The woman looked around; it was a beautiful afternoon in the lush countryside of Ireland, a color of green she had never seen before. It was so vibrant that it was almost neon in patches. The weather was cool and damp, as it had rained heavily that morning, but now the sun was out and everything just seemed fresh and vivid. A cool breeze blew in from the Irish Sea to the east, stirring the bushes and branches as they walked up the path towards the animated man and his captive audience.
“It’s not just these religious sites,” the woman shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket as the wind picked up. “It’s the Irish in general.”
The friend turned to look at her. “Don’t bash my people.”
The woman struggled not to giggle. “They’re my people, too. I can bash them if I want to.”
The friend burst out in soft laughter. “You’re an Irish racist, Destry.”
Destry Caldbeck joined the laughter, her straight teeth white and gleaming. “How can I be a racist against my own race?” she wanted to know. “I’m just stating a fact; all Irish are crazy.”
The two women snorted and giggled as they made their way up the muddy, grassy path to the great Neolithic burial mound of Dowth. About thirty-two miles north of Dublin, it was a massive Neolithic site that was larger than its better known counterpart, New Grange. Not many people came to visit Dowth, but Destry and her friend Aisling had made the trip, mostly because Aisling was kicking Destry all the way across Ireland and forcing her to participate in activities when Destry would rather be sitting in a pub drowning her sorrows. A broken engagement had that effect on her.
Now Aisling and Destry were enjoying what should have been Destry’s honeymoon, but it had been an uphill battle. Distraction and constant sight-seeing had been Aisling’s way of handling it. Even now, she tried to keep the mood light as they reached the crest of the ancient mound, noting the enormous man with the group around him at closer range. The man was indeed waving his arms around, jumping up and down and apparently acting out some kind of scene as the people around him watched intently. Aisling and Destry couldn’t help but watch him, too, until Destry finally shook her head and looked away. She pulled a small guidebook out of her pocked and began to read.
“Okay,” she sighed, finding her place in the book. “Let’s see what this has to say; Dowth dates from around three thousand B.C. and has all sorts of underground storage chambers. It’s part of the Brú na Bóinne monuments.”
Aisling looked around the top of the mound where they were standing. “What does that mean?”
Destry continued to read. “Neolithic monuments like New Grange.”
“That one is next on our list.”
“I know.” Destry put the guidebook down and began to look around. “This is really big.”
Aisling began to wander. “Huge,” she agreed, wrapping her scarf more tightly about her neck. “Why is it so darn cold? You would think it was January and not September. I feel like I’m in the Arctic.”
Destry shrugged. “Maybe we should have gone to the Bahamas.”
“Maybe.”
Aisling continued wandering, looking at their surroundings. Then she suddenly came to a halt, cocking her head in the direction of the man and his group. She listened a moment before looking to Destry.
“It sounds like he’s giving a tour.” She was trying not to yell as she pointed. “I can hear him.”
Destry’s bright blue eyes lingered on the man several dozen feet away. “Should we go listen?”
Aisling wriggled her eyebrows devilishly. “We didn’t pay for the tour. Not only that, but we busted through the fence to get up here. I really don’t think we’re even supposed to be here.”
Destry shrugged. “So what?” she said. “The worst he can do is tell us to go away.”
Aisling giggled as Destry began to saunter casually in the direction of the group. The area of the top of the mound was fairly vast and uneven, and had been closed off to the public. But Destry and Aisling had climbed through the fence anyway and walked up the narrow path. As they neared the group, they could hear the man as he continued his story.
“…tomb was emptied of its original contents when it was plundered by Viking raiders around 861 A.D., who basically plundered all of the tombs in the Boyne Valley,” he was saying with great drama. “Much of our Irish heritage ended up on a long boat bound for Scandinavia, where some of it is now in Scandinavian museums.”
A young college student with a dirty stocking cap on his head threw up a hand and began to speak. “Dr. Daderga?” he called. “Haven’t we tried to get our treasures back from the Scandinavians?”
