Tavis cursed. “Why’d you do that?”
“I thought he was casting a spell,” Ian grumbled.
“You and your bloody spells. Now we’ll never know where Druan and the virus is or who killed Liam.”
“He wouldn’t have told us anyway. He would have killed himself first.”
“You’re probably right. Let’s hope killing him stops Druan’s virus. Or at least slows it down until Faelan wakes and can destroy Druan.”
While Tavis and Ian went to tell their father the news, the warriors split up. Some stayed to dispose of Selwyn’s body, while the others continued searching for signs of Druan. They knew not to approach him, but they still hoped to find and destroy his virus. If it wasn’t for the pain it would cause Ma, Tavis would be tempted to take on the demon himself and weaken him as Kieran had Onwar. But Tavis couldn’t bear the thought of Ian having to tell Ma that she’d lost two more sons.
“You were right,” Ian said, as they rode back to Frederick and Isabel’s house.
“About what?”
“Old Donnal. You always said he was a sorcerer.”
“Right there under our noses,” Tavis said. “I wish he’d told us who killed Liam. We need to know how a demon knew Liam would destroy him. We’ve got to warn the clan.”
“I’m sorry I killed Selwyn, but he was looking right at you when he was casting that spell.” Ian’s jaw tightened. “I won’t lose another brother.”
Tavis sighed. “It’s probably best. But Druan’s going to be pissed that his sorcerer is dead.”
A raven cried out. Startled, Tavis looked up just as something dark flew over their heads.
“What was that?” Ian asked.
“I don’t know.” But it was too big to be a bird. He felt the same odd chill along his spine that he’d felt the other times he’d seen the raven.
“This has been a bloody strange night,” Ian said. “A demon we can’t remember clearly helping us find Druan’s sorcerer, and now we find out he’s Old Donnal. I would wonder if the demon was the one Selwyn was spying on, the one who killed Liam, but I don’t think he was as ugly.”
“I can’t remember clearly either, but I’m sure he’s not the one. This demon was...different.”
“I thought they worked together against us.”
“Maybe demons suffer from the same jealousy and greed that they spread.” It still concerned Tavis that he couldn’t remember what the mysterious demon looked like. He was certain he knew him. “What are you thinking?” Tavis asked.
“Wondering what Da will say when he finds out he wasn’t the reason Liam died.”
“I don’t think we should tell him until we get back to Connor Castle. He’s already troubled over Faelan. I don’t want to remind him of Liam.”
“I’d wager he’s already thinking about Liam,” Ian said.
“Aye, I reckon you’re right. He’s taking this hard. I’m glad Quinn’s with him so he’s not alone.”
Ian nodded, but didn’t speak. His brow was bunched into a frown.
“What’re you thinking? You’ve got that look.” God knows enough had happened tonight to puzzle over for the next decade.
“Why do you think Quinn really came?”
“He said it was to find out more about Nigel Ellwood,” Tavis said.
“He hasn’t even mentioned Nigel since we arrived. He’s hiding something.”
“He is acting strange. He’s guarding that trunk of his like it’s full of gold. But we don’t have time to worry about Quinn now.”
It was nearing dawn when they arrived at Frederick and Isabel’s house. They didn’t want to wake everyone so they decided to rest in the crypt. They were walking toward the graveyard when Tavis heard a noise. “Did you hear that?”
Ian’s head was tilted, listening. “It came from the woods behind the chapel.”
When they reached the path, Tavis sniffed the air. “I smell blood.” He drew his dirk. “I have a bad feeling.”
He’d no sooner spoke when Ian cursed and scrambled toward a pile of rocks. Tavis followed and they found their father lying on his back, his body bloodied, eyes staring beyond the trees.
“No!” Tavis knelt beside Ian and touched his father’s chest, feeling for a heartbeat that wasn’t there. It was apparent what had happened from the slashes across his chest.
“A demon,” Ian said, his voice raw.
Druan? Tavis heard a moan and dragged himself to his feet. He found the Keeper not far away under the shelter of a pine tree. “It’s Quinn.”
