“Trust her?” Maxwell pursed his lips as he straightened to lean back against the stall.
“Ye don’t have to pretend, Maxwell. I know ye’ve noticed the inexplicable things that only seem to happen when Ciara’s about.” Faolan wearied of the subterfuge and Maxwell could be trusted. The strain of worrying about Ciara and the child had settled on him like an unbearable weight. Now that he’d accepted Ciara into his life, the thought of losing her terrified him. He could talk to Maxwell. The man would understand.
Leaning back against the stall, Faolan covered his face with shaking hands. All the damning evidence raced through his mind. Ciara displayed talents too gifted even for a highborn witch. “How many hall meetings did Ciara too easily settle arguments between members of the clan?” Faolan recounted her uncanny ability to bring the truth to the forefront of any discussion. She’d always detected the slightest untruth, seen through the cleverest lie, and somehow when brought in front of Ciara, even the smoothest of liars had stammered out the truth within minutes.
With a slight shrug, Maxwell agreed as he snapped a bit of straw between his fingers. “And remember how she predicted which clan members suffered with sickness and disease with the onset of winter? And when old Dougal had fallen in a ravine, trapped with a broken leg?
“Ye would never believe the visions she raised when we traveled through our lands back in the late fall.” Resting his elbows on his knees, Faolan fell silent as he remembered the images Ciara had drawn from the springs. How she’d shown him his loved ones had moved on to better planes. How did she have the power to control such mysteries? Even the magic of Faolan’s family paled in comparison with what Ciara had done.
The slightest movement caught Faolan’s attention; a flicker of gray shifted out of the shadows just a hint darker than the weathered wood of the barn.
Alec scurried down the supporting beam attached to the nearest stall. His tiny paws clenched at the veins of the gray, battered wood as he inched his way closer to the men. Flicking his pink ears, he peeped around the edge of the wood. He squeaked out loud as his beady gaze met Faolan’s thunderous glare.
By the goddesses, he would have his answers now.Rage pumped through his veins as he honed in on the little mouse. This little bastard would tell him everything he needed to know. Faolan reached out with the power of his mind, paralyzed the tiny mouse, and lifted Alec into the air by his long pink tail. Faolan stared cold and hard, tempted to rip the little mouse in two; then he unceremoniously allowed Alec to drop into his upturned palm. He kept the mouse paralyzed, and brought him to eye level, glaring into Alec’s beady little black eyes.
With a confused frown, Maxwell laid a hand to Faolan’s shoulder, clearing his throat as he leaned in front of Faolan’s face. “Faolan! Have ye taken leave of your senses, man? What do ye mean to do with a wee mousie?”
Faolan narrowed his eyes into calculating slits and held Alec up for Maxwell to see. “This is no ordinary mouse, dear Maxwell. This is Ciara’sspecialfriend. And if ye would excuse us, I’d like a word with wee...Alec. Yes, I believe Alec is his name. I need to speak with him alone. Would ye mind leaving us and seeing to Ian? Perhaps he’s ready for ye to give him his first lesson.”
Maxwell arched his bushy brows to his hairline but didn’t say a word. With an obedient nod, he backed out of the stable, pausing just a moment before closing the door. “Aye, Faolan. Whatever ye say. I shall see to Ian. Ye just sit there and talk to your wee little friend. Perhaps he can ease your heart. I’ll be outside if ye happen to need me. Ye just need to give a call.”
Faolan ignored Maxwell’s stammering and lowered the still motionless mouse to the bench in front of him. “Don’t think ye’ll be able to get away, little Alec. I’m just setting ye down upon the bench before ye decide to piss in my hand.”
Alec crouched, motionless on the bench, his beady black eyes fixed in a glossy stare. His tail was stiffened out behind him straight as a poker where Faolan had held him suspended in the air.
“I want answers from ye, wee Alec, and I want them now. I’m tired of looking the other way. Ciara has danced around my questions ever since we met. But to keep her safe, as well as to protect my child, I have a right to know. What is she, Alec? Where is she from? I know she is not a Sinclair or even an adopted best friend, and I believe she’s a bit more than a gifted witch.”
