Page 20 of Duncan

Caroline looked in that direction. “It’s called the Stone Forest. A spell by some woodland Fae that used to live here petrified everything. Want to go check it out?”

“It seems like a bit of a hike. Maybe another day.” She turned away and spotted a shimmer of water through the trees. “Why don’t we head down there?”

The diver led her to another, sloping stone-lined path that took them down to a shimmering, mist-covered spring roughly the size of a swimming pool. Around it a grove of trees encompassed and shaded the spot, which looked quite inviting. Nicole crouched down by the edge of the water and tested the temperature with her fingertips, and discovered it was just hot enough for a good soak.

“My guys and I like to get together and have a drink here when they’re too busy to spend the night, or we just want to relax,” Caroline said. “It’s like the medieval version of a hot tub.” She glanced in the direction of the sea, her brows drawing together. “Strange. I think I forgot something I need to do, but I can’t remember what. That cove down there is where my guys meet up sometimes on official business, too.”

“It’s pretty.” She glanced at the other woman. “May I ask you a personal question?”

“Turnabout time, huh?” The diver chuckled. “Shoot.”

“Why did all four of you ladies stay here?” She gestured toward the stronghold. “As you pointed out, the men are all very handsome, but the living conditions and lack of amenities are very primitive. I assume you all left people, homes and jobs you liked back in the future as well.”

“None of us had much in the way of friends and family, so you’re wrong there,” Caroline said briskly. “We were all dealing with some major trauma, too. Valerie’s husband killed himself a year before she came here, when his lover tried to murder her. Lark was left at the altar, literally, by her fiancé and best friend right after the last member of her family died. I dumped my partner for cheating on me right before he left me to die. Julianne’s husband murdered her parents and then conned her into marrying him so he could get their land.”

All of that very personal information took her aback. “I had no idea.”

“We’ve managed to overcome,” the diver said. “It is odd that the first MacMar we encountered on Caladh ended up becoming our husbands, but maybe the ring did some match-making. I got a little bonus with Jamaran.”

From what Caroline told her she and the other women had been in multiple romantic relationships, Nicole thought, experiencing a surge of envy. Although most men were attracted to her, she had never wanted any of them. Her father would never have allowed her to get involved with a man anyway.

“So the MacMar who rescued you made up for the pain and betrayals by your former lovers?” Nicole asked her.

“It’s more like we needed each other,” Caroline said. “Connal was suicidally depressed after Lady Joana killed herself, something Valerie certainly understood. Lark has always believed her bad luck kills everyone she loves, exactly like Fletcher did. Shaw has been dealing with the killer Pritani spirit that possesses him since he was a boy, just as Julianne has been coping with intellectual and emotional limitations after being kept like a pet for centuries by an otherworldly being.”

She noticed Caroline didn’t mention what she and Nyall had in common. The diver seemed quite protective of her husband as well as her privacy, which probably had something to do with whatever they’d both suffered.

“I don’t have anything like that, and Duncan also seems to be fine.” She stood up and dried her fingers on the hem of her leine. “I’ve also never been in a romantic relationship.”

Caroline started to reply, but the sound of a horse screaming made them both go still. Nicole ran toward the sound, and when she emerged from the trees she saw a heavyset man trying to catch the loose reigns of a big chestnut work horse on the forest trail. The animal had a long, bleeding gash on its back, foam streaking its sides, and was rearing and pawing the air.

“Stay back, Mistress,” the panting man warned when he saw her. “My cart overturned, and dragged my Bertie into a tree. He bolted, and yet ’tis scared out of his wits.”

“It’s all right, I’ve worked with horses since I was a girl.” She slowed her steps as she approached the pair. “Hello, Bertie, I’m Nicole. I have a horse back home, too. Her name is Lorraine, and she has a beautiful gray color. I bet she’d really like to meet you if she could.” As the animal calmed she asked, “Are you hurt? Maybe I can help. Can I take a look?”

As she’d hoped, the soft sound of her voice distracted the horse long enough for his driver to catch his reigns. She reached out to touch Bertie’s sweaty neck, and stroked it as the man freed the horse from the twisted harness. The animal calmed at once, and looked at her with trust in its frightened eyes.

Caroline stopped at the edge of the path. “What’s wrong? Why are you shivering like that? Did it kick you?”

“No, I’m fine,” she lied.

A sharp, cutting pain had shot down from Nicole’s shoulders to her waist, but she ignored it until Bertie’s fear and pain had subsided. Then she backed away from the horse, and saw that the wound on its back had also disappeared.

“Caroline, some help, please?” She held out her arm as her knees knocked together.

“Oh, crap.” The diver hurried over and grabbed her from the front as she fell forward. “I think I know what your superpower is.”

DUXOR EMERGED FROM THE SEA, and cleared his gills before he made his way from the surf to the dock where a small group of fisherman had gathered. All looked young and strong, and since a fight between his creatures had killed a dozen of the newly-transformed, he needed more mortals to change and fill in the ranks. As he approached them, however, they parted to reveal an older, shrewd-eyed male who regarded him as he might a small and annoying rodent.

“Dinnae think you may take any of my lads,” the older fisherman warned. “I’ve vowed I shallnae slay the living, but you’re no’ from this realm.”

“My kind came here long ago.” Explaining himself seemed tedious and pointless when he could simply grab a pair of the men and jump in the water, but something told him not to try. “I’m Duxor, next in line to the Selseus throne. I need some of your mortals so I may challenge the old king, defeat him and his warriors, and free my people from tyranny.”

The old man sniffed the air. “I allowed an enchantress to eat some of my lads in hopes of appeasing her, but ’twas in vain. No more of my people shall die for the cause of a selfish immortal.” To his men he said, “In the boat, lads.”

Duxor took a step toward him, gathering his power from the golden purple amulet he’d stolen from another Selseus. “I’m no’ an enchantress, dafty.”

The old fisherman made a gesture that seemed insulting, and then a wave of water rose behind his boat, stretching up so high it detached itself at the bottom from the sea and hovered, a great swath of shimmering green and blue. It reflected the light coming from the old man’s eyes, which now glowed with otherworldly power.