Chapter 14 #2
They hurried through the passages together, running up the stairs to the battlements of Dun Talamh’s highest watch post. Harper kept hold of Ava as she went with her to look out at the gates where the MacBren and his thugs were climbing off their mounts.
Tasgall came out of the stables with a horse, which he led up to the gates.
The garrison had driven the zombie army to the other side of the inner bailey, and the distant sounds of their fighting didn’t drown out what the two men said to each other.
“If you dinnae come with me to my stronghold and marry my daughter, I shall raze your castle to the ground,” the MacBren told him. “Aye, and cut the throats of every man, woman and child within your walls. The blood of your clan, ’twill soak the earth until it turns scarlet.”
“I shall come with you now,” Tasgall said as he lay down his sword before he mounted his horse. “I shall make Torra MacBren my wife this very day.”
“I dinnae care how much you wish fack that black haired hoor you favor–” He abruptly fell silent and stared at him. “What did you say?”
As faceless men clambered over the inner curtain wall and came rushing at Tasgall and the MacBren, a huge deluge of water doused them from above, melting them into dark puddles.
Harper looked over to see Rory standing in the watch tower and holding his glowing hands up.
The same glow enveloped the cloud from which the waterfall poured.
“Take me to your castle, my lord,” Tasgall said to the MacBren, smiling. “We’ve a wedding to hold, and your daughter’s life to save.”
Ava covered her mouth with her hand as the MacBren climbed back onto his horse, and rode up to her husband.
“You cannae change your mind halfway there,” Torra’s father said, looking skeptical. “Nor shall my men permit you to slay me.”
“I cannot wait to leave with you,” the laird said, and extended his hand. “From this day forth, I shall name myself your son.”
The sound of sharp cracking made Harper look up. Overhead long streaks of blue and white crisscrossed the green sky, making the waterfall cloud dissipate. Fortunately all the faceless attackers had been melted, thanks to Rory.
“Travars, I think it’s working,” Harper said, smiling.
More streaks appeared, thinning and crisscrossing like the sky was becoming a vintage crackled ceramic, or a snow globe that had been dropped. All around the castle the forest illusion blurred more and then sharpened as what seemed like real trees sprang up in all the voids.
Don’t implode and kill everyone, please, Harper thought as her body took on the apricot glow again.
Beneath her boots vibrations began along with a deep rumbling that seemed to shake the world.
As the laird rode with his enemy out of the inner gate and up to the outer, the thugs following them started to vanish, one by one.
At the same time, the zombie army came marching around the front of the stronghold, and then suddenly stopped, enveloped by the same violet glow as the waterfall cloud had been.
“What are you doing?” Bodach strode out into view, dragging Una with him. “Kill them all.”
“Not Una,” Ava said through clenched teeth.
At the outer gate the MacBren said something to Tasgall, but they were too far away for the sound to carry to Harper and Ava.
“I always sucked at reading lips,” she warned the laird’s wife as she watched the men’s faces.
“Okay, Torra’s dad is saying how happy your hubs has made him, and that he will do anything Tasgall wants, including making him laird of his clan, too.
Tasgall is just smiling and nodding.” She caught her breath as the outer gate raised, and both men rode through it. “Here goes.”
Bodach shoved Una away from him as his glowing zombies began to gather around them like interested spectators.
He’s finally using his power, Harper thought, enchanted by the sight of all the undead under the control of Rory’s magic.
“What are you doing?” the goblin shouted, lifting his pink, oozing hands as if trying to cast a spell, but nothing happened. “Obey me.”
Rory jumped from the watch tower, making Harper scream, but then she saw the rope wrapped around his fist. He swung on it like a medieval Tarzan, landing in front of Bodach.
“You stay away from me,” the goblin said, knocking over his revenants as he tried to escape the armorer.
Harper saw Kelso push his way through the unresisting zombies until he reached Una, who he threw over his shoulder. He then waded back out of the army and carried her into the stronghold. Rory kept advancing on Bodach, his beautiful face calm.
“You’re no’ welcome here, Goblin,” the armorer said in a clear voice, causing the wall behind Bodach to shake. “Get out.”
The power of Rory’s voice made the wall shudder violently over the last two words, and then it abruptly toppled. The goblin shrieked and covered his head before he vanished under several tons of stone.
Rory tore off the leather gauntlet he wore to cover up the black scythe inked on his forearm, which now dripped off as if the tattoo was leaking away.
“That’s my boy,” Ava said, her mouth curving into a proud smile.
The walls of Dun Talamh began to glitter with white, pink and red lights as the sky darkened and then lightened, first slowly and then so quickly the days and nights flashed by in a strobe light pattern.
Beneath them the gardens went wild, sprawling over the sides of the beds.
The castle walls started to crack, then repaired themselves, and then grew mossy as the stone paled and darkened.
