The Screaming Stone: The Otherworld Series Book 2 (14 page)

“Good,” Fiona stated as she lowered her threatening hand causing Knackers to visibly relax.  “I tink Rian an’ I are more than capable o’ taking care o’ Finn. I can cook up a few poultices now and ‘ave ‘em ready ta heal Finn if Rian is okay with guardin’ us?” she asked glancing quickly at Rian who eagerly nodded.

“Griffin,” Duncan said regaining the attention of the room.  He was beginning to warm to the plan the room was formulating as a whole.  They all seemed to understand everyone’s strengths.  He only hoped they also understood everyone’s weakness.  “Do you think you an’ Kat could project another one of yer famous shields?”

“One big enough and quick enough to keep up with Annie
away
?” the big man asked.

“Nay,” Duncan said with a quick shake of his head.  “One big enough ta draw the attention of any other nasties that may be hiding in the darkness ta lure them from Annie,” he explained.

Griffin’s mouth kicked up in a crooked grin that made the man look younger than he appeared.  “Yes, I think I see where you’re going.  We could make it look more impressive than it is that way we can save up some energy in case we have to think quickly on our feet.”

“That takes care of everyone but you and Robert,” Annie said to Duncan.  Failinis, seemingly aware that he had been left out barked loudly gaining her attention.  “Yes and you as well Failinis,” she added rewarding the pup with a playful scratch behind his ears.

“We’ll be comin’ with ye guarding yer back an’ makin’ sure you make it ta the stone in one piece,” Duncan informed her quietly.

“Oh no you won’t,” she protested loudly in return.  The entire room grew quiet as they fixed their eyes upon the two people in the room who still hadn’t sorted out their roles in tonight’s dangerous adventure.

“Yes we will,” he replied sternly.

“I will not put you and Robert in that kind of danger.  I- I,” she stumbled as a deep foreboding emotion flickered across her face.  “I wouldn’t be able to go through with it if something happened to either of you,” she finally finished her voice barely above the sound of a whisper.

“Fine,” he said softly.  “Robert can stay behind with Kat an’ Griffin.  As a matter of fact that’s a much better idea, from a distance with his hair just the right length that he could be mistaken for you.  He can be a decoy hidden under Griffin’s protective bubble.  Better?” he inquired.  He knew she would still try to protest.  Did she really think he would let her take this leap on her own?  Had she learned nothing?  Had she heard nothing he had said?  He was not willing to let her go just yet.  What she did not know what she could not even imagine was that there was no way he was letting her step on that stone alone.  They would do it together or not at all.  He was not and could not risk losing her now.

When she looked as if she were about to protest Griffin stepped in.  “That sounds like a perfect plan.  Robert won’t be happy but I’ll take care of him.  As for you,” he said pointing to Annie.  “There is no way any of us are letting you approach that stone on your own.  More than likely the worst of what they have to throw at us will be waiting for you on top of that hill.  You,” he said pointing a brotherly finger in her direction.  “Will be climbing that hill with the best we have.  If Finn were in better condition he’d be going with you too.  You will not argue this point any further.”

Every head nodded vehemently in agreement and Failinis bark sealing the agreement.  No one was willing to risk Annie approaching the stone unprotected, not even a puppy.

Chapter Thirteen

The Shadow of Tara

The trip to Tara, in a car, driven on the wrong side of the road by a man who was not accustom to the driving conditions in Ireland, was worse than the Trolley ride he had endured in Salem.  At least Stinky Pete had not been present; he would have definitely lost his breakfast and soiled the tiny confines of the car he had been stuffed into.  Failinis seemed to have enjoyed the ride.  The unruly pup had hung his head out the window that Annie had opened to help alleviate his motion sickness.  Duncan looked down at the ginger colored mutt.  His tongue hung out of his mouth and his disheveled hair was sticking out at impossibly odd angles.  Annie bent down and attempted to straighten his motely appearance.  Just when she had his fur brushed back, and his face arranged so it did not appear crooked, Failinis decided he needed a good grass bath.  The pup rolled around in the short sheep shorn grass before burying his face into the ground to scratch and rearrange his doggie mustache until he was satisfied with the results.  When he looked up at them he had, somehow, managed to mess up his fur more than the windblown car ride had.

“You’re a mess,” Annie muttered down at him as Failinis thumped his tail energetically on the ground.  “And slightly disturbing to look at,” she added cocking her head to the side as she studied him further.  Failinis rewarded her with an eager and happy yip.  He seemed to like being referred to as ‘disturbing’.

“For some reason I have a feeling he actually took that as a complement,” Griffin said laughing. 

Duncan frowned down at the dog which sat disheveled yet enthusiastically at his feet.  He was slightly off-putting with his wild hair and a tongue that seemed to constantly hang out of his mouth.  He was still a pup but if the size of his paws was any indication he would eventually be a terrifyingly gigantic dog.  Maybe he was preparing for when he grew up like a child who dresses up in their mother’s clothes; or maybe he was just a dog with a goofy personality.  Duncan was inclined to believe the later. 

