Chapter 4
“Then ye’ll come home with me? This is truly over,” she sobbed through a smile, relief oozing from her pores.
“You know I will, Nora. I’ll see you to your home and do all I can to keep you safe there.”
Nora looked at him, realization hitting. “Not here, not me home as ye know it. Me home in the future. Away from here. Away from yer people!”
“I can’t leave my people, Nora. They look to me for guidance.”
“If ye stay here they’ll kill ye!” she shouted, clearly upset.
“You’re speaking nonsense; they respect me,” he said calmly, trying to ease her worry.
“Some, yes. But some only wait for a moment of weakness tah attack ye. Think of it, Gorta… why would I be following ye through time, begging ye tah allow me tah save ye if ye didn’t need tah be saved?”
“You’ve warned me. That is enough.”
“I don’t know what tah warn ye about. Things have changed, Gorta. I don’t know what tah guard against. What tah expect. The village is not where it was in the past. Ye’re here far in advance of the battle in the village. Me oaks… me oaks don’t seem tah have any magic left in them at all,” she said, gesturing to the trees in the forest around them. “I don’t know how tah protect ye this time. So, we have tah go. We have tah go now.”
“I can’t leave my people. They’ll become lost without me.”
“But they don’t! Ozaq steps up and leads them. He creates a legacy leading down through the ages.” Nora reached out grabbing at his arms, pleading for his understanding.
“That’s enough. Nothing is going to happen here. Do you think me a foolish, or an incapable male?”
“No! But I know what I’ve been fighting against for half me life!”
Gorta smoothed her hair from her face, then roughly dried her tears with his thumbs. He did most things that way — roughly. He didn’t want to ignore her concerns, or belittle her fears, but there was just no way that his people would ambush him in the hopes of killing him. Even the most difficult among them held respect for his place and strength among their tribe. “I hear your concerns. I will remain vigilant. But for now, let’s get you home. We’ll calm ourselves, and then we’ll speak of it again.”
“Ye think me fears have no basis.”
“That is not true. I feel your fear. I know your fears are well-founded, otherwise you wouldn’t have fear. But you said it yourself. Things are different this time,” he said carefully, being sure to use her own words to try to reason with her and show that he did indeed listen. “Perhaps your fears won’t come to be this time.”
Nora still sat on the ground, her face tear-stained as she gazed defeatedly around the overgrown, inactive circle of oaks that surrounded them. Without changing her posture, no significant movement on her part, she called on the winds and the powers she’d nurtured from a young age. She imagined the words she’d not needed to speak in more than a decade to access the powers of the circle and the portal it marked. But this time, after feeling the winds gently kissing her skin, and not feeling the familiar pull of the portal opening at her beckoning, she started murmuring the words.
Gorta’s head popped up at the familiar incantation he was shocked to hear her speaking. He looked up toward the sky, then moved closer to Nora. “What’s that you’re saying, Nora?” he asked.
Nora didn’t answer, nor did she meet his gaze. She was busy begging the portal within the oaks to open.
Gorta felt the winds gain a little strength, and imagined them dying down, in effect causing them to do just that.
“I just don’t understand it! Why are me magics not working?!” Nora demanded frustratedly.
“So, you’d take me back to your time without my consent, then?” he asked, a bit of wry humor in his tone.
Nora jumped to her feet and glared at him. “I’d take ye tah hell without yer consent if I thought it would keep ye alive!”
Gorta watched her for a few uncomfortable moments before he burst out in laughter.
“It’s not funny!” she shouted at him angrily.
“It could be. But it doesn’t say much about your faith in me, either, now does it?”
“What it says is that I’ve seen it over and over and over again.”
“But this time is different.”
“Which is why I just tried tah move us home. I don’t even get a hint of the portal any longer. It’s overgrown and unkept. I don’t even know if it’s here, in this time, much less if it’s still a functioning portal.” Nora sighed tiredly. “I don’t know anymore. I don’t know what tah do, how tah protect ye.”
“I have not consented to leave my people, my time.”
“Yer people kill ye!” she shouted angrily.
Gorta shifted his battle axe into his left hand, and laced the fingers of his right hand with hers. “Let me get you home. Make sure you’re secure, then I’ll go see to my people. Afterward, once I see the state of things, we’ll decide what is next.”
“Ye shouldn’t go tah them at all. Unless of course, death is yer plan.”
“You said it yourself, this time is different.”
Nora didn’t answer, but she did allow him to lead her from the circle such that it was. As they walked past her clay jug, she paused long enough to pick it up and he waited. When she fell into step with him he clasped her hand again. He’d had to use a considerable amount of his magics to counter her attempt to open the ancient Fae portal, or druid portal. It was actually a leftover remnant of the time of the druids, but the Fae took advantage of its existence to move from one place to another. It was sometimes easier than establishing a newer portal. And being that it was in the forest, actually garnered from the magic of the trees themselves, it was less likely that someone who shouldn’t would be noticing it and trying to access it.