Dr. Conor Daderga turned to look at the young man with a wry smirk on his face. “It’s like the British stealing treasures from Egypt and putting them in the British Museum,” he said, his Irish brogue extremely heavy and dramatic to the point of barely being understandable. “The Limeys won’t give them back to Egypt and the Viking plunderers won’t give us back our treasures, either. They stole our history and claim it as their own.”
A question and answer session followed as Destry and Aisling stood at the back of the group, listening; Destry’s attention was mostly on the teacher and not on the students. Since the group was made up of young adults, she could only assume it was a college class. Dr. Daderga was, in fact, everything an Irishman should be; he was loud, passionate, animated, handsome, and had a deep red mustache and goatee that stood out against his milky –white skin. Even though the man was bundled up against the cold, she could see that he had very red hair beneath his well-worn newsboy cap.
But she noticed more; he was absolutely enormous in both size and height; at three inches over five feet, the man had to be well over a foot taller than she was and he was built like a linebacker. She thought he was very good-looking with his chiseled features and brilliant smile, something that Aisling silently agreed with as she flashed a wicked smile in Destry’s direction.
And he was dynamic, too. Great passion came forth as he moved away from plundered Irish history and began to describe the history of Dowth. He waved his arms and bugged his eyes as he described ancient man and their toils on the mound. Then he began to speak of more recent history, of the Dark Age village that had popped up around Dowth, fragments of which had been excavated.
Destry watched the man, finding herself focusing more on his handsome features than what he was actually saying. A couple of times, their eyes met and she felt strangely unsettled as he focused in on her. The man had intense blue eyes, bordering on something charismatic and powerful, and Destry was too fragile to rationally deal with anything intensely male at the moment. She tried to stay and listen but his gaze kept coming back to her, each look more potent than the last. Disturbed, she broke off from the group as Aisling remained to listen, and wandered away.
The grass was thick, wet and vibrantly green as she made her way down the side of the mound. She lost her footing a couple of times and slid in the grass, eventually ending up at the bottom of the mound.
It was heavily wooded around the base of the mound, thick brush and trees growing out from the sides. She pulled out her guidebook and began to read again, noting that the guidebook said there were three entrances at the base of the mound, all facing southwest. Getting her bearings, she shifted direction and wandered through the brush and trees until she came to the first of the three passages.
The first passage was small and all she could see was darkness beyond the stone-braced doorway. There weren’t any barriers but she didn’t feel like charging in to a bottomless black pit. Moreover, she didn’t have a flashlight and the sun was beginning to set, so it was difficult to see more than just a few feet inside. But she could smell wet earth and mold coming forth, invisible wisps of ancient times that were reaching out for her. She wasn’t superstitious and she wasn’t easily spooked, but something about the dark bowels of the ancient burial mound made her shiver. Maybe it was just the coldness of the air coming forth; whatever it was, she shru
gged it off and moved to the next entrance.
She could see more through this entrance but it wasn’t any grander than the last. It was just old and creepy. Moving on to the third entrance, she moved in and out of the heavy growth, trying not to get wet from the moisture that still lingered. Over to the southwest, the sun was sitting on the horizon as night began to approach and Destry was beginning to think that they should head back to the car shortly. She was looking forward to a hot meal and a hot bath, in that order. Maybe they would also hit a few of the pubs, seeking some solace and distraction in the Irish past time. Not that she wanted to get drunk. Well, maybe. It seemed to be the only thing that made her forget about the hell of the past two weeks.
The third passage was taller than the other two with the same black-hole entrance. Destry couldn’t see more than a few feet inside of it, wishing she had brought a flashlight. She could feel the cold dampness from this hole reaching out to her again, caressing her face with cold velvet fingers. It also smelled strange, like the dank depths of a grave, which it essentially was. The guidebook said that Medieval people used the mound to store food and that there was a storage chamber inside. Destry peered into the blackness, noticing the weak rays of the setting sun were shining on this side of the mound. A few rays streamed through the bushes and fell upon the peripheral of the ancient doorway. She stood a moment, hoping if she waited a few minutes that the sun would act as a flashlight and shine some rays down into the tunnel.
