Chapter Five
Magni
Magni MacQuarie let out a loud yelp as they sailed their ship across the waters near Jura. “What a beautiful day!”
He gave no sign of what churned beneath the surface, nor of the lass whose face had lingered in his thoughts since dawn. The wind shifted oddly against his cheek, warmer than it should be for early summer. Something was off. He could not name it, but he would.
He also refused to put words to how deeply upset he was after hearing the troubles of the family they’d just seen, the ones who they’d planned to take to Duart on the morrow.
Cormac said, “I still don’t know why you insisted on coming out here. The day is warm, but I would have preferred to spend my time replacing one of the boards on my boat.”
Magni wasn’t about to argue with his friend.
“After speaking with those people about missing bairns, I couldn’t help but wish to look for odd ships in the region.
” He didn’t add his thoughts, that just hearing about missing bairns brought back awful memories of being stolen from the beach while playing in the water.
It was wrong to steal bairns. He’d experienced it, he feared it, and he was not going to sit idly by. He’d do what he could to stop it. They were headed out on the morrow, so he would search the area for strangers first.
Cormac knew Magni’s childhood had many difficult memories, so he never argued with him about these kinds of topics. “We’ll search the area for strange ships, but don’t forget we have to be back to Lagavulin Bay at high sun on the morrow.”
“We’ll be there. I want to help them in any way I can.” Magni’s gaze scanned the shoreline as they came down the Sound of Islay, but he didn’t find what he was searching for anywhere.
Morgan Grant stood aft, lifting his face to the breeze. The two often patrolled the waters of Jura and Islay before returning to their cottage on the shore of Loch Ardnahoe.
Morgan said, “I’m going fishing when we get back. I’d like another big trout.”
Magni forced a faint smile. The two had built a cottage seven years ago when they had purchased their first ship to begin their business as merchants of travel.
At the age of one and twenty, he knew it was time for him to think about taking a wife, and he knew exactly who he was interested in, but with the impending arrival of Lia, he couldn’t consider pursuing a lass.
Morgan pointed to a spot inland on Islay. “And now that it’s nearly summer, I’d like to finish that big project I have in the middle of the loch.”
“You mean the one that will surely kill you? The giant ladder with the ropes hanging from it?”
“Aye. ‘Tis no different than the rope swing Uncle Logan had built once.”
Magni smiled at the mention of his adoptive grandfather.
Logan Ramsay was getting up in age, but he was still as quick in the mind as anyone he knew.
To say Magni adored him didn’t adequately express the man who’d helped save him from the evil kidnappers over a decade ago.
“You mean the one they hung from the tree? Eli and Alaric told me all about it.”
“Aye. Cormac has never seen it, and I promised to finish it for him.” A gull cried overhead, sharp and sudden, and then silence fell too quickly after.
The following year, they had met Cormac and his brother Fingal on Jura and together they expanded their business. The three formed the Brotherhood of the Black Keel and began carrying travelers and their cargo across the waters.
Magni handled the Islay-to-Jura route on his vessel, Lia’s Hulk. Even the name tugged at him now, as though it carried more weight than before. Cormac managed the Mull Cog that sailed between Islay and Mull. And Morgan managed the largest journey, from the mainland to Jura and Islay.
His father, Connor Grant, had gifted Morgan his first ship, the Sea Raven, named for Morgan’s mother, Sela, whose Norse heritage made the raven a fitting symbol. Odin’s birds, watching from above.
That day, they guided Magni’s hulk into the calm waters of the Sound of Islay, Magni still scanning the area.
“Cormac, are you staying this eve?” Magni asked.
“Aye, I wish to work on the still we started. We will make our own fine brew. Tristan is helping, and with Dermot Rankin’s recipe, it should be something worth drinking soon.”
Magni barely heard him. The prickle at the back of his neck intensified.
Morgan studied him. “What is it, MacQuarie?” The youngest son of Connor and Sela Grant, he was as tall as his father and the image of him, blue eyes and long dark hair waving in the wind.
“Something is wrong.” Magni scanned the shoreline. “Take the oar, Grant.”
Morgan shifted to the side-mounted steering oar as the wind softened. His shoulder struck Magni’s as they traded places, but Magni ignored it.
“What is it?” Morgan peered at him.
“I don’t know. But it feels familiar.” As though the thing he had long feared had finally come to claim him. A flash of a small chamber in an old building behind a kirk came to him, four bairns, hungry, dirty, and frightened, huddled in the corner as a woman was thrown inside with them.
