“Is the bastard still alive?” He tipped his head toward Hamish on the floor.
She moved back, leaned down, and placed her hands at his neck to see if his heart still beat. “I think the fall killed him. I cannot feel anything.”
“Shall I bury him?” Derric asked, noting the man’s color was turning a dusky gray.
“Leave the bastard there. I’ll send a few guards back when I find some,” Alex said.
She stopped for a moment and said, “What did you mean by you having to ask Maddie? When did you see her? Have you had another dream?”
Derric rubbed the stubble on his chin. “And what was that comment about saving Scotland?”
Alex sighed, pushing himself to a standing position, though it was clearly a struggle, so they both rushed to his sides to assist him. “I had a dream a while ago. Maddie said you were the last important piece to the spectral swords, Derric. Did you not hear the heavens explode when the two of you combined your efforts to get Hamish off of Derric? Or how high you tossed his body into the air? You had some assistance in that endeavor.”
“What?” Dyna asked in surprise as her grandsire pushed her away, walked around her, and headed toward the door.
“The heavens exploded?” Derric muttered, looking at his wife. He’d missed something, clearly, though he had to admit he had been quite focused on the state of his poor bollocks. Not that anyone cared.
“When you combined forces, the heavens rewarded you,” Alex said over his shoulder as he stepped through the door. Then he stopped to turn back and look at them. “And the storm stopped as quickly as it started.”
Derric had no idea what the man was talking about.
“You should remember that.” He tipped his head and left, a sudden rainbow appearing in the sky behind him.
Derric and Dyna stared at each other, mouths agape.
Dyna whispered, “What if he’s right?”
Author’s note: And what if together, they make special bairns? Bairns meant to join with John?
Epilogue
The sapphire sword returns…
Alex Grant sat on a stool overlooking his land, taking in the sweet breeze and the smell of pines. The parapets were still his favorite place, although he could no longer come up on his own. The young people helped him get up the many steps.
He closed his eyes, overtired from his long day. “Maddie, is it no’ my time yet?”
Maddie came to him and said, “It won’t be long now, but you have one more task. You must help Logan Ramsay pass the sapphire sword along to its next owner. He and Lina will be along soon.”
“But to whom?”
“You’ll know,” she said, kissing him deeply before she disappeared.
Alex opened his eyes, staring out over his lands. He searched for Maddie, the vision of her so real he swore he could smell her scent.
The clouds overhead began to swirl, bolts of lightning striking different spots in the landscape. A ferocious storm was on its way, so he moved to the door as quickly as he could. The door opened as he approached it. Derric and Dyna stood on the other side, Alick behind them.
“Grandsire, we’ve come to bring you back down,” Alick said. “This storm will be nasty.”
Alick and Derric lifted him together, ready to carry him down the steps but Alex said, “Wait.”
They set him down and he stood, hanging on to their shoulders to support himself in the wind.
“Why do you wish to wait, Grandsire?” Alick asked.
“This storm. It looks the same as one I saw many years ago. The legend of the sapphire sword. She’s right. The time has come. It hasn’t been fifty years yet, but there’s no denying there is evil here.”
Derric shook his head and shot a wary look at Dyna. “Does he know of what he speaks?”
