Lady X (20 page)
Authors: Claudy Conn
HUNTER ENTERED THE Kings Head, and looked around. He grimaced as he could see why this place had been chosen over the Mermaid Inn. This tavern didn’t even try for an outward appearance of respectablility.
He pushed past two men who were involved in a heated argument, ducked a punch meant for another man, smiled at the barmaid and made his way to a dark corner. He took a wooden chair and positioned it, before he sat and watched the antics being performed by an intoxicated group of hard drinking sailors and fishermen.
He saw Swit as soon as the man entered the tavern, and waited for him to make his way to him.
Swit took a chair and sat opposite. He looked disturbed, nervous, and ill at ease as he blurted out, “I just met with Horwich. The man isn’t right in the head, I tell you.”
“No. He isn’t right in the head. Never mind that, did ye make the arrangements?”
“I did, and I told him like you wanted about Bellingham’s suicide. That threw him. He nearly went off into a convulsion. Thought he would spit blood, I did. He was already in a black mood and that didn’t help.”
“Are you set for this evening’s sail?”
“Aye. So we are, so I told him,” Swit answered.
“There is another matter, I need ye to take care of,” his lordship said in a soft voice. He had to study Swit’s face, unsure if Swit had heard him. He waited for a reaction. Patience had been something time had taught him.
Swit sighed heavily and leaned back a moment, chewed his bottom lip, and then rested his elbows on the square table. “I was wondering when you would be wanting more from me. What is it then?” Swit asked looking irritated.
“What do ye have on Sir Jacob?” Hunter put up his hand. “Doona try telling me ye have naught, for I know better. Why does the lad let ye hang on forever?”
“The truth is, I don’t really know. I was playing with him; testing him. I mentioned that I saw him with a flash covey. Not sure who the man was, well dressed though and didn’t belong in a seedy out of the way little Inn just outside London. When the boy saw me looking his way, he nearly fainted.” Swit shrugged. “Don’t know why. They must have been up to some illegal business they didn’t want me to know about. After that, all I ever had to do was mention the inn’s name and the boy gave me whatever I wanted.”
Hunter had gone very still while Swit talked. When he had met with Lucas Osgood earlier that day, something had nagged at him. He now knew Osgood was the man Jacob had met outside of London.
Hunter was a sophisticated man of the World. Swit being able to so easily blackmail the lad, told a story.
He knew now without a shadow of a doubt that Sir Jacob and Osgood weren’t in business together, illegal or otherwise. They were lovers. It all made sense. He was surprised…but only surprised.
He was an immortal wizard and understood things humans had yet to learn.
His lordship leaned forward and said quietly, “Jerry, I have an envelope for ye, and ye shall get it after this night’s work. I’m telling ye this, because it is important to me that ye change yer way of living.” He eyed him for a long moment. “The envelope holds a draft for an account I have arranged to be held in yer name at Barkley’s Bank of London.” He paused and allowed this to sink in before he continued. “This account will become active when I give you a letter of release. Ye will be financially comfortable for the rest of yer life. However, ye will only be allowed to spend the interest from this account until ye are forty years of age. I hope ye will have found yerself some good sense by then. I have also arranged for a separate fund to be created at the same time, that will allow ye enough to restore yer estate and make it an income producing property. Think on it, Jerry. Ye will be what ye are, a land owning gentry buying modern equipment for yer tenant farmers. See they do well, so that ye will do well. Ye have it in ye. I saw how ye handle the men. So then, Jerry Swit, after tonight ye will have enough of the ready for the rest of yer life. But tonight, ye best
do all that I ask and earn it.
Also, ye are never to bother Sir Jacob again. If I hear that ye have, I shall end it all for ye, quickly and simply. Am I understood?”
Jerry Swit opened his mouth then closed it, and opened it again. At first nothing came out of it, and Hunter smiled. He had never seen Swit speechless.
Finally Jerry managed, “Why would you do that for me? I know you despise me.” Jerry was incredulous.
“While ye doona deserve it, it happens that ye need another chance to start over. I think ye will be good at running yer estate. And, of course, I want Sir Jacob to be left alone from yer threats. Whatever he did, as far as ye be concerned is over, and should be forgotten. Are we clear?”
Jerry Swit agreed readily to this and surprised his lordship by taking both his hands and shaking them vigorously. “Ye won’t be sorry, Lord Scotsman. You won’t be sorry.”
“Och! I already am,” said his lordship as he chuckled.
Last minute plans were drawn up and every contingency was discussed. The only thing left to do was to get the false information to Napoleon.
It had to be tonight, before the battle of Waterloo which was only two days away.
Dusk had settled in and as they looked up, in walked Horwich none to happy to see them together.
The first thing Hunter noticed was that David looked intensely frazzled. Indeed, he looked like he had completely lost his mind.
