Chapter 14
Cat let out a yelpand burrowed under the covers.
Saints!Torr lifted his head and glared toward Finnian standing in his bedchamber doorway.
The old man's mouth gaped within his white beard. He pushed the door closed. "What have you done, lad?" he asked in a loud whisper.
"'Slud," Torr muttered. "What does it look like? She gave me your damnable potion." The effects should have worn off by now, but he could not smother his raging desire for her. "Keep it to yourself."
"Have nay worries." Finnian grinned. "My special tincture works, aye?"
"It arouses lust, if that's what you mean." Torr would not mention his keen emotional attachment to her. "Did you need something?"
"Aye. Look at this." Finnian handed him a scrap of paper, then shoved the draperies open, allowing in the late afternoon light.
Torr frowned at the near-illegible scribble. "Witch... spies... keek-stane. What is this?"
"I fell asleep at my desk. When I awoke from a vivid dream, the quill was in my hand, and this was written on the paper."
Sounded mad. Torr scowled. "Have you done this before?"
"Aye, one time a few years ago, the solution to a complex problem was also written by my hand whilst I slept and dreamed. 'Tis a message from the spirit realm. You must take possession of this keek-stane. As you know, 'tis a scrying stone. 'Twill seize a portion of Lady MacRae's dark power and prevent her from spying on you and Brodie."
Torr frowned, remembering when the candle had exploded at the inn... and the wolf pack illusion. "I suspected she somehow knew what I was doing. How will I find this keek-stane?"
"You must sniff her out."
Naught Finnian said made any sense.
"What do you mean?"
Finnian tapped his own crooked nose. "With your kelpie neb."
Torr shook his head. "'Twould take until kingdom come." His sense of smell was keen but not to that extreme.
"In my dream, I sensed that the two evildoers were nearby."
Aye, Torr reckoned they had to be, for the witch was always lurking about as one animal or another.
"Your future and Brodie's depends on you taking the keek-stane from her," Finnian said.
"Fine, but Cat must stay here."
A muffled, unintelligible exclamation arose from beneath the bed linens. Cat shoved the sheets and counterpane off her head and sat up, leaving them covering her chest. She drew the long, ginger curls from her flushed face. "His future? Will taking the keek-stane destroy the spells imprisoning Torr and Brodie?"
"'Twill indeed help," Finnian said. "We must do everything possible to weaken Lady MacRae's power."
"Aye. We must retrieve it, then," Cat said.
"I will, but you'll remain here," Torr ordered.
She narrowed her eyes. "I'll follow you."
Torr scowled. "The witch may not even possess a keek-stane."
"You doubt my prophetic words?" Finnian snatched the paper and shook it at him.
"Even if 'tis so, what's to stop her from cursing me worse than I already am... or harming Cat?"
