Had he frightened her away? He doubted it. She’d been safe here and he’d been checking in on her family. Despite any reservations she might have had, she hadn’t seemed frightened of him.
Could someone had forcefully taken her? It was possible. Though his crew hadn’t heard any scuffle.
The only reason he could think that she might leave was because of her family. Had she been so worried about Granny or her brother she’d wished to check on them?
The image of Haggis rose in his mind. While Nick couldn’t see how exactly he might be related to Arianna’s disappearance, his behavior had been odd. It left him with an uncertainty he couldn’t shake.
And Haggis was one of the few people who likely knew Arianna was here, thanks to his eavesdropping.
He pushed down the panic that rose in his chest. Mrs. Granger had told him that Haggis had grown more aggressive. Was it possible that Haggis could have removed her from the ship? A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. He’d tear that boy from limb to limb if he had.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he tried to clear his anger and focus on a plan. There weren’t any more answers on the ship. Haggis was his only lead, which left him with just one avenue to explore. He’d have to go back to Arianna’s cottage and find out where Haggis lived. Hopefully his family would know where he was or what he might be up to.
He climbed back out the hull of the ship, intent upon rowing back to the shore when another ship came into view.
Pulling out a spy glass, he raised it to his eye intent upon scanning the boat. There seemed to be no end to this string of problems today.
But as he looked, he caught sight of his brother Graham on the deck. Relief made him limp as he spotted his brother Will and then Tom.
Not wanting to waste any time, he sprang over the rail and into the dingy, rowing out to meet his brothers’ ship.
He couldn’t see them, of course, as he sliced through the water. He knew that they would have answers he didn’t and would be able to give him the help he desperately needed. He didn’t need to ask to know that Ewan had had a premonition and sent his brothers who, therefore, already knew he required aid. Granny had been right…again.
He hadn’t made it more than halfway when Will’s voice rang out. “Brother, what’s your hurry?” He gave a quick glance back to see they had loaded in a dinghy to meet him.
“They’ve taken Arianna,” he fired back. He was aware he hadn’t explained who Arianna was or who had taken her but his brothers would understand none the less. He supposed, that’s what was best about brothers. There was an understanding that didn’t need to be explained.
“The wolves have her,” Ewan cried out. Nick stopped then, to crane around his neck. He hadn’t seen Ewan on the deck but he should have known the boy would be there. Hadn’t Arianna’s granny said as much?
“Do you know where to find them?” He yelled back and then began to row again. Ewan’s worry made him more eager to find Arianna and rescue her before it was too late.
The dinghies now pulled next to one another. Graham hopped out of his and into Nick’s with an effortlessness that made other men look foolish and clumsy.
Ewan nodded. “I do. But I have to warn you. This sorceress is more difficult than any we’ve faced. To beat her we need time and power.”
“We don’t have time.” Fear cut through him. “They’ve been kidnapping girls from the village and, if you’re correct, now they have Arianna. If I don’t get her back then…” He could hear his own desperation.
Graham gave him a long look. “We’ve no choice. We’ll have to go.”
He gave his brother a single nod of gratitude. Graham might be the most handsome man in all of England or Scotland but he understood how desperate love could make a man.
And he did love her. He’d known it the moment he’d stepped on the grounds of the cottage. It was as though he’d had his own premonition and he’d confirmed it when he’d made his plan to marry her. He was in love.
Will nodded in agreement. “We will attempt to only retrieve Arianna. We can battle the witch another day.”
Tom nodded. “Agreed.” He gave Nick a knowing smile. “It happened to you too, did it?”
Nick looked away. He knew his brother had figured out that he had fallen in love. Not that it was difficult to see. And there was no point in denying it. “Aye, it did.”
Graham patted him on the back. “Can’t wait to meet her.”
“You do know we have to go through a sorceress to get her back?” Nick raised his eyebrows trying to calm his own fears.
