A Templar's Gifts (13 page)

“I
hate to leave ye this way,” Cornelius said as we crested a rise overlooking the start of a long road back toward the sea. We had been traveling much of the morning.

“We'll be all right. Thank ye, Cornelius. Ye've done so much for us,” Aine said.

From where we sat on the horse I could see for leagues. Cornelius reached inside his surcoat and drew something small from his pocket. “Take this and follow it east and south.” He held a small compass set in a golden locket. “D'ye know how to use one?”

“I do,” I said. “It's no' difficult. Ye just lay it flat in yer palm an' watch where the needle points. It will always want to go north, so if ye're walking in the wrong direction ye can correct yerself.” I began to lift my hand for it, but Cornelius dropped its chain over Aine's head.

“Stay safe, both o' ye, till we meet again.”

Aine clutched the locket and nodded as he turned away. I found myself a little put off that he hadn't given the compass to me, but Aine held it as if it were her only possession, so I didn't bother to say anything.

Bran was not as easy to part with as his master. He bounded after us, torn between coming and going. “Go on, lad. We'll see ye again,” Aine said as he continued to follow our horse.

“He'll go back on his own soon enough,” I said. I knew the pull of his master would win out over the draw of us.

“Yer sure? I don't want him to get lost in these woods.” At his master's whistle he bounded away and we didn't see him again. The sudden silence was astounding. I hadn't realized that Cornelius was giving off as much emotion as he must have.

“Are ye sure ye're no' feeling faint?” Aine asked. I stared at the back of her head wondering if she had asked me that before. We'd been riding but I had no idea how long. When I didn't answer she urged the horse to stop.

A wide burn trickled downhill. We'd been following it. I remembered the water and the look of it moving over the land. Her hand moved along my chest. “Tor, yer sark is soaked clear through an' yer face an' hair are wet as well.” She jumped down and helped me off. Aine's hands were on my face. They were as cold as I was hot, and I flinched.

“Ye're burning up. I don't like this. Take off yer boots an' get yer feet into the water.”

My hands plucked at my boots, but I couldn't make them do what I wanted. I frowned at them.

Aine pressed the water skin to my mouth and pulled off the boots. I felt her flush of surprise at my missing toes, and I buried them under the silt. Wet cloth wiped my face, and I closed my eyes and lay back on a scattering of dry needles that covered the ground. Water trickled over my forehead, and then again I felt the wipe of the cloth.

“We've got to bring yer body heat down.” She seemed to be talking to herself. The shape of her was dark and the edges light. “Ye're getting worse,” she said, agitated. “You've got to stop the visions from coming. There has to be a way.”

“Best o' luck with that. I've never been able to control them before, what makes ye think I can now?”

“I don't know but we're no' going to make it back to warn yer da if we don't find a way.” As hot as I was, her words brought a chill rippling through me and my skin rose with gooseflesh.

“Cold now?” she asked. I didn't answer, just closed my eyes and thought for a bit. Aine was right. It was getting worse. I was losing track of time. Memories mixed with visions, and I could not tell them apart. Panic gnawed inside me. Aine was able to take the edge off the worst of it, but inside I felt like I was being torn in two.

Aine's hum was strong, loud, and unworried. She seemed at ease with no one to remark on her strange behavior. Still, I slid away.

The room was lit by many candles, and yet the darkness was so thick I could taste it. Men were gathered around a long table. The white of the cloth covering it glowed bright.

“We must get inside. Something is happening. Rumors have begun.”

“They know nothing. How could they?”

Several voices sought to be heard.

“They know of the carving and bowl. The boy unleashed its power before them.”

“An unfortunate event.”

The voices were all but one strange to me, and yet even the one was murky. I knew not who the speaker was.

“We must infiltrate the court as well as the residence. We must know the meaning behind the request.”

“He knows that we are not to be trifled with.”
This voice was younger and brasher than the rest.

“Do not assume that the Order is all powerful. Even the greatest may be reduced to nothing with the smallest of stones.”

“Tormod!” Aine's voice cut through the most illuminating vision I had yet to receive. I tried to ignore her
and call it back to me, but she shook me and damped my sight.

“I need to see.” I pulled away from her touch and instantly regretted it. The world heaved around me, and she reached once again to give me peace. “Hellfires, Aine! Let go! I have to see.” I didn't realize that I was shouting until I saw and felt the fear in her.

“Ye're killing yerself, Tormod. Ye have to stop.” Without warning, thoughts of the bairn and what I had done to him came back and slammed my mind. In my state of agitation, I had advanced on her with menace, leaning over her as if to strike. She was frightened of me, and for me. “I'm sorry,” she whimpered. “I'm only trying to help.”

