Soul Magic (14 page)

“Tree.”

The child’s chirp made him smile. 

“I tree.”

“Not yet,” the woman admonished.  “You aren’t three yet, small elf.”

“What did you call her?”

“`Tis the meaning of her name.  Ellette means
little elf
.”

Darrick exchanged a glance with Alanna.  Though still there, the shadows in her eyes seemed to have lessoned somewhat.

Again Ellette began to struggle, pushing against her caretaker’s hold.  “Let me down.”

Alanna lifted her arms.  “May I?”

The woman nodded, releasing the small whirlwind, who launched herself at Alanna.  Head bent, Alanna cuddled the child.  When she raised her head her cheeks were wet with tears.

The other woman noticed this as well.  “Is her son dead?”  She directed the question to Darrick.

“Nay, merely lost.  Someone took him, and we but follow a trail.”

Still holding Ellette, Alanna stood.  Miraculously, the two year old remained still, her golden head resting on Alanna’s shoulder.  Her eyes drooped closed.

“Do you travel on Morfran Mortimer’s orders?”  The urgency in Alanna’s tone had the other woman widening her eyes.

“I am a servant in his keep.  Or was.  Until he bade me play nursemaid to this poor babe.”

“Where is her mother?”

“I know not.  She was brought to me in the middle of the night, hungry and crying.  This was three months ago.”

Before Caradoc had been taken
. 

“Where do you go?” This question Darrick asked, wondering what Morfran planned to do with Ellette, now that he had Caradoc.  He would ask Alanna later if her legend mentioned a girl child as well. 

“He sends us to Ambleside.  There is an abbey there where I am to leave Ellette.”  For a moment the woman’s bewildered face smoothed out.  “Then I shall be free to return home to my husband and my own children.”

“Did you see another woman?”  Alanna watched her closely.  “Her name is the Lady Rowena, and she is noble of birth.”

“His prisoner.”  Her face contorted, fear glittering once more in her eyes.  “I could do nothing to help her.  She lives still, if such torment could be called living.”

Darrick tamped down his rage.  His gentle mother did not deserve such ill-treatment, and the sooner he found her and freed her, the more swift would be his revenge.

“Know you where they travel?”

She shook her head.  Too quickly, he thought.

“Are you certain?”

“Aye. One named Gorsedd believed Ellette to be a child of prophecy, or some such nonsense.  When he realized she was not, he decided to send her away, to the abbey.  This other woman, she was her nursemaid until then.  Now, I have heard they sent her with the boy.  Where, I do not know.”

“The boy?”  Alanna took a step forward.  “Tell me of--”

“`Tis time to go.”  Geoffrey and Sarina appeared in the door.  “The men below grow restless.  I have heard several  speak of retiring for the night.”

Darrick motioned to Alanna to let go of the child.  “We must go. There is nothing for us here.”

“You would leave this child for Morfran?”  Still dozing, the small girl clung to Alanna’s neck.  Raising her gaze to meet Darrick’s, Alanna shook her head.

A chill of premonition skittered down his spine.

“I am taking her with us.”

Immediately, Geoffrey sputtered a protest.  Darrick silenced him with a gesture, then returned his attention to Alanna.

“She does not belong to you.”

“Nor to this woman.”  She began to rock her upper body. Ellette smiled in her slumber.  Darrick recognized a certain fierce protectiveness, like that of a she-wolf protecting her pup.

Except this girl child was not her son.

Frustrated, he looked to Sarina for help.  She was another woman.  Mayhap she could talk sense into her cousin.

Instead, Sarina smiled thoughtfully.  “She is much like Caradoc,” she said.  “Though they are not the same age.”

“Like Caradoc?”  Unclear on her meaning, Darrick glanced at Geoffrey and saw he wore an identical blank expression.  “How so?”

“Of mixed parentage.”  Sarina waved her hand from Alanna to Darrick.  “There are many like her in your world and ours, for the Fae love freely.”

Now he understood her to mean Ellette was, like Caradoc, half human and half Fae.

Shouts came up the stairs.  Good-natured laughter.  Two men, one large, if the heaviness of his tread was any indication, headed their way.

“My guards.”  The woman’s eyes went round.  “They left their posts to go eat, as they did not believe this inn carried any threat.  If they catch you here, they’ll kill you.”

“Let’s go.”  Alanna turned, the sleeping child stirring in her arms.

“What of her?”  Darrick indicated Ellette’s nursemaid with a jerk of his thumb.  “You cannot take her charge and leave her here alone to face the guards’ anger.”

“I will leave too.”  Decisive now, the woman moved to Alanna’s side.  “If you can help me escape them, I’d be grateful.  We are less than a day’s ride from my village and I wish to return home to my family.”

“You do not place them in danger if you do so?”

“Danger?”  The nursemaid frowned.  “What do you mean?”

“Think you that Morfran might be displeased that you surrendered the child so easily?  Might he not hunt you down, and take vengeance on your family?”

For a moment, stark terror flashed across her face.  “I had not thought of that.  But I do think once he realizes you have the girl and are hunting the boy, he will be too busy searching for you to focus on me.  If he does, I will take the chance.”

“`Tis your choice.” Geoffrey moved forward. 

A loud crash came from the stairway.  One of the guards had stumbled.  Virulent cursing followed, confirming this, then another round of drunken laughter.

“There is only one way down!”  Sarina looked about wildly, left to right.  “We’ll have to hide.”

“In here.”  Geoffrey pushed his shoulder against a door.  “This room is not in use.”

