Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

W atching Nyall pace around the garrison armory aggravated Shaw. After relating all that had happened to him and Julianne he had silenced the captain, who seemed now to be at odds as to the next word he should utter, never mind what action he should take. Returning to the hall and assuring the safety of his woman was all Shaw wanted, but he also knew he could no longer keep the clan ignorant of the true nature of the beast inside him.

"'Tis naught I may do about the DayBridge and their punishment, nor what the monk told us of such past lives as he believes we lived." He waited for Nyall to reply, and when he just stared at him he threw out his arms. "What would you bid me do, then? 'Twas likely half-truths or lies. 'Twillnae change what was done–"

"'Twas truth." The captain faced him, his expression one of grim resignation now. "You've druid blood, as does the laird and Fletcher. The council told Connal that your lady màthair shares a bloodline with the Pritani."

He made an impatient gesture. "Her tribe, they're no' druids."

"Aye, only in ancient times they shared bloodlines with the magic folk," Nyall corrected. "From what you told me, 'twould seem in time outcast druids from the DayBridge tribe became the Pritani slavers who took you from us. If she shared other lives with you, then Mistress Scott must possess druid blood as well."

Before Shaw could reply, a horn sounded, one that had not been used by the watchers for years. He picked up a sword with one hand, catching the dagger Nyall tossed to him with the other. Inside him the beast billowed up like a black cloud, but instead of taking him over it waited, poised and silent, as it never had. He glanced at the captain, who nodded, and then immersed himself in the darkness. With the spirit enveloping him, he poured out of the garrison hall, up the side of the stronghold and over the roofs to the watch tower.

When Shaw could see through his own eyes again, a blinding flash of blue-green light burst in his face, only to fade into the bronze-blue of Julianne's eyes. "My lady, what–"

"The ring didn't bring me back just for you," she said, seizing his hand. "I know what's going to happen, and it's today. I can stop them from reaching the island, but you have to save the kids."

Dread bloomed inside him, gripping the beast and his own heart in ebony claws. "Dinnae leave me again."

"You don't understand. That's why you came back with me. We have to do this together. We always go together, you and me." She seized his hand. "Like chess pieces, piano keys, and salt and pepper, remember?"

She spoke of their fate as if it were meaningless, and Shaw realized for them it was. For as long as a mortal realm existed, they would always return to live again. "Aye. What need I do first?"

"Hold onto me." When he nodded she wrapped her arms around him, and a darker green light enveloped them both, blinding him to everything but her.

Looking into her eyes as her boon took them away gave Shaw the sense of having done the same countless times before now. The beauty and warmth of Julianne's gaze set him awash with tenderness and reverence, for what man could fill his heart with anything less for such a love?

I love her.

The words echoed inside him, huge and terrifying and yet entirely natural, as if such had been a part of him for so long he'd been born with her already inside his heart. If the monk had spoken truth, they had shared countless lives before now. As the dark green light faded, and a wooden deck appeared under his boots, a sense of the Pritani spirit came over him with a soft, humming vibrance, as if the beast were humming inside him.

Beauty. Our beauty.

Heavy footsteps thudded behind him, and Shaw pushed Julianne to the rear as he drew his dagger. MacLeir loomed in front of him, his expression exasperated as he flung out an arm and pointed at one of the gaps in the barrier.

"It's okay." Julianne squeezed his arm before she nodded to the ferryman. "I know. I saw what you did and everything else from the forest. Can you take us out to the longboat before they get close enough to see the island?"

MacLeir nodded, and after giving him a narrow look went to raise the sails.

Shaw sheathed his blade before he turned to his lady. "You couldnae see the longboat from the forest on Caladh."

"Not that forest." She took his hands in hers before she nodded toward Caladh. "I've seen the Stone Forest before you took me there, sort of. It was one of the places I could see through the tree window my aunt showed me when I lived with her. We could watch any time we wanted. That's how I saw what would happen today."

What she told him confused him even more. "She showed you this day from the future?"

