by Julianne Lee
That did it. The red eyes appeared near the hearth, then the rest of him followed like the Cheshire cat. “What is it?” He sounded bored, completely uninterested in whatever Alex might have to say. But the fact that he was there at all said something.
“I have a request. I think you’ll want to hear it.”
Nemed said nothing, but only stared at Alex.
“I want you to send Lindsay and me back to the future. We want to return to our previous lives.”
“Well, MacNeil, you have me confused. How am I supposed to be pleased with this request?”
“You want to see me suffer. You also know she’ll probably dump me when we get home. If you send us back to the moment we left, she’ll still be engaged to Derek. She would probably even pass the baby off as his.” Alex couldn’t bring himself to consider she would abort the pregnancy, and shook the thought from his mind even as it began to form. This was Lindsay. She just didn’t have it in her to do that.
“Tempting offer, MacNeil, except for one problem. I want to see you suffer. If I send you away, you won’t be here for me to see it.”
“You don’t think you’ll live long enough to catch up with me in the future?”
Nemed’s eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together. After a long silence he said, “No. I don’t think I will.” His voice held a certainty that sent shivers up Alex’s spine. Then he said, “In short, Alexander MacNeil, you have nothing I want. You’ll never have anything I want. There’s naught left but...”
A light appeared in the elf’s eyes, and his head tilted as he peered closely at Alex’s face. Alex hooded his own eyes, wary of what Nemed could be seeing, and shivered as the elfin mouth formed a huge, humorless grin.
“Wait. There might be something. There is one thing you could do that I want enough to grant your request.” Alex waited for it, unmoving. Finally, the elf said, “Suicide.”
Alex blinked. “Huh?”
“It would please me to watch you commit suicide.” He glanced into the middle distance as if looking for an idea, then shrugged and said, “Fire. Immolate yourself as my people were burned. It’s only fair.”
“You’re nuts.”
“Aye, and I’m the one who can save the lives of your wife and child.”
“You want me to set myself on fire? No way.”
“Very well, then.” The elf raised his hand. “I’ve but one recourse. Have a care for your wife.” A snap of long fingers, and he disappeared.
Alex turned, but the elf was gone. His wife. “Lindsay?” Where was she? “Lin!” She was supposed to be in the kitchen. Alex hurried from the room and from the keep, to the bailey where he crossed to the outbuilding that contained the kitchen and bake house.
Workers looked up when he entered, quite surprised to see him there, for he’d never once set foot in the place before now. “My wife. Is my wife around?”
Those who dared to move shook their heads. The head cook said, “She was here, but some time ago left of a sudden.”
“Where did she go?”
Unsure, the cook looked off toward the portcullis. “I believe she went down the hill. I had a thought she might be off to the village.”
“By herself?” Distress rose, and panic strained his voice.
The man flushed. “I couldnae stop her, sir.” Not that Alex believed he’d tried, but the cook would be afraid of being blamed for Lindsay’s absence. “She simply walked away, appearing as if she’d heard someone beckon.”
Without another word, Alex left the building and headed to the outer curtain. The sentry there told him he’d seen her hurrying across the pasture toward the forest. Alex blurted the most vile curse he knew, and mounted a horse being readied by one of the squires for another knight. Quickly he spurred the mount out of the castle and off across the pasture. Heart pounding, Alex prayed he would find her in time.
But it was in vain. Just within the forest he heard screaming that froze his spine. Lindsay. She was terrified. He kicked the horse to a gallop and followed the sound.
It was a clearing in the dark heart of the forest where he pulled up his mount, and the sight turned his guts to water.
Deep in the shadows, an iron-barred cage held Lindsay, naked. She whimpered and backed against the rear bars, attempting to cover herself with her hands. Nemed stood by, waiting for Alex, a bucket in one hand and a firebrand in the other.
“Alex!” Lindsay had been weeping for some time. Her eyes were red and her face streaked with tears that ran down her neck.
