[Druids Bidding 02.0] RenFaire Druids: Dunskey Castle Prequels

by Jane Stain

  And again, once the contractions got close together, Aideen had one of the huge washtubs brought in and filled with warm water so that Vange could give birth in it.

  Also again, Aideen hummed an odd tune the while.

  And once again, even though Vange knew she should be feeling pain, she didn’t. It was like when the dentist numbed her mouth up and filled a cavity. She felt her womb contracting, but she didn’t feel the pain. She was fine with that.

  And then she suddenly wasn’t.

  The baby came. She felt it come out of her into the world. She was filled with joy when they told her she had another son. She named him Jeffrey, and she smiled while they washed him.

  But then she felt more contractions.

  She was having twins again.

  Which is statistically so unlikely as to be impossible.

  Vange looked at Aideen.

  The woman was still humming, but it seemed she had a knowing glint in her eye.

  She’s responsible for this.

  She poked holes in the condoms.

  Why did I trust her?

  She has magic, or how would her humming take my pain away?

  She’s a druid.

  She’s part of the curse on the MacGregors.

  And right as Vange realized that, she had Johnathan, Peadar MacGregor’s fourth son.

  Vange thought Aideen must have realized she would figure all this out as soon as her fourth son was born, because the two of them were alone with the babies in the kitchen now. Aideen must have excused Cara, Isleen, and Nora during the birth this time.

  Vange had opened her mouth to berate the old woman for trapping her there in the castle in Ireland.

  How dare she. I want to throttle her.

  But then she realized something else.

  If Aideen was a druid…

  Then Aideen could send Vange home.

  The elation of realizing that overpowered all else for a moment, and Vange felt herself beaming a smile at the old cook.

  Aideen gave Vange a knowing smile in return. It was a friendly smile, almost a hopeful smile, but at the same time, it was reserved and almost fearful.

  She can send me home.

  But how do I make sure she will?

  Gazing into the old woman’s hopeful yet fearful eyes, Vange thought it over and realized that she herself held a powerful card in this situation. The Irish believed that Saint Patrick had driven all the druids off their island. This was a Catholic place now, and the priests had some power.

  ‘All roads lead to Rome,’ indeed.

  The priests would not take kindly to the idea that a druid had been living among them for fifty years. They would … get rid of any druid they uncovered.

  And now that Peadar sat at his right hand, Shane would believe Vange if she told him about Aideen. He would report the druid presence to the priests. She knew he would.

  Vange came back to the moment at hand.

  Aideen was still smiling her hopeful yet fearful smile.

  She has magic, and there’s no telling what she might prefer to do, rather than send me home. She might run. She might reveal my greater secret to the people here, and who knows what they would do to me and my children.

  Could Aideen use her magic to pop herself right out of here?

  Vange knew she had to play her card just right. She couldn’t rush into what she said to the old cook. She had to think it through. Be deliberate. Negotiate. While she mulled this over, Vange lowered her eyes from Aideen to examine her fourth son the way any new mother would: ten fingers, ten toes.

  Yep, he’s whole and healthy.

  And there around Johnathan’s ankle was the same birthmark that his grandfather Dall had, the one that looked like a ring of standing stones.

  When Vange looked up from the birthmark to find Aideen, the two women’s eyes met again. If she didn’t say something soon, the silence was going to get awkward.

  Vange decided to be direct and simple as she sat in the tub nursing Jeffrey and Johnathan, but at the same time, she kept her voice as quiet as she could while still allowing the other woman to hear her. If anyone else heard that Aideen was a druid, it would ruin all of Vange’s leverage—and very likely kill her one chance at getting home.

  “Send me and Peadar and all four of our boys home to my parents now.”

  Winking at Vange, Aideen kept her voice just as low.

  “It is clever you are, Evangeline.”

  Vange smirked.

  “I try.”

