip with her teeth, and raked her nails over his back, goading him to greater effort. Soon he was clinging to her, holding her tight to his broad chest, his butt tightening and relaxing with every stroke. Her hands rested upon it, feeling him, savoring him. Kate’s passion rose and mingled with Matt’s in an arcane fusion that seemed almost visible in the swirling, sparkling air.

  And they came, together, Matt’s seed flowing into Kate in copious streams, her cries filling the ancient barrow. Some of their mingled juices dripped from within to fall upon the great altar.

  And the world changed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  They were holding hands as Audra Phelan showed them into the Collector’s study. He looked up and smiled in welcome. His face froze and a keen light came to his tired eyes when he saw what Audra was carrying. “So you did find it,” he said, sighing as she placed it carefully on the desk in front of him.

  “Did you doubt it?” Kate asked.

  “I didn’t, no.” He reached out and ran a fingertip along the rim. “But there’s always a lingering feeling that I should never count my chickens until they’re hatched.”

  “That’s understandable, I guess,” Kate conceded.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have a few matters to attend to,” Audra said and withdrew, leaving the three of them alone.

  “Did you have a good journey?” the Collector asked.

  “Yeah, we did, although it was a jolt to find we’d been away three weeks! It also helped, having a private jet to bring us here.” She squeezed Matt’s hand. “My poor fiancé can’t speak.” Kate let her sadness show. The Collector needed to know what she and Matt had gone through to get the artifact for him. “He died back there, sir. Only the power of the cauldron brought him back to life.”

  Matt raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. The Collector nodded. “I understand,” he said. “From your story, you say Thomas told you what to do.”

  “Yeah.” She felt the prickling in her eyes. “It started out badly between us, but it came to good in the end.”

  “I’ll miss Tom,” the Collector said.

  “So will I.” She sniffed and made an attempt to brighten the mood. “If we have a son, we’re going to call him Thomas.”

  He nodded and smiled. “A good name, and a proud one, given its heritage.” He placed his hands together and touched his lips. “Now, there’s the small matter of recompense for your services. I’ve made a payment of three million dollars to your accounts, each.”

  Kate blinked. “That’s ... incredibly generous, sir.”

  “Any thoughts on what you’ll do with it?” he asked, waving away her thanks with a smile. He settled back in his chair, and again she sensed the decline in his health.

  “I always wanted to start my own theater troupe,” she said. “Matt ...” She sighed. “Well, Matt wants to write. I guess he still can do that without being able to speak, but it’s been
so hard on him. I hoped the magic would disappear when we came back to this time, but it hasn’t.”

  “There’s a way around that,” the Collector said in a soft voice.

  “How so, sir?” She shrugged. “I guess we could find some therapy for him, but I’m not sure how that’ll work against magic!”

  “You counter magic with magic,” he said and gestured to the cauldron. “Don’t you remember my telling you of what this relic is capable?”

  “No.” She looked from the cauldron to him.

  “The cauldron has the power to grant one wish to those most in need of it,” he said.

  “But that kind of thing doesn’t exist in the real world, does it?”

  “Matt was struck dumb by magic in old Ireland, and he’s still mute in the here-and-now.” He raised his eyebrows. “It’s worth a shot to help the one you love, don’t you think? All you have to do is believe.” He touched her hand. “I should warn you, it may extract a price from you which you may not wish to pay.”

  She looked at Matt, then back to the Collector and finally at the cauldron. The figures seemed to stare back, as if waiting for her. “O-kay,” she said. “That’s a risk I’ll take. Wouldn’t you do the same for the one you love, sir?”

  He stiffened. “Yes,” he said, “I’d do exactly that.”

  “There ya go.” She stepped up to the desk. “If it wasn’t for what we’ve gone through, I’d be feeling really stupid right now when I ask this.” She looked at Matt and in her best declamatory voice, she spoke. “I wish for my fiancé Matt O’Brien to be given the power of speech.”

  A charge of static shot through her from the bronze, and she yelped and jerked her arms away.

  “Are you okay, dear?” Matt asked, springing to her side. “Oh!”

  Kate opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. She blinked, gulped, and tried to speak again.

  “Oh, my God!” Matt cried. “Oh, Kate, what have you done?”

  After many tears of love and vexation, the couple left hand in hand. With so many shared experiences between them, Andrew Martin knew they’d work something out. Whatever befell them, he wished them a long and happy relationship and smiled in wistful remembrance, thinking of his own loss. If nothing else, the generous fee he’d paid Kate and Matt would help overcome most of the difficulties imposed by her sudden loss of speech. At one time, he would’ve thought the idea too cynical, but he’d been around long enough to know it was true. Matt and Kate would come round to the idea soon enough.

  After a few moments, the study door opened again, and Audra glided through. “Are you ready, Andrew?” she asked.

  He nodded, and together they carried the Cauldron of Fire into the vault and placed it with due reverence among the other relics. They gazed at them in deep satisfaction for several moments. With the new addition, the air seemed to gain an extra charge of potential. But there were still many relics dispersed over the world and through time and space itself, and many more adventures for those he’d set to discover them before his own task, in the name of love, would be complete. When the last one had been found, would his deepest desire be granted?

  Wouldn’t you do the same for the one you love, sir?

  “Yes, Kate; I would.”

  “Pardon?”

  He gave Audra a tired smile. “Oh, I’m talking to myself, Audra.”

  Her lips twitched. “I see. Time for your medication?”

  “Yes, my dear. Once you’ve prepared it, perhaps you’d fetch the next file?”

  Audra busied herself with the medicine, and he sat down again at his desk. Outside the twilight deepened. It matched his feelings of time drawing to a close, but there was so much left to do. A few moments later, Audra handed him his medicine, and he took it, shuddering at the bitter taste. She smiled with understanding and placed a thick file in front of him, along with a cup of aromatic coffee. With an effort, he forced his mind back to the task in hand and picked up the file.

  A. J. Matthews

  A native of the County of Norfolk, England, A J Matthews attended school in a village right on the North Sea coast before moving on to further studies at college and university. After an early career in the leisure/tourism industry, he worked in the Inland Revenue and local government, before his present occupation of courier. His hobbies include history, archaeology, science and technology, and he has traveled in Britain, the USA, Canada, Hungary and France. He lives within a stone's throw of the beach with his two adorable dogs, Ellie and Suzy.