Chapter Seven
Ailith
Ailith sat in the corner of the Duart great hall, fussing with the blanket she was working on, meant for the wee bairn that her brother and his wife would be having in about five moons.
She adored Coira as much as she did John because they’d grown up as sisters, even though Coira was of no blood relation.
The hall was busy with the visitors, though one group had gone out to the archery field, something Ailith didn’t participate in.
She had no interest in it. Her sire had insisted on teaching her how to use a dagger, and she carried one in the fold sewn inside her skirt, but that had been enough for her.
Her parents had hoped she’d marry by now, but she hadn’t met anyone of interest to her. The truth was, she didn’t wish to leave her family. Being part of Clan Grant was a gift to her, so she had no desire to leave it.
Ailith had always been shy compared to other lasses.
Growing up with Chrissa, Dyna, and all the fierce Ramsay lasses was difficult.
If she had her wish, she’d study healing with her Aunt Brenna and Aunt Jennie.
She liked the softness they both had inside them, though no one would dare cross Aunt Brenna. Not even Uncle Logan.
She’d spent six moons with Aunt Jennie and discovered much about healing and had helped Aunt Gracie, but she was always wishing to learn more.
Her mother came in the door and said, “We have visitors coming in, Ailith.”
“Should I go to my chamber?”
“Nay, stay here and see if you recognize anyone. The poor man looks lost. Magni is bringing him inside with Dyna and Maitland. I think your father is coming with them.”
The group entered and Magni stopped to introduce everyone.
“Chiefs,” he said to Dyna and Maitland, the two chieftains of Clan Grantham near the dais, “this is Edan MacRuari and his brother Roger. Edan and his sister both awakened several days ago to find their two wee ones missing. After searching everywhere and traveling to Clan MacKay at Dunyvaig, they’ve discovered several bairns have gone missing from Islay of late. They’ve come for help.”
Dyna nodded and said, “Please sit down and we’ll find a brief repast for you.”
Edan stepped closer, his hands fisted at his sides. “I don’t need anything but your help. I’ve been all over Islay looking for my daughter and my nephew, and we cannot find them anywhere. We need your help.”
Maitland said, “We’ll help in any way we can. Please sit.” He motioned to a serving lass to bring a few ales.
Ailith pricked her finger by mistake, cursing quietly, but she set her needlework down so she could give the men her full attention.
A drop of blood welled, bright against her skin, but she scarcely felt it.
Something had shifted in the room. The thought of missing bairns always brought a shiver to her.
Dyna’s daughters and others had been kidnapped a few times long ago, and poor Sylvi still had nightmares from the awful experience.
But all of a sudden, Ailith’s most recent dream popped into her head.
She had seen this face before. Not here. Not in waking hours. A faint unease settled along her spine, not fear, but recognition without understanding.
He had his back to her so she couldn’t be sure, and it wasn’t the right time to move about to see if he looked familiar, so she listened instead.
“Tell us everything,” Dyna said.
Edan sat down, accepting the ale offered to him, but ignoring the bread and cheese on the platter set on the table.
“It happened so close to dawn that it was nearly light. A brilliant bolt of lightning followed by an instantaneous crack of thunder that tossed me out of my bed hit nearby, and when I looked about, my daughter was missing from her cradle. The same happened to my sister.”
Ailith had spent some time with Aunt Brenna learning about the fae in Scotland because she found it so interesting. Dyna would ask the correct questions, she was certain.
“Was anything left behind?”
He held out the dried woven ring of thistles. “One in each cradle.”
“How old are they?” Maitland asked while Dyna studied the floral ring.
“Heilyn is fifteen moons and Milo is eighteen. Have you ever seen anything like that before? Have any bairns been stolen from here?”
Roger added, “They say you have seers here. Can you not look somewhere and find them?”
Edan rubbed his wrists repeatedly. “You must help us. I’ll do anything. I have a wee bit of coin but not much. But I’ll work for you for the rest of my days or help you build a new castle, I’ll plant your oats, anything if you will just help me find her.”
