by Hazel Hunter
Lily took her stockinged feet out and hid the shoes behind the wood pile. Crouching over, she made her way through the dead plants in the garden until she reached the edge, and peered out into the yard. Giants stood sentry at every door leading into the mill, but they’d all gone into what she thought of as their sleep mode, standing still with their eyes closed. As long as she didn’t make any sound she wouldn’t rouse them.
It still took all her nerve to pad silently over to the blocked door of the granary. Several rocks bruised her toes and heels along the way, but the cold soon numbed her feet. She didn’t have the strength to move the big mill stone the druids had used to block the granary’s door. Pushing the heavy wheel aside with her power would also make noise, so instead she shifted it at an angle away from the door and held it there as she slipped inside. Once out of sight she wedged it back in place.
Out of the shadows Rowan appeared, a spear in each hand.
“It’s okay, Florence,” the carpenter said, lowering the weapons. “Stover’s come back from the dead.”
Lily found herself being hugged by the carpenter, which oddly didn’t bother her in the slightest.
“Perrin promised she’d let you know,” Lily told her.
“She never got the chance. Murdina took her and locked her up.” Rowan stepped back and grinned at the wide-eyed nurse. “We go get my big sis, and then we’re out of here.”
“Not quite yet.” Quickly Lily explained the situation. “Cade and I need another day to work out a diversion. Be prepared to go as soon as the sun sets. Where are they keeping Perrin?”
“Maybe somewhere in the mill,” Emeline said and squinted at Lily’s face. She took a piece of rag from her pocket. “You’ve another nosebleed, lass.”
“Thanks.” She blew and mopped up, but the bleeding had already stopped. “Rowan, can you get word to Perrin, or find out exactly where they’re keeping her?”
“I think they’ve got her in the wood shed behind the mill,” the carpenter said. “It’s the only place Ochd wouldn’t let me go near while we were working on the wagon. You did a number on it, by the way.”
“The old cart I dropped?” When Rowan nodded Lily frowned. “Why would he have you fix it? They’d already begun taking it apart before me.”
Rowan’s smile faded. “Murdina dragged Perrin away to force me to help Ochd fix it. She threatened to whip her if I didn’t.”
“Maybe she’s testing you,” Emeline said. “To learn what sort of power you have. They never saw what you did at the forest farm.”
“Yeah, that has to be it.” Rowan looked oddly shaken. “Anyway, what else do you need us to do before tomorrow night, Lily?”
She eyed the spears the other woman still held. “Make more of those, and would you give me and Emeline some privacy? I need her advice about a medical problem.”
Rowan nodded and retreated to the back of the granary. Once she was out of earshot Lily explained to the nurse her only other concern.
“He could be lying,” Emeline admitted. “But you’d find out the truth only after it’s too late to stop it.”
“He’s made lots of threats, but this…this sounded real.” Lily nodded to herself. “Please don’t tell anyone. I’ll deal with it once we’re safe.”
Chapter Seven
UNABLE TO SLEEP, Ruadri Skaraven rose from his pallet and dressed in darkness scented by sage smoke. He’d cleansed his private chamber thrice since returning to Dun Mor, and still it felt more like a coffin than a room. No matter how many torches he lit, shadows lingered in nooks and crannies like so many dark eyes, watching and waiting. Ruadri had long resisted his guilt over being a spy for the druids, telling himself that he could use it to benefit and protect his brothers. Since awakening to immortality, however, the weight of his never-ending betrayal had grown crushing. He’d bear the burden, but Gods, what he would give to have one moment free of it.
In Ruadri’s mind he saw the lovely pale face of the black-haired healer who had been stolen from the future. Every time he imagined her she seemed to be reaching out to him, as if she knew his pain and the cure for it. He’d give anything to save her, even his own worthless life. Daily he implored the Gods to watch over her.
Mayhap they shall treat her kindlier than me.
Out in Dun Mor’s great hall Ruadri encountered Brennus speaking quietly with a group of clansmen dressed for patrol duty. He waited until the men dispersed before he approached the chieftain, who looked grim.
