Keagan stood with his hands extended, a roiling ball of water swirling in the air above his palms. Eyes wide open, the tip of his tongue poked out one side of his mouth as he struggled to keep the water formed into a rolling sphere. He practiced moving it with his mind, first to the left and then to the right. A tiny smile pulled at the corner of his mouth as he finally had the ball whirling up and down and around the clearing with a jaunty rhythm.
Just when Keagan had grown sure of himself, a rabbit scurried out from beneath a trio of low overhanging bushes sprouting beside an outcropping of rocks. Its tiny sides heaved as it hopped to snuggle tightly against the side of Keagan’s foot. The reason for the rabbit’s panic soon became clear when a wolf exploded from the underbrush a few moments later. Upon seeing Ciara and Keagan, the tongue wagging wolf almost somersaulted in midair as it scrambled to a screeching halt.
As the distraction of the animals broke his concentration, Keagan groaned as the water showered to the ground. “I’m sorry, Mother. I just couldna keep thinking about the ball of water while the rabbit begged me to save him from being eaten by the wolf.”
Patting her son on the shoulder, Ciara smiled and shooed the wolf back into the forest. “It’s all right, Keagan. It’s important you always listen to the animals but remember you have to be careful. We’re going to have to find a way to keep your connections to the animals a bit more subtle. We don’t want others to notice how they seem to seek you out to tell you what they need.”
With a frown, Keagan bent and scratched the rabbit between the ears. Scooping the trusting creature up into his arms, he raised his head to his mother’s loving gaze. “Why do I have to make sure no one knows about all the things I can do? You and Da can do things other people can’t. I’ve heard the kitchen maids say so when they don’t know I’m around.”
Ciara studied her son’s innocent face. Taking a deep breath, she struggled to select the right words. How could she tell her son about how dangerous and cruel the world could become if he wasn’t watchful at all times? She didn’t want him to live in fear or be ashamed of the powers he’d been given. But Keagan had to understand, with every mystical gift there was great responsibility and sometimes a great deal of risk.
“Ye’re doing it again, Mother.”
“I’m doing what?” Ciara snapped back to the present and found herself targeted in Keagan’s reproving glare.
“Ye’re trying to think how to tell me about how mean the world can be and ye’re forgetting how loud your thoughts can be when ye’re truly upset.” Keagan gently released the rabbit into a patch of clover beside the spring.
“Keagan, I have told you about entering another’s mind without their permission. How many times do I have to tell you that it should never be done unless you are feeling threatened or you are absolutely certain it is for that person’s own good?” Ciara tensed, finding herself winding up to repeat the speech she had preached to her son many times.
“I know, I know. A person’s mind is their absolute last refuge and should never be treated with disrespect.” Keagan finished Ciara’s speech in a singsong voice, his little silver head bobbing in time with the recited words his mother taught him.
“Apparently, someone does not value their riding privileges. At least not until the next full moon.” With an arched brow, Ciara glared down at her son, one foot tapping in the leaves as she waited for his apology. The boy was a great deal like his father at times. He never knew when to close his mouth.
Keagan bit his lip. “Sorry, Mother. I didna mean to sound so disrespectful. I know ye only want to keep me safe from harm.”
“People fear what they don’t understand, Keagan. There may come a time when you find yourself among people who have never been around someonespeciallike yourself. Not many clans are as broad-minded as the MacKay clan. Magic has always traveled their ancestral lines. But there are those of this world who think anyone with mystical abilities should be put to death because they are surely evil.” Ciara paced back and forth across the spongy moss covered ground. She didn’t want to frighten her son but for his own safety, she had to make him understand.
“Da told me about Grandmother Rachel and Grandsire Caelan. He told me how Grandsire died while fighting to keep Grandmother safe.” Keagan’s voice dropped; his tone reflected wisdom well beyond his years. “Dinna worry about me, Mother. I can sense what people hold within their hearts. Their essence speaks to me even louder than their actions. I dinna have to enter into their minds to know whether or not they are unkind.”
Ciara swallowed hard; her heart sank with his words. Keagan had just turned five years of age a few short months ago. Would that she could shield him from the evils of the world and have him only know the pleasures of a carefree child.
She pulled him to her chest and rested her cheek atop his silvery head. She inhaled deeply and cuddled him close. Ciara wished for the hundredth time since he’d been born that she could somehow make time stand still. “You’re growing up too soon, my fine young man. What am I going to do once you’re grown up and gone your own way?”
Keagan wrapped his arms tight around her waist and snuggled deeper into her arms. “I am always going to be here for ye, Mother. Dinna worry. I will never go where ye canna follow.”
Ciara blinked against the tears and swallowed hard as Keagan repeated the words back to her, she had whispered to him upon his birth. As she tousled his hair, she lightly coughed, and struggled to choke back her emotions. “I know you will always do me proud, Keagan. Now, run and gather more water from the spring so we can return to our lesson.”
Watching him run away from her across the clearing, she sent a silent message out into the cosmos. “Please don’t take me away from them,” she whispered and hoped the goddesses would heed her words.
* * *
Ciara shiveredas the fierce Highland wind howled cold and bitter outside. She knew the blizzard swirled and drifted snow against the walls of the keep, isolating those within. It didn’t matter; she heaved a satisfied sigh. Here inside, the hearths blazed, stoked with great logs that exploded with raging flames that kept the demon cold at bay.
She snuggled closer against Faolan as they sat together and listened as Keagan read aloud. What a fine son they had. He’d been as quick to learn to read and write, as he’d been to learn everything else. Like a sea sponge, he’d absorbed the written word as though his thirst for it could never be sated. Ciara’s heart neared bursting with pride.
Keagan loved telling stories. The boy had a vivid imagination and once he’d learned to write, he’d taken to recording his tales on parchment and then later would read them aloud to his parents. It had become a comforting evening ritual for the family before Keagan went up to his bed.
This evening’s tale was of a faery queen whose loyal servants would whisk unsuspecting mortals off to a mystical land. Once there, the mortals fell in love with the faery world and would beg the queen for permission to stay. She’d look into their hearts to see if they were pure and capable of unconditional love. Those traits alone determined if she granted them permission to stay in her blessed land. If found lacking they’d be returned from wherever they’d been taken. The only problem was that a mere moment in the Land of Fae was a hundred years or more in the life of the mortal. So if their hearts lacked truth, they found themselves returned to a world where everything they had ever known and loved had long ago turned to dust.
“So if their hearts had been pure, they would’ve been allowed to stay in the delightful Land of Fae?” Faolan nodded his approval of the moral of the story as Keagan turned the last page and looked up with an expectant smile.
“Aye, Da. I want everyone to know it’s what lies deep within their hearts that truly matters and makes them who they are.” As he gathered up his pages, he tucked them under his arm and rose from the fur spread in front of the fire to go up to his bed.
Faolan pulled his son to his chest and tousled Keagan’s hair with an affectionate rub. “Ye are a wise lad, Keagan. Now give your mother a hug and off with ye to your bed.”
Wrapping his arms around his mother’s neck, Keagan smiled as he kissed her cheek. “I love ye, Mother. I shall leave my stories on your bedside table so ye can add them to the book.”
“I’ll bind them along with all the others, Keagan. We’ll soon have quite a collection. Good night, son. Sleep well. Do you really think it necessary that all the dogs in the keep share your bed each night?” Ciara glanced at the five dogs patiently sitting beside the doorway waiting to follow Keagan upstairs.