“Let her go!” He leapt from the horse and made a grab for the elf, but dodged the torch and had to back off.
“You shouldn’t have asked, Alexander. It’s your fault now she’s going to die. Isn’t it lovely how that worked out?” He picked up the bucket to toss its contents at Lindsay, and Alex could smell the pitch: Greek fire.
The oily liquid splashed over her skin, and Lindsay screamed again as Nemed waved his fire. She pressed herself hard against the bars, trying and failing to slip between them. “What did you do, Alex? What did you say to him? Take it back!” She began to weep as Nemed waved the fire at her, and held the bulge of her belly as if to protect it. “For God’s sake, take it back!”
If only he could. “Nemed! Let her go!”
The elf held the lit wood through the bars of the cage and poked at Lindsay with it. She screamed and cried in terror as the flame came within inches of her, and pressed herself hard to the bars. Alex reached for Nemed, but each time he came near the elf poked closer to Lindsay. Alex backed off again. His heart choked him and his eyes were wide with terror.
“Let her go, Nemed! I’ll do it! I’ll do what you say! Now, let her go! Send her back now!”
“No. Not until you’ve done it. Not until it’s accomplished.”
“Send her back!”
Nemed’s eyebrows lifted in mock surprise. “Who, then, Alexander, is the one who has nothing to lose? Certainly not yourself, for she and the brat are still alive. And the only way they will stay alive is if you do as you’re told.”
Alex gasped, panicky and desperate. “Let her go.”
“No.” Nemed poked the fire through the bars again. Lindsay screamed and cringed, weeping. The sound cut Alex’s heart.
“All right!” The world slanted and his head buzzed. “All right, I’ll do it.” His pulse pounded in his ears. The only thought that came clear just then was that he would do whatever it took to keep from having to watch Lindsay die. “I’ll do it.”
“Good. Then go to the castle at Edinburgh. There you will douse yourself with the Greek fire and set yourself aflame for all to see.”
“Edinburgh?” For one insane moment Alex was angry the elf wouldn’t let him just do it now and get it over with.
“Aye. Start now, or she dies.” To illustrate, Nemed poked the fire through the bars once more.
Alex held up both palms. “Fine.”
“Alex!”
He ignored her. “I’ll do it.”
“Alex, no!” Tears ran down her cheeks and she came forward to reach through the bars for him and wailed, “No!”
His voice deserted him as he whispered, “Lindsay...”
Nemed crowed in victory. “Very well. We’ll meet you there.” With that, he waved a hand in the direction of the cage. Slowly, like a fading photograph, he, the cage, and Lindsay grew less distinct until finally they were gone.
Alex stood alone in the forest, aghast at what he’d set in motion, and slowly he sank to his knees. Nemed had found a way to kill him, more horribly than he’d ever imagined. His crazed and panicked mind cast about for a way out of this, but nothing came clear. The world was a spinning, buzzing nightmare from which he couldn’t awaken. It was a long time before he found his legs again and could stand up to return to the castle and do the thing he must.
As quickly as he could, horrified by what might be happening to Lindsay during the time it would take to get to Edinburgh, Alex ordered a boat to be prepared and a small crew to t
ake him to the mainland.
Then he sat down at the table in his meeting room outside his quarters. The trumpet of the watch announced an approaching boat, but he ignored it. There was nobody on earth he wanted to see right now. Quill and parchment before him, he began a letter to be delivered to Hector by fishing boat after he was gone. Hector was his next of kin after Lindsay, who would also be gone, and needed to know what to do with Alex’s holdings. His last will and testament.
It was a difficult task, for his mind kept drifting to Lindsay, wondering where she could be. Where that creature was holding her. Was she cold? Certainly she was frightened. The quill trembled in Alex’s hand and he forced himself to focus on the job. He’d he gone in the morning. Dead by next week.
Footsteps and Hector’s voice came from the Great Hall above. “Alasdair an Dubhar! Ye summon me, then you forsake me! Where have you got off to, lad?”
