It became very clear to me in that instant—I was going to die. There were too many of the enemy and I’d made a fatal error in not accounting for the smoke that would choke and blind me. Not to mention the fact these Children of Darkness had been hunting us since we first entered the Otherworld. Their horn had sounded many times in the darkness, especially when we were far from the Dark Isles. In my haste to finish Randall, and blinded by the sudden reappearance of my brother, I’d lost the sense that would have saved me in this situation.
Samantha. My beautiful wife. It would be up to her to protect our family and finish Randall now. I wasn’t surprised to find I knew she could do it without me, simply sad to think of how she’d react when she discovered I’d perished here. How long would she wait on the Adelina? Would days or weeks pass before she finally accepted the inevitable and realized I was no longer alive? Would she take it on herself to travel here and find the Red Javelin? I hoped not.
Staring down the army of fae racing toward me, the world suddenly seemed to be moving in slow motion. Rows upon rows of sharp teeth and gray hands reached for me, weapons wrapped in their fingers. Between the masses, I caught sight of the dogs Cal warned me of earlier, so skinny I could see every single one of their bones through their thin, ashen hides.
Peering toward Cal, I watched as he nocked a third dart, aiming for the woman on the landing. Just as he let the arrow fly, she threw the spear, gleeful as she did so.
The javelin cut through the air like butter, moving toward Cal with astonishing speed. His face fell, acceptance crossing his features. He knew he’d not be returning from this death, not after the Red Javelin claimed him. His eyes closed, the tension seeming to seep from him, his appearance that of a soul ready for death.
But I was not ready.
Shouting, I drew Excalibur from its sheath, the blinding light streaming across the room. Fairies shrieked as I swung the blade, the smoke seeming to vanish in an instant, a surge of power passing through the space. The edge of the metal collided with the spear, saving Cal at the last second.
With an ear-wrenching clatter, the Red Javelin shattered into a million pieces, evaporating into the light of Excalibur’s blade, destroyed completely.
Stunned, I froze, holding Excalibur in front of Cal like a statue. Adjusting to the new brightness, I blinked, not believing what I was seeing.
The Fomorii were kneeling. Clearly, they did not want to be, based on the amount of wailing and feather pulling they were doing, but every single one of them was on their knees, seemingly unable to stand.
“Where did you get that blade?” The woman moaned the words as if they pained her, her own figure prostrate on the landing as she stared down at me through the slats in the bannister.
Gathering myself, I swallowed and lowered the sword, flinching as the action brought whines and cries from the beasts around me. Callaghan looked as surprised as I felt as I glanced at him, his eyes wide as he took in the scene.
“The Lady of the Lake,” I answered hoarsely, an overwhelming feeling of fear filling me as I glanced down at the sword in my hands.
“Danu!” The woman wailed, her hands forming fists as she bowed before me. “The Mother of Light! She has given you Retaliator? How dare she think to command us in this manner!”
Hesitant, I stepped forward, freezing as the nearest fairies howled and skittered back.
“They can’t come near ye,” Cal breathed in awe. “I thought Excalibur would only give us an advance in the fight. I never would have believed . . .”
He stared at me again, the same kind of reverence and loyalty in his gaze as when he’d pledged his allegiance to me in the forest. “Ye saved my life,” he whispered hoarsely. “At the cost of yer own vengeance.”
My skin crawled. This was not what I wanted—to be knelt before, obeyed, feared, honored, and pledged to. Since I’d stepped on the Stone of Destiny, I had been battered by things I neither desired or needed. It was a suffocating feeling, one that I desperately wished to escape right then.
“Ye have to listen to me?” I asked hesitantly, examining the beings forced to kneel.
“He who bears the Sword of Light is King in this land,” the woman groaned. “We must obey, even if we desire not to. The gods have made it so.”