  “In such a place as yours, most women would threaten an old cook, try to make her fear their newly made alliance with the O’Neill. But not you, eh?”

  Vange felt her lips pursing.

  “Aideen, you’ve done so much for me and my family. I know you saved me from terrible grief at Tam’s hands.”

  The old cook reached out, perhaps to caress Vange’s face.

  Arms busy holding both of her newborn sons so they could nurse, Vange flinched away.

  “I choose to believe you were going to send us home anyway, eventually.”

  The two looked at each other some more, and Vange wondered if the other woman was wishing, as she was, that they truly were just friends, and that all this druid stuff was just a fairy tale.

  Vange continued.

  “Look, you’ve acknowledged my leverage with Shane. Let it compel you to send us back now. Today.”

  Aideen withdrew her hand and gave Vange a sad look.

  “Shane and the men will wonder where you have gone—”

  Vange interrupted, staring pointedly at the older woman.

  “Yeah, they will—unless you work some of your humming magic on them.”

  Now Aideen grimaced.

  “Clever, indeed.”

  Vange relaxed a little. She’d expected the old cook to deny what she was. Maybe this was going to be easy.

  “I’m confident in your abilities, Aideen.”

  But maybe it wasn’t going to be easy.

  Oh no.

  Vange knew that look.

  Aideen was looking at her the same way her mother had looked at her when she went off to college. And just as Vange had then, she felt an urgent need to be gone, to start the next chapter of her life. To be out on her own. Out from under an older person’s wing.

  The old woman is fond of me, is she? Hm.

  How can I use that to my advantage without sending her over the edge into crazy clingy-ville?

  She looks about ready to go there.

  Thinking of everything the old cook had done for her, Vange followed her instincts and allowed a genuine and tender smile to show on her face.

  “My children deserve to know their grandparents, Aideen.”

  The cook nodded yes, but then she looked concerned.

  “Tis true, tis true. You know, Vange, when Johnathan is five and twenty, he will be called to serve … us, eh?”

  Vange nodded and felt her face grow serious. She lowered her voice even more, and she kicked the water in the tub to make some cover-up noise, for good measure.

  “Yeah. Peadar explained the curse to me. That’s why you … people wanted me to come here to the 16th century, isn’t it. You knew that here, you could force me to have four sons in quick succession, whereas at home in the 21st century …”

  A haunted look crossed Aideen’s face.

  “I did not make the curse, Vange. And I do not agree with it. However, I serve under some compulsion as well. It is sorry I am, to see your son saddled with service, but glad I am that he lives, that he was not killed in the womb.”

  That’s not a fair thing to say.

  Vange ground her teeth at the older woman’s presumption to know what was right for her—especially in light of the fact that the old druid had been keeping Vange’s babies away from the modern medical world of vaccinations.

  Ooh, I ought to tell her just how wrong she is.

  But just in time, Vange remembered to keep the peace. Remembered that she still needed Aideen to ge
t her and her family home.

  And anyway, she had another burning question, with no one better to answer it.

  “But Aideen, why did you … people allow Peadar to come to the … place where he met me, then? Wouldn’t it have been easier for you to just keep him here and marry him off to a woman from his own … place and give him four sons through her?”

  Aideen gave Vange a friendly and sad frown.

  “Easy is not the way, lassie. No, profit is the way. Too much money they make, and too easily, impressing the folk of your time with the lore of our time.”

  What? No way. That’s just silly.

  “Huh. The renaissance faire? All this is just so they can run that? You can’t be serious.”

  But Aideen was shaking her head yes.

  “Oh, but I am, dead serious. The money they make from that funds … everything.”

  Vange struggled to understand.

  “But why don’t you … people just travel back and forth in time yourselves and put the faires on? Why have slaves do it?”

  Aideen winced at the word ‘slaves’.

  Vange lowered her chin and raised her eyebrows at the woman.

  Aideen gave a little sideways nod, and then she lowered her voice to the barest of whispers so that Vange had to lean way forward in her tub over her babies, to make out what the druid said.

