Maig's Hand

by Phillip Henderson

  Danielle put up a hand stopping her brother, fiancé and friends from rebutting the Druid Lord. “You suspect?” She needed more than that.

  “I don’t know. What I do know is if you are not away from here within the hour, any chance of stopping him will be lost. And you know well enough I can’t let you fall into their hands alive.”

  Danielle quickly stepped into James’ path, preventing him from getting at Lord Cargius. Faith, however, she could not stop, and her friend stepped forward and slapped the Druid across the face with the back of her hand.

  “You threaten her again and I swear …”

  Michael pulled her back. Cargius straightened up and whipped the blood from his lip, his green eyes blazing at Faith. Danielle stayed between them. There was something she needed to know before she could leave. “What about the Abien and Themian armies?”

  “What about them?”

  “Is it possible they are the priest the prophecy spoke of?”

  “No,” he said irritably. “The Archbishop is the priest. Now may we go?”

  Relieved to know this at least, Danielle nodded, and backed up towards her changing room. “I’ll change into more suitable attire.”

  James caught her arm, with a grip that made her wince and forced her to stay. “If she must go, I’m coming with her.”

  “I think not,” Cargius retorted, “You have caused enough trouble as it is.”

  “It wasn’t a request, Druid.”

  “I think James should go,” Faith said.

  “Faith, please stay out of this,” Danielle replied.

  “Will we hear from her at all?” Michael demanded.

  “You will not.”

  “How long?” Bastion asked.

  “Until it is done.”

  “Or until she is dead,” Faith retorted.

  Danielle couldn’t stand it. Their concern was understandable but this wasn’t helpful. She called for calm and then discreetly took James’ hand, gave him a look that bid him come with her and then drew him through into her changing room and closed the door. “I have to do this. If I don’t…” she shook her head. “Who can know what will happen.”

  James sighed and held her tight. “I know. We’re all just scared for you.”

  She could feel the tension in him. “I’ll be safe. Safer than all of you I fear.”

  He smiled, though there were tears in his eyes. “Come back to me. And know that I love you, always and forever.” He cupped her cheeks, brushing her tears away with his thumbs and then kissed her forehead and held her close again.

  “I love you,” Danielle said. She could hear his heart thumping under her ear. “Look after my family. And please tell father not to worry. Keep them safe until I can return, Joseph as well; particularly Joseph. He knows too much. Promise me?”

  “With my life.” James eased back and brushed the hair from her face. “You’d best get ready.”

  Danielle slipped her hands into his hair and kissed him hurriedly; well aware they may not see each other again for months—perhaps never again.

  ***

  Seated inside one of the black carriages that served the Arkaelyon delegation at Amthenium, Danielle watched her companions through the window as the driver cracked his whip and they headed down the carriageway away from the stabling yard, which was situated behind Kathius Hall. Necessity had made their farewells muted and quick, but no less heartfelt. She wiped at her tear-streaked cheeks, and as her friends grew smaller in the distance she tried to hold the image of them in her mind.

  “So much for free will,” she muttered bitterly as they passed under the archway and turned onto one of the many cobbled thoroughfares that crisscrossed the sprawling palace grounds. Torchlight lit the familiar gardens, halls and towers beyond her window. Even at this late hour there were a great many folk about. Apparently a fire had broken out in the old quarter, which had swelled the number. Danielle had smelt the smoke after stepping out into the cool night air a few minutes ago and the bell was still tolling.

  She wondered when she’d see this place again and hoped it wouldn’t be as she had envisaged it in her dream so many months ago. She thought of her father, Joseph and home, and all that was at stake and felt even glummer for it.

  Then something troubling occurred to her. She stirred and glanced across the darkened cabin at the Druid seating opposite her. “What about protecting Maig’s gifts? Surely Kane will seek them out as readily as he will seek me?”

  “With the Archbishop executed, I suspect they will remain safe enough for the time being. The prophecy was clear enough; was it not?”

  Danielle wasn’t so sure. “What if he’s already played his part, at least in regard to the Book of Minion?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What if they know the eldership of the Brotherhood of Aquarius are the protectors of the book?” She recited the passage of the prophecy in question; “The religious zeal of an orthodox priest who thirsts for revenge on a blasphemous king will again bring the Arkaelyon throne—and my gifts to Larnius—within the ambit of your power.”

  “The book can not be reached by the hands of living men so pursuing your Lord Protector and his brethren will gain your brother nothing.”

  “Except the book’s location. And is Kane still a living man after his anointing?”

  “Do you really believe I would not be concerned about this if there was reason?”

  “I believe that you tell me what you wish me to know and not a word more and feign concern or ease if it serves your interest. Now how do they intend to retrieve the Book of Minion if Kane is not capable of that task?”

  Cargius smirked and looked out of the window.

  “I will have an answer, sir!”

  “Your sister has a certain gift called Aquitius. She can turn herself into a fish. Something you and your brother cannot.”

  The way he was watching her made Danielle uneasy. Something felt off. There was a hardness even callousness in his tone she had not heard before. And then there was the blatant contradiction …

  “I thought I was supposed to fetch the Book of Minion and you said yourself, Bianca wasn’t to know any of this …”

  He glanced at her with interest.

