"We do," Elena said simply. "But I don't know what. And with the castle in mourning, it's going to be hard to figure out our next step without risking more lives…"
The mood was sober as Kay finished her breakfast then headed back up the stairs. She desperately wanted to talk to Liam about all this, get his insight, see his dancing eyes and merry smile… but Liam was close friends with all the men of the guard, wasn't he? It was unlikely he'd be smiling today, not with everything that was going on. She sighed heavily, heading for the archives upstairs. There were hundreds of books in the castle, all presided over by quiet dark-robed scholars who were more than happy to let her read them, for all that she understood very little of them. But it was something to do — some way of feeling like she was trying to be useful, to do something that might help. If there was just one sentence about wisps, some hint for how to deal with them, for what to do…
They had to introduce iron back into the bog, they knew that much. Maggie had made it clear. But they couldn't get to the bog if it was full of wisps that would lure and kill anyone who came close. They needed weapons, some advantage over the creatures… so she pored through books all day, read until her eyes were sore. But to her dismay, there was nothing to be found. No information, no insight, no useful data whatsoever. Just hundreds upon hundreds of descriptions of wisp sightings, of near misses and tragic deaths, and dozens of rough sketches of lights, glowing in the darkness…. When night began to fall, she closed the book heavily and headed downstairs for dinner, feeling defeated.
She wasn't expecting to hear raised voices in the entrance hall.
Chapter 36
The shouts reached her halfway down the stairs, and curious despite herself, she hurried a little, taking the twisting spiral stairs two at a time in her hurry to find out what was going on. They sounded like men's voices, mostly — but there was a woman's voice, too, and Kay had a sneaking suspicion she knew whose it was.
Sure enough, when she reached the hallway it was to see Maggie standing by the doorway, drawn up imperiously with rage blazing on her face. The little woman didn't look any taller than usual, but there was a strange sense of gravity to her, of density, as though she took up more space than she seemed to… and everyone in the hall was giving her a wide berth. Even the iron decorations in the hall didn't seem to be bothering her, though Kay did notice she was standing a good distance from a couple of ornate iron swords that Liam had once told her had been used to defeat one of the Sept's first Fae enemies.
"Something must be done!" Maggie cried, her voice full of a frightening anger.
Kay was beginning to realize what it was about Maggie that unsettled the villagers. She was a kindly old woman, yes — but it was clear as day to anyone who spent the least amount of time with her that she had a tremendous amount of power. Power was frightening… especially when it was wielded by woman, Kay thought sourly, remembering how group work at vet school had gone whenever a female student was put in charge. Men were fragile like that. And that was mundane power. When it came to power like Maggie's… power that was a little big magical, power that was difficult to understand… well, it seemed humans had a natural tendency to distrust and fear it. And that was clear on the faces of even the people here, the people who worked for Clan Grant, who should know better than anyone who their allies were.
"Maggie, what do you propose I do?" Laird Donal was standing at the opposite end of the hall. He was dressed for riding, a cloak around his shoulders — it seemed that he'd been out that day. That surprised Kay. The Laird usually remained at the Sept except on special occasions, organizing forces, making plans… they were generally kept informed of his whereabouts, and she hadn't heard that he was going into the village today. "I'm Laird of the Keep and the Sept, not of the village. I can't just give them orders."
"Coward," Maggie snapped, and a murmur of dismay went up among the gathered guards and servants and even a handful of scholars who were listening with keen interest to what was going on. "You know full well you've got sway over those fools. I firmly recommend that you make use of it before I'm forced to do something very drastic to keep myself and my household safe."
"Maggie, they're just frightened," Donal said, frustration and dismay clear on his face. "Surely you understand that. These deaths are horrific, they're only lashing out because they're desperate to take action —"
"Aye, I understand the behavior of a rabid dog, too, that doesn't mean I won't take action to stop it from harming me and mine. The pack of them almost stumbled upon Darter," she said, her eyes blazing with anger. She was protective of the little goblin, Kay realized, a little taken aback by what was happening, by the combative stance Maggie was taking. She'd thought the woman was good friends with the people of the Castle… but it seemed friendship was a tricky thing when it came to the Fae.
"I'll do what I can, Maggie, I promise," he said helplessly, spreading his hands. "But you know the villagers, you know how likely they are —"
"Fifty of them! A whole mob, Donal Grant! A mob of them, on my doorstep. Chanting all kinds of ugly things about witchcraft and evil. After all I've done for them. All the healing magic I've shared without so much as a debt incurred," she snapped. "It was bad enough when they came to my house last time, led by that daft fool of a woman who thought finding bones by my house was stronger evidence to my character than all the years I've lived here, helping you fools. But this time. This time! Donal Grant, they brought that daft priest with them. As though I were some — some pest to be exorcised."
"I'll speak to Father Caleb as well," Laird Donal promised, his eyes hard. "Truly, Maggie, I'm sorry about all of this. You don't deserve to be treated this way. You're our most powerful ally, our best insight into what the Fae are doing —"
"Aye, well, bear that in mind when you're minding your people," Maggie said darkly. "I don't care for your power structures! I don't care for who's in charge of who and who can say what to whom and whether or not they'll obey you. The facts are these. If I get another angry mob on my doorstep chanting about witchcraft, they're going straight into the Loch. And the wisps aren't the only hungry Fae creature around these parts."
