by Jane Stain
“See that little cranny in the rocks that looks like a clown?”
She tried her best to enjoy taking this slow and have a good time and appreciate the small things. She really did.
“It does!”
They walked along the cliff line some more, commenting on this little nook and that little cranny, this flower or that fern. And still all she could think about was grabbing him and sticking her tongue in his mouth, dueling tongues with him, then going home and telling her parents they were back together.
It was a sunny day, and they pointed out where they could see buildings sticking up on the shoreline of distant Ireland across the sea. And she imagined what it would be like to move to Australia with him and help run the faire. So exciting! The life she had always wanted but never dared to dream about…
They picked up seashells.
Combed designs in the sand with sticks for the waves to wash away.
Watched sand crabs burrow.
Built a sandcastle.
And midway through their date, she was able to stop dreaming of their future and just live in the moment. She had a wonderful time. All the while they also played a game of tag, where one would run and the other would chase. It was how they were accustomed to being together, having last dated when they were teens.
A few hours later when they had completed their circle around their private oasis, Tomas hugged her close with the sea breeze whistling through their hair and the seagulls calling out as they soared in circles through the air overhead and Ireland gradually disappearing into the mist across the sea.
And then his lips were on hers.
It was a spontaneous kiss, born out of delight at the scenery and how fun it was to be exploring this together, playing together.
Wanting more, Amber grabbed ahold of him with a reckless abandon born from wanting him so much this past week and not being able to act on it. She poured her heart into kissing him back, opening her mouth to deepen the kiss and holding him close to show him just how much she’d missed him, just how much she loved him.
But he didn’t respond in kind.
No, his arms dropped to his sides and the look on his face was…
Well, it was a look of bafflement, really.
Amber’s blood boiled.
The stupid spell was still getting in the way!
She kicked sand onto Tomas’s legs to try and snap him out of his stupor.
“Tell me right now, do you want to be with me, or Sulis?”
He didn’t even answer her, just stood there with his forehead wrinkled, not saying anything.
That was it. She was so pissed off, she was back up the hill in no time and on top of the horse and galloping away without him.
Sia Deug (16)
Well, this was awkward. She was riding up to the stable on the horse before she remembered that guard she’d told that Tomas needed his sleep. And this was the smallest of small towns she had ever been to. Everyone and their mother likely knew now that she had slept in Tomas’s room with him — before he broke up with Sulis.
So now on top of everything else, her face was beet red when she approached the stable hand, an older man who vaguely resembled her uncle. Great.
Quick as she could, she dismounted and handed the man the reins, then turned to leave.
But of course she didn’t get away that easily.
“Hey now, lass. This is the horse Tomas took oot. Where is he?”
~*~
Tomas was both relieved and embarrassed when one of his guards showed up on the trail back to Laird Malcomb’s castle from Maidenhead Bay — leading an extra horse. Mostly, he was glad to get back in the saddle after walking for an hour. No, mostly he was angry at Amber for leaving him in that embarrassing situation.
Maybe he was a little angry at himself. One moment he’d been kissing Amber — and loving it. The next moment, he’d been standing there like a simpleton, unable to decide what to do or say, just simply stupefied.
What the blazes had come over him? Why had he let himself hurt yet again the woman who had left her whole life behind to fly to him?
As the horses’ hooves clopped over the mossy roots of the forest, this question kept running through his mind. He found that he suspected Sulis had something to do with it — but he couldn’t say why. It was just there, the thought that she would do something if she found out he was kissing Amber. He certainly didn’t have any love in his heart for Sulis.
Quite the opposite, really.
He had ridden up to the stable and dismounted and was handing the stable hand his reins when the older man spoke to him.
“The lass what stole yer horse is being held in yer chamber.”
Hearing this, Tomas’s body went rigid, ready to run to her and fight for her freedom. And then terrible visions came to his mind.
“They didna hurt her, did they?”
To Tomas’s relief, the stable hand shook his head no, although he did have a teasing look in his eyes, as if he were bursting to ask Tomas how Amber had gotten his horse from him. Thankfully, the man had more sense than to ask.
“They await yer orders.”
Tomas breathed a sigh of relief. He had to try and remember how brutal this place could be. He didn’t like it at all. He should have gone after Amber and not let her return here alone. What was wrong with him?
“I thank ye.”
The gray stone hallways and stairways of the castle whizzed by along with several people he merely nodded at on his quest to get to Amber before they did hurt her. What was the punishment for horse thievery in these times? He ran harder. It might be death.
Heaving for breath, he pushed into his chamber, ready to throw out anyone who had lifted a finger against her.
But he found Amber sitting in the one chair in the room, laughing and talking with the two guards who stood on either side of the door.
“Och, I dae wish ye could hae seen him. Head tae toe in mud he was, and chasing the rest o us aboot like a moor monster! Och, there ye are, Tomas. Ye got here faster than I thought ye would. I was just telling these guards about the fun times we used tae hae together in oor village.”
At first, the guards smiled at him in appreciation of her story, but then they seemed to remember themselves, and they stood up to attention, looking like they were afraid of reprimand.
Why were they afraid of him?