“Is he alive?” Ian called, still hunched over their father’s body.
“Aye, he’s breathing.” There were similar slashes across Quinn’s chest too.
The Keeper opened his eyes and saw Tavis. “Demon...stop him.”
“Who did this?” Tavis asked. “Druan?” Had the demon already learned of his sorcerer’s death and retaliated?
Blood trickled from the corner of Quinn’s mouth as he tried to speak. “Not Druan...Voltar.”
Voltar? Tavis’ heart knocked against his ribs. Voltar was here too?
“Mistake...made a mistake,” the Keeper said.
“It’s all right, Quinn. It’s all right.” Whatever he’d done, he wouldn’t regret it much longer.
Quinn grabbed Tavis’ shirt and pulled in a rattling breath. “The book, you must find it.”
“What book?” Tavis asked, with a terrible sense of foreboding.
“The Book of Battles...stolen.”
Bloody hell! “Is that why you’re here? Did the Council send you to get it back?” That would explain Quinn’s odd behavior and what he was guarding in his trunk.
“Council doesn’t know...traitor....”
“There’s a traitor?”
“A traitor...I thought I could get it back.”
“How long’s it been missing?”
“Decades...”
If it had been missing for decades, it was a wonder any of the warriors were still alive. “Who’s the traitor?”
“I should have told someone...” the Keeper broke off with a cough, bringing up more blood. “I thought I could fix it. They will use the book to destroy the clan. You must find it, keep it safe.”
“I’ll find it,” Tavis said. “Do you know which demon took it?”
“No, but I think I know...I know where to look. In my sporran, an old letter...from Nigel Ellwood.”
“Nigel?” Why would Quinn have a letter from Nigel?
“Swear you’ll protect the book. Swear it.”
“I’ll protect it. I swear on my life.”
A tear slid down Quinn’s cheek. “Mistake...” He squeezed Tavis’ hand and went still.
They kept the bodies in the crypt until they could be buried. Frederick and Isabel, kindhearted souls, offered them spots in the graveyard. Tavis convinced Frederick to sell him the crypt, and in the night they buried their father in the spot meant for Quinn, and put Quinn in the hole where they had removed Faelan’s time vault. They couldn’t let anyone know Faelan was already in the crypt.
In Quinn’s sporran they had found the letter Nigel Ellwood had written long ago to the chief elder at that time. From the letter it seemed that Nigel suspected there was a traitor who was selling warrior’s names to a demon. Several warriors had died under suspicious circumstances. Nigel was worried that the Keeper, who would have been Quinn’s father at that time, was involved. He went to the Council and they appointed a secret group to look into matters. Nigel convinced them to let him find a place in America for the clan, a second clan seat so that they weren’t all in one place. He had taken the book with him and hidden it in America. Most of the Watchers who were investigating Nigel’s claims had also died mysteriously. Nigel hadn’t known who to trust, so he kept the book in America while he started work on the second castle. He figured the book was safest if it was believed missing, so he pretended to disappear himself. But now he was alarmed because he had spotted four ancient demons nearby. He was worried about the
Book of Battles and had written to the chief elder asking him to send warriors to transport the book back to Scotland. He stressed in the letter the importance that the Keeper not be told.
“The Council didn’t mention anything about this letter from Nigel,” Ian said.
“I doubt the Council ever saw it. Quinn’s father must have taken it to protect his own hide.”
“How did Quinn get it, and why didn’t he tell anyone? He’s endangered the entire clan by keeping this secret. I knew he was hiding something.”
“Quinn’s father was the Keeper. Quinn was probably protecting him. That makes him as bad as a traitor.”
“Quinn’s father must have sold Liam’s name to a demon.”
“Bloody hell.” Tavis rubbed a hand through his hair. If Liam hadn’t died, he would have been a warrior. He would likely be with them now, grieving for Faelan. “I have to find the book. I promised Quinn I’d protect it.” And he would find and destroy the demon who had killed Liam if it took his last breath and his last drop of blood.
