Galen frowned. "I remember that tavern brawl. It was the night of the full moon a few months ago, wasn't it?"
"Aye, that'd be right," Maggie nodded. "Easier to travel on the full moon."
"It was only a scuffle," Galen explained to Brendan, who had turned to gaze at him with horror. "I broke the men up. A traveler from out of town," he said, giving Maggie a meaningful look. "And young William, from what I remember. He'd only been married a month then," he added. "He's always been overprotective when it comes to that woman."
Julia grinned. The Watch seemed to have a few traits in common. But Maggie was shaking her head darkly. "More than a scuffle, I'll tell you."
"I saw the man's wound," Galen argued. "A shallow scrape to his arm, not much more. Is iron truly so toxic?"
"And more," Maggie said with a shudder. "Cold iron like your weapons, like that blade over there? If it breaks the skin it's a death sentence, true enough. Glimmerbright took his dear friend home to nurse him, but there was nothing anyone could do. From what they told me, it was a long, hard death."
Julia felt a sympathetic pang run through her before she could stop it. Glimmerbright had watched his best friend die… did that explain why he was causing so much trouble? Was it a symptom of his grief, somehow? Or was it worse than that – was he taking revenge? He hadn't mentioned anything about a grudge, about vengeance… from what he'd said to her, he'd barely noticed what he was doing to the countryside, and he'd framed his attacks on the guards as simple self-defense. But then again, she was beginning to realize that Glimmerbright had told her very little about himself. Very little at all, in fact. She felt her heart sink at that realization. Sure, she'd suspected that his interest in her wasn't real, wasn't genuine… but to know how badly he'd misled her for real, well, that was another thing entirely. She felt Galen squeeze her hand under the table and smiled. At least she could trust his affection for her.
"So – what, Glimmerbright came here to get his revenge?" Donal frowned.
"That's about the long and short of it, aye," Maggie said. "I won't get into the details, but… well, the Seelie court heard his appeal to them to go to war against humanity. He wanted proper vengeance, a real war. The lot of you ought to be grateful he didn't speak more convincingly," Maggie said darkly, pointing a long finger at the gathered men. "You've still got allies among the Sidhe, despite your people leading witch hunts every time something unusual happens. Better mind yourself, Julia," she added unexpectedly, giving Julia a toothless grin. "They'll have you burning at the stake soon enough…"
Galen shuddered. "That's enough," he said firmly. "Julia's got nothing to do with any of it. She's been helping us understand what Glimmerbright's up to."
"Oh, he's taken a shine to you, has he?" the woman chortled, turning her gaze to Julia. "Careful there, little one. He'll make you think you're equals, but a creature that ancient and powerful can't be related to by someone like you any more than an ant can relate to the boot kicking its nest down."
It was an unpleasant metaphor, but Julia nodded. She didn't mind being compared to an ant if it meant they might find a way to defeat Glimmerbright once and for all. "What do we do?" she asked, frowning. "If he's trying to get revenge, is there any other way of stopping him?"
"He's doing a lot more than trying to get revenge, missy," Maggie said, shaking her head. "He's trying to start a war."
Laird Donal sat back in his chair, exhaustion clear on his features as he exchanged a worried glance with Malcolm. "That's what we were worried about."
"Well, now you know." She shrugged her shoulders. "What can you do? Stop him, I suppose. Stop him from stirring up trouble."
"Send him home?" Julia suggested.
"Aye, that would be for the best," Maggie sighed. "But it's hard to know what will satisfy him on this side of the Burgh. I assume the guard who killed his friend hasn't been among your victims?"
Brendan shook his head. "William's mostly been manning the Wall, not going on patrol," he explained. "His lady wife's expecting, and we didn't want to worry her with her young man out in the woods at such a dangerous time."
Julia couldn't help but smile at that. They took care of each other, these men of the Watch.
"Not that we can really afford to keep anyone at home any longer," Brendan added, shaking his head. "Not with how many men we're losing to elf shot of an evening."
"Well, do what you can," Maggie said with a shrug of her hunched shoulders. "I'll be at home if you need me, making sure poor Darter isn't turned to stone again."
"If there's anything we can do for him, please let us know," Malcolm said, a worried look on his face. "My family and I owe Darter a debt of gratitude."
"I'll send your love," Maggie said with a shrug of her shoulders. "You just worry about your reputation with the Seelie Fae, in the meanwhile." She gave Julia a lingering, appraising kind of look as she got to her feet, hopping down from the chair. "You'll figure something out, I don't doubt it," she said with a chuckle, seeming to make some kind of a decision. "She's sharp, this one. I can tell."
Torn between being flattered and confused, Julia gave Maggie an awkward smile. How did she know she was sharp? They'd only just met… and she'd barely spoken a word to her. But Maggie just grinned toothlessly as she shambled across the hall, followed by the Laird and his men. They talked a little more by the doors before Maggie turned and was gone as quickly as she'd come. Galen was still at Julia's side, looking just as worried and confused as she felt.