It was too easy, defeating them in this manner. However, there was nothing simple about the weight I felt on my shoulders. Excalibur was like a rock in my hand, destined to sink me to the bottom of the sea. I felt I couldn’t breathe when I looked at it, the power it possessed pulsing in my palm, keeping the Children of Darkness bent.
“We’re leaving,” I suddenly stated, peering at Cal. “If ye truly must obey, then I command ye not to follow.” Moving to go, I sighed heavily, trying to keep the fear I felt at this turn of events hidden and under control. The creatures on the stairs skittered out of the way, keeping their forms low to the ground as they did so. The action made me sick to my stomach.
Placing my feet on the stairs, an idea passed through my mind and I turned back, licking my lips and swallowing nervously. “Ye are not to hunt another soul,” I ordered. “Ye will stay in this castle and rot, like the bodies of those ye claimed.”
They wailed, the sound both mournful and angry. The order seemed to seep through the room with finality, wounding each and every one of them. Not one of them moved, though, their faces turned toward the ground. I didn’t know if they’d truly listen to me or not, but it didn’t hurt to try.
Shuddering, I turned, moving down the stairs as quickly as I dared. As we passed through the hall on the ground floor, the way remained clear. Broken glass doors opened for us without a word and there was a path that had never been there before, leading straight to the ocean. On the shore, I could see our long boat waiting.
“This has to be a trap,” I muttered, glancing at Callaghan.
He peered at Excalibur, a reverence and fear in him I hated to see. “It’s not a trap,” he responded, surprise heavy in his tone. “Ye are the High King. Part god, even if it is a tiny portion of yer blood. Everything here must listen to ye. I didn’t understand before, but I do now.”
Frustration grabbed hold of me in an instant and I sheathed the sword, plunging us back into the orange light of the eclipse overhead. “I did not ask for this,” I replied angrily, moving forward and following the path to the boat. “I’m no king, Cal. Surely ye, of all people, know that.”
“Ye cannot hide what ye truly are, Tristan. Not here. Not now.”
Glaring over my shoulder at him, I continued on, falling silent. How could he not understand I was frightened by this? True, not many things scared me, but this was definitely one of them. I was in no position to be commanding people and lounging around, acting like a god. My lack of understanding and knowledge of this place should have been the first inclination that perhaps I should not be given this mantle to bear.
If anything, Callaghan should have been the one to do it. He was a born leader, familiar with the laws and customs of this place. Cal loved Éire more than anyone I knew, so much so he’d willingly done whatever it took to help manipulate a war, in the hopes it would eventually bring her complete freedom and sovereignty. If the Lady of the Lake, or Danu, or whatever or whoever she was had seen fit to give him Excalibur, he’d have known exactly what to do with it.
Instead, here I was, with no idea of the power I held or how to use it. Silently, I cursed my ancestor, Cathal, for telling me to come here. He’d given me no warning or clue. The least he could have done was prepare me for the shock.
Having finally reached the beach, I climbed into the long boat, flinching as the forest magically closed behind us. Grabbing the oars, I got ready to row us away, wanting to put the Dark Isles behind us for the rest of forever.
Cal swore gently under his breath and then joined me in the boat, his back to me as he stared at the island. “All those years it took me to escape,” he muttered. “And now we’re just sailing away, without a care.”
“Cal, not rig
ht now.” Snapping at him, I dipped the oars into the water and set off, trying to banish my emotions with the motion of the action.
Turning, he stared at me. “It happened the same day I killed that fairy,” he offered conversationally. “It was the first time I’d done it. Hundreds of years, millions of deaths, and I managed to get just one of them. The Fomorii were so shocked, they didn’t notice I slipped away. It was the luckiest thing that happened to me here. I’d died so many times on my own and even more at their hands . . . I couldn’t help but think, somewhere, a god was showing mercy. Did they allow me to escape because I needed to come to ye, to guide ye through this journey?”
“I’m not on a journey,” I growled back. His words made the knot in my stomach harder. What if this was only the beginning? What if I became stuck in this place, forced to do the duties of the High King? Everyone insisted I was the one who must be listened to, but it felt like I was the one being bowed to a will that was not my own.