A DARK BLAST of smoke and shimmering mist, and Exerilla closed her eyes and thought, “
oh no, my father has found me, oh no.”
Instead of her father, a stranger walked out of the mist.
He wore a black cone hat, threaded with silver and a matching robe. After she recovered from the shock, Exerilla wanted to laugh. No one in her mother’s coven wore such things and she had never seen any of the warlocks of her acquaintance do so either.
As he came forward, she looked past the clothes, to the grayish black long grizzled hair and the thick eyebrows and beard of the same gray black. His eyes were black as coal, unlit and unfeeling. X started to feel a certain amount of apprehension.
“Who are you?” she demanded. She thought that her father sent him. She could hear her mother’s advice, “your questions can give away answers you don’t wish them to have.”
“I am the Dark Wizard, Baudali,” he answered as though amused by her.
“Super, what do you want?” A wizard she thought wildly? Seriously?
“You will come with me,” he said authoratively.
“I don’t think so,” she answered. He thought she was human. She didn’t think he knew she was a white witch. Don’t let on.
Careful now, Xie girl. Careful
. She wanted to get his measure, because this was
really bad.
He produced a wand, and Exerilla studied it. It was a different kind of wand than she was used to. She had never seen anything like it in her life. It radiated power and gave off a dark light. She knew he was more powerful than she was. Her mother told her White Magic was always more able, but dark more ruthless. She would have to find a dark warlock’s weakness to conquer it. So this wasn’t going to be about power, but about cunning. He had a purpose. She had to find out what it was, and thwart it.
“Don’t you, human? You don’t think so?” With scarcely a twist of his wrist, everything changed.
Exerilla could see him, but he looked far away. They were being thrown through a membraned tunnel, although he looked steadier than she felt. Suddenly, the tunnel was gone and she was falling on her face. When she coughed and looked, she saw his black satin boots at her nose. She looked up and saw him looking down at her.
“Holy Sweet Moly
,” she thought as she closed her eyes.
* * *
As it turned out, David Horwich did not approach Swit and MacTorry. He instead, took a scantily clothed and buxom woman aside before leading her up the stairs where the bedchambers were housed.
Swit and Hunter exchanged looks. Swit said, “He said something earlier about teaching the Exerilla chit a lesson. Said she would learn what happens to a woman who dares spurn him, but I didn’t expect this.” he grinned.
“He’ll be dead before he ever gets near her!” Hunter’s voice was low and hard and he realized that Swit was looking at him when Swit whistled.
“Aye. So that is how it is?” He chuckled. “Should have guessed when ye didn’t want me near the pretty lady.”
“Never mind. While he is busy, I think it best that we get down to the docks. You and your men get ready to sail.”
“Aye. The moon is full tonight and we should have an easy crossing if the weather doesn’t change.”
“There’s a rider on the other side, at Calais ready to do his part?” Hunter eyed Swit.
“A rider on the other side. That’s right. He’ll take it to Boney, who is set to march right into Belgium.”
“Aye, but we’ll stop him before he gets there…”
“Will we? You say it like you know,” Swit said scrutinizing him.
“I know Wellington. If anyone knows how to stop Napoleon, he does.,” Hunter saved himself.
“Aye. So he may,” Swit agreed. “Then if you have no more wish for ale, let’s make our way to the docks. As you say, let’s leave Horwich out of this part of it.”
An hour later, Hunter watched as Swit and his crew quietly left port with Sir Jacob’s yacht.
He turned, and started for his horse which was tethered nearby, when a voice in the darkness halted him.
“You think you are so superior with your Scottish title and your never ending funds!” David slurred his words as he staggered toward him.
“Ye are in yer cups man. I doona fight when a man can’t hold his own,” Hunter said, not really meaning to taunt.
Apparently, David took it as a taunt. “Damn your soul! I can hold my own and mean to.” He pulled out a gun and swayed as he pointed it.
Hunter sighed. “What do ye want Horwich?”
“Her
! I want her. She has her eyes filled with you right now, but if you leave, she will turn to
me!”
“So ye are asking me to leave?”
“Telling you to leave.”
“Sorry, but I doona think I can. If and when I do, I canna leave her here with ye. That is the long and the short of it. Doona try warning me off, it won’t work. Another thing, David of Horwich, leave the lass alone. She is her own person and when she is ready, she’ll do her own choosing. That is what she deserves, not two men fighting over her like this. I canna do it and ye shouldn’t.”
“I am not going to fight you. I am going to kill you,” David said and took his shot.
Hunter had to do something, and all at once he knew just what to do. He yelped in pain and said, “Ye have shot me, ye fool!”
The sound of gunfire brought various seamen out of the shadows, and one shouted, “Who goes there? What are ye about?”
“Ye best run, David Horwich. Shall I turn ye over to the magistrate?”
