Daughter of Darkness & Light

by Shannon Drake

  She stared at him and smiled slowly. And then she threw herself on top of him and kissed him over and over and he laughed and said softly, “I believe that you have said yes.”

  “Aye!”

  “And,” he said, lifting her slightly from him, “we have been some time. The hour is growing late.”

  “Yes!”

  Kyleigh leapt up. She quickly gathered her clothing and dressed.

  He was dressed himself with equal speed and when she would have run out, he caught her hand. “We will go now together to tell Alistair.”

  She nodded. She had never dared dream that while she could not imagine him with another, he would make her his wife.

  They entered the room quietly together. Alistair, seated by Mary’s feet, looked up, curious that Rowan had come.

  “Alistair, I seek your blessing,” Rowan said.

  “My blessing?” Alistair said, confused.

  “I love your daughter. I ask your blessing that we be married by Father Peter.”

  Alistair jerked to his feet. “You would marry Kyleigh?”

  “Indeed, Alistair.”

  Alistair just stared. On the bed, Mary moved at last.

  “Tell the lad yes, Alistair! Tell him that he has our blessing.”

  “Mary!” Kyleigh cried out, and she hurried to the woman who had always been a true mother to her. “Mary, are you...”

  “Weary, sore, better. I have heard you speak. Now, I have heard all I need to be well!”

  Kyleigh kissed Mary’s forehead and looked at Rowan.

  “I will make the arrangements,” he said. “We will be wed in the courtyard tomorrow.”

  “So, it will be. So, it will be,” Alistair said.

  Kyleigh did not think it was possible to be happier. Mary was healing.

  And she was going to marry Lord Rowan of Kenzie.

  ***

  Rowan remained worried, but he headed to sleep that night knowing that they were doing all that they could.

  And smiling.

  He loved Kyleigh. There was a magic between them that had nothing to do with...magic.

  He lay down and stared at the ceiling. Arrangements were made. He had spoken with Father Peter who was going to be happy to perform the ceremony.

  Padraic had been thrilled. He had teased him, saying, “Now you will be my brother in truth—though I suppose we tell no one the truth.”

  “Kyleigh still has not told me.”

  “I believe she sees Merlin, and that—for me—Merlin has urged her to keep the secret.”

  “I am not so sure it matters,” he had told Padraic.

  “Perhaps not. But for now, we will keep my belief between us.”

  Rowan smiled to himself.

  Padraic was a fine man to have as a brother.

  He was still smiling when the door to his chamber cracked open and he heard a soft whisper.

  “Kyleigh?” he said.

  Even if he had spoken to Alistair, asking his blessing, he could not imagine Kyleigh slipping away from Alistair and Mary the night before they were to be wed.

  But she was there.

  She was dressed in the simple white tunic he had given her for sleeping on the first night she had stayed in the tower.

  Her hair was free and a soft fire around her face.

  She walked to the bed and looked down at him. “My love,” she said softly.

  “My love!” he said in return. “Kyleigh, Alistair and Mary—”

  “They sleep heavily. They are snoring loudly.”

  He grinned. “But they may awaken.”

  She shook her head and slipped the tunic over her head, standing before him, naked and beautiful, flesh so sleep, limbs long, breasts proud and firm.

  “Kyleigh—”

  “Love me!” she told him, straddling over him.

  Her lips found his.

  And something was not right. He did not know what. The pressure of her body, the movement of her hands...the taste of her kiss.

  She smiled at him.

  It was the face he loved...

  He was just...

  Tired.

  But not too tired.

  *

  Kyleigh heard a noise in the hall outside the door. She had been sleeping, but just dozing, her mind had remained so active, she had found sleep difficult. But, of course, they were all exhausted, and still...

  She heard the noise. And she wondered about it. Because no one should be about in the middle of the night in the main tower.

  She stood, crawling her way up from the floor, and she thought that she heard a door close.

  Rowan’s door.

  It was just Rowan. And he had been down in the great hall by the mantle, most likely, for it was there that he often stared at the flames when he was thinking.

  And yet...

  “Get your sword!”

  She didn’t see Merlin; she didn’t even see a mist.

  “My sword? Against Rowan? Merlin—”

  “She is here! Aileen. Uther changed his look to seduce Igraine. Morgana used such a trick to seduce Arthur. She is here!”

  Kyleigh didn’t need more. She grabbed her sword, heedless of the sleeping Alistair and Mary, and raced barefoot to Rowan’s door.

  She heard him speaking.

  “Kyleigh, please, tonight, go back to your room! I would not have Alistair awaken and it is deep in the night now.”

  That was enough.

  Kyleigh threw his door open.

  She stared for a minute. In the poor whisper of moonlight slipping into the room, she might have been looking at herself.

  Herself. Naked. Atop Rowan.

  “Get off of him!” Kyleigh said flatly, aiming the sword at Aileen.

  Naked and in different form, Aileen did not have the power to ignore Kyleigh’s command. She leapt up. Rowan did the same.

  He was still dressed! Kyleigh thought, and she was glad, and yet...

  She had taken Aileen by surprise, she was certain. Kyleigh’s face began to twist and turn into something else.

