Chapter 13 #2
He would never be accustomed to the warmth and noise of Gealladh, and often wished he could sleep out of doors on the island.
He could easily make a shelter for himself in the forest, but if he slept too well he might prove a risk to the safety of the clans’ vassals and indeed, all of his half-brothers.
That had been his sire’s final gift as well, but he would never call it a boon.
Cath wanted to blame his restlessness on the strangeness of the stronghold, which would never seem like a home to him. The true cause, however, lay inside his skull. Night after night he would try to sleep, only to remember her.
Don’t leave me.
It had been nigh on five centuries since they had parted, and yet Cath never truly stopped thinking about Amanda.
He saved her like a cherished talisman in the back of his mind, unable to discard even thoughts of her.
From the first moment the very young female mortal had reached through the bars of her slave cage to grab his hand, she had clung to him so tightly her tiny fingernails had dug furrows into his flesh.
Those wounds had been hardly worth noticing, but it had been her terrified trust that had nearly ripped him to pieces.
Please, I want to go with you. Take me with you.
Stealing a mortal female child from the dullahan that had lured her through a hollow to Elphyne had been beyond foolish, of course.
Cath knew it had been her fate to be whisked from her world to the nightmare of the dark Fae kingdom, where she would serve as prey for the hideous headless horseman.
Most bairns that went missing in the mortal realm ended skewered on the end of his pikestaff.
Even if she managed to escape her cage and run away before the dullahan could toy with her, there would be no haven anywhere for her.
He and his friends would summon the Great Hunt, which would bring monsters beyond any nightmare to chase her down for sport and then tear her to pieces like a pack of starved dogs.
I’m so scared.
Seeing the tears spilling down her pale, pretty wee face as she stared at him through the bars of her cage had been too much for Cath.
He tossed some gems to the dullahan’s servant, who opened the cage for him, and picked up the child, who clung to and nestled against him as if she wished to crawl inside his skin.
From there Cath carried her off to his sire’s bastion, where he warded every arch and door to keep out the dullahan and his monstrous allies.
The wee thing had held onto him so tightly he couldn’t persuade her to release him, and was forced to hold her plastered against his chest until she finally fell asleep.
“Shall I cage that creature, Apprentice?” his sire’s steward had asked after bringing him his nightly brew.
“Leave her to me.” Cath carried her over to his bed, pulling back the heavy furs and placing her in the center before draping her tiny body with his own cloak. She would not be able to eat what the dark Fae dined upon, so he asked. “Do you yet have some food from the mortal realm brought here?”
“Yes, Apprentice,” the steward said. “Shall I prepare some for the thing?”
“No’ a thing.” The child sat up and glared at the old retainer as she poked a finger against her chest. “Amanda.”
“It speaks.” The steward grimaced. “Why do they name them so young? My mate and I never did until such time as our whelps could defend themselves.”
“She’s human.” Cath rubbed a gentle hand over her fine, soft brown hair. “Mortals protect their young with their lives.”
“No wonder they’re so easily slain.” The steward shook his head as he left.
“Pree pictures,” the child said, running her tiny fingertips over the skinwork Rune had inked on him. “Why so many?”
The enchanted tattoos had kept Cath alive when he was younger and defenseless, not that he could make her understand that. “They’re my friends.”
She looked up at him with her big eyes. “I’m your friend, too.” She flung her arms around his neck and gave him a noisy kiss on the mouth.
No one had ever touched Cath in such a way, and the shock of it made him go still. In that moment he knew he would kill for her.
He couldn’t keep her in Elphyne forever, but it had nearly ended him to smuggle her back to her world.
Forcing himself to set her free had been like gouging his heart from his chest. He’d also taken care to ward her so that the dark Fae that preyed on young mortals could never again find her.
He’d then put her to sleep before returning her to her world through the time portal used by the dullahan to raid different eras.
He’d then destroyed the hollow, denying the horseman the chance to ever again use it to steal another bairn.
Unlike him she deserved to live in the light.
Cath suspected he would always be tormented by thoughts of her, no matter how many eager mortal wenches he bedded.
Everyone believed he didn’t know how to laugh or smile, but the truth was he no longer could.
All the joy and hope in his life had gone when he’d sent his lovely wee lass back to her time.
At least now he understood why he’d fallen for Amanda from the first moment she’d touched him.
My weakness, ’tis to take on the emotions of females I touch.
Even now that he understood the formerly inexplicable urge to save her, Cath didn’t suffer any bitterness. Had it not been for Amanda, he would still be trapped in the dark Fae otherworld, likely carrying out assassinations for the queen, or perhaps serving as yet another of her pets.
Never accept an invitation to visit the queen alone, Rune had warned him. You shall spend the rest of eternity in her menagerie.
He heard shuffling footsteps, and opened his eyes to discover the boat had drifted to the mainland and become caught in a stand of tall reeds, which also concealed his presence from whatever had awakened his skinwork on the mainland.
He sat up slowly, narrowing his eyes against the first beams of sunlight as he saw something too large and dark to be mortal or beast moving out of the trees.
For a moment the half-moonlight showed its monstrous hideousness, and he stopped breathing.
Dark Fae.
Slowly Cath drew his dagger, climbing over the side and soundlessly sinking down into the cold water before he moved deeper into the reeds to conceal his presence.
His skinwork grew even more restless, making the water surrounding him ripple, and despite being immersed the smell of his flesh grew thick and hot.
In another moment he would not be able to control what he wore on his body, and closed his eyes as he reached out to their primitive minds.
Wait and watch with me. We must learn what the dark Fae does here.
Slowly the disturbance of the water subsided as his flesh calmed.
Looking through the slender shafts and leaves of the reeds, he could just make out the silhouette of the immortal, and the manner in which it prodded the ground with an impossibly long black crystal rod.
It was methodically searching the bank beside the water, sinking and raising the huge stave it carried to stab the ground over and again.
Does the thing imagine the cluet remains buried?
When the dark Fae disappeared back into the woods Cath climbed into the boat and began to row quietly back toward the island.