Rage flared up in him. Rob lurched toward her, undeterred by the army of dead warriors blanketing the meadow, ready to fight him.
“I killed Evers. I’ll destroy every one of you,” he shouted.
He staggered, knowing that the brightening light around him meant that death was coming. Even as he forced himself forward to free the woman he loved, his life was flowing out like the tide.
Her voice pierced his brain. “Do you have his tablet?”
Rob’s legs collapsed under his weight. He sank to one knee. His hand went to the pouch he’d taken from Evers once he knew the bastard was dead.
“Evers commanded the dead,” she shouted. “If you have his piece, you have the power.”
His strength was failing, but he managed to empty the pouch. Three stone fragments fell into his palm. One of them burned him. Wrapping his fist around it, he looked up at the fierce spectral army surrounding them.
A thousand warriors spread across the meadow, armed with their weapons of death. Fierce in leather and chain mail, their shadowy faces lifted to him, they stood waiting for the commands that would take them into battle once more.
“Be gone,” he rasped. “All of you. Be gone.”
It happened in an instant. They crumbled to the earth like dust. Where an army of the dead once stood, only heather and grass remained.
Rob’s gaze went to Miranda. He stretched out a hand toward her, but he could no longer hold himself upright. As he sank to the ground, he saw her beautiful face appear. She was holding him.
“Please don’t. Don’t die on me,” she whispered.
He dropped the three stones he’d taken from Evers on the ground and yanked the leather pouch from his belt.
“I know it’s too late,” he said, consciousness slipping away. “But I believe in you. I love you.”
Rob waited for the end. His past, his life, his memories all flickered through in his mind. He had no regrets for what he had done or for the man he had become. His only grief fixed on not having the years he yearned to spend with Miranda.
“Don’t go. Don’t give up,” she cried. “Open your eyes. Stay with me. Do you hear me? Please, Rob! Stay with me!”
A drop of rain landed on his lips, and he realized it was a teardrop from his beloved. He forced his eyes open to take one last look at her angelic face.
“You are my love, my hero.” She was weeping. “You made me see more than just the future for others. You helped me see a life for myself . . . with you.”
Her lips brushed against his. She caressed his hair, looking into his eyes.
“Please Rob. Look into my eyes, stay with me, think of what we planned,” she whispered. “We’ll get through this. You will heal. Believe it, my love. We’ve been through worse. You are the miracle of my life. Don’t disappear.”
There was so much he wanted to say to her. She was his. The Peregrine wasn’t the only thing of worldly value he was leaving behind. She needed to know where to go, whom to speak to. He wanted her to have it all. But there wasn’t enough air in his chest to push out the words.
“I’ll travel to the end of the world with you,” she said. “The two of us together. Dream with me, Rob. Don’t let go.”
He didn’t know where he found the strength, but he reached up and cradled her cheek. “Love . . . you.” His eyes drifted shut.
“We can do this, my love. You are the very breath in my chest, the light in my eyes. Believe it.”
Miranda’s voice grew distant. He heard vague muffled echoes of other voices around him, but he couldn’t understand them. She moved around him, lifting his head onto her lap.
Her last words echoed in his mind. Believe it. He thought for a moment about the power of the stone tablet. He had possessed it for only a few moments. But perhaps, if she took it now, she could raise him after he passed and he could explain. He closed his eyes, astounded at how far he had come to believe.
Fear unlike any she’d faced before gripped Miranda’s entire being. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. They’d just found each other. Air struggled to break free of her chest.
She followed the directions of the two women who surrounded her. She sat where they told her and held Hawk’s head in her lap. Her grief was a stab to the heart. The pain was sharp. If she could, she would lie down next to her beloved and close her eyes for eternity.
“Look at me, Miranda,” a soft voice whispered against her ear. “You’re not alone.”
A small hand rubbed her back. Soft fingers wiped the tears from her cheeks.
