Silent Vows (26 page)

For now, she needed him. A virgin would do little good without him there to perform her ritual.

He kept his own plans hidden from her prying mind. His Druid powers were not without merit, and he was capable of keeping Grainna out of his head.

He had also studied some of her spells when she wasn’t watching and found ways to counter some of them, so as not to become her next victim.

He ventured closer to the MacCoinnich land than she deemed necessary. Nevertheless, his own plan kept his eyes to the massive Keep that housed the family and the remaining stones.

Power, no matter how excessive, meant little to him if he remained trapped in this century. He wanted his life back where it belonged.

Even if he was given immortality, he wanted nothing to do with waiting for time to catch up with him. He would search out the stones, study the family who owned them, and find a way to steal them all.

Above him, a hawk soared with outstretched wings spanning some five feet. Michael closed his eyes and lifted his thoughts above, calling out to the bird. Its cry pierced the silence when Michael willed the bird to fly toward the Keep, and screamed in protest when his eyes looked through those of the hawk.

Transfixed, Michael saw the earth below as if he actually rode on the back of the bird. The rush of air from the flight caught his breath. Small animals scurried beneath him, the hawk wanted desperately to clench its claws into his prey, for it had been one 225

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full day since it had been able to catch and kill its dinner, but Michael overpowered the animal’s mind and kept it flying forward.

The bird circled the Keep once it reached its destination. He rested on the peak of a turret, and scanned the people below.

Several knights in armor stood guard, watching from the towers of the Keep. Below, the courtyard was filled with men training for battle. The bird moved closer until Michael could see the faces. He recognized some of the family and the man from the future. His hair was longer and his clothes had changed, but the same determination and fight was apparent in his movements and stance.

The hawk cried out, but no one noticed. No one but the young boy Simon, who eyed the bird for a brief moment then returned his gaze to the field of men. Michael counted them, and made note of the entrance to the yard. He made the bird take flight and reached the tallest peak, there he saw where the stables were and the path that led to the village beyond.

Pleased with his reconnaissance, he released the bird and opened his eyes. Briefly, his irises took on the shape of the hawk. He closed them and shook his head. Opened again, they were only his, bright, blue and completely human.

He turned his horse around and started back.

****

The women gathered in Lizzy’s room and this time Lora joined them.

“Who should we try first?” Amber rubbed her hands together in excitement.

“Not Duncan, our connection is too strong and with you here Lora, Ian might sense what’s 226

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happening.” Tara settled into a chair placed inside the circle for her comfort. The others would sit on the floor.

Liz held the book in one hand and jotted down a few notes in the other. “I think this will work.” She closed the book and tossed it on the bed. Unlike the other women in the room, Liz was wearing her jeans and a sweater, which she had taken to doing whenever they were alone. “Is everyone ready?”

Amber and Myra settled on the floor inside the circle of candles, each of them lit two. When it was Liz’s turn, she did so with ease.

“You’ve improved,” Tara told her.

“Thanks. Okay, let’s see.” Liz sprinkled the dry lavender around all of them. “It’s time we peek and use our sight, and look within the other’s plight. Use our circle to hide our task, keep us silent, is all we ask. If the Ancients will it so, let us look so we will know.” Liz took a seat next to the others and grasped the hands of those at her side.

“So who do we pick?”

“Cian. He has a strong sense of sight. If we can get in his head without him knowing it, then we can try Duncan or Ian.”

A low rumbling of energy rolled over Myra and settled into her bones. The familiar power sparked where her fingers met those of Amber and Tara.

The picture of Cian slowly merged into one they all saw. “Try not to think of past memories, just envision him. Good. Help us look through his eyes.”

Lizzy’s words focused all of them. A quiet settled around the room. Only their breathing could be heard.

Their vision changed from a picture of Cian, to the lush green of the countryside. He was on the back of a horse riding alongside Simon who was talking and pointing.

“Can anyone hear what is being said?” Myra 227

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asked.