Doing his best to put them at ease, Tomas smiled back and rolled his eyes to show them that yes, Amber’s tale was true, and he didn’t like to think about it.
“Ye are dismissed. Leave us.”
At this, the guards definitely smirked at him as if to say they knew exactly why he wanted to be alone with this pretty lass.
He put the air of command on his face and raised his chin at them.
They got the message and beat it out of there quickly, closing the door behind them.
Tomas turned to Amber.
“I can’t believe you left me there to walk home.”
Amber shrugged, not looking at all sheepish. No, she looked more like the wolf. She even gave him a few notes of sharp derisive laughter. She got up while she spoke, and paced the room, alternately making wild gestures and giving him heated stares.
“Are you kidding? You deserved it. You kissed me, Tomas. All I did was respond to you — and then you looked at me like I was nuts. That’s no way to treat a stranger, let alone an old friend who cares about you, unlike… the people you choose to spend your time with. I really don’t get it, Tomas. You’re so hot and cold. I want to believe you care about me, and sometimes I do believe it. And then you go and do something like pull away when I’m kissing you. Your embarrassment at having to be picked up by the guards is nothing compared to how that felt for me.”
Her ferocity amazed and attracted him like nothing else ever had, and her determination to get what she wanted, because that was him. A warm spot heated up in his heart at that thought.
But she was trying to push past him and get to the door.
“I can’t stand to be here in this room with you one more second, Tomas. You need to make up your mind who you’re going to be with and quit playing with me like I’m some toy you keep to the side until your woman comes back to you.”
What?
He put his arms around her.
“Amber, I already told you. I broke up with Sulis. She is out of my life once and for all. Don’t go.”
She squeezed him tight then.
“Oh Tomas, really?”
He deepened their embrace.
“Really.”
And then he gave her the loving kiss he should’ve returned earlier.
~*~
Amber awoke with a start. What the heck was she doing here? This room still smelled like Sulis. Sure, he had broken up with her, but he hadn’t said that she and he were together. He had simply kissed her and expected her to stay with him, with no assurance it meant anything beyond warming his bed for the night. There wasn’t even the excuse that she was here for her safety, now that Lachlan had sailed away.
How could she have been so stupid?
Glancing over to make sure he was deep asleep — which he was — she pulled herself together and hightailed it to Eileen’s house, not looking at any of the guards or the few townsfolk who were out and about at the crack of dawn. She didn’t want to see the pity on their faces. Pity for the woman who was the plaything and not the wife or even the girlfriend.
She would wake Kelsey up and make her go get Tavish so he could take her back to her own time. If Tomas really did want to be with her, then he would come back to her. And right now, all she could think was fat chance of that happening.
He had admitted that life here in the past seemed like playing pretend. Well, she wasn’t going to pretend with him. She was either his partner in real life, or just a memory. And he had better come back soon and say so. Seven years was all the time she had to waste, and that time had already been wasted.
Not about to knock and wake everyone up, she opened Eileen’s door as quietly as she could — and saw that the place had been ransacked, torn to bits. Heart thudding in her chest with worry, she searched all the rooms, but not a soul was to be found, dead or alive. She needed to go tell the guards! But a hand came from behind her to cover her mouth, and a sudden spell washed over her, knocking Amber out cold.
Seachd Deug (17)
Amber was dreaming. Kelsey’s face kept appearing in the shadows of the woods. Her friend was talking, but no sound came out. Amber cupped her hand around her ear and shook her head, trying to tell Kelsey she couldn’t hear her. But her friend just kept talking. She had an urgent look on her face, as if what she was saying was critically important. Amber strained to hear, but she couldn’t.
Gradually, the dream faded away until Amber was aware of a cold hard stone surface pressing up against her back and head. Her arms were stretched back around the slender cold stone and tightly secured at her wrists. She could move them up and down a little, and when she did, she felt the leather cord that tied them together scraping against the stone she leaned against.
Admitting she was awake meant she could listen to the voices a few dozen feet away in front of her. At first, she just heard a man’s voice asking questions, in modern-day English. But then a woman started answering, and she had a Southern accent. Sulis.
“I’m truly glad you want to help me with the ritual, but remember, it is far more important for you to keep an eye out in case someone comes.”
“What should I do if someone does happen along?”
“Don’t you say a thing. Just kill them before they know what hit them.”
“Yes, Mistress.”
Amber gasped and cautiously cracked her eyes open the tiniest bit.
She was in a church graveyard, tied to a gravestone. It was early evening, just about dark but not too cold yet. She saw a little church, a bunch of gravestones, and a forest all around them with trees so thick she felt walled-in. Owls hooted in the trees, lending that spooky atmosphere she had felt near Elsbeth’s without the good enchantress nearby to allay her fears.
Spread all over her clothes were flowers, and at her feet, brambles were heaped up. Something prickly rested on top of her head. She tried to shake it off, but it was snug.
And not thirty feet away, Sulis and Lachlan tended a big fire in their white robes.
Amber wanted to scream and have someone come help her, but the druids were the only two people near enough to hear her. And she sure enough didn’t want their attention. Instead, she kept working the leather cord up and down on the other side of the gravestone.