David was off balance from drink, but he understood. He turned and ran as fast as his wobbly legs would take him.
Hunter smiled to himself and straightened up as seamen approached. He waved them off. “Only grazed…naught…I’m fine. Go on aboot yer business.”
A moment later he was on his horse and trotting out of town. Now, he had something to keep David in his place. He would visit Horwich House in the morning and handle it with David’s father. He had to do something before the 18
th
of June which is when he had to use his magic to shift to Waterloo and save his brother.
When Baudali was destroyed, and his brother safe, he would return and take his woman by the hand to his castle in Scotland and make her his bride. The image this presented filled him with joy.
EXERILLA JUMPED TO her feet and looked around at what appeared to be an ancient dungeon that had been used for torturing its prisoners. She flinched as her scan of her surroundings found an iron maiden against one wall. She knew what that was used for, because she had seen her share of horror movies.
She looked into Baudali’s cold eyes and the first thing she wished for was her jeans and sneakers. It would be so much more appropriate and allow her more agility. Her 19
th
century day gown was now dirty, torn, and totally inhibiting.
He was watching her. She was aware that he was trying to penetrate her mind so she said, “It has been you, hasn’t it?”
“What has been me?” he appeared mildly interested in her question.
“Watching. I have felt I’ve been watched so many times,” she answered. She was hoping to keep him talking, while she looked for a way to use magic without her wand.
“I find that for a human, you are quite remarkable. It is sad that you shall have to suffer what I am about to inflict on you. But I want
him to feel
what you feel. I want him to see you in his mind…being made, shall we say, uncomfortable.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, but I wish I did. Are you sure you have the right person?” She knew she sounded dumb, but the sorry truth was that she wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
He came toward her as she held her hands out. “Human. You were transported by magic against your will, and yet you seem to have adjusted very quickly. In fact, you don’t seem in the least bit afraid. I find that odd. I should like to dissect you when I am done.”
She had to pretend to be a human from the 19
th
century. She said, “Afraid? Yes, I am afraid and can only think this is the work of the devil.”
He laughed and inclined his head, “In a manner of speaking, it is.”
The next thing she knew she was thrown against the wall. Her arms were spread out and tethered with chains to bolts, as were her legs.
He paced in front of her and made odd sounds, as he chewed on his bottom lip. He then stopped and put one finger to his nose “You are a great beauty. Will he let you die? This will be truly exciting to watch. But for now, I need him to feel you in pain. I am afraid we must begin.”
“What the heck are you talking about? What do you want with me?”
He stroked her cheek with a long black painted nail. “Brave, aren’t you? Not for long. I have to make you hurt. Here let me show you…” he said as he moved his wand.
A burning sensation started at her toes. She looked down and saw that her walking shoes were on fire. She screamed. She was in agony. She could make it stop. She had the power to make it stop. She would have to face him. She didn’t know enough about him to ensure that she would come out of it alive. She had to bide her time and wait until he wasn’t expecting it. Pain took over and she howled with excruciating anguish. She could smell her flesh burning. Hell, she was in hell. She could make it stop. She could make it stop, but that would give herself away.
“Hunter?” Baudali shouted into an orb he held in his hand. “Do you hear her screams? Your lady love is in pain and I am going to make certain she suffers. Do you hear me, Hunter?”
Suddenly with the flick of his wrist the fire was gone. Her boots and clothing no longer burnt and her flesh untouched. It was as though she had not just been engulfed in flames only a moment ago.
What the frig was going on? Why had he done this? Why would Hunter feel her pain?
He said, “Illusion. It works very nicely and yet keeps the subject intact which is what I want. I can keep doing that to every part of you. I can make you feel pain over your entire body and I can do it over and over again. Or, I can make you relatively comfortable if you cooperate and maybe even beg Hunter MacTorry for your life. So, which will it be?”
A human would want to be comfortable and appease him. She wasn’t human. Exerilla said, “
Drop dead
.” She just couldn’t say anything else. He was sure to make it all return. Baudali produced an ancient dagger and first cut her cheek, allowing the blood to run down her face, neck, and dress. Then he cut open her gown at her belly and stabbed her, over and over again.
Sharp pain gutted through her as she cried out. Her inner witch came to her rescue. It was an illusion. He wasn’t cutting her. He would if she remained tethered like this. He would kill her in the end, but now he needed her alive. She didn’t know why. It had something to do with Hunter.
She pretended to pass out while her inner witch kept her from feeling the pain the illusion called down on her.
“Hunter, do you hear her?” Baudali shouted into the Orb. “We meet soon. In the meantime, I have her close and mean to enjoy this.” He evidently saw that she had fainted and lightly slapped her face. “It isn’t any fun if you are going to pass out on me, human.” She stayed deep within herself.
