Chapter 11
“Why did you leave her after I specifically asked ye to watch over her?” Taggart risked a glance at Hannah as Gearlach fidgeted in place in front of him.
Praise the gods, the woman still slept. At least while she snored beneath her mound of blankets, she wasn’t nettling him with questions he wasn’t prepared to answer.
Gearlach hung his head and worried a splintered claw around one of his crooked horns.
The mottled skin on his great, greenish snout wrinkled as he stubbed the foreclaw of his right foot deep into the soft earth.
“I heard something prowling about in the wood, and I thought I should go have a look-see.” He scraped an odd-shaped symbol in the dried silt he’d knocked loose from the limestone shelf extending around the base of the cliff.
With his stubby forearms held akimbo, he kept his balance as his scaly body swayed back and forth while he scratched jagged glyphs deep in the darkened soil.
“Stop it! Ye know that symbol calls up storms, and I am sick and tired of getting soaked.” Taggart rubbed out the markings with the toe of his boot, then shoved the sulking Draecna away from the loose dirt.
“If ye would mate with the sharp-tongued woman, ye wouldna have to keep dousing yer cock in icy water.” Gearlach shoved back, knocking Taggart across the clearing into a thicket of newly sprouted rowans.
Rage surged through him as he disentangled himself from the weave of silvery branches.
Teeth clenched, he stumbled out of the brush and knocked broken branches off his sleeves.
He would strangle that insolent, oversized lizard.
With another glance at the motionless mound of blankets by the fire, he bit back the response he longed to roar.
Hannah still hadn’t moved. Thank the fires of all Erastaed, the longer the she slept, the better.
It was the only peace he could hope to enjoy.
“Shall I step away for a while so ye can get yer relief with her?”
“It—is—forbidden,” Taggart hissed through clenched teeth. “And ye ken there are several reasons why.”
Gearlach rolled his great golden eyes as he stretched out a tip of his hooked wing and scratched behind his pointed ear. “Do ye truly think she will mind ye are a Draecna hybrid? She favors yer human shape well enough. After all, she didna mind me. She nay even screamed.”
“Ecnelis!” Taggart jerked a nod at the impudent Draecna. “Ye will remain silent until I decide ye have found the wisdom to understand what information should be shared and what should not.”
“What is all the yelling about?” Hannah’s muffled growl emerged from the depths of the blankets.
“Merlin’s beard.” Taggart shoved him again. “Look what ye’ve done. Awakened the raging beastie herself.” He shot Gearlach a withering glare as the Draecna fixed him with a sharp-toothed grin and returned to cleaning the dirt from his claws with the pointed tip of his tail.
“I heard that,” she mumbled as she threw back the covers and rolled to her knees. She wrestled her way out of the wad of blankets and stumbled toward the dwindling fire while rubbing her lower back. “Why did you let me sleep so long? We should’ve been up and gone hours ago.”
“Ye needed your rest.” He wasn’t about to tell her the real reason. He cringed, waiting for the arsenal of questions he sensed she was about to unleash.
Shaking out the blankets, Hannah winced, then rolled her shoulders and folded the blankets against her chest. “I guess I was pretty tired. Jet lag must’ve nabbed me after all.
But we really need to get moving. Instead of bothering with a campfire breakfast, can we just eat some of that dried trail mix while we ride?
Where’s the bottled water? If you don’t mind, I’m not all that keen on drinking water from that spring. ”
Taggart sidled a glance at Gearlach, who merely tapped a claw across his pale green lips and returned a wink before ambling off into the woods.
“Ye dinna even want some of that noxious coffee ye favor so much? There’s a pot in the pack.
I can have some of that wicked brew ready in no time at all. Or a bit of proper tea, perhaps?”
Hannah rolled the blankets into a tighter bundle and belted them behind her saddle. “As tempting as your generous offer sounds, I’m eager to see Taroc Na Mor. I’ll just wait until we get there for my first cup of the day. I’d rather we got going, if you don’t mind.”
The minx plotted something. He would bet Gearlach’s oversized arse in gold.
