by Jane Stain
Amber put her elbows behind her and used them to help her sit up. As she did so, she noticed the stone block construction of the small but nicely appointed bedroom they were in. Its windows were skinny and tall, barely letting in any light, but it did have a warmly burning fireplace. More light came from candles in holders on the walls. Aside from the bed, there was just an armchair and a dresser with a pitcher and bowl on top of it.
Sasha was sitting in the armchair. She waved.
With a heavy sigh, Amber sat up in the bed and threw her legs over the side, waved back, then turned to Kelsey.
“I didn’t get here by myself. Are you kidding? I had no idea. Sulis must have brought me here. She was wearing a white druid robe like you described, and she was singing out in the grass. I followed her down a rope ladder over the cliff into a cave that led to the underground castle, and she led me on a merry chase. She must have taken me back in time while she did so—”
“Did you get dizzy?”
“Yeah, really dizzy. But Kelsey, that’s not the scariest part. Her song hypnotized me. It made me want to jump off the cliff.”
Kelsey sat down on the bed next to Amber and hugged her, then jumped up and went and got a parcel Amber hadn’t noticed before.
“Fortunately, we’re apprenticed to a weaver here, and she likes to sew. There’s lots of extra clothes lying around. They don’t have sizes, but I think these will fit.”
Amber got up and put the outfit on. It was much like Kelsey and Sasha’s, only more green and yellow, less brown. While she changed, Kelsey and Sasha exchanged worried looks.
When she had finished dressing and adjusting, Amber put her hands on both of their shoulders.
“Please, tell me what’s going on. I always thought it would be fun if I could go back in time. Why are druids making me jump off cliffs?”
Kelsey furtively glanced at the door.
“How about if we let the guys come in so that Tavish can explain?”
Amber looked at the door too.
“Is Tomas out there?”
Kelsey nodded yes.
There wasn’t a mirror in the room, or Amber would’ve been in front of it checking herself out. Not having that way to stall, she simply ran her fingers through her bed hair and then nodded yes in return.
Tomas was scowling at her when he came in, but it wasn’t a strong scowl. His face looked more worried than angry.
“Why did you have to go and wander away from that spot? I got Tavish as quickly as I could, and we went back there and you were gone.”
Kelsey appealed to Tavish with her eyes, and her boyfriend put his hand on his twin’s arm.
“Let it go, okay? She’s had a shock, and she fainted after nearly falling off a cliff.”
Tomas opened his mouth to argue, but then he nodded up once and turned aside and crossed his arms.
Amber went over into his line of sight.
“What’s going on, Tomas?”
And just like that, all the animation left his face. He got a glazed look in his eyes and didn’t answer.
Kelsey gave Amber a significant look that said ‘I told you Sulis put a spell on him.’
Tavish stepped forward and took Amber’s arm, walking her away from Tomas.
“To make a long story short, our ancestor made a pledge to a druid a long time ago — well actually, it’s in the future right now. Anyway, every fourth born son in our family has to serve the druids if he lives to be twenty-five. I’m the fourth born son, and I’ve been serving them for nearly six years—”
Amber cut in, gesturing back and forth between Tavish and Tomas.
“But your twenty-fifth birthday was only six months ago.”
Tavish nodded.
“Yes, but I’ve been here — in the past — for six years on-and-off during those six months. No time passes back home while I’m here. This magic ring they gave me on my birthday is set that way.” He held up his right hand and showed her a silver ring that looked uncannily like the rings Sasha and Kelsey wore on their right hands.
Now Tomas scowled at his brother.
“Would you quit bragging about your time traveling ring?”
Fortunately, Tavish didn’t get in an argument with his brother, just swallowed and looked back at Amber, still holding his right hand up and showing her the ring.
“Ironically, the young druid known as Lachlan the Dark — the one who tried to run you off the cliff the other night — thinks he can hide here in the past. He’s working on enslaving humans in our time, and we’re trying to catch him. With this ring, I can take you back to our time if you want. But I think it’s safer if we all stay here together.”
Amber gasped.
“Uh, yeah. If he can go back and forth in time at will — and he’s trying to enslave people in our time — and all of you are here? Yeah, I’m staying here with you.”
Tomas spoke up again, with his eyebrows wrinkled at Amber.
“It appears that you can go back and forth in time at will by yourself too. What’s up with that? And you never explained why you came here without changing into period clothing, putting us all in danger.”
He had to be kidding.
Now it was Amber’s turn to scowl at Tomas, and she did so with a dropped jaw.
“I didn’t bring myself here. I had no idea anyone could. It was Sulis. She sang some sort of song and it hypnotized me and almost made me jump off the cliff.”
At the mention of Sulis’s name, something snapped in Tomas. All the anger drained out of him, and he slowly turned on his heel and left the room without saying a word.
Tavish went after his brother.
“I’m sorry,” he said over his shoulder.
Amber stood there just taking one breath after the other, trying to calm down. What were they going to do about Tomas? Any mention of Sulis, and his brain went to mush. He had seemed almost normal up until she mentioned the druidess. Why had she done that?
