Highland Dawn

by Donna Grant

  He was very near death and needed almost all of her powers to be pulled back. Several times she had to call the infant to her because he was so far gone, yet come to her he did. And each time more quickly.

  When he was fully healed of all malnutrition, she began to see a blue light surrounding him. With a murmur of more ancient Druid words she bade her power return to her.

  She dropped her hands and looked to find a healthy, sleeping baby in front of her. “’Tis too bad I cannot fix his foot,” she said and looked up at Dartayous.

  His eyes were softer as they gazed at the infant. Moira took a deep breath and tried to gain her feet when her legs gave out. Dartayous caught her before she hit the ground.

  “You used too much of your power,” he admonished as he laid her next to the infant.

  “I had to. I have the ability, and destiny put him in my path. I had no other choice. He’s mine now,” she said before she fell into a healing sleep.

  Chapter Two

  Dartayous gazed down at Moira. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. What she had done shouldn’t surprise him, yet it did. She had changed since finding her sisters. Changed so that she wasn’t predictable.

  And that worried him.

  An unpredictable Moira could get them in all sorts of trouble, never mind that they had a duty to perform that would send most men running the other way. He wondered if they would find the hidden doorway into the world of the Fae and if they would be able to free the Fae.

  With another sigh he bent and lifted Moira in his arms to carry her the rest of the way to their camp when his eyes fell on the sleeping infant.

  They were going to need milk.

  He cursed long and hard as he gazed upon Moira and the babe. Things just became complicated, and if his instincts were true, things were going to get much worse.

  Dartayous gently set Moira back on the ground before he titled his head back and let out a whistle. In less than a heartbeat, his horse whinnied in return. Dartayous heard the horse running through the woods as it searched for him. He sent another shorter whistle and soon found the horse trotting toward him.

  “At least you listen, lad,” he said as he patted the great black steed. “Wish I could say the same for Moira.”

  After he had adjusted the saddle he bent close to Moira and sat her up. Slowly her eyes opened.

  “Come,” he urged. “You’ll ride Raven back to camp.”

  “The babe,” she whispered.

  “I will carry him. We have much to do. Will you be able to hold on?”

  She nodded and he hastily picked her up and sat her on the black. He waited for a moment to make sure she would stay atop the horse before he went back for the infant.

  Thankfully, their camp wasn’t far. Once they reached it, he laid the baby down and reached for Moira. She was asleep before he laid her beside the babe. As carefully as he could, he placed the infant in Moira’s arms.

  “Watch them, Raven. Keep them safe,” he said as he walked from the camp.

  By the time Dartayous returned, it was well into the afternoon and he wasn’t in a pleasant mood. It had taken more coaxing than he had imagined to get the milk. And as it was, it wouldn’t last them long.

  He had also managed to obtain a bladder skin that had been transformed into a makeshift breast from a peasant. They hadn’t been willing to sell it because they were suspicious of why he wanted it. But he could be very persuasive when then need arose.

  When he walked into their camp Moira was awake and cooing to the infant. He tried not to notice the gratitude in her eyes when she spotted the milk and bladder.

  “Thank you,” she said as he handed her the filled bladder.

  “I don’t understand why you are doing this.”

  “Don’t you?” she asked as she placed the end of the bladder on the infant’s lips.

  “Nay.” He watched as the infant tried to drink then turned his head away. “We have a dangerous mission to accomplish and you want to bring a babe along. Call me a fool, but taking an infant into the Fae world while trying to find an evil so fierce that he has imprisoned the Fae, is asking for trouble.”

  For a moment, Dartayous thought Moira refused to answer him as she whispered to the infant, coaxing him to drink. Once the babe began to drink greedily she raised her Druid green eyes to him.

  “I’m a score and four years old. He is the only way I will ever have a child. My greatest desire lay in front of my eyes dying. To allow him to die when I could save him would have been like tearing my heart out.”

