Firebrand (22 page)

For the first time in his life, David saw fear in his father’s eyes. “Trust in what you have passed onto me. I’ve learned to do that. I’ve learned that strength comes when it is needed and when it comes, it comes suddenly, violently and afterward leaves a feeling like I’d imagine an angel feels flying through the clouds.” He touched his father’s hand. “Don’t be afraid for me. The trolls can do nothing to me unless I allow it.”

“They have killed many to get to this day.”

“And some day they may kill me,” David replied, the seriousness of his tone affirming his convection. “But not today. Today the son of Sean McTavish saves the woman he loves.”

* * * * *

The skins that covered the two figures as they stumbled across the ice lake were of little help. Wind whipped across their exposed body parts feeling much like needles raking across their skin. Although Brian had once been almost twice the weight and brawn of Marcus, time spent in troll captivity had reduced him to a weak and gaunt shadow of his former self.

Three times he had fallen behind and three times Marcus had gone back for him. Marcus had draped his thick arm across his own shoulders and Brian had clung to him but he could barely move his feet through the endless white that stretched in all directions. It seemed as though they had walked forever and with no idea where to go, he could feel his life force leaving. He sank to the ice.

Marcus stumbled, barely catching himself as Brian slid down the length of his body. He grabbed Brian’s arm. “Come on man, we must go on.”

On his knees, pained filled eyes looking toward the sky, Brian shook his head. “I…I cannot. I will only hold you back. Without me you have a chance.”

“No!” Marcus shouted, pulling harder on Brian’s arm. “Together, it must be together.”

The woodsman shook his head. “It’s no use.”

Marcus shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun that bounced off the snowdrifts, spanning the area. In the distance the black remains of a wooden frame marred the otherwise colorless landscape. “There!” he shouted, “On the rise. If we can get to those ruins we may be able to get out of the bitter wind. Come on.” He tried again to lift Brian but his strength was failing him.

Brian looked at him with exhausted blue eyes. “You have the sword. It must be important or the trolls would not want it so badly. They must not get it, they must not find you.”

“Nor you. Now get up!” He dragged Brian to his feet. “Get up damn you! You didn’t spend all those years in a cave of eternal ice just to die now in the snow!”

Brian fell back down, his legs unable to support him. “I can’t. I’m done.”

Marcus’ chapped lips trembled both with anger and with resolve. He would not let this man die. “And what will I tell your daughter? That you gave up? That you didn’t care enough about her to save her?”

Brian’s head came up slowly. “I have no daughter. I have no life beyond the memory of a beauty that lives forever in my heart.”

“That beauty, Alara, bore you a daughter whom I raised as my own. Now get your arse up.”

“A…daughter?” he rasped through cracked lips.

“Yes, a beautiful daughter, Amber but one who has been born to a dire charge.” He saw bewilderment race across Brian’s face. “I can’t begin to explain it to you. You have to trust me. If we can get this sword back to Everwood, we can help her save three worlds.” He locked his gaze with Brian’s and extended his hand. “Are you with me, man?”

Slowly, Brian nodded and with a mighty shift of his weight, stood. Leaning on each other for support, the two men staggered across the endless sea of ice and snow toward the skeleton of a long abandoned hut that would offer them a chance at shelter. They were almost there when they heard it. The sound of wings beating the air and the banshee cry of the warrior maidens.

With rapid vaporous breaths burning their lungs the two men ran as fast as they could, the deep snow hindering their movements. Blinded by the glare of the sun that bounced off the ice, they could only make out the shadows advancing rapidly behind them.

Brian slid to the ground with despair. “They’ve found us. It has all been for nothing.”

Summoning all his waning strength, Marcus grabbed the sword hidden inside the torn pelt wrapped around his waist. “Then we make our final stand here and we will take a few of them with us.”

Blurred figures advanced as Marcus summoned the last of his strength from the core of his being to wield the sword over his head and waited. The advancing forms became clear. Trolls and lots of them. He readied himself as best he could. The least he could do was give these creatures a good old fashioned Irish smack-down.

The trolls circled the humans. Waving axes, clubs and swords, they shouted threats and grunted warnings. Brian and Marcus stood back to back, leaning on each other for both physical support and emotional strength.

The largest among the troll horde stepped forward. His gaze locked on the sword in Marcus’ hand. “Give me the relic human and I might let you die quickly.” The troll’s putrid breath followed his words.

“You’ll have to take it from my lifeless hand,” Marcus said, using almost all of his remaining strength to waving the sword above his head in a warrior’s whirl.

“That’s a bargain you will keep, human. And my personal prize will be your head to grace the walls of my hut.”

