Page 25 of Nyall

“No, I mean, you, me and Valerie all coming here at the same time the clan’s enemies are getting closer,” she said. “I know all three of us were on the verge of drowning in our time, but I don’t think the ring brought us back solely to save our lives. What’s strange is who it picked to save. Lots of people drown every day in our time, right?”

“Unfortunately I do know those statistics. In the U.S., it averages to about eleven every day. In the world, it’s close to seven hundred.” The other woman frowned. “So, what you’re saying is, why would the ring save a teacher, a seamstress and a diver when it could just as easily grab some Marines or Special Ops guys?”

“Yes. Also, it didn’t just save us, it gave us all special abilities—you’ll find out what yours is soon enough, I expect—as well as our modern skill sets.” Lark told her how she had used her lifting power to save herself and Fletcher from the Cait Sith.

Caroline nodded slowly. “That makes more sense. But if you believe we were brought here for a specific purpose, like helping the clan fight this bitch of an enchantress in some way, wouldn’t it be obvious what the plan is?”

“Fae magic doesn’t seem to be straight forward,” Lark admitted. “Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had the sense that something is coming for the clan. There’s the problem with Derdrui and the Cait Sith, definitely, but this thing is something else. Something that has to do with these shark attacks, and the people who have gone missing from the Finfolk settlement. Nothing like that has ever happened before here.” She bit her lip before she added, “The men don’t want us to worry about it, but I think the ring brought us to help them fight the battle that’s coming—the one that they can’t win without us. Only I don’t know how.”

“You’re not psychic like Lady Val, right?” Caroline asked. When she shook her head she leaned forward. “All right, I’ll just tell you straight out. I can stop time, and freeze everything around me. I don’t know if I’m affecting all time everywhere on the planet, or just here on the island, but it’s a scary power. Unless I can learn to control the length of time it happens, I won’t be able to use it.”

As the diver explained how she had discovered her ability, Lark understood. She’d gone through a lot learning to control her own ability to move objects, especially when she learned there was no limit to what she could do with it. If Lark really wanted to, she could rip Caladh itself out of the ocean and fling it to the other side of the world.

When Caroline finished Lark asked, “Nyall knows about your ability, right?”

“I showed it to him and Jamaran tonight,” she said. “It didn’t affect them the way it did Valerie in the great hall, either. Neither of them froze with the time stop.”

The other woman’s expression and tone softened whenever she spoke of the two men, Lark noted later as she went back to Fletcher. That fit with the body language she’d displayed earlier tonight when she’d come through the gate with the captain. Nyall also seemed unusually intent on her, too, and from what she’d said Jamaran was just as interested. Caroline might not want to marry anyone, but if she instigated a love triangle with Jamaran and Nyall, that would likely cause no end of complications for Connal and Merrick.

Lark suspected the friendship between the captain and the commander had also protected the truce between the clan and the Finfolk for centuries. What would happen if they now became enemies?

Chapter Eight

Speal tethered the skiff to some rocks before she waded through the shallows, glancing around at Ronalsee’s empty shores. To the north she saw the rotted remains of an old dock, likely built by the Norse to moor their longboats when they came to camp between mainland raids. Not far from it the ground had been leveled, and the remnants of stone fire pit circles still showed through the ground cover.

“Och, the place reeks,” Dearg complained as she slogged out of the water. “Naught could live among so much mayweed and sea scum.”

While working at the fish monger’s stand at the docks in Aberdeen she’d grown accustomed to strong, unpleasant odors, so Speal hardly noticed the stench. The little shifter had always inserted herself into the pampered life of the wealthy young maidens she killed and replaced, where she likely hadn’t had to tolerate the smell of her own sweat.

“They’d burn the weeds if they came to work or camp here during the warm seasons,” Speal said as she climbed a hard-packed dune and stood to survey the small island’s interior. “’Tis likely a place they visit in winter, when the fish swim down from the colder waters.”

“Winter’s over, Sister.” Dearg joined her, shaking out the wet hems of her skirts before frowning at the solitary silhouette on the horizon. “That there, ’tis a Pritani standing stone. The savages gather round the thing when they hold rituals and such. ’Tis where they’d invite their gods so they might possess the lads of their tribe, and bestow on them dark powers.”

“’Tis too large, and the tribes never came so far north.” Speal nodded toward the monolith. “’Twas left by Mar for some purpose, I’ll wager. Stay here and keep watch.”

The trek to the standing stone took Speal most of an hour, due to the rocky ground and bogs that had formed between the shore and the spot. Along the way she looked for any sign of recent activity, but only came across some old burial markers, their carvings nearly scoured away by the elements. They, too, appeared to be Pritani, and made her wonder if the water elemental prince had fashioned them in that manner to disguise what they truly were.

A stained rock too large, flat and gleaming to be natural caught her eye, and Speal stopped to crouch and pull back the moss covering it. The carvings etched on the smooth face of the stone had been blackened by soot from a fire built atop them, or so she thought until she touched them. Instead the slickness of something like glass moved against her skin, and she imagined a young Pritani kneeling atop it as his blood spilled on the rock.

’Tis where they’d invite their gods so they might possess the lads of their tribe, and bestow on them dark powers.

She stood and kicked the moss back over the carvings, moving away from the thing with slow, cautious steps. Such places of power were said to hold the magic of the spells cast there, and the last thing she wished was to be ridden by a Pritani god intent on changing her.

Get on with what you came for.

As soon as Speal drew close to the standing stone her skin reacted again, but this time in the exact same way it did near Derdrui. That should have stopped her, yet she became oddly fascinated with the old monolith. The moment she stepped within reach of the carved stone the air around her began to shimmer with faint blue and green lights. The face of the thing, weathered exactly like the burial markers, took on a faint luster in the sun. When she took another step closer, the stone’s surface lit up, showing waves and spirals that formed beautiful patterns.

’Tis my Fae blood the thing senses, Speal thought, fascinated. The magic, ’twouldnae appear before an ordinary mortal.

She wanted badly to reach out and touch the surface of the stone, but instead forced herself to take a step back. As she did her boot touched a flat stone, and suddenly she fell into a blackness so insidious she wondered if her life had ended. Then a column of blue-green water appeared, forming itself into the shape of a tall, handsome man.

What do you here, Therion-born?

Speal nearly sank to her knees before she realized that she had come face-to-face with her sovereign’s dead lover, Prince Mar.

“I dinnae explain myself for spirits,” she told him, trying to stand taller. “Begone with you.”

You’re like my sons, a halfling. Mar smiled as if she’d pleased him. Beware the vengeance you seek, for ’tis as much against you as me and mine.