by Garnet Hart
He may not want to admit it, but that was a huge reason why he was attracted to her. She had not met many beings like her, goddess or otherwise. “You no longer have any men to follow your foolish orders, daughter of MacLeod. You only have yourself now.”
“I’ll get your head myself, and your overgrown wrinkled bollocks!”
He was amused. She could curse like his battle-scarred warriors and she was quite eloquent with her filthy language, too.
“Go on,” he urged and fisted her dress, tightening the fabric around her chest. His hand brushed against the side of her bare breast, and he could not believe he was having a raging erection despite that she looked like a breathing garbage. “Let Freya hear you spit out profanity inside her beloved temple.”
“What do you want from me?”
“An answer.”
“Do you think I can answer that?” She suddenly opened her eyes wide. “Look at me!”
Lior was stunned. He thought she just didn’t want to see him so she kept her eyes downcast, but now that he was looking at them, he realized the emerald jewels that used to glow from within their depths had faded away.
She was blind.
His hand fell from her chest, ashamed of what he’d done to a helpless, blind woman.
“Now, do you think I saw what happened back there? Someone attacked your brother, yes, but I did not see who. I heard grunts, but that was all.”
He took a deep breath and pulled a layer of her dress over her exposed chest. “Did Roar do this to you?”
“Yes. He took my vision so I cannot escape.”
He rose to his feet and stared down at her. She looked pitiful. Chained, dirty, and blind.
“I’ll send someone to help you with your bath. I dunna feel like fucking a filthy Elf like she’d just come out of the sewer.”
“How dare you speak that word in my presence!”
“Oh, I forgot your highness.”
“Get out of here.”
“Very well.” He turned away.
“Wait.”
He paused at the door. “I thought you wanted me out.”
She was quiet for a brief moment. “Are you here to finish your brother’s job? Are you taking me to Alfheim?”
“Precisely.”
“I will not resist, but only if you let me see my father one last time.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned on the door. “Do I have to say it again, Elf? You are in no position to demand for anything now.”
“I know,” she replied, no doubt forcing herself to be humble. “Let me see my castle, at least, for the last time. I just want…to see it.”
“How can you see it? You’re blind.”
She fell silent.
He sighed. If Roar was the one in his place, he’d definitely say no and would not entertain any more requests from her. But he wasn’t his brother. His heart was softer when it came to a blind helpless woman who just wanted to see her birth place one last time. “Perhaps the Priestess can do something,” he said.
“She can make me see again?”
He didn’t answer her question. “I’ll bring you to your beloved castle, but after that, dunna ever ask me to take you anywhere else again and just come along to where I’m taking you without questions.”
She just nodded.
He opened the door.
“Your Scottish accent is the worst.”
He grinned. “As bad as your phony English accent?”
“I studied in the best school of England, you fool.”
“And I’m a fucking god and I can quickly learn any fucking accent I want.”
She turned her face away and spoke no more.
Shaking his head in amusement, he left her.
“Ahhhhh!”
Asra’s shrieks echoed around the room that almost broke even her own eardrums. She thought even the mirror in front of her would break, as well, so she clamped her mouth shut.
This was terrible! No, horrifying! Priestess Nadia had just healed her blindness, but she was not prepared for the sight of the dreadful monster staring back at her.
And Lior had seen her in such a way?
Total damnation! Even if she hated that man to perdition, she should have looked her best so he would have regretted his loss. He must have been inwardly laughing at her, the cursed bastard!
She whirled around and found the two Priestesses covering their ears. “Why’d you not tell me Lior was coming? I should’ve cleansed myself,” she spat at them.
Nadia raised an eyebrow. “I told you to take a bath because you have a visitor coming to see you, but you refused.”
“You should’ve dragged me into the water if you had to! Do you see how awful I look? I’m a princess! I ought to look like one, not a filthy pauper!”
“Well, it has been done. You’ll have a chance to redeem yourself when he returns.”
Asra sighed. This definitely would not happen again. When Lior returned, he’d see the most beautiful maiden of Scotland, one he’d be slobbering at. He may have had his way with her before, but never again.
“Ask your servants to prepare me a warm bath. I want all these filth off of me,” she ordered, but Nadia and the other Priestess, Tanya, did not move. “Did you not hear me?”
Nadia was the first to react. “Everyone in this temple is a servant. We are all equal.”
“Then have my bath ready now.”
Nadia sighed, as if she could not believe a prisoner had just ordered her. “You heard her, Tanya. Go fill the bathtub with warm water. I have other things to do upstairs.”
Tanya’s jaw fell. “Me?” she asked, pointing a finger to her chest.
“Who else? Serve the princess for now. Don’t worry, she’d be out of here the next morning,” Nadia replied and left the room.
Asra watched as the High Priestess walked out of the door. Was she being sarcastic?
“Have I offended her?” she asked Tanya.
Tanya shrugged. “She’s the High Priestess of this temple, and she just healed your eyes, and you dared order her. Where’s your sense of gratitude?”
