Redeeming Vows (31 page)

The numbers called out staggered Fin.

“What of ye, MacCoinnich?”

Duncan stepped forward. “We’ve buried two in as many days.”

Fin sighed relief when the men nodded and went on to another topic. To tell everyone they’d lost none, would put suspicion on them. They didn’t need that.

As the debate continued, Fin opened his mind and searched the room. There were other Druids among them. He knew there were. He met the eyes of one of Lancaster’s knights, Donovan. He’d always wondered about the man, but would never openly ask. There were others, peppered into the men. They kept quiet, listened intently.

“What should we make of the angel’s prophecy to gift some with the power to defeat the witch?”

“She mentioned fire and rain. What does that mean?”

Fin glanced at his brother and nodded to the man who spoke. Duncan winked.

“Witches and powers. What nonsense,” he said tossing a hand in the air. When he did, a ball of fire came from nowhere and fell to the ground.

“God’s blood.” The man jumped back and stared at his hand. He snatched his hand to his chest, looked at it again, and then shook it out. Duncan added a few sparks from across the room.

Fin wanted to laugh, but held it inside.

Someone beyond their council yelled and people screamed. They turned and peered into the space between the encampments. Within seconds, more screaming and crying filled the afternoon air.

Fin’s eyes traveled to the family tent. Duncan 272

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slid beside him. “Tara says there are rats invading the camp.”

“Rats?”

“Hundreds of them.”

Fin felt the eyes of someone watching him, turned and noticed Donovan’s stare. The man nodded to the left, away from the men. Duncan and Todd started toward the family, many of the other men fled as well.

“What do ye make of this?” Donovan asked.

Fin tilted his head, took a chance. “The same as ye.” “The
angel
bestows gifts, and we are to use them openly?”

Fin ignored the increasing screams. “I believe that is what the
angel
said. I imagine the
gifts
would disappear once the witch is defeated.”

Just then, a rat two feet in length, ran at them without fear. It jumped onto Fin’s leg. He quickly kicked it off. Before it set forward again, fire caught hold of it, stopping it in a flaming death.

When he glanced up, Donovan shook out his hand.

Fin extended his arm. “I have yer back, brother.”

Donovan smiled. “And I have yers.”

The women around them screamed, babies cried.

Some of the rats were trampled to death while others latched on to legs and arms of anyone they could.

By the time Fin reached Liz and the others, hell had broken loose. Cian ushered him inside the tent.

“How can we fight this?” Liz held Briac in one hand, Simon and Amber held hands and grasped on to Liz’s free arm. All four of them hovered in the tent, away from the rats.

“Stay here,” he ordered.

“I planned on it,” Lizzy shouted.

“Simon, can you call in a few cats to help us 273

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out?”

The boy enthusiastically nodded before closing his eyes.

Fin ducked beyond Cian, swiveled around and saw Duncan and Tara helping others destroy the rodents.

Alice screamed by his side. A rat latched onto her dress, she reached down to bat it off. Fin sent a spark from her hands, wounding the rat. Alice flinched, stared at her hand, then found a poker for the fire pit, and ran it through her four-legged enemy.

Duncan pointed to the edge of the forest.

“They’re coming from over there.”

“Gather people, let them think they’re setting them on fire.”

Tara ran toward Myra as Duncan met with Logan and pointed toward the massive numbers of rats rushing toward them.

Fin found Ian and Lora and told them his plan.

Soon, the camp was filled with small balls of fire and small measures of awe and celebration with every fallen rodent. When he met up with Donovan, the knight had a few extra people by his side.

“Where are they coming from?”

“Over there.”

Duncan stood with six men, he managed to have each of them shooting fire, or think they were shooting fire, from their hands.

Fin ran to his side to help.

They dodged bites and threw fire, but the rats kept coming. As they managed to destroy one pack, another charged.

“Enough,” Duncan yelled, spread both hands wide and lit the ground with fire in a steady stream.

Some rats ran into the fire, others attempted to find the end of it.

