Chapter Seventeen
M ist hung low over the water, obscuring the view, as Gille, Callum, the MacLeods, and Pearl approached the loch the next morning. The entire family, including Lady Janet, had been waiting for her and Callum in the rear courtyard. They heard birds twittering in the trees. Gulls soared over the water’s edge, their high-pitched mews a welcoming sound, as the sea animals searched for their morning meal.
Despite the serene setting, Gille’s heart pounded in her chest. This was it. The moment they had worked towards for the past six days. They needed Minerva’s help to break Gille’s curse, and now with the moonstone in their possession, they might accomplish that task.
As they reached the shore, they spotted several seals on the rocky outcropping in the distance. Gille searched among the seals sunning themselves on the rocks. “There,” Gille said as she noticed Lottie’s familiar pelt. She was a beautiful creature, her fur glistening in the morning light. But when her gaze turned to Callum and Gille, her eyes narrowed, and she slid into the water.
“Lottie,” Callum called out, but the woman-turned-seal-once-more ignored him. Sadness lingered in his eyes for a moment before he turned his gaze to the distance. “It matters not. Minerva is the only seal we should concern ourselves with today.”
Gille touched Callum’s arm. “It is well enough to feel sad that the woman who helped raise you may no longer remember you.”
“But I do.” The sound of Lottie’s voice, slightly more guttural than in the past, came to Gille as a silvery head bobbed to the surface closer to shore. She turned to see if Callum had heard.
The joy on his face told her he had. Perhaps touching the moonstone had given him the ability to hear the seals speak. “How is your return? How are your children? Is it strange being in the water again?” He paused and added, “Where were you all yesterday?”
Lottie laughed, the sound more bark-like than the trill it used to be. “Same Callum. Full of questions. Aye, it is strange swimming and not walking. My children remembered me, for which I am grateful.” She hesitated. “Minerva kept us all away from shore yesterday until she could think the situation through. She wants the moonstone, but she is still angry at the MacLeods for taking me from her.”
“We finally righted that wrong,” Callum said.
Lottie bobbed her head. “Minerva is pleased I am back in the pod, but not happy that I keep asking her to help you without any conditions.”
“Conditions?”
Lottie’s gaze narrowed. “She wants more from you both to grant you the words you need from the song of the selkies.”
As they were talking, a large, dark shape emerged from the depths of the loch. It was Minerva, the selkie queen, in her seal form, surrounded by four other seals. She was a fearsome sight, her eyes glinting with malice. “Well, well, well,” Minerva said, her voice a deep, guttural growl. “Lottie tells me you found a moonstone.”
“Not just a moonstone,” Gille challenged, palming the iridescent stone in her hand. “A special moonstone. One that should satisfy your requirements.”
Minerva narrowed her gaze and leaned forward. “Let me see it.”
Gille held up the moonstone, allowing it to catch the early morning light. Its surface shimmered with a soft, iridescent blue glow. As it caught the sunlight on its curved surface, the colours seemed to shift and change, from the lightest blue to an almost inky black, like the ebb and flow of the tides, as if the moon itself were trapped within the stone, casting its ethereal light upon the world. The stone thrummed, its magic reaching out to both Gille and the selkies.
Minerva’s eyes widened, anticipation flaring in their depths. “I did not truly believe you could retrieve a stone, any stone. But that one? It is magnificent.”
“Then it should serve as payment for the words to the song of the selkies,” Callum replied.
Minerva’s eyes narrowed again. “You think I will just give them to you? No, you must earn them.”
A knot of fear tightened Gille’s stomach. Only hours remained before she would cease to exist. Minerva knew how desperate she was, and the selkie queen was exacting everything she could from the situation.
“Nay. No more games. We did what you asked.” Callum balled his fists at his sides. His brothers came to stand beside him.
“Then we shall say goodbye.” Minerva turned around, preparing to dive under the waves.
“Wait!” Gille called, resigned to accepting whatever new challenge would be put before them in the waning hours of her curse. It was then that she saw it, a flash of relief in Minerva’s dark gaze. The selkie queen might bluster, and demand, but it was clear to Gille that she also needed their help, though she would never ask for it. “What do you require of us? We will do one last thing but no more.”
Minerva must have sensed what Gille had seen because for the first time, the seal’s demeanour changed as she waddled onto the shore. She stopped before Gille and her body began to writhe and twist, her sleek form contorting. Her sealskin, once smooth and glistening, began to crack and peel, revealing a soft, human-like body beneath. Her pelt sloughed off, leaving behind a shimmering residue that became a silky dress that caught the wind, whipping around her as her webbed feet retracted, converting into delicate toes. A long, flowing mane of seaweed-green hair erupted from her head, cascading down her shoulders. Her eyes, once piercing and cold, softened, taking on a human warmth.
As the final transformation completed, Minerva stood tall, a majestic selkie queen, her beauty a testament to the magic of the sea. But instead of the young, vibrant woman Gille had expected, Minerva was old, and frail, with a hint of desperation in the lines that wreathed her eyes and mouth.
“Perhaps it will be easier for us to talk like this,” Minerva said, her gaze passing over Gille and shifting to Lady Janet. “Only in the presence of a moonstone can I change form without moonlight.”