The troll horde began to move in slowly, the hot breath from their shouted threats, meant to intimidate and terrorize, sullying the cold air. Brian and Marcus maintained contact with each other as they turned inside the closing circle trying to anticipate from where the first blow would come.

With a gurgling growl the leader troll raised his arm, the short spear in his grasp aimed right for Brian’s heart. Without thought Marcus leapt in front of Brian and blocked the blow with blade of the Sword of Shadows just as the spear descended. As metal met metal, the air sparked like a lightning strike and the odor of electricity filled the air.

The bright light stopped the advancing trolls in their tracks, the closest few stepping backward and colliding with those behind them. The voices that rose from the throng were now laced with confusion and panic.

Suddenly the air was filled with loud screeches and battle cries. Marcus and Brian looked up and saw winged horses carrying beautiful women dressed in gleaming armor swinging swords that sang above their heads as the blades split the air.

The trolls backed up slowly, the circle thinning to a line as the steeds settled onto the snow covered ground. For a moment the trolls watched the magnificent horses pound the ground with powerful hoofbeats as their riders carefully controlled the reigns. A second later the large troll leader raised his sword and ran forward with a guttural cry.

Brunhild slid off her horse. It seemed her charge toward the advancing troll began the same time her foot hit the ground. She grasped the hilt of her golden sword with both hands and swung it at him in a wide arc through the air. A moment later his bloody head rolled in the snow to her feet.

“All right…” she said, taking a defensive stance and smiling at the troll horde. “Who’s next?”

Chapter Twenty

Amber had been asleep. She didn’t know for how long but through a large leaded glass window above her, she could tell it was night. She felt cold, gray. Forcing open heavy eyelids, she struggled to focus but shadows lingered in the candlelight. As her senses slowly edged their way back from the darkness to which they had been sent, she became aware of the handcuffs that held her arms fast over her head.

She shifted cramping muscles and lifted her head, surveying her surroundings. Manacles bound her wrists and ankles to a slab of stone. She turned her aching head left and right and discovered she was chained inside what appeared to be a crypt of some sort. A low ceiling and stonewalls surrounded her. Black candles burned in stone sconces seemingly obvious to the moisture that ran down the walls.

“You’re awake.” The voice came from behind her.

She tugged on the chains that held her. “Can you get me out of these?” she asked slowly, trying to shake off the eerie feeling of being drugged. Her head fell back with a heavy thud.

Normally, using the powers she had been developing, she could probably snap the cuffs in half but she felt as weak as a newly born kitten.

“No, I can’t.” The voice that refused her was clearly feminine and somewhat familiar.

Amber forced herself to control a feeling of panic that began to well up inside her. “Where am I?” she asked.

“The lower labyrinth of Donahyde Castle.”

Amber felt something cold on the inside of her elbow accompanied by the distinct odor of alcohol. She flinched as a needle pierced her skin. “What are you doing?”

The woman’s heels clicked on the stone floor as she came into view. “Following orders.”

Amber’s sharp intake of breath preceded one word. “Barbara?. What are you doing here?”

“Just lie still and cooperate, Amber. It will go easier for you.”

“What do you mean?” Amber yanked on the chains that held her fast. “I don’t understand any of this.” When Barbara glanced quickly at her, the fear that loomed in her eyes was the same fear Amber saw that day outside Eric Sinclair’s office. As Barbara worked over her like a dutiful servant, panic welled again inside Amber and again she corralled it. She would not let fear weaken her further. She had to find a way out.

“I’m sorry, Amber, I really am,” Barbara said as she filled a vial with Amber’s blood and then prepared to draw another.

“Tell me why you’re doing this,” Amber asked, struggling against the chains. She felt a warm trickle of blood run down her skin.

“Hold still,” Barbara said, trying to hold Amber’s arm as blood filled the draw tube. “He said every drop was precious.”

“Who? Who told you that?”

Her answer came from the shadows near her feet. “I did.”

Amber lifted her head from the slab and peered into the murkiness. Surprise and shock slapped at her when the owner of the voice walked into the shaft of moonlight that lit the cell. “Eric.” His name came out in a rush of breath.

“I’ve gone by many names in this life. Eric Sinclair is only one of them.” His hand traced the line of her calf, his fingertips moving her skirt higher as he circled her. As she tried to shift her body away from his touch he laughed, making it a game as his hand moved upward, over her stomach and up to her breast. There he paused before lifting his hand completely. “At the moment I have no real need,” he said, “but I do so enjoy the feel of a human woman writhing beneath my fingers.”

Amber saw him lift his gaze to Barbara before returning to her. She turned her head, catching Barbara’s eye. Barbara fumbled with rubber stopper on one of the vials and quickly looked away.