  Her words were like a spear in his chest. He understood her feelings, and for the life of him he couldn’t deny her the babe.

  “I’ll take care of him,” she continued. “You won’t have to do a thing. He won’t be a hindrance. Please, don’t make me leave him.”

  Dartayous stared at her. She had always been beautiful to him, though he never allowed her to know it. She was taller than most women, but he liked her height. He didn’t have to bend over to speak to her.

  Her straight, flaxen hair fell to her waist begging him to feel if it was a silky as a falcon’s wing. She had a stubborn chin that she lifted any chance she got in thwarting him, which was often. Her lips were full and wide. A lover’s lips.

  But it was her eyes he loved the most. They were the most unusual shade of green. Druid green Frang had called them. Her eyes held mysteries that even Dartayous couldn’t begin to understand.

  From the first moment he had seen her huddled in her parent’s chamber that long ago night, he had been entranced by her. She had tugged at his heart even then, and he had known he would have to distance himself from her.

  Yet, even when he had, she hadn’t completely left him. She asked him once why he didn’t allow himself to become close to people.

  He hadn’t known how to tell her that he was immortal, that he was tired of watching friends grow old and die. Few knew of his immortality, and he wanted it kept that way.

  “Dartayous?”

  At the sound of her husky voice, he rose to his feet. “You will need to name him.”

  Her radiant smile was a like a beacon in a black sky. He nodded and turned to the fire. “I’m going to regret this,” he mumbled as he stroked the fire to life.

  “Have you figured out how we are supposed to find the key that will allow us into the gateway between the worlds?” Moira asked.

  “Nay,” he answered, but he didn’t tell her that the old crone had told him they already possessed the key. There hadn’t been time to question her, and when he had returned to the village, she was no longer there. His mood didn’t improve when the entire village refused to tell him where she lived.

  “Jamie.”

  “What?” he asked and turned towards her.

  “What do you think about naming him Jamie?”

  He looked down at the infant now sleeping cradled in Moira’s arms. “I think it is a fine name.”

  “Hello, Jamie,” she said and kissed the top of the babe’s head.

  As Dartayous watched Moira, he saw just how much she adored the babe. He had never known she wanted children, had never thought to ask. But in truth, he wouldn’t have asked. Theirs wasn’t the type of relationship that would qualify as friendship.

  He found himself fascinated by the tiny thing wrapped so lovingly in Moira’s arms. It amazed him that something so little could put a smile on her face. She had smiled and talked more in the last couple of hours than she had the entire time they had been on this journey.

  * * * *

  Moira couldn’t stop gazing at Jamie. He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, yet she couldn’t enjoy him as she wanted. Not with what she had to accomplish.

  Her eyes found Dartayous as he lounged against a tree as if he didn’t have a care in the world, though she knew he kept a constant vigil on her with his hawk’s vision.

  There had been a time she would have moved the heavens for him, but he hadn’t wanted her. She pushed aside old hurts as
her worry over finding the key filled her. After she placed Jamie down so he could sleep, she rose and walked to Dartayous.

  He jumped to his feet when she approached. “Is Jamie all right? Do you need something?”

  His words halted her steps. The concern shining in his ice blue eyes was evident. “Jamie is fine. I came to talk with you.”

  She waited for what he would do next. The only time she sought him out was when she needed him to do something, and that was never very often. She had learned the hard way with Dartayous that he liked distance between himself and others.

  “Then talk.”

  She licked her lips as she struggled to find the words. Her fear was great, but she didn’t wish for him to know. “Did the old crone back at the village say something to you about a key?”

  “Why?” he asked, his voice hard and clipped.

  “Because we don’t have long to find it. Because I don’t know if I imagined it or if she really did say something.”

  She waited as he stared at her with his cold blue eyes. He motioned to the ground for her to sit and resumed his seat. “She did indeed speak to me of a key.”

  “And you didn’t tell me?”

  “I have been trying to piece it together.”