“Kenna has done this before. She’s saved many lives. Mine included,” the voice continued. “Believe in her. Look at him now. He needs you.”
Miranda forced her eyes open and stared down at the face of her beloved. The gray mask of death had replaced his handsome face. She shook her head as a sob wracked her body.
The woman sitting next to her clutched her hand and raised her chin, forcing her to look into sincere gray eyes.
“I know what he means to you. I see what you two have gone through,” she said softly. “I see the past and I know you can see the future. Touch his hand and see for yourself if he will recover.”
Miranda stabbed away the tears and really looked into the woman’s face. A slash of white hair amid thick dark locks lay against translucent skin. It was a face that conveyed kindness and wisdom.
The woman nodded. “We have the other fragments of the relic. I’m Innes. I see the past. That is Kenna. She has the power to heal.”
The brown-haired beauty was kneeling beside Hawk. Her hands hovered over his chest.
“Trust us,” said Innes. “Believe in us. We are your sisters.”
Miranda reached for Hawk’s hand.
Time trickled away, but death was coming slowly.
The pain in Rob’s chest was vanishing bit by bit. The hot rend caused by the blade was subsiding into a sensation of warmth. This must be death, he thought. Freedom from life’s suffering.
“Stay with us, my love.”
Miranda’s voice was in his ear again. Her lips brushed against his, and he opened his eyes. Her face was close. He stared into the flecks of gold in the brown depths.
A man’s voice jarred Rob. “The bleeding has stopped.”
He realized there were others gathered around him. The Sinclairs. The Macphersons. There was a leather-clad young man who must be Gavin; he looked so like Miranda. He saw Kenna crouched down beside Miranda, her hands spread just above his chest. She appeared to be in a trance.
Rob turned his attention back to Miranda. “What is this? What is she doing?”
“She is healing you, my love,” she whispered. “And you’re a believer now, so go along with it.”
Chapter 26
Miranda was angry about the role she’d played in the scheme. The Druid had tricked her into letting Hawk—carrying only a knife—walk into a fight with the heavily armed butcher. Now, sitting on the ground and holding her beloved, she wanted answers from the priest. Hawk had killed Evers, but he’d nearly died doing it.
“Evers could have killed him down there,” Miranda said angrily. “You never told me that Hawk would be the one facing him!”
“He was the only one who had a chance.” The Druid stood apart from the others. “He showed his courage at the river fighting the giant. And he was given a choice. When my warrior showed him the way into the crypt, he was told what he would be facing. He took the challenge aware of the risks.”
Miranda looked down at Hawk. His color was improving with every passing moment. He looked away into the distance, and Miranda followed his gaze. Beyond the circle, the giant was standing and watching them with the old woman at his side.
Remembering what Hawk said about his orders, his plans for the future, she wasn’t surprised that he would make that choice for himself . . . and for her.
Around them, a line of seabirds sat perched atop the circle of stones like tired jurors at the end of a trial.
“You are the defenders
of the Wheel of Lugh,” Innes said to the priest. “But you could not defeat Evers?”
“We can only do what is in our power. Many still practice the old religion, but we can only do so much.” He shrugged. “When the High King knew his time on Earth was nearly finished, he feared that his powers and his weapons would fall into the hands of evil men. He broke up the Wheel and had the fragments sent to the far corners of his kingdom. He gave the priests of the oak the task of protecting his crypt. We built many false crypts in caves to mislead those searching for Lugh. Only those carrying the fragments of the Wheel would know; the heat of the chamber would reject them and their tablet.”
Miranda recalled the chamber here on this island. The heat had been so intense it had caused her to pass out. While the Druid was talking, she watched Hawk pull the bloody shirt away from his chest and probe the place where the wound had been. Exchanging a look of wonder with her, he sat up straight and took a deep breath.
The Druid continued. “We spread rumors to keep this sacred island free of raiders. And we respond when the High King deigns to make his wishes known.”