I reached for her and she only barely allowed my touch. “I'm sorry, Aine. I'm shattering inside, and yet each episode brings me closer to understanding what is going on beyond.”

“Beyond what, or where?” she asked, near tears. “None of this makes any sense.”

I sat down heavily. “Aye. It doesn't.”

I was burning and lost. Everything within and without ached. I buried my face in my arms as the world pulsed around me.

I
t was dark and the wood was lit by a small fire. Aine was by my side, wiping my face and neck with a cool cloth. “Glad ye decided to join me,” she said when she noticed I had awakened. She was quietly spent. Exhaustion hung about her like a woolen cloak.

I lifted my hand to her pale cheek, shocked by how much it trembled on its way. She leaned into it. “How d'ye feel?” she asked. Her eyes shone in the firelight.

“Like I've been running, even in my dreams, forever,” I said. The pounding in my head had eased and I didn't feel hot anymore, but my clothes felt damp and uncomfortable.

“The burning seems to have passed. Ye've sweated it out.”

“I feel like it.” I sat up slowly, peeling the sark away from my chest with a grimace.

“Ye've other clothes in the pack. D'ye want me to fetch them?” She was speaking softly, moving slowly. I nodded.

I climbed to my feet and steadied myself against a tree limb, dizzy with the effort. I tried to pull off my
sark, but my arms were useless. “Here, let me,” she said, already back. Her hands brushed my sides as she lifted the tunic over my head, and the skin tingled where she touched. I felt a rush of color fill my face.

As she handed me the fresh sark, a trickle of uncertainty flickered through her. “Shall I help? Or can ye manage?”

“I can do it,” I said, not at all sure. “I'm sorry, Aine,” I said. “I had no right to snap at ye. I feel terrible.”

“I know. Leave it be. Stay calm. It's taken me much to get ye there.” Her voice was hoarse.

I had shouted at her. I nearly hit her.
What kind of monster was I becoming?
I thought with self-loathing.

“Tormod, stop,” Aine gasped. “Yer emotions are rubbing me raw.” Her eyes had filled with tears.

And then I saw her. Pale and still, with blood seeping from the back of her head. My hands. Red.

I jerked as if I'd been stabbed, the world spinning. I stared at her with horror. What did this mean? “I'd never hurt ye, Aine! Never.” Hysteria was building and I couldn't tamp it down.

She dropped down beside me and grabbed my shoulders. “I know, Tormod. Calm ye now.”

She hadn't seen what I had. I could barely face her. The terrible vision still hung vibrantly in my mind's eye.
What I see happens.
The thought was terrifying.

“Look at me,” she demanded. “Ye didn't,” she said. “An' ye won't.” She stared at me, willing me to accept what she was insisting, but how could I? I had seen it.

Then without a word she tilted her head and pressed her lips to mine. All at once it was as if the world grew still. Nothing mattered but the feel of her in my arms and the taste of her mouth. Nothing I could ever remember felt as good or right. We kissed for a time that seemed to stretch on forever. With no one watching or caring or stopping us, with the power of the land flowing around and through us, it was as if we had become one person. My head was clear and my body alive.

Aine was the first to break off, pushing me away when I would have gone on for days. Our breathing was quick, and a feel of uncertainty wafted between us. “We should, ye should,” she stammered, “clean up. Finish.” Her words were jumbled, stumbling over one another in confusion as she shoved the sark I'd dropped back into my hands. She was away, back by the fire before I knew what had happened.

What had happened?
I wondered as I washed in the burn and she tended the fire and the fish from Cornelius.
She had wanted me to kiss her, hadn't she? She had started
it.
I was no clearer by the time I'd finished and made my way to the fire.

I would have tried to read her thoughts, but I was sorely afraid to use the power. I was sensing odd, mixed feelings from her. Happiness. Discomfort. It was as if she couldn't decide what she felt. I tried to seal her feelings off from me, but we were sharing whether we liked it or not.

“Here. Eat.” Again the awkward, choppy words.

I took the fish, wondering if maybe I shouldn't have kissed her at all. If this was the way we would be with each other, maybe it would be best if I never did again. I watched her beneath my lids. “Did ye get any sleep?”

Aine looked fit to drop. She had been pulling on the power to keep me from crashing so much lately, and I'd only now thought about what it cost her. She had barely eaten and her eyes were drooping. “No. There hasn't been time.”

