“I saw the Dragon Ring she wears about her neck. Dirc said it brought her to ye.”
“Aye.” He did not tell Loghan how Dirc had taken it upon himself to bring his mate to him, even when Bren would have punished him for trying. In his heart he would be forever grateful for that act of disobedience. Though it made him wonder what else the sorcerer had been up to over the years, how many other things were less than coincidence… he probably didn’t really want to know. Some things were best let lie.
Loghan nodded. “Aye, somehow I always kenned it would be ye. If Faith is anything like her mother was, it will take a man as strong as ye to keep her safe and content. I dinna envy ye the job, lad, but the fates were wise in their choice”. He smiled, though a bit sadly. “I should thank ye, then. I had lost all hope of ever seeing my daughter again. I had always hoped… that when… if she returned… her mother…”
Bren reached out to put a hand on the other man’s shoulder, meeting his eyes. “I’m sorry”, he said softly.
Loghan acknowledged the sentiment with a nod, and Bren sat back in his chair again. “I want to take Faith back to Creagmor with me in the morning, where I can keep her safe. Ye ken who I am, and ye ken I will guard her with all that I have and with my verra life.”
Loghan’s eyes narrowed. Though the situation was not usual by any means, there would at least be some propriety where his daughter’s honor was concerned. “Ye will wed her first Mac Coinnach. I will hear yer vows to my daughter, and then I will hold ye to them till my dying breath, and beyond, if such is possible. Ye will do everything in yer power to make her happy, or I will kill ye myself.”
Bren smiled. “I could do no other.” He paused. “I am sorry that there isna more time for ye to spend with her… before. Ye ken, I’m certain, that Mored is gathering more men who will follow him for the promise of wealth and power, and we dinna have a moment to lose. His attacks are already growing more bold. Now that Faith is here the bond between the two of us, and what it will bring, is crucial. But afterwards, when we are settled, I would be honored if ye would come and stay with us for a while. I am certain that yer daughter will want to ken her father for more than only a few short days.”
“I will, be sure of it.”
“Ye will give yer daughter to me in marriage then, even should she say she is unwilling?”
Loghan narrowed his eyes again in suspicion. “Why would she be unwilling to wed with ye? Have ye done something to hurt her?”
“Nay! Nay, of course no’. It’s just that… I find she can be rather stubborn.”
“Aye, and all women can be rather stubborn. What is she being stubborn about, exactly?”
Bren looked at his soon-to-be father-in-law, not sure he should give an honest answer. He smiled, a bit awkwardly, and cleared his throat. “Only my… pursuit. Though I’d like to think I’ve made some… progress, more recently.”
Loghan raised an accusing eyebrow, letting Bren squirm for a long moment, and then burst into laughter. “She is a smart lass. A verra smart lass. I trust, then, ye will do yer duty and make me a grandfather before too long.”
Bren returned his smile. “I will do my best. My verra best.”
Faith tossed on the pillow, unable to go back to sleep. It had to be nearly dawn, anyway. She arose and dressed, and wondered again if her father had hurt Bren very badly, or perhaps locked him in the cellar hole. If so, should she try to get him out on her own? Should she go to her father and ask for…what? Leniency? She had no idea of the proper protocol. She had no idea how to even have a father, let alone a protective one. All her life she had assumed her dad had left her behind. She would never have guessed he had actually sent her away to protect her.
She went to the window and looked out, restless and a bit overwhelmed. Hell, a bit overwhelmed seemed to be her new permanent condition. The moon hung low in the sky, casting long shadows over everything, making the world seem even more unreal than it already did. She had always loved the moonlight. She caught sight of an owl flying low just across the tree tops, and watched it until it disappeared into the night. Then something else caught her eye, a movement near a small copse of trees across the yard. She squinted, trying to make out what it was in the dim light of the moon. It was a woman in a white dress. From this distance it looked almost like…her mother. Sheknewit wasn’t really her mother, knew it with a calm certainty. But even so, after watching for a moment longer she left the window and walked out of her room, down the narrow steps, across the hall, and out into the last small hours of the night. Who was the woman? Could she be an aunt? A sister, maybe? Did she need help? Her father hadn’t mentioned any other female relatives, but he hadn’t said thereweren’tany, either, and they had only talked for a short time. Not nearly long enough to find out anything about her family here. And with the incredible shock of learning about her father, she hadn’t thought to ask. But what she perhaps should have thought to wonder was why a woman would be alone outside at this hour.
She wouldn’t be.
Faith ran lightly across the yard to the copse of trees she had seen from the window, but the figure was already gone. “Hello?” she called softly, but no one answered. Disappointed, she turned to go back to the keep, suddenly and uncomfortably aware of how reckless she was being, out here all alone in the dark.
She hadn’t even taken a full step before someone grabbed her from behind, clapping a hand over her mouth in the same instant to stifle her scream.Damn, I am such an idiot! How could I fall for such an obvious trap? That was the first and last thought to go through her mind.
Because then everything went dark.
When she woke, she was in a cave. It had to be a cave. The floor was of dry, dusty dirt, and the stone ceiling was uneven, curving downward at the edges. There was a smell of musty earth and stale air. It was dark, except for the flicker of a torch somewhere just beyond the opening to the chamber where she lay. Another chamber, most likely. She struggled to sit up. She realized then that her hands were tied behind her back, but she didn’t seem to be otherwise harmed, except for a dull ache at the back of her head. She had only a moment to look around at her surroundings before a figure appeared at the chamber’s opening, holding a lamp.
It was a man. He was tall, with dark straight hair that fell just below his shoulders. He had a muscular build, and might have been quite handsome, except for the cruel bent of his features. Especially his mouth, which was twisted even now into a kind of a sneering smile. Faith didn’t need anyone to tell her that this was the bad guy, because he couldn’t have been any more cliché. Most likely Mored himself.A dark wizard. That didn’t seem to bode very well for her current situation.
“So, ye’re finally awake.”
Even his voice was… uncomfortable when he spoke, cold, a little bit menacing. It grated at her nerves as if they were raw.
“I’ve been waiting for ye, for a verra long time.” He hung the lamp on a spike which had been driven into the wall, and then stepped closer, reaching down to pull her roughly to her feet. His touch was cool, even cold, but she could feel his strength, and something more, something that wasn’t quite right. She had the overwhelming urge to shrink back from him, and to get away, any way she could.
“Dinna be shy, lass”, he said to her. “Come into my home. Make yerself comfortable. After all, ye’ll be my guest here for quite some time.”
Faith felt her stomach sink to the floor with a sickening speed at his words. A simultaneous rush of adrenaline threatened to send her over the edge into panic, but she bravely fought it back. She had to be able to think if she was going to get out of this. Or stay alive until Bren came for her. Hewouldcome for her. She had never been more certain of anything before, and now it gave her the hope and the calm she so desperately needed.
He pushed her ahead of him into a larger chamber, still obviously part of a cave, but furnished almost as if it were a luxurious home. Rich carpets covered the dirt floor, and tapestries hung from the cold stone walls, although in the dim lamp light, the colors did not show. On one side of the chamber stood a large bed of carved mahogany, and it was there that she was led. She wondered absurdly how one got such a large bed into a cave, but then she remembered that this was a wizard’s cave. Though she knew next to nothing about the whole concept of magic and how it worked, it probably explained the bed.
“Sit. Let me look at ye.” He pushed her down, then leaned over and lifted her chin with one finger. The way he moved, his very presence was… unnatural, not quite right, as if she were watching him through a thick piece of glass.