  Not even Aileen.

  The woman before her had a severe beak of a nose and small eyes. She was slim and almost shapeless.

  She reached to the bed and Kyleigh thought at first that she searched for clothing; she did not.

  She found a sharp blade she had secreted in her tunic. She raised it, as Kyleigh raised her sword and began to chant.

  “Bring darkness down upon them—”

  Kyleigh raised her sword, remembering spells she had read in Padraic’s book just that afternoon.

  “For magic is a gift, not to be used for evil, never to cause a rift. Let those who would twist a gift to do ill, hurt where none is due, come to know that which they would inflict upon one another, and seize it from their will.”

  Before she had finished speaking, Aileen had let out a cry of fury and raced across the room, through the door—and to the chamber where Alistair and Mary lay sleeping.

  Kylie fled after her, Rowan in her wake.

  And yet the spell was true for the naked woman barely made it through the door before she tripped over Alistair’s sleeping form, her knife in her hand.

  And she fell upon her own blade.

  She screamed in agony. Kyleigh saw the burst of blood in her naked chest, the blade protruding from it.

  She winced as the woman desperately clawed at the blade.

  And died.

  Alistair jumped up; Mary cried out.

  Padraic came rushing to the door. “I kept guard at the door here!” he said. “I watched the door to the main tower, I...how? My God, who is this? What has happened.”

  Rowan looked at him and said quietly, “We found Aileen.”

  ***

  Rowan was not sure why, but he wanted the wedding to take place as quickly as possible.

  He had spoken with Father Peter the night before, but in the morning, he found the priest to remind him that he was going to make the announcement so that everyone in the fortress coul
d attend.

  “I will do as you wish, Lord Rowan,” Father Peter said. “But are you afraid in any way that you are rushing this? A battle has so recently taken place. We still fight for the lives of the injured form the first battle, and now...there are so many more!”

  “I believe, Father, that the wedding will be what we need. We have all faced so much fear and death. A wedding is a happy occasion.”

  “Not always,” Father Peter murmured.

  “This wedding will be. We have chosen to marry one another, something that may not always be the case.”

  “But you will have no preparation time. The bride—”

  “I am marrying a woman, Father, who will not worry about her own clothing or the trappings around her.”

  “That you are!” Father Peter agreed. “Then, at sunset, we will have the ceremony. So, during the day, you will come separately and see me for confession—”

  “Father, I will confess my sins to God myself. He will understand, in His great wisdom and mercy. I cannot rest during the day. Brogan is still out there. And while he is out there—”

  “But the traitor—his sorceress—is gone?” Father Peter said. “She tried to kill Mary again, but fell on her own knife?”

  “Yes, Father.”

  Father Peter nodded, shaking his head. “Well, then, thus is the way of God!”

  And it was, Rowan thought. For God must grant magic, and it was surely His wish then that magic not be used for evil purposes.

  He left Father Peter to deal with the wounded—the priest was a good man. He applauded the fact that they had chosen not to kill their injured captives, though, he admitted, it worried him, too.

  “Some men cannot be swayed from a course of sin!” he had warned Rowan.

  “We shall see then,” Rowan told him.

  He wondered himself if their captives should have been executed. He knew that many a leader would have chosen that decision and seen it as just and prudent.

  But he had seen Kyleigh’s face on the battlefield. And there had to be a time that the killing stopped.

  Which brought him back to Brogan.

  Rowan left the priest to make his announcement in the courtyard, calling all within hearing to listen to him, and convey his message to others.

  “Tonight, my friends, we will celebrate life. I, Lord Rowan of Kenzie, will take Kyleigh of the Village as my wife, here before you all as witnesses with Father Peter performing the rite.”

  He had expected the cheers that went up. Kyleigh had proven herself. They had all witnessed or been told by witnesses that they trusted—their kin, most often—that it had been the girl, Aileen, who had been the sorceress, that she had donned another woman’s name and appearance to come to them, and in her last attempt to betray them, she had died by her own hand.

  He left people in the courtyard talking about it; he accepted the words of pleasure from those he passed by.

  Then he hurried to the main tower and the great hall, anxious to meet with Padraic and a group of the men there.

  Padraic and others were in the hall when he arrived.

  They all cheered him, knowing that he had planned on marrying Kyleigh.

  “A great lord and a great sorceress! I see good days ahead!” Matthew told him.

  “But for today—”

  Before he could finish speaking, Gareth hurried in.

  “Lord Rowan!”

  “Aye, Gareth.”

  “The lad...the lad who sobbed for his life...he wishes to speak with you.”

  “Warrick?” Rowan asked.

  Gareth nodded. “He says he has information which might be helpful. Of course, it may be a trick. We have seen others come to tears when they are but an act.”

  “No, bring him,” Rowan said.

  Gareth hurried to do his bidding.

  Padraic said, “What do you think he can know?”

  “We will have to see what he has to say,” Rowan said.

  “But take care when you listen!” Col warned.

  “I always take care,” Rowan said softly.

  Warrick was quickly brought before him, hobbling on a stick that had been fashioned for him since he could put no weight on his leg.

  “You asked to speak with me?” Rowan said.