Harper had seen this before, inside the world of the melia when she and her mother had stepped through the door in the tree. The clothes they had been wearing had turned into ferns stitched with vines, and then cloth again, and then cloth that had ferns embedded in the weave.
“This place is coming apart,” she said, unable to summon any fear. Whether they escaped or died, it was coming to an end.
“Let’s go inside and get the others,” Ava said, tugging at her arm.
Harper accompanied her down the steps and through the passages, watching as torches blew out and then re-lit themselves.
The air changed from cool to frigid, and her breath puffed out in white clouds.
In the great hall they found the other women had gathered, each watching from the window slits.
Their clothing changed from cloth to woven plants and back again.
The food on the trestle tables seemed to mound itself higher and higher before it vanished and then reappeared.
Kelso was also there, holding Una in his arms as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“That’s new,” Harper murmured, oddly pleased to see the clan’s two biggest pains embracing. Maybe Elspeth and her guys would get a break now. “And logical, I suppose. Has anyone seen Rory come inside?”
“No, sorry. Looks like we may not have much time left,” Olivia said as she regarded Ava, her smile lighting up her neat features. “If this is the end for us, I just want to say thank you for being my friends. Aside from Alec, you were the best part of being here. That goes for you, too, Harper.”
Grace put an arm around her and Esme. “I never had friends until you ladies. You’ve been wonderful. Thank you.”
“No more talking like we’re dying,” Esme demanded, scowling. “I’m going to live, and I’m not leaving Darro.” She looked up at the ceiling. “You hear me, enchanted castle? I stay with him. We live forever. So does everyone else. Make it happen.”
On impulse Harper took hold of Ava’s hand, and the dark green of the other woman’s power entwined like tendrils with her own fiery glow. “Looks like your mojo is up and running. How about we protect our people if we can?”
Without hesitation Ava faced her, lifting her hands palm-out.
Harper did the same, and their energy coronas began to expand, first encompassing the other women, then Kelso and his lover, and finally the entire great hall.
For a few moments it seemed to transform the enormous room into a garden of light.
“You’re a wonderful person,” Ava told her. “I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time.”
“Oh, shut up,” Harper said, laughing.
When the end came, it didn’t tear apart the castle or make it collapse on them. There was simply a blurring of everything, and then a sound like a long, low, weary sigh.
The entire stronghold suddenly shook as if some giant being had picked it up and rattled it, and everyone in the hall fell to the floor.
Harper shoved the other women under one of the trestle tables and looked up, expecting the ceiling to fall on her head.
She lifted her hands and for the first time took hold of the power inside her, projecting it outward like an enormous shield.
A million white lights showered down over her, filling her eyes with an opalescent brilliance so intense for a moment she thought she might have gone blind.
Harper. Somewhere in her head the image of an older woman who looked like a shorter, slender version of Rory appeared. Do you love my son?
Although it was probably just a hallucination, she didn’t even hesitate to answer. With all my heart, my lady.
’Tis all I’ve ever hoped. Chomha smiled. I give him to you now.
An endless black void enveloped Harper, but she’d never been afraid of the dark.
If this was her end, then she would wait for her lover to join her, even if that meant an eternity.
Slowly she became aware of her body again, and a growing chilliness.
She opened her eyes to see everything in the hall covered with snow, and her four friends brushing it off as they helped each other to their feet.
Ava appeared over her and smiled. “Are you okay, big girl?”
“I’m cold.” She got up and shook herself like a wet pup, and then glanced around them. “Why is there snow?”
“There’s none outside,” Olivia said as she peered out of one of the window slits. “Everything looks normal out there. Oh. Em. Gee.” She glanced at Ava. “Tasgall’s back. He’s not hurt at all. Not a scratch.”
The laird’s wife ran out of the hall, nearly plowing into Farlan, who stepped out of her way at the last minute before striding in and looking around them.
Grace shrieked and threw herself at her husband, clutching him and sobbing into his chest. Then Darro and Alec hurried in, each embracing their ladies.
Harper didn’t expect to see Rory, but it still hurt a little to be left standing alone. Then she found herself being grabbed and hugged by Tasgall himself, who kissed her brow for good measure before he drew back.
“’Twas exactly as you predicted, lass,” the laird told her. “The moment we passed through the outer gate the MacBren vanished, and the forest illusion became real around me.”
Everyone wanted to hug her and talk to her, and while she wasn’t crazy about all the touching, Harper let it happen.
These were her people, and wherever they’d landed, she wasn’t leaving them.
It was time to start being part of a real family, one she’d always wanted and never thought she could have.
“Has anyone seen my guy?” Harper asked as she kept smiling and hugging.
“Enough.” Darro stepped in front of her, using his bulk like a body shield to keep everyone at bay. “I vow, you shall crack her bones.” To her he said, “The last time I spied Rory, he stood where the wall fell and buried the goblin.”