  “We cannot travel through time ourselves, lassie. It does not work that way. We can only travel to other places, and only by sending each other. Nay, we must have … help.”

  Vange felt kind of awestruck at the implications for a moment.

  The druids need us.

  That gave her more cards to play in the future, on Emily and Dall’s behalf. Vange smiled gratefully at her friend.

  Aideen’s return smile was finally full of hope and lacking the fear.

  But she still hasn’t said she’ll send us home.

  Appealing to the older woman’s humanity with her eyes, Vange gave out her unspoken ultimatum again.

  “Figure out some cover story and get all six of us to my parents today.” Or else I’ll tell Shane you’re a druid, and the priests will come burn you. I will, too. None of this new information means a thing to me here in 1563. I am so done being here.

  Vange held her breath and prayed that the woman would do the right thing.

  Aideen nodded yes, reached for the babies, and put them in a cradle just inside her bedroom.

  Vange was astonished to see Michael and Gabriel in there too, on Aideen’s bed, sound asleep.

  Aideen came back to the tub and held out her hand.

  “You must be dry to travel home, eh?”

  “Oh. Yeah.”

  Once Vange had dried off, dressed in her least fine Scottish clothing, and had seated herself on the bed between Michael and Gabriel, Aideen went and opened the door to the room where the children washed dishes.

  “Maebh.”

  Vange next heard the voice of a girl of twelve or so.

  “Yes?”

  “Go and discreetly tell Peadar that he has two more sons. Ask will he come alone to the kitchen and see them.”

  “Yes, ‘m.”

  Vange was snuggled between Michael and Gabriel on the bed and rocking the cradle with her foot when Peadar came into Aideen’s room off the kitchen. The door closed gently behind him, leaving their growing family alone in private. All the boys were still asleep, miraculously—or more likely due to Aideen’s humming.

  “Is it so, lass? Do we have two more sons?”

  Vange stopped the cradle with her foot so that it was rocked toward Peadar and he could see inside.

  “Yes. That’s Jeffrey on the left, and Johnathan on the right—your fourth son.”

  Peadar calmly knelt by the cradle and examined both babies pretty much the same way Vange had: ten fingers, ten toes … and oh yeah, Johnathan’s birthmark that declared the druids’ curse on him.

  Peadar held Johnathan to his chest and cried for a minute before he could speak.

  “I did not mean for the druids to get another MacGregor servant. You were right, Vange. We should have left that first night when I returned here. You were pregnant, but we had a chance at getting back home. Now, with four children and who knows how many more to come, I do not know how—”

  While Peadar spoke, Vange leaned over and took Johnathan from Peadar’s stiff arm and put him in the cradle. Then she put what she hoped was a soothing hand on her husband’s shoulder and spoke to him quietly.

  “It’s OK, Peadar. We have a way home. We’re going as soon as you’re ready.”

  She lowered her voice to a whisper.

  “And the trip will be over in an instant.”

  Peadar looked up at Vange with a question in his eyes, and also with hope there.

  Vange pointed into the kitchen, put her mouth to her husband’s ear, and whispered her lowest, barely audible whisper.

  “Aideen is a druid.”

  Vange saw the anger on Peadar’s face, saw his fists balling up. She understood his urge to punish the one druid who was present and accessible, to punish her for the curse that the druids of old had put on their whole family generations ago. She even shared a bit of that urge.

  But the druids were her one ticket home. Without their cooperation, she and her children would for sure be stuck here in this backward time for the rest of their lives.

  Vange was sure Aideen could hear the two of them talking right now. She had to keep her husband from killing their ticket home without cluing her in to just how dependent they were on her, and without alerting anyone else.

  So she whispered to him yet again, pleading with her eyes and caressing his shoulder with her hand in as calming a way as she could manage.

