“Ican’t leave Trulie. The baby will be here before the sun touches the sea.” Granny wiped beads of sweat from her face as she motioned toward the outer door. “Go to the clearing. You know the one. Tamhas helped me reset the marker on the hillside just like the day Trulie and I arrived. Wait there. Kenna will be here soon.”
Colum nodded and backed toward the outer doorway. Thank the gods it was time for him to take his leave. The last time he and Gray had waited in this room had been a sorry day indeed. He remembered it all too clearly. There was no good way to console a friend over the death of a firstborn son. He paused at the threshold and looked back to his chief. “MacKenna.”
Gray sat tensed on the edge of a low wooden bench as though ready to leap at a moment’s notice. He had positioned the seat directly in front of the door leading to the inner
bedchamber. Leaning forward, he balanced his forearms on his knees. Hands clenched into a single knotted fist; his knuckles whitened with the pressure of his grip. His face was locked in a mask of deep concentration as he stared at the patch of floor between his boots. Nothing else existed for the man but those he loved on the other side of that door. Colum ached for his suffering chieftain.
“MacKenna,” Colum called out again.
Gray barely stirred, then finally lifted his gaze and turned to Colum.
“May the gods watch over Lady Trulie and the child. May they both be well.”
Gray barely nodded and returned his attention to the patch of stone between his feet.
Colum strode down the narrow hallway, then raced down the steps to the bailey, taking them two at a time. Mother Sinclair had not claimed a need to hurry. But as far as he was concerned, he couldn’t be shed of the tension in the keep fast enough.
He stepped outside and sucked in a great lungful of the fresh spring air.Let the child and Lady Trulie live. Shield my chieftain from further sorrow.He hoped the prayer did some good. The sun shoved a line of clouds aside and shone full upon his face. Colum smiled up at it. ’Twas a good sign. Perhaps the gods would show the MacKenna mercy this time and give him nothing but happiness.
Colum gathered up the reins to a docile mare, then mounted his own horse. After ensuring he had enough slack in the leather lines, he tied the mare off to the rear of his saddle. He had taken care to select the gentlest mare in the MacKenna stables for the sister of his chieftain’s wife. Surely the visiting lady would be pleased . . . and impressed.
Colum chuckled to himself, wondering if the lass would be anything like the Lady Trulie. May the gods protect them all if this newest Sinclair woman possessed the same fire that had already singed several arses in the keep courtesy of Lady Trulie and Mother Sinclair.
He patted his mount’s great shaggy neck as they exited the gate. “Come, Rua. ’Tis time we fetched Lady Trulie’s sister. Be on yer best behavior, lad, or there will be hell to pay from Mother Sinclair.” Rua rumbled with what sounded like an agreeable nicker, then obligingly trotted across the stone bridge spanning the channel of razor-sharp rocks and crashing waves guarding MacKenna keep.
The horse cantered amiably down the dirt path, tossing his head in the warm gentle breeze. Colum smiled. Aye.Rua had the right of it. ’Twas a fine day to ride through the Highlands.
As soon as the seasoned warhorse reached a little-used road splitting off the main thoroughfare, he veered away from it, snorting and tossing his head. Colum nudged with his knee and urged the beast back toward the overgrown path. The horse argued with a grumbling nicker, shook his head, and danced sideways back to the other side of the road. Colum kneed him again and firmly pulled on the reins. The stubborn beast yanked his head away from the path leading up to Tamhas’s old cave. Rua refused to turn, expressing his opinion with an angry whicker and a huffing stomp.
“Now, lad . . . I know ’tis the way to the old demon’s cave, but we must go there.” Colum leaned forward and rubbed the horse’s neck. He lowered his voice to the calm, gentle tone that always worked magic on horses and ladies alike. “Ye know yerself how old Tamhas has grown better natured since Mother Sinclair returned from the future and joined him. There is nothing left to fear from the old devil or the cave that once housed him. Come, now. We canna have our chief’s good sister arriving to nothing more than a pile of stones.”
Rua snorted hard, shook his head, and backed up another step.
Poor beast. He obviously couldn’t get past the last time the mountain shook and the sky split open to spew forth Lady Trulie and Mother Sinclair. Colum couldn’t really fault the horse—
he was none too anxious to revisit the experience himself. But duty was duty, and any others who might be trusted with the task were busy ushering the newest MacKenna into the world. “Are ye not going to budge then?” he asked the horse.
Rua backed up another step and turned his hindquarters toward the mountain trail. The patient mare amiably turned with him, swishing her tail and calmly waiting for whatever came next.
Colum shook his head as he dismounted. “Ye are a grand coward, Rua. And in front of a trusting lass as lovely as Geal, no less.”
The horse glared at Colum, bared his teeth, and flattened his ears.
Colum knew that look. Rua would bite if that’s what it took to make his point. “Fine. Ye are a vile wicked beast. Stay here until the storm passes. I will fetch the lady myself.”
The beast flicked an ear, meandered over to the edge of the path, and took to stripping silvery gray leaves from a cluster of young saplings Chieftain MacKenna had ordered planted to celebrate the announcement of his wife’s second pregnancy.
Colum shook his head and started out on foot up the mountain. At least both horses would stay put. Stealing tender young leaves off the clan’s carefully propagated plants was Rua’s favorite pastime.
The closer Colum drew to the clearing, the darker the sky became. He scrubbed a hand up and down his forearms. He hated the stinging feel of the air.’Twas just like before. No wind, but his flesh burned as though he had rolled in a patch of nettles.
He eyed the ominous black cloud blotting out the blue of the sky and becoming a swirling mass of grays and blacks. The boiling darkness flickered and rolled with flashes of lightning. It would not be much longer before the Lady Kenna arrived; he best hie to the marker. Soon the earth would move like an ancient shifting beast rising from the depths of hell.
He swallowed hard as a dull roaring vibrated up through the soles of his boots and the ground began to roll. Staggering sideways, he fell to the earth beside the bouncing chunks of limestone piled into the small cairn Mother Sinclair and Tamhas had carefully set as the marker for the Lady Kenna’s arrival.
The swirling black mass centered on the stack of glistening white rocks. Colum shielded his face against the stinging debris as the wind picked up and howled all around him.Soon.He silently promised himself. It would all be over soon.He flinched at the increasing pressure and covered his head with his arms. Lore a’mighty, why the hell was it taking so long? Had the chaos shaken the bowels of earth and sky this long the last time?
A deafening explosion split the air, then all went silent.