“She was the one who said she was a servant like all the rest.”
“Servants of gods, not of a… princess of I don’t know where.”
“I am Asra of Clan MacLeod, and my father is the chief of Dunvegan.”
“There you go again. How many times do I have to tell you that it had been two hundred years since you left Dunvegan? You’re not a princess anymore.”
Asra turned away. Roar had told her that when she woke up, and Nadia had repeatedly told her the same thing eversince she came into this temple, but she refused to believe them.
“Take your dress off,” Tanya ordered her. “I’ll go prepare your bath.”
“What?” She looked back at the Priestess. “I need someone to unbutton my gown.”
“Do it yourself. I don’t want mud on my hands.”
Her nostrils flared as Tanya entered a door. If this woman was one of her servants, she would have slapped her face. But she had to accept it. This was not her castle and she had no business ordering these people around.
Perhaps she should apologize. But humility was very difficult for her, eventhough her Aunt had always taught her to always apologize if she had offended someone. But she had no choice. She needed help with this cursed gown.
She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry,” she said aloud so Tanya could hear her.
“Not a problem,” Tanya answered from the other side of the room. “Just take your dress off and come here.”
She sighed and struggled to reach for the tiny buttons and hooks on her back. She just wasted her time apologizing for nothing. If that wrangler had not taken her out of her precious castle, she would not be doing this all by herself.
The nerve of that man! He dared show himself to her after he had betrayed her?
It felt like only a few weeks ago when a handsome stranger came to Dunvegan and swept her off her feet, albeit in an unusual cir
cumstance. Soon after, he proposed marriage to her. It was a dream come true for her. Eversince she was little, she had always dreamed of marrying the most handsome man on the land. She finally had him, but everything he was and everything he did turned out to be a part of an elaborate deception.
When she had told her father of her plan to marry Lior, the Chief opposed it vehemently, not only because she was engaged to be married to the son of the MacDonald in order to prevent the possibility of war between the two clans, but because Garr had warned her father that Lior was up to something. She did not believe it. She was so in love with her prince that she decided to elope with him instead.
By the time they had arrived in Lior’s so-called kingdom, he gave her in the custody of creatures like her mother, except that they were a bit darker in complexion. Lior had called them the Dark Elves.
Her knowledge of her mother’s family was limited. Her father had told her about her mother when she was old enough but he made her swear to never speak of it to anybody, as it was dangerous. They may be accused of witchcraft.
At first, it was difficult for her to understand the circumstance of her birth, that her mother was different from humans, but every time she felt and saw her ears change shape whenever she was feeling emotional, she had come to accept that she was not like most humans, that she was different, too, like her mother. She had also learned to school her emotions amongst her people so as not to cause her ears to protrude. For the most part, her long, thick hair had camouflaged the unusual physical trait she had inherited from her mother.
Lior then apologized to her and told her some elaborate tale about himself being a god from Asgard, and was sent by Odin to kill her because she would someday cause the fall of Asgard, but he realized he could not, so he had decided to hide her instead in the land of the Dark Elves.
She’d thought he was crazy. He was just trying to justify his betrayal. She had suspected that one of her relatives had paid him to eliminate her from the lineup of possible heirs to the throne.
The moment he had turned his back on her, the Dark Elves put her in a glass coffin and sprayed a bluish gas over her. She felt her body freeze, the extreme coldness seeping through into her flesh, from her feet to her shoulders, and she knew she was going to die. That was her last memory.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw another handsome man looking down at her. She thought it was Lior, and that he somehow changed his mind and decided he couldn’t live without her.
Again, she was mistaken. The man introduced himself as Roar, Lior’s brother, and he had come to finish what Lior had failed to accomplish. However, according to Roar’s fantastic tale, Odin’s order had changed. The supreme god now wanted her alive to be taken to the land of the Light Elves, Alfheim.
She was a well-read young woman who loved reading books about lores, fairy tales, epic poems and mythical stories. Greek, Norse, even Egyptian literature were part of her extensive library in Dunvegan. The names Lior and Roar mentioned were found in those magnificent Norse myths. Those brothers were both daft to try to convince they were real!
She had refused and resisted. Roar did something and she again lost consciousness. The next thing she knew, she was already blind and weak as a newborn.
Roar and his band of men travelled with her under the thick forest. Since she was already blind, she didn’t know where they were going. She rode behind Roar’s horse. However, while they were in the middle of the forest, a man came to confront Roar, a man she knew very well just by the sound of his voice, but she would never give that information to Lior.
There was a commotion and all she heard were men shouting and some really strange animal growls that made all the hairs on her body break out of their pores. They were blood-curdling, savage sounds.
From the frantic conversations she’d heard from Roar’s men, she’d surmised that Roar had fallen off the cliff and couldn’t be found and may be dead.
The men carried on with their journey. Someone tossed her up on his horse and they covered more hours travelling.