  Moira shook her head and looked to the canopy of trees. “I know you don’t like me, but do you wish for me to fail in this?”

  “You read too much into this,” he said.

  She turned her gaze to him and found him looking at the fire. The set of his strong, chiseled jaw told her he was angry. Once again she had set herself up. She wasn’t important enough for him to care about, not even when the whole of Scotland was in danger.

  “I will find it,” she said and rose to her feet.

  His gaze jerked to her. “Aye, you will, and I’m going to help you.”

  “Then tell me what the crone said.”

  “The door the key, it opens will; in your possession have it still. When one is two and one again, the stones, the key will enter in.”

  Moira couldn’t have been more shocked if he had said there were no Fae. “We have the key? How?”

  “I don’t know,” he said and sighed loudly. “I even looked for her when I returned to the village for milk, but I couldn’t find her.”

  Moira laughed. “We’re supposed to find a secret doorway to the land of the Fae with a key we have, but haven’t a clue what it looks like.”

  “We will decipher it somehow.”

  “I pray you are right for all of Scotland is depending on it.”

  Chapter Three

  Alistair MacNeil gasped for breath as the hand around his throat tightened painfully.

  “You have ruined all of my careful planning.”

  MacNeil clawed at the hand that was squeezing the life out of him. There was no doubt the man known to him as The Shadow was going to kill him.

  “How does it feel to know you are about to die?” The Shadow asked. “I had Moira in my grasp. All those years I spent pretending to be a Druid are for naught now thanks to you.”

  MacNeil’s eyes bulged at what he heard, but he was more interested in the air his lungs needed. He couldn’t die out in the middle of nowhere on his back without a sword. Not the great Butcher of Scotland.

  Then the grip lessened.

  The Shadow threw back the hood of his cloak and leaned close until he was nose to nose with MacNeil. “Listen close, you stupid fool. You have few uses to me now. With the slightest squeeze I could kill you.”

  But MacNeil didn’t hear him. He couldn’t stop staring into the vivid blue eyes of the man above him. “What are you?”

  “I’m your worst nightmare. I’m what you have struggled to kill since you slaughtered the Sinclair’s. I’m a Fae.”

  Terror filled MacNeil at what he was heard. “The Fae aren’t real.”

  “Really? How do you explain how you are now here instead of at MacInnes Castle?”

  MacNeil swallowed and tried to pry the man’s hand from around his throat. Though he no longer squeezed, MacNeil knew he could be dead in a heartbeat if the hand remained around his neck.

  He looked around the empty field. It was true, he was no longer at MacInnes Castle where Gregor had been about to kill him.

  “What is your name?” he asked the Fae once the truth sunk in.

  The Fae laughed and rose to his feet in one fluid motion. “I’m Lugus, your new master.”

  MacNeil slowly got to his feet. “Master?”

  “That’s right,” Lugus said as he spread his arms wide. “I am about to rule the world.” He dropped his arms and looked at MacNeil. “If you would like a piece of the power that will soon be mine, you must do as I command.”

  MacNeil stared at Lugus. “And what exactly would that be?”

  The Fae shrugged.

  “I suppose you still wish for me to kill Glenna.” But MacNeil wouldn’t. He had raised her, and he could have her cowed before him again so he could use her powers as before. “Though I think any of the sisters will do as long as one of them dies so the

  prophecy won’t come to pass.”

  “True,” Lugus said softly, too softly for MacNeil’s taste.

  “Then ‘tis settled.”

  “Not exactly.” Lugus turned and stared at him with his unusual eyes. “I told you to do as I command, and I expect for you to do that. Moira will not be touched. Do you understand?”

  “What do you want of me then?”

  “I will let you know when the time comes.”

  MacNeil nodded. Power he would have, but with Glenna as a weapon. He would kill Moira just because Lugus didn’t wish her dead.