But it was Will who replied. “Wouldn’t be a Fairfield courtship without one.”
They all chuckled.
“To the woods, then.” Ewan’s usual smile was missing. Nick knew Ewan like another brother and he’d come to rely on his easy confidence whenever magic was involved. His lack of ease now, had him worried.
“Speak now,” Nick gave Ewan a long look. “Is it pure folly to engage the wolves? Will we survive it?”
Ewan shook his head. “I see your future with Arianna. So I am fairly certain you survive the day.”
Nick wasn’t sure that made him feel better. What about the rest of them? His brothers? What of Ewan? “And you?”
Ewan gave him a lighter smile. “This begins a journey for me rather than ends one.”
Feeling only slightly relieved and used to Ewan’s cryptic words he began to row for the shore. Whatever happened today, he’d see Arianna safely returned to her family. He gave a shudder, worried about what Ewan wasn’t saying.
But his brother Graham, as if he had read Nick’s thoughts, patted him on the back. “Worry not. It is what we do. We help those who need it most. I am not sure why we’ve been cast in this role but it is ours to play no matter what happens.”
Will called from the other dingy, gliding along beside them. “We’ll survive it. We are the four winds.”
Nick shook his head, not feeling nearly as confident that they were all that important. So much so that fate would protect them. When Graham and Charlotte had met, and they’d begun their magical journey, Ewan had told them that they were a force of nature, like the wind or the trees. But Nick didn’t think that meant they weren’t prone to being hurt or even killed. It was a miracle they had survived thus far.
But he said nothing. He had to get Arianna back today and he needed to find a way to rid the village of the wolves and he would need his brothers’ help. They were men and they understood the consequences. They all entered the woods knowing the potential consequences. He just wished he could rid his stomach of the sick dread that weighed it down now.
CHAPTER 8
ARIANNA LOOKED ABOUT HER, fear making her eyes open wide. She reminded herself to blink.
The wolves were everywhere. At least fifty that she could see moving about the makeshift camp that had been constructed in a clearing of the woods.
Tents lined each side, small and simple. Except for one at the very end. It rose so high in the air with multiple peaks. It looked to be a castle made of cloth.
Haggis ran ahead then, toward the castle tent, moving with his usual awkward gate. That was when she saw it. His loping run. It was the same as the wolf who had chased her into the estuary. It had been him all along.
She didn’t know if that made her more or less afraid. Haggis seemed intent on marrying her. If that were really true, then why had he brought her here? Would she be forced to wed him? She thought of Nick. In that moment, she understood that he was her future, or at least the one she wanted.
Another wolf seized her arm, catching her off guard, and she jumped in fear. A scream built in her chest but a second wolf man clapped his hand over her mouth. They dragged her toward a tent and for once, she wished Haggis would return. As much as she reviled him, she wasn’t in immediate danger in his company.
She tried to fight, but the two men were far stronger. One grabbed her wrists and bound them with rope then moved to her feet. The other let out a grow
ling command, “We’ll uncover yer mouth if ye don’t scream. Scream and we’ll be forced to gag ye.”
She gave a nod. Being gagged would not help her cause and so she would obey. They lifted her and carried her into the next tent. She started to struggle again, not wanting to be alone with them in a tent but the moment they pulled her through, she stopped. Sitting about the tent were six other women her age. She recognized several of them as missing girls from the village.
They looked frightened by the wolves entering the tent but otherwise unharmed. The two wolves set her down and promptly left. Arianna slumped on the ground in relief.
“Are you all right?” one of the girls whispered so softly, that Arianna could hardly hear her.
She gave a nod. “Are you?”
The girl inched forward. That was when Arianna noticed she was also tied at her hands and feet. “Yes, we’re fine.” The girl, Arianna thought her name was Fiona, looked at the door before she spoke again. “No one has hurt us and they keep us fed. But we’ve been trapped in this tent, some of us for days.”
“Do you know why?” Arianna asked as she tried to sit up in her bindings.