It took some doing to find the castle. Tavis, Ian, and the other warriors went by it several times and finally decided that Quinn, or Nigel, had gotten the location wrong. Then Ian stopped to piss. Ian could out-piss any of them. Standing in the middle of nowhere, a remarkable thing happened. Ian’s stream disappeared in mid air. “Bollocks!”
Tavis stuck out his hand and it disappeared. Cautiously, he eased his head through and echoed Ian’s curse. “It’s a castle. Our castle. Nigel duplicated it. Do you think he cloaked it? I didn’t know Watchers could do that.”
The Seeker closed his eyes. “This isn’t the work of a human. It’s been cloaked by a spell.”
“By a demon?” Tavis asked.
The Seeker frowned and moved his hands through the air as if touching something. “I’m not sure it’s demon.”
“If it’s not human, what else can it be?” Ian asked.
As soon as they entered the cloak, they saw dozens of demons and halflings, and a few minions, lying dead over the castle grounds. “They’ve been slaughtered.” The warriors walked through the mess with swords drawn, but everything here was dead.
The inside was the same, bodies everywhere. “But who did the slaughtering?” Ian asked. “Warriors didn’t do this or the bodies would have disappeared.”
It took the Seeker a long while to find the book. It was hidden inside one of the secret passages, in a compartment in the wall. The compartment had been cloaked, just like the castle.
They weren’t sure what to do with it. No one wanted to touch it since the Keeper was the only one allowed to touch the book.
“There’s something here,” the Seeker said, leaving the room. He moved through the castle with his hands extended in front of him, as if sensing messages in the air. He walked up the stairs leading to one of the towers and paused outside the door. “Something evil was here.”
“The demons, you mean?” Ian asked.
“No. Not the demons.” The Seeker opened the door. “Something else.”
There had been a fire in the tower and everything was burnt black. “Why a fire here and nowhere else?” Ian asked. A lone body lay in the corner of the room. Ian knelt beside him. “Look at this.”
“Looks human. Must be a minion,” Tavis said, joining Ian.
“Look at his neck. What do you make of that?”
The minion’s neck had two gaping, bloody holes. “Claws?” Tavis said.
“Looks like a bite mark.”
Demons had been known to drink the blood of their victims and eat the flesh. “Who do you suppose took a bite out of him?”
***
Earlier that night
Tristol left the scene of Selwyn’s death in a fury. The demons on the other side of the cloak which veiled his castle never saw Tristol coming. He destroyed them and moved on, decimating everything in his path. When he was finished, all of Druan’s demons who’d been ordered to guard the castle lay dead. Tristol turned to smoke and streaked through the castle toward the tower where Druan had been staying. One minion stood outside the door. He was one of Druan’s trusted minions. His eyes widened when he saw Tristol.
Tristol turned from smoke into his vampire form and grabbed the minion by the throat. “Where is it?” he roared.
“What?”
Tristol lifted the minion until they were at eye level. He could feel his eyes burning hot inside him. “Where is Druan’s virus?”
The minion’s eyes darted toward the door to the tower room.
Dragging the pathetic human by the throat, Tristol burst through the locked door and surveyed the room. “Where?
“There.” The minion pointed to a small trunk in the corner. Druan had owned the trunk for centuries.
Still holding the minion, Tristol broke the lock and opened the trunk. It appeared empty inside, but Tristol could smell the spell disguising the interior. He reached inside and found a smaller metal box. “Is this it?”
The minion was shaking so hard his nod was hardly noticeable.
Tristol opened the box and looked at the bottles inside. There were several of them, all filled with liquid. He left the bottles and dragged the minion from the room. Outside the door, he called forth a spell and a ball of fire rolled out from his fingertips. He shut the door before the flames reached the bottles. Still enraged, his blood surged, filling him with an uncontrollable thirst. He sank his teeth into the minion’s throat. Warm blood flowed over his tongue, calming his rage. He drank until the minion stopped twitching, and then drank more. A roar behind him startled his feeding. He turned and saw Druan behind him, his ugly face filled with horror.