“What trouble now?” he asked Brennus.
“Our war master never returned to the stronghold last night,” the chieftain said. “Taran came to me this morning after he found Liath’s stall empty, but you ken how Cade goes off alone when he broods. I reckoned he went by water to the McAra. He’s been thick with the laird, and Maddock would have bid him stay for a meal and mayhap the night. I just had word from the laird. Cade never came to him.”
“’Tis no’ like Cadeyrn to leave Dun Mor without word to any of us.” Ruadri thought for a moment. “He’s no’ been the same since your lady returned to life. Mayhap he’s gone to his old watch blind. ’Twas where he went as a mortal when he wished for solitude.”
“Does it yet stand?”
Ruadri nodded. “’Tis no’ that far from here, and Cadeyrn may need my counsel, if you’ll permit me.”
“My thanks, Brother,” Brennus said and touched his shoulder to the shaman’s.
Ruadri went first to the stables to speak with Taran, who confirmed that their war master had taken his mount and ridden out to check the perimeter.
“’Twas an excuse,” the horse master said, “as ’tis been most nights. Cadeyrn doesnae sleep well of late.” He eyed him. “Nor do you, it seems.”
“’Tis dreams plaguing Cadeyrn?” Ruadri asked, and saw Taran’s shoulders lift and fall. “Still the keeper of the clan’s secrets. Tell me this much: ’tis anything harmful to our war master or the clan?”
“I dinnae ken. He doesnae confide so much in me as you reckon.” The other man hesitated before he said, “But every night past, he’s returned by dawn. No’ this morning. ’Tis no’ like him, Ru. Even if he wished to remain alone another day, he’d have brought back his mount for feeding.”
Ruadri decided to follow the trail on foot, and headed to where Cadeyrn would have begun his ride. In the low slant of the morning light, he found faint hoof prints in the soft soil by the lower slopes, and followed them to the river. A rustling in the brush made Ruadri draw his blade, until a gray stallion, saddled but riderless, emerged and slowly walked over to him.
“Liath.” Ruadri sheathed his blade and checked the horse for wounds. From the mud marks on the animal’s legs and belly, and the dampness of the saddle, the stallion had been wandering for some time. He found the bridle intact, and no sign that Liath had broken from tether. “Cadeyrn would never leave you out here for the night.”
Ruadri checked the ground until he found boot marks leading into the river. He left Liath and crossed the water. On the other side he found where Cadeyrn had walked up the bank and stood long enough to leave deeper prints. A confusion of tracks beyond it separated into two distinct sets. The smaller bore a strange, flat sole on one side, and the imprint of toes on the other. None of the clan had such small feet, and the shape suggested the tracks belonged to a female.
How could a lass have come…?
He snapped his head up to stare in the direction the tracks led off, and hurried through the trees to the stone mounds that protected one of his own, oldest secrets. Magic still lingered in the air from the recently opened portal. Ruadri sat down on the enclosing stones that he himself had carried and placed to conceal the old sacred grove. He’d even long ago planted pines to disguise the oaks that powered the portal. None of the clan knew about the spot. Brennus would have come to him immediately if they’d discovered it. That meant someone had come out of the portal and lured Cadeyrn here to take him through it. A druidess with a strange shoe. She had to be one of the las
ses the famhairean had brought back from the future with Althea.
Ruadri looked up at the oaks, and felt the pull of their silent, ancient power. The Gods had demanded much of him, but this?
“What would you have me do? Confess all now, and let Brennus take my head? I cannae go through to rescue Cadeyrn and the lasses. Not alone, and I dinnae ken where they are.” He bunched his hands into fists and struck the weathered rock. “You would take all from me and give me naught.”
As if in response, the portal in the center of the grove slowly whirled opened.
Ruadri scrambled backward, falling to the ground with a thud. Cursing under his breath, he pushed himself upright and marched away from the grove. Once he crossed the river, he took hold of Liath’s reins and mounted him.
“I’m no’ ready to die,” he muttered. “But when I do, it shall be by my choosing.”
Back at the stables, Ruadri told Taran that he’d found the horse wandering alone, and then made his way into the stronghold. There he found whiskey and drank until his gut unknotted an inch.