"I guess we got a few answers," Julia pointed out, trying to look on the bright side a little. "We know what Glimmerbright wants, and what he's doing here… that's useful."
"Aye, but what he wants is war," Galen said heavily, scrubbing at his handsome face with his hands. "That's not exactly something we can give him to make him go away."
"He wants justice," Julia corrected him. "Is there some way the young man who killed his friend could… I don't know, make amends somehow? Apologize for what he did?"
"Apologizing to a Fae is a tricky situation," Galen said, shaking his head. "Especially one who's turned Unseelie. The apology's likely to do as much harm as it could prevent. No, we need to think of something else." He heaved a sigh. "But I don't know what."
Chapter 53
The rest of the day passed uneasily. Gossip flew around the castle, of course, about the events of that morning – the appearance of the angry crowd from the village, which had quickly transformed in the telling to a horde of hundreds of people, swarming the gate and threatening to knock down the castle itself unless the so-called witch was turned over. More than a few servants came to check on Julia to ensure she was alright, identical looks of worry in their eyes – she had to assure Amelia more than a few times that she was safe, and that nobody in the castle was planning on turning her over to the angry villagers to appease them.
It had been nice to meet old Maggie, though, to put a face to the famous name. Strangely enough, it felt good to have an ally on their side – someone who knew more about the Fae than they did. She talked with Galen in more detail about Maggie, learning a few more bits and pieces – it seemed that she was part Fae and part human, her mother having left the Faerie world to take up with a human herdsman, though nobody had met either of Maggie's parents. It also wasn't clear how old the woman was – though she seemed ancient, Galen told her that her species were born looking that way and didn't change much during their long lifespans.
"Should I go and talk to Glimmerbright again?" she suggested after a long pause between them. The sun was setting, throwing a dusky orange light over the courtyard where the two of them had been sitting and talking for much of the afternoon, enjoying the unseasonably fine day and trying to come to grips with what was going on. "Maybe now that we know what his problem is, I could negotiate something –"
"No," Galen said immediately, his face closing over in that way it had. "No, Julia. I think we know by now that there's no point trying to communicate with him. He's done nothing
but lie and deceive –"
"But now we know why he's doing all this," Julia argued, frowning as the light drained from the sky. "We might actually be able to have a conversation about something that would give him – satisfaction, or vengeance, or something."
"The price would be too high, whatever it was," Galen said heavily, shaking his head. "The Fae aren't exactly famous for being reasonable people. If we open the door to a negotiation – suggest that we're open to some kind of trade – he'll take advantage immediately."
She bit her lip. Part of her wanted to argue… part of her felt, deeply and truly, that if she could just talk to Glimmerbright she could make him see sense. He was grieving, he was hurting, he'd lost an old friend to a careless blow of a knife… her heart swelled with sympathy. Swelled, that was, until she remembered the handful of men he'd killed out there in the woods, the careless way he was draining the life from crops and cattle, the idle way he'd manipulated her, played with her heart and haunted her dreams and almost, almost conned her into following him into Faerie to be his bride… what would have happened to her? she wondered. What would have happened if she'd gone along with him? Nothing good, she suspected.
"You're right," she said finally, shaking her head… and Galen looked at her with almost comical surprise, drawing a grin from her.
"I am?"
"There's no point trying to negotiate with someone who's not operating in good faith." She shrugged, thinking back to her ex-boyfriend. She'd spent an unbelievable amount of time trying to explain herself to that man, typing enormous paragraphs about her feelings, believing so strongly that if she could only get him to see reason, that everything would be okay… but it wasn't about reason. He was selfish and cared only for himself. No amount of explanation was ever going to change that. That was what had finally helped her get free of him once and for all. And it was about time she applied the same logic to Glimmerbright. As beautiful and charming as he was, he simply didn't care about her… and it might be hard work to overcome his charisma, the illusions and magic he spun, but she had to.
Galen reached over to take her hand in his and squeezed it tight, and she smiled back at him. Galen being with her… that made the whole situation a whole lot easier. With Galen at her side, she knew what real affection looked like – real care, real trust. She'd only known him for a short while, of course… but somehow, she knew on a deep level that she could trust him. He was everything Glimmerbright wasn't – grumpy on the surface but kind beneath it, stubborn but loyal, brusque but absolutely trustworthy. She was incredibly lucky to have found him.
He seemed about to speak… but before he could, a frown crossed his face, and they both looked around at the unusual sound of the gate opening. The evening patrols had set out half an hour ago – what was the gate doing opening so soon? And then Galen was on his feet, a worried look on his face. There were four men riding through the gate, shouting urgently back and forth to each other – and Julia's eyes widened when she saw that one of them was carrying a dark shape, bundled up in cloth. A humanoid shape, stiff and unyielding.
"What's happening?" Galen wanted to know as he hastened over. Julia followed, feeling her heart pounding nervously in her chest, worried that she already knew what was about to be revealed. And sure enough, the expressions on the men's faces were grim when they reached them.
