Chapter Eight
Edan
“Who is Ailith exactly? I must have met her somewhere before. She looks so familiar to me,” Edan said, his gaze still on the door the dark-haired lass had slipped into.
There was something about the lass that struck him.
Not like the pull of a beautiful woman, but the pull of a beautiful soul.
Something in her gaze had caught and held him like the Corryvreckan pulling ships to its depths.
There had been a moment, no more than a breath, when her eyes met his, and something in him stilled.
He’d held her hand and thought naught of it, yet having her close made him think thoughts that should make him feel guilty. His wife had only been dead just a little over a year.
But Ailith was different. Something about the way she had stood, her head held high, while she spoke to him. She was not easily intimidated by a strange man like some lasses were. He had this odd sense that she was the type who had undying loyalty to her clan, to her family.
To her husband.
What in hell had made him think of such a thought?
He took two steps past Dyna, his gaze still locked on the door Ailith had stepped through. She’d been able to look inside him, she’d seen his fear. Known it was there. One he never shared with anyone, but she’d only identified it in general terms. She hadn’t determined exactly what that fear was.
And he surely would not tell her.
“Her name is Ailith and she is kin,” Dyna said, steady as stone, drawing his attention back. “Are you willing to stay for a night or two?”
Edan took a moment to look over at his brother who shrugged and nodded. “I’d like a nice meal before we go back on the ship.”
Edan agreed. “We’ll stay, but how can you help?” Duart Castle was most impressive. From the massive curtain wall to the number of guards about, some working in the lists, others working their trade, he could see it was a place where hard work and loyalty would be rewarded.
The inside was equally impressive, the dark wood of the walls in the great hall to the ornate scrolling of the dais, the dwelling was well cared for by man. He could see why MacKay had recommended they come here. Someone had to know something.
Sitting on the promontory of the firth, the castle’s parapets could provide a view of much that happened on the waterways and at the port. He’d be pleased to make his way around the castle if allowed.
Dyna said, “I know other seers. We all have different strengths, and I’m quite sure I can find out more for you. I may not be able to tell you exactly where she is, but I would wager I’ll be able to tell you who took her, and I would ask that you agree to something first.”
“What?” The word came sharper than he intended, revealing more hesitation than he liked. He wouldn’t promise anything to this woman he didn’t know, chieftain or not.
Things were different here at Duart Castle, and he hadn’t decided yet whether they were trustworthy or not. But he had not come this far to walk away because the chieftain was a woman.
A young girl hung over the balcony and shouted, “Aye, you can trust us. You should trust my mother more than anyone you know. She’s that honorable. And faeries are real.”
He grabbed onto the back of a nearby chair to anchor himself, his heart racing in his chest. When he was able, he glanced up at the lass above stairs.
A young woman fussed with her hair, unconcerned with the fact that she’d casually revealed his inner thoughts as though one could announce such things whenever they wished.
She’d invaded his mind. Cut into his most guarded thoughts.
How? How had this slight lass known exactly what he was thinking?
He had that same unnatural sensation press in on him that he’d had the morning Heilyn disappeared. The feeling that someone could see inside his home, inside his soul.
Inside his mind.
It was as if he’d stepped out of his usual land on Islay and into a different world on Mull. A world of seers, of faeries, of people who could see inside your soul. He had to crush the urge to run out the door screaming.
“Sylvi, go back inside.”
“I will, Mama. I tore my leggings and came up to change.”
The lass went back into her chamber and Edan whispered, “How did she know my thoughts?”
Dyna’s arms crossed. “Sylvi hears what others do not say. She hasn’t done it much since she was young, but she’s been doing it more of late. Pay her no mind. We will pursue your daughter as long as you can make a promise to me. I’ll need that agreement, as I stated before.”
“What agreement?”
“You need to keep an open mind. You may not understand what we tell you, but you must be willing to consider that things may be different than you’ve seen in the past. Can you agree to listen with an open mind?”
Edan nearly refused, but he thought of his dear daughter, her head just sprouting red curls like her mother, her laughter lighting up everyone around him.
