Eternal Love: The Immortal Witch Series

by Maggie Shayne

  And there was Arianna, still in my arms. I suddenly held her more tightly. “My mother,” I whispered, staring at Raven in disbelief. “She said this?”

  “Yes. She was your mother, an immortal High Witch, but she didn’t even know that at the time. You were nine years old, she said, when she was attacked by some soldier . She didn’t say why. Just that you leapt in front of her, and were killed by a blow from his sword. And that it was a very long time before you were finally reborn in Scotland.”

  My head low, I shook it slowly. Arianna sat up slightly, and ran one palm gently over my cheek. “Why?” I asked of no one in particular. “Why would she not have told me these things?” Arianna only shook her head, her big brown eyes wide with concern for me.

  “I don’t know why, Nic,” Raven said. “But I think it’s true. I . . . I know Nidaba is not in the best of mental health right now, but I saw her eyes when she was speaking, and. . .” She drew a breath, then nodded hard. “She was speaking from the heart, I know that much.”

  “No wonder she hated me so much,” Arianna said. I looked into Arianna’s eyes, saw the pain there, the reflection of my pain, and perhaps Nidaba’s as well. So caring, this woman. The most caring I’d ever known. “I understand everything now,” she said.

  “I do not,” I told her. Reluctantly, I released Arianna’s small, warm body, and got to my feet. “I must speak to Nidaba. Where is she now?”

  Raven and Duncan exchanged a worried glance. Then Duncan extracted a small scrap of paper from somewhere beneath the blanket wrapped around him, and handed it to me. I frowned down at the words . . . . English, I thought but unfamiliar to me. I could not read what was written there.

  “We only left her alone for a minute . .. just long enough to pull you two out of that basement,” Duncan said. “I guess that’s when he got to her.”

  My head came up fast, and just as quickly, Arianna jumped to her feet beside me, and snatched the note from my hands.

  “Marten,” she whispered.

  “Marten?” The name brought his image clearly back to my mind. My nemesis. My onetime brother-in-law, and lifelong enemy. “That bastard is still alive? Damn him. Are you saying . . . . Gods, are you saying he has taken Nidaba?”

  “It looks that way,” Duncan said. “Read him the note, Arianna. Maybe he can make some sense of it.”

  Arianna met my gaze, and I saw her reluctance. But she nodded, and read aloud, “‘Nicodimus, I have taken your precious Nidaba. I will kill her if I must, but I fear taking the heart of a lunatic might well infect me with her madness. Still, I will risk that, if you force me. I am willing, however, to make a trade. Nidaba, unharmed, for you, Nicodimus. Come alone, old friend. You know where to find me. Marten.’”

  I stopped my pacing and lifted my head. “But . . . I do not know where to find him. What. . .” Then I let my question die on my lips and gazed at Arianna. She looked quickly away, shielding her eyes from my probing stare.

  “Arianna, if you know what this means, tell me.”

  She only shook her head, still not meeting my eyes. “I don’t know.”

  “You must know!” I went to her, gripped her shoulders, and stared into her eyes. “Arianna, please.”

  “I don’t know, Nicodimus. It must be something from the past, something you still haven’t remembered. But if it is, it’s something I didn’t know about.”

  I saw something in her eyes. A shadow that seemed to hide her soul from me. I did not know if she were telling me the truth, or why she would want to lie. I did not feel as if I knew anything just then. Everything I’d ever believed seemed to have been shaken to the core by Raven’s revelations. “I must find her,” I whispered.

  “We’ll find her,” Duncan said, his voice firm and strong. “He can’t have taken her far. Arianna, maybe you can at least give us a physical description of this Marten character to go on.”

  Arianna nodded, but I saw the way her jaw was set, and the determination in her eyes. I also saw the suspicion with which Raven was eyeing her. She, too, thought Arianna knew more than she was saying.

  But why? Gods, could she be jealous of my affection for Nidaba still? Even knowing the woman had been my mother?

  My mother. Gods, I could not get over it. Nidaba, my own mother.

  * * * *

  “SO WHAT IS it, exactly, that you’re keeping from Nic?” Raven asked.