Kelsey put a hand on Amber’s shoulder.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t blame yourself. I can tell that’s what you’re doing. Remember this is Sulis’s fault, not yours. Stay strong and positive. Remember, when all is said and done, you’re probably the only one who can get through to him. He needs you, Amber.”
Amber looked around the room.
“I want to go to bed. Is this where we’re all staying while we’re here? Because it seems pretty small for the four of us, and that’s not including the witch with a B.”
Kelsey gave Amber a minor smile at her little joke.
“No. In fact, Sulis has charmed Laird Malcomb into giving Tomas this castle room. Her magical powers are mighty, I can tell you — so long as she renews them out in nature daily. That’s where she is right now. The laird’s own nephew Seumas sleeps in the barracks along with Tavish and the other guards, while Tomas — a complete stranger to the laird — gets a room in the castle. But not only has she convinced the laird to give Tomas this room, she has also convinced him to put Tomas in charge of the underground castle guards, usurping part of the command of Laird Malcomb’s elder nephew, Eileen’s fiance Alfred, Seumas’s older brother.”
Amber made a face at Kelsey.
“Yeah, I didn’t follow all that. I was with you so far as Tomas has this room in the castle when he really shouldn’t, and Tomas is in charge of the guards of the underground palace when he shouldn’t be. The rest of it was just a bunch of names I don’t know.”
Kelsey pursed her lips.
“Understandable. But you need to understand—”
Amber stretched her arms out and yawned.
“Can’t we just go to our room at the inn and take a nap before I have to digest anything more today?”
Kelsey scrunched up her mouth.
“’Fraid not. This castle has spawned a town, but not a big enough town to support an inn. Nope. We’re staying with Eileen, the weaver I’m apprenticed to, the one whose fiance Alfred is the rightf
ul captain of the guard. And we’re helping Eileen and Sasha plan their double wedding to Alfred and his brother Seumas.”
Seachd (7)
That evening at the front of the great hall of the castle, Tomas set his pewter goblet down on the long wooden plank table and sighed with satisfaction, then turned to smile at his beautiful Sulis, who was seated in the highest place next to Laird Malcomb. For this feast was in her honor, as every feast rightfully should be.
Gazing into her sapphire eyes, he almost forgot what he was going to say. Oh yeah.
“I didna ken they had such good wine here, or I should hae come sooner.”
She turned to the laird.
“Did ye hear that, Laird Malcomb? Tomas gives his compliments on the wine. He’s sae thoughtful, on top o being such a capable captain for yer dock guards.”
The laird of the castle smiled the smile of a man truly pleased to have a lovely woman ministering to his needs. He was suitably grateful that she was arranging things so advantageously for him. Good on him, because she was saving him the trouble of finding a good dock guard captain such as himself.
But the laird’s wife, seated on his other side, stared daggers at Sulis. Silly woman. Sulis was with Tomas. There was no need to defend her territory.
Heat rose in his body, from his shoulders up into his head.
No one should look at Sulis disrespectfully.
Not and get away with it.
As it was his duty to see that this didn’t happen again, Tomas calmly put his hands on his chair arms in preparation to get up and go strangle the lady of the castle.
But beautiful Sulis put a hand on his shoulder, staying him. She put her mouth up against his ear and breathed into it, and calm washed through him. She stood up instead, addressing not only the laird, but the whole room of a hundred revelers whom the laird had gathered to do her honor, as was proper and only her due.
She raised her pewter goblet to them.
“Tae happy company!”
They all raised their tankards to her, for they were drinking ale at the lower tables.
“Tae happy company!”
They started to turn away, but she raised her hands up prettily and kept their attention with her lovely voice.
“I dae believe ‘tis time the dancing began. I wish tae stretch my legs. Laird Malcomb, will ye tell the musicians tae start?”
Eager to please her — as he well should be — Laird Malcomb nodded at Sulis and then at the musicians, who were already assembling on their stage, brushing off food crumbs and still chewing. They knew they had better hop to it, or face her temper. Sulis had this place whipped into shape after only a week, she was so good at what she did.
Tomas turned to his goddess and smiled his congratulations for a successful feast in her honor.
She petted the back of his neck, and warm pleasure shot through him with the promise of what was to come later on that evening. And then she turned away from him, forcing him to focus on the room again.
He saw that Tavish and Kelsey’s red-haired woman friend was one of the musicians, and she smiled with extra pleasure at being up on stage before she put her flute to her lips and played, dancing about to the beat. Her man Seumas stood in front of her clapping, and admiring her beauty, no doubt.
And then Sulis grabbed Tomas’s hand and pulled him up and paraded with him proudly over to the dance area in the center of this great hall.
Tavish and Kelsey smiled and made as if to join their dance set, but Sulis turned her back on them. They should have known better. Tavish might be his brother, but he was only a common soldier, while he, Tomas, was captain of the dock guards.
The thought made him stand up straighter and swagger a little.
Instead of Tavish and Kelsey, all the most prominent people in the hall joined Tomas and Sulis’s dance set. Well, the laird himself stayed at the table, presiding over the event, but his sons and their wives joined, along with his nephew Alfred — Tomas’s fellow captain of the guard — and the nephew’s fiancé, Eileen, the weaver who Kelsey was apprenticed to in this time.