  Lugus’ eyes followed MacNeil. The man was an idiot. Lugus would share power with no one, but MacNeil didn’t need to know that bit of information. He would be led like a lamb to slaughter and not know it until he was dead.

  But if MacNeil disobeyed him, he would wish he was dead long before Lugus was through with him. * * * *

  Moira let her eyes feast on Dartayous as he kneeled shirtless beside the stream. He bent and splashed water on his face, but her eyes were on the muscles that bulged on his chest and wide, thick muscular shoulders.

  She licked her lips and found her mouth as dry as her lips. Even after all these years he still was able to make her feel like a gangly, unwanted little girl.

  When he lay on his stomach to get a drink from the stream, she got a pleasant view of his backside. There weren’t many opportunities for her to watch him thus. The fact that they were traveling together put them in close proximity of the other. Something she still wasn’t happy with.

  Why had Frang sent Dartayous with her? Granted, Dartayous was the best of the Druid Warriors, special warriors that dedicated their lives to the protection of the Druids, but surely he could have chosen someone else, someone that she hadn’t once wanted-wanted still.

  Somehow she knew Frang knew about that chaste kiss she had given Dartayous years ago.

  Jamie let out a whimper that brought Dartayous’ head up. Having those ice-blue eyes directed at her with such intensity always made her stomach flutter and her spine tingle.

  “Did you sleep well?” Dartayous asked as he rose to his feet.

  She nodded and walked to the stream. So much for her ogling now, she thought.

  “I will take him while you wash,” he said and held out his arms for Jamie.

  Her eyes jerked to Dartayous. It took her a full moment to realize he was serious. She handed him Jamie and watched as he sank to the ground.

  With nothing else to do but wash, Moira bent and splashed the cool water on her face. She had gotten little sleep the night before due to Jamie waking every few hours to feed, but she was just happy he actually drank the milk.

  After she combed her fingers through her hair, she pulled it away from her face and tied it at the back of her neck with a piece of leather. She rose to her feet and found Jamie fast asleep.

  “All he does is eat and sleep,” Dartayous said as he ran his
finger down the babe’s smooth cheek.

  “’Tis what they do.”

  “I haven’t been around many babes.”

  She smiled and sat beside him. Her eyes found the tattoo on his right hand between his thumb and forefinger. She had seen it several times before, but had never really looked at it. It was a perfect circle with an ancient Celtic bird inside it.

  “When did you get that?” she asked and touched the tattoo.

  “So long ago that I don’t remember.”

  Something in his words told her that he didn’t wish to discuss it, but she had other plans. “The ancient Celts tattooed their bodies with certain animals for their meaning. Birds are associated with death.”

  “And freedom.”

  “Why do you seek freedom? You have it.”

  His ice-blue eyes found hers. “Do I? You think I possess it, but I no more have it than you do.”

  “The prophecy ties me, but what keeps you?”

  “Unanswered questions.”

  His reply was spoken so softly that she barely heard him. The anger in his voice was evident though. Just what questions did he have that hadn’t been answered?

  “You will be free once the prophecy is fulfilled.”

  “Will I?” she asked him and looked around her. “I don’t think so. I have dedicated my life to fulfilling the prophecy and the Druids.” She returned her gaze to him. “‘Tis all I have.”

  His forehead furrowed at her words. “You have Fiona and Glenna. Your sisters need you.”

  “Aye, but they are married now. Once this is finished, Fiona will leave with Gregor so he can resume his duties as laird of his clan. Even though the Druid’s Glen is close to Glenna, she is wife to a laird herself and has many duties.”

  Silence filled the air as each thought over her words. She hadn’t realized just how lonely her life was until that moment. She didn’t resent Fiona and Glenna finding their mates, she just wished she had the same fortune as they.

  “You could always return to the Sinclair’s.”

  The mention of her clan brought chills to her skin. “I haven’t seen my clan since the night I left. I’m sure another laird has taken over by now. Besides, I’ve no wish to disturb what peace they might have found.”