by K. E. Saxon
A tall and muscular dark-haired warrior came through the entry and Daniel’s heart shot into his throat. “You! I know you!” Sweeping around the table, he leapt off the dais and strode toward him. Confusing images flashed through his mind. Images of the flat end of a sword coming into view before it struck him. And as he’d slowly awakened from that blow, images of his father battling a lad with the same looks as the man before him now. “You were there that day. That day I killed my father.”
The man ceased his forward motion and stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his legs braced in a wide stance. “Aye, I was there. But ‘twas not you who killed him; ‘twas I who did the deed. I had to, you see, else ‘twould have been him that killed you. For you were in no condition to fight after the blow you took.”
More images crowded into Daniel’s mind. “There was a fierce battle between you two,” he murmured, a faraway look in his eye. “I remember rising to my feet and attempting to take over the fight. I sliced through the mail covering my father’s arm.”
“And when he rounded on you and sliced your thigh, I thrust my sword deep into his side and through his heart. He died instantly.”
Numb with shock, Daniel nodded, stroking the place on his thigh where he still bore the scar, more of his memory returning as each moment passed. “Blood pooled under him and ran in a dark stream around my foot. The anger I felt that I had not had the satisfaction of exacting revenge for my family’s deaths made me attack my defender.” Daniel looked up then, directly into the other man’s eyes. “You.”
The warrior’s smile held sadness when he said, “Aye, you hurled yourself into me and threw me to the ground. I barely had time to restrain your arm before your fist made contact with my jaw. We struggled for quite a few moments until your head injury finally got the better of you.”
Daniel nodded and took up the tale. “I became dizzy and ill. I fell away from you and retched up my meal.”
“And while you retched, I spoke to you of my lineage. Do you remember?”
Daniel’s heart trebled in meter and a high-pitched ringing began in his ears. A chill went through him as his skin went slick with cold sweat. On liquid knees he turned and fell onto a bench, holding himself up with his elbow on the table and one leg outstretched. Looking back at his guest, he said, “Aye. I believe I do remember. You are my father’s bastard son. My half-brother, Bao Xiong.” The man was an inch or two taller than Daniel was himself, and his breadth was massive. He’d known instantly that only a trained warrior would have such a physique, and Daniel fleetingly wondered now with whom he’d been training in the intervening years.
Bao nodded. “Aye,” was all he gave him as reply. Continuing the tale of Jamison Maclean’s last battle, he said, “Once you’d rid yourself of your meal, your fighting spirit returned. You bounded to your feet and plowed your sword through our father’s neck, taking the head as proof of his death.”
Daniel leapt to his feet and strode to the buttery. “I need a draught of uisge beatha”—turning, he looked back at Bao—“you?”
Nodding, he said, “Aye, my thanks. Tho’ I’m not one to partake of strong liquor, this day is an exception.”
“My mind is still murky and reeling a bit from the memories that keep rushing at me. We have much to discuss.” Realizing his lack of hospitality, Daniel continued, “I beg you. Sit.”
*
Bao at last took a moment to look around. The great hall was much as he remembered it from all those years before. ‘Twas still a huge cavern of a chamber, with room for many tables during feasts. He was surprised, however, that Daniel’s wife had made so few changes since becoming mistress of the keep. Shrugging, he settled on a bench at the laird’s table.
*
A sense of exhilaration filled Daniel. He had a brother, half tho’ he may be. He had a brother! And that brother had proved his loyalty and saved Daniel’s life. Suddenly recalling there was another here who shared blood with Bao, he said, “I must tell my grandmother. She’ll be much pleased to learn she has another grandson.” Daniel walked back to the table and sat down across from Bao, placing a cup of the liquor in front of him.
“She knows. Or, at least, I suspect that she knows of my connection to her. Our father brought me here upon our return from Jerusalem.”
Daniel gave Bao a piercing look. “How long were you here?” Had his brother been part of the raid on the MacLaurin holding? Surely not, for Daniel had been assured that all the murderers, but one, had been killed within sennights of the massacre.
