Chapter Thirty-Two
Connor
Connor had ridden in front of Alaric, and he’d held him strong. In fact, he slept part of the way. It was nighttime, not the best time to travel, but they knew the way well enough.
The battle had humbled him. He’d done exactly what his father had warned him against. He had let his emotions overpower him. His father had warned him once that such an error could be deadly.
He’d nearly died.
And how was he to explain exactly what had happened?
He’d had to change his stance because another fool had come at him from the side, then Dugan had grabbed at the opportunity, aiming for his belly. The pain had been the worst he’d ever felt in his entire life, and the blood.
There had been so much blood. He’d felt the warm liquid as it covered his hand, there to try to stop the bleeding, though he’d failed because he had no strength in his hand.
He recalled Hagen’s distress, how Brynja had stayed by his side. And then he’d seen Lia.
And two others.
He’d seen his father and mother. He pushed that from his mind until he had someone like Sela or Aunt Brenna to talk with. It had been so real.
But then he’d opened his eyes to see Hagen and Brynja’s hands on his belly, Lia behind Brynja talking, and a strange force shot through him at the same time a bolt of lightning came right at him.
He thought he’d been hit, but yet he’d lived.
How? How had he healed so quickly?
There were things on this isle that never made sense, but he was too tired to think on it.
They’d arrived to cheers from the parapets, Dyna squealing, Sela sobbing.
Tora had shouted, “Gwandda comeen. See, Gwanmama.”
Even though it was late, the bairns were still awake. They couldn’t sleep, something inside them knowing they needed to see their grandfather.
Hagen, his first-born son, whom he was so proud of, shoved everyone aside and shouted, “He needs Aunt Brenna. Alaric will explain. Brynja and I will take him inside.”
And the crowd had spread apart, giving them the room they needed. Connor had managed to dismount with only one knee buckling, Hagen catching him easily. The lad was stronger than he would have guessed. But hellfire if the boy wasn’t a wee bit taller than he was now.
His father would be proud.
Sela sobbed and leaned over, Hagen allowing his mother to kiss his cheek. Then he said, “Follow us inside, Mama. We cannot stop.”
Connor whispered to Hagen as they approached the keep, “I can’t make the steps.” But his son had scooped him up and carried him up the stairs without even a grunt.
He’d immediately remembered the day he’d had to do the same with his father when he came back from the battle with Buchan. When his mother had fashioned a bed for his father in the stables at Clan Cameron, as if she’d known he’d come home weakened.
“I remember, Da.” He could picture his mother and father as if it happened two days ago.
“What?” Hagen asked.
“Naught.” Hellfire, he was talking to ghosts now. His mind was playing trickery on him.
Maitland opened the door and walked next to him. “If he’s too heavy, Hagen, I can help, and Alaric is right behind you. Don’t try to set him down alone. We’ll help.
“Welcome home, Grant. Glad to see you here,” Logan shouted.
Maitland opened the door to the healing chamber, and Aunt Brenna pointed to the bed. “I’ve been waiting for you, Connor. I was going to return home, but something told me to stay a wee bit longer. I’m glad I did.”
Hagen moved to set his father down on the bed. “Maitland, catch his other side. I can’t maneuver him.”
“He’s too tall, I’ve got this side,” Maitland said, the two men lowering him to the bed.
Maeve squeezed in and kissed his cheek. “I love you, Connor.”
Connor grabbed her hand. “Stay, Maeve. I need to speak with you and Sela and Brenna.”
Aunt Brenna said, “Not until I hear about the wound. Everyone out except Maeve, Sela, and Hagen. If you were there, Hagen.”
“I was.”
People shuffled out, but at the last minute, Connor yelled, “Stay, Brynja.”
Aunt Brenna arched a brow in question at him, Sela staring at him wide-eyed. He held a hand up to tell them to wait.
Maeve and Sela stood back, Aunt Brenna on a stool next to him, already doing the things he’d seen her and Aunt Jennie do so many times. Looking and touching and feeling and looking again.
When the door closed, he said, “I’ll tell you what happened.”
Aunt Brenna put her hand to his chest and said, “Nay, you will be silent until I tell you that you can speak. Hagen and Brynja will explain.”
The door opened and Logan stuck his head in. “Beware, she can be an ornery witch when she wishes to be.”
Aunt Brenna said, “Unless you’d like me to make certain you are on a pallet next to him, you’ll close the door, Logan.”
The door slammed. Connor caught Aunt Brenna’s smirk.