"No, Shaw. Somewhere in Scotland I'm with her right now. I wasn't born in the twenty-first century." Julianne's eyes shimmered with tears. "I'm from this time. Your time. We were supposed to meet a long time ago."

As if silently agreeing with Julianne's outlandish claim, MacLeir nodded, and then went to the rudder to turn the ferry into the wind. Shaw could not take her words as truth, of course. The lady was definitely mortal, but he would indulge her until they came close enough to the raiders for him to board the vessel and deal with them. Then, once they returned safely to the island, he would speak with Duncan and perhaps Lady Valerie and find some means of helping Julianne.

"It's okay if you don't believe me." She rubbed at her eyes. "I can't even myself. But what I remember is my aunt who isn't actually my aunt saved me, and took me inside the trees to live in her world. Ordinary people don't get older in there."

Another terrible possibility came to him. Immortals like his sire could prevent mortals from ageing by taking them to an otherworld, and keeping them there. "Your aunt, she's Fae?"

"No." Julianne grimaced. "She's older than them. The oldest of all kinds, really." She glanced over her shoulder. "I have to jump us over to the Vikings' boat now, so you can save the boys while I deal with the other problem." When he gestured toward the barrier she added, "As soon as we leave MacLeir will cover the gap in the mist with his magic. There's no more time to explain. Please, come with me."

Shaw knew he should stop her. He could knock her senseless with little more than a tap, and leave her with the ferryman while he dealt with the raiders. Yet she was asking of him what he had always demanded of her. Even with all his doubts. Even knowing she could be slain the moment they jumped to the longboat.

I must trust her.

He tucked his arm around her. "Take me with you, then, my lady."

"You're such a sweetie." Her eyes grew misty again as she pressed her cheek against his shoulder, and then the ferry dissolved into a blur.

Time seemed to slow as Shaw held her, suspended in the place between places, removed from all but each other. Julianne tilted her head back to meet his gaze, smiling through her tears as she radiated a lovely pale glow that caressed him with its soft light.

We're probably going to die today, Bràmair. Her thoughts poured into his mind as if they'd never spoken in any other fashion.

That told him they had traveled between realms many, many times. Aye, Co-chèilidh . So we shall together, as ever we've done. If we survive, then shall you wed me?

She kissed him. If you need me to. You know I've been yours since the first moment I saw you in our first lifetime, my beautiful man.

A blurred image wrapped around them, that of a towering forest of snow-covered trees he did not recognize, and a night sky filled with so many stars the light was nearly the same as day. Julianne stepped out from behind one massive tree, her hair and eyes a dark brown. She wore crudely-stitched furs and carried a wreath of golden mistletoe to another tree, where she lay it atop its roots. A hunter with a drawn bow stepped into her view, his face the same as Shaw's but his black hair cropped and his eyes a bright blue.

The ancient Julianne dropped onto her knees before the hunter Shaw, and bowed her head. Instead of shooting her or attacking her, he did the same, tilting his head so he could look at her face. When he bent closer, she smiled and kissed his cheek. The bow dropped from his hand as he returned the kiss on her lips.

It really is love at first sight for us in every life we live , his Julianne whispered to him, her brown and blue eyes gleaming with adoration.

Rough, bowed wood appeared around them, encasing them in the hold of a vessel, and the smell of unwashed bodies and terror filled Shaw's head. Swaying lanterns cast shadows and light over a half-dozen small lads in chains cowering against the hull walls. The sight of the wounds showing through the grime and raggedy garments covering their skin made the beast roil inside him.

Julianne spoke to them softly in a language Shaw belatedly realized was érieann. Whatever she said made all of the lads stop cringing and tug at their chains as they crept closer.

"How ken you their tongue?" Shaw asked her.

"I've been able to speak all languages since I lived with my aunt." She looked into his eyes. "But this is one we both know." A dim memory of another life with her, speaking that language around a fire in some crude hearth, flitted into his mind. She glanced back at the boys. "Listen, we're running out of time, Chief. See if you can free them while I'm gone."

