Time Masters Book One; The Call (An Urban Fantasy, Time Travel Romance)

by Geralyn Beauchamp

  Brennan hissed again and fought to stand, but couldn’t get past a certain point before being forced to his knees again. He growled and snarled as Dallan approached. “You wish me dead, boy? Go ahead, kill me. Kill me and let me haunt you! If I can’t have the Maiden with my flesh, I shall take her from you with my soul!”

  Dallan stopped several feet away, eyes narrowed to slits. “Seems ye’ve misjudged the situation again.”

  Brennan’s eyes had grown in size, their yellow depths even more frightening than before, as the evil in his heart consumed him. “Kill me, boy. Kill me!”

  Dallan raised a curious brow. “Yer certainly in an awful hurry to die.”

  “Kill me!” Brennan hissed back.

  Dallan searched Brennan’s heart with his own.

  Brennan fell to the floor screaming as he clutched at his chest protectively. “Stop! Get away! Kill me! Kill me!”

  Dallan withdrew as an icy chill raced up his back. Brennan, now totally consumed by his own evil heart, was no longer human. If he killed Brennan here and now Brennan’s heart would not die. It would be set free. He backed away. “No. I wilna be the one to kill ye.”

  “Nooo!” Brennan screamed at him, eyes wild. “Kill me! I hurt the Maiden! I nearly took her! Kill me!”

  Dallan watched him, eyes narrowed to slits, then turned to the others. “I canna kill him.”

  John caught the look in Dallan’s eyes and slowly nodded. “Then do what you have to do. Let your instinct and heart decide.” He turned and cut Lany off before he could speak. “Brennan would be more dangerous in death here, in this place, than in life. This is difficult, Lany. I’ve read of this happening only one other time in Muiraran history.”

  “What’s happening?” Lany asked in frustrated confusion.

  Kwaku nodded to himself. “Quiet, Mos-go-fi-an. Let de Boyeee search his own heart for de sentence dat will destroy de beast Brennan has become.”

  Every one watched Dallan, who had walked away several feet and now stood with his eyes closed. Shona looked as though she wanted to go to him but remained where she was, her own heart telling her to stay.

  Dallan began to whisper to himself. “I ken yer real. I ken ye can hear me, God. Ye’ve been with me all this time and I thank ye. But I ha’ to ask: What can I do to keep this evil thing from harming my wife or the others further? Is there no a way to be rid o’ him without setting what’s inside o’ him free?”

  He was silent several moments, the air in the room deathly still, the only sound that of Brennan’s own labored breathing.

  Brennan cackled wickedly. “You can’t kill me, boy. You still won’t win. As soon as you release me, I will kill you. And then I will take the Maiden.”

  Dallan’s eyes sprang open. He slowly smiled and turned to face his enemy. “Nay, ye’ll bother me no more.”

  “You can’t stop me! Kawahnee couldn’t stop me! No one will stop me! I have still won! There’s nothing you can do!”

  “Aye, there is something I can do.”

  Brennan spit at him. “What, you fool? What can you possibly do? If you kill me, you set me free! If you don’t, he will come for me. I sense my master even now! Either way you lose!”

  “Nay. Yer wrong.” Dallan faced Shona. “Lass, come here.”

  She glanced fearfully at Brennan and then obeyed, moving with caution.

  “Dinna be afraid, Flower. I wilna let him harm ye.” Dallan spoke gently, putting himself between his wife and his enemy. Everyone watched as he kissed her then motioned for her to kneel at his feet, her back to Brennan. He closed his eyes in concentration and lifted his arms out to either side of his tall warrior’s frame.

  “Living stars, is he doing what I think he’s doing?” Lany asked nervously.

  John swallowed hard and turned to Kwaku. “He has no training, no instruction!”

  Kwaku slowly smiled. “He has instinct, a warrior’s heart, and an ear now sensitive to de Creator’s voice. He can do it. It is in his blood.”

  “He might bring the whole building down on top of us!” John exclaimed. “Help him. Guide him for the Creator’s sake!”

  Kwaku looked the Councilor in the eye. “No.”

  Dallan tilted his head back and began to whisper to himself, then looked at the wall in front of him and stood braced before Shona. “Shona,” he began his voice stern. “Send this Sassenachh devil where he belongs.” Shona, sitting back on her heels, glanced over her shoulder at Brennan, and then brought herself up, awaiting the true command to be given.