“No.”

Myra heard her mother gasp and opened her eyes. “You are all levitating,” Lora said with surprise in her voice.

“It’s okay. We come down when were finished,”

Lizzy offered in explanation. “Concentrate.”

The village emerged into view and Cian sped up his horse. He peered over to Simon and said something Myra couldn’t hear.

Simon kicked his mount into a full run, darting past him. Cian’s head came back, as if in laughter before leaning over his horse and urging him faster.

They raced over the land. Simon bent deeper into his horse when they came upon a fallen log. The horse jumped over it with ease. Simon glanced behind him as Cian matched his speed to catch up.

Neck and neck they drove their horses to the edge of the village, but Simon bested Cian by a small margin.

The boys smiled at the thrill of a good ride, and the horses pranced around anxious to take off again.

Cian leaned forward and patted Simon’s shoulder.

Myra felt Tara squeeze her hand before she opened her eyes and broke off the connection with Cian.

“I’m goanna kill him.” Lizzy shook her head.

“I’ve told him over and over not to run the horses.”

“But he did so with such skill,” Amber came to his defense.

“Did you see him jump?” Tara asked with pride in her voice.

Myra nodded and smiled. “That was great.”

Lora came to her feet, and stared at the still elevated sisters. “How do you get down?”

“Not very gracefully I’m afraid.” Tara considered the floor and cringed.

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None of them could quite figure out why they hovered, let alone how to ease themselves gently down.

They had tried many different rhymes and made up incantations, but none worked.

“You guys ready?” Liz asked.

They winced as each one of them hit the floor despite the pillows they had put under them.

Tara was better off in the chair, but still she called out, “Damn, that always makes me need to pee.” Myra tossed her hand and the candles went out.

Amber clapped her hands together. “We did it.”

“Did anyone hear anything?”

“Nothing,” Tara told her while rubbing her backside.

“I did feel a few things, and I could almost smell the smoke of the chimneys close to the village.”

Amber agreed. “Do you think he knew we were watching?”

“We’ll have to wait until tonight to find out. If I had to guess, I would say no.” Liz pulled one of her gowns out of a trunk and started dressing. “You’re the empath, Amber, what did you sense?”

“Kinship. Cian likes Simon’s company and feels the need to mentor him. My brother didn’t like losing the race.”

Myra helped Liz lace up her gown. “Your ability to feel other’s emotions will be helpful if we’re unable to hear what’s happening.”

“I agree,” Myra saw the praise sink into her young sibling. Amber completed their circle, despite her tender age.

They all helped put the room to order.

Liz stuffed the book away, hidden from the casual eye along with her modern clothes.

They spread the candles around the room, merely functional again.

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Pleased with the results they left the room, in search of food.

Calling on the powers they provoked together always made them hungry.

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“I think the stones need to be a priority.”

Duncan said between bites.

“They will be of little help if Grainna regains power,” Ian told him.

“But with the stones, can we not simply go back in time and stop her?”

“It is not us who decides the time in which the stones send us.” Lora placed a calming hand on her son’s arm.

Myra noticed the exchange, knowing that Duncan and Tara were becoming increasingly anxious as the weeks ticked down to the coming birth of their child.

“How do we know? Have we ever tried to make the stones take us to a specific time?” he asked his parents. “We have only done what your visions have told us. Consider how Myra was able to isolate where to be placed on her return, and she wasn’t given a vision.”

“He’s right. My subconscious repeated Tara’s words about Magicland when I left, which was where I ended up. It might work to choose the time in which to be sent.”

Liz put up her hand. “Wait a minute. Let’s assume you can do this. What happens if you try and come back to a day last week? You already exist in that time.” Liz glanced at Tara and Todd who gave 231

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her a brief nod. “Maybe I’ve watched too many hours of television… but couldn’t that change the course of history? Our history?”

“It hasn’t been tried,” Ian said. “But I think your concerns are valid.”