And all of this honoring was only Sulis’s due, to have the admiration and respect and homage of everyone.
She was so beautiful, his Sulis. So, so, so beautiful standing opposite him in the dance set clapping her hands prettily and smiling at everyone and nodding in time to the hammered dulcimer while the laird’s eldest son and his wife swung down the line.
How nice it had been of the laird to give Sulis and him a room in his castle.
No, not nice, only what Sulis deserved.
Tomas smiled back at her, willing all of his gratitude to shine through.
She cozied up to him while the dance set allowed it and breathed her lovely warm juniper-scented breath on him while speaking softly to him.
“I see how ye look tae yer brother. Look again. Mayhap he’s been coming here for years, but ye hae it better after only a week. He and his friend Seumas are just guards here. Their lasses are just a weaver’s apprentice and a flute player. Ye, Tomas, hae a room here in the castle. Ye are a captain o the guard. Ye are important.”
It all made him shiver in delight.
He danced proudly by her side the rest of the evening while his brother and his brother’s friends watched enviously.
~*~
She was with him that night again in his castle room, and it was glorious.
He woke from a joyous sleep to see her dressing in her white linen robes. It was nearly sunrise, but they didn’t have to get up yet. Breakfast wasn’t for another hour.
Quite groggy, he fought with his lazy tongue in order to speak.
“Don’t go.”
“Aw, I must, my angel, but I’ll come back.”
“Take me with you.”
She finished dressing and sat down on the bed, then leaned down and breathed in his ear again, making him tingle all over.
“I can’t. Stay near the castle, in this time, until I return. Obey Laird Malcomb.”
“I will.”
She left, but he was no longer worried. Quite the opposite. She had something important to do out there in the woods in her white robe. What she needed to do was the priority. She would return and be with him again, and only that mattered.
He thought of her pretty face and lovely body as he gave himself a sponge bath with water from the pitcher on top of the dresser. He thought of her silky spun-gold hair as he dressed for the day in his kilt and humongous-sleeved linen shirt, plaid blanket wrap, and heavy boots. Her birdsong voice was on his mind while he went down the stairs toward the great hall to break his night’s fast.
He sat down and was served a plate full of fried eggs, ham, and baked beans. There was a sturdy mug of ale to go with it. He was happily tucking in when someone sat next to him and plunked down a plate of self-serve food. Not a resident of the castle, then.
He looked up with the amount of condescension in his face that Sulis had encouraged. She’d said he mustn’t allow his inferiors any room to question him or doubt him — that he must be superior at all times around those he was in charge of — namely, the underground castle guards.
He didn’t know them all yet, and so he had to be that way with all the guards. And since he didn’t know who was a guard and who was just a craftsman at the castle on an errand, he had to be that way with everyone.
Logic.
Sulis was teaching him, and he was grateful.
But he turned his head and saw not a stranger, but his brother Tavish. Well, Tavish was one of the guards. And he’d done his duty in the underground castle before. So…
“What are ye doing here at the castle, Tavish? Should na ye be eating wherever it is the barracks guards eat?”
Tavish raised his eyebrows.
“Ye hae na been paying attention. This is where we lowly barracks guards eat, Captain.”
He said ‘Captain’ as if it were a dirty word, but he said it. Tomas would let that go. For now.
“Well, ye should na be si
tting next tae me, ye ken? I’ve got tae keep up appearances. Make sure the men ken my station.” He looked over at another table where some men were gathered together. “Ye should go sit with them.”
Tavish pursed his lips and made an angry face and shook his head. And lowered his voice to a hiss.
“If ye were na my brother… But ye are. Still and all, I care about ye. Ye hae been acting sae different syne this Sulis came intae yer life. It isna flattering for ye, Tomas. Dae ye na see that? Should ye na be in charge o yerself?”
His brother’s words made Tomas’s jaw and fists clench.
“And if ye were na my brother… but ye are, and sae ye shall live. But dinna sit at my table again. And ye are na tae speak with me till I hae spoken tae ye. And dinna speak o Sulis in that manner. Is that clear?”
Tavish didn’t answer. He just got up, grabbed his food, and stomped over to the other table. Once there, however, he smiled and laughed with his fellow guards while they ate together.
The base of Tomas’s pewter tankard made a dent in the wooden table when he put it down, causing it to spill his ale all over. Some splashed on him.
Cursing and brushing himself off, he jumped up to go back to his room.
“Ye there! Coome and clean up this mess at once.”
Tavish could be civil and even jovial with these strangers from another time, but he couldn’t give his own brother the respect due his station? Who needed him. Kelsey would probably see how much trouble he was soon and leave him. It wasn’t like they were married or anything. Why had his brother even let her get close to him?
And there it was.
A vision of Amber swam before Tomas, the way she had been in that room inside his new domain: the underground palace. Her amber eyes were soft and affectionate whenever she looked at him, and her face appealed to him every time their eyes met.
What was she doing here at this site, let alone here in the past? Didn’t she remember they couldn’t be together?