  “Please, Peadar. She’s been good to me. She saved me from Tam, remember. She isn’t the one who put the curse on us.”

  She felt Peadar slowly relax under her hand.

  He took a deep breath and let it out, swallowed, and then nodded yes.

  “Aye, very well, lass. You have the right of it.”

  As if she had already been in the room and heard what they were saying, Aideen breezed up to them just then.

  “Gather all that you would take home with you. I do recommend you take some artifacts that will make you a good profit. Like as not you will need it to fend for your family, eh?”

  Peadar nodded yes and went to their room, returning with all of his weapons: the bow and dozens of arrows, his claymore, four daggers, and a shield. He also had a pouch that Vange had seen on him before whenever he’d left for battle, and a large canvas sack, which he opened to show her most of the clothing from the trunk. He handed Vange her own belt of pouches, which she put on.

  And then Peadar loaded all of his weapons on his body, tied the sack to his belt, and sat next to Vange on the bed.

  “Now we are ready, mistress. Send us on our way.”

  Remembering she had to be touching everyone who time traveled with her before, Vange reached out to pick up Jeffrey and Johnathan from their cradle.

  Aideen put her hands on Vange and Peadar’s shoulders.

  “Good that you are ready, and go we shall, when the hour is right. For now, sleep. Hmmmm hm hmm hm hmmm…”

  Vange’s arms grew heavy on their way down to pick up her newborn babies, and she slumped down on the bed against Peadar and fell fast asleep.

  She awoke what seemed like the next instant, but when she looked around, she noticed it was dark. No light came under Aideen’s bedroom door.

  Jeffrey and Johnathan started crying to be fed the same instant.

  Vange reached for them, and noisily with all the weapons on his person, Peadar helped her.

  Their babies were wrapped in soft quilted blankets, and Vange smiled tenderly as she started them nursing.

  The door opened, and Vange saw Michael and Gabriel sitting on high stools at the butcher block in the kitchen, gobbling down a meal of their own. They were dressed for outside, even with tiny leather shoes on.


  She also got a good look out the window into the courtyard and saw that it was indeed pitch black outside. Thousands of stars dazzled the sky.

  We must have slept eight hours at least, because even after giving birth yesterday, I feel well rested.

  Aideen breezed into her room and handed Vange and Peadar their own late supper. She also put all of their cloaks on the bed. When everyone was done eating and Aideen had washed both the toddlers’ faces, she put her own cloak on and watched while all of them put on their cloaks. And then she lit a torch in the fireplace and called them all into the dishwashing room, of all places.

  Vange cradled Johnathan and held Michael’s hand.

  Peadar did similar with Jeffrey and Gabriel.

  Aideen pushed aside a cupboard in the dishwashing room to reveal a hidden tunnel in the floor. She held her torch over the entrance.

  Vange saw that the tunnel went down toward the outside of the castle, on the side where there was a large forest. The walls of the tunnel were roughly hewn stone, which meant the tunnel had been chipped out of the rock foundation of the castle stronghold. She had no idea how this had been done in such a primitive time period, and she marveled at it.

  Aideen entered the tunnel and stood aside, waiting for them to enter.

  “Tis not far, the sacred grove where we need to be in order to send you on your way.”

  Vange looked at Peadar, who gave her a tentative smile and then entered the tunnel. She followed.

  Behind her, she heard a bunch of noises that scared her and made her start running until she realized what was going on. Aideen was pulling the cupboard back over the entrance. The druid passed by them in the narrow stone passageway and then led them through the tunnel with her torch.

  It wasn’t far, just a hundred feet or so. The tunnel went down enough to get them under the castle, then straight, and finally up. There were tiny holes in the floor, and Vange guessed they were drains for any water that got in. The tunnel was very well-built.

  It seemed to come to a dead end, but then Aideen pushed forward on the stone to the right of the end, and it swung open like a door.

  Holding the torch in the doorway, the old druid spoke to them calmly and quietly.