“We still don’t want the stones to stay in Grainna’s hands.” Duncan sent his wife a brief smile

“Have you ladies tried to get into one of our heads?” Ian asked after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Myra locked eyes with Todd. His questioning gaze had her sending him a quick shake of the head to say they didn’t pry into his. “You tell us.”

Fin sent a nervous eye to Liz, then on to his brothers who shrugged their shoulders. Simon shook his head no.

“Well then.” Lora smiled. “It seems to have worked.”

“Really? Who did you spy on?” Fin took a long drink of the ale sitting in front of him.

“Relax, Finlay. It wasn’t you,” Liz informed him.

“Who then?”

Liz eyed her son. “I thought I told you not to jump or run the horses.”

Simon’s eyes grew wide. He tossed a bite of bread in his mouth to keep him from having to speak.

“So you looked into Simon’s head.”

“No, we went into Cian’s thoughts, who was riding with Simon. No, make that racing Simon.”

Myra scowled at her younger brother who didn’t seem concerned for his actions.

“He’s an excellent horseman. I don’t know why any of you worry about him,” he told them all while patting Simon on the back. Myra had to agree, but from the look crossing Lizzy’s face, she didn’t out loud. “Still...” Liz started.

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“Leave it, Elizabeth.” Fin dropped his hand on the table, causing the plates to rattle. “Simon is capable. In time he might outride any of us here.”

Liz turned in her chair and gave Fin her full attention. “The last time I looked I was his mother.

And you have no right to interfere. If I don’t want him running the horses at breakneck speed, then he doesn’t.”

“I say he does.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Just who the hell do you think you are? You’re not his father, and never—” she yelled.

“As long as you are under the protection—”

Liz put her hand up. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard this before. And I’m done listening to it.” Her voice rose to match Fin’s. “I think those stones are a priority after all. It’s time Simon and I go back home.”

“You don’t like the rules so you run away. Is that it?” Fin’s jaw stood firm.

Myra cringed while watching Liz and her brother stare each other down. Todd’s hand gathered hers beneath the table. His hold sent a silent word of comfort.

With hands clutched at her waist, Lizzy spat out. “It’s not the rules I want to get away from. It’s you!”

Simon shot out of his chair. “Stop it! Stop it, both of you.” Tears pooled in his eyes. He ran from the table and up the stairs.

Without another word, Liz sprung out of her chair and took off after her son.

Fin stood to follow; Tara halted him. “Lizzy has been a single mom for many years. No one she has seen socially has ever even met Simon, let alone been given the right to dictate how he should be raised.”

Fin listened, but made no effort to move.

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role, I suggest you back off.”

“The lad needs male guidance.”

“I couldn’t agree more, but it’s Lizzy’s place to choose who that man will be. If you choose Simon without Lizzy, or Lizzy without Simon, either way you’re doomed. And if Lizzy doesn’t choose you, you stand no chance.”

“Women here stop raising their sons by Simon’s age.” “You keep forgetting that she isn’t from this time, and if you back her in a corner she will find a way to leave.”

“Where would she go?” Myra asked nervous of how Lizzy would survive without them.

Tara glanced at Myra. “Anywhere. It wouldn’t matter to her if she had to bunk down in a shack.

She won’t stay where she feels threatened.”

“She would risk her life and that of her son’s for her pride?”

“You make that sound like a fault, Fin. Isn’t honor and pride what every knight lives by?” When he didn’t answer Tara went on. “Besides, Lizzy has always found a way to support herself and Simon.

Granted, it’s done a little easier in our time, but it isn’t impossible now.”

Myra spoke when no one else did. “Widows in our time live in relative poverty. If the truth were known about Simon’s birth being out of wedlock, they would both be outcasts even amongst the poor.”

Fin stormed away in the opposite direction of Liz. Myra held Todd’s hand under the table her worried expression met Tara’s. “Would she really leave?”

“Yeah, yeah she would.”