“How can ye say that?” He wasn’t angry as he asked, curiosity covering his face. “How are ye so unwilling to accept what our homeland is giving ye? Ye are king, Tristan! Think of the things ye could do! The people ye could aid!”
Shaking my head, I refused to consider it. “As soon as we get back to the ship, I am leaving this place, Cal. I cannot handle what ye are asking of me. I do not want this life, nor do I need it. I have everything I could desire in my wife and our place in the mortal realm.”
“What about Avalon?” There was an edge to his tone, and I breathed a sigh of relief at having finally managed to stir something other than awe in him.
“Ye save it,” I answered simply. “Ye can take the sword and act in my place. Ye’re the better man for the position anyway.”
The blood drained from his face as he violently disagreed. “They won’t listen to me, Tristan. Ye alone can handle the sword. Avalon needs ye. I need ye. I cannot leave this place unless I prove my worth in the battle for the city.”
“Ye need the gods to give ye permission to go?” Every emotion I’d been suffering with for the past few days seemed to climax at that exact moment. Shoving to my feet, I shouted at him, my face reddening as I let everything out. “Fine! Ye keep saying I am part god. I give ye permission to take yer leave. I’ll not be forced to put my wife and child in danger any longer, simply because a few deities think I have a higher calling to fulfil!”
Frustrated, I ran my hands through my hair. “This was never supposed to be this way,” I continued. “I was going to come here on my own and finish Randall. He is a danger to everyone who breathes on this earth. Why am I the only person who seems to know this? The Grand Master refuses to take action against him. My closest friends and allies will not acknowledge the position we are in with him in our grasp. Even Samantha did not understand when I told her to stay away from him. And she’s been harmed the most out of all of them!”
I clenched my fingers into fists, shaking with rage. “And now the Red Javelin is destroyed. I have no means to end the bastard, in this world or any other! We will continue to be plagued by the vermin until our lives are at their ends. When he escapes—and believe ye me, the snake will—I will be thrown back into the turmoil of wondering if I am doing enough to protect the ones I love. If it were a simple matter of laying down my own life, I’d do it without hesitation. But I know as soon as I am gone, he will swoop in like the vulture he is and take all I found good and pure. He will murder my family, destroy the Order, and lay waste to the world, in the name of supreme power.”
Pursing my lips, I took a deep breath, staring at the Dark Isles. The overwhelming feeling of despair I felt when first seeing them settled back within my bones. “I never should have come here,” I said miserably. “To the Dark Isles, to the Otherworld, to Éire. I should have found a way to end him without this. Everything I’ve done here was for nothing.”
Sitting back down, I rested my elbows on my knees, putting my head in my hands.
“Everything?” There was a touch of pain in Cal’s quiet voice.
Grimacing, I glanced at him. “Ye are the one good thing,” I amended quietly. “But, I still wish I’d come on my own. I should have left Randall in his cell in Paris. I was so concerned with Samantha being made to speak with him, though, I lost myself when I heard of it. All I could think was I had to take him away and finish our feud. It was the only path to freedom.”
“I understand yer thinking,” Cal replied quietly. “And I am sorry for the suffering I brought ye by introducing the two of ye.”
Smiling faintly, I waved the apology away. “Don’t. It is I who should be making amends. I’m sorry ye’ve toiled in this place for so long. I do not know how ye have borne such a trial. I apologize I didn’t fight to voice my opinions when I should have. If I’d shared my hesitations, perhaps ye’d have never come here in the first place.”
He shrugged, staring at the bottom of the boat. “It is what it is. We cannot change the past, should we wish to. The only way to move is forward.”
Grasping the oars again, I continued rowing, silence spreading between us for a time. As the Dark Isles faded away into the mist, Cal glanced at me hesitantly.
“Do ye think yer word has truly freed me from this place?” Filled with hope, he watched me evenly.