His beloved aunt said to Hagen, “Tell me exactly what happened. Leave nothing out.”
Connor said, “I can…”
“Connor, shush. I’ll not tell you again,” his aunt said.
Sela said, “Connor, do what she says. You’re too weak.”
So he relented. He settled his eyes on Hagen, who sat on a stool in his line of vision, and listened.
“We were behind a crest, and Da heard Dugan—and aye, Dugan Comming—say he was going to kill him if he ever saw him. I tried to stop Da, but he stepped out and the battle just began. Just like that. His men of ten or so were everywhere. We only had Brynja and me and Alaric. Broc and Merryn had gone to look for bairns. And another came at Da’s opposite side.
He cut him down, but Dugan got his belly when he cut the other man down.
Da crumpled to the ground and there was blood everywhere… ”
“Hagen, I see the blood, his, Brynja’s, and your tunics and plaids are all saturated, but there’s no wound.” Aunt Brenna looked at him and said, “Where, Connor? Where were you stabbed?”
Connor used his hand to point to the spot, and he watched his aunt lift his tunic, looking for an open wound, but there was none. “I only see a scar that looks like a lightning bolt.” Sela looked over Aunt Brenna’s shoulder. Hagen paled and squeezed Brynja’s hand.
“Where, Connor? Point to the wound.”
He did, and then said, “It healed. Lia was there.”
Sela gasped and Maeve flopped onto a stool.
“Lia healed you? But there’s so much blood.” Aunt Brenna looked at Hagen and Brynja. “Is all that blood on you and Brynja Connor’s blood? Neither of you are wounded? Anyone else with a wound? Alaric? Broc?”
“It’s all from Da.” Hagen nodded, Brynja nodded.
Aunt Brenna looked back at him. “That’s impossible.”
Connor took Brenna’s hand and said, “Listen to me. And you are all sworn to secrecy. Lia told Hagen to set his hands on me, then told Brynja to put her hands on Hagen’s. And this heat shot through me just before the lightning bolt hit over my head. The pain disappeared.”
The three look stupefied, then he said, “Hagen, you and Brynja may go. Get something to eat.”
The two left, holding hands. “I’ll be back, Da.”
“My thanks to both of you,” he said. “And we’ve only told everyone that Lia healed me. That’s it.”
Once the two were gone, he looked at Maeve and his wife and said, “I saw Mama and Da.”
“What?” Maeve asked, leaning forward.
Aunt Brenna said, “It’s not unusual for people who are nearly dead to have seen loved ones. It’s common. Probably as a dream.”
Connor grabbed Aunt Brenna’s hand and said, “Nay, Da said to forget Dugan. That I would not be taken yet, that I was to help gather the group who were to work with Lia.”
“Lia? Da knows Lia?” Maeve asked.
“He said Hagen and Brynja are bound together, that they will have special powers, along with Grant and John. And others too, but I woke up. They were so real. Da yelled at me for allowing my emotions to drive me. He said to forget Dugan. Said there are worse things happening.”
Connor’s cheeks dampened from the tears that he hadn’t known had fallen.
Aunt Brenna patted his hand and said, “Connor, it sounds like you had quite an ordeal, but you are pale and weak, and you need rest. I’m going to treat you as though you had a huge wound that you lost all that blood from.
Mayhap Lia put some odd stitches in you.
I don’t know. You’re wounded and you’ll do what I tell you.
I want you to drink first. Maeve, would you get him some broth, please?
Drink the broth, then sleep. Your body, even though there is no more blood, has been through an ordeal.
If you wish to heal to do whatever my brother wants you to do, then you must stay here and do what I say. ”
Connor smiled and whispered, “He said that too. And Mama. Said to listen to Aunt Brenna, so I promise to do whatever you say. I’m going to close my eyes now. When Maeve brings the broth, awaken me. I’ll drink it. Please say naught about what I said. I’ll tell Kyla and Jamie when I see them.”
He closed his eyes and snored lightly before Aunt Brenna could cover him with a plaid. Maeve left for the broth, and Sela looked at her. “I don’t know what to believe, but I’m grateful. He and Hagen and Brynja are all covered in blood.”
“I’m going to say Lia did it. I don’t know about the other, but for now, we’ve all known Lia has special powers. I’m grateful, as you are, Sela. If not for Lia, he never would have made it back here. He would have died in a boat.”
Aunt Brenna got up to fetch water in a basin to wash the blood from her nephew, and Sela just sat on the stool and set her cheek to her husband’s chest.