His gaze moved past the minion to the tower room door. He ran toward it and opened the door. The room was blazing inside. “What have you done?” Druan screeched.
“I’ve destroyed your virus. How dare you bring this into my castle?” And then Tristol realized that Druan was staring at him in shock.
Tristol looked at the minion dangling from his hand. He dropped him and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Blood.
“What are you?” Druan asked.
Tristol experienced the first rush of fear that he’d felt in centuries. He’d protected his secret for over two thousand years. He shifted from his vampire form to his demon form, and Druan’s expression went from shock to speculation, followed by satisfaction. “You’re part vampire. Does the Dark One know?”
Tristol considered killing Druan, but it would draw unwanted attention. “No more than he knows about your virus.”
“Half vampire, half demon.” A smile touched Druan’s lips. “An abomination. I believe we are at an impasse. We can kill each other or keep our secrets.”
It wasn’t an impasse. Tristol could kill Druan before he had time to blink, but if he did, the Dark One would investigate, and Tristol couldn’t risk close scrutiny. He needed more time to build his army. “An impasse then. I keep your secret. You keep mine.”
There was further speculation in Druan’s eyes. He looked around him. “I’ve always been partial to this castle. I believe I would be even more inclined to protect your secret, if this were a gift.”
Tristol knew why Druan wanted the castle. Because his warrior was buried nearby. But he merely smiled. “Accept it then as my gift, a token to seal our pact.”
***
“What are we going to do with it now that Quinn’s dead?” Ian asked, staring at the book sitting on top of the burial vault. Neither of them had ever seen the Book of Battles. It was closely guarded by the Keeper of the Book. Tavis didn’t know any warrior who had ever seen it, much less touched it. It was thicker than he had expected. Leather, with bindings on the front. They hadn’t known what to do with it so they brought it to the crypt.
“What do you think is inside?” Ian asked.
“I don’t know, and we’re not going to find out, so wipe that look off your face.”
“You sound like Da,” Ian said.
Tavis stared at the book
some more. “We’ll have to take it back to the Council.”
“What about Nigel’s letter? He believed there was a traitor in the clan. What if it wasn’t only Quinn’s father? I don’t know why the clan wasn’t already destroyed, since a demon had the book, but we can’t risk losing it again.”
Tavis shook his head. “Nigel wrote that letter before we were born. Quinn’s father is dead, and so is Quinn. If there’s another traitor, he’s probably dead too.”
“How did Quinn get that letter? It was meant for the chief elder dozens of years ago? How did no one find out the book was missing? Someone else must be involved. Maybe one of the elders. I don’t trust them. I think we should hide the book until we’re sure it’s safe.”
Tavis frowned. “The new Keeper will find out and send Seekers to search for it.”
“It will take a while to appoint someone to replace Quinn. We may know by then if there’s still a traitor. If we still don’t know, we’ll tell the Keeper but no one else.”
“If we’re going to hide the book, we shouldn’t tell them about the castle or Faelan either. The fewer who know he’s here, the safer he’ll be.”
“We can tell them he died. We’ll have to tell Ma the truth. And we’ll have to find a good place to hide the book.”
“You’re better at hiding things than anyone I know,” Tavis said. “Simon and the others will have to be sworn to secrecy. We can’t have them telling anyone when we get back.”
Ian looked at the time vault. “I don’t think I can go home and leave Faelan here alone, with no one to protect him. What if Druan comes looking for him? Onca said he wanted revenge. What if Druan knows the time vault’s secrets?”
“I’ve been thinking about it. We have to tell Frederick and Isabel.”
“Are ye daft? We can’t tell anyone outside the clan. You know that.”
“How can we not? You’re right. We can’t leave him unprotected. Someone has to watch over him. If we stay and Druan spots us, he’ll become suspicious. Isabel and Frederick won’t draw suspicion. And I trust Isabel. There’s something different about her. I can’t explain it but I know she’s honest.”
Faelan: A Highland Warrior Brief Page 9