Alex looked up as Hector hurried down the steps to the meeting room. The MacNeil laird stopped cold at the bottom when he saw Alex’s face.
“You’re a man with much on your mind, brother. Ye look defeated, and that’s not something I’m accustomed to saying about a MacNeil.” His voice had gone soft, unsure of what he was seeing before him.
“Hector—”
“I received your message. Urgent, she said, and I came as quickly as I could.”
“Message?”
“The woman ye sent. She insisted I set sail immediately, for you had need of me.” A sly smile touched his mouth. “Such a beautiful woman, I couldnae refuse her, even had you not been my brother and in need.”
Finally Alex’s mind was able to focus on something. “A woman. Blond.”
“Aye.”
“Yes. She...” Alex took a deep breath and looked at the letter before him. “She is a visiting friend from the mainland.”
“Was she wrong in thinking you had need?”
“No, not wrong.” Alex gestured to the chair next to him. “Hector, sit down.”
The laird sat and leaned toward Alex to hear carefully. “What is the crisis, brother?”
“Hector, I need to leave.”
There was a pause. Alex waited for a response. Finally Hector said, “You’re free to come and go, Alasdair.”
“I mean, forever.”
Another pause. Then Hector said. “Why?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Has it to do with your special friend the blond woman whose boat seemed to appear from nowhere and then return to it suddenly after delivering her message?”
“No. My wife is in trouble. I have to find her, then take her somewhere where she will be safe forever.”
“She’s nae safe here?”
“No.”
“Will ye nae be returning, then?”
“No.”
“You’re going to take her to the eastern mountains on the continent?”
“Farther than that.”
Hector gazed at him for a very long moment, then said softly, “Are ye my brother?”
“I’m your kinsman.” A question rose to Hector’s eyes, and Alex added, “A descendant.”
There was a silence, then Hector said, “I’m not so old—”
“Centuries from now.”
Again Hector’s face gave away nothing as he searched Alex’s face. Finally he cleared his throat and said, “The blond woman was a most special friend, I could see that.”
“I’m in trouble, Hector. Lindsay is in worse trouble. I can’t say any more than that, except that I love you as my brother. I’m sorry, but I must do this. It’s Lindsay’s life. And our child’s life.”
Hector’s eyes lit with brief joy over the news of the baby, that turned to confusion and sorrow as he realized the implication. “Aye. For your child ye must do what you must.”
Alex sat back in his chair, looked at the half-finished letter he knew Hector couldn’t read, and began telling in detail what to do with his property once he’d been gone a year and could be declared dead.
The next morning Alex boarded his boat and set out for Edinburgh.
As the vessel made its way across the water, Alex gazed at his island slowly growing smaller and smaller in the distance. He knew whatever happened, whether or not Nemed succeeded in killing him, he would never see his island again. The sorrow for leaving the only place he’d ever called home was nearly as great as his fear of what was to come, but far down inside was a core of calm. No longer did he worry about what to do—what would be best. He knew what needed to be done, and he knew it was the only right thing. All else receded to background noise.
Finally he turned toward the bow and put Eilean Aonarach, and all it meant to him, behind.
The journey was long and hard, the hardest thing he’d ever done, for it went against his every instinct. On the mainland, he traveled alone and as quickly as he could push his horse without killing it, his mind turning all the while with how he would rescue Lindsay from that elf. The water skin he carried slung over his back grew heavier as he went.
He knew Nemed wouldn’t send her home, or even release her. Alex figured the creature would kill her, or keep her for a plaything. And what would be done with the baby? Would Nemed kill it? Raise it as his own? Neither was acceptable. No, Alex needed to find a way to take back his wife and make her safe. Entirely.
The castle at Edinburgh was a ruin. Robert had razed it, lest it be retaken by the English king in their ongoing struggle, so it was a pile of blackened rubble perched on a high, rocky hill that Alex approached on foot with his bucket. He crossed from the town and climbed to the peak of the castle hill, where huge chunks of stone and remnants of wall lay about like a child’s abandoned toy blocks. The wind buffeted his face and tossed his hair, and he looked out across the flatland toward the firth. Green pasture dotted with thick forest and an occasional thatched roof. The quiet was astonishing. The water was graced by only a few sails, and the rolling countryside beyond disappeared into a thick mist of rain.