“Weren’t you afraid that if Evers won the fight in the crypt, he would have all four tablets?” Kenna asked.
“Aye,” the priest replied. “And with his army of the dead, Evers would have killed all of you and us, as well.”
“What would have happened then?” Innes asked.
“Once he combined the four fragments of the Wheel,” the Druid said, “this island and everything on it would have been obliterated, wiped from the face of the Earth. One way or the other, Evers and his evil had to be destroyed.”
Miranda looked at the faces of the others as they tried to take in everything they were being told.
The Druid addressed Hawk. “When Evers raised his army of the dead, we needed you to kill him. And I believe the High King knew you would defeat the evil, or you wouldn’t have survived the seas and arrived on this island.”
Miranda squeezed Hawk’s arm, experiencing such a mix of emotions—relief, gratitude, pride, love.
“So what happens now?” Conall Sinclair asked.
“I have no power to command you to give up the power you each wield and return your pieces of the Wheel to the High King. But you were summoned here to do so.”
“I doubt any of these people want to rule the world,” Alexander said, “as Evers did.”
The priest looked at each of the women. “The tablets have been in your families for generations.” His gaze went to Hawk. “For you, it’s a newfound gift. All of you should remember that these stones were only given to you for their safekeeping. The true owner lies here.”
“If we agree to do as you ask, how can we give it up without sacrificing our lives?” Innes’s words were sobering. “The power we carry leaves us only at our death.”
“You will not die here,” the priest told them. “In the crypt beneath us, you will place the relic into the pool. When it is done, the power will leave you. But all of you must return your stone tablets.”
Miranda looked at Hawk and then the other women. They all had to agree. The Wheel had to be returned as a whole.
“Consider it. Talk of it amongst yourselves.” The man motioned down the hill to a grove of trees. “I’ll wait in my cottage. Fetch me when you decide. And if you choose to keep them, the skies are blue and the fog has lifted. You are welcome to leave.”
“I need to speak to my brother before I make a decision,” Miranda told the group as soon as the priest was gone.
It appeared that everyone else needed time to think it through as well. Miranda kissed Hawk on the lips and went out of the circle with Gavin at her side.
“I’m sorry that you were dragged into this,” she said to him as they walked through the meadow.
“Don’t be. Not long ago, I had no real family. I have a sister now . . . and a special one, at that.”
She took hold of his arm and stopped. “I believe this gift, the relic that was passed on to me by our mother, is as much yours as mine. That piece of stone is the last thing the two of us have of hers. If you want to keep it, I’ll see that after my death it will pass to you or your heirs and—”
“Stop.” Gavin placed both hands on her shoulders and looked steadily into Miranda’s eyes. “I don’t need a bit of stone to remind me, or connect me, with the woman who brought me into this world and saved my life. And I have already received the greatest gift of all . . . in you. I don’t need that relic. I don’t want it. You make the decision and be at peace with it. And no matter what happens here today, we are family, you and I. No one can take that away from us.”
Tears rushed into Miranda’s eyes. She wrapped her arms around her brother, and he held her tight. No longer was she alone. She now had her brother and she had Hawk.
By the time Miranda returned to the circle of standing stones, the sun was sinking in the west. She knew this was not an easy decision for any of them to make. Each had been given something special. She looked into the faces of Hawk and Kenna and Innes. She had no doubt they all were thinking the same thing.
And what would happen if only some were willing to part with their gift?
Miranda’s gaze fell on Innes and Kenna. Before today, she had never met these two women who, like her, had been entrusted with fragments of the Wheel. But after what they’d done for her and for Hawk, she felt a deep sense of kinship with them. Gavin had found a sister. She had found two.
Miranda knew the power each wielded. Aside from that, she knew nothing of their lives or how they each dealt with the vast responsibility they shouldered.
The three pieces of carved stone lay on the ground near Hawk. She knew one of them now belonged to him. She picked them up.