It was growing colder now as the sun was lowering and she tightened up her scarf and shoved her hands into her pockets, waiting for the sun to shine its dying rays into the ancient tunnel. The breeze had picked up, too, filtering through the bushes around her. The wind whipped into the passageway and found its way out again, whistling as it did so. The first couple of times, it whipped around her and she shivered against the cold. Then came a particularly strong gust of wind that soared through the ancient mound, into one of the other tunnels and then blasting out of the tunnel where Destry was standing. She turned her back on it as it swirled around her, chilling her, whistling through the stone and earth with an odd hum. At the height of the gust, she thought she heard something whispered upon the wind.
Startled, Destry turned to the ancient tunnel to see if someone was standing there. It sounded as if someone had whispered to her, a breathy gasp that was quickly gone. But the tunnel was dark, the wind brisk, and she shook her head, thinking she must be crazy for thinking she heard something. Maybe all of the travel and Guinness was getting to her. Yawning, she watched the sun set lower on the horizon, turning to see that some of the weak rays were nearly upon the tunnel. She was looking forward to seeing what was deep down inside the hill. But suddenly, another gust of wind whipped through the mound and she turned away from the tunnel as bits of rock and loose earth kicked up at her. Closing her eyes against the flying dust, the whisper on the wind filled her ears again.
“Etain!”
Destry jumped at the sound, turning back to the dark opening now that the sun was just beginning to fall upon it. She gazed at it suspiciously, curiously, almost angrily, thinking that someone was playing tricks on her.
“Hello?” she called. “Who’s in there? Come out of there or I’m coming in.”
Nothing but the wind answered. Level-headed and brutally practical, Destry waited for a few red-headed Irish kids to come running out to scare her. But no one emerged from the tunnel and just as she moved in to get a closer look, the sun’s rays suddenly hit upon the ancient entrance, reflecting on stone and earth that had seen five hundred centuries of such events. The sun reached the rock, cut by the ancients, and the cold porous blocks roared to life.
Suddenly, it was very bright in the entrance and Destry could see all the way back to the end of the tunnel where it seemed to open up into blackness. The walls of the tunnel were lined with stone, great carved slabs that held back the tons of earth surrounding it. The sun gave the stone a strangely yellow glow, reflecting the brilliance of the setting rays. But as Destry studied the tunnel with interest and some awe, the yellow glow took on an even brighter countenance.
It wasn’t so much the stone as something else seemed to be creating a light of its own. The great yellow glow became brighter and brighter until it was nearly white. Destry put a hand up to shield the glare from her eyes and as she did so, something in the midst of the great white glow reached towards her.
“Etain!”
It wasn’t one whisper; it was several. It was like hundreds of children whispering as one, a chorus of angels that breathed life upon the earth. Destry felt a great rush of air as the whisper burst forth like a thousand shooting stars, reaching out to touch her. It all happened so fast that she didn’t have time to be startled; as she stood there with her hand raised, something brushed against her hand and she heard the chorus of whispers once more.
“Fanacht, morrigan, gnáthlá agus oiche og ceanna; tar ar cúl do sinne.”
Destry didn’t even remember running away until she was half-way up the hill. Her heart was pounding and her head swimming, so frightened that she could hardly think straight. But suddenly, she was walking very quickly up the hill, anxious to put space in between her and the mysterious tunnel. She had no idea what it was, those odd whispers, but the touch had sent her scurrying. She had a difficult time processing the experience as she struggled up the slippery grass.