  Arianna looked up fast. Nicodimus and Duncan had gone off into the woods beyond the town in a hopeless attempt to track Marten and Nidaba. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You damned well do, and I won’t let you deceive me, Arianna. Not me, of all people. I know you better than anyone. I love you better than anyone, and I’m not going to let you get away with this any more than you would if our situations were reversed. Now what is it?”

  Arianna lowered her gaze, unable to withstand the impact of her sister’s accusing eyes. She was shaken, right to the core. All this time she’d been half convinced that Nidaba wanted Nicodimus for herself . . . when she’d been his mother all along. Protecting him just as any mother would do for her son.

  “You know where Marten took her, don’t you?”

  Arianna shrugged. “I have an idea.”

  “And you don’t plan to let that poor woman die in Nic’s place. I know you better than to think that. You’re going to go after her yourself, aren’t you? Aren’t you, Arianna?”

  Arianna sighed deeply, knowing better than to try to fool her sister at this point. “What choice do I have? She’s his mother, Raven. He loves her, and he needs her, especially now.”

  “He loves you, Arianna.”

  “No. He thinks he does, but that will change once he remembers–”

  “Oh, for the love of heaven, you’re so blind! The man adores you! That’s not going to change because of something that happened centuries ago.”

  Arianna shook her head. “If he goes after her himself, Marten will kill him. It’s that simple. Hell, that snake would probably kill them both.”

  “And if you go after her, he’ll kill you instead.”

  “No. I can beat him. Nidaba is unbalanced, and Nicodimus is still weak. But I can beat him, Raven. And I will–for Nicodimus. Just as you would do for Duncan. You know you would. Don’t even try to deny it.”

  Raven lowered her gaze, unable to argue with that simple truth. “Yes. I would. Because I love him. And you love Nic the same way, don’t you?”

  A stabbing pain pierced Arianna’s chest as she nodded. “Yes. I love him. But I can’t have him, I can’t make him love me, and I’m not going to try. I’ve made that mistake before, but I learned from it. Yes, I love him . . . . I love him enough to let him go, Raven.”

  “And enough to die for him?”

  Arianna didn’t answer that. Instead, she just looked away.

  “Fine, go after Marten in Nic’s place if you must. But not alone. I’ll go with you. And Duncan will, too. With three we’d have Marten outnumbered.”

  Keeping her gaze carefully averted, Arianna nodded. “You must promise not to tell Nicodimus. We’ll have to slip away, without his knowledge. He’s still not strong enough to do battle.”

  Raven eyed her warily. “All right. Agreed.”

  “Good then.”

  “Why do I get the feeling that was far too easy?” Raven asked, her eyes narrowing.

  Arianna shook her head and plastered a false smile on her face, hoping against hope her sister would believe her lies. “We’ll go tomorrow. We both need rest after this night’s mayhem.”

  “Yes. All right.” Raven paced away, then back again.

  “Let’s get to the inn,then. The firefighters said they would have rooms for us.”

  “One room,” Raven said. “One large room. I don’t plan to let you out of my sight tonight, Arianna.”

  Meeting her sister’s gaze, Arianna murmured, “You’re going to have to, love. I plan to spend this night in the arms of my husband. Just in case my plan goes wrong. It might be
the last chance I ever have.”

  “Your . . . ?” Raven’s eyes widened as she searched her sister’s face.

  Arianna simply nodded. “Nicodimus and I were married. I didn’t mention that, did I? He doesn’t remember it yet, but I do. I’ll never forget.” She lowered her head, to hide the color she felt staining her cheeks. “So give me this night with him. And tomorrow, we’ll do what needs doing.”

  “Oh, Arianna.” Raven enfolded her sister in her arms, and held her tight. “Why is it you feel you have to try so hard not to love him?”

  “Because he can never love me back. I thought . . . I thought if there was no love, there could be no pain. No hurting and longing for what I could never have. But it was never a choice, really. I’ve always loved him.”

  Raven stroked her hair. “Things will work out. Have faith, sweetheart.”