  “NOOO!” Brennan wailed from behind her. “You can’t!”

  Dallan ignored him. “Shona,” he began again. “Cuir seo diabhal Sassenach caite esan biun! ”

  Shona’s back arched as her instinct took over, allowing Dallan full use of her heart. Her features fluxed and she began to sing, the room shaking from the power as it began to build. Their heart burst forth, its light blinding, and shot straight for the wall before the Time Master where it stood poised for a brief second before beginning to draw an outline in the middle of it.

  Dallan stood as before, head back, eyes closed in deep concentration as he mouthed the words that went along with Shona’s song. The song of her Call. The song of his home.

  Everyone watched in rapt awe as the light seared its way into the wall and began to trace the outlines of mountains, hills and valleys. It drew rivers, streams, trees and finally the outline of a village.

  Glencoe.

  Julia fell to the floor, her face frozen in wonderment. “He’s going to open a door.”

  Kitty and Tomy held each other, both too bewildered to say anything.

  Kwaku and Zara stood to one side, smiling with pride.

  The song continued, the outline changing again as Dallan narrowed down the location he wanted. A room began to form. The room of a small cottage.

  Dallan began to slowly move away from Shona toward Brennan as her song continued, the outline nearly complete, the light of their heart now tracing the forms of two people, one a child.

  Lany smiled and took several steps forward, swallowing hard. He shook his head in awe. “Way to go, Dallan.”

  John joined him. “He’s doing it. He’s really doing it.”

  Dallan stopped several feet from Brennan and dropped his arms to his sides. His eyes sprang open and he stood, legs apart, one arm rising high into the air. He swept his arm as if tearing out a page and the outline he’d drawn peeled away from the wall, leaving in its wake the living room of his mother’s cottage in Glencoe.

  A kilted Highlander stood and looked at Dallan in horror, a small boy held before him with a dirk to his throat. The boy saw Dallan and began to struggle. “Dallan!”

  Dallan grabbed the writhing form of Brennan from the floor, stood him up and punched him square in the gut. “Ye killed my grandfather!” He swung again, his fist shattering Brennan’s jaw. “Ye killed my family!” One huge fist then struck Brennan in the face to send him sprawling. “Now let justice be served!” He grabbed Brennan by the collar, dragged him to time’s door and stepped through. Brennan in his fist, he walked right up to the man holding the boy and leaned into his face. “I curse ye, Robert Campbell. No good ‘twill ever come o’ any o’ this. Ye’ll be remembered as a dog.”

  Robert Campbell stood in open-mouthed shock and stared first at Dallan, then what lay beyond him: Shona in full Muiraran glory as she now stood and faced them. He croaked in alarm and released the boy, panic now the captor.

  Dallan grabbed the boy with his free hand as he pulled a struggling Brennan forward with his other and shoved him at Campbell. “Ye two devils ought to get along fine!”

  Robert Campbell took one look at Brennan, yelped and raised his dirk in defense.

  “Nooooo!” Brennan screamed as Dallan flung him at the Campbell.

  Robert Campbell tumbled over backward as Brennan’s body met his, both of them landing on the floor in a heap. The Campbell leader screamed and began to struggle wildly to escape from underneath Brennan’
s writhing form.

  Dallan took several steps back, the boy held in his arms, crying and clutching at him with every thing he had. “Die, ye Sassenach devil. Die by yer own foul hand.” With that, he backed out of the small room and returned to where Shona knelt once more, her song continuing softly as she held the door open for him. He stood proudly, eyes narrowed to slits. “For you, Grandfather.”

  He raised his free hand, closed his eyes and shut the door, the light of his heart erasing the outlines in a flash, the sound of Shona’s song and their joined heart nearly deafening just before it softened to almost nothing.

  Kwaku fell to his knees shouting praises in Azurti, then laughed boisterously and slapped his knee with one hand. “Ha! I knew you could do it, Boyeee!”

  Dallan hugged the child in his arms, ignoring Kwaku’s boisterous laughter. Tears streamed down the new Time Master’s face as he looked at the boy, his whole body shaking with such emotion it brought him to his knees. He grabbed the boy’s head to his shoulder and let out a gut wrenching howl as years of anguish were released from his heart.