“I'll watch over ye now,” I said, moving near and stretching out on my side, assuming she would lie with me. Instead, she curled up a short way from me, closer to the fire. When had she ever done that? Lasses were confusing. I lay there long, wondering if I should move closer. I could use her peace, but I wasn't altogether sure she was peaceful at all. In moments she was asleep.

“Aine?” I said softly.

Only her rattle of breath met my query. My mind was still on edge and my body shivery, shaking. Quietly and slowly, I moved myself closer. She didn't acknowledge my approach so I turned back-to-back and leaned against her. Calm immediately enfolded me and I felt a bit guilty. I hoped that she wouldn't mind.

W
e traveled hard the next day, moving over land that dipped and swelled like the waves of the ocean. We were bone tired, and the oddness was still hanging between us.

I said my prayers as we journeyed, and the carving was much in my thoughts. I missed it. When I carried it, I always felt as if I were being looked after, as if somehow the Lady was my protector instead of the other way around. Out here I was alone. Not truly alone, as I had Aine with me, but it wasn't the same.

“Tormod, look,” she said, shaking me from my thoughts. I shielded my eyes from the glare of the sun and saw the twist of smoke from a cook fire. It was coming from a village up ahead. I could feel the presence of people scattered among the huts. As we rode closer, we
saw one dwelling larger than the others. “It has an inn. Let's stay the night.” Her voice had a pleading edge that I knew and felt.

“If we can,” I said. “I can't be around people right now, so let's hope there aren't many.”

The inn was large, old, and dark. A couple of stools flanked the door, and one enormous table filled much of the space. On either side were long, low benches and I dropped to the closest one, unable to do more. A low fire burned in the hearth, its dull glow nearly the only break in the dimness. There was a door at the far side of the room, and from beyond we heard the rattle of salvers being stacked.

“Where is everyone?” Aine asked uneasily.

“I don't know, but the quiet is welcome.”

A small, thin man stepped from behind a curtain near the back. His lank hair hung in greasy strands and his clothes were baggy and dirty. “Looking for a room?” His eyes darted from Aine to me and back again.

“Aye,” I said, “an' a bite to eat.” My head swam with the feel of the man. He was like a hungry rat, ready to attack.

“Ye've come at a good time. We were fair burstin' a' the seams just a day gone by.” My body tensed.

“Oh? Why was that?” It was hard for me to speak. My mind already felt raw and the man's foulness was making it worse.

“Men o' the northern clans were in, looking to find Robert the Bruce,” he said. Aine's bristle of wariness hit me like a blow. My own was strong enough to make me weak.

“Is the Bruce in this bit o' the land?”

“He was, awhile back, but moved on,” he said.

I knew it was not my imagination then that the man took that moment to look me over. His sharp gaze was calculating. I felt Aine shift beside me. She had noticed it as well.

“How much for a night and meal?” We would be gone long before morning, but it was important the innkeeper did not know that.

“Two coppers,” he said.

I paid him from Torquil's money, feeling badly that it would be a waste.

“Have a seat an' the mistress will be in to serve ye.” There was something in the way he said it that made the skin at my neck crawl. Aine edged her way to the table and we exchanged a look behind the man's retreating back. I nodded toward the door.

I was dead on my feet and starving, but the man had mischief on his mind. I couldn't read much, but Aine's tight grip on my hand said she agreed. We slipped
through the doors and out into the woods, leading the horse so as not to alert the owner of the inn.

We moved quickly and silently until we were a good way off, then mounted. “They've been tracking ye since Arbroath, an' they're getting help from the local magistrate. There is a warrant out for both o' us for murder.”

My breath seized. “Ye read the room?”

“Aye. They offered him money for information about us. We have to get somewhere safe an' find a way to change our looks,” said Aine.

The woods around me faded suddenly, and I felt myself begin to slump on the horse as light burst all around.

“If you manage this feat, you will be the most powerful ruler in all the world.”

“God is beside me always. I am his most treasured chosen. It will be.”

Aine's arms were around me and her grip was fierce. “Tormod, stay with me!” As the woods came back into focus, I could feel her shaking me.

“More is happening,” I murmured. “Much more than any o' us knows.” Aine looked at me askance and I answered before she could ask. “King Philippe is planning something. The evidence is all there in my visions, if only I could put the pieces together.”

“It's no' our concern right now. We can only worry about staying out o' the hands o' the soldiers an' keeping
yer mind intact.” She began to hum, and the pull of the vision faded. “We've no time to spare,” she said when she finished.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of leagues and trees. We pressed the horse to travel longer at a canter, walked less, and only stopped when it was too dark to maneuver safely. We needed time and space between them and us.