“Never tell me you’ve taken to the bottle,” an amused voice said.
Ruadri turned around to look into the black eyes of Kanyth, the clan’s weapons master and Brennus’s half-brother. New burns marred his big hands, and his leather work apron bore smoke and spark marks. He’d taken to working in his forge at night, likely to exercise his battle spirit, which was among the most powerful in the clan—and bitingly cruel.
“Cadeyrn’s gone missing,” Ruadri said. “I found his mount by the river.” Tired of his own endless lies, he took another swallow before he said, “I found two sets of tracks that led me to a concealed sacred grove. There’s a portal there that someone opened, and ’twasnae Cadeyrn.”
All the amusement vanished from the Weapon Master’s handsome face. “I’ll fetch Brennus.”
Kanyth returned a short time later with the chieftain and his mate. Lady Althea had dressed in some of her garments from her own time, and had tied back her bright red hair in a long tail. Drowsiness should have softened her crystalline blue eyes, but instead they looked like the shadows in ice.
She came directly to Ruadri, her slender frame almost vibrating with tension. “Someone took Cade?”
“’Twould seem so, my lady.” He regarded the chieftain. “I found two sets of tracks leading to this portal: Cadeyrn’s and a smaller tree-knower, likely female. I reckon she lured him to it. Mayhap ’twas this Murdina Stroud your lady described to us.”
“No,” Althea told him. “The druids and the giants can’t access the portals. It had to be one of the other women they took from the future.” She grimaced. “But how could they know where we are?”
Ruadri had some ideas, but to confess them would reveal too much knowledge of how the portals worked. “I cannae tell you, my lady.”
“We shall look at this grove, then,” Brennus said and turned to his mate. “You may go with us, but you willnae reopen the portal.”
“I don’t know how,” she admitted. “Even if it opened it might decide to dump me back to my own time. Then I’d just have to jump back here again.”
The chieftain dragged her close and gave her a brief but passionate kiss. “You go nowhere without me, Wife.”
At the stables Taran had mounts waiting, and joined them on his own golden-maned white mare. Not for the first time did Ruadri envy the horse master for the way he rode, as if he and his mount were one creature. Taran also looked worried now, and since his power over horses included some mystical properties, he imagined Liath had provided more than proof of Cadeyrn’s disappearance.
Ruadri rode up alongside Taran. “What did the stallion tell you?”
“He smelled blood,” the horse master said. “Fresh, but druid, and female.”
“An injured tree-knower.” Ruadri frowned. “Mayhap she escaped them.”
The horse master shook his head. “If she had, she’d never have gone back with Cade. They’d have sent her as an enticement.”
Once they reached the river they dismounted and tethered the horses. Brennus scooped up Althea in his powerful arms before he crossed.
“A little river water won’t hurt me, you know,” she grumbled as he set her on her feet. “Not like I can ever get sick again.”
“Indulge me,” he said and tugged on the raven ring she wore around her neck. “I yet remember you in your last moments as a mortal.”
“Frozen solid, yeah, that was romantic.” Althea shuddered before she looked at the ground around them. “Wait.” She crouched down to peer at the smaller set of tracks, and then gazed up at her mate. “I’ve seen this footprint before, when we were being held at the forest farm. This is Lily’s shoe. They’re a particular brand that chefs wear at work, to protect their feet.”
Following the tracks to the hidden portal, Ruadri considered telling Brennus all. If he did, he could offer to open the portal for them, and use his druid knowledge to lead them directly to the famhairean’s new location. That he would have to kill himself or be executed as a traitor didn’t worry him. He’d accepted long ago that choosing an unhappy death would be his recompense for a lifetime of betrayal.
Or he could use this revelation to end his wretched servitude to the tree-knowers for good, and none of his brothers ever had to know what he’d done.
“Chieftain, if you’ll allow, I’d seek counsel from Bhaltair Flen,” Ruadri said carefully. “He has much knowledge of these portals. He may advise us how to find Cadeyrn and the ladies yet held by the mad druids.”