“We abided here a few sennights and then we left suddenly—our father did not connect well with his parents. We traveled to Perth and he left us there with a procuress he had met years before.”
A procuress? Daniel wondered at his brother’s unsavory upbringing, but would not intrude on his privacy by asking about it. That kind of information must be volunteered, not forced. He was relieved, however, that Bao had not been anywhere near the MacLaurin holding on the day of the murders. Relaxing, he took a sip of his liquor. “Why do you believe our grandmother suspects your blood connection to her?”
“From a remark she made as we were leaving. She said, ‘You have the look of the MacIntyre about you, lad.’ Then she went on to tell me about her father, David MacIntyre.”
“Now that I look more closely, I do see a resemblance around the nose and mouth to my grandmother. Her hair must have been as black as yours when she was younger, as well.”
Bao looked pensive for a moment. “I never considered before that my black hair might have come from that side of my family.” Returning his gaze to Daniel, he explained, “My mother was from Cathay. She told me many tales of her homeland before she died when I was but five summers. I remember her telling me that most all the people from that place have black hair.”
Daniel was suddenly struck by something that Bao had said previously. “You said our father ‘left us there.’ Do I have other siblings?” Daniel genuinely hoped ‘twas so.
*
Bao took in a deep breath. “Nay, but I have a sister. A fostered sister; she was the bairn of a woman my father desired as a mistress. He abducted the lady away from her people when we traveled through northern Cambria on our journey to the Highlands from Jerusalem.” Bao gazed at the amber liquid in the cup he was holding between his hands as they rested on top of the table. He frowned at the memory of Branwenn’s mother’s attempts to get free. She’d been beaten each time, until finally she’d given up hope and allowed his father every liberty he desired. Jamison Maclean had broken her spirit, and her will.
Feeling his brother’s eyes on him, Bao shook off the morose recollections and sat up straighter. “She was carrying her husband’s bairn, but my father did not learn of it until later.” Jamison Maclean had not been pleased at the lady’s childing state and had made no allowances for her condition in his treatment of her. Bao was amazed even now that she’d lasted through her child-bearing time. But she had not lasted past the delivery and Bao had had to make a devil’s bargain to keep his sister from being thrown off their cart and dumped into a water-filled ditch that night.
“Where is your sister now?
Bao shifted on his seat, uneasy at the turn of the conversation. He was pleased so far with Daniel’s acceptance of their blood connection and his seeming lack of enmity regarding Bao’s foreign heritage, but how he would react to learning that Bao was the ‘magic giant’ of Alleck’s tales and that he and his sister had been living in the Maclean wood all these moons, Bao was a bit worried to learn. “She is not far. She awaits me in your wood, in fact.”
Daniel rose from his seat. “You left her in the wood? We must retrieve her forthwith.” Daniel called for his steward and then turned back to Bao, saying, “I only wish that you had arrived this day past. For we had a feast in honor of my wife’s childing and her father’s visit. Your arrival would have given us even more to be glad for.” After giving his steward instructions to send word to the stables to have their moun
ts readied, Daniel stepped from the dais, clearly anxious to be on his way. “I am sure after your journey, the delectables that were prepared would have pleased the two of you greatly.”
Bao was a bit bewildered at Daniel’s enthusiasm, so it took him a moment to realize the man believed he had only just arrived on Maclean land—and on horseback. Rising, he descended the platform and walked over to stand at his brother’s side. “Pray, pardon me, for I have not made myself clear. We have been in your wood for the past five moons, so I own no steed at present. I arrived on foot this day.”
Daniel’s eyes widened before he rushed to the door to call the steward back. After explaining the error and making arrangements for two extra mounts, he turned back to Bao, crossing his arms over his chest. “Tell me this tale.”
