Page 45 of Duncan

“Mayhap you’re the one the clan needs above all others.” Although he wasn’t thirsty he took a drink from the mug. “I’ll wager your powers, they shall prove necessary when Derdrui finds the island.”

“It won’t matter because I’m leaving Caladh first thing in the morning.” The words hung between them for a long moment before she added, “Lady Valerie spoke to me earlier. The laird is sending me to the druids so they can return me to my time.”

Duncan shook his head. “I shall advise my brother why you must remain with us.”

“Why? To heal the hybrids, which we still don’t know if I can do? Or to let Derdrui kill me, which she’ll want to do the moment she sees how much I resemble Eilonwy?” Her shoulders hunched. “Fine. Let’s say I go to the enchantress, and offer myself up to protect the MacMar. Do you really believe my sacrifice will be enough to make her leave the clan alone?”

“Never would we force you do thus,” he countered. “That I vow on my own life.”

“Then come with me, Duncan.” She took the mug from him, set it aside, and held his hands in hers. “Travel to my time with me, and share my life in the future. No one there will know what we are, and with my father’s wealth and resources it will be easy to hide. We’ll find a place where we can be alone together, and live the way we want to.”

She hadn’t yet admitted to him anything more than she was half-Fae, and she knew of Eilonwy. If he agreed, would she tell him all? It might have been wiser to lie to her, but Duncan had grown weary of secrets and deception.

“’Tis a lovely dream.” He kissed her brow. “I understand, for I dinnae wish sacrifice myself in battle. I’m a healer, no’ a warrior. Yet if we cannae stop the enchantress and the Cait Sith, the future, ’tis doomed. If we dinnae destroy the hybrids, ’tis likely they shall wipe out all of mortal and immortal kind long before your time arrived.”

A tear escaped Nicole’s lashes, and rolled down her cheek. “Then what do you want me to do? Die here with you?”

“No, my lovely lady.” He pulled her against him. “We shall defeat Derdrui, and assure the future, ’twill yet exist when ’tis time for your birth. Once we’ve done thus, then we may decide the rest of our lives.”

She looked up at him for a long moment, uncertainty in her eyes. “You really believe we can defeat the enchantress. Not even your father could do that, and he was a Fae prince.”

“We’ve you and the other ladies from the future with us now. Combined with the clan’s strengths… ” A wave of dizziness came over him. “Forgive me, I dinnae…” He glanced at the jug of brew and then staggered toward the door.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry, Healer,” he heard Nicole say before he blacked out.

SPEAL SMELLED fresh blood and old death as soon as she entered the tavern, but ignored the stench. Since arriving on Insii Orc she had encountered only a few Cait Sith; they had told her the enchantress had sent most of them out to dig up and bring to her dead mortals. From the stink of rot she had been playing with the corpses in place of the mortals she liked to torment, but even knowing that didn’t prepare Speal for the sight she beheld in the common room.

The enchantress had dressed several bodies like highborn females draped in silks and pearls, and placed them at a table with mugs and platters, as if they had come for a meal. On the platters she had piled small mounds of grain mixed with slices of badly-browned fruit. Flies buzzed over the food with busy delight. In front of the cold, dark hearth lay the remains of a man and woman, both missing their heads and dressed in the garments of a lowborn male and female, one atop the other as if they were in the midst of copulating. The decapitated heads of swine had been skewered to their severed necks. Across the mantel Derdrui had strung a garland of the blackened, moldy internal organs from all the corpses, studded with shriveled eyeballs.

“You took your time,” the enchantress muttered from the dark corner where she sat watching her. Fresh blood drenched her; likely from the pigs she’d beheaded. “What do you think of my tableau? I’m calling it Tossing Swine before Pearls.”

“’Tis aptly named, my sovereign.” Speal had never minded killing mortals so much, but seeing what the pigs had been made to suffer nauseated her. “I bring news from the mainland. Shall we walk a bit? The sun has set.”

Outside the tavern one of the shifters stood with a torch, which she tossed inside after they had emerged.

“I have decided to burn what is left of this miserable town, one building at a time,” the enchantress mentioned as she drew her blood-soaked wrap around her gore-streaked arms and shoulders. “When we leave here for Caladh I believe I will also cast a spell over the place. It will turn every mortal that comes here into dogs or swine, or perhaps rats. I cannot decide which would be the most amusing.”

“’Twould prove a formidable curse.” She knew Derdrui was not intoxicated, as she had been after slaughtering the Norse raiders. “Fiacail and the other hybrids, they’ve chased off Duxor. They intend rule themselves, and breed, and do as they wish.”

“And after she told you that, you stabbed her in the gut and chest, and tossed her in the sea.” The enchantress clapped her hands together. “A delightful memory. I will cherish it, always, although you know very well that you should have killed that monster. Then you might have taken her memories. I’m sure she knew where the MacMar are hiding.”

They stopped in front of the merchant trader, which the crew was stocking with food, water and weapons.

“I took all she ken from her, my sovereign,” Speal told her softly. “Before I pushed her in the water, Fiacail gave me her memories of pretending to be a castaway lad and serving for a time as a scullery to the clan on their island.” She ignored the furious look Derdrui gave her. “In the morning we shall set sail for Caladh.”

“Tell me where they are.” When she said nothing the enchantress seized her throat in a painful hold, and tried to take the memories from her, only to encounter the wall that Fiacail’s hybrid mind had created, which Speal now knew how to use. “You dare keep this from me? It’s all I’ve ever wanted from you worthless, useless sluts.”

“First vow on all you hold sacred that you shall keep the promises you’ve made us. That you shall provide the Cait Sith with the means so we may abide in comfort and peace.” As Derdrui’s grip tightened she grinned, and managed to wheeze out, “Do you reckon death frightens me? Without hope, life ’tis naught but eating ashes.”

The enchantress peered at her as if she didn’t recognize her anymore. “I hold nothing sacred but my own life, you hideous sow.”

Speal nodded, but said nothing more.

“Very well. I swear on my own life that I will keep the promises I have made to you. After I wipe out the MacMar, I will give the Cait Sith what they have always wanted.” She released her. “Now, where are my traitorous love’s bastard sons?”

“I shall take you to them,” she promised.

Chapter Twelve