He shook his head and tried to focus on something besides the newest member of their group.  Now that the “motion sickness” was beginning to wear off he was feeling the strangest pull in his gut.  At first he wanted to link it with the car ride but now that the nausea had abated the pulling sensation was growing stronger.   He was unsure whether it was his battle senses waking up and warning him or if this was something deeper he needed to investigate.  He squinted up at the sun still riding high in the clear blue sky and made a quick decision.

“Where is the church?” he asked Knackers who had dressed himself in his ‘human’ looking attire.  He wore another strangely printed flower shirt and long pants that had more pockets than were necessary, cautiously he glanced down at his feet and was relieved to see they were properly covered.

“Combat boots,” Knackers informed him when he caught Duncan staring.  “Griffin told me ‘bout ‘em, said it was what fighting men today wore when goin’ in ta battle.”  Duncan raised a humorous brow at him but remained silent.  “What?  They’re verra comfortable,” Knackers said defensively as he quickly looked away.

Duncan caught Annie mouthing the words ‘Thank you’ to Griffin.  Apparently he was not the only one who never, ever wanted to see Knackers’ ugly toes again.  He held back a snicker as a new feeling; and an even stronger pull began to yank at him.  His eyes were drawn towards the direction that his feet yearned to go.

“Ta answer yer question,” Knackers grumbled petulantly.  “It’s there,” he said pointing to their left.

Duncan reluctantly pulled his gaze away from where he wanted and needed to go and concentrated on the spot Knackers was pointing at.  Above a small circle of trees he could just make out the steeple of a stone building.  The church was covered by large trees as if it were hiding using nature as a shield against something that remained unseen. 

“Tara was, is an ancient Neolithic site.  It was the base of religion for the ancient Celts.  The wandering missionaries would have used the site to build a religious shrine of their own,” Griffin said seemingly reading his mind.  “It would have made assimilation into a new religion easier.  But it appears that nature has blocked the view of the ancient structure.  It’s almost as if it is offended.”

“We’ve plenty of light left,” Duncan informed the group.  “Best to see where everything is so we know where we can set up our defenses.”  All heads nodded in agreement as they too seemed wrapped up in the spell and power Tara was exuding.

“The sight closes in a couple of hours,” Annie said informing the group.

“Perfect,” Duncan replied, his eyes still fixed on a spot in the distance that was calling to him.  “We can meet back here in an hour.”

“No, it might be better if we all met up at the church in an hour.  That way we can slip in just before closing and hopefully disappear without anyone knowing where we are,” Kat said offering up a new plan.

“Kat!” Annie exclaimed.  “I had no idea you were so-“

“Devious,” Autie finished with a smile and a wink.

“Robert is gonna love ye,” Knackers informed Autie who ignored him.

“What?” Kat questioned blinking her large eyes in an attempt to look innocent.  Griffin and Annie continued to stare at her obviously shocked that Kat had come up with such a good idea.  “What can I say,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.  “I wasn’t always so innocent and cute.  In my day I snuck into a few places where trespassing was frowned upon.”

“We will discuss your breaking and entering transgressions latter Kat,” Griffin grumbled obviously upset with finding out that his girlfriend was a thief.  “Come on Kat burglar, you, me and Fiona will go this way,” he said pulling her hand.

Fiona quickly followed; her small legs all but running to keep up with Griffin as he pulled a still arguing Kat behind him.  “I never stole anything Griff,” she protested as she hurried alongside him.

“I had no idea Kat had such a deviant history,” Annie said sucking her bottom lip into her mouth to keep from laughing.

“What be a cat-burglar?” Autie innocently asked; which caused Annie to lose her battle with the laughter she had been trying to contain.

“Later,” Duncan grumbled down at him.  Although he too was curious about what a cat-burglar was.  The pulling sensation was beginning to become painful as it thought it was being ignored.  “Annie and I will go that way,” he said pointing in the direction his body so desperately wanted to go.  “You three,” he said indicating Autie, Knackers and Rian.  “Keep a close eye on that church and find us a way out that is different than the way in.  Understood?”

When none of them raised any objections he took a hold of Annie’s hand and pulled her; as Griffin had but moments before done to Kat in the direction he needed to go with Failinis following closely behind.

“Where are we running to?” Annie asked breathlessly once they were out of earshot of anyone else.

At first he didn’t answer.  He had no answer.  He was following his feet, following the pulling sensation that was beginning to sing welcomingly deep inside him.  There was something here that was so familiar.  The land had changed, the sky had shifted, trees had grown and had been removed, but something about here was familiar and inviting like…
home
.  He stopped abruptly.  His conscious mind overriding his feet and calling for an abrupt halt as that word reminded him all too much of his nightly reoccurring dreams.  Annie who had been running to keep up with him bumped into his back.  The moment he felt her body brush against him he was spinning to face her.  Her sudden gasp shocked him out of the spell he seemed to be under.  Her, she was what was different.  She had never been present in any of his dreams about this place.  If he held on to her she would ground him in the world of reality saving him from the dimension of fragmented dreams that made no sense. 

