“If one woman fires a shot, we’ll kill everyone when we get inside,” Cormac yelled at Sarah, before turning to his men. “Make sure she’s unarmed.”
Two men marched over to Sarah and she grabbed the front of her shirt and ripped it open, popping buttons everywhere, her breasts springing free.
“I am unarmed!” she exclaimed, holding her arms out to show her vulnerability, the shirt hanging from her hips. The two men stopped abruptly, gawking at her and then at each other as if unsure of what to do next. Even Cormac was stunned into silence. Sarah pushed past the two men and fell onto Mike. The closeness of her, the smell of her hair so familiar, so Sarah, it nearly made him gasp.
“My darling! I can’t believe they’ve done this to you. I love you so much, dearest darling!”
One of the men holding Mike loosened his hold and the other one released him altogether and stepped back, embarrassed by her display of emotion and her nakedness. Instantly, Mike felt the hard coldness of the knife blade as it sliced through the ropes behind his back and press into his hand. He shoved Sarah to the ground and swiveled on one heel, cold-cocking the man still holding him in one punch. The druid’s head flipped back as he sank to his knees. Without waiting to see him fall, Mike plunged the knife into the neck of the man nearest him and twisted him around in front of him as a fusillade of bullets thumped into the body.
Someone from the compound yelled, “Open fire!”
The bullets thundered into the ground on all sides of him, kicking up divots like exploding turf. Sarah scrambled to her feet. The bullets seemed to hit everywhere at once, wild and unaimed.
“Kill them! Kill them all!” Cormac screamed. His headdress askew, he punched the air with his staff in a seizure of fury. His men surged toward him, flanking him and firing their guns up at the compound walls in a booming barricade of noise.
Mike felt a splinter of white hot fire slice into his forehead. As he stumbled backwards, he saw Bodhmail turn toward Sarah kneeling near him. Mike was too far away. He knew he couldn’t get there in time.
Sarah was looking at Mike when Bodhmail took careful aim at her back.
“Sarah!” Mike screamed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Sarah turned to Mike, clutching the tattered pieces of her blouse to her chest as his shout carried to her over the din of gunfire and screams. His face was frozen in agony.
His eyes were riveted on something behind her.
The world slowed down as she realized she was seeing the moment of her death. She tried to move out of the way, but her body was too slow. It wouldn’t respond. She was falling. In her mind’s eye, she saw John laughing, looking as he did when they first came to Ireland. She saw David putting an arm around him and she felt their intense shared love for the child that not even death could diminish. She saw herself as a girl, running down the beach in Saint Augustine. She tasted the salt in the air and on her lips, the wind pushing her faster and faster.
The ground slammed into her face. The sharp smell of grass pressed into her nostrils.
And she was alive.
Strong hands yanked her to a sitting position. Mike pulled her into his arms and then released her.
“Stay down!” he ordered as he stood up, his knife out and ready.
Sarah twisted to see Bodhmail face-down beside her, his handgun on the ground by his head. She looked up at the wall. The gunfire continued in a deafening rapidfire roar. She could see six women—and Archie—firing their guns into the crowd below.
Mike kept a hand on Sarah’s shoulder as if to ensure she didn’t get up. She could see that several of the druids were shooting at the women on the wall. But at least half the druids were backing away. Whether it was the killing of Bodhmail or the fact that Cormac appeared to have lost control, they seemed unsure of what to do next.
“Kill them now!” Cormac screamed. He waved his staff at his men.
Mike pulled a gun from the belt of one of the fleeing druids and shoved the gun into Cormac’s face. “Stand down, ye daft fecker,” he bellowed.
Cormac hesitated, staring at Mike in disbelief. He slowly lowered his hands.
“Do it now!”
“Stop! Stop shooting!” Cormac yelled to his men.
The druids lowered their weapons. Even the compound stopped shooting. Only the echo of the fusillade still rang in the morning air.
“Stalemate!” Cormac said to Mike.
“How do you figure that?” Mike pulled Sarah to her feet but did not lower his aim on Cormac.