Alec remained silent. He didn’t make nary a squeak nor move the slightest flick of an ear.
“Sorry.” Faolan focused his glare. “I’ll grant yea bitof movement. Now talk.”
Alec twitched his whiskers, squinted his eyes, and wiggled his nose. “I shall strike ye a deal, my fine, suspicious laird. If ye free me from this damnable spell, I shall shapeshift into human form so we can discuss lovely Ciara man to man.”
Faolan snorted at Alec with a shake of his head. “Do ye think me a fool? If I free ye from the spell, ye could just as easily change to your raven form and fly away. Ye chose the form of a rodent to spy from the shadows. Ye shall keep the form of a rodent until ye tell me what ye know.”
Alec flattened his ears across his back and wrinkled his twitching pink nose into a tiny mouselike sneer. “Well, ye’re nay the fool. I give ye that much. But surely ye knew I at least had to try.”
As he leaned back against the heavy wood beam supporting the half wall of the stall, Faolan glared at the insolent mouse paralyzed on the bench. “Fine. Ye tried to play me for the fool. Now answer me before I change my mind and decide to feed ye to the cat.”
With one ear flicking in time with his twitching whiskers, Alec peered up into Faolan’s face. He wiggled his nose and sucked in a deep breath as he stammered out his tale. “Ciara is nay a normal witch. She is…ah…quite a bit different from your gifted mother.” Alec paused, gasped a bit, and darted a nervous look around the stable. His nose twitched as he sniffed at the air and cast a wary look at a strange light flickering just beyond the window. “Ye might say she is a chosen one, blessed by the Goddess Brid and the Goddess Cerridwen.”
Alec stopped again, his ear twitched and he stretched what part of his neck he could move as though he listened before continuing his story. As Alec spoke, his words tumbled faster as though he feared he couldn’t voice his thoughts quick enough. “Ciara has had a difficult life in serving the goddesses. Her path has been difficult to bear. Ciara has endured both loneliness and pain while attempting to fulfill her charge. She was sent here in hopes you could heal her heart and perhaps the pain and bitterness ye suffer from your own past experiences could be resolved as well.”
Faolan leaned closer to the nervous mouse and snorted with a doubting sneer. Alec lied; it glinted in the beast’s glassy little eyes and the way they darted about the stable. Rage filled Faolan, nearly blinding him. Ciara’s love for the little bastard was all that stayed his hand. “If what ye say is the truth, Alec, then why didn’t Ciara tell me this herself?”
Alec twitched a whisker and flicked an ear as he blinked at the glowing orb floating outside the window. “She thinks she was sent here to save only you. She doesn’t realize ’twas also done for her own redemption. The goddesses swore her to secrecy before ye met. They felt ye would cast her aside if ye knew the truth. The goddesses know ye had shunned the Auld Ways and forbidden magic from your midst.”
“And now she’s swollen with my son and I’ve grown so enslaved to even the sound of her voice that I’ll do anything to keep her near.” Faolan groaned through gritted teeth as he saw the reasoning in Alec’s explanation. He clenched his fists and glared down into Alec’s tiny face, rehashing everything Alec had said. He examined every word the mouse had told him. He sifted through the story for the truth. “Ye say Ciara is ‘chosen.’ Chosen to do what? And why would the goddesses give a damn if my heart was healed of its pain?”
Alec just blinked. He didn’t reply, even his whiskers remained motionless.
“Answer me, Alec! Why do ye hesitate? Are ye having trouble coming up with another lie?” Faolan picked the mouse up by his tail; his fist trembling as he fought against the urge to crush the creature in his grasp.
Then Alec disappeared.
Faolan’s fist closed in on thin air. As he opened his fingers, he stared at his empty palm and his hand quaked with the beginning tremors of rage. Then fury exploded through his veins like green sapwood on a fire.
Lightning flashed through the shuttered windows of the stable. Thunder chasing behind it rumbled so hard it shook the dust down from the rafters. Faolan threw his head back and roared his frustration, releasing his wrath to unleash the howling winds.
