“Surely you ken I’d never leave you behind. No for any reason. As you say, we’ll go on together, but you must be prepared for whatever is to come. Just in case.”
“Dinna say that!” she ordered sharply, covering her mouth with her hand when Jamie’s body jerked in response to her words.
Robbie picked up a stick and began scratching in the dirt next to his leg. “I’m drawing you a map. You’ll need to memorize it exactly for when I canna direct you there.”
“Dinna you even think of such things.” Surely he wasn’t giving up. She wouldn’t let him. “We will make it there together. All of us. We’ll find help. We’ll make it to a village and find a healer.”
Robbie leaned his head back against the tree and closed his eyes, as if holding his head up took more effort than he could manage. “I’ve traveled this way recently, remember? We’re too far from any village to count on help. It’s reality we must deal with now. Study the map I’ve drawn. It’ll be you who must find the way if I’m no able. It’s time to use yer logic, no yer emotions, love.”
“If no a village, then someone traveling on the road. Wewillfind help.” They had to. Logic be damned. She didn’t want to hear anything else.
He lifted his hand, stroking the back of his fingers down her cheek before covering her hand with his again. “As much as I want yer words to be true, Isa, as much as I might wish for someone to come along to help us, you need to deal with what is, no what you want things to be. Make yer peace with that now. Our fate will likely be in yer hands before our journey is ended. You must be prepared for that.”
Beside Robbie, Jamie sat up, rubbing his knuckles against his eyes. “Are we almost there?”
“No,” she and Robbie answered simultaneously.
“Are we lost?”
“Of course we’re no lost,” Isa answered quickly, seeing the fear on the child’s face. “We’ve only stopped to allow Bronco a wee rest. We’ll be back on our way soon, dearling, but for now, perhaps you’d best try to sleep a little more.”
Sleep was the only answer she had at the moment. Sleep so he wouldn’t remember how hungry he might be. Or how thirsty. Or how much pain he must be in with his own injuries. Sleep so he wouldn’t ask the questions she couldn’t answer.
“Are they going to travel with us?”
Isa slowly turned her head to look in the direction Jamie pointed. In the distance and closing, two wagons rumbled along. And now that she listened, she could hear the metal rattle that accompanied their passage.
“Tinklers,” she breathed, pushing up to stand. “Thank the saints. Robbie, look, it’s those Tinklers.”
Robert opened his eyes, blinking in disbelief as Isa ran down the road toward the approaching wagons. Though he hardly had the energy to smile, he couldn’t remember a time more deserving of great blustery guffaws of laughter. How like the Fae. Bring him right up to the edge and then dangle the carrot in front of him, even though they all knew the Magic would have its own way in the end.
Still, he felt grateful, in spite of what would likely be. The arrival of the Tinklers offered hope to Isa and to him as well.
Perhaps they would be willing to help them reach MacQuarrie Keep. If he could see Isa and Jamie safely there, he would have accomplished all he’d set out to do.
When he blinked, they had gathered around him, though he felt as if he’d only closed his eyes for a second. William Faas supported his head, holding a cup to his lips.
“Easy, friend,” William murmured.
As if he’d forgotten how to drink, the water trickled from the sides of his mouth and down onto his neck like little rivulets of ice on a burning pavement.
“He’s a fever.” A soft, feminine voice. William’s wife, Editha, and another woman leaned over him, but he wasn’t sure which of them spoke. And then the cool air hit his chest as his shirt was lifted.
A gasp accompanied the gentle touch to his chest.
“I might could slow the progress of yer wound, but I canna heal such as this.” The older woman spoke, her dark eyes capturing his. “It reeks of an old magic, aye? Only a more powerful magic could counter this. Perhaps a born healer could do it, but no a taught one such as meself.”
A born healer.
“Leah.” He spoke the name without thinking. Was the magic that threatened to end his life also showing him a way to survive? Leah possessed the gift of healing. He’d seen the power of her gift when she’d saved Jesse after he’d been shot. With her help, he just might stand a chance of making it through this.
“Who’s Leah?” Isa knelt at his side, her cool, sweet hand brushing the hair from his face.
How could he explain Leah without compromising the safety of his young charge? Only one way.
He’d chosen the young girl’s role himself as a means of guaranteeing her safety in this world, and denying it now could endanger her future. His responsibility to protect Leah was equally as great as his responsibility to protect Isa.
“Leah is my daughter. A born healer. She’s at MacQuarrie Keep.”
