CHAPTER 21
Malcolm made his way out of the keep and into the yard where Callum was overseeing the fortification of the outer walls. He caught sight of Malcolm and waved him over.
“There ye are. I sent for ye over an hour ago.” Agitation creased his brother’s face. But that was quickly replaced by surprise. “Ye shaved?”
Malcolm pressed his lips together. “Aye, but now is no the time to discuss that.”
“Where were ye?” Callum asked.
“I was indisposed at the time.”
Callum said nothing. Merely raised a dark brow as if he understood what being indisposed meant.
“Will ye speak with me in private? I have news,” Malcolm said.
“Aye. Walk with me. I was about to ride out to check on the harvest.” He motioned toward the stables.
“That can wait. This cannae.”
Intrigued, Callum gave him his full attention. “Aye? What’s so urgent, then, brother?”
“The lass, Chloe…she has developed powers like yer wife.” He dropped his voice low to ensure Callum was the only one who heard.
“From the keystone?” he asked.
“Aye. The keystone. Did ye ken yer wife sliced her hand open to see if Chloe would have the same power as she?”
“Nay, I dinnae ken that.”
They arrived at the stables, then, where several stable hands were mucking stalls. Callum headed to his horse but paused outside the stall. The horse gave him a hello nudge and he patted his nose. Malcolm followed, pausing there with him.
“Did it work?” Callum asked.
“It seems it did. She can see into the past, Callum. She saw the beginning of the battle the night before the Shattering,” Malcolm said.
“How?”
“I cannae say, but when she reached for the keystone, she went rigid. If I hadna caught her, she would have hit the floor. It was a peculiar thing to watch, too. Her body was stiff. Her eyes were rolled back into her head. She turned cold, her lips turning blue. She was only that way a few moments before she finally came awake and told me about Alexander MacLeod and Padrig Sinclair.” He paused there to let that sink in.
Concern creased Callum’s face. “The battle before the Shattering. That means Brodie MacDonald was there, too.”
“Aye with his great axe. A great axe, she said, that glowed.”
Callum stared at him in stony, shocked silence. “That wasna in the tapestry images.”
“No, it wasna. But what if it is now?”
There was only one way to find out. They both knew it. They had to check the tapestry room to see if it was true.
The tapestries were strange, enchanted things.
It seemed their morphing images changed at will.
Perhaps it was a way for the Triple Goddess to send them messages about what they needed to know.
It showed the past, the present, even the future.
There were still a few that appeared to be nothing more than woven textiles, but would they remain that way?
It was hard to say. One had filled in. One with Chloe and the man she called Bruce.
Malcolm was aware Bruce was still out there.
Plotting his revenge, no doubt. It was only a matter of time before he would come for Chloe.
He understood, as Callum did, the calamity of the situation.
That the MacDonalds wanted the pieces of the keystone with a fiery desperation.
But what would they do to get it? That was the question.
“We should look at the tapestries,” Malcolm said when Callum remained quiet.
A strange look passed over his brother’s face when he said it. As though Callum wasn’t interested in the tapestries. Or mayhap he didn’t believe in them even when he’d seen them with his own eyes.
“Ye dinnae think we should?” he asked.
“I dinnae ken. The tapestries are a strange thing. They cannae be explained.”
“Ye saw them with yer own eyes when Evie arrived. Ye saw the moving pictures. Nay, they cannae be explained. But do they have to be?”
He was aware his brother believed in things that made sense. Logical things. Moving pictures were not logical to him, yet he seemed to have accepted them with Evie’s help.
Their da, Hamish, had believed in the prophecy. He’d regaled them with stories of the Shattering, the Night of Shadows, and the Triple Goddess for years. None of them had expected the prophecy to come to fruition. But it had. And they were living it now.
“We should at least check,” Malcolm urged. “If the great axe is glowing, then…”
“Then what? Why did we no see the glowing great axe before?” Callum demanded.