For several long moments, disorientation consumed her. There was no way that whatever happened was real, she told herself firmly. She forced herself to calm, taking deep breaths, struggling with her equilibrium and her composure. It hadn’t been real; it couldn’t have been. The sunlight, the wind, had been playing tricks on her.
She kept telling herself that, over and over. By the time she reached the top of the mound, she was slightly less frazzled, but only barely. At least she wasn’t gasping for air any longer. Up on the crest of the mound, the students had disbanded and were walking around the ancient mound in small clusters, inspecting it, and she could see Aisling standing with the tall and imposing figure of Dr. Daderga. She was talking to him about something, her hands flying all around as they usually did when she talked.
Taking another deep breath, and with a hind glance over her shoulder, Destry made her way over to Aisling and Dr. Daderga. But she swore that the whispers were following.
CHAPTER TWO
Conor saw her coming.
He saw her the moment she crested the top of the hill, the very moment her gaze turned in his direction. He’d noticed her the first time she and her friend had joined his class, a woman of unearthly beauty and brilliant blue eyes. He couldn’t seem to stop staring at her, like she was a magnet and his eyes were steel. The two kept coming together and he could feel the sparks fly every time. Something about that woman leapt out at him like nothing he had ever experienced before. It was a strange and alluring sensation, and one not easily discarded.
Her friend, a nice young lady with the good Irish name of Aisling, had engaged him in conversation when his class broke up. As his students went about on exploration before the sun sank too low, the young woman with curly brown hair and brown eyes had approached him with a smile. She had wanted to know if he had any information about the great burial mound at Knowth and whether or not the legends were true about it being a portal into the Underworld.
Conor had responded politely to her foolish question, mostly because she was American and he knew she was only repeating what she had heard or seen in movies. Most Americans viewed the world the way their movies portrayed it. But he was also courteous to her because of the fair skinned goddess that had accompanied her on the off-hand chance that he might actually get to speak with her.
She was heading right for him. His hopes were about to be fulfilled. He couldn’t help but stare at the woman as she approached; she was short in stature, clad in sweaters and jeans, but there was no mistaking her curvy figure. Her light brown hair was long, with streaks of blond in it and cut into one of th
ose layered styles that could be very sexy with a toss of the head. As the woman came upon them, he was struck by the pure porcelain beauty of her face and eyes so bright that they were nearly glowing. He’d never seen such a brilliant shade of blue. When their eyes finally met, he felt his heart flutter in his chest. He stared at her with a dumb grin on his face as Aisling spoke.
“Where did you wander off to?” she asked her friend.
The woman threw a thumb over her shoulder. “Down the hill,” she said in a sweet, sultry voice. “There are passages down there.”
“Passages?” Aisling was curious but remembered her manners, indicating the big Irishman standing next to her. “This is Dr. Daderga,” she introduced him. “He’s a professor over at Trinity College in Dublin. We apparently invaded his class.”
The woman turned to him, her bright blue eyes swallowing him up. She extended a hand. “Nice to meet you, Dr. Daderga,” she said. “Destry Caldbeck.”
Conor was stupefied as he shook her soft, warm hand, feeling rather overwhelmed with such beauty. He felt like an idiot just staring at her and realized he should probably say something in return. Where have you been all my life, gorgeous?
“Nice to meet you,” he replied in his heavy Irish accent. “You’re American also?”
Destry nodded. “I am,” she replied. “California.”
“Where in California?”
“San Diego.” She pulled her hand discreetly from his grip because he hadn’t let her go yet. He just stood there holding her hand. There was something very big and virile and overwhelming about him. “Thank you for letting us infiltrate your class. You looked like you were having a lot of fun.”
He smiled at her; in fact, he couldn’t seem to stop smiling at her. “I was,” he replied. “This is one of my Ancient Irish History classes; we’ve toured three of the major sites today, this one being our last. It’s going to get dark quickly so they’re taking a few moments to explore the site before we buzz off.”
Lords of Eire: An Irish Medieval Romance Bundle Page 103