Finally, her feet touched the ground but she was immediately carried and put in a room and was locked in there. She was just so relieved to feel a soft bed on her back. She fell asleep right away. She woke up to the swaying movement underneath her bed, and she knew that she was aboard a sailing ship.
She lost track of time. The loss of her vision also dulled all her other senses. She was bone tired from travelling on rugged terrain. She hadn’t bathed in days. She was in despair. She missed her father, her home, and her people. Her heart was badly broken by a scoundrel. She thought she was dying because it hurt to even breathe.
They had finally docked somewhere after many hours or maybe days of sailing. Having no vision, she could no longer separate night from day. They came to this temple where a woman they referred to as Priestess Nadia restored her strength, but not her vision. Knowing she had no means of escape, she went along without resistance.
Meeting Lior again was the greatest shock for her but she refused to show it. She acted as if she didn’t care to see him again, as if he meant nothing to her.
But her heart burned for revenge. That bastard will pay for what he did to her.
“Are you done?”
Tanya’s voice brought her back to the present. She was far from done for she could hardly reach the buttons on her upper back. “I really need a hand here.”
Tanya appeared on the doorway. “I’m not your servant.”
“I know. I’m asking a favor.” She was loathed to say the word but she had no choice. “Please.”
The Priestess sighed and approached her. “If you’ve only asked nicely, we would have gladly helped you.”
“I said I was sorry. I was used to having servants to care for my needs.”
“Fine, I forgive you. You might want to apologize to Lady Nadia, as well.”
Asra heaved a sigh. Indeed, she had to, especially that Nadia brought her sight back. She owed that Priestess more than anything that money could buy.
Chapter 5
Asra rose from the bed when the door opened and she saw Nadia coming to her.
When Nadia restored her sight, she did not expect to find a young and beautiful woman reigning as the High Priestess of this temple. All along, she’d imagined a middle-aged woman, but it was not so.
“Good morning,” Nadia greeted with her usual soft and calm voice. “Are your eyes fine?”
“Yes,” she replied.
They had given her a luxurious room inside the temple. Until now, the paintings on the wall and the furniture still amazed her. Although she hated to admit it, this room was more beautiful than her own room in Dunvegan Castle.
She only deserved it. They couldn’t possibly detain the daughter of MacLeod in an inferior room.
“Thank you for healing my eyes,” she said with humility. Indeed, she owed the Priestess a lot of gratitude.
Nadia sat on the chair near her bed. “I did not heal you. I just removed something that Roar put in your eyes to darken your vision. It’s good that you are able to see me before you leave.”
“I’m leaving?”
“Lord Lior will come get you in a short while, so you’d better prepare yourself.”
“Where will he take me?”
“To his home, perhaps. His job is to protect you.”
Protect her? That bastard who betrayed her? Bollocks! “From what?”
Nadia sighed. “You want to go outside?”
“Yes,” she quickly replied. She’d asked the Priestesses a while back if she could go outside, but they insisted that she’d wait for their High Priestess.
Nadia rose from her chair.
Asra noticed that she was wearing the same long white dress as Nadia wore, except that Nadia had an emerald silk sash fastened around her shoulders.
She felt insulted. A maid of MacLeod should always look better than anyone else. But she could do naught of that. She was not in her castle.
She couldn’t wai
t to see what was outside of this temple. From her windows, she could only see walls that rose almost to the roof of the temple.
Somehow she needed to know if it was indeed true, that two hundred years had passed while she slept. Incredible to believe but she will find out soon enough.
And if it was indeed true…how would she take everything then? Was Lior telling the truth after all? That gods and goddesses existed beyond the realm of humans?
Nadia opened the door and escorted her out of the room. Two guards were waiting outside and followed them as they climbed several set of stairs.
“The temple is surrounded with thick walls,” Nadia explained, “so we have to go to the rooftop so you can see what is outside. I apologize that we have no lifts here. We don’t encourage its use in the temple.”
She didn’t know what Nadia was talking about but she just nodded and followed her. She would climb to the top of the mountain if she had to. She was the daughter of a Chief and she’d studied in a prestigious university in Edinburg, but she was also a trained archer. Climbing a stairway was part of her basic training.
She immediately felt warm breeze on her face as Nadia opened the door to the roof top. Indeed, this was not Skye, not even London. The temperature was not this warm in all those places she had been to.
Skeptical, she walked towards the balustrade and looked around. It was late afternoon and the sun had not yet set so she could still see well. The beautiful houses and trees surrounding the temple was not much of a surprise to her, but when she looked farther away, her eyes widened in disbelief and fear.
There were strange looking giant, gleaming structures, rising to the sky! The roads were wide and strange moving things painted in different colors lined up on it.
“Those are called automobiles,” Nadia told her as if the high Priestess knew what she was thinking. “It’s more like a carriage, but instead of horses pulling them, they are made of machines and people use oil to run them.”
Asra had studied in the university and understood a bit of engineering, but it was still difficult to digest this new information. “Where are we?”
“This country is called the Philippines. It’s an island located in the Pacific. I’m sure you’ve already heard of it.”