“Because we’ll never stop,” Cormac said. “You’ve won the day. Bravo. Or should I say, brava, Mrs. Donovan? But we’ll return.” He looked in the direction of his men and raised his arms. “We will return!”
Then he coughed once and his mouth fell open. He dropped his staff. Then sagged to his knees, revealing Declan standing behind him.
The carved handle of the knife jutted out from Cormac’s back.
*****
Sarah would always remember the moment she stood in the cold morning mist when the air was finally quiet of gunfire. The moment when the first of the druids raised his hands in surrender at the sight of both Bodhmail and Cormac dead, and then when all of the others slowly followed suit.
Head of the snake, plural. Sarah turned to Mike and they clung to each other for a wordless moment. Thank you, God.
“You’re bleeding!” Sarah ran her fingers through his hair and touched his face.
“Just a graze,” he said. “Friendly fire, I reckon.”
She touched his hand where she’d taken off a top layer of skin when she’d cut his bonds. Declan and his men began gathering up the rifles from the druids.
“Where did you come from?” Mike asked, turning to Declan.
“Your lass there sent the Irish Superwoman to come spring us,” Declan said, grinning.
Mike looked over the heads of the druids. “Fiona? She went to their camp?”
“Aye, she did.”
“Ciara?”
“Right as rain!” Fiona yelled as she joined the group. She held Ciara in her arms. The child’s chubby arms were wrapped tightly around her neck. Declan ran to them and picked them both up in his arms, kissing first Fiona and then Ciara. Sarah heard the baby’s high-pitched giggles and found it nearly impossible to believe that this was how the morning was ending after all.
Archie opened the front gate and all the men except Barney began helping Declan’s men corral the druids who were standing with their hands on their heads.
“Look for knives!” Declan yelled to them, his arms still round his family. The gypsy women streamed out of the compound and rushed to their men, cackling and shrieking at once.
Sarah, wearing a shirt one of the women had pushed into her hands, looked around at the scene before her and shook her head in amazement. She scanned the crowd for Nuala and saw her standing beside Archie. Sarah gave Mike’s arm a squeeze. “Be right back.” She ran to Archie and Nuala and hugged them both.
“Anybody hurt?” she asked.
“All accounted for,” Archie said. “Seems the fecking druids are worse shots than the women.”
Sarah laughed and then turned to Nuala.
“I need you to go get Father Ryan. We’ve got eight bodies here he can say a few words over. But before you do, go relieve Barney Murdoch with the children. Make sure he throws the sugar cubes away first thing and don’t let any of the kids outside just yet. You did great, by the way. Kicked ass.”
Nuala grinned. “Aye, we did, didn’t we?” Then she turned and left.
Archie smiled at Sarah and she gave him another hug before breaking away to find Fiona. She found her standing in the midst of the gypsy women. Sarah embraced her and gave the baby a quick kiss on her chubby cheek.
“Good job, Fi,” Sarah said. “You saved the day again. How are we ever going to get you back in the laundry room after this?”
“I will thank God to wash nappies after today, so I will,” Fiona said, looking at her child
with tear-filled eyes. “I can’t believe I have them both back,”
“You went out and got them both back so you’d better believe it. What’s going on there?” Sarah pointed to Regan with her hands tied behind her back and her mother standing beside her.
Fiona glanced at the young woman and grimaced. “She was in on it.”
“What a surprise. And Margaret?”
Fiona nodded past Sarah. “Some of the men are bringing her back now.”
Sarah could see the tall, unrepentant form of Margaret as she stalked down the main road toward the compound. She turned back to Fiona. “What did you find when you went to the camp?”
“Sure, I found a living nightmare,” Fiona said grimly. “I found our men living in cages no bigger than pig crates. I found children running terrified in the forest and women trying to kill me because they’d been told I was the goddess of the underworld or some such shite.”
“Are they mentally impaired?”
“No, just looking for answers in a terrible world. The head wanker tried to kill Declan last night. Some kind of ritual before the big battle.”
