Chapter Thirteen
The trip home was uneventful. Channa Leigh hid her disappointment well, but Darkfest could not shake off his sense of failure. It weighed like a millstone around his neck. Why had his magic failed?
The question plagued him long after they returned home. Even Channa Leigh’s sweet voice could not ease his troubled mind.
Late one night as he wandered through the castle, he found himself standing in front of the painting of his parents. His gaze settled on his father’s face. The Dragon Lord of Darkfest Castle.
Darkfest swore a short, pithy oath, then turned and went to his chamber.
He worked all through the night and as dawn rose in the sky, he held up a small vial of ruby colored liquid.
It held three drops of his own blood and the ashes of four of the wolf’s hairs mixed with the juice of wild berries to make it palatable.
He stared at the vial a long moment, wondering if he had at last discovered the secret to restore Channa Leigh’s sight.
Unable to wait a moment longer, he ran up the stairs to her bed chamber and rushed inside.
Kneeling beside her bed, he shook her shoulder lightly. “Channa Leigh! Wake up, lass.”
She woke with a start. “Is something wrong, my lord?”
“Drink this.” He thrust the vial into her hand. “Quickly now.”
“What is it?”
“Drink!”
Compelled by the urgency in his voice, she downed the contents in a single swallow, gasped as the fiery liquid burned its way down her throat.
He watched her carefully, his heart pounding with excitement and trepidation.
And then, slowly, she turned to face him. “My lord,” she breathed, and there was a wealth of wonder in her voice. “Truly thou art the most handsome of men.”
“Channa Leigh!”
“I can see ye.” A smile as bright as summer sun curved her lips and lit her eyes. “I can see!”
With a glad cry, he drew her into his arms, their tears mingling as he held her close.
“But how?” she asked, “how did ye do it?”
“The dragon’s blood,” he replied with a rueful grin.
“What dragon? Not Blackencrill?”
“No. This dragon,” he said, thumping himself on the chest.
“Ye, my lord?”
“Aye. My father was known as the Dragon Lord of Darkfest Castle. I dinna know why I did not recall that sooner. For some reason I canna understand, there is magic in the wolf’s hair, so I combined that with my blood.
The dragon’s blood.” He frowned, wondering if his human hair would have worked as well.
“And will it last?” she asked.
“Only time will tell.”
She looked up at him, her eyes shining. And then she jumped to her feet. “Come,” she said, holding out her hand. “We must go and tell my mama and papa.”
Grinning, Darkfest gained his feet. “Mayhap ye should dress first.”
She looked down at her nightgown and then back at him, her cheeks rosy. “I think ye may be right, my lord.”
~ * ~
The sun was still climbing in the sky when they made their way to Channa Leigh’s home.
She burst inside, calling, “Mama, Mama.”
Her mother rushed into the room, wiping her hands on a towel, her brow lined with worry. “Channa Leigh! Child, what is wrong?”
“Mama. Oh, Mama.” She flung herself into her mother’s arms and hugged her tightly.
Maura looked into her daughter’s face, her eyes widening in disbelief. “Can it be?” She glanced at Darkfest and took a step backward, drawing Channa Leigh with her. “What dark magic is this?”
“Tis magic, indeed, Mama,” Channa Leigh cried. “Is Papa here?”
“What’s all the ruckus?”
Her father’s voice preceded him into the room.
“Papa!” She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. “Tis a miracle, Papa.”
He hugged her back. “A miracle?”
She drew away a little and looked into his eyes. “I can see, Papa!”
Taking her mother and father by the hand, she pulled them into the kitchen and sat down at the table. Dugald and Maura took their places, glancing over their shoulders as Darkfest followed them into the room.
He stood in the doorway, his arms folded over his chest, while Channa Leigh told her parents all that had happened since she had gone to live in the wizard’s castle.
There were tears in Maura’s eyes when the tale was told.
Dugald rose to his feet and faced Darkfest. “And so ye mean to marry my daughter, do ye?”
“Aye.”
“And if I say nay, what then?”
“If Channa Leigh refuses me of her own free will, I will never see her again. But if she wishes to be my bride, as she said, then I will have her, with or without yer blessing.”
Dugald turned his gaze to his daughter. “Do ye truly wish to marry this man?”
“Aye, Papa, with all of my heart.”
Dugald looked to his wife. “And what say ye?”
“She loves him, old man. Ye can see it in her eyes.”
~ * ~
And so it was on a fair morn that the lovely maiden in the valley married the dark wizard upon the hill.
He stood beneath a canopy of tree boughs, waiting for his bride, felt his breath catch in his throat when he saw her walking toward him on her father’s arm.
Never, in all his long life, had he seen anything to equal the beauty of Channa Leigh as she glided gracefully toward him.
He gazed into her eyes, eyes filled with a love so deep, so pure and true, that it filled his heart with a sweet agony.
The light shining in her eyes forever burned away the darkness that had ever been a part of him, banishing it from the depths of his heart and soul as if it had never existed.
It took but a few solemn words spoken by the village priest to make her his wife, to bind her to him for so long as she lived. And, thanks to the magic in his blood, she would live a long life, indeed.
“I love ye, my lady of light,” he murmured as he drew her into his arms.
“And I love ye, my lord,” she replied, and standing on her tiptoes, she claimed her first kiss as his wife.
The first, dear reader, but not the last.
~ The End ~