“Whether we decide to go down into that crypt or not, you need these.” She held them out, and Kenna and Innes approached. Hawk began to stand, and Conall tried to help him, but he shook his head.
“Thank you,” he said. “But I can do this.”
Miranda was holding them in the palm of her hand, and Hawk peered down at them.
“They look the same,” he said.
“The relic will go warm in the hand of its rightful owner,” Innes told him.
When the two women had theirs, Miranda put the third one in Hawk’s hand.
“I don’t want it,” he said.
“You have no say in this,” she replied. “None of us did. Evers is dead, and the relic is now yours until death . . . or whatever happens now.”
He took the stone from her and produced hers from the pouch at her feet. “And this is yours.”
“Nightfall is coming,” Alexander said, taking Kenna’s hand. “You all need to decide.”
“And you all need to make the same decision,” Conall added. “The priest was clear.”
Miranda looked into Hawk’s face and knew their decision. He caressed her face and nodded.
“We’ll give ours up,” she said to the others.
“As will I,” Innes said, relief evident in her face.
Kenna studied them for a long moment and then looked at her husband before nodding.
“As will I,” she said, looking around. “But I want you to know that I’ve seen only good come from possessing this relic. My journey has been very different from yours. Although, like both of you, I’ve needed to run for my life because of it, I’ve found a joy in what I can do for others, in what I have done for you. Still, I know what we must do.”
Miranda knew what she meant. Her own life would be very different without the relic. Even though she’d possessed the power and the responsibility for just a short time, she’d grown up in the presence of it. But she’d seen that her mother had never had a chance to live her own life. Muirne never complained, but her entire existence had centered on the fate of others, and on hiding her gift. Miranda had shared that life with her and shared the fears. Fear was a part of their life. Fear for themselves, for her family, for her clan. Her mother had died too young, and Miranda wondered
if fear played a part in that, too.
Miranda’s attention returned to the three people who now shared the relics. Hawk was a man of reason. She knew he’d have no interest in keeping the power over the dead. Kenna had spoken her mind. But Innes and her quick willingness to part with the gift was a mystery. Miranda wondered what hardships she’d suffered while protecting her portion of the Wheel.
Miranda asked Gavin to go and relay their wishes to the old woman as the rest of them made their way down the stairs to the crypt.
Hawk was still unsteady on his feet, and the two Highlanders were by his side as they maneuvered through the passage. Down in the belly of the cave, Evers’s body was already gone. Miranda guessed the giant had seen to that.
Before long, the Druid joined them in the crypt. The four of them took their places around the stone pool with their loved ones looking on. Several torches flared from the great oak pillars.
“You have all decided to surrender your portion of the Wheel and the powers you have been given?” the Druid asked.
“We have,” Innes said. “And I do so happily. This responsibility has been no gift for me or for the women of my family. Though we have used our ability to see into the past for the good of those around us, pain and even death have been our reward.”
As she placed the tablet on the glowing surface of the water, they were all surprised to see the stone remain there, floating like a leaf on a still pond.
Kenna was next. “I relinquish my gift with regret,” she said. “To heal the wounded and the sick is a dangerous gift in this time of envy and suspicion, but my ability has eased the pain of many people, and I shall be heartily sorry to lose that.”
She placed her tablet in the cauldron, and it floated like the other.
Hawk held out his stone fragment and examined it before speaking. “I now understand why these gifts are so valuable. I have seen unchecked ambition in the world, and I know what the desire for power and riches can do to a man. I have seen it in my own family. The ability to call up the dead—to communicate with them and to command them—is a gift of terrifying power, but it is not a gift for me. I’ve built my life on the real, on facts, and on logic. And though this island has shaken those beliefs at their very foundation, I still believe that knowledge and power must be earned. And yet, even as I hold it in my hand, I feel how it could corrupt a man.” He looked around at the others, his eyes coming to rest on Miranda’s face. “But I am not that man.”
Tempest in the Highlands (The Scottish Relic Trilogy) Page 19
