by Tamara Gill
He hated himself. Despised the choices forced upon him. “We are the protectors.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“You're sure this will work?” Charity paced from one tree to another, taking nervous glances at the brooding castle wall beyond the heavy vines and bushes they hid behind. The guardsman was trussed and gagged and stowed neatly beneath a prickly berry bush.
Col pulled his saffron shirt off over his head and handed it to his sister along with his stockings and boots, leaving him in nothing but the red and black tartan kilt sloped from waist to knobby knees. “'Twill be well, you'll see. I’ll be swift so be ready to meet me at the postern door.”
Grinning, he unhooked the pin holding the garment in place and without giving Charity warning to look away, unwrapped the material and let it drop. No worries or shyness about modesty there. “And bring my clothing.”
Charity turned to offer him privacy as light erupted around Col. She twisted back, breath hitching in her chest. “Whoa.”
“He is beautiful, is he not?” Edeen shone within her brother's glow.
Col hummed with energy. The soft vibration rolled across Charity's skin. He was completely transparent, a human shaped form made up entirely of what could only be described as sparkling flitting fireflies. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Mesmerizing.
His form stirred, expanded outward like a pulse of a heart before pulling in on itself and shrinking, dwindling in brightness.
Charity blinked.
Col was gone.
She spun around, looking for him in animal form, her pulse revving up at his absence until Edeen lifted her palm and a tiny brown moth darted about her fingers.
“Go safely, bràthair.”
And the moth flew away. From the thick vegetation, they watched him fly toward the large gates, skim over one of the guard's shoulders and into the dark passageway where they could no longer keep an eye on him and know how he fared inside the witch's keep.
Charity didn't like it one bit. Granted she’d just met the young man, but he had been the first one in this century to offer her any kindness or give her the benefit of the doubt. Plus, he was...she didn’t know what...he was just Col and had already wormed his way into her affections. She didn’t want to see him hurt or have to take such risks.
“Come along, then,” Edeen said. “He'll be waiting.”
Charity scooped Col's tartan off the ground and rolled it up while she caught up to Edeen. “You're worried.”
Ahead, Edeen's back stiffened. “He's my younger brother. Of course I'm worried.”
“He's never done anything like this before, has he?”
Edeen stopped to look at her over her shoulder. “When he shifts, there is a moment when Col is naught but magic.”
Pure energy, Charity thought.
“'Twill be a simple matter for him to open the postern door, shift into that state and while he's magic, slide into the witch’s foul barrier and push it aside to allow us through. Aldreth will never know he's there or that her spell has been breached. His touch is light.”
If it was as light as Edeen’s had been in her head, Charity could well imagine that Aldreth wouldn’t be able to sense it.
She'd gotten the gist of the plan when Col explained it the first time. In his energy form, he could penetrate a small part of Aldreth's spell that surrounded the castle easily. However he based all his plan on the hope that the witch wouldn't notice the disruption to her magic if he replaced the disruption with himself. In that moment of shifting from one form to another, Col was going to insert himself within that breach.
It sounded all well and good while focused on how to get Toren out, but now that Col was actually inside the castle alone, Charity worried over the young man. It would take only one thing to go wrong.
“Ye don't think Aldreth will sense him?” Edeen frowned. “'Tis such a small door.” She realized the girl sought reassurance from her.
Charity forced a smile. “He'll be fine. You'll see. If it doesn't work, he can always turn into a bird and find another way out.”
Edeen grinned wickedly. “Or a beetle and dig through the floor. 'Twould serve the lad right.”
Charity grinned back, grasping onto the humor the same as Edeen to mask their worry.
They hurried to the back of the castle where no guards were stationed. As powerful a witch that Aldreth was, she had need of only a few mercenaries. The fewer men running about her keep, the easier to maintain control, Charity supposed. And keep from getting into the spells woven upon the castle.
An inconspicuous wooden door swung outward, disturbing several rodents that scurried away from the refuse piled at the threshold.