“Tell me, Nora. If your circle isn’t working, then how did you get here this time?” Gorta asked.
“The circle. Or at least, I left home through the circle. This circle. It’s a portal. It’s how I’ve followed ye every time. It’s how I moved back and forth between me own time, and yers trying tah save ye. If there’s ever a need tah travel from where ye are, step intah the circle of oaks and it should take ye away if ye know the incantations.”
“There are portals everywhere, if you know where to look,” Gorta said.
“I only know the circle of oaks. It’s always taken me tah ye.”
“Only it didn’t this time?”
“It took me away, but instead of depositing me where I expected, in the same circle but in another time, it took me tah a place far from here. When I arrived and I looked around myself, I realized that I wasn’t standing in my circle. In fact, there was no circle tah be seen at all.”
“Where were you, then?”
“I was just outside of yer village. Or so I thought. Still think.”
“You think?” he asked.
“I think I witnessed Maddie being taken intah yer village.”
“Maddie?”
“Yes. She’s like me, from the future.” She walked along for a few more steps before she turned to him excitedly, thinking that she’d finally found a way to convince him of the truth of all she’d said. “A strange woman arrived, didn’t she? Did she choose Ozaq? An Orc named Ozaq? He’d be the blacksmith! He made swords and daggers and…”
“Yes, and now you’ve reminded me you spoke of Ozaq. How do you know Ozaq? And how do you know of his woman?” Gorta asked, his steps slowing as he turned to look at her. “There was a strange woman, and she did choose Ozaq. But she’s only just arrived a few weeks ago. There’s no way for the news to have traveled yet.”
“I told ye. I’ve been chasing after ye for a long, long time. And Maddie and Ozaq are part of our family history, in more ways than one.”
Gorta stood silently watching Nora as she grew more and more flustered. It was obvious that she knew some of what she spoke of. She knew of Ozaq and the strange female who’d chosen him rather than any of his warriors. She knew of the fact that Fae used old druid circles to transport themselves, and the most important part of all, was that he knew deep inside that this woman, this strange, intriguing woman, was the incarnation of his lost beloved. “I believe you, Nora. I know you’re speaking the truth.”
Nora smiled sadly at him. “But it’s still not enough is it?”
“Tell me what you know of the oaks, Nora?” he asked, gently pulling her along as he started walking again.
“It’s a legend handed down in our family. Through handwritten accounts as well as word of mouth. The first time I moved through it was after yet another dream of ye dying and me being unable tah save ye. I was hurting so badly, longing so deeply, that in a fit of passion I left home, running through the woods. I tripped and fell tah the ground, sobbing myself intah exhaustion. When I turned over tah face the world again, I was lying in the center of the oaks, with the full moon in the night sky above me. The legend is that tah travel through the portal, the moon must be full. I started tah chant the words I’d read in my ancestors’ journals never believing that it would be true, and the ground fell from beneath me. When I woke up, I was in the past, and I knew immediately where tah go tah find ye. But I was too late. And I’ve been too late every time until this time.”
“The moon’s not full, and it’s not nighttime,” Gorta pointed out.
“No, it’s not, but I’ve not just arrived. Though the moon wasn’t full then either, it doesn’t matter. I’ve mastered the circle, and many other things as well. I don’t need the full moon tah travel anymore, nor the words tah actually be spoken tah call the portal. As I said, this time, things are different. Me cottage is here this time, more or less, and I’ve never come across it in the past. And the village ye and yer warriors attack isn’t where it’s supposed tah be. And the circle is overgrown and doesn’t seem tah house the portal it usually does. And though I left home in the circle, I arrived near yer village miles from here. And ye’re not gravely injured. Ye’re here, alive and healthy, and with me. Things are different this time, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. I’m terrified. Because I don’t know what tah expect, what tah watch for, what tah protect against. I don’t have it in me tah survive losing ye again,” she finished quietly.
“You won’t. But there are things I must see to before I can even consider leaving.”
“Such as? What is more important than yer survival?”
“Nora, think. Can I live in your time? Would it cause a war for me to arrive on lands that aren’t under my control? Would those who are ruling the tribes now see me as a threat and cause you more danger than you already face chasing after me?”
“Orcs don’t exist.”
He chuckled. “I’m an Orc.”
“I know that. In my time, Orcs don’t exist.”
“Then how would I live there? Would the magics even allow me to transport to that time?”
“I’ve taken care of it! My family owns all this land. I live on it by myself, well, almost. And no one ever comes here. We can live in peace with no one else tah ever know ye’re there.”
“I’ll live the rest of my life in your time, and never leave your land, relying on the strengths of my wife to feed us, clothe us, provide for us in every way. I will be nothing. I will contribute nothing.”
“Ye are everything! Without ye, there is no life!” she exclaimed.
“I need more. I need to provide for my woman, my children. Our children! What of our children? How will you explain their appearance if they favor me? And let me tell you, they will favor me. Is it fair to keep them in one place all their lives never allowing them to grow and expand their lives?”