A worried murmur went up at that, and Kay took a sharp breath, her mind returning to her first night here, when she'd woken up on the lake shore to find Maggie standing above her. Just before Maggie had taken her inside, she'd turned to see something sticking out of the water… something huge and terrifying, something with a great long neck and a pair of bright, curious, intelligent eyes. A monster. And now she thought about it, it had had a mouthful of sharp teeth. At the time, she'd managed to dismiss it as yet another hallucination, a product of her terrified, panicking mind that couldn't get a handle on where she was or what had happened… and, she'd figured out since, that was probably suffering the after-effects of the severe shock that had come with her near-death experience back in the future.
But now… now, she was beginning to realize that what she'd seen wasn't some hallucination, some idle dream. This was Loch Ness. Faeries were real, monsters were real, magic was real… and that meant that the thing she'd seen was the Loch Ness Monster. And from what Maggie had just said… she shuddered… it seemed that the creature was carnivorous.
This was serious, she realized as she saw Maggie turn on her heel and stalk out of the entrance hall, leaving the men and women standing around to chatter intensely amongst themselves about the confrontation they'd just witnessed. If Maggie was threatening the lives of the villagers — as it seemed they were threatening her — then it was all the more important that they do something about this threat.
But what could they do?
Chapter 37
"Right," Laird Donal boomed, his face drawn. "Everyone in the dining hall, now. We need to talk about this."
The assembled people — Kay realized with a start that most of the Castle folk seemed to have come down or inside to investigate, so loud had Donal and Maggie's yelling match been — began to traipse into the hall
adjacent, and Kay joined them, wondering what was going to happen. Donal strode over to the raised platform that the high table stood on and turned to the people of the Sept, spreading his hands.
"It's clear to everyone that something must be done. I've tried what I know — iron and fire, posting guards, advising the villagers of what's happening and how to protect themselves — but we're still in danger. So I'm calling on you. Any ideas?"
A murmur went up among the castle folk. A conversation began, halting at first but then picking up speed, Donal skillfully mediating the discussion as questions were raised and answered about the wisps, about their weaknesses and strengths, the patterns they'd exhibited, other tactics and strategies that could be tried. But as the conversation wore on, Kay could see that Donal was getting frustrated. There were no concrete ideas here, no straightforward ways to act and mend the problem.
Then she heard a familiar voice, quite close to her. It was Liam, rising to his feet, looking determined.
"Laird Donal, leave it to me," he said firmly. "I'll handle the wisps. I've seen the damage they do firsthand. I know how they work, how they hunt. And even better than that, I've got Kay Morris on my side."
She jumped, startled by the sound of her name in his mouth… and he turned to her, a broad grin on his face as he extended his arm, inviting her to stand at his side. A little nonplussed and feeling very put on the spot, she got up and crossed to stand beside him, not enjoying the feeling of the entire castle watching her.
"Kay's brilliant," he informed the room brightly. "Like Lady Anna, Nancy and Elena before her, she was brought to us from another time by the Sidhe, who saw fit to save her life and bring her here. And as we all know now, the Sidhe never do anything without a reason. I have complete confidence that Kay Morris can help us defeat the wisps — and I think the Sidhe think so, too."
A murmur of surprise went up, and Kay could feel her heart almost frozen in her chest. What was this man doing? Was he seriously telling all these people that she personally was going to save them from the danger that was plaguing them? What the hell was he thinking? She'd been trying to help the people with the wisps since she'd gotten there — didn't he realize that she had no more idea than anyone else, despite her best efforts?
"It was Kay who suggested blindfolding the herds," he said brightly, and an impressed murmur went up.
Kay's face was burning. That had been a lucky guess, nothing more… and besides, it was only a Band-Aid to the real problem. Did he seriously believe in her to this extent? Sure, it was a little flattering… but she hated the idea of being false hope to these people, especially when they'd just lost one of their own to the wisps.
"What do you say, Kay?" Donal asked. "Are you willing to work with Liam to defeat this threat?"
"I — I can try," she said helplessly, not wanting to say no in front of all these people. And she certainly did intend to try to help — she'd wanted to do that ever since she got here. But the formality of it, the official appointment to this bizarre role of protector… she hated it. What if she let everyone down? She was just a vet from Wyoming… she wasn't some mythical slayer of beasts. She barely even knew one end of a sword from another… how was she supposed to fight these creatures?
"Thank you, Kay and Liam," Donal said formally, giving them both a little nod.
The gathered people were nodding, clearly satisfied with the taskforce that had been appointed to deal with the problem… but Kay felt the opposite of relief. It was like a huge rock was on her chest, crushing her windpipe, making her feel like she couldn't breathe, almost like she was trapped in that truck again at the bottom of the lake, clawing desperately for escape…
She was terrified of screwing this up. She was furious with Liam for putting her on the spot like that, for volunteering her so publicly for a task that she'd only really wanted to work on in private. And most of all, she wanted to get the hell out of this dining hall. So as quickly as possible without drawing too much attention, she hurried out of the hall, excusing herself as she ducked around people who seemed to want to draw her into conversation. Probably interested in what kind of secret weapon she had against the wisps, she thought sourly. Well, she was pretty interested to hear about that, too.