  The lad nodded. “I do not know if my words will help or not. But I heard Brogan one day when he was speaking with Leif—Leif was responsible for carrying out Brogan’s commands.”

  “And what did you hear that might help us now?”

  The lad looked at Padraic and his Celts and winced.

  “He said that it would be easy to take areas of the north once the fortress at Kenzie was seized. The men of the north were quarrelsome with one another; a painted face would allow for many a deception.”

  “First, not every man among us is a Pict!” Padraic murmured.

  “But he was wrong—as far as your region, Padraic,” Rowan said. “Yet I wonder if he would know that. The northern people have long had a reputation for being fierce. So fierce that the Romans built not one, but two walls against them.”

  “I know that you may not believe me, but the oath I swore to you, Lord Rowan, is true. I do not know if that is what Brogan might have done. But if he cannot be found in the forest or to the west or south, there is that possibility that he turned to the north.”

  “We can go by the river,” Padraic said.

  “Aye. All right, lad,” Rowan said, nodding toward Gareth.

  “Lord Rowan, I would not swear to Brogan doing this; I came to you with the possibility. If you do not find him there—”

  “You will not suffer for your words,” Rowan said.

  “Sire—”

  “My word is always good,” Rowan said.

  Warrick nodded, and allowed Gareth to lead him away.

  “Can we trust the enemy?” Col asked softly.

  “We have tried searching the forest. We went to the empty village. We have traveled far to the west. It is, at least, worth a try. And we will do well. Even though he knew that Padraic was here, he cannot know the extent of the friendships Padraic’s rule created in the immediate north,” Rowan said.

  “Did he run alone, I wonder, or does he have a group of men?” Matthew asked.

  A voice from the stairs startled them all.

  Kyleigh was coming down, joining them. “I say we go to the north. As Rowan has said, he has not been found to the south or the west.”

  Rowan looked at her startled.

  “I am coming with you today.”

  “But you have been tending your mother—” Rowan said.

  “Mary is doing well. She intends to be carried down to the wedding later. But if are to ride north, we should go—if the wedding is to take place at sunset.”

  Kyleigh was ready. She was wearing her sword belt.

  The sword that yielded magic only unto her was with them.

  Rowan smiled and looked around the room at the knights who would accompany him.

  “Does any man disagree with Kyleigh or the plan?”

  “I say bring a sorceress!” Col said.

  And agreement went around.

  “We leave then by the river side. Mount up; we will let the drawbridge down.”

  There were, between Padraic’s men and his own and Kyleigh, twenty in their group, mounted, armed, and heading across the river—where he had first met Padraic. Rowan led the way out as they left Kenzie, but as they progressed, he smiled and nodded to Padraic.

  “Brother, we are now in your territory. Will you take the lead?”

  Padraic grinned at him.

  “Aye, and thank you, brother. For indeed, this is my territory.”

  He knew that Padraic was grateful for the respect granted him.

  He was grateful himself that neither Padraic, nor any of his people, had proven to be the sorceress in Brogan’s service.

  And he shivered inwardly again, thinking about the night before. The way she had come to him, wearing Kyleigh’s face and form.
>
  They rode for an hour or so before coming to a small village. Padraic quickly explained their purpose and their fear.

  An old farmer stepped forward to speak with Padraic. He spoke quickly, and Rowan tried hard to understand all that he said in his Celtic tongue.

  “There is an old man who lives in the hill just north of here. He should have come down to day to trade what he grows for meat. He has a house and fields, and the protection of the hills. This man fears for him, as he did not come here and he has always come when he has said that he would. If Brogan has men with him...or even if he is alone, Brogan might easily dispatch him and make use of the hilltop home as an encampment.”

  “Then we must go,” Rowan said.

  As the rode, Kyleigh came abreast with him and Padraic on her chestnut mare.

  “We do not know how many might be with him,” she said.

  “We do not even know if he is there,” Padraic said.

  “Aye, but I have a plan,” Kyleigh said.

  Rowan sighed. “It involves risking yourself.”

  “Well, it involves me, but it is not much of a risk. Aileen—or whoever she really was—pretended to be me. I shall pretend to be her. News of her death could not have travelled so quickly.”

  “How will you—”

  “I will approach on foot and you will be ready. I will use one of Merlin’s old tricks to speak with you. I will be able to tell you how many men are with him.”

  “It is a good plan,” Padraic said.

  “But,” Rowan said, and hesitated. “Last night, I knew that something was wrong. I did not look at your face and form and think it was not you, but I knew that something was wrong.”

  Kyleigh smiled. “I heard you say that I must go back.”

  “That is the point. Maybe he will know.”

  She shook her head. “Brogan cared nothing for Aileen; she was his to use, as he made use of all who served him.”

  “It is the best way,” Padraic said.

  “You would send your sister—” Rowan began.

  “What?” Kyleigh said.

  “We know,” Padraic told her. “But do not worry; the secret lies only with us. And it means nothing now.”

  “We head for the hill, and we find the point where we will wait,” Rowan said.

  He did not like the plan. They were to be married within hours.

  But if he were not so in love, he would know that it was a good plan.