Sighing, Bao resigned himself to Daniel’s anger. He’d known when he came that there would be no getting around this confession. He might have been able to hide the fact that he’d been living in the Maclean wood by purchasing mounts prior to this meeting, if he had not begun a friendship with Alleck all those moons ago. But he’d pitied the wee lad’s loneliness, and understood it much more than he dared think on. Deciding to begin by explaining why they’d come here originally, he said, “We—my sister and I—lived in Perth until a few sennights after Hogmanay, when, due to some events that directly affected my sister’s continued virtue, I decided that ‘twas time to leave that town and find a place where she might have a safer and more acceptable feminine influence in her life. I remembered my time here as a youth and decided to appeal to Lady Maclean to take my sister under her wing.” Bao paced, needing to move as he spoke. “We had only just arrived the day prior to your own arrival. When I found out that you were to reside here, I knew I could not make myself known yet.” Turning his head to look over his shoulder at Daniel, he explained, “I had heard that you had lost your memory of most of the events leading to our father’s death.” Turning back, he continued to pace. “I needed to find out if you desired to know the events before I met you again. There was also the worry that you might still hate me for being the one to kill our father once the details were revealed to you.” With a doleful smile, Bao turned back to face his brother. “The day our father died, you refused my aid and spurned our blood-tie. You called me a mongrel bastard and told me you wished our father had given me a fatal blow before dying.”
*
A sharp pang of regret squeezed Daniel’s chest. He’d not recalled saying those vicious words until Bao repeated them. Now, he remembered his anger at not having avenged his mother and grandfather’s horrid murders—anger that some other hand had done the deed. “You must know that I no longer feel that way. In truth, if I had not lost my memory, I believe I would have searched for you within days—mayhap even hours—of leaving you thus. I always wanted a brother, you see.”
Bao looked away and cleared his throat. Turning back to Daniel, he said gruffly, “I, too, have always wanted a brother.”
Daniel grinned. “Well, then.”
Bao grinned back. “Well, then.”
*
“Your mounts are ready, Laird,” Steward Ranald said as he entered the great hall. The two men turned at the sound of the steward’s voice.
Daniel looked at Bao and said, “Let us retrieve the lass. I’m anxious to be back so that we can reveal the wondrous tidings to our other family members.”
Bao’s heart was too full to reply. He simply nodded and followed Daniel as they departed the keep. His brother’s generosity was overwhelming to Bao. He’d lived a mean existence, one in which greed and disappointment in man’s nature were commonplace. This was a new experience; one which would take a bit of getting used to.
A light misting rain began as they walked across the bailey to the stables. Looking up at the patches of dark clouds in the sky and hearing the distant sounds of thunder, Bao hoped they would not be caught in a deluge before they returned with his sister and their belongings.
After they’d mounted and started toward the forest, Daniel said, “So, you’re the ‘magic giant’ we’ve been hearing so much about of late.”
Bao gave Daniel a pained expression. “Aye, that I am. I found Alleck crying miserably by the loch one day and pitied the wee lad. I began the game purely to ease his loneliness by giving him something unusual that might spark a few friendships for him in this new place.”
“But it turned into a manhunt when Alleck showed me the gift. I saw the similarity of the symbols on the coins you gave him to the ones cut into my mother and grandfather’s flesh and I wanted to find out the meaning of such symbols.”
Bao bit back a growl of anger and disgust. After a moment, he nodded. “Aye, it never occurred to me that those coins would or could be connected in any way to the horror of your family’s deaths.”
Daniel pulled on his reins and turned in his saddle to face him. “Do you know the meaning of the symbols on the coins?”
Bao tugged on the reins of his mount as well. “Nay. I know they represent the language of my mother’s homeland, but she did not teach me to read them.” Taking a deep breath, Bao steeled himself to Daniel’s reaction before saying, “But I fear I know the meaning of the symbol your family received in death, tho’ I cannot be sure until I see it drawn.”