  Arianna lowered her head to Raven’s shoulder. But she was out of faith, and determined, at last, to right a very old wrong. She couldn’t have Nicodimus’s love, she knew that, had accepted it. But she could save his life, and she could give him back his mother. She could make up for the mistakes she’d made in the past. And she would. Even knowing full well that it might be the last thing she ever did.

  * * * *

  MARTEN HAD LEFT no sign. Duncan and I searched for hours, to no avail. We found no track, no path, no clue. I thought of Nidaba, of the horrors she must have suffered in the past, likely at Dearborne’s hand, and of how she must be feeling right now–a captive once more. Anxiety for her, and a deep fury against Marten, boiled in my belly.

  “We might as well go back,” Duncan said, a hand on my shoulder. “Maybe Arianna has remembered something more about all this by now.”

  “Arianna will not tell us any more than she wants us to know,” I said wearily. “She’s always been the most stubborn girl I. . .” I stopped speaking for a moment, and Duncan looked at me, waiting. “I remember her stubbornness. The way she would sneak away from her mother’s home by night to study the ways of magic with The Crones. Even knowing the danger such actions brought with them.”

  Tilting his head, Duncan studied my face. “The Crones?”

  I nodded, Arianna’s face clear in my mind now. The way she had looked then. I had followed her, spied on her to be sure she was safe. I’d seen her with the old women, her cheeks bathed in the glow of their balefire. “She looked the same . . . but different somehow. Physically, she hasn’t changed, except that she has cut off her hair. But there was an innocence in her eyes then. She seems . . . hard now.”

  “Not so hard as you might think,” Duncan offered. “With her sister, she’s as soft as a breeze.”

  I nodded in agreement. “Her hardness is selective then. She dons it to protect her heart from the likes of me.”

  Duncan couldn’t seem to think of a response to that. Instead he said, “Tell me about these old women who taught her their ways.”

  I nodded, searching for the memories, finding them where before there had been but shadows. “They were witches, mortal ones. Even before she knew of her own nature, Arianna sensed her power. She was determined to learn about it, about what it meant, and why she possessed it when others did not. She sought out the knowledge in the only place she could find it. The Crones were outcasts, feared by the clan, but left alone for the most part.”

  “Still,” Duncan mused, “it must have been risky for Arianna to spend time with them. Especially in those days.”

  A darkness settled in my brain, and a chill shivered up my spine. “It nearly got her killed,” I said. Then I blinked and searched my mind some more.

  “This is a new memory, isn’t it, Nic?”

  I nodded. “It was the fire, I think, that brought all of this back to me. I recall . . . I was searching for Arianna, and could not find her. And . . . there was smoke, and noise coming from the edge of the woods where The Crones lived. I went there and. . .” I pressed my fingers to my forehead, as if to force the memory clear, and then I lifted my head, felt my eyes widen. “The clan murdered them. Hanged The Crones and burned their bodies. It was like a nightmare. Charred remains dangling from the limb of a mighty oak. The house in ruins. The entire clan, milling about, some bearing torches . . . .”

  Duncan grimaced. “You’re right. Seeing Arianna’s little house burn tonight likely jarred some of this loose for you.”

  I didn’t care what had caused the memory to return. I only needed to follow it, for I sensed its import. “Arianna was there. Gods, she was devastated, and furious. The crowd turned its attention on her as she shouted accusations at them. Someone cried out that she had been seen with The Crones, that she was likely a witch as well, and should suffer the same fate.” I lowered my head as the breath rushed out of me, and felt again the sick-to-my-stomach fear that had assailed me then. “I remember her father, standing in front of her, ready to defend her against that murderous mob with no more than a fallen limb as a weapon. He’d have had no chance against them all. But I stepped in to protect her as well.”

  “How?” Duncan asked. His gaze riveted to mine, he seemed fascinated by the tale. “Two men against an entire clan? How did you defend her against that?”

  I closed my eyes as the past rushed over me. “I was known as close kin to their chieftain. They wouldn’t have dared defy me. But I knew Arianna would be in grave danger again the moment I was gone. I had to link her to me in a way so permanent and so real that she would be safe, even without me at her side.”