His absolute fondest memory was when he picked her up one day when he wasn’t feeling well, and she set her head on his shoulder and patted his back.
Just as he’d done with her many times in the past.
He couldn’t explain to this chieftain that he didn’t believe in faeries because he couldn’t. Believing in them meant that some of the things his sire had told him could be true. And he just wasn’t willing to accept those things.
But he had observed a wee lass riding a dolphin, had met a lass who knew he carried a fear he kept hidden inside, and then another repeat his most innermost thoughts to everyone.
Perhaps he had to suspend his disbelief for seers. Was it possible for someone to see exactly where his daughter was? He could only pray it was true.
The truth was he’d do anything for Heilyn, including this, so reluctantly, he looked at the impressive female chieftain in front of him and nodded. “I’ll listen. You have my word.”
“My thanks to you.” She called out and a lass came over to the two of them. “Show them to the chamber at the end of the passageway. There are two separate beds in the chamber, and it has a small hearth.”
“Many thanks to ye.”
Roger smiled and nodded to Dyna. “May we visit with your armorer later?”
“Of course. His hut is the first one down the path to the main road to Craignure.”
The two men followed the lass up the staircase and down the passageway, thanking her for her escort before she departed.
Once inside, Edan moved over to the hearth, placing logs inside to start a fire in the cold chamber.
He took in everything in the chamber and said to Roger, “’Tis the finest chamber I’ve ever been in.
” The cushioned chair, the tapestry on the wall, the large bed with a grand selection of furs on it spoke of a wealth he had never seen.
“They have many fine possessions. Linens, tapestries, and a fine ale. I hope they have a fine cook.”
Edan didn’t care about the cook. His thoughts returned, unbidden, to the dark-haired lass, to the brief meeting of their gazes, and the strange sense that something unfinished lingered there.
It made little sense. He did not know her, yet the memory of her felt less like chance and more like an interruption.
“I would wager a dark-haired person is on your mind right now. Am I right?”
Edan scowled and said nothing, which was answer enough. He dropped onto the edge of the bed and stared at the floor.
“She has black hair, and I cannot stop thinking about her. My daughter is missing, and my wife is barely cold in the ground. What kind of man does that make me?”
Roger was quiet for a moment. “The kind whose marriage was not his choice.”
A flicker of understanding passed between them, heavy with things unsaid.
“Are you going to keep an open mind if they start speaking of faeries?” Roger asked, dropping onto the other bed.
“Aye. I said I’d listen. I won’t believe anything about faeries, but I’m willing to listen to the seers.
‘Truth is I hope they can see exactly where she is. I’m not sure about the faeries yet, but Dyna’s daughter did just reveal exactly what my thoughts were.
I cannot deny the accuracy of her words.
” She’d been as accurate as if he’d spoken the words himself.
But seers and faeries, he reminded himself, were two different things.
“Then what the hell was that wee lass riding a dolphin if not a faery?”
“I don’t know, Roger. My head hurts from all I’ve heard since we climbed onto that ship.” Edan couldn’t answer that. He’d never witnessed such an oddity. “Did you notice something odd about that?” He turned to his brother and leaned against the mantle while the fire grew.
Roger snorted. “I noticed many things odd about that. Which one in particular?”
He pushed away from the mantle, tension working through his limbs. “The dolphin the lass was riding never went underwater. Whenever they swim, dolphins always go back underwater. She was sailing across the top of the sea like a birlinn.”
“I noticed it. Dolphins don’t swim like that… ever.”
Edan flopped into a chair, reviewing what he remembered about the lass. Green gown, yellow hair, young, smiling, and something around her head. He decided that if he discovered that Heilyn was happily riding the back of a dolphin for the rest of her life, he could accept it.
He saw the dolphin again in his mind’s eye, the child’s golden hair, and something else. A circlet. Not of gold, but of something rough and wild. Thistles. The world narrowed to a single point.
He knew exactly what the golden lass had been wearing on her head.
He bolted up from his chair, staring at Roger wide-eyed. “She wore a crown of thistles.”
Just like the one he’d found in Heilyn’s cradle.