Did she think him a fool? Taggart scratched the stubble peppering his jaw while admiring the temptation of her fine, round backside as she bent to shove the gear into another bag.
She hadn’t mentioned a word about last night.
Not one prying question or comment about anything they had discussed.
He had been certain she would launch a verbal assault as soon as those fiery green eyes of hers snapped open.
Had to be a trap. “Aye, perhaps that would be best. The sooner we get ye settled at Taroc Na Mor, the sooner ye shall see what a fine place ye may now call yer own.” He kicked dirt on what was left of the night’s fire and smothered out the orange, glowing coals.
As they rode down the trail, he rolled his shoulders as though itching in a spot he couldn’t scratch.
Her stare burned through the center of his back, because her mind hummed with questions she longed to ask.
Damn her eyes. The woman electrified the very air with everything she wished to know.
She fair ticked like an activated bomb set to detonate at any moment.
He slowed his horse and turned in the saddle to face her.
“For Merlin's sake, just ask me what ye wish to know.”
She arched a sleek brow and stared back at him, one hand resting on the saddle horn. “Are we a little tense this morning?” She popped another handful of trail mix in her mouth while rocking to the slow steady rhythm of her horse’s gait.
An irritated growl rumbled free of him. He swung back around in the saddle and urged his mount to a faster trot. The woman bordered on the edge of impossible. He knew she wanted to ask him questions. Why didn’t she just do it?
“I learned a long time ago no man is going to tell me anything until he’s good and ready. I figure when you’re ready to talk, you’ll tell me everything I want to know.”
The little minx. Taggart brought his horse to an abrupt stop.
He looked back just in time to catch her grin.
“Last night ye asked why I wasn’t the leader of my people since I am the eldest son of a royal line?
Do ye remember that, ye ungrateful woman?
Never ye mind, dinna answer that.” His hands tightened on the reins.
He wasn’t about to give her the opportunity to answer, knowing she would just vex him.
“My father found me to be a bit different. So, he chose my younger brother in my stead.”
She leaned forward and studied him. “What do you mean different? Your magic? Granny always said to keep quiet about the magic. People fear what they don’t understand.”
Her observation almost caused him to choke on a bitter laugh.
He shuttered the painful memories back in their tightly kept closets.
If only magic was all it was. He nearly snapped the reins in two.
Better she believe that than anything else.
She need never know the entire truth. If all went as planned, she would never see his true form.
He tipped his head and gave an acerbic snort. “Not everyone in Erastaed is capable of magic. Especially the abilities I possess. Many fear it, which seems to be a universal trait. As ye said, people fear what they dinna understand.”
She combed her fingers through the strands of Lisbet’s black mane. “You lost your birthright just because you were born gifted?” Her tone echoed with compassion. “I am so sorry. I don’t understand how a father could do that to his son.”
A stab of uneasiness clawed at his bowels.
Taggart hated a half-truth as much as a lie.
But he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t prepared to reveal all of Taroc Na Mor’s secrets, not just yet.
He hadn’t won her complete loyalty and trust. She still teetered on the edge.
As far as they had come, he couldn’t risk losing her now.
“Dinna worry yourself o’er much about it.
I am quite satisfied with my life. After all, I am the Protector of the Guardian of Taroc Na Mor.
’Tis my honor to watch over ye and help ye settle in to your new life. ”
She shook a finger at him as she eased the horse into a comfortable swaying gait up the narrow trail hugging the side of the mountain.
“I told you I am here on a trial basis only, remember? Now swivel around in your saddle there, cowboy, and let’s get on our way to this heaven on earth you’ve promised me. ”
A chilly wind howled around the skirting wall, whistling its way in from the churning sea.
An early evening mist swirled atop the choppy waves battering against the base of the gray, jagged cliffs.
The place made Hannah shiver. What secrets did the black, weather-worn stones of the castle hide?
She hugged herself, pulling her jacket tighter as she rubbed the tingling skin at her nape.
All this place needed was eerie organ music, a howling wolf, and the echo of rattling chains in the background.