“A troll,” Amber said, blinking hard. “The last thing I remember was a troll in Everwood.” Her brows furrowed. “How did I get here?”

“I brought you,” Sinclair replied.

She rattled the shackles that held her. “Why am I chained?”

“I think you know the answer to that question.”

Trying to clear the fog inside her head, Amber drew in a deep breath. Facts and figures, dates and times, began to arrange themselves inside her mind. “Barbara said this was Donahyde Castle. That’s where you wanted to transfer me.” A blood freezing cold washed over her and her eyes snapped open wider. “You know,” she said in disbelief. “You know about the Triad and you’re helping the trolls.”

Eric raised a dark eyebrow. “Well, not exactly helping them.” He smiled down at her. “But you’re partly right. I know about you.”

His fingers grazed her temples and she reared up in protest, gripping the manacles that bound her. “Don’t touch me,” she warned, pulling at the chains with all her might. In her weakened state, the attempt to free herself was useless.

“You’re wondering why you can’t just snap them in half, aren’t you?” She tugged harder in response. “Normally, you should be able to.” He stared the amulet faintly pulsating at her throat. “The transfer of power is almost complete.” He reached into his pants pocket, pulled out a syringe and jabbed it into her thigh.

Amber watched the agonizing slow descent of his thumb. She screamed in pain as light yellow liquid seared its way inside her body like a rush of spreading flames. Her head thrashed against the slab and she felt her body become rigid.

Barbara brushed the hair from Amber’s eyes. “It’ll pass,” she whispered, “he promised me it wouldn’t hurt for long.” She knelt next to the stone and stroked Amber’s cheek. “Breathe, Amber. Deep breaths.”

Amber’s long screams became short gasps as the fire in her veins finally cooled. “What have you done to me?” Her eyelids felt heavy, her body weak,

He put a medical bag on the slab and dug out some vials, syringes, some saline solution, antiseptic and a plastic bag partially filled with yellow powder, which he held out for her to see. “A rare and most remarkable substance made from lemons grown in the tri-soil of all the worlds. The dried dust is well known to interfere with the powers of the fae. But you. I wasn’t sure.” He pointed at her, “I had to know if I could control you.”

She moved her head as though it was made of rubber. “What…what do you mean?”

“You are so special, Amber,” Eric said coming around the stone so he could look down at Amber. “The only one of your kind.” His eyes followed his fingertips as they traced the curve of her hip. “Every day you grow stronger, your powers intensifying as the amulet finishes passing on the powers locked inside it at its creation.” He snapped his gaze to her eyes. “I couldn’t risk taking you after final transformation and still hope to find out what I had to know.”

“What makes you think I’ll tell you anything?” she said from behind clenched teeth.

“Because you are part human, the weakest species of the three. Human wills can be broken.” He tossed his hand in Barbara’s direction. “A little demonstration. Come here.” She instantly obeyed,

“You won’t get away with this,” Amber shouted, rising as far as the chains would let her.

“I already have. In Everwood I threw the powder in your face and, in a normal human reaction, you took a deep breath in shock. The substance entered your blood stream through your lungs and rendered your unconscious long enough for me to bring you here. I just injected you with a solution made from the juice of the same lemons. I gambled on the fact that a direct intramuscular injection would double the effect on you.”

She started to speak but he stopped her with a finger to her lips. “Shh. Don’t speak. I’ll tell you what you want to know.” He took the vial Barbara had drawn between his thumb and forefinger. “I need your blood, Amber.”

“My blood?” she repeated.

“Yes.” He looked up at the night sky through the small window. “Remember I told you that you were partly right when you said I was helping the trolls?”

Amber nodded.

He leaned down and whispered into her ear. “I’m not helping them, Amber, I their king.

He straightened and grabbed Barbara around her waist. Before she could react, he bent her over the stone slab holding Amber. With a muffled thud, her forehead hit Amber’s stomach. When she lifted her head, her horrified gaze locked with Amber’s.

From behind her, Eric moved with the speed of flashing lightning, ripping Barbara’s pants from her body with one hand and holding her firmly down with the other. Barbara’s muffled cries of protest died on Amber’s hip as Eric quickly unzipped his pants and pulled out his engorged penis. Her body soon began jerking the instant he entered her, slamming her from behind with savage abandon.

Amber’s body rocked with theirs as each thrust of Eric’s hips sent Barbara deeper against her. “Stop!” she shouted, jerking on the chains that held her. She felt nausea well up into her throat but fought it off, straining for lucidity against the drug coursing through her veins. “What kind of perverse creature are you?”

Eric looked up only briefly from his carnal rampage. “Creature? Yes. A cursed creature. Forced to return each night to a form I despise from the time of deep night until sunrise.”