Lachlan sounded whiney as he went on.
“You know I would do anything for you, Sulis, unlike some people.”
Sulis stopped tending the fire and turned her deceptively pretty face to the other druid. She took his hand in hers and softened her tone when she next spoke.
“Oh sugar, you know I was just dating Tomas in order to put him under the spell.”
She tooted a derisive laugh.
“It was so cute of him to break up with me, like that would make any difference. He’ll still be a wonderful slave once the ritual is complete and the spell takes hold completely. I have him set up as Captain of the guard, you know. I’ll be able to loot all the relics in this time, before that busybody Kelsey and her modern-day client can ever get ahold of them.”
The big sleeve of Sulis’s white linen robe billowed as she gestured over toward Amber.
“Only recently did I realize someone was preventing all that.”
Lachlan laughed that evil laugh he had. It gave Amber the shivers before he even spoke.
“Glad I was able to help in capturing that someone for you.”
Sulis raised her chin and stuck a pose.
“I really don’t get what he sees in her. I’m much prettier.”
Apparently emboldened by her obvious fish for compliments, Lachlan dropped his voice lower to something that was supposed to sound sexy, but it just made Amber roll her eyes.
“Of course you are. You are perfection.”
Sulis laughed at that in her sickeningly sweet false modest way that made Amber throw up a little in her mouth. And then the two of them kissed.
Amber scraped the cord against the back of the headstone as hard as she could.
But Sulis made quick work of kissing Lachlan back into submission mode.
“All right, let’s get on with the ritual. Once this is done, nothing will stand in the way of Tomas’s complete obedience to me. Hand me that rag to catch the blood, will you?”
Blood?
At that, Amber’s eyes popped open wide.
Sulis was coming toward her with evil in her eyes, holding a dagger.
Wait… was that…? It was!
Sulis was brandishing the very same dagger that had been tucked in Tavish’s belt after he had left with a different dagger that day in modern times in the underground palace. How had Sulis gotten the dagger?
Oh.
Kelsey had mentioned something about giving it to… The druids.
Amber started trembling.
Because behind Sulis, Tomas was rushing out of a hiding place to stop the druidess. He was close enough that he was going to catch her. He was also close enough that he had heard everything — and seen Sulis and Lachlan kissing.
Tomas’s arms came out. Two more seconds and he would grab hold of Sulis’s waist and tackle her.
But Lachlan was running toward Tomas, and he tackled Tomas before Tomas reached Sulis.
Ochd Deug (18)
Amber feared for Tomas’s life as he wrestled with Lachlan on the graveyard grass. Because the druids didn’t fight fair. Someone had used magic to knock Amber out at Eileen’s house, and it must’ve been Lachlan, kidnapping her for his slave-mistress.
But Amber had to tear her eyes away from Tomas and Lachlan’s fight.
Because Sulis was still running toward her with that nasty dagger sticking out in front of her. The druides
s’s white robes billowed out behind her like flags waving in the wind, and there was a crown of leaves and brambles and flowers on her head. Her hair was down, wild and frizzy. She held the dagger in her right hand and a rag to collect Amber’s blood in her left.
Amber furiously dragged the leather cord up against the back of the gravestone as hard as she could — and it snapped. Just in time, too. Sulis was lunging at her with the dagger. Purely by instinct, Amber brought her arms forward just in time to tear the dagger out of the witch’s hands. The impact threw Sulis off balance, and she went tumbling through the grass and fall leaves.
But Amber’s attention was riveted on the dagger.
For as soon as she touched it, the dagger began speaking in her mind.
“Wull met, sweet lass. I am Galdus, king o auld, now residing inside this dagger. Sae long as ye possess me, ye will hae my undying loyalty. I am sae glad ye rescued me from that evil druidess. I dinna want tae serve the likes o her. Howsoever, I will gladly serve ye. And tae that end, I dae tell ye now: in but a moment she will get up and come throttle ye with her hands — unless ye stab her in the heart with me. Dae it! Dae it now!”
Glancing over at Sulis, Amber saw the truth in what the dagger had told her. The druidess was getting up. She seemed none the worse for her fall, and she had threatened to drain Amber’s blood in order to safeguard her false-love spell on Tomas.
Galdus spoke up again.
“’Tis tae late tae go after her. Lie here in wait with me prepared, and as soon as ye see the whites o her eyes, raise me up and she will land right on me and impale herself. Ye dinna hae tae fash about having her blood on yer hands, for twill be her own intent that does her in. Aye, ‘tis a good way tae go aboot it. Good on ye for waiting till the evil lass came toward ye. Bide a bit. Bide a bit. She’s a coming. Now!”
Amber raised Galdus up just as Sulis dove on her. The weight of the woman pushed the dagger down toward the ground, and Amber’s arm was against the grass when she felt the dagger go in. And then the weight was gone.
Amber opened her eyes to find that Sulis had dissolved into a pile of ashes: white robe, garland of flowers, and all. Relief washed over Amber, allowing all of her limbs to relax and her heart to calm. A deep breath filled her lungs.