After hiding Col’s clothes beneath a fat shrub, Charity and Edeen hurried across the grassy area where the thick vegetation ended.
They reached the wall and Charity looked up into the open doorway. White light flickered across it, expanding and shrinking at the edges. Energy hummed across her skin like a living force ready to snap at them. Aldreth's barrier. Except for the white light, she couldn't see the witch’s barrier, but she could feel it.
“Is that him?” Charity looked into the flickering light.
Brow creased, Edeen glanced at her as though she were crazy. Yeah, dumb question. Of course that was Col.
What the hell were they supposed to do now? His magical self—particles—stretched across their only entrance. Were they supposed to go through him?
Uh, apparently so.
Edeen gathered her skirt high, gingerly stepping between puddles of grease and moldering food remnants. This was undoubtedly the door whoever cleaned up the kitchens used to toss out the garbage.
She’d never again complain when her trash compactor jammed up or when the garbage trucks knocked over her big plastic trash can.
“Quickly. He can't hold this form long,” Edeen hissed and ducked inside, right through her brother. She seemed to disperse in shooting rays of light.
Damn. Wow. Okay then.
Charity pulled her skirts up too. She could do this. Tucking her head down, she plowed in.
And felt...warm and safe. Determined. Stubborn. Playful, inquisitive. Emotions tingled through her bones and flesh. Inside her soul. She never imagined Col's magical essence would be so infused with his personality. There was so much depth to him, strength and seriousness and deep-seated feelings overlaid with a lightness of being.
Then it was gone and she stumbled forward into Edeen's outstretched arms.
“You're through. You're through.”
Charity grabbed the girl's arm to steady herself and turned quickly to see the brightness that was Col fade, only to materialize as a young man who pitched forward onto his face on the stone floor.
“Col.” They both scurried to him, skirts puffing around his naked form.
“Col, Col.” Edeen twisted his torso to get his head into her lap. “Col.” She pushed dark strands of his wavy hair off his face and tapped his cheeks. “Col.”
Charity found his pulse at his wrist rapid, but steady. Her palm splayed over his chest so she could monitor his breathing. She began to unleash a small tendril of reviving energy.
Edeen grabbed her hand and pulled it from Col’s chest, and Charity’s magic snapped back inside her like a rubber band. “Not in here. Aldreth will sense magic being used within her walls.”
Charity nodded. Of course she would.
“And...” Edeen frowned. “I fear when we find Toren, he’ll be in terrible shape. The desire to heal him will consume you.”
“I can control myself.”
“You say that but do not forget I experienced your memories.” Edeen’s features turned sorrowful. She looked away, her skin blushing. “I know what ye feel for him. I...I felt it. But I beg you, as much as you’ll want to, resist the desire to heal him. Not within the castle. We must get him safely out first.”
“I won’t put him, or us, in danger,” Charity assured her, even knowing it was going to kill h
er to see Toren that way, really see him so hurt, not just through a memory. She ran through the list of what she had healed before in the first timeline that would still be injuries unfixed in this reset time. Broken ribs, bruised kidney, several seeping wounds. Infection may have set in by now if Aldreth left him completely untreated.
Edeen nodded and turned her attention back to her brother. “Col.” She shook him.
Dark brows pinched together into a grimace. “Let's not be doing that again anytime soon.”
Edeen's shoulders dropped in relief. “I.... Are ye well?”
Dark lashes lifted, revealing light smiling eyes. “Aye, well. Though ‘twas not the enjoyable experience I’d hoped for.”
Edeen pushed up on his shoulders roughly, though her eyes were soft. “I imagine not. Go on then, get yourself off the floor before we are discovered.”
“Oh, that.” Col cocked his head to the side where another mercenary lay sprawled upon the stone floor. “ He was guarding the door.”
Edeen's forehead bunched in concern. “Did you fight him? Are ye hurt?”
“Nay, but I could use his garments.” He shifted over the guard and began unstrapping the man’s belt. “I bit his ankle, then changed into a man and clobbered him.” His grin was pure male smugness.