The girl glanced at the door again and then scooted even closer, helping Arianna to sit. “We’ve heard them making plans. We’re to marry some of the chosen wolves.” Fiona shuddered.
“Do you think they’ll keep us tied up even after the ceremony?” one girl asked.
Another responded. “Don’t be daft, Eliza. We have to get out of here before we’re married at all.”
Arianna quite agreed. “Do you know when the weddings are supposed to happen?”
Fiona cringed. “I don’t know. You are the final girl. For some reason, they wanted seven. I’ve heard them say it.”
That was distressing. How much time did she have? She took a ragged breath, trying to calm her racing heart.
Nick needed time to come for her.
She straightened, realizing she didn’t doubt for a moment that he’d come. He’d taken care of her and her family. Hope rose in her chest. Nick would save her.
But how soon until he’d find her? She hadn’t told anyone she was leaving the ship. No one but Haggis knew where she was. Her hope dashed as quickly as it had risen.
Somehow, she had to find a way out of this mess.
The tent flap opened and the girls shrank against the tent walls.
Arianna’s head snapped up, but it was Haggis who entered. “She wants to see you.”
“Who?” Arianna squeaked. She cleared her throat attempting to sound stronger than she felt.
“The Lady of the Ise.” Haggis scrunched his eyes as though she was mad for not knowing that as he shuffled toward her. Something shifted in the air as everyone stared at her. Haggis’s face darkened as he shuffled toward her.
The girls stared at her as well. Fiona’s eyes had grown large. “How can you not know The Lady?” she whispered.
She wasn’t the one who’d lost her mental faculties. She’d only just arrived. Why should she know who ran the camp?
Haggis picked her up but nearly dropped her, his hands shaking. His confidence had evaporated. He seemed the old Haggis, the one she’d known before the wolf men. He’d been shy and insecure.
For a moment, she thought that man had returned, the Haggis who had just been her neighbor, not a kidnapper. But then, as he carried her from the tent, he began to mutter under his breath. “The Lady won’t like it. Not at all. Shouldn’t have chosen Arianna. This was a mistake.”
Arianna opened her mouth to ask him what in the world he might be talking about, but his look silenced her. The lines of his face, were cold and hard, his gaze narrowed in accusation. He radiated hatred and fear. “Haggis, if she won’t like me, then set me free.”
Haggis’s lip curled back over his teeth. “She’ll decide what to do with you.”
She could feel it, deep in her flesh the way she’d never experienced anything before. It was like the glass. It was a voice inside her head but outside herself that told her to be silent. Only this voice soothed instead of worried.
The wind whispered through the trees. He’s coming for you. Don’t say a word.
Who was coming for her? But she knew the answer. Nick.
He wasn’t mad at all. He simply understood what she hadn’t been ready to accept.
Haggis reached the other end of the camp where the castle-like tent stood and they entered through a large opening in the center. Immediately the temperature dropped. It was as cold as the ocean had been when she’d been swept to sea.
At one end of a cavernous room sat a chair made of ice. In it, a woman dressed in a pale blue flowing gown, her skin the whitest Arianna had ever seen.
Her gaze was intent upon Arianna. “Set her on her feet,” The Lady called in a high, cold voice that made Arianna shiver. Haggis instantly stopped and set her down. She nearly toppled over from the shock of being put down so quickly with her feet tied together.
Haggis didn’t seem to notice as he stepped beside her.
“Kneel,” The Lady commanded. Everyone around her dropped as though they were of one body. Arianna tried to do the same but she couldn’t quite get her feet under her to kneel without falling over.
The Lady rose from her chair and glided over just as Arianna dropped to her knees. “Well, well, well. Look at what Haggis has brought me.” Her voice sounded as cold as her skin appeared. There was no rise or fall in its cadence, which made it all the more frightening.
