Highland Mist (10 page)

Which brought another thought. Gregor had said he was at the MacNeil’s on business. But just how long had he been there? Gregor could very well know something of Iona and he hadn’t asked.

Something he would have to remedy soon. Like now, he thought when he caught sight of Gregor striding into the stables.

Chapter Seven

The smell of horse and hay, a favorite of Conall’s, greeted him when he walked into the stable. His horse stuck his big black head over the stall door and blew loudly.

He rubbed the black’s soft nose and watched as Gregor saddled his horse. “Going somewhere?”

There was just the smallest hesitation of his movements at hearing Conall’s voice.

“Just to rid myself of some energy. Want to join me?”

“Aye, I think I will.” Conall opened the stall door and quickly saddled his mount. After a glance at Gregor, he swung himself up on his horse. “The exercises I put my men through must not be enough for you.”

Gregor slanted him an annoyed look before he mounted and kicked his horse into a run. Conall smiled and clicked to his mount. They thundered into the bailey, through the gatehouse and out of the gates, the ground blurring beneath the horse’s hoofs.

They raced until the horses’ sides heaved and sweat glistened their coats. Conall pulled up when they reached the stream. He waited until Gregor turned his horse around and trotted back to him.

“What do you wish to talk about?” Gregor asked as he slid from his horse to let it drink and rest.

“You come right to the point.”

“There’s no sense skirting the issue.”

Conall had to agree. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn’t prevent his respect for Gregor building. “What were you talking to Glenna about on the battlements?”

Gregor turned and looked him in the eye. “I asked her if she wanted me to take her away.”

“Why?” he asked through clenched teeth. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm. “I’m not mistreating her.”

“Nay? There’s much you don’t know about Glenna. You’re hurting her, and you don’t even know it. You tease her with a life that she should have only to give her back to MacNeil. That is beyond cruel.”

Conall advanced on him. He grabbed Gregor’s shirt and fisted it in his hands. Anger boiled just beneath his surface and he jerked Gregor against a tree. “What do you know that I don’t? What are you keeping from me?”

“We both know the monster that MacNeil is,” Gregor said, his voice cool, but his eyes heated with fire at having Conall’s hands on him. “Even if Glenna doesn’t admit it yet, she doesn’t deserve to be sent back to him.”

Conall loosened his hold and stepped back. “Are you in love with her?”

Gregor barked with laughter and smoothed his shirt. “There’s no such thing as love, Conall.”

“If you don’t love her, then why would you want to help her?”

“She’s seen too much pain. Everyone deserves a little happiness in their life.”

Pain flickered in Gregor’s eyes, and Conall knew when a man had secrets he wanted kept hidden. He didn’t press Gregor on that front. “What do you know of Iona?”

He needed to know the answer before it killed him.

Gregor let out a long sigh and sat. “I was there when she was brought to the MacNeil holding. I could tell she’d been taken from her home.”

“Was she hurt?”

“Bruised a bit but nothing fatal. I asked her many times where she’d been taken from, but she declined to tell me.”

“What do you mean?” Conall sat when he legs refused to hold him. He couldn’t understand why Iona wouldn’t have sought help in returning home. “Why wouldn’t she tell you she was a MacInnes?”

Gregor shrugged. “She’d been stripped of her plaid. All she’d tell me was that she was there to fulfill her destiny.”

Conall didn’t think he could stand to have another person tell him it had been Iona’s destiny. He squeezed his eyes closed and dropped his head into his hands. “What did they have her doing?”

“She was taken to teach the Druid ways. Can you not think of someone who needed the teaching?”

Conall raised his eyes as everything fell into place. “Glenna.”

“But the MacNeil wouldn’t allow Iona to finish her teaching. He stopped it very soon and spent the rest of the time trying to gain information about your clan.”

“Is she still alive?”

Gregor looked at his hands. “That I cannot answer, for I don’t know.”

Conall had seen the grief flash in Gregor’s eyes. He reached out with his powers and probed Gregor’s mind. Usually he didn’t need to focus this hard to gain the information he needed, but Gregor had closed himself off to everyone and it made it more difficult.

Finally Conall broke through and found that Gregor had told him the truth. The effort had cost him though as his head began to pound fiercely.

But if Gregor couldn’t tell him what happened to Iona maybe Glenna could.

* * * * *

Glenna watched from the battlements as Conall and Gregor raced from the castle. She longed to go with them, but the thought of climbing back on a horse stopped that idea quickly enough.

Her life here, for however long that might be, was much improved. Even though some of the clan had threatened her life at least she had been noticed. At her home even the servants barely spared her a glance. Fear and hatred were brethren in her clan.

She had always been ignored, and then later feared, it seemed. No one would talk to her, not even when she would seek them out. It had gotten so unpleasant that she had taken to eating her meals in her chamber after she had retrieved the food from the kitchens herself because the maid was afraid of her.

Why everyone had been anxious she hadn’t known. Until today. Just knowing she had killed innocent people twisted her stomach into thousands of painful knots. To everyone in her clan she was a murderer just like MacNeil.

And they were right.

Her eyes closed tight at that thought. She spun on her heel and walked swiftly down the stairs to the bailey. Her chamber would offer her solace and allow her to gather her thoughts.

A monster is what Conall’s clan had called her. Here she had thought to make a new start once she found her answers, but that didn’t look to be the case. The clan didn’t ignore her, but the hatred was worse.

She had thought God had punished her by setting the barn on fire when she had become angry with her father. The little boy who had been badly burned had haunted her since, but now…that sin was nothing compared to what she had done to the Mackenzies.