Amber’s face twisted in shock as before her eyes, Eric began to change. Stylized hair became matted and tangled. His tone body thickened, his hands twisted but still he drove himself into Barbara. As the rapid-fire changes continued, Amber heard her own screams echo against the gray stone walls.

She saw the being Eric was becoming withdraw from Barbara and turn her onto her back. Barbara’s head hit the stone slab next to Amber’s hip with a dull thud. A groan escaped Barbara’s lips as Sinclair ripped her legs apart and shoved himself back into her. She watched him lower his massive head and grab on to Barbara’s nipple with his large cracked lips. Though still appearing groggy from hitting her head, Barbara’s scream was instantaneous when his teeth bit down hard. Sounds of sucking mixed with her groans as he jerked harder and harder into her. The punishing thrusts seemed to go on for an eternity before Sinclair withdrew from Barbara and swept her onto the floor with a powerful blow. Then he sprang onto the stone block like a panther trapping its prey.

With the nail of his forefinger, he slashed the inside of Amber’s elbow. He howled as a rivulet of blood ran down her arm. Baring his teeth, he lowered his mouth to her arm.

Amber moaned as she felt his mouth on her skin, completely unprepared at the feeling that hit her when his cracked lips touched her. Her body jerked each time he suckled and she could feel her force flowing into him with her blood. Her eyes closed and her body arched.

When she finally felt his mouth leave her arm, she slowly opened her eyes. Straddled above her, her blood running down his chin was Eric Sinclair, once again in his human glory.

“Immortality, Amber. As a human. As long as I have your unique blood, I have the antidote to The Taking.”

The last thing she heard before she let the juice of the sacred lemon overtake her was her shouts of protest mingling with his laughter and Barbara’s sobs.

* * * * *

There was just enough light to see the way, enough to see the steep cliffs on which Donahyde Castle perched as well as the cavernous depths below it.

“Right there,” Sean McTavish said to his son. “She’s in the castle but our scouts haven’t been able to pinpoint her position yet.”

“I can’t wait for them,” David said. He adjusted the dagger on his belt and gripped the hilt of the Sword of Adam sheathed by his side as if to give him strength. “I’m going in for her.”

A strained silence descended. When David turned to begin the climb up the castle cliffs, a hand to his arm stopped him.

“You can’t save her from everything. You knew this day was coming, son.”

David looked from the hand on his arm to his father’s eyes. “Yes and no. I knew the Triad was coming — we all did — but not when. So I allowed myself to do the unthinkable I fell in love with her.”

Sean stared at him. “You did what?”

“And she’s in love with me,” David added quickly.

Sean’s hand dropped from David’s arm and he took a step backward. “Love?”

“Look, I swear I didn’t mean it to happen but it has,” He looked away from his father’s piecing gaze and then quickly looked back. “And I don’t regret any of it.” He squared his shoulders. “And it changes nothing. I know what I have to do. I know what Amber has to do.”

Sean measured hid son for a moment. “But what do you want?”

“What I want doesn’t matter if there is no world in which to live it.”

“Tell me anyway,” Sean said softly.

“Amber. I want Amber. I want us to live in a place of our own with our children. I want nothing more to do with magic or prophecy or duty,” he looked at the castle looming above him, “or trolls or the end of time.”

“And does Amber want the same?”

David nodded, his shoulders slumping. “She may not once she finds out that you were the catalyst in her journey and I am your son.”

Sean stepped closer. “From the day I led Marcus Drake to the glade and saw the Fairy princess but the babe in his arms, I knew the Clock had begun its countdown. I knew the fate of the universe depended on the child he would call daughter and raise to womanhood and I knew my son would have to bring that woman to the Dolmans.”

“Didn’t you, for one moment, think of I may have not wanted that responsibility?”

“It was not me who decided the fate of our family. We are brethren of the First Ones. Call it a curse or a gift, it makes no difference.
From three comes one, from one comes three.
The voice that had said this echoes through our heritage and will only be silenced once destiny has been fulfilled. It is not my voice that whispered the words into your heart. It is the voice of those who carried the charge since the fall. One does not look for the reason this voice speaks to our family. One only obeys.”

* * * * *

Amber felt a little stronger. She blinked several times and to clear the sleep from her eyes. As she moved closer and closer to cogency, she knew something was different.

Her hands were at her side and she was lying on crisp sheets instead of hardened stone. She moved her legs. Her ankles were also free. What had happened since she’s been asleep? Where was she now?

She got up from the bed someone had placed her on and went to the door. She turned the knob. Locked. Pressing her ear against the wood, she listened with every ounce of her being, aurally and magically. She could hear the faint sound of voices, the pouring of liquid, the occasional tap of footsteps.