Ailith’s heart nearly split in two listening to the poor man. The strain in his voice, the rigid set of his shoulders. A man holding himself together by sheer will. If she could just see his face. She should not wish for that. And yet the need pressed at her, insistent and unwelcome.
“What is your trade?” Maitland asked. “Where is your wife? What has she seen?”
“My wife is dead. She died giving birth to Heilyn. And my trade is an armorer. I can build the finest swords in all the land. Daggers of all sizes. My brother Roger creates the finest sheaths. We make them lighter and lighter, yet we guarantee the blades will not pierce the leather. My sister sews the finest threads.”
Maitland turned his attention to Dyna, letting her lead the conversation.
“I see the shape of things as they are, but I need your daughter’s face in my mind to find her, and I don’t have it.
I don’t see anything, but I don’t know your daughter.
I usually must have a connection to the person to be able to see them in my visions.
I’m sorry, but I don’t know where she is. ”
Edan bolted out of his seat, knocking the stool over. “What are you talking about? Are you the seer? You think you’ll dream about her and she’ll be there? I can’t believe in such things. They are not true.”
Dyna sat back, then spoke quietly. “Whether or not you believe in my skills as a seer doesn’t matter to me. I’m concerned about your daughter and your nephew, so even if you walked out our door at this moment, I won’t stop looking for the two bairns.”
Edan paced over to the door, grabbing the handle, but then paused, spinning back around a moment later as if he rethought his intentions. He closed his eyes and tipped his head back, then took a deep breath and moved back to stand in front of Dyna and Maitland.
“Please. I’m begging you. I have to find my daughter.
You don’t understand. Heilyn is my whole world.
I lost my wife, but I still had Heilyn. I cannot lose her.
” And the tears rolled down his cheeks. “I don’t…
what the hell do I…” He plopped back onto the stool and his head fell into his hands, the tears still covering his face.
“And please don’t tell me anything about faeries because I don’t believe in them.
People talk to me about some faery stealing my bairn, but that is a most preposterous thought.
I would have seen someone in my cottage. ”
Magni stood by the door and beckoned Dyna to his side while Edan wasn’t looking. Ailith wondered what he was about, but she was close enough to overhear.
Dyna approached Magni, who whispered, “I’ve seen Lia. Twice.”
Dyna grabbed both of his forearms. “Are you certain? Absolutely sure of this?”
“I am. Morgan saw her near the apple tree and on the way here, Cormac and Edan both saw her.”
“Explain thoroughly, please.” She still gripped his arms tightly. “He’s denying any belief in faeries.”
“When he was asking me for help, she appeared.”
“Where? On the ship?”
“Nay, in the sea,” he whispered. “She was riding a dolphin, if you can believe it. I saw her with my own eyes.”
Edan must have caught the change in Magni’s and Dyna’s faces because he rose to join them, catching the end of their conversation.
“I can hear you. I saw her too. The lass. She was around five or six summers old, and she sat upon a dolphin, golden-haired in a green gown. She waved to us. I think she was a figment of my mind. We all want to find my daughter so badly that we created the wee lass in the sea.”
Magni scoffed, “That is not what I saw. I saw a faery I know verra well, and her name is Lia.”
Unwilling to get into this ridiculous conversation, he turned away only to be caught by surprise.
Edan froze as his gaze found Ailith’s. She rose before she knew she’d moved, drawn by something she could not name.
She nodded to him, an odd force coursing through her as his attention focused on her. “Who are you?”
The question struck deeper than it should have, as though he asked more than her name.
Ailith turned and hurried toward the kitchens, her thoughts in disarray.
She needed distance, a moment to steady herself.
But then her thoughts changed. If she were to do what she wished to do, uncover what was happening to the bairns in her dream, she couldn’t hide from anyone, so she turned back to face him.
Only she was struck nearly speechless. This was definitely the man she’d seen in her nightmare. “I am Ailith Grant, daughter of Alasdair and Emmalin Grant, and I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.”
