“How could you have seen what happened?” He glanced at Gelis, then his grandfather. “The Tobar Ghorm isn’t visible from the lochside.”
“So you say?” Torcaill stepped forward and made a great arc with his wand and, for a blink, the Blue Well appeared, its glade peaceful now, even the cleared bracken and heather returned as it’d been before.
“Some wizards’ powers never fade,” Torcaill added proudly, lowering his staff.
“As Valdar said, we would have come to fight with you,” his lady announced, hooking her arm through his and leaning into him. “We watched it all, waiting —”
“Am I to believe your wand would have sent everyone flying through the air to the islet?” Ronan turned to Torcaill. “There has only e’er been one skiff kept at Loch Dubh.”
To his surprise, the druid only tightened his grip on his wand and stared back at him.
Gelis slid a telling glance at his grandfather and laughed.
“You tell him,” she said, looking about to burst.
And so utterly delectable in her merriment that his heartdidburst.
“That dog must be hungry,” Valdar declared with a shrewd glance at Buckie. “I have some dried deer meat in a pouch tied to my saddle bow. I’ll just fetch it now —”
Ronan shot out an arm and caught the back of his plaid as the old man tried to move away. “Buckie can have your entire store of venison . . . later. I’d hear how you meant to get out to the islet without boats.”
“Ach, botheration! Why not?” Valdar hooked his hands around his belt and glowered round. “What’s the good of a chieftain’s secrets with the whole o’ the clan now a-knowing them!”
“Secrets?” Ronan lifted a brow.
“Underwater causeways!” His grandfather yelled the word. “A whole maze of ’em zig-zagging just below the water’s surface and leading from every side o’ Loch Dubh out to the islet. I discovered them when I was a laddie and my own skiff ran aground on one.”
Ronan glanced at the loch. “For the pilgrims of old,” he said, guessing the reason. “They used them to reach the sacred well and you” — he slid an arm around Gelis, drawing her close — “meant to use them to rush to my aid.”
“That was our plan, aye.” Valdar’s chin came up. “Had I known the outcome, I’d ne’er have revealed —”
Ronan cut him off. “Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”
The old man’s eyes lighted. “Ach,” he blustered, taking a sudden interest in his fingernails, “just that what I’ve been meaning to say to you for a good long while now.”
“And that is?”
Valdar slid a look at Gelis. “Only that I told you so. That lassie is what you needed, just!”
“And I couldn’t agree more.” Ronan took her face in his hands and kissed her.
“But he’s wrong about one thing,” he breathed against her ear before releasing her. “I not only need you, Iloveyou and will for all our days.”
“Oh, Ronan!” Gelis flung her arms around his neck, clinging tight. “I love you, too,” she cried, lifting her voice above the cheers, barks, and shouts rising around them. “We willalwayslove each other. Into forever and beyond!”
And as soon as the words were spoken, a great dark form circling high above them dipped one wing in approval.
Epilogue
CASTLE DARE, THE BAILEYMIDSUMMER EVE
Isn’t it magnificent?” Gelis glanced up at the new heraldic crest above the keep door. “It takes my breath,” she vowed, her heart catching as she stared at the recently mounted stone slab.
Ronan made a noncommittal humph, but dutifully tipped back his head to follow her gaze.
A gift from the Black Stag, the stone peered down at them, benevolent and proud.
Carved on a polished sea rock taken from Eilean Creag’s shoreline, the stone’s center bore a great incised swirl representing the Corryvreckan and lauding Valdar’s long-ago bravery against the deadly whirlpool. Equally meaningful, flanking engravings of a raven and a stag stood out in bold relief, bracketing the swirl and honoring the joined future of both clans.