  Danielle stopped and looked away, shaking her head and feigning confusion. Her blood was thumping through her body and her skin pricked with fear. This man might look like Cargius but something told her he was an impostor and worse a Larniusian Druid. She fought to hide the terror that swept over her and frantically thought about how she might escape the carriage.

  “We haven’t told you all, Danielle.”

  Thinking it best to keep up the charade she said, “I cannot fetch the book then?”

  “You touch the book and it will dissolve into flame and ash.”

  “So why the deceit?”

  He was studying her from across the cabin. She felt magic being used and then a penetrating warmth in her head. He was trying to read her thoughts. She focused her anger at that warmth and released it. From the other seat, the man flinched and his jaw tightened for a moment.

  Without waiting for a reply or giving the impostor warning, Danielle leaped for the carriage door and tried to open it.

  He was quicker and stronger than she had anticipated and he grabbed her round the waist and threw her back into her seat with little trouble before settling down beside her, his arm holding her in a headlock. “You’re too clever for your own good, Milady.” He casually drew a dagger from his robe with his free hand and rested the weapon on his knee.

  Trying to control her ballooning fear, Danielle called inwardly for Cargius, silently screaming his name.

  “He can’t hear you, Milady. There are wards around this carriage that prevent the White Ones from seeing or hearing us. Lord Cargius would have to be standing just outside that window if it was to be otherwise, and I can assure you he is not that close. It would be better if you spent what time you have left making peace with your Gods than worry about this
world. Now, your sister, Bianca you say. She has a last name, no?”

  Just then the clatter of hooves on cobble grew louder and a troop of palace guards appeared beyond the carriage windows. Danielle had felt the impostor use some sort of magic again and wasn’t surprised that he didn’t look at all perturbed by the arrival of mounted soldiers. The carriage slowed to a stop.

  “Protection, Milady; to help us through the main gates of the palace. Nothing you need worry about.”

  The door opened and a soldier climbed in and sat opposite them, a loaded crossbow in his hands. As soon as the door closed the carriage pulled away again and the troop of guards remained with them.

  “Who are you?” Danielle demanded. She was desperately trying to think what she could do to escape. She was also angry for letting herself be taken so easily.

  “You can call me Lord Mason. High Steward of the Northern covens.”

  That meant nothing to her. She pulled away as he smelt her hair.

  “Cargius will come for me …”

  “Unlikely given we have him in chains. It seems he’s a greedy old bastard. We waved a set of Seer’s bones in front of his nose and he came to our snare like a tame rabbit.”

  She found that highly unlikely. “I don’t believe you. I have felt his power and you are nothing compared to him.”

  “Ordinarily I’d agree. However, our priestess poisoned the bait with a certain spell that rendered him less than his arrogant self once he was in close proximity. And you cannot know how irresistible the Seer’s bones are to Cargius and his kind – their usual caution is put aside. They know how vulnerable we are without the Seer’s bones and while they would never admit it, the power of our Goddess fascinates them … lures them, as does the prestige of being the one who captured a set of Seer’s bones. You should know that even among the White Ones there are battles for superiority and power.”

  “You have not harmed him?”

  “Not yet,” the soldier said cruelly from the opposite seat before the Druid could reply.

  To Danielle’s surprise the soldier’s voice was decidedly feminine.

  “You needn’t worry about the old Druid, he’s in a safe place,” Lord Mason said. “We need a name from him, but he’s being most uncooperative.”

  “Does she know, Milord,” the woman asked expectantly—for the soldier was definitely female.

  “Yes. A first name at least. Bianca. I’ve yet to have a last name. She’s stronger than she looks.”

  “May I?”

  “Be my guest. Just be careful you remember what she is and what she is capable of even so new to the path of enlightenment.”

  As Lord Mason and the woman swapped places a passing torch cast light into the cabin. There was awe and caution in the woman’s brown eyes. Her olive skin and blond hair marked her as Surlemian by birth. Danielle looked away. She recognised this woman as the same one who had been closeted in the hovel up in the mountain village with Kane on the afternoon he’d sought her out and it was clear she had an affinity for him and a loathing for her.

  “Bianca who?”

  “De Brie,” Danielle replied defiantly.

  The woman smiled. “You would not be so defiant if you knew how horrid the ritual of the eternal shadows can be if our mistress wills it.”

  “You don’t scare me.”

  This time the woman laughed. She leaned close and reached up and tried to touch Danielle’s face. Beneath the folds of her coat, Danielle clenched her hand into a fist and then lashed out as hard as she could, striking the woman in the face with the heel of her hand. Her captor reeled back and fell off the seat. The way to the door was clear. Danielle threw herself towards it. She got her fingers around the door handle before she was grabbed from behind and thrown back into the seat again.

  Not about to go easily she lashed out with her left boot, catching Lord Mason in the stomach as he reached to grab her again. He grunted but held his ground so she kicked again, this time catching him squarely in the head. He fell down onto the opposite seat. The Surlemian woman leapt at her. They tussled, falling off the seat and onto the floor of the carriage.

  “Your brother said you were a vicious bitch.”