In here, there was no sound, other than The Lady’s voice. The wind, the birds, the rustle of trees were all silenced. But Arianna remembered the voice of the wind and did not ask any of the questions that reverberated in her head.
“The question we must ask is why didn’t you kneel? All my subjects kneel without question, indeed without thought. Why not you?” The witch began to circle. Arianna wanted to point out that she was in fact kneeling. But she knew The Lady of the Ise was referring to the fact that the others had dropped instantaneously as though they had no choice at all just as they had all known of The Lady without being told. Or at least, that is what Arianna assumed. It was almost as though they could hear The Lady like Arianna did the wind.
But Arianna remained silent as The Lady answered her own question. “The only answer is that you share my blood.”
Arianna started in surprise. That seemed highly unlikely. She felt as though she’d remember a cousin, no matter how distant, named The Lady of the Ise. But she did as the wind bid and did not ask or speak.
The Lady circled her again. “Are you mute?” The toe of the woman’s shoe came under her chin, lifting her head so that Arianna was forced to look at The Lady.
Arianna remained silent and suddenly a breeze swept into the tent. The air had been so still and cold that everyone on the ground turned toward the door.
“Look at the floor,” The Lady hissed. “Close the tent.”
But Arianna heard the breeze whisper. “Don’t look, don’t speak.”
Her own face dropped to the ground but the woman stooped low and her hissing voice filled Arianna’s ears. “Who are you? How do you defy me?”
Arianna didn’t look directly at her and The Lady made to grab her hair. Arianna knew it would pull but as The Lady tried to touch her, every thought cried out that she did not want her to.
The Lady gave a cry and jerked her hand back. “You are a witch,” the woman hissed, standing again. “Otherwise you would bend to my will.”
Arianna had no idea what had just happened. But she would not ask.
“Haggis,” The Lady hissed. “Who is she? Why have you brought her here? I’ve told you the ceremony must be performed tomorrow night. It is essential.”
Haggis lifted his head as suddenly as if someone had been holding it underwater. “I thought she could be the seventh. I swear, my lady, I only wished to help. She is my neighbor.”
“Yes, yes, so you’ve said.” She waved her hand, emitting a strange light. Then the woman paused. �
��Not the sister of the boy in the village that we’ve been keeping quiet?”
“Yes,” Haggis’s voice squeaked and Arianna felt cold fear trickle down her back. The Lady had been keeping her brother quiet? Was she responsible for his illness? Is that what Haggis had meant? Anger pulsed through her. He was but a boy, a small child. How could this woman be so cruel? But the answer was that she was no woman at all.
“Did it ever occur to you to tell me that this girl,” a long tapered finger pointed at Arianna, “was the sister of the boy I said to watch carefully?”
Keeping her head down, Arianna glanced over at Haggis. He trembled in fear as he answered. “No, my lady.” His hands rose in front of him as he pleaded. “I just thought you wanted the boy.”
“Is there any other family I should know about? Are they related to anyone else?”
Haggis trembled. “The old woman in the cottage is their grandmother.”
Crack. The witch brought her hand down across his face with more force than Arianna had imagined possible. Haggis flew backward and screamed as he clutched his cheek. When he lowered his hand, he appeared to be frostbitten. How could that be true?
The Lady turned away, walking back toward her chair. “I knew I sensed other forces. I could feel there were more powers here than just the boy.” She turned and sat on her chair again. “We’ll have a visit to the cottage tonight. Keep this one away from the others until I decide what to do with her. There must be a way to siphon her power.” She waved her hand toward Arianna. “And we’ll have to find another girl for the ceremony. This one won’t do as a bride.”
All the wolves stood at once, including Haggis, and he crossed back to her, grabbing her arm. Then, he pulled her from the ground, dragging her from the tent and across the field. He didn’t say a word, and Arianna tried to decide if she should attempt to reason with him. Why was he here? If The Lady was cruel, why did he obey?
The wind no longer whispered and so, she decided to at least try to talk with him. “Haggis?”
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