Daniel’s hands clenched around his reins, the knuckles growing white. He gave a quick nod and said, “It will be done.” The two sat their steeds quietly a moment as he scrubbed his fingers across his brow before looking over at Bao. “Let us take this day to celebrate our reunion. There will be time enough on the morrow to speak of such dismal remembrances. I’ve had enough of them for this day.” Spurring his horse into a gallop, he raced toward the forest. When Bao sped up beside him, he grinned. ‘Twas the first Bao had seen since they left the keep.
They left their mounts tethered to a juniper not far from the pine they would climb in order to get to the entrance to the cave. Bao ascended the tree first, showing Daniel how to place his hands and his feet for best purchase. Once they’d entered the cave, Bao called out the signal and waited for his sister’s reply, which was not long in coming. Grinning, he motioned for Daniel to follow him, already anticipating his sister’s reaction when he brought Daniel into their inner sanctum.
CHAPTER 17
Branwenn knelt with her back turned away from the entrance to their cave-chamber. She folded and re-folded their blankets, unwilling to pack these last two possessions and make their departure final. Though this had been the most austere place she could remember ever living in, it had also been her favorite, and she was loath to leave it. For her brother had spent much time with her here, without the interruption of his work, which was a thing she’d long craved from him. ‘Twas truth, that when they’d lived in their lovely cottage near the king’s castle in Perth, she’d rarely seen him. For when he was home from battle, he would remain out all ‘noon and night, returning only to drag himself to his bed each dawn. She would only see him at dinner, and then he’d be off again to his manly recreations once more.
But she hated the times when he was fulfilling his contract in the king’s army even more, for then he was gone for several moons each time, leaving Branwenn with the bitter old spinster he paid to watch over her. Though the woman had never been violent toward her, she had had a vicious tongue that had left Branwenn with many invisible scars. Well, Branwenn thought grimly, at least she’d seen the last of that old scold. And that alone was reason enough to be glad they had quitted that town.
Bringing the blanket up to her face, she wiped the unshed tears from her eyes and let out a forlorn sigh. She hoped she could talk her brother out of his scheme to set her aside. Tho’ he said ‘twas only that he wanted to do what was best for her future when he harped upon the same old string of leaving her with a good household, it seemed to her as if he was simply wearying of rearing her, mayhap even wearying of her. And now that she knew the truth of her parentage, a small corner of her heart also questioned whether ‘twas because th
ey were not truly kin that he was so eager to be rid of her.
“Seize as many things as you can carry, for we shall abide at the keep!”
Her heart leapt into her throat. “Aieee!” Branwenn whirled around, causing her to stumble over the leather satchel she’d been packing their belongings in. Her arms spinning in the air like the sails of a windmill, she teetered for an instant and then promptly lost her balance, toppling over onto her backside.
Bao laughed so hard at her, he snorted.
Brows furrowed and lips pursed, she glared up at him. “You have quite a wicked sense of humor, brother.” Branwenn thrust out her hand in a silent demand for him to help her to rise.
Still grinning, he strode over to her prostrate form and unceremoniously yanked her to her feet.
“I see no humor here,” she fussed, dusting off her backside, “so ‘twould be best for you to wipe that smirk from your countenance forthwith. And I’d not shut my eyes this night, were I you. Else the same disaster”—she made a sharp shearing motion with two fingers—“may befall your lovely black locks that befell mine.”
*
“Jest not about such wicked doings, you witches’ whelp,” Bao said, grabbing hold of the strip of hair he had in a thong at the base of his neck, as if making sure it was still attached. Then, evidently appeased by what he found, he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Now, ‘tis time you proved that I have taught you a few manners at least and greet our guest.”
Branwenn felt her face drain of color. “Guest?” she croaked. She refused to peek around the massive chest of her brother and see who the visitor might be, but she had a suspicion, and it made her even more furious at Bao’s success in startling her to her core.
He grinned, nodding. “Aye. Laird MacLaurin.” Moving aside so that Daniel was now in full view, Bao said, “Daniel, meet my sister, Branwenn. I know her hair is a dreadful sight, but she is truly not so unpleasant to gaze upon if you will only look past the hacked mop on her head.”