They all rushed inside.  Once there, Alanna continued to sway back and forth, her rhythmic motions keeping the child lulled and half-asleep.  Noticing Darrick watching her, Alanna lifted her cloak, lowering it so Ellette was concealed beneath the thick folds.

Breathless, they waited, hiding.

Just in time.  A moment later the guards stumbled past, still chortling in drunken merriment.  Once they noticed their charge had gone missing, Darrick expected they’d sober up rather quickly. 

“Come on.”  He barreled down the stairs, herding Alanna and the girl child before him.  They didn’t slow once they reached the great room, pushing through the thick crowd until the chilly night hit their faces like a slap.

Darrick looked back once, seeing nothing out of the ordinary.  If the guards upstairs had raised an alert, he could not hear it over the din from the crowded room. 

The rest of his party waited, exactly as he had instructed, with horses ready.  Darrick swung the nursemaid up behind him.  Accustomed to full armor, his war horse was used to the weight. 

Though clouds obscured the three-quarter moon and the path ahead looked dark, they rode forward.  Torchless and hoping for a miracle.  Urging their mounts into a gallop, they rode as if the hounds of hell pursued them, though as yet none sounded an alarm.

“They do not follow.”  Geoffrey cast one more glance over his shoulder.  “I don’t understand.”

“Too drunk.”  That could be the only reason.  Knowing Morfran, if he’d entrusted these men to guard Ellette and they failed, he’d have their heads.  “Once they sober up, I have no doubt they’ll come after us.”

Though she lowered her hood to let her golden hair stream free behind her, Alanna kept little Ellette hidden beneath her cloak. 

Darrick knew they were lucky none of the horses stumbled or stepped into a hole. 

Finally he slowed his horse to a walk.  The others followed suit. 

“Still no one follows.”  Geoffrey rode beside Darrick, keeping his gaze carefully averted from Alanna and Sarina. 

“We are safe until the dawn.”

“What do you plan to do with the child?”

The woman who rode behind Darrick spoke.  “I can take her with me, if you wish.  I have other children and my home grows near.”

“No.”  Still cradling her bundle, Alanna did not even turn.  “Ellette comes with me.”

“Surely you don’t expect to bring that child along?” Geoffrey’s tone resonated with his skepticism.  “This hunt for Gorsedd and your son will be dangerous.”

“I can protect her.”

“But--”

“If Alanna wants to keep Ellette, she may.  None has laid claim to the child.”  Darrick gave Geoffrey a wry smile, trying to take the sting from his words.

Geoffrey stared at him as if he was a stranger. 

He wanted to save him, Darrick realized.  Despite Darrick’s earlier candor, Geoffrey truly believed he had been bewitched. 

“My village is a short way down this path,” the nursemaid said.  “But remember too that Morfran’s men will pursue us when they have slept off the effects of the drink.”

“The first place they will look is this village.  We do not need to go there.”  Geoffrey’s tone was sharp. 

Glad the shadowy moonlight hid his expression, Darrick sighed.  “We must seek word.  Mayhap some there will have seen them and can help us.”

“Help us?  With what?”

“We don’t know where the other riders went.”

For the first time in Darrick’s memory, Geoffrey challenged him.  “They went west.   All that lies that way is Whitehaven, or St. Bees Head.”

“And the sea,” Darrick reminded him.  “Always the sea.”

Both Geoffrey and Alanna stared at him.  Long had his greatest weakness been known, his fear of the ocean bandied about among the men even as he’d forced himself to cross it in his quest for war. 

“They wouldn’t have crossed the sea.”  Alanna frowned.  “All that lies that way is the Isle of Mann, then Eire.” 

But a shudder of premonition told Darrick that might be exactly where Morfran’s men had taken her son. 

CHAPTER EIGHT

The child smelled of sweetness.  Holding her made Alanna feel like a mother again, and eased somewhat the awful ache of her empty arms.  Though she knew Darrick and Sarina worried for her sanity, she truly did not view this small girl child as a substitute for her son.  No one could replace Caradoc, and the sooner she found him the better. 

But neither could she abandon this child to Morfran’s men, or to the indifferent caretaker who seemed so eager to desert her.  Ellette, like Caradoc, was destined for better things.  Alanna sensed something bright within her, and whatever this shining thing was, it resonated with Alanna like a well-tuned harp.

More importantly, she believed that Ellette was essential to her son’s future.  How, she could not say.  Perhaps this too was a piece of the legendary riddle.  Though she’d done little but consider it while she rode, she still had not figured out the puzzle’s meaning. 

Pairs of Pairs
.   Caradoc and this little girl?

It was entirely possible.  Nay, more than likely, since Morfran and Gorsedd wanted Ellette.  For some reason they sought to keep her separate from Caradoc.   Timing?  Whatever the motive, `twas cause enough to keep her. 

The other reason, a mother’s tenderness, Alanna would not try to hide, no matter what the others might believe of her.

“Now what?”  Geoffrey asked again.  “How much time do we waste while Morfran’s men gain distance?  We need to ride as fast and hard as our mounts are able, if we mean to overtake them before they reach their destination.”

A few of the men mumbled agreement. 

“How?  If we turn and go west, we will run into the group from the inn.”  Sarina, the voice of reason, watched only Geoffrey as she spoke.  She thought Alanna was too distracted to see the hunger in her eyes when she looked at him.

Through all of this, Darrick remained conspicuously silent, staring at Alanna with a hooded gaze as she rocked little Ellette. Alanna wondered if he saw another child in his mind’s eye, a child never born, who might have been had they married.

“Is there not another road?”  Directing this question to Darrick, Alanna was pleased to see a half smile curve one side of his mouth.