  Opening my eyes, I stared up at the stars, and saw the past unfolding in my mind. The dress she’d worn, the flowers in her hair. The excited uncertainty in her eyes. “I married her,” I whispered. “By the Gods, I married her. Arianna . . . Arianna is my wife.”

  I felt as if my legs would buckle beneath me, and suddenly Duncan was there, gripping my shoulders, and easing me downward until I sat on a partially rotted stump. The fragrance of the moist, decomposing wood and moss rose up to wrap around my senses, but my mind refused to stop whirling.

  “Your wife? For the love of heaven. She never told us any of this.” He shook his head in wonder. Then he eyed me again. “It’s all just a bit too much to deal with in one night, isn’t it, Nic? Discovering a mother and a wife, all at once? Are you okay?”

  “I . . . Gods, why didn’t she tell me?”

  Duncan hunkered on the ground beside the stump. “I could hazard a guess. If you want me to?”

  I looked at him and nodded hard.

  “Arianna is . . . a proud woman. No, that’s an understatement. It’s more than pride. At any rate, if you only married her to keep the clan from murdering her, then she must have known it. Right? I mean, frankly, knowing her as I do, I’m surprised she even agreed to it.”

  I frowned fiercely, searching my mind. “She did not agree . . . not at first. But in the end she realized she had no choice. Her mother and father urged her to accept, and I pushed her as well. Her only other option would have been to run away. To leave all she knew and loved behind, and to try to exist on her own. In the world as it was then, she would have been in just as much danger that way as she had been that night at The Crones’ execution.”

  Duncan nodded. “So she agreed . . . knowing you didn’t love her.”

  I blinked and met Duncan’s eyes. “I was a fool. So determined to protect my heart from the touch of hers and the pain I believed that touch would bring. Gods, I set terms. Can you believe that? I laid out terms, expecting Arianna to agree to them.”

  “Might as well set terms for the wind as to how it should blow,” Duncan remarked, shaking his head and smiling slightly at the very idea. “Arianna sets her own terms.”

  I nodded wryly. “Yes. She did then. She agreed to wed me, but informed me she would never be content with the rules I laid out: that she would be my wife in name only, that I would never be capable of loving her, or being her husband in the truest sense of the word. She said . . . she said she would make me love her. That my defenses would crumble beneath he
r slightest touch. That it was I who would surrender to her terms, and that I should be aware of it from the start.”

  Duncan smiled fully now. “You should have run for the hills, Nic. You never stood a chance, did you?”

  “If I ever thought I did, I was fooling no one but myself,” I admitted. “My pride . . . it wasn’t pride really. It was fear. My old wounds ran deep. I had lost my wife, my sons, my family. I had no wish to let her reopen those wounds, and I knew that she could. That she would if I let her. But I could never admit that I was afraid of a young girl like Arianna.”

  “Don’t feel too bad, Nic. I was scared to death of her sister.” Duncan got to his feet again. “But I have a feeling you should be telling Arianna all of this, instead of spilling your guts to me. Don’t you?”

  “I suppose I should.” I rose slowly, brushed the dust from my jeans. But there were more images making their way back to me as we walked toward the village. No clear memories, but a sense. A sense that Arianna had indeed conquered my heart, and that once she had held it in her small hands, she’d crushed it mercilessly. The old fear of her crept over me once more. The feeling that I must protect myself from her this time, or suffer complete destruction at her hand.

  And yet, I had no desire to obey my mind’s warnings. No desire at all. Let her trample my heart if she would. I would not resist her. Not this time.

  I was shivering when we arrived back at the site of her burned house. A chill of foreboding ran all the way to my soul.

  Arianna and Raven were waiting there, but looking far better than they had when we’d left them. They were clean and dressed in fresh clothing.

  “Any luck?” Raven asked.

  “No, none at all.” Duncan touched the blouse she wore. “Very pretty.”

  “Some of the locals donated some fresh clothes to us. And Arianna and I have rooms waiting at a local inn for the night. There are clean clothes waiting for you both there, as well.”

  “And a hot shower, I hope,” Duncan said.

  Arianna had a hold on my eyes that wouldn’t let go. I could not look away, and found I did not want to. She took my hand, and saying nothing, led me along the streets and through the town to the inn.