Alarmed, Shaw reached for her, but she vanished before he could touch her. A wave rocked the longboat, knocking him into a post supporting the upper deck. As soon as he grabbed it to right himself he knew what he'd done. As he snatched his hand away and looked around for water, the ball of flames that burst from the wooden post spread up to the underside of the deck, and spread in all directions.

"'Tis any barreled water here?" Shaw asked the boys in their language, but they all shook their heads as they crowded around him. Smoke began filling the hold, making them cough; it would smother the life out of them in only a few moments.

Above them a hatch flung open, and the furious face of a raider appeared. He shouted something in Norse that didn't sound like a promise of rescue.

Shaw ran over, climbing up the ladder as the Viking gaped at him, and got hold of his tunic to jerk him through the open hatch. As he landed on the lower deck one of the older boys kicked him in the head, knocking him out. He then seized a bundle of keys from the raider's belt, and began unlocking the manacles around the other lads' ankles and wrists.

The fire had crawled along the walls of the hold, and would soon engulf him and the boys. He knew the longboat was too far out from the island for the boys to be able to swim to shore by themselves, and they were too many for him to carry there on his back. MacLeir's vessel was closer, and he could swim with them two at a time to hand them off to the ferrymen.

What he needed to do was take the boys out of the hold before the smoke choked them to death.

"You and the others, follow me," he told the oldest lad, and climbed up the ladder to emerge on the upper deck, where a cluster of raiders stood around the hatch.

"Facking Scotsman. You serve the witch?" one of them demanded in garbled Scots Gaelic, brandishing a sword as the others backed away.

Shaw saw the trembling of the blade in the raider's hand and looked toward the south, where the distance silhouette of another, larger vessel appeared to be coming toward Caladh. "She's come for you bastarts."

The Viking hurled his sword at Shaw, who caught it easily, and then followed the rest of the raiders as they jumped overboard.

He went over to return the blade, and saw the men arranging themselves in a skiff lashed to the longboat. When they cut the rope and began rowing to the west he considered joining them long enough to introduce them to the beast. Smoke and flames had begun belching from the open hatch, however, and somehow he needed to move the boys over to the ferry before the burning longboat sank. The oldest lad herded the younger ones to the railing, but only looked down at the raiders fleeing in the skiff and spat at them.

Through the smoke he tried to spot MacLeir and the ferry, but only a solid wall of mist appeared between the longboat and Caladh.

"We'd rather drown than burn, Maister ," the boy told him, looking as if he meant to climb over the railing.

Shaw nodded his understanding, but put a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Wait and see if help's coming, lad."

Julianne made the jump to the other boat, startling the dirty, skinny women working on the top deck. What she hadn't seen from the forest world window was what would happen now with these shifters, but she had a sense of being right where she was supposed to be. As soon as her legs grew steady she strode to the bow, where the two who seemed less shocked than the others stood watching her.

"Sorry to drop in on you like this." She made a show of looking around before she asked, "Do you have that enchantress lady on board with you? Or did you dump her butt back on the island where she killed all the people?"

The bigger woman nodded to two of the others on deck, and they came up behind her to block her path. Julianne considered jumping to another part of the boat just as the cabin door opened and a tall, dark woman dressed in something like a bad Halloween costume glided out and came to inspect her.

"Hey, are you Derdrui?" When the dark woman just stared at her with crazy eyes Julianne sighed. "I'll take that as a yes."

"You would be one of the MacMar's whores from future times." The dark woman smiled with delight as she grabbed her hand, and jerked off Lady Joana's ring before Julianne could stop her. "You should not have come here, changeling. I've stripped you of your powers."

She sounded like she was drunk, Julianne thought, watching her face. Obviously something had gone seriously off with this lady, but she couldn't understand why everyone was so afraid of her. She was just like all the bullies at school that had tried to pick on Julianne before Eva had taught her how to fight back.

No one can bully you unless you're scared. Look closely and you'll see how pathetic they are. Laugh at them.