“Annie,” he breathed as he tightly gripped her shoulders.

She seemed unaware of the turmoil boiling just beneath the surface of his skin.  “Duncan how did you, how do you move so fast?” she asked in wonder.

Did she not feel it?  She housed a Sidhe beneath her mortal skin.  Did she not hear and feel their presence, their ancient presence?

“Do ya no’ feel that?” he asked glancing over his shoulder.  They stood in the shadow of the mound that at one point in ancient history was the royal seat of the High King and Queen of Ireland, of the Sidhe.

“I’ve felt it since we landed in Dublin, and that’s over twenty kilometers away,” she explained absently shrugging her shoulders.  “Wait,” she muttered as she quickly caught on.  “Are you telling me you feel it too?” she asked suspiciously.

His eyes were still focused on his or perhaps their ultimate destination.  He nodded his head silently agreeing, still afraid to admit, to give voice to the strange dreams that had plagued him since Bres’ defeat at the Wharf.  Annie, unwilling to accept a silent conversation slipped out of his grip and circled around him.

“Duncan,” she whispered softly reaching out a hand to draw his face down to look upon hers.  “Talk to me, what are you feeling?”

He shook his head confused as the last remnants of his defiance wanted him to remain mute.  She would leave and he would lose her if he didn’t speak up now.  Hadn’t Robert told him to talk to Annie about what he had seen in his sleep?

“I’ve been here before, in a dream,” he finally admitted.  “Although it was…it looked different than.”  He squinted; his eyes and tried to focus on the memory of those haunting dreams.  After the first night he had tried to run; however pieces of that first night’s journey here were still etched permanently in his mind’s eye as though he had seen them in the light of day.  His eyes continued to scan the horizon, studying the landscape that surrounded them.

“There was a large fortress just there,” he said pointing in the direction of the solitary stone that was perched atop a soft hill.  “The walls were thick and wooden and the door, the gate,” he said correcting himself, “was strong and sturdy made from an ancient oak that had been struck by lightning.  A seal sat in the center of the door.  It was carved, crafted out of copper.  The edges swirled and looped unendingly and they framed a symbol a triquetra inside a triquetra with blades on the tips of the three points.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that symbol before,” she admitted.  “But if you’ve been here if you’ve seen Tara…I told you I thought something was trying to tell us something,” she said poking him in the chest.

He laughed softly as he grabbed her hand and wrapped it within his to stop her from stabbing him with it.  “I thought you were a skeptic,” he challenged placing a delicate kiss on the top of her hand.

“That was before I found out I carried an ancient goddess and a legendary ghost teamed up with a jealous god and tried to kill me,” she grumbled in return.  “What else have you seen, what else do you know?” she asked peering up at him suspiciously.

“Honestly that is most of it.”

He refused to tell her how much the door had frightened him and how he ran every night in an attempt to out run the fear that door represented.  He would never admit how much that symbol had called to him, beckoned him and screamed at him.  He would never tell her of how he ran, hard and fast every night away from the door and straight into the arms of a watery ghost that dragged him down into the darkness only to spit him out into the daylight of the future.  His body might have given him away as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.  He rested his forehead against hers and stared into those eyes that had always been able to see straight through him.  Her irises swirled in a colorful explosion as every shade of blue danced for dominance in her eyes.  The Fae, the Sidhe in her was close to bursting out of her.  He had had such a small amount of time with her, with Annie, he wanted more.  He wanted to hear her snort with laughter when her mirth overtook her.  He wanted to hear her sigh in content.  He wanted to see her smile and joke with her friends in her lovely little garden a world away.  He wanted…so much more time than he had been allowed to share with her and her motely band of friends.  Had she been born in his time, in his village, he would have been drawn to her, would have asked her family to settle her upon him and would have died a happy man.  Now, he was being asked to lead her to the slaughter.  He gripped her tightly to him.

“Don’t ya leave me,” he whispered a weak attempt at a spell.  He had no magick; he held no power save what rested in his sword arm.  He had nothing to give and expected everything in return. 

“You will have to choose,”
whispered that evil little voice.

“Not yet,”
he finally pleaded in return.

“Duncan?” her muffled whisper yanked him back to the present. He lifted his head and took a cautious look around.

They had started to draw the attention of other tourists.  A small group of all women led by one uncomfortable looking man stood a few feet away from them.  A few of the aging ladies were staring at them; some had wistful looks upon their time etched faces as they were muttering like old hens about the beauty of young love.

“Wait till they get older,” one particularly bitter voice stated.  “Then his eye will wander as his manhood falters,” she loudly informed the group.