The only brightness in all this gloom was Conall. It disturbed her to realize just how much she trusted him and how easily that trust had come. She had learned long ago to never trust anyone until she had met Iona. Yet it had never been a question with Conall.

Had Iona known it would be Conall who would come for Glenna? Had she known Conall would have such an effect on her? Had she known Conall would turn her thinking and her world upside down? Somehow she knew the answer to those questions was a resounding “aye”.

Iona had changed many things in Glenna’s life. She had looked forward to meeting the man who would free her. That man was Conall. He was everything MacNeil wasn’t and more. He was a good, honest man who didn’t deserve what MacNeil had done to his clan. He didn’t deserve what she had brought with her, either.

The castle door was but a few paces from her when something knocked into her shoulder and nearly sent her to the ground. She raised her eyes to find the woman from the night before.

“I told ye I’d find ye alone,” the woman cackled.

A shiver of apprehension crawled down Glenna’s spine. With her mind screaming for her to run, she took a step back and spun around. The sound of the woman’s laughter faded as her feet raced away.

She made her way to the gatehouse and was slightly surprised when the guards didn’t question her as she walked out the gates. She walked down the rocky slope and glanced back at the intimidating castle to see if anyone followed her. It appeared no one even cared. It had always been thus, why should it bother her now?

If she wished, she could leave and never look back. But that isn’t what she wanted. She wanted to venture on her own, to see what she could find, to see what this land would offer up to her, to see if there really was magic, and if it would show itself to her.

The cluster of trees ahead held her attention, and the hauntingly beautiful music reached her ears once again. It came from the forest, she was sure of it, and she hurriedly made her way to it. She entered the woods and the music grew louder. Her breath quickened in excitement at the thought of finding where the music came from. Her feet took her near giant oaks and tall pines that had been around for centuries. Birds and butterflies flew around her as if she were one of them, their chirping mingling with the music. Through the canopy of trees she spotted a falcon soaring overhead, his cries echoing around her.

She reached a small clearing with an array of wildflowers blooming in the spring air. She would have been content to sit there all day and soak up the beauty. A twig snapped. Her head jerked toward the sound and her mouth fell open in awe.

Before her stood a massive stone circle, the kind Iona had described to her. The stones had to be at least twelve feet tall and three feet wide, and from where she stood she couldn’t guess how many there were.

Touch them.

Glenna reached out her hand to touch a stone but was stopped by a voice. “I wondered when you’d finally venture here.”

Her mouth dropped open for the second time. It was the woman from the castle. The one Conall wouldn’t allow to enter the bailey. “You know me?”

“Aye, Glenna. I’ve been waiting for you for some time,” she said, and smiled warmly.

“You’re Moira.”

Moira laughed. “I see Conall at least told you that.”

“You came to see me earlier?”

“Aye. Conall refused.”

Anger heated Glenna skin. How dare Conall. “What would you want with me?”

“She wants to tell you lies,” Conall said as he came into the clearing.

Glenna turned and looked at him and found his eyes fastened on Moira. Glenna looked from one to the other, and asked him, “Why won’t you let me talk to her?”

But he ignored her words. “Come back to the castle, Glenna.”

Moira turned her green eyes to Glenna. “You can’t stop destiny, Conall, no matter how hard you try.”

“Aye, I can,” he thundered, and took hold of Glenna’s arm. “Stop calling to her, Moira. I don’t want to lock her in the castle.”

“You couldn’t if you wanted to, Conall. What of the prophecy,” Moira said.

Glenna looked from one to the other. “What prophecy? And why couldn’t you lock me in the castle?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told Moira.

“You were told many years ago,” Moira said, and bent to pluck a yellow wildflower. “Could you have forgotten so easily?”

Glenna was awed by Moira’s beauty and spirit. She was picking flowers in the face of Conall’s anger. Glenna didn’t have that kind of daring.

“You don’t need her. Let her be,” he said, and turned to leave, pulling Glenna with him.

“You made an oath, Conall. You can’t ignore that.” Moira’s voice reached them as they walked away.

* * * * *

The Shadow smiled and mulled over the new development. He had known Conall disliked the Druids, but he willingly kept a powerful Druid priestess from them. It wasn’t something he expected the laird of the MacInnes, sworn to protect all Druids, to do. This could well work to his advantage. If only MacNeil would hurry and arrive.

He should have known better than to mix himself up with the likes of MacNeil, but he had been the only one who had the mentality it took. He hated to see Moira upset. He could easily kill Conall for distressing her, but killing Conall wasn’t going to be easy. Iona had put a protection spell on him before she had been kidnapped.

But he hadn’t found that out until he had tried to kill Conall. Iona’s magic had been strong. Not as strong as his, but still strong enough to keep Conall safe. That was fine though. There were other ways to get to him, the Shadow thought with a smile. But it was growing late. He needed to return before he was missed. He had been careful so far. No need to ruin it now while he stood here and gloated.

* * * * *

Gregor rubbed the heels of his hands against his eyes and leaned back against the tree once Conall had ridden away.

It had finally happened.

He had begun to feel again, and that didn’t settle well in his gut. In order to survive, he must keep all feeling as far away as possible. And it would have worked if he hadn’t met Glenna and Conall.

Gregor grunted. Conall had offered him friendship without question or hesitation. Conall had even brought him into his home and welcomed him into the clan. For the first time in years he had yearned for his clan and the comfort of its colors. Glenna’s vulnerability pulled at him where his heart used to be. She was an innocent who had done something against her will and her entire clan condemned her for it.