Chapter 16 #2
She recognized a few outsiders waking up in unfamiliar but decidedly more modern-looking locations, and then she saw a particular trio sleeping together in a large bed.
Since all three seemed to be naked, and the bedroom furniture was classic Mission style, Ava smiled.
Elspeth had gone with her two husbands to a world where no one would burn them at the stake for loving each other.
She thought of Elspeth’s friend, and asked the scroll, “Show me where Una is right now.”
On the scroll, the chamber maid appeared in Dun Talamh’s great hall, and seemed to be looking at all the men until she spotted Kelso, and hurried toward him.
Tasgall intercepted her before she reached the guard and spoke to her.
She nodded and went with him to the guard’s table, where the laird introduced her to Kelso.
From his reaction he didn’t recognize Una, but the smile he gave her was very friendly.
“I reckoned I’d find you here, my lady.” Darro joined her and frowned at the scroll. “Did one of my brothers aid you before I arrived?”
“No, sir. I got the magic window opened up all on my own.” She spread her hands and studied them. “Can I borrow that dagger of yours for a bit?”
He unsheathed and offered her the weapon, and then made a startled sound as she drew the blade across her left palm, leaving a shallow cut. “My lady.”
“I’m fine, just testing something else.” She wiped the blood from the blade on her handkerchief, and then blotted her palm. The wound stopped bleeding, closed and left only a thin white mark, which also vanished thirty seconds later. “That about how fast you McKeran boys heal?”
“Aye. If I may?” When she nodded he took hold of her hand, and then almost immediately released it. “We’re able to sense other immortals by touch, my lady. You’ve become one, although I cannae fathom how.”
“Well, I spent some months inside the spell trap, and then there’s that dark blood magic I inherited from those nasty druids.” She met his gaze. “I expect I’m not the only one who got this present, either. We need to find Rory.”
At the entrance to the great hall, Ava nearly collided with Esme as she jumped into Darro’s arms.
“It was me,” she crowed. “I told the enchantment to make us all immortal and it listened.”
Darro hugged her close and gave her a twirl. “Then ’tis smart enough to know you cannae be denied.”
Olivia and Alec were right behind her, their smiles huge as they watched Esme and Darro.
Olivia turned her dazed look to Ava. “It’s true, isn’t it?” When Ava nodded, she said, “I can’t believe it.”
Alec put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “After all we’ve endured?” he said, smiling down at her. “I can.”
Farlan clapped him on the back. “The war master believes?” He gave Ava a wink. “Surely ’tis proof of strange magic at work.”
“Well however it happened,” Grace said, her fingers intertwined with Farlan’s, “even an eternity won’t be enough for us.” Farlan turned to her and lightly folded her into his embrace.
Behind them, everyone seemed to be gathering in the great hall, but Ava didn’t want to disturb the happy reunions going on with the resurrected clansmen.
Instead she signaled Darro and went with him into the kitchens, where Doon had all the maids and sculleries gathered around a long table piled with food, as if they were about to have a meal.
Yet no one was eating, and all the maids and some of the men looked frightened.
Then Ava saw all the knives on the table beside blood-stained rags. No one had any visible wounds.
They found out they’re immortal, too.
“’Tis a reward from the Gods,” the cook told her staff in her usual no-nonsense tone. “Dinnae fear such, or worry ’twill be stolen from you. After abiding for nine centuries in the spell trap, we’ve earned such.”
“Mistress, I dinnae ken how to live as the clan,” Ida protested. “And what shall my kin say when I tell them?”
“You neednae tell them, lassie.” Eachann reached across the table to pat her hand. “We’ll do as the clan did in days of old, and shall do again. We’ll live as mortals.”
“At least I ken how to do that,” one of the sculleries said, making the others chuckle. Doon noticed Ava and Darro and told her staff to carry the food out to the men in the hall before she came over and curtseyed. “How may I serve, my lady?”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing, Cook.” She grinned.
Darro accompanied her out to the gardens, where they spoke with some other vassals, all of whom the chieftain checked before he nodded to her. As they walked around the inner bailey Ava noted dozens of vassals at work that she didn’t recognize.
“They’re the mortals who dwelled in the village,” Darro told her. “On the day Bodach cursed the clan they hadnae yet arrived to work.”
“Should I wish they could be made immortal, too?” Ava muttered. Despite the very generous gift of immortality that had been bestowed on the clan’s vassals who had been trapped with them, there were still not enough females for the McKeran men.
Darro beckoned to one of the young maids carrying a laundry basket, and she hurried over and curtseyed to him.
“How may I serve, Chieftain?” the girl asked.
“May I hold your hand a moment, lass?” When she nodded he picked up and clasped her fingers between his palms, and then released her. “My thanks.”
Giving Ava a puzzled look, the maid bobbed again and went on her way.
“Don’t tell me—she’s been turned immortal too?” she asked Darro.
“Aye. Her sire, ’tis Eachann,” he said, looking thoughtful. “I reckon the Gods rewarded even those who lost kin when the clan was cursed.”
That also might solve the problem of too few females as well. “How many gals do you reckon live in that village, anyway?” Ava had to ask.
“Added to the female mortals that abide with us, enough for every man in the clan and our male vassals.” He smiled a little. “I believe I shall permit my brother manage explaining such to the village headman.”
“Idon’t need to see anymore.” As the image of Athena and her husband walking away from the fern-covered meadow faded from the enchanted scroll’s parchment, Harper sighed and leaned against her man’s shoulder.
“If I do, I’m going to cry all over your nice clean tunic. Also, Ava is probably looking for you.”
Rory put his arm around her. “You sacrificed much to remain with me. Lady Ava can wait.”
His murmur made a shiver run down the back of her neck, but in the good way. She liked that he’d chosen to be with her rather than run to the laird’s wife.
“I’ll miss my friend and her husband, and lots of things from the twenty-first century,” she told him. “My laptop. My coffee maker. My Torchwood collection. Underwear I don’t have to tie on.”
He frowned and turned her to face him, his expression baffled.
“It’s DVDs of a show I loved, not actual wood for torches.” There was so much to translate for both of them. “It’s like when you told me Bodach was a begunk. I thought at the time that he probably wasn’t made out of bee gunk, so it must mean something else.”
“Begunk means a cheat and a trickster,” Rory whispered.
Harper grinned as she rolled up the viewing scroll and put it back on its shelf. “I should start writing a dictionary so everyone can look up what someone from another time means. Should we go and see if the other ladies have freaked out yet about being bopped back to the twelfth century?”
“I want time alone with you first,” he murmured, and kissed her temple. “Come with me.”
They left the archive room and walked up to the watch tower.
From there she could see the entire valley beneath the castle, and the cottages nestled in the verdant niche.
Rory believed that in time the clan’s vassals might forget about the nine centuries they’d spent in the spell trap, as the broken enchantment had likely altered the timeline, which Harper thought if true was a blessing.
“So you think only the people who wandered into the spell trap after Bodach cast the spell will retain their memories of the past.” She saw Kelso and Una walking together through the gardens, her arm tucked through his, and nodded at them.
“That might explain how that happened. Did they hate each other at first sight?”
“Mayhap true love, ’tis stronger than hate or magic.” He turned to face her, and leaned to put his mouth near her ear. “As I love you, my lady.”
THE END