“What happened?”
Fiona kissed the baby. “Seems Ciara started screaming when they took him out of the cage and in the end the druids opted for a good night’s sleep before the battle over pleasing the gods.”
“But you had no real trouble? Because I gotta tell you, I thought later that I really should have sent someone with you.”
“Well let’s just say I need to find Archie and give him a kiss. Both my guns were taken off me as soon as I arrived. The knife he slipped into my boot is the reason I’m standing here now.”
Fiona gave Sarah another quick hug and then left to go find Archie. The druids were standing quietly. Some had dropped their hands to their sides. It was clear the fight had gone out of them. Sarah walked over to Mike and Declan to catch the tail end of their conversation.
“I’m that sorry and I don’t know how else to tell you,” Declan said. “Except I’m resigning as head of security. You don’t need a nutter watching your walls at night.”
“Good thing I don’t have one then,” Mike said clapping his hand on Declan’s shoulder. “Glad to have you back, Dec. I need you, man.” Mike looked at Sarah as she joined them and drew her to his side. “Now more than ever. We’ll need you to watch the place while we’re gone,” he said, his eyes on Sarah’s.
“Mike,” she said, “I don’t want the druids inside the compound. Let’s settle this out here.”
Mike turned to the group outside the compound walls. Margaret was approaching with the rest of the druid women and the children. He waited until they joined the main group. Some of the women went to their men. One cried out and ran to a body on the ground. No one went to Bodhmail or Cormac.
“First things first,” Mike said to the druids in a loud, clear voice. Every head turned to him, fear etched on the faces of the women and children, uncertainty on the faces of the men.
“You have a choice about where you want your dead. We’ll bury them in the graveyard behind the compound. Or we can cart them to the woods and feed ‘em to the birds. Your choice.”
The woman hovering over the body on the ground began to weep. One of the druids glanced at her and then at Mike.
“We’ll be needing a decent burial, if you please,” he said in a low voice, dropping his eyes to the ground before him.
*****
The men worked silently wrapping the eight bodies. One of the men from the compound drove a small pony-drawn cart from the compound. Father Ryan was with him and immediately ran to the body of Cormac and knelt by it. His dog stayed with him, sniffing the ground.
Regan stood, her hands untied now, with her mother and father. She wept and clung to Barney but he looked stunned. The joy of finding his daughter safe was destroyed by the truth—that Regan had met with the druids on several occasions and had aided Margaret in snatching Ciara.
Sarah watched Regan now. No longer pretty, her hair hung in ragged, dirty locks and her face was mottled from tears. One eye was already blackening from her run-in with Fiona.
She’s lucky she didn’t get a lot worse.
“I never saw Gavin at the druids’ camp, I swear! Please, Da, make them believe me!” She covered her face and wept in noisy, hiccoughing sobs. She looked up and saw Sarah staring at her and dropped to her knees, her hands clasped in prayer.
“Please, Mrs. Donovan! Tell your husband not to throw me out! I’m begging you!”
Sarah’s face hardened and she turned away. Was the girl mad? It was because of her that both Gavin and John were gone. There could be no sanctuary for her with us. But Sarah knew in the end she would relent.
If nothing else, for Ellen’s sake.
As Sarah watched the men load up the bodies onto the wagon, she heard Margaret’s shrill voice screeching from the midst of the crowd. Mike stood next to Sarah as they watched Margaret push through the crowd toward him.
“Why am I being treated like this?” Margaret shouted, shaking off the hand of one of the gypsy men. “I did nothing wrong! I answer to a power greater than you, Michael Donovan, for everything I have done!”
Mike regarded her coldly, his hands on his hips.
“You may leave with your new friends,” he said. “ I just want to see the back of you.”
Margaret took a step toward him, her mouth open in astonishment. “You can’t throw me out! I knew your mother, Michael Donovan!”
“I’m sure she’s cringing up in heaven to hear her name on your tongue. I know I am.”