His gaze traveled from her plait to her blushing cheeks but stopped on her finger. “You’ve pricked yourself.” His hand settled under hers, bringing it forward for him to study. “Needlework?”
“Aye. I was working on a garment for my brother’s bairn coming this summer.
” It was just a man’s hand, but his touch warmed her, and his concern struck her unusual, probably because most people didn’t concern themselves with her.
Ailith had sat in the background for the last seven years, ever since she’d been held captive, and she wasn’t willing to risk being taken again.
But this was different. “Your daughter was taken?”
He took a linen square from his overcoat and held it against her bleeding finger, pressing as gently as any healer would. “Aye, in a thunderstorm that never rained.”
“What’s her name?” He smelled of woodsmoke and salt, an odd mix he’d picked up from his journey across the sea. “Heilyn. She’s fifteen moons old, and she’s the light of my life.”
He lifted his gaze for a moment and she studied the color, a shade of brown like her favorite pony, but he had the most unusual golden flecks here and there, mixed in with a different color.
A dark red.
She must have frowned because he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Naught.” She would say nothing, but then she pushed herself. She didn’t want their conversation to end. If she’d gone into the kitchen, she never would have known his daughter’s name. “You have the strangest shade of red in your eyes. Brown and gold with a burnished red here and there.”
“Truly? No one has ever told me so before. Brown and gold, but no red.”
“You have a deep fear of something intangible. I cannot sense what it is.”
Edan shifted from one foot to the other, then rolled his shoulder as if it were injured. “I’m here for help. I need my daughter.”
Then she said the one thing the old Ailith would never have dared to say. “I imagine her mother is sick with worry too.”
“Her mother passed when she was born,” he whispered, a hand reaching up to move hair back that had fallen in his eyes.
“Forgive me. I’m sorry to hear so.”
He patted her wound. “It’s finished bleeding.” He set the linen back in the fold in his coat. “It’s my pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ailith Grant. I must return to speak with your chieftains.”
She headed to the kitchens while he seemed to change directions.
As she moved past him, the edge of her sleeve brushed lightly across the back of his hand where it rested at his side.
The touch was accidental, barely there, but it stopped her short, a warmth, a presence that stole her breath for a heartbeat.
She dared a glance back and found Edan watching her, his expression unreadable.
Her cheeks burned with sudden color, but she said nothing.
For the briefest moment their eyes met, something gentle and vulnerable passing between them.
She tore her gaze away and headed for the kitchens, but she could still feel the ghost of that touch lingering on her skin.
Just as she reached for the door, her fingertips trembled, betraying nerves she tried to hide.
Before she could hide it, Edan was there.
His callused fingers closed gently around hers, steadying her.
The unexpected touch sent a jolt through her, grounding and unsettling all at once.
She stiffened, then, unable to help herself, let herself lean into the quiet strength of his hand.
Their hands lingered together, just a moment too long, before she found her voice and drew away, not meeting his eyes.
“My thanks,” she whispered, her cheeks warm.
“Your pardon, but you looked unsteady. I hope I did not offend you, lass.” Edan’s breath sent a shiver down her spine, but he stepped away quickly, so she prayed he hadn’t noticed.
She slipped into the kitchen, her own composure rattled. The memory of his touch stayed with her, a quiet steadiness she found welcome. Ailith had not wanted a man’s hand near hers in years, ever since that horrid time she’d been locked in a cellar. But Edan’s was different.
She wanted him to stay.
She heard Dyna say, “Stay for two nights and I promise we can help you. I need to speak with someone about this. I think we can be of assistance to you.”
Ailith leaned on a side table in the kitchen, catching her breath. Her composure had slipped, and that alone disturbed her.
Straight brown hair that hung to his shoulders, a finely chiseled jaw, and sharp brown eyes like the finest chestnut mare in the land tugged her forward, but she fought it.
His eyes had fixed on hers as though he, too, felt it.
She didn’t know much about him, but she knew one thing for certain.
Edan MacRuari was the man in her dream.