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “There’s one way to find out.”
He nodded, furrowing his brow. After a beat, he sucked in a breath, decidedly. “Let’s try once we’re back to the ship,” he concluded. “We can go to the Hill of Tara and I will see if I can leave the Otherworld. Then, ye can take yer family home, where they will be safe, and Randall can be dealt with in a different manner.”
Surprised, I stopped rowing. “Are ye sure?”
“Aye. It cannot hurt to try.” He grinned, an excitement rolling off him that was contagious.
Spurred on by the thought of his impending freedom and my own desire to see Sam, I moved quicker as I propelled us through the water, feeling much better since sharing my true thoughts with him.
The sooner we could leave this place, the better.
“What’s that?” Cal stood, eyes narrowing as he gazed in the direction of our hidden ship.
Unbidden, the memory of the burning vessel and Sam’s body in the water popped into my mind. Sickness flooded me in an instant and I jerked around, terrified to see what it was he was talking about.
The armada of ships was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Each hull flowed together seamlessly, creating swirls and patterns in the wood that shouldn’t have been possible. Great, billowing sails rustled in the breeze, torchlight lighting the scene. In the midst of the magical fleet, the Adelina appeared to be waiting patiently, unbothered by the massive escort surrounding it.
Thrown off by the sight, my mind went blank temporarily. Surely, if something was wrong, there would be evidence of it. However, the scene was completely tranquil and quiet.
“I’ve seen those boats before,” Callaghan mused, his tone wary. “They belong to the fae of Avalon. I haven’t seen any of them on the water in a while, which is to be expected. They pulled in their anchors and headed west when the Black Knights took their city.”
“Friend or foe?” I asked tersely, my thoughts turning to Samantha.
“The first, as far as I can tell.”
Nodding, I exhaled. How many more fairy creatures was I going to have to deal with? I’d hoped to avoid them completely. However, they had apparently come to me, which made the knot I’d managed to loose in my stomach reappear.
If I could put all of this High King nonsense behind me right this instant, it wouldn’t be soon enough.
“Do ye think they’ve come to see ye?” Cal’s thoughts mirrored my own as I took to rowing again, his face contemplative as he continued to stare at the image behind me.
Grunting in reply, I moved quicker, eager to get on board my ship and see my wife. She’d try to convince me not to leave this place, certainly, but that couldn’t be helped. Once I had
her to myself and could explain what occurred on the Dark Isles, she’d agree with me. It was time to take our leave of this place.
Frowning, the face of Thomas Randall swam before me, grinning wickedly. What about that nuisance? I’d no means to finish him, nor would I be likely to find one in the near future. My plans had rested on the Red Javelin and I’d destroyed it without a second thought.
Peering at Cal, I couldn’t help but feel confident in that action,. His life was saved, because of my impulse. Had I known I’d destroy the weapon? No. But, it didn’t matter. My brother’s living would always be more important than Randall dying.
Passing by the first of the fairy ships, I grimaced, trying not to look at the rows of men staring at me from the railings. It was hard not to gape myself, as these beings were as awe inspiring as the Fomorii were. They were much the same, possessing human-like forms, but incredibly different at the same time.
Feather sprouted from their heads, but every color I ever could have imagined was present in the manes. Their skin was rosy and healthy looking, where the Children of Darkness had embodied their name in every way possible. The fae surrounding now seemed to sparkle with energy, happiness radiating from them like a blast of heat from a fire. Golden armor adorned their bodies, glinting in the light like their bright eyes. Not a one of them spoke as we floated past, their attention riveted on us with a mild curiosity and very apparent order.
They were an army, I realized slowly. Trained and waiting for their commander to inform them of their actions. No one came forward or hailed me, despite the obvious need for a general to do so. The lack of action instantly alerted me to a fact I hadn’t considered right off.
Stolen Away : A Time Travel Romance (The Swept Away Saga Book 4) Page 28