Sarah put a hand on Mike’s arm but addressed Margaret. “Don’t worry,” she said, “We won’t turn you out.”
“Sarah…” Mike looked at her questioningly as she nodded at Archie who appeared silently behind Margaret.
“You’ll be tried here, Margaret,” Sarah said. “Among your peers.” She pointed to the women still lining the compound walls, looking down at them. Many of them nodded. “We will be your judge and your jury,” Sarah said, standing in front of Margaret. “And if you’re found guilty of Siobhan Murray’s murder, we’ll hang you.”
Archie clamped a heavy hand on Margaret’s arm and with the help of two of the gypsy women dragged Margaret screaming through the front gate.
Sarah turned and addressed the druids. “No amnesties,” she said loudly. “All will answer for the deaths of Mickey Quinn and Roddy Barker.”
The women of the compound cheered, but one woman’s shrill voice broke above the noise.
“I swear on me life, the auld man died of a heart attack. T’is true!”
Other voices among the druids joined hers. “The old man died naturally. It weren’t us!”
“And Roddy Barker?”
The druids looked at each other and then at the ground. The woman who had served Cormac his soup the day that Sarah had visited stepped forward. “It was that mad berk, Cormac,” she said. “It weren’t us.”
“What about Gavin Donovan?” Sarah asked. “Was that only Cormac too?”
“We never killed the lad!”
“So where is he?” Sarah shouted. Mike put a hand on her arm.
“He escaped!” One man stepped forward. He was one of the few men wearing a robe and tree branches in his hair. He wrung the corded belt of his robe nervously in his hands.
“He ran away before anything happened.”
“So you did intend to sacrifice him.”
The man looked at her blankly and shifted his gaze.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“But he escaped!” another man said. “We never hurt him! I swear it.”
A woman called out, “You can’t blame us for that!”
“But I do blame you,” Sarah said. “I blame every one of you for the fact that he’s gone.” And my own child, too.
The woman looked at the ground and then turned away.
“Let them go, Sarah.” Mike said gently.
She turned to face him, her eyes flashin
g. “They murdered twenty people buried in a shallow grave not two miles from here!”
“You can’t prove that!” one of the druids said, desperation lacing his voice.
“They’re right,” Mike said, his hand firm on her arm. “We can’t prove it. And you and I don’t have time to deal with it. Let them go.” He turned to them and raised his voice. “But everyone know this, if you return we’ll shoot you on sight.”
“What about Margaret?” Sarah said. “And the other one?”
“What other one?” Mike turned to her and frowned.
Sarah took the gun out of Mike’s hand and pointed it at Father Ryan who was rising from his knees, brushing the dirt from them. He stared at her in shock.
“Sarah, what are you doing? It’s me.” Ryan said, his mouth agape. Declan, Fiona and the gypsy women drew in to surround him.
“He was in the compound the night Gavin disappeared,” Sarah said.
“I’m often in the compound,” Ryan said. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”
Sarah turned to Mike. “He’s the only one Gavin would’ve trusted enough to be lured out.”
Mike stepped in front of the priest. “Is it true?” he said.
“How can you believe that? I married the two of you!” But his eyes darted away.
“When you came to the compound after the rectory burned,” Sarah said, “which I’m pretty sure you did yourself—why didn’t you go to Mike and tell him you saw me?”
“I just forgot to. I was very upset with all—” Ryan jumped as Fiona, holding the baby on one hip, stuck a gun barrel into his ribs from behind.
“I’ll tell ye odd behavior,” Fiona said. “Presiding over a funeral and never once crossing yourself or mentioning the name of God. Almost as if you didn’t believe in scripture any more.”
Sarah walked over to where Regan stood and grabbed her by the arm. Barney made a half-hearted attempt to stop them. Sarah dragged the girl to where Ryan stood.
“Okay, sweetie,” Sarah said to Regan, “you get one chance to stay in the compound with your parents and not live under a rock for the rest of your days. Who did you see Gavin leave with that night?”
Irish End Games, Books 4-5-6 Page 23