“We’ll find a way, Gorta!” she said angrily. “And there won’t be any children! I’ve spent all my life saving ye, I’m too old for children!”
He was stunned for only a second before relief flooded him. “Good, then I won’t have to watch you die again trying to bring our babes into the world!”
She glared at him frustratedly. “Why can’t ye just come home with me? Let me do what I have tah, tah make things safe for us?”
“It is who I am! It’s a matter of pride! I need to know that I keep you safe and that we are equal in all things. I need to know that I keep my family fed and provided for. I can’t just be happy because I breathe.”
“I’m not willing tah give ye up. I won’t do it! I’d just as soon go back and play with those snakes! I’m not going home without ye again.”
“Maybe ye already are home,” he said as gently as he could, deciding that he’d allowed the conversation to escalate more than he should have.
“And worry every day if that’s the day ye’ll be killed? We’re safer in me time!”
“If I do not have a life. If I have to hide until my very last breath.”
Nora glared at him, knowing he was right, but not willing to give up the mission she’d led for half her life to save him.
“It is a lot to consider. But we’re not powerless. Between your magic and mine, we are quite the adversary.”
“So, ye finally admit ye have magics.”
“Among my people it can get you ostracized, if not killed. I’ve not used them in a long, long time, until today.”
She thought about it for a few minutes. “Ye stopped me portal!”
“Your portal may or may not work. It was very weak, and I have not given my permission for you to take me from this world, so I stopped your spell.”
“Ye are so very stubborn.”
“As are you,” he countered. “I think that is one reason we are so well suited.”
“Can ye call yer magic at will?”
“I could, but as I said, I don’t use it regularly.” He smiled thinking of the fact that he and Ozaq, ironically, were the only two of their generation he knew of that had magics passed down from the Fae. “I think the only one other than the elders that still has his magics is Ozaq.” He smiled to himself as he thought of Ozaq leading their people and becoming a legend. It made him realize that she knew a great deal about their history. “Are you sure that he leads our people to greatness?”
“I am. He’s the foundation of all the good yer people do.”
“If I stay, will I do that good? Or must it be Ozaq?”
“I think it’s Ozaq. If ye stay, I don’t believe ye’ll survive,” she answered quietly.
“Who kills me?” he finally asked, beginning to take her concerns a little more seriously.
“There are several. I’m always running toward ye as they’re running away. Ye’re already injured and unable tah defend yerself when they attack. One is tall, very dark in color. He wears his hair shaved on the sides and scowls all the time. He’s got scars on his jaw, here,” she said, indicating the side of her left jaw nearest her ear. “He turns tah look at me, laughing as I scream yer name.”
“Blarque.” Gorta shook his head. “I will be prepared. I will be ready. There will be no surprise attack.”
“But there are others. He’s not the only one.”
“What do they look like?” he demanded.
“Tall, big, green, long black braided hair.”
“That describes all of us.”
“I’m sorry. I’m not usually paying attention, I’m usually trying tah get tah yer body before ye die.”
He glanced at her walking along beside him, not having even noticed that he shortened his stride so she could easily keep up with him. “We will sort it all out. We will calm. We will talk. We will bond. We will form a plan.”
Nora nodded, not fully convinced he believed all she said. “Ye need tah stay with me, not going back tah your people. Something terrible is going tah happen. I just know it.”
“I have two more days. In two days time I have to be back with my people or Taven will come back for me. I ordered him away so that I could watch you, but he will return if I don’t go to them. I don’t want him here. I don’t want any of them here.”
“Because I’m a witch and communing with witches will get ye ostracized or killed?”
“No! Yes, but no! You belong to me. I will not have any other looking on you with desire. Taven did. It’s why I sent him away.”
“Wait, bond? Ye said we will bond?” she asked.
He looked at her with heat in his gaze, his eyes heavily hooded. “You are mine. I will not wait much longer. I must bond you to me, I must learn all you know about me and my people, and I must go lie in wait for them. I will become the aggressor. I will come back to you successful and we will have a good life.”
“Ozaq and Maddie?” she asked.
“I do not have all the answers yet!” he half-shouted, reminding her that he was after all, an Orc. Apparently, she was used to it, it didn’t bother her at all. She knew he wasn’t yelling at her, he was simply expressing frustration, just as she did when she shouted. She wasn’t shouting at him, she was simply expressing her frustration.
“They’re my ancestors. If they don’t succeed, I might not ever exist,” she said with a shrug, as she tried her best to think her way through all the twists and turns that any little change in history could make.
“You do not make this easy, my Nora.”
She grinned as she turned her head and looked up at him.
“Why do you smile?” he asked.
“Ye called me yer Nora.”
“Aren’t you?” he asked.
“I am.”
“Then what else do you expect to be called?” he asked, looking straight ahead again.
Nora was still grinning as he pretended to be unaffected by her pleasure at being called his. He was as affected as she was, his satisfied smirk made that clear.