“I dinnae ken, brother, but as ye said, they are strange things that cannae be explained. Mayhap only the Triple Goddess can explain them.”
He watched Callum intently, who continued to pet the horse’s nose absently. Finally, his brother nodded.
“All right, then. Let’s go see for ourselves.”
***
Chloe stumbled out of Macolm’s bedchamber, the keystone secure in her pocket. She needed to find Evie. But where would she be this time of morning? She headed down the hallway, thinking to find her sister in her own bedchamber. It was still early. Maybe she wasn’t up yet.
As she rounded the corner, she saw Evie exiting her room. Her face was pale. Chloe hurried to her side.
“Evie, you don’t look well. Are you sure you should be up?”
“I have things to do.” She sounded weak as she pressed her hand against her stomach.
Chloe understood. “Morning sickness?”
She nodded.
“Let’s get you something to eat. Maybe that will help.”
Chloe took her by the elbow and led her away from the bedchamber, down the curved staircase—which was so narrow they had to go single file. At the bottom, they headed across the great hall and into the kitchen, which was a flurry of activity. Roslyn was nowhere in sight.
On one of the counters, there was a stack of oatcakes. Chloe headed for them. No one seemed to notice their presence, so she grabbed the stack and turned back to her sister, handing her one of the cakes.
“Here, try this.”
“It should help,” Evie said and gave a weak smile. “And some herbal tea.”
“I don’t think you’ll find any herbal tea packets around here.” Chloe munched on one of the oatcakes.
Evie grinned. “I’ll show you how to make it.”
She gave her a nod to follow and headed for the open door at the back of the kitchen.
She snatched up a basket on her way out.
Chloe followed, curious to see how her sister had discovered how to make herbal tea in the fourteenth century.
As they exited into the fragrant garden, Evie handed off her half-eaten oatcake, then knelt in front of what looked like tall weeds.
“How did you learn this?” Chloe asked, watching in fascination as her sister went about clipping the weeds.
“I figured it out myself. When I was desperate for something other than weak ale and watered-down wine.” She held up one of the clippings with a bright smile. “Smell.”
Chloe did as she was asked and leaned over to sniff. “It smells like mint.”
Nodding, she placed the long stem into her basket. She continued around the garden plucking more stems and flowers and placing them into the basket.
“Roslyn grows all her own herbs,” Evie said. She placed a few more plants in her basket. “Come on. I’ll show you how to make the tea now.”
She headed back inside. Chloe trailed after her, her curiosity piqued.
Evie placed her basket on the nearby counter.
She removed the stems one by one, chopped them or crushed them, and then placed them in the folds of what looked like cheesecloth.
Then she placed it in a cup and poured boiling water over it.
After a quick stir, she lifted the cup, steam rising from the liquid, and brought it to her.
“Taste it,” she said.
Chloe did and was surprised at how much it tasted like herbal tea. “I’m impressed, Eve.”
Grinning, she sipped the tea. As she swallowed, she closed her eyes and sighed, as if it had calmed her stomach instantly. “That’s what I needed.”
“You mean, what the baby needed.”
Her eyes flew open. “Shh. Not everyone knows yet.”
“Hopefully, Callum does.”
She flushed and nodded, took another sip.
And now Malcolm because Chloe had blabbed by accident. She decided to keep that to herself.
“Eve, I need to talk to you about something.” She glanced around the busy kitchen. There were too many ears to overhear what she wanted to tell her.
“That sounds serious. Let’s go to my chamber. We’ll have some privacy there.”
Evie led her out of the kitchen back to the stairs where they headed up.
She entered a room that hosted a large four poster bed with curtains, with an oversized chest at the foot of it, a wardrobe, a small dressing table with a mirror, a writing desk.
Tapestries—certainly not magical ones—hung along the walls to insulate the room.
The hearth was devoid of a fire. Evie took the chair from the dressing table and pulled it close to the writing desk, then motioned for Chloe to sit.
She still held the half-eaten oatcake and handed it to Evie, who took it with a smile.