"Needs a healer," one of them barked, placing the bundle on the ground. Galen was on his knees beside the bundle, pulling back the blanket to reveal a man, his body stiff as a board, his face frozen in a rictus of horror. "Elf shot. Worse than I've ever seen it, and I've seen a lot –"
Galen was swearing, his hands moving over the man's body, his expression darkening with grief as he tried unsuccessfully to move even a single one of his limbs. He swore softly, his hands flying to the man's throat, searching for a pulse… and the look on his face told Julia everything she needed to know. She covered her mouth, turning away a little as the men drew close together in their grief, staring wordlessly down at the dead man as the sun drained the last of the color from the sky.
The gates were still open, the men on the Wall standing in silence and looking down at the scene below them… and Julia's eyes widened as Old Maggie came hastening across the courtyard for the second time that day. This time she had a cloak around her shoulders that trailed along the ground behind her, and she gestured irritably at the men to part as she approached the body on the ground. She knelt beside him, and Julia wasn't sure whether it was a trick of the sunlight, but her hands seemed to glow when she placed them on his chest.
A long, agonizing few seconds passed. Julia could see the hope in the faces of the men who stood around Maggie and her patient… but that hope disappeared when Maggie stood up, shaking her head with a drawn expression on her face.
"Too late," she said softly. "The shot has reached his heart. Nothing to be done."
"Nothing –" Galen started, but Maggie looked at him sharply, her face blazing.
"Nothing," she enunciated crisply. "His heart's been frozen as sure as his limbs are, Galen. I'm sorry."
"None of the others were struck so hard," Galen said through gritted teeth, shaking his head. "This wasn't self-defense. This wasn't –"
"No," Maggie said softly. "This was vengeance, Galen Grant."
And the men gathered close to one another as darkness crept across the courtyard.
Chapter 54
An eerie few days of peace followed. Word spread quickly through the Keep of the death of the young man – who, Julia learned presently, was none other than William, the young guard responsible for the death of Glimmerbright's friend. It wasn't clear whether the young man had even known he was a murderer on the day he died. It had been pure chance that he'd gone out on patrol that evening in the first place – a friend of his on patrol had been struck with elf shot a few days earlier, losing all feeling in his right leg for several days, and though he'd been more or less on the mend, he'd wanted one more evening to recover before he returned to riding the paths of the forest. William had volunteered, claiming he was tired of sitting up on the wall all night anyway.
But the attack was different, very different, to every other example of elf shot… which made Julia suspect that there was something more to this one. The severity aside – none of the other men had lost their lives as a result of elf shot, with the handful of casualties being fatally wounded by more mundane methods – the attack had come at a strange time. Every other casualty had come in well after dark, after a long period of time on patrol… as though Glimmerbright had hunted them through the night, toying with them. This killing… William had only just left the Keep's grounds, riding out into the night to patrol the forest. And the men who'd been riding with him were all untouched by elf shot – it was as though the shots had gone straight past them and right into William.
"It was vengeance," Galen said heavily, his head in his hands.
It was two days later – Julia had barely seen her lover since William's body had been returned to the castle. He'd immediately set off into the forest with the patrols, hunting for Glimmerbright… but the Sidhe was nowhere to be seen. No more attacks followed, despite Julia's worrying about Galen – no sign of the Sidhe was detected, no matter how long they searched.
"He killed William for revenge and nothing more."
"Then… as awful as that is," Julia murmured, "is it possible that the matter is concluded now?"
"Concluded? I don't think so," Galen growled, a frightening look on his face. "William left behind a wife and unborn child. They deserve their vengeance, too."
"That doesn't sound… wise," Julia pointed out, frowning. "This was done for vengeance. If you strike out at Glimmerbright for revenge, won't he just do the same thing again?"
Galen heaved a sigh and was quiet a long moment. "You're right, of course," he admitted after a pause, making her smile. He was admitting that more and more often, these days. "But it's hard to face the prospect of simply… letting him go. The men ar
e furious, the castle's grieving, William's poor wife is inconsolable…"
"I heard Maggie's been visiting with her every day," Julia said softly, nodding. The young woman had been inconsolable, and Maggie, for all her ornery behavior, seemed to have taken pity on the girl, talking with her long into the night, helping her through her grief. She claimed that she was just worried about the young woman losing her pregnancy, but Julia suspected it went deeper than that. Not that she'd say anything like that to Maggie, of course. "How are things in the village?"
Galen had ridden straight to the village after hunting unsuccessfully for Glimmerbright all night – she'd been keeping track of his movements from the castle, unable to do much else to help, feeling restless and useless in her little room, which felt so lonely without Galen. He shrugged his great shoulders, leaning back from the dining table. She could tell he was worried by how little he was eating – something had to be seriously wrong to put Galen off his food.
"Oddly enough, they're faring better down there," Galen said, shaking his head. "It seems several of the sick cattle are on the mend, and the blighted crop fields are showing signs of new growth."
Her eyes widened, hope springing to life in her chest. "Does that mean Glimmerbright could be gone? If our theory that it was him being here that was drawing the life out of the fields is right, then the balance of nature being restored could mean…"
Woken By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 7 Page 24