"What's a changeling, and do they have hairy feet? Because if they do I don't, so I can't be one. I'm just a really tall Napa Valley girl." Hoping she was doing the right thing, she yawned and rubbed the back of her neck. "Oooh, sorry. I work as a lifeguard. You probably don't know what that is, right?"

"Hold the over-large simpleton," the dark woman said as she circled around her.

Julianne didn't try to resist the two Cait Sith that sank their claws into her arms, because a split second later they hissed and snatched back their hands as if she'd burned them. Beneath her left breast her ink went icy cold, as if Buster had suddenly become aware that someone was hurting her. She could almost sense him much closer now, too, as if Shaw and him were standing right next to her. For a moment the Pritani spirit's desire to attack the Cait Sith and the enchantress made Julianne smile. Lucky for them Shaw was still back on the burning longboat.

Right. First, I have to get back the ring so I can help him rescue the kids.

"You dare smirk at me." Derdrui drew her hand back and slapped her across the face, so hard she knocked her onto her butt.

No , Julianne thought as Buster's black tide of rage welled up in her like an unseen oil well about to blow . We need to save lives today, bud. Chill.

"Get up, you idiot," the enchantress ordered.

Julianne looked up as she wiped the blood from her mouth and nose, rising to her feet to loom over the dark Fae. "So you're her, huh? The big scary enchantress Derdrui." Cold sweat inched down her spine as she pretended to study the other woman. "Doesn't sound very pretty, does it? If your mom named you, then I don't think she liked you very much."

"Keep a civil tongue with me, whore, or I shall cut it out of your head," the dark Fae said, almost purring the words. "Better yet, insult me again, and be quick about it." She bared her very white, sharp-looking teeth. "I grow hungry."

"Whoa. You really put the ick in Goth, didn't you?" She checked her fingernails the way Eva did whenever she was bored. "Sorry. My mother said if you can't say anything nice… By the way, has anyone ever said anything nice about you? Just curious."

The enchantress drew a long, gleaming silver dagger from her sleeve. "On your knees, changeling."

"I'm down, I'm up, now you want me down again. Lady, make up your mind already." She folded her arms. "You'll probably have to stand on your toes if you want to try for my tongue. Oh, and I should tell you, when Karen Beck punched me in the head in the tenth grade, I kind of threw her against the science class project board and put a huge hole in that and dislocated her shoulder. Not that I meant to, although Mrs. Jensen gave me detention for like a month just to keep Karen's dad happy. He's a big bully, too."

"Shut your mouth," the enchantress ordered.

"I only wanted to warn you that I get a little freakishly strong whenever someone tries to hurt me," she said, smiling broadly. "I wonder if living with my Aunt Klee did that, too. Maybe my brain doesn't work all that well, but I got a lot of other cool stuff from her. Kind of wish she was my birth mom, you know?"

"Speal," Derdrui shrieked her name. "Come and put this creature on her knees."

"Is Speal that big girl with the sad face over there?" Julianne grimaced in her direction. "You really shouldn't do that. I hate dislocating someone's shoulder. Let me talk it out with your boss here." As the dark Fae jabbed the dagger she held at her belly, she caught her wrist. The jolt from her touch made the enchantress drop the blade. "Lady, really, use your words, will you?"

"Release me," the enchantress hissed, and a blast of magic came from her and hit Julianne in the face and chest. It gathered there, just an inch from touching her body, and then seemed to run down an invisible wall and puddle in between them on the deck.

"More cool stuff, see?" She used her grip on the Fae's arm to drag her over to the side of the boat. Speal and the rest of the Cait Sith stared but didn't try to stop her. "Looks like my aunt Klee protected me against your kind and the magic you use."

"Take your hand from me, or my shifters shall cut it off," Derdrui shrieked.

The enchantress looked as if she were on the verge of a major brain melt, Julianne thought. She just had to prod her a little more.