  The woman’s helmet fell off and her blond hair loosed around her face as she pinned Danielle down.

  Danielle thought about using the taint, unfortunately she couldn’t sense or see any within reach and she knew it would make her violently ill.

  “Do you think you’re the first to be his loyal whore?” Danielle countered

  The comment infuriated the woman and she grabbed Danielle around the neck and tried to throttle her. It freed Danielle’s hands and she used them to good measure, clawing at the woman’s face and hair.

  “Milord, wake up and help me!” the woman yelled, trying to keep hold of Danielle’s neck and at the same time protect her face.

  Danielle bent her head to the right and buried her teeth into the woman’s arm.

  The scream was piercing. The woman recoiled and lunged for her crossbow on the seat. Danielle scurried up and grabbed her from behind and pulled her away from the weapon.

  That’s when a shadow loomed out of the gloom and Lord Mason wrapped her up in his arms and drove her face-first into the seat. His weight buried her into the hard leather and then a searing pain took the fight out of her as he drew the blade of his dagger across her left shoulder, just enough to wound her.

  Danielle cried out and stopped struggling. She could feel blood begin to run down her arm and back.

  “That’s better. Now, we’ll have that name,” Mason said, working to catch his breath.

  He turned her round and made her sit. A nod to his female companion, and he sat down opposite, taking the crossbow from the woman soldier as she traded places and settled down beside Danielle.

  The woman took a handkerchief from her tunic, sprinkled some white powder from a small vial onto it and pressed it to Danielle’s shoulder. Danielle reached up and held it in place, ignoring the woman whose brown eyes stared intently at her. She was probing for answers again. Danielle calmly resisted, slowly increasing the amount of anger she was focusing toward the woman.

  It did not take long before the woman winced and broke off, only to grin wolfishly and jerk Danielle’s face towards hers. Her breath stirred Danielle’s hair and her eyes sparkled with excitement and arousal. “There are other ways of loosening your defences.”

  Danielle recoiled as the woman licked her cheek.

  “Not here,” the man said, sharply.

  The woman chuckled and returned to the opposite seat and retrieved her crossbow, resting the weapon on her knee so the bolt pointed at Danielle’s stomach.

  “They say Druid’s Bane can endure great pain—pain that would kill the ordinary man. Move again, and we will find the truth of that claim.”

  “Lea, enough!” The man directed his dagger at Danielle. His face had changed now. It was no longer Cargius she saw in the gloom of the cabin but a portly, bearded and grey haired man in his middle years. “You do anything like that again or think about calling out to the guards at the palace gate, and I’ll have your tongue. Do you understand me?”

  She spat at him.

  He smiled coldly and drew a handkerchief from his long coat and cleaned her blood off his blade. The woman—dishevelled and puffing from their tussle—was still wearing that stupid grin on her face.

  “I hope our mistress cuts you slowly.”

  Danielle didn’t want to think about what they had planned for her. She could feel blood soaking her sleeve. The throbbing pain was dulling her senses. She had to act quickly. Somehow she had to get out of the coach and preferably before they left the relative safety of the palace grounds where she could find help.

  “My brother will betray you. He cares nothing for your goddess or your cause. There is no goodness in him. He’ll take and do whatever pleases him, and you will rue the day you gave him this power.”

  Lord Mason gave a condescending chuckle. �
�My dear, you speak of things you do not know. Your brother understands power and he will not buckle at the sacrifices that must be made to possess it.”

  “Yes, but for no good reason other than his own.”

  “No, Milady, for survival. You would understand that if you had seen what Ariel’s armies did to our kind while the Kathiusian elders did nothing and the First Mother with them. Our goddess provided us with the weapons to triumph over our enemies. Your brother has a mind that understands such expediency.”

  “In return for sacrificial blood and the souls of countless innocents!”

  “It is slaughter or be slaughtered. Life must give way to death, if the cycle is not to falter. And we know which side of the cycle we wish to occupy.”

  The lord stopped and frowned, his attention going to the scene outside the window. A horse had started to rear. Its rider was struggling to calm the animal down. The soldier disappeared from view as the carriage continued on. Then another horse began to rear and fall behind. Lord Mason immediately looked across the dark cabin at Danielle and pointed his dagger at her.

  “Stop it. Whatever you’re doing, stop it right now! Or I’ll cut you again.”

  Danielle smiled and reached out with her mind and touched another horse. She had caught the eye of one of the horses beyond the window and realised she could communicate with it. Or, more to the point, scare the living daylights out of it. A third animal skittered sideways whinnying wildly and almost brought down the animal next to it. Another reared; its front hooves kicked out and shattered the carriage window showering them in glass just as Lord Mason made to rise

  “What’s she doing?”

  “Distracting the horses.”

  The man came at her again, his dagger in his right hand.

  Danielle kicked at him but he managed to grab her legs and haul her onto the floor of the carriage. She grimaced as he pinned her down, and then cried out as he took a fist-full of her hair and pulled her head back. The blade pressed against her neck.

  “You won’t do it. I know you need me alive.”

  “You’re right,” he hissed beside her ear. “But we don’t need you conscious.”