Page 56 of Shaw

“Facking Scotsman. You serve the witch?” one of them demanded in garbled Scots Gaelic, brandishing a sword as the others backed away.

Shaw saw the trembling of the blade in the raider’s hand and looked toward the south, where the distance silhouette of another, larger vessel appeared to be coming toward Caladh. “She’s come for you bastarts.”

The Viking hurled his sword at Shaw, who caught it easily, and then followed the rest of the raiders as they jumped overboard.

He went over to return the blade, and saw the men arranging themselves in a skiff lashed to the longboat. When they cut the rope and began rowing to the west he considered joining them long enough to introduce them to the beast. Smoke and flames had begun belching from the open hatch, however, and somehow he needed to move the boys over to the ferry before the burning longboat sank. The oldest lad herded the younger ones to the railing, but only looked down at the raiders fleeing in the skiff and spat at them.

Through the smoke he tried to spot MacLeir and the ferry, but only a solid wall of mist appeared between the longboat and Caladh.

“We’d rather drown than burn, Maister,” the boy told him, looking as if he meant to climb over the railing.

Shaw nodded his understanding, but put a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Wait and see if help’s coming, lad.”

Julianne made the jump to the other boat, startling the dirty, skinny women working on the top deck. What she hadn’t seen from the forest world window was what would happen now with these shifters, but she had a sense of being right where she was supposed to be. As soon as her legs grew steady she strode to the bow, where the two who seemed less shocked than the others stood watching her.

“Sorry to drop in on you like this.” She made a show of looking around before she asked, “Do you have that enchantress lady on board with you? Or did you dump her butt back on the island where she killed all the people?”

The bigger woman nodded to two of the others on deck, and they came up behind her to block her path. Julianne considered jumping to another part of the boat just as the cabin door opened and a tall, dark woman dressed in something like a bad Halloween costume glided out and came to inspect her.

“Hey, are you Derdrui?” When the dark woman just stared at her with crazy eyes Julianne sighed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“You would be one of the MacMar’s whores from future times.” The dark woman smiled with delight as she grabbed her hand, and jerked off Lady Joana’s ring before Julianne could stop her. “You should not have come here, changeling. I’ve stripped you of your powers.”

She sounded like she was drunk, Julianne thought, watching her face. Obviously something had gone seriously off with this lady, but she couldn’t understand why everyone was so afraid of her. She was just like all the bullies at school that had tried to pick on Julianne before Eva had taught her how to fight back.

No one can bully you unless you’re scared. Look closely and you’ll see how pathetic they are. Laugh at them.

“What’s a changeling, and do they have hairy feet? Because if they do I don’t, so I can’t be one. I’m just a really tall Napa Valley girl.” Hoping she was doing the right thing, she yawned and rubbed the back of her neck. “Oooh, sorry. I work as a lifeguard. You probably don’t know what that is, right?”

“Hold the over-large simpleton,” the dark woman said as she circled around her.

Julianne didn’t try to resist the two Cait Sith that sank their claws into her arms, because a split second later they hissed and snatched back their hands as if she’d burned them. Beneath her left breast her ink went icy cold, as if Buster had suddenly become aware that someone was hurting her. She could almost sense him much closer now, too, as if Shaw and him were standing right next to her. For a moment the Pritani spirit’s desire to attack the Cait Sith and the enchantress made Julianne smile. Lucky for them Shaw was still back on the burning longboat.

Right. First, I have to get back the ring so I can help him rescue the kids.

“You dare smirk at me.” Derdrui drew her hand back and slapped her across the face, so hard she knocked her onto her butt.

No, Julianne thought as Buster’s black tide of rage welled up in her like an unseen oil well about to blow. We need to save lives today, bud. Chill.

“Get up, you idiot,” the enchantress ordered.

Julianne looked up as she wiped the blood from her mouth and nose, rising to her feet to loom over the dark Fae. “So you’re her, huh? The big scary enchantress Derdrui.” Cold sweat inched down her spine as she pretended to study the other woman. “Doesn’t sound very pretty, does it? If your mom named you, then I don’t think she liked you very much.”

“Keep a civil tongue with me, whore, or I shall cut it out of your head,” the dark Fae said, almost purring the words. “Better yet, insult me again, and be quick about it.” She bared her very white, sharp-looking teeth. “I grow hungry.”

“Whoa. You really put the ick in Goth, didn’t you?” She checked her fingernails the way Eva did whenever she was bored. “Sorry. My mother said if you can’t say anything nice… By the way, has anyone ever said anything nice about you? Just curious.”

The enchantress drew a long, gleaming silver dagger from her sleeve. “On your knees, changeling.”

“I’m down, I’m up, now you want me down again. Lady, make up your mind already.” She folded her arms. “You’ll probably have to stand on your toes if you want to try for my tongue. Oh, and I should tell you, when Karen Beck punched me in the head in the tenth grade, I kind of threw her against the science class project board and put a huge hole in that and dislocated her shoulder. Not that I meant to, although Mrs. Jensen gave me detention for like a month just to keep Karen’s dad happy. He’s a big bully, too.”

“Shut your mouth,” the enchantress ordered.

“I only wanted to warn you that I get a little freakishly strong whenever someone tries to hurt me,” she said, smiling broadly. “I wonder if living with my Aunt Klee did that, too. Maybe my brain doesn’t work all that well, but I got a lot of other cool stuff from her. Kind of wish she was my birth mom, you know?”

“Speal,” Derdrui shrieked her name. “Come and put this creature on her knees.”

“Is Speal that big girl with the sad face over there?” Julianne grimaced in her direction. “You really shouldn’t do that. I hate dislocating someone’s shoulder. Let me talk it out with your boss here.” As the dark Fae jabbed the dagger she held at her belly, she caught her wrist. The jolt from her touch made the enchantress drop the blade. “Lady, really, use your words, will you?”