Fin noticed the attention of one of the men that 274

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battled at Duncan’s side. The virtual stranger mimicked Duncan’s movement, Fin helped fire come, but not in the way of Duncan’s talent. Fin nudged Duncan’s hand when the stranger did it again. This time flames leapt and fire spread beyond them.

The rats retreated. Those inside the circle of flame were picked off one by one. Simon’s cats chased, caught, and dismembered their share.

No longer hovering, Liz approached Fin when he returned to her side. She slipped into his arms and rested her head on his chest. He placed a kiss to her head.

“Is everyone well?”

“I won’t sleep for a week, but we’re all okay.”

He laughed.

“Rats? Her mind is warped.”

Fin had heard enough of her slang to understand her. “We should expect anything.”

She shivered. “Make that a month. I’m not sleeping for a month.”

Indulging in her warmth a little longer, Fin stroked his hand down her back. “Where is Simon?”

“He and Cian are helping Lora and Myra with some of the people who were bit.”

“Any serious injuries?”

“Hard to tell.”

Fin noticed Todd signaling him to come from across the camp.

Pulling out of Liz’s embrace, Fin covered her mouth with a soft kiss. She purred, just a little and cuddled closer. He stepped away, placed a finger on her pert little nose. “Later, love.”

Her lower lip stuck out in a pout but she let her hands drop from his sides and let him walk away.

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so hungry she could eat a small mammal all by herself.

Tara fell beside her, followed by Amber and Myra.

“What a day.”

“You’re not kidding.”

Liz glanced at her sister. “Where’s Briac?”

“With Simon and Lora.”

“What about Cian?”

Amber raised her hand and pointed toward the rocks overlooking the cliffs. The silhouette of someone staring over the sea stood out among the setting sun.

“Is he going to be okay?”

“He grieves, but he will survive,” Amber answered.

Smells from Alice’s stew had Lizzy’s stomach rumbling. “Where are the men?”

“In council.” Tara rubbed the back of her neck.

“They’re talking about sheltering all the women and children in the keep and having the men outside as guards.”

Liz noted the size of the structure and the number of people. It would be tight, but they’d fit.

“We may be able to charm the walls, protect us and the others, out here ’tis difficult,” Myra said.

“True.” But she hated the thought of splitting up half the family. They worked better together.

Alice stepped forward with her pot and offered them dinner. They ate in relative quiet.

The calm before the storm.
Liz hated that her thoughts led there, the cliché never felt more daunting.

As the ocean reached high tide, the fog swept over them. When the night closed in, the men returned and announced the decisions made by the men. “Tomorrow we move the women to the keep. We 276

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will send out scouts to search for Grainna’s fortress.”

“They won’t come back. Grainna will take out a small party.”

“I agree, but changing centuries of warrior tactics is impossible.” Fin settled beside Liz and let her lean against him.

Simon stoked the fire. “Tatiana said Grainna resided close to the sea.”

“Which will be her weakness. We need only to surround her halfway. She will have no place to hide.”

“But she shifts, and flies.” Simon kept his voice low and glanced around. Most of the people in camp slept, the guards kept watch around the perimeter.

“She’s wounded. How, I don’t know. If she suffered a wound that does not heal while in the form of an animal, she wouldn’t attempt a shift again.” Ian drank the ale at his side.

“Aye, father, I think you’re right. Grainna is nobody’s fool.”

“Now what? We’ve banded the people together, we’re all willing to fight the witch, but how?

Running around starting fires is exhausting.” Liz laced her fingers in Fin’s as she spoke.

“But it worked. Something else happened with our… interventions,” Fin told them.

“What’s that?”

“Others came through. Others like us.”

Ian sat forward. “I noticed that, too.”

“How many?”

Fin shrugged and rambled off a few names. Ian added some more, a classroom of people. Not an army, but they would have to do. Maybe more existed but wouldn’t expose themselves. If death loomed, they’d have no choice.

“I can help find the others like us.” Amber glanced at her mother. “When we helped the wounded earlier, I touched many hands. Some were 277

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Druids. I felt it.”