He produced a bucket of water and without touching it, dropped the water on her face. “Don’t worry; it won’t be much longer now. Time in this dimension moves very differently. Hunter will soon be preparing to join his brother on the battlefield. He thinks to save him, but not all the dark magic he has attained will help him. I have a plan.” So saying, Baudali burst out laughing.
X choked on the water, and as she shook it off. His words formed in her brain and took root. Hunter was a wizard.
Hunter was trying to save his brother who might also be a wizard.
She hadn’t detected it.
Baudali slapped her hard and demanded she wake up. Silently she made a vow to find a way to destroy him. It was then that she felt her dark magic rising.
It was do or die. She was going to take him down as painfully as she could, because she was so much more than she had allowed herself to be.
* * *
Hunter collected everything he needed, but most importantly he made certain his sword carried the spell he and his brother had devised a few months earlier. He had kept it hidden, never looking at it, and now relegated it to the air space where he kept his wand, ever ready to call upon.
Baudali knew nothing about this sword or what it could do.
Dressed in black leathers, warrior leathers, Hunter was mentally and physically ready for battle and just biding his time. He would have to wait until noon, another hour before he would magically shift into the heat of the battle at Waterloo, stand beside his brother, and take Baudali down!
Just as he smiled at the thought, the first wave of pain hit him like a rocket going through him. Pain shot through his body, and in his mind, all he could see was his Exerilla!
An agony of tearing pain continued to sweep over him, coursing through his body. He felt the flames of a fire whip at his skin. He was on fire, his clothes, his flesh, but it wasn’t his skin it was
her skin
. He could smell her skin burning off her body.
And then he knew, beyond any doubt that Baudali had his Exerilla. He was torturing her. Somehow Baudali had discovered Exerilla was a part of his life and had taken her hostage. He was torturing her in such a way that he would know and feel what she was experiencing.
“
Damn your soul
!” He told himself. He had everything it would take to defeat the Dark Wizard, but he had to remain calm and collected.
His wee lass was human, she would be dead by now if she was really on fire. Baudali was using illusion on her.
He sucked in air and tried to get his head on straight. He had to track her scent. Baudali wouldn’t realize that he was able to do that. He would be careless.
A moment later, Hunter had zeroed in on her scent and sneered. Baudali had taken her to another dimension and one that Hunter had searched long ago when he was tracking the Dark Wizard.
He reached for her through her scent and magic shifted through air and space.
A moment later he stood, his boots firmly planted on the cold stone floor of Baudali’s dungeon, facing a surprised Baudali.
He saw the look in his beloved’s eyes and frowned, uncertain of what she would think.
“I am impressed,” Baudali said.
“Let the woman go. She has no part in this,” Hunter spat at him.
“Ah, but she does have a part in this. A very big part…and oh my
, it is time!”
Hunter realized too late as he reached out to stop Baudali, but the wizard had taken Exerilla in a cloud of dark smoke and vanished.
* * *
Eight miles south of Brussels, at noon on June 18
th
, 1815, Napoleon stood with his arm across his chest and his hand within his coat at his chest.
With his tent at his back, and his generals around him, he contemplated the future as he made ready to give the order.
He knew two large forces would face him under Wellington and Blucher, not far from his beloved France.
That was the crux of it all. He could not allow them to invade France. His latest missive had informed him that if he did not withdraw, these countries would unite and take him on in his own dear lands. He could not withdraw.
He had to strike now; he had to strike with his accumulated strength. He had to hit the coalition and reduce their numbers. He had to show them what it was to face a man such as himself! He had delayed giving battle until this moment, he had wanted the ground to dry.
With some apprehension, he gave the orders to meet Wellington’s army positioned across the Brussels road on the Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment. And the battle of Waterloo moved into full swing!
A shock wave went through him, as he realized that the Prussians had arrived and that their numbers were to be reckoned with.
It didn’t take long before word got through to him that the Anglo-allied army’s counter attack had driven the French into disorder. Skirmishes had turned into a blood bath in the field.
* * *
Young Ferrell MacTorry looked around as he used both magic and his sword to slay the enemy and save his comrades. He knew what was coming. Although he had no memory of it, he knew because his brother had readied him.
He had already exposed the traitor on Wellington’s staff, thanks to his brother’s information and the scoundrel had been arrested.
He knew he could not allow himself to be killed, if for no other reason, than Hunter would not, could not accept it again. He had to find a way to stop the Dark Wizard.
He had to be alert.
He watched for a sign of Baudali, but as time went by he became engrossed in the battle, keeping his troop safe, though he silently mourned for the young French faces he put to earth.
This is not what he wanted. If he survived this, he would give up soldiering, and then, all at once he saw Baudali and frowned as his heart pounded in his chest.
Baudali had a young, beautiful woman in his grasp, and he held a dagger to her neck, all the while grinning!