  The boy too, cried, his own sobbing nearly as loud as Dallan’s.

  Shona stood and took a step toward them as she softly began to sing. Her song hit the pair to slow the tears and both became somewhat calmer.

  Dallan’s voice escaped on a choked sob. “Are ye… are ye all right, lad? Did he hurt you?”

  The young boy trembled as he looked around himself, his eyes finally coming to rest on Shona. “Dallan! ‘Tis one o’ the Faerie folk!”

  Dallan smiled and nodded, his tears still flowing. “Aye… tha… that it ‘tis, lad. But she’s a good one. More importantly, she’s mine.”

  The boy looked at him in shock. “Yer own? Ye captured her then? Did she give ye any wishes?” The boy looked frantically about. “Where’s Mother?”

  Dallan’s face fell. “Nay, no wishes o’ the kind yer thinking of. And Mother… she’s where she ought to be, lad.”

  The boy stared at Shona in awe. “D… Dallan, she’s looking at me.”

  Shona, her song stopped, made her way to the pair, head cocked to one side, moving slowly so as not to frighten the boy further. When she reached them, she stopped and placed a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder, her heart’s instinct searching and calming him all at the same time. “Hello, Alasdair.”

  Alasdair’s eyes widened and he clutched Dallan tighter. “Ye ken my name? Are ye going to put a spell on me and carry me off then?” He took in the sight of the others. “Where… where are we?”

  Shona smiled and walked around her husband, her movements graceful like Zara’s, one hand always touching the boy. “You are where you are safe. And it is I who was carried away, Alasdair. By your brother.”

  Alasdair gasped. “’Tis true, he captured ye then? Ye belong to him?”

  “Yes, Alasdair. I belong to him.” She drew her hand away and he slumped in Dallan’s arms, stilled by the sense of utter calm she’d given him, the wound to his throat, gone.

  Dallan let go a shaky sigh, wiped at his own tears with one hand as he stood and put Alasdair down. John stepped forward and dropped to one knee in front of the boy. “Hello, Alasdair. I’m a friend of your brother’s. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Alasdair clutched at Dallan as he looked into John’s eyes. “Who are you? Have I seen ye before, sir?”

  John smiled. “No, no, I don’t believe so.”

  Lany stepped forward and also knelt to eye level with the boy. He grinned and offered him his hand. Alasdair looked up at Dallan, who nodded calmly to him, then turned back to Lany, his eyes wide as he grasped the hand before him. “And who might you be sir?”

  Lany’s smile broadened. “A friend of your brother’s and one very happy individual at this moment.”

  Alasdair looked him over carefully before tugging on Dallan’s sleeve.

  Dallan bent to one knee and Alasdair whispered loudly in his ear. “They talk funny here. Where are they from? Are they English?”

  Dallan smiled. “Nay, they no be English lad. They be from the…Americas.”

  Alasdair gasped with delight. “The Americas!” He spun back to Lany. “Tell me what it’s like! Are there really naked savages? Can the ships really get that far?”

  Kwaku burst out laughing and sent Alasdair scurrying behind Dallan.

  Dallan now fully recovered, again stood, folded his arms across his chest and glanced over his shoulder at the boy. “Dinna fash yerself, lad. ‘Tis only a bloody heathen.” He held an arm out to Shona who immediately went to him. He wrapped it around her and drew her closely to his side before he brought his face down to her own. He kissed her tenderly as he patted Alasdair on the head with his other hand. “Are ye fine then, lass? Yer no tired? How d’ye feel?”

  Shona looked up into his eyes. “I love you, Dallan MacDonald.”

  His face fell into tenderness and he kissed her again. “Aye, Flower, I ken ye do. And I ken ye need something. What is it, M’eudain? Does yer heart need to be fed?”

  “I do not know, Dallan. My heart feels fine, but yet…”

  “Yer no hungry, Flower? Then what is it?”

  She shook her head helplessly. “Something is still unfinished. I feel it building inside of me, growing. I do not know what it is!”

  “Easy, lass. Dinna let it ha’ its way wi’ ye like this.” He turned to John, who shrugged, then to Kwaku.

  Kwaku stood proudly, arms across his chest, a knowing smile on his face. “She is hungry, Boyeee.”