Tara sighed. “Safety in numbers.”

“Elise said it would take ‘all of us’ to defeat Grainna. All of us may be more than
only us
.

Those words sunk in while the fire in front of them dwindled to embers and smoldering coals. It wasn’t quite midnight, the nearly full moon begged attention.

Damn, had it only been twenty-four hours since Liz had sat on the lawn of the Observatory, praying, chanting, and willing her and Fin through time?

What were Selma and Jake doing now?

Myra interrupted her thoughts. “I need to sleep.”

Todd helped her to her feet.

“Wait,” Simon whispered, yet everyone heard.

Liz narrowed her eyes at her son. “What is it?”

“Tomorrow, before the search party starts out, I need to go in front of them.”

Fin shot up. “No!”

Ian agreed.

“Wait, listen before you think I’m nuts.”

Liz peered into his face and eyes…eyes that seemed so much older than before Grainna’s evil swept her to the future.

“I’ll shift into a shark and find her.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“No.”

“Simon, nay.”

Liz listened. Her son’s eyes never left hers.

“I can. I’ve already done it.”

Her heart wept. She bit her lip and squeezed Fin’s hand, but she didn’t say a thing.

“Men will die if we let them go. Grainna won’t find me in the sea, won’t consider looking for me there.”

“We don’t know that, Simon.” Fin’s hand clenched hers as he spoke.

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“You have to trust me to do this.”

While the other members of the family grumbled, Liz considered. She wanted to cry. God, she needed to bawl like a baby. No! God no! Don’t let her baby go.

Simon stared at her.

Only her.

After a deep breath, she leveled her eyes to the fire and turned in Fin’s arms. Before she spoke, tears sprang in her eyes and a knot formed in her throat. “I think… I think
we
should let him try.”

Fin’s eyes narrowed, the request for his opinion not lost. He shifted his eyes to Simon. “Can you do this, son?”

Liz felt a cry leave her lips.

“Yes. She won’t know I was there.”

Fin’s gaze met hers.

Tears fell, but she brushed them away.

Fin’s eyes glossed over.

“Then your mother and I approve.”

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Liz, Fin, Myra, and Todd sat on the shore waiting. Simon had shifted and swam away under the light of the moon nearly an hour earlier. Every passing minute ate into Liz’s confidence. Had she and Fin done the right thing by letting Simon go?

They had no idea how far he’d have to swim to find Grainna’s camp, or even if he would be able to see it from the water.

After fifteen minutes in the water, Liz could no longer speak with her son inside her head. Every minute since added to her anguish.

“We should have given him a time to return, even if he couldn’t find her.”

Myra reached for Liz’s hand. “It must be difficult to gauge time under there. Even if you had requested him to come back, he may not be able to.”

Simon? Can you hear me?

Silence! Damn quiet was entirely overrated.

A few rocks tumbled down the cliff. Liz glanced over her shoulder to see Cian and Amber walking toward them. Their eyes searched the waters.

“The men are starting to assemble,” Cian said when he stood beside them.

Fin let out a deep breath. “Come, Simon. Hurry up, lad.” Worry laced his stern expression. Thank God she wasn’t standing on this shore alone. Maybe it was wrong to want to share the burden with others over the welfare of her son, but Liz was grateful for their combined concern.

Wow!

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Liz glanced around wondering who’d said the word. Her head shot to the sea.
Simon?

Hey, Mom.

She slumped against Fin.

“What?”

She pointed to her head. “Simon.”

You should see it under here, Mom. It’s a whole
world full of so many beautiful things.

Tell us about it on shore. How far away are you?

Not sure, hold on…

“What is he saying?”

“He’s sightseeing.”

Todd scoffed under his breath while Myra asked,

“What is that?”

“Checking out what the ocean has to offer by means of beauty.”

I’m coming around the peninsula now. You’ll see
me in about five minutes or so.

True to his word, Simon, in shark form, surfaced long enough for them to see him.