Good. It would give her the chance to examine Drew alone.
His condition hadn’t changed, for which Rose was grateful. At least it meant her spell was holding. She seated herself on the stool and laid her palm on Drew’s forehead. Closing her eyes, she sent her senses questing deep into his body. She traveled deeper than she’d gone before, beyond the stasis she’d placed him in, beyond the pump of his blood and the beating of his heart. She wanted into the core of him, to where the sickness was hiding.
Where are you?she thought.What are you? Show yourself.
She let her awareness expand, taking in not just Drew’s body but the deep, almost invisible life force that powered it. Gradually, that life force became visible to her mind’s eye, a myriad of glowing lines of light that spread through his body like tree roots and encased it in a cocoon of energy.
Then suddenly, something slammed into her. It was as sudden and shocking as a snakebite and with a gasp, she broke contact, snatching back her hand. Glancing down, she saw that her palm was red and angry, as if burned.
Perhaps hearing her gasp, Beatrice and Maggie came rushing in from the back room. Rose hastily curled her fingers, hiding her burned palm.
“What is it?” Maggie asked. “Is something wrong?”
Yes, there is most definitely something wrong, she thought. She swallowed thickly and looked up at the two healers.
“Other than the sickness,” she said, “have there been any otherstrange occurrences recently? Anything out of the ordinary?”
Maggie glanced at her sister, a wary expression crossing her face.
“What?” Rose demanded. “What is it?”
“There are rumors of odd things happening around the coast,” Maggie said carefully. “Fishermen have reported the currents changing and taking them off course. There have been more storms than usual, and there was that incident over at North Cove.”
“Incident? What incident?”
“All the fish there died. The local villagers went down to the beach one morning and found it full of fish floating belly side up. It was quite eerie by all accounts.”
“When did this happen?”
Maggie shrugged. “A couple of days ago. Why? What has this got to do with Drew?”
Rose didn’t reply. The burn on her palm was beginning to smart. “I don’t know,” she said at last. “I need to talk to Cailean.”
She climbed to her feet and hurried out of the infirmary, glancing down at her palm. The skin there was red and puckered. Oh, yes, there was definitely something wrong here. There was more going on here than just a sickness.
And she was determined to find out what.
Chapter Six
The swish, swish,swish of the brush and the repetitive movements as he groomed Arrow’s tail helped to calm Cailean a little. The silver stallion, gifted to him from Jamie Donald, lord of the Kingdom of the Isles, bore it with relatively good grace, although he snorted and stamped occasionally to tell Cailean that it was high time he was taken for a run.
“Easy, lad,” Cailean murmured. “I’ll take ye out soon. I promise.”
Around him, the stable hands were busy with their work: mucking out, grooming, feeding. They gave Cailean a wide berth, perhaps sensing that their laird was not in the best of moods this morning.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t get the image of Drew’s contorted limbs out of his head. Was that what lay in store for them all if this sickness couldn’t be contained? Was this what lay in store for his daughter?
The thought twisted his stomach with fear, and his pulse ramped up a notch.No, he told himself.It won’t come to that. I won’t let it.
But the truth was, no matter his protestations to the contrary, this was one enemy he was helpless against. Swords and muscle were of no use. He could do nothing. Only Rose MacFinnan had a chance against this enemy.
His hand stilled, and he placed his palms flat against Arrow’s sides as his eyes closed. He took a deep breath, trying to steady the thumping of his heart.
She had tried, and she had failed. What chance did any of them have if even a MacFinnan spellweaver could not help?
Ye shouldn’t have put your faith in her, an insidious little voice said in the back of his head.Or anything to do with gods and magic.
When had he forgotten his own rule?