"I don't think they're going to try. The Half-Fae really don't like touching me. Not counting Shaw, of course. He and I are fated to be lovers in like every lifetime until maybe the end of time, or we decide not to come back, or something like that. So he's like immune to my shock and awe thing." She glanced over the side of the boat. "You know how to swim, right? Because sorry, but I'm so not saving your butt from drowning. Not a lifeguard in this time. Plus you're immortal so you probably can't drown, right? But you look like you'll sink really fast." She eyed Speal. "Are you like good swimmers?"

"I shall tear through that shield, and eat your heart while it yet beats," Derdrui promised, her lips peeling back from her teeth. "No, I think first I shall permit you live forever. There is a spell, a regenerative magic, that will bring you back to life no matter what harm is done to you, and I shall–"

"Dude, just quit with the threats already, okay?" Julianne grabbed her by the front of her gown, and dug her fingers into the slippery silk. "You should stop trying to hunt down the MacMar, too. It's not their fault their dad never liked you. But hey, you know you might work better for one of those slaver guys. You have all the cruel and heartless stuff in common. They went west in a little boat, by the way."

As the enchantress's expression twisted into ferocious, snarling hatred, Julianne spun around her, using an immobilizing hold to knock her off balance. The silk gown ripped as she flung Derdrui over the railing. Hoping she was right about the dark woman, she caught her hand at the last possible moment and held her dangling over the churning sea water.

Derdrui screamed and writhed, her fingers clawing and clutching.

"You go too far, changeling," Speal said, lunging toward the railing to grab the enchantress's arm.

"Kind of had to, sorry." Julianne looked down at Derdrui. "Put the ring back on my finger. Do it right now, or I let go."

"I shall drop it in the sea– No ," the enchantress shrieked as Speal pried the ring from her hand and shoved it onto Julianne's finger.

"Thanks, and you should grab her now," she told the big woman, who took hold of Derdrui's hand. Julianne released it and regarded the enchantress. "You should really go vegan. So much healthier. Bye now."

The ring glowed as Julianne used her power to jump from the enchantress's boat into a huge, thick cloud, through which she dropped down until she hit the deck of the MacMar ferry. Across from her she saw the Viking longboat, now on fire, and Shaw with the slave kids huddled around him at one end.

"Crap, I'm late." She turned to MacLeir. "I'll get the kids and bring them over to you. Keep up the magic repairs with the barrier, okay?" When the ferryman nodded she jumped over to the longboat, appearing right beside the chieftain, who was tearing strips from his tunic and using them to cover the boys' noses and mouths. "Sorry I took so long. Let's get these little dudes over to the ferry."

He looked up, his face streaked black with soot. "Julianne, you cannae. They're too many."

"It's okay. I'll make a couple trips." She grabbed two of the kids and jumped back over to the ferry with them. When she returned to the burning longboat she staggered a little, her skin turning icy cold, but went to the next pair. "I can take three this time," she told her lover before she used her power again.

MacLeir grabbed her as she fell to her knees, and shook his head, pointing to the now sinking longboat.

"Just four more," she told him. "Shaw can't drown."

She pushed herself to her feet, took a deep breath, and went back a third time, landing on her face on the scorched deck, coughing uncontrollably. Flames burned her back, feet and arms as the upper deck began to collapse.

Her lover dragged her up, and pressed the four remaining boys around her as his eyes turned black. He gripped the front of her throat with his marked hand, and Julianne sensed the cool, dark weight of his ink spilling onto her skin.

"I love you, my golden merrow." He picked up her and the boys with his arms, and tossed them into the air a moment before the flames engulfed him.

Julianne held onto the sobbing boys as she closed her eyes, everything moving as if they were under water. She had rescued so many kids back in the future, so if these four were the last she would be grateful she'd had the chance. Whatever happened to her after death, she knew Shaw would find her. With the last of her strength she jumped over to the ferry, where she and the boys collapsed at MacLeir's feet.

As the ferryman helped her stand, Julianne leaned in to kiss his cheek. "Thanks, Bro." She took in a deep breath, and jumped back to the longboat.