The entrance hall was crowded too, and her head was spinning — she needed to get away from everyone, away from the crowds, the close, hot feeling of being inside the castle as the night drew in… without realizing it she found herself moving through the castle door and down the steps to the courtyard, her heart pounding in her chest and almost immediately settling when she found herself outside, surrounded by cool air, the stars beginning to come out in the almost-dark sky above her. Kay took a deep, steadying breath there in the courtyard… and caught the slightest scent of horses; that smell from the earliest days of her childhood.
She needed to calm down, and she knew exactly where she needed to go to do it. Smiling to herself, she made a beeline for the stables, her pulse already settling. Sure enough, being surrounded by the scent of horses and hay began to calm her almost immediately. Regretting that she hadn't thought to grab a treat for Shadow, she headed for the black mare's stall. Sure enough, the horse was waiting for her, ears pricked curiously forward at this unexpected visit.
"Hey, beautiful," she said softly, letting herself into the stall and clicking it shut behind her. Shadow whickered softly, and she took a few careful steps toward the horse, wanting very much to throw her arms around her neck but not wanting to spook her. But the horse seemed to sense what she needed — she lowered her head and gently sniffed at her face; her eyes full of that strange compassion that horses seemed to have when you really needed it. Gently, Kay slid her arms around Shadow's neck — the horse barely flinched, leaning into the embrace, and Kay smiled against her sleek black coat, taking a deep breath and feeling her frazzled nerves beginning to mend.
It had been a hard day… but horses would never fail to make her feel better.
Chapter 38
"Thought I might find you here."
She might have been cuddling Shadow for hours, or it might have only been a few minutes… either way, the sound of Liam's voice broke the spell, and she felt Shadow tense a little. Obediently, she released her, letting her move away a little — but she reached up to stroke her shoulder, grateful for the horse's reassurance. Liam was coming down the row of stalls, and though she could barely make out his expression in the gloom of the stables, she could tell he was a little worried about her by the tone in his voice. Well, good. He should be worried, after the stunt he'd pulled.
"Thought you'd be talking to Laird Donal about your big plan to beat the wisps," she said archly, not turning around as she fussed with Shadow's mane. The horse seemed to sense that she didn't want much to do with Liam at the moment… she shifted her bulk such that Kay was screened from the stall door, the horse's powerful shoulders standing between her and Liam. Well, good. She didn't much want to talk to him right then.
"Are you angry with me?" He sounded shocked. "I thought you'd be pleased. You've been saying you want to be a proper part of this investigation, so —"
"You put me on the spot! You made out like I'm some magical genius from the future who's just going to fix it for everyone! I wanted to help, Liam, I wanted to be of assistance, I didn't want to be … humanity's only light in the darkness!" She could feel her heartbeat speeding up as she thought about what Liam had said about her in the meeting, and she took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. She could tell that her mood was affecting Shadow, making the mare anxious, so she stepped around her with a soothing pat, letting herself out of the stall so she wouldn't risk aggravating the mare any further. Shadow had made a lot of progress since Kay had gotten here — she didn't want to risk reversing any of that progress by freaking the mare out just because Liam didn't know the difference between helping and being solely responsible for a problem…
"I thought you'd be happy," he said blankly, moving back so she had room to stand by
the stall.
Irritating, she thought, how attractive he was even when she was angry with him. If anything, the anger gave her feelings for him new depth, new energy, as though the sparks of anger were igniting something else, something more… well, something deeply inappropriate, she told herself irritably, glad that the dark of the stables was hiding her blush.
"You've been doing so much reading, so much research, I guess I just assumed that you'd have a solution sooner or later…"
"I've been reading because I don't know the first thing about this ridiculous place," she snapped. "It's all — basic remedial stuff. I don't know anything about magic, I don't know anything about faeries… everyone in that castle is smarter than me when it comes to all this stuff. The only thing I know about is farm animals, and that's not super useful right now, is it? You don't need to know everything about cows to know that finding a cow skeleton's a sign that something's been hunting cows!" She was angry, but she could feel it masking her fear, feel it masking a deep panic that hadn't really left her since the day she'd gotten here.
Liam seemed to sense it. He reached out, taking hold of her shoulders — gently, clearly willing to let her go if she flinched away, but firmly too, just reassuring enough to make her remember to take a deep, shuddering breath. "It's alright, Kay. You can do this."
"That's just it," she said, and she could feel tears threatening now — knew somehow that if she let them spillover she was never going to be able to stop. "I don't know if that's true. And neither do you. And it's so much pressure — so much to put on me when I'm barely holding it together as it is — God, you know I want to help! I feel terrible about what's happening, of course I do, everyone does! But I can't — I just can't —" Tears spilled over her eyes and she took a deep, shuddering breath as her shoulders started heaving with sobs.
Distracted By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance (Highlander Forever Book 4) Page 13