Beyond the Highland Myst(515)

"You're strong, Chloe-lass. You can accept this. I know you can. I'll help you. I can explain it to you, and you'll see that'tis no'… magic, but a sort of physics modern men doona—"

"Oh, no," she cut him off, shaking her head vehemently. A hiccup terminated her laughter abruptly. "It's impossible," she insisted, rejecting it all in one grand unilateral sweep. "This is all impossible." Hiccup. "I'm dreaming, or… something. I don't know what, but I'm not going to"—hiccup—"think about it anymore. So don't even bother trying to convince—"

She broke off, suddenly too light-headed to continue. The trauma of the storm, the absurdity of the conversation was all too much. Her knees felt as if they might buckle beneath her. Really, she thought dimly, there was only so much a girl could be expected to handle, and time-travelling Druids just weren't part of it. More of that helpless laughter bubbled inside her.

As if from a far distance, she heard Silvan say gruffly, ' 'Tis good to be seeing you again, lad. Nellie and I have been sore fashed o'er you. Och, the wee lass is going, son. You might catch her now."

When Dageus's strong arms slipped around her, Chloe tuned out the voices and embraced the mercy of oblivion, because she just knew that when she woke up again, everything would be all right. She'd be in bed, in Gwen and Drustan's castle, having had one of those strangely intense dreams about Dageus.

I like the sex dreams better was her final peevish thought, as her knees gave way and her mind went blank.

*****

Adam Black was dozing—not sleeping, for the Tuatha Dé Danaan did not sleep—but drifting in memory and time when the nine members of the council appeared behind his queen's dais.

He sat up abruptly.

One of them spoke into the queen's ear. She nodded and dismissed them back to wherever it was the elusive council made their home.

Then Aoibheal, queen of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, raised her hands to the sky and said, "The council has spoken. It shall be trial by blood."

Adam tensed to rise, but caught himself, and forced himself to sink back down on his cushioned chaise. He waited, measuring the reactions of the others gathered in the forest bower on the isle of Morar where the queen was wont to hold her court. Drowsing beneath silken canopies, the others stirred languidly, their melodic voices humming softly.

He heard no protests. Fools, he thought, it's a wonder we've survived this long. Though immortal, they could be destroyed.

When Adam spoke, his voice was dispassionate, bordering on bored, as befitted his kind. "My queen, I would speak, if you will it."

Aoibheal glanced his way. There was a glimmer of appreciation in her gaze as it raked over him. He wore her favored glamour—that of a tall, dark-haired smith, rippling with muscle. An otherworldly beautiful man who was wont to waylay human travelers, particularly women. A smith who took them to places and did things to them they later recalled as dark dreams of unending pleasure.

"You have my ear." She inclined her head regally.

And on rare occasions, Adam thought, other parts of her when she so graced him. Aoibheal had a certain fondness for him, and he was counting on it now. He was unlike any other of their race in small ways that baffled both he and them. But the queen seemed to enjoy those differences. Of all her subjects, Adam suspected he was the only one who still managed to surprise her. And surprise was nectar of the gods to those who lived forever, to those who'd lost wonder and awe an eternity ago. To those who spied on mortal's dreams because they possessed no dreams of their own.

"My queen," he said, sinking to one knee before her, "I know the Keltar broke his oath. But if one examines these Keltar, one finds that they have, for thousands of years, comported themselves in exemplary fashion."

The queen regarded him a long cool moment, then shrugged a delicate shoulder. "So?"

"Consider the man's brother, my queen. When Drustan was enchanted by a seer and forced to slumber for five centuries, the Keltar line was destroyed. When he was awakened in the twenty-first century by a woman, he went to extraordinary lengths to return to his time and prevent the catastrophe from happening so their line would remain intact, always protecting the lore."

"I am aware of that. Unfortunate his brother wasn't more like him."

"I believe he is. Dageus broke his oath solely to save Drustan's life."

"That's personal motive. The line was not threatened. They were expressly forbidden to use the stones for personal gain."

"How was it personal gain?" Adam countered. "What did Dageus gain by so doing? Though he saved Drustan's life, Drustan continued to slumber. He didn't get his brother back He didn't get anything."