He quickly donned the guard's breeches, blouse and boots. Col stood, wobbling a bit, though Charity kept a hold of him, suspecting he might be a little unsteady on his feet. He nodded at her in gratitude, not alerting Edeen to his weakened condition. No doubt his sister would hen-peck him into remaining here at the door.
“You okay to do this?” Charity whispered. As much as she didn't want to overtax the boy, she didn’t want him out of her sight again either. They were so close to getting to Toren, it felt like an internal pull to reach him.
“Aye, fine.” He went to the downed mercenary again, grabbed his leg and dragged him into a dark corner. “Edeen?”
“This way.” Edeen took the corridor to the left, leading the way from the information she'd gleaned from the other mercenary's mind.
Glancing behind them, Charity hoped the man didn't rouse soon or that someone else came upon him like that in whatever those were that he was left wearing. Some form of long underwear. Without any other rooms close to stash him in, there really wasn't any other choice but to leave him in the corner of the narrow corridor.
Edeen led them unerringly through the tight passageways and past the kitchen area. The entire castle felt like a giant maze, and they the rats. More so as they took several stairways descending deeper into the lower bowels of the castle. Where else would a dungeon be, but in the dark underbelly? Charity thought dismally.
The castle was eerily empty. They only had to duck into an adjoining corridor once as two guardsmen walked past. Either Aldreth couldn't find good help or she wasn't fond of having too many people underfoot. Strange. Charity assumed all arch villains bent on world domination would want legions of minions around to fawn over them.
She shook her head. Her nerves were wound so tight her thoughts were loopy. Legions of minions. Geez.
“Shhhh, there's a guard within.” Edeen peered around the corner into a cave-like room where a lone man sat near a locked wooden door. The walls looked as though they'd been hewn out of the surrounding stone.
The guard sat near a small table spread with the remains of a partially eaten bowl of stew and a half loaf of bread.
“I’ll distract him,” Edeen whispered and turned to go.
Col grabbed her arm and mouthed “no.”
Brows lowered, Edeen shrugged out of his grasp and sashayed boldly as she pleased into the dungeon.
The mercenary was on his feet in an instant, confusion stamped upon his swarthy features. “Ye cannot be in here. No one's allowed down here. Back up to the kitchens with you.”
Smiling as though she hadn't a care in the world, Edeen moved beyond the guard, making him turn to keep his eye on her. She lifted her hand to his chest. Oh, geez, she was going to dive into his mind right now, right here. Except she wouldn’t, not after she’d warned Charity about not using magic within the castle. No, Edeen simply had her hand on his chest, was distracting him...for what? Oh.
Both Charity and Col moved forward. Charity grabbed the pewter bowl from the table at the same time Col’s arm lifted...and wham. She clocked the guard a good one on the back of his head. Stew splattered the wall. The guard crumpled to the floor.
Col and Edeen gaped at her. Col’s arm was still mid-lift before he dropped it to his side. His mouth stretched into a wide grin. “Good whacking, lass.”
The bowl dangled from Charity's fingers. She couldn't believe she'd just hit a man over the head. She'd never hit anyone in her life. Well, okay, maybe Randy Summerton in the third grade but he'd been picking on Lenore.
Not wasting any more time, Col dragged the man away from the door. “Keys?”
Charity's gaze snapped from the downed guard to that heavy door. Toren was just behind those thick planks of wood. She went suddenly cold, all her blood rushing to her toes.
Col slapped his palms against the door. “Where are the keys?”
Edeen searched the mercenary's body.
Snapping out of her daze, Charity sank beside her.
“I'll make him tell us,” Edeen hissed, lips curling back.
“Or...” Charity slid a heavy iron ring as large as her fist from the guy's thick belt. A large skeleton key dangled. “We could use this.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
He'd been hanging from the wall for eons. Time no longer held any meaning. Hours blurred into days. Days could be mere hours. He no longer had any sense to it. His entire existence pared down to remaining sane long enough to hold off Aldreth. Nay. Nay. Nay. As long as he could draw breath, it would be nay.
