The Tinklers always listened to their women. Itwas the failing of their sponsors, the Fae, who had foolishly separated from his people eons ago. The Celts and the Fae and their ridiculous adherence to the superiority of their goddess over his own gods had long been a source of irritation.
“In that case, I’d have you tell me this news of such great import that you have brought to me.”
MacFalny shrugged, lifting his hands in a gesture of helplessness. “But my laird, once I have given all that I have of value, how am I to know that I will receive payment?”
“Trust, of course,” Torquil answered, struggling to hold back the beast that raged at the insult. “I would have you exhibit the same trust you ask from me.”
“I will require enough coin to finance my travels from here to Inverness. And a horse, as well.”
He insults us, setting terms as if we are some common trader!
“You have my word, minstrel. The word of Torquil of Katanes, laird of the MacDowylt, chosen son of Odin. My bond that you will be paid all you deserve. And more if the information warrants. Surely that is good enough to earn yer trust.”
Deep within the beast roared his agreement, clawing at Torquil’s innards, demanding his release.
MacFalny rubbed his hands together, greedily. “The woman who attempted to take yer life has escaped.”
Impossible!
“If this is true, how did you come by such knowledge? Where is she now?”
“It is true, I swear it. I saw her with my own two eyes. The Tinklers agreed to assist in her escape. They returned to the camp with her early this morning. Even as we speak, they carry her south to return her to the safety of her home.”
She was supposed to be ours!
“Well?” Hugo continued to grin as if he’d somehow gained the upper hand. “Is this news no every bit as valuable as I said it would be? Am I no deserving of a proper payment?”
“Deserving indeed.”
The Beast spoke in unison with him, the words echoing off the stone walls, vibrating within his chest and in the sensitive tissues deep inside his ears.
Hugo’s eyes widened, the man only now beginning to suspect the danger he faced.
“Too late.”
Too late, indeed. The Beast would no longer be silenced. With a strength beyond Torquil’s power to contain, it traveled from the Deep Within, past his belly, up past his chest to fill his mind and burst forth.
Torquil gave himself over to the beast as he moved to block the door with a fluid lengthening of his gait. His arms, his legs, every part of him expanded to accommodate the beast within.
A joy previously unknown to him flooded his mind. Why had he ever feared this? The Beast did not seek to replace him. It did not in any way diminish him. It completed him. They were one.
“You...you owe me nothing,” Hugo babbled, his head turning from side to side, in search of some way out of the room. “Consider the information my gift to you. To seal our bond of friendship.”
Fear rolled off the little man in great heaving waves, tinged a bright orange with panic.
“Here now, MacDowylt. I demand you step aside.” Hugo moved hesitantly toward him, toward the only door in the room. “Our business is finished.”
“Not yet finished.”
Torquil marveled at the size of his own hand reaching out to close around the minstrel’s neck. Marveled at his own strength as he lifted the struggling man from his feet. Marveled at the pleasure of the thick, warm liquid filling his mouth, slaking a hunger such as he’d never before experienced.
When he hungered no more, he tossed the pieces of the body to the floor and filled his lungs with the essence of fear lingering in the room.
As quickly as the beast had joined with him, it now departed, slinking back into the deep recesses of his soul.
He leaned back against the door, feeling the loss as if it were a physical blow. A search within lefthim weak with relief when he at last discovered the beast, tightly encased behind the Magic as it had been before the first time he’d called upon its power. Not gone, only resting, at peace for the first time since he’d discovered it in the scrolls.
So many new sensations bubbled inside him, so many raging emotions. It was as if in joining with the beast he had opened up a whole new piece of himself. A piece filled with a reservoir of Magic he had only dared to imagine in the past. He could feel it coursing through his veins. With this power, he had no doubt he could conquer the spells on the ancient scroll that waited for him in his tower.