Althea frowned at him. “You think the old man can tell us how to use the portal as some kind of tracker?”
“I cannae say what he may ken, my lady.” He kept his expression bland as he regarded the chieftain. “’Twould serve his purpose to have us pursue the giants. I reckon that would prod him to advise me.”
Brennus hated Bhaltair Flen, and it showed in his tight jaw and glittering eyes. “Very well, but dinnae tell more than necessary to gain his insight. I’ll no’ have him meddling with the clan again. Taran, round up two patrols, and put them here to keep watch. I dinnae want this portal left unattended until we’ve Cade back home.”
Chapter Eight
LILY LEFT THE granary, replaced the millstone against the door and crept back through the garden. She remembered to grab her shoes before she climbed through the kitchen window. What little energy she had left ebbed as she slipped back into the storage room. Using her power one more time to secure the bolt bar, she staggered over to the bed.
“You’re hurt,” Cadeyrn said and caught her and held her on his lap, his arms cradling her. “What did they do?”
“Nothing. No one saw me. It’s just another headache.” It felt so good to rest her cheek against his shoulder as she told him about the other women and what they had said. The only thing she held back was what she had discussed with Emeline. “When the time comes they’ll be ready, but if Rowan can’t get Perrin out of the wood shed–”
“We’ll free her.” His hand smoothed her hair back from her face. “Dinnae fret.”
“That’s all I’ve been doing since I landed here.” For some reason she couldn’t keep her eyes open. “When I’ve not been dodging fists and trying to stay warm. All right if I nod off for a few hours?”
Cadeyrn lowered her onto her side, and reached over her to attach her ankle cuff to the chain. He then stretched out behind her, tugging her back against him.
“Sleep,” he said. “I’ll keep watch.”
Lily forgot about her miserably pounding head as his soothing body heat slowly thawed her chilled limbs. He’d been so kind to her, and he had absolutely no reason to be that. Despite being afraid of the answer, she couldn’t stop herself.
“Do you hate me, Cade?”
The silence stretched to an eternity as she held her breath.
“No, lass,” he said quietly. As he tucked his arm around her waist, she exhaled and then covered her mouth to stop from crying in relief. “I ken why
you deceived me. ’Tis only that it reminded me of another betrayal.”
She sniffed. “You met another woman from the future when you were a boy?” she tried to joke.
Behind her, Cadeyrn shook his head. “I caught a Pritani lad eating the bread he’d been sent to deliver for me and my brothers. ’Twas a desperate time. The crops had failed, and everyone went hungry.”
She rolled over to face him. “Did you give him some food?”
“My share, aye.” His gaze grew distant. “He begged me no’ to tell, as he’d be lashed for stealing. His fear persuaded me to promise my silence. The next morn all of our bread vanished, and the lad came again, to accuse me of the theft.”
“What?” Her tired eyes stung. “What happened?”
“I kept my word and took the beating.” He lifted his hand to thumb away the tear that slid down her cheek. “’Twas long ago, lass. Close your eyes now.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, the words slurring as exhaustion swamped her. “I’ll make it up to you, Cade. Promise…”
Lily fell into such a deep sleep that when Cadeyrn shook her awake sometime later she felt entirely disoriented.
“Guard coming in,” he whispered in her ear. “Secure our chains.”
Lily winced as she pushed her power at the broken links to close them. Her head still throbbed miserably, although not as intensely as before. She looked up as Ochd trudged inside and bent to unlock her shackles. He eyed Cadeyrn and leaned over to tug on his chains before pulling her to her feet.
“Hendry wants you get food,” Ochd told her as he gripped her arm and took her from the room.
Lily said nothing as she walked with him to the kitchen, where the druid stood ladling thick stew into two bowls.
“My thanks, Ochd,” Hendry said. “I’ll see to her now.” He waited until the giant left. “I thought you and your new lover might appreciate a good meal.”
From the smell of it he’d made it from mutton, mint and wild garlic, a combination that made her stomach turn. She also realized she’d neglected to put back on her ruined shoes, and knew without looking that dirt from the yard soiled her feet.