Lady Janet drifted to the water’s edge. Minerva. She bowed her head. These words are long overdue, but I am so very sorry for taking Lottie away from you, for causing your pod grief, and for putting your own family at risk.
Minerva nodded and appeared to accept the apology. “At least you had the sense not to tell anyone about Lottie. Not even your own family. That helped to keep my pod safe from others who would steal our pelts.”
Gille stared at the women before her. Her chest tightened, her breath stuttered, and an odd sensation raced down her spine. “Our fates, yours, Lady Janet’s, and mine, have always been linked, have they not?” she demanded of Minerva.
After a brief hesitation, Minerva nodded. “The maiden.” She waved her hand at Gille. “The mother.” Her hand continued towards Lady Janet, then came to rest in front of herself. “And the crone.”
Gille frowned. “But they controlled heaven, earth, and the underworld.”
Minerva offered her a sympathetic smile. “And we are a fae cursed in the human realm, a human caught between the spirit realm and the afterlife, and a selkie who longs to protect her pod before she hands over her rule to her daughter, Lottie.”
“I am your daughter?” Lottie gasped in the water behind them.
“Aye. Your memory has yet to fully return,” Minerva said. “Once we each complete our unfinished tasks, we will oversee the earth, the afterlife, and the sea as we were always meant to. We will all get what we want when your curse is broken.”
“Then help me do that by giving me the words to the song,” Gille pleaded. It appeared time was running out for all of them.
“If I only could,” Minerva said sadly. “The moonstone is the key to all of this. You must take it to a place along the coastline, near the village of Elgol, and use it to illuminate the words you need that are etched onto the walls of Spar Cave.”
“Why place the words where none of you can access them?” Gille asked.
“The cave used to be accessible to the selkies, but no longer. And will only be accessible to you for one hour either side of low tide.”
“Where is Elgol?” Gille asked, with rising panic.
Marcus stepped forward. “I can get us there in my ship. The Cliodna is still anchored just off the coast of Dunvegan. We can take rowboats and be on board in less than an hour.”
“And when is low tide?” Callum asked, his voice suddenly strained.
Marcus pressed his lips into a thin line as he studied the shores of Loch Dunvegan. “As it is now sunrise, and the tide here is high,” Marcus said, “it is likely at noon the tide will be low, which means we have from approximately eleven o’clock to one o’clock to access the Spar Cave.”
“Can you make it to Elgol in that time?” Rowena asked her husband.
His features pinched. “Only with the best of winds in our sails.”
“Or with waves at your stern,” Pearl said in an encouraging voice. “I still have some magic left to me. Since I can control the sea, I will make certain you arrive in time.”
Marcus looked startled for a moment, but then nodded. “I will have my men ready the ship.”
“Thank you, Marcus.” Callum clapped Marcus on the shoulder. “You are a good man. I am sorry I ever doubted you.”
“I will have Mrs Honey gather supplies for a meal that can be prepared on board,” Gwendolyn said, turning to her husband. “You and I will be on that voyage with them.”
Alastair looked to Tormod and Orrick. “Can I leave the two of you in charge of the castle? With the English so close and on edge, I do not want all of us away at the same time.”
“You can count on us,” Tormod said. “With Orrick, Isolde, Graeme, and myself, we can afford to spare Aria if she wants to travel with her sister and mother.”
“I do,” Aria said, offering the men a grateful smile. “I have missed so much of Gille’s life. I want to be with her now, when it really matters.”
Minerva stepped back into the waves. “I can only wait in the loch for your return once the moonstone is on that ship,” Minerva said with a hint of sadness in her voice. “But I am thrilled you will be taking such a special moonstone to a place where it will keep all the selkies safe, or at least as safe as they can be until a new threat comes along.” She turned to Lottie. “That will be your burden, my daughter.”
“I gratefully accept the challenge of protecting our people. For I know what it is like to live on the land and in the sea.”
Since I am bound to the borders of Dunvegan, I must stay behind. Lady Janet floated back and forth, her agitation obvious.
“Your presence is necessary here, Mother.” Callum stood close to his mother, close enough to lend her comfort without touching her ghostly mist.
How am I in any way necessary? I am a ghost.
“You are still our mother, and as such you are worried about your children, and perhaps about the outcome that affects you greatly.”
At Callum’s gentle words, Lady Janet calmed. When did you become so grown up and wise?
Callum returned her smile. “I have been for a long while. It just took everyone time to notice.”
Lady Janet chuckled. All right. Enough of placating your mother. Off you go to save the day.
At Lady Janet’s words, the burden of what she, Callum, and the others were about to do settled around Gille’s shoulders. No longer was it merely Lady Janet and Gille’s fates that were tied to their success today. Minerva’s fate hung in the balance as well, as did the fate of the selkies, the forest, and the MacLeods.
Gille drew a deep breath of the salty air and held it a long moment before letting it slide from her lungs. She had to be brave. She had to bear the burden of this one last quest. All the pieces were aligning, they simply had to see this trip through to the end. Hopefully, by sundown, it would all be behind them.