Meg MacVey.
She’d helped them survive. Got them away from the evil men who were to sell them across the water.
He searched the land as he often did, always hoping to find his adopted sister who’d disappeared years ago. Always looking for the wee blonde lass he missed so.
Lia. The faery who had saved him from death years ago. She’d helped the clans on Mull by protecting the bairns, then she left as quickly as she’d appeared under a frond.
“You sound like my sister,” Morgan mumbled.
“Which one? Dyna?”
“Aye, she’s always looking over her shoulder ever since those dark days. That’s what she calls them. The dark times of Mull. Do you remember much about them?”
Magni shrugged, not willing to admit that he remembered every rotten moment about the dark days. “I was eight, so I don’t recall much. But I do recall the night at Iona.”
His voice lowered, and the air seemed to cool as memory crept close.
“That night I’ll never forget. It was dark, the moon was bright, and Artan sent me looking for a fishing pole on the far side of the isle behind the cottages. That’s when I saw them. Eight men climbing from boats, blades in hand. One said, ‘Grab the bairns.’”
Morgan stilled, watching him.
“I ran,” Magni continued. “And I was lucky. When I reached Simone, all the others had arrived from the opposite side of the isle and went after them.” He did not speak of how long the screams echoed in his dreams after.
Morgan let out a low whistle. “I love hearing about those old battles. I’ll have to ask my brother about it.”
“Hagen will remember.”
Cormac shifted the sails. “I heard there were visitors at Duart.”
“Aye, my parents are there,” Morgan said, watching Jura’s shoreline.
“Why?” Magni asked because he knew there had to be a reason. “What’s wrong with Dyna?”
Morgan leapt onto the dock, guiding the boat into its slip. “Dyna said the bairns are acting odd. No reason why, but she always feels better when Da is around.”
Magni’s gut twisted. Something was afoot. He could feel it.
Morgan grinned as he tied off the rope. “You know how she gets. You spend enough time there eyeing up my nieces.”
Magni lunged, shoving him into the water. “And you need a bath.”
Morgan managed to grab onto Magni’s tunic, dragging him into the water with him. “You stink too!”
They hit the water with a huge splash, laughter breaking through. It was a common occurrence once the warmer weather settled in. Magni came up for air, ready to retaliate, but Morgan was already climbing out, and Cormac moved a safe distance away.
But that’s when Magni saw her. His heartbeat raced, and he spun in the water, his arms windmilling as fast as he could move. He had to reach her in time.
Before she disappeared again.
He’d been looking for years for his sister.
Lia had found him alone in a forest where evil souls had abandoned him.
The wee faery, who looked like a five-year-old lass in a green gown, told him to tell everyone that she was his sister, and it had worked for a while.
But most figured the truth out as Lia revealed her true talents.
Morgan yelled, “Magni!”
He ignored him, swimming hard for shore, the water dragging at him as though it resisted his reach. By the time he hauled himself onto the bank, she was gone.
Cormac frowned. “What is wrong with him? Still chasing that wee lass?”
“Aye,” Morgan said, climbing the ladder. “But this time is different.”
“Why?”
Magni spun toward them. “I saw her. Did you see her? Either of you? Over there by that apple tree.”
Morgan’s face darkened. “Shite.”
“What?” Magni asked, praying one of them had seen her. He’d waited a long time for this moment. Last year, Dyna had slipped and mentioned Lia coming back. He hadn’t known about her promise years ago, that someday they would all be called upon to help save bairns again.
It was Lia. He was certain of it. Stunned by her true presence, he sat down on the bank, his arms resting on his bent knees.
He did his best to slow his breathing. Lia’s appearance had to mean something.
The man last night who was sick with grief over his missing daughter, the woman with the haunted look on her face.
Both brought him back to times of pain and fear.
Of hiding from everyone and everything. He’d vowed never to leave Iona for fear of being kidnapped again.
But the evil bastards had found him there anyway.
Rubbing his chin, he thought of how much to reveal to his friends, but he couldn’t explain how that small fear of Lia returning disturbed him, made him keep everyone he knew a distance away.
Morgan bent, picked up a rock, and hurled it toward the tree. “I saw her too. It was Lia.”
A part of him wished to jump for joy, while the other part wished to run and hide. But the lass he’d missed so much had already vanished. His chest tightened because he knew what it meant.
Lia had not stayed, she never did. But she never came without a reason.
Trouble was coming.
And it would involve the wee ones among them.