The word fell from his parched cracking lips like drops of water falling to the ground.
He could not be certain there was even a point anymore. Surely Shaw had taken their clan into the Shadowrood by now where darkness could no longer touch them.
Shaw knew what had to be done and would not shirk from that responsibility.
The door swung inward, grating on the rusty hinges.
Toren used what little strength he had to lift his chin and attempt to face the witch head on.
The Healer Enchantress walked in and his resolve plummeted. Charity. So his suspicions were correct. She had been working with Aldreth all along.
'Twas a cruel turn of fate.
He let his head sink forward, no longer having the will to support it.
Truth be told, he had hoped to be wrong about her. He had started to seek out her image when Aldreth’s tortures became too much. He would recall the firm determination to her lips when she proclaimed she would save him. Even though it was possibly a lie. Had been a lie. He had been a fool, letting himself take hope and solace in her when it had all been another type of torture, a wicked game Aldreth and the Healer Enchantress contrived to get him to relax his guard.
“What has she done to you?” Her traitorous hand slipped onto his chest, warm and gentle, the other at his cheek, lifting his head so she could see into his face.
Lovely eyes peered up at him, brimming with convincing concern. He faltered, the desire to believe her worry was not false was overwhelming. His heart turned to ice caged within his ribcage. Nay. He would not be fooled again.
“He's feverish.” Edeen?
Toren jerked against his bindings. His muscles went rigid. Nay, his sister could not be here. His gaze flicked to the side where Edeen's beautiful image wavered, hazy and indistinct where she stood close to him beside the treacherous healer.
“Nay,” he rasped. “Please nay. Do not harm her.”
“Shhhh, it's going to be okay.” The healer cupped his cheeks to keep his gaze locked on her. “I promise.”
She promised.
His throat closed around a swelling knot.
She moved a little to the side, out of his view, her palms slip
ping from his face and déithe help him, he felt bereft of her touch.
Strong arms slipped around him, calloused hands at his back, bringing renewed fire to his shredded flesh where the lash tore into him. He was pulled away from the cold wall and brought into a firm strong chest and he felt himself lifted, the weight of his hanging body taken from his arms. He cried out at the sudden ease of pressure as icicles prickled across the length of his limbs.
“Soft, you,” Col's voice whispered close to his ear. “We have ye now.”
Col? A spasm rolled through Toren. 'Twas too much. They could not be here. They could not, but he was desperate to believe it. He let his forehead fall onto Col's shoulder. It felt so solid and real. His toes were lifted from off the stone as he was completely held aloft, the weight of his body no longer a burden on his overwrought arms.
“Can ye get the bands off or no?” Col's tone tipped with impatience, so like Col.
“I'm trying,” Edeen muttered and Toren grinned despite that they were concoctions of his fevered mind. They had to be. They could not be here, risking this.
Soft phrases, powerful spell words he couldn't quite focus on stirred around his skin, dizzying whispers of a fevered mind. Edeen's words floated like pale blue runes across his vision. The bands heated around his wrists, the telltale needling of a powerful spell being unwoven.
“'Tis not working,” Edeen cried. Of course she could not unbind the spell. She was not real.
The heat intensified and all at once Toren's arms released from the wall and dropped. He cried out at the abrupt pain the sudden movement on his swollen arms caused.
“The bands are still on him.” Col shifted him higher in his arms and his broken ribs and shredded back protested in agony too sharp to escape his throat. The lad bore the whole of his weight, which Toren thought was fairly impressive for a conjured imagining. “Aldreth will still retain a hold on him.”
“At least we’ve got him off the wall.”
“Worry about those later,” the enchantress voiced. “Let's just get him out of here.”
Apparently they were all in agreement for Col asked, “Are ye able to walk? Toren, are ye able to walk?”