“Something is weighing on you,” Evie said.
“How did you know?”
“We’re twins.” She flashed a smile and took another bite of the oatcake.
“Yesterday, I left the keystone in Malcolm’s bedchamber.” Evie gave her a hopeful look as she said it, but she ignored it and continued. “This morning, I decided to retrieve it from him and…”
She sat up straighter, hope creasing her face. “And?”
Chloe didn’t want to tell her sister anything about their time together. They weren’t teenagers anymore, after all. And besides, what if this thing with Malcolm didn’t work out? She had let her emotions overcome her. She had a lot to think about.
Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled it out. “I got it back. When I touched it, though, I had another vision.”
“Of the past?” That got her attention.
“Yes. This time, I was looking through the eyes of one of their ancestors.”
She told her about the vision of Alexander, Padrig, and Brodie. Their armies were on the field at the foot of a crag, ready to do battle.
“But the strangest thing of all was the great axe Brodie MacDonald held was glowing.”
Evie gasped. “What do you mean, glowing?”
“It was glowing the entire time he held it. Malcolm said I saw the battle before the Shattering.”
“In the tapestry, the great axe is not glowing,” Evie said.
She shrugged. “I know what I saw. It was glowing. Like a pulsing white light.”
Evie chewed on her lower lip.
“What does it mean?” Chloe asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a message.”
“What kind of message? A message from the past?”
“No. A message from the Triple Goddess. You said Bridget spoke to you in your mind. What if she’s trying to tell you something more? Something important?”
“Why is the glowing great axe important?”
“Because I think it might be magic.”
Chloe scoffed. “Do you believe that?”
“After what I’ve seen, yes. And you should, too. You’re here in the past, after all.” Evie frowned, clearly disappointed she didn’t have the same feelings.
She shoved up from the chair, placing the keystone back in her pocket and started to pace. “It all seems so unreal.”
“It is real, though, Chlo.”
She turned to look at her sister, who sat clutching the cup between her hands.
“Do you believe in this prophecy, or are you going along with it?” Chloe demanded.
Evie’s eyebrows lifted, disbelief flashing across her face. “Don’t you believe it? You’ve seen the tapestries.”
She ignored her question and pressed on. “Do you expect me to believe our lives are intertwined with these medieval Highlanders?”
She nodded emphatically. “Yes.”
“I don’t believe in fate and destiny,” she said.
“I didn’t believe in love at first. Until I met Callum,” Evie said, her voice soft and unyielding.
“I saw what would happen to him if I didn’t intervene during that battle.
I knew he’d die. Moira helped me see that.
Moira gave you a piece of the keystone, just as she will give the final piece to Brianna. What more proof do you need?”
She didn’t need proof. It was her own stubbornness that kept her from wanting to believe, to accept the truth in front of her.
To accept that she and Malcolm were destined to be together.
Did she have feelings for him? She didn’t know.
All she did know was that she liked being with him, in his bed.
She liked that he had asked her to be there when he returned.
Part of her wanted to wait for him, in his chamber, in his bed.
The other part of her, the rational part, told her it was crazy to continue down that path.
What future did they have together?
She had a future waiting for her in Edinburgh in her own century.
The thump of the cup on the table got her attention.
Evie stood and stepped toward her, taking her hands in hers.
As she did, she glanced down at her hand and halted.
She turned over the palm that was cut and stared down at the faint line that had healed far too quickly.
The branding from the keystone was faded, but still there. Evie traced the pink scar.
“Your hand healed.”
She nodded. Her sister’s warm gaze met hers.
“And you don’t think that’s a sign?”
“I think it’s strange,” Chloe said.
Evie squeezed her hands, then. “I can’t make you believe in prophesies or destinies. I want you to, of course, but it’s up to you to decide.”
She released her and headed for the chamber door.
“Where are you going?” Chloe asked.
“To see if the great axe is glowing in the tapestry.” She pulled open the door and disappeared into the hallway.
Huffing out a breath, Chloe followed.