Onward and around he went, picking his way among the ruins, to the top of a broken wall where he found the cage containing Lindsay, slumped against the bars. Nemed stood to the side, a lit firebrand rested against a thigh, uncaring about what he might do with it. Lindsay was silent until she saw Alex, then she gasped and rose to her knees, weeping, and clutched the bars. “Alex, no, get away from here.”
“All right, Nemed. I’m here.” Alex called to Lindsay, “Are you okay?”
Her hair was matted with the vile mixture poured over her, and her voice was clotted with tears. “Don’t do it, Alex! Oh, God, don’t do it!” Her weeping renewed, and she covered her mouth with her hands.
“Let her go!” Alex bellowed at the elf.
“Do what you came for.” He waved the stick. “And get rid of the mail. I want you to burn completely.”
Lindsay began to murmur beneath her weeping, sobbing, “Oh God, oh God, oh God...”
“How do I know you’ll send her home?”
“You don’t. Isn’t it interesting how that works? You’ve but one choice. Do it. Now, before I decide to touch her off in order to liven things up.”
Alex wiggled from his coif and hauberk, and tossed them on the ground. Then he picked up the bucket, and without hesitation, in one smooth motion, threw the contents at Nemed’s torch. Not fast enough to douse the fire before the elf could touch it to Lindsay’s shoulder. The Greek fire flared, but then was doused by the bucketful of urine Alex had been collecting since he’d left the island. It splashed over Lindsay and the oil covering her.
Alex drew his sword and attacked the elf. Nemed, taken by surprise, retreated a few steps and parried with the stick in his hand, and the burnt end flew away. Then the elf drew his sword and came back with a hard riposte that jolted Alex’s arm clear to his shoulder. He circled, and found the disarray of stone rubble made maneuvering difficult. He leapt onto a stack of loose pieces that tottered and shifted under his weight. Nemed attacked; Alex parried and leapt down the other side.
He was trying to get the elf as far away from Lindsay as he could, so she’d be out of reach.
Once away from the cage, Alex came back with a quick, hard series of attacks. Their swords clanged, the sound carried off by the wind. There was nobody around, and the town seemed far away, perched on a distant rock. Nemed’s eyes glowed bright red.
“You can’t win, MacNeil.”
Alex declined to reply, saving his breath for the fight. He parried Nemed’s attack, then feinted, stepped in close, and clobbered the elf’s mouth with his hilt. Nemed staggered backward, then with a roar of rage came at Alex with full-on berserker abandon. Alex was surprised at his opponent’s strength, and in his retreat nearly tripped over a scattering of rocks. The elfin sword sliced his back as he staggered away, and hot pain ran through his entire left side. Alex swallowed a yell as he turned to assault Nemed once again. His left arm wasn’t useless, but the flaming pain colored his vision so he had trouble keeping track of his opponent. He needed to finish this quick, before he passed out.
He hauled back and made a foray of quick, strong overhead hits, beating Nemed into the ground. Speed was his only hope, and he kept at it until the elf was backed against the wall remnant on which Lindsay was perched.
Panting, exhausted, Nemed stumbled and fell against the stone. Alex took the opportunity to lay his sword against the graceful neck of the ancient king, and landed his entire weight with his knee in Nemed’s gut. A great cry of pain came with all the air in him. The elfin sword clattered to the cobbles beneath them. With his sword laid against Nemed’s throat, quite ready to cut his head clean off, it was all Alex could do to not kill. It would be so sweet to settle all the questions once and for all in one instant, but Danu’s words kept him from it. Lindsay’s life and the baby were what mattered, and nothing else.
“Let her go. Now. I want her out of that cage and where she belongs.”