  Dallan snorted. “She says she isna.”

  Kwaku chuckled.

  “What is it now, ye good-for-nothing? What else haven’t ye told me?”

  Kwaku burst out laughing.

  “Is that a real heathen, Dallan?” Alasdair finally asked from behind him.

  “Aye, lad. Unfortunately.”

  Kwaku strode to where they stood. “She hungers for home, Boyeee. Her own kind. Her heart will not be fully at peace until she is back where she belongs.”

  Dallan looked into Shona’s eyes. “Then we need to get ye home now, lass. Ye’ll feel better once we do.”

  She leaned into him, wrapped her arms about his body and began to softly weep.

  Dallan brought both arms around her. “There, there now, Flower. What is it?”

  Shona pulled away slightly and turned to look at Evan and Maggie. Dallan followed her gaze and leaned down to her ear, his voice a whisper. “Go M’eudain and say what ye need to say. Invite them along…”

  John, now on his feet, touched the new Time Master on his arm. “No, Dallan, you can’t. Not without prior permission by the Elders. They would only send them back.”

  Dallan’s face became stern as he gave Shona a warm hug. “I’ll do what I can to see to it ye can come back, M’eudain. Ye’ll not be kept from them, I promise.”

  Shona turned back to him, eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.” She left his arms to run into those of the only parents she’d ever known.

  Everyone watched as the Maiden sobbed and held tightly to the Whittards. The scene made sure there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.

  Except for Kwaku. He stood, his eyes locked in seriousness on a still-bewildered Kitty. He stepped to where she still clung tenaciously to Tomy. “Remember what I told you, my treasure. Remember who you are.” He turned on his heel and strode to join the other men with Dallan.

  Kitty swallowed hard and watched him. Tomy, her senses finally awakened, pried Kitty’s hands from around her waist. “What was that all about? What did he mean remember what he told you? Kitty Morgan, what have you gone and done now?”

  Kitty’s mouth opened and closed a few times in silent answer. “I haven’t the slightest idea.”

  Tomy groaned. “Why am I not surprised?” She grabbed one of Kitty’s hands. “C’mon, let’s see Shona. I have a feeling this show ain’t over yet.” She pulled Kitty over to where Shona and her parents stood. The girls all began to talk at once.

  Angus grabbed Julia
and dragged her to Dallan. “Ye’ve still this one to contend with, lad.”

  Lany stepped forward. “I’ll take care of her, Angus.”

  Angus looked to Dallan in silent question.

  “Give the woman to Master Lany. He’ll know what to do.”

  Lany took Julia’s arm. “You’ll be judged in Sutter’s Province or Mishna. I’m not sure which.”

  Her eyes became frantic. “Please you said you would help me if I helped you. You have what you want. Shona and Dallan are alive, Philip gone. Please…”

  “I’ll do what I can, but Eaton is the one with the power to influence.”

  John nodded in agreement and joined the two. “I’ll see to it Kwaku makes a formal statement to the Elders.”

  Julia shook her head. “Elders?”

  “The rulers of our time,” Lany offered.

  Julia swallowed hard. “When exactly, is your time?”

  Lany took a deep breath. “We’re from the year thirty-six ninety-eight.”

  Julia’s eyes locked with Lany’s a moment before they rolled back into her head and she fell to the floor in a dead faint.

  “She took that well.” John commented dryly.

  Lany looked at him, shock written all over his face. “Why, Eaton. You’re beginning to sound like me.”

  John’s face became somber. “Well, how about this for one of your lines? I want to go home!”

  Lany bent to Julia’s unconscious form before returning the look. “No argument here.”

  “Angus,” John began. “We’ll come back later for your things. Right now we need to return to Genis Lee. Secure your building. We’ll leave in a few minutes.”

  Angus rubbed his hands together, smiled and trotted off to lock everything up.

  “Dallan,” John called.

  Dallan came to him, his eyes never leaving Shona, one hand holding one of Alasdair’s. “Is it time then, John?”

  John nodded wearily. “What you did today, Dallan, will be recorded into Muiraran and Human history. You’re a hero, you know. There’ll be quite a fuss over you and Shona for awhile.”

  Dallan’s gaze drank in the sight of the Maiden. “Can I no ha’ some privacy wi’ her first? I’ll no share her just yet.”