Faerie Fate Read Free

Niall wouldn’t wager a guess on
her age. He stared at the battered hands clutching the thin mantle covering her
wretched body. A shadow flickered behind him and he looked up. Ciaran stared
down from his stallion.
    “I’ll take her to
Siobhan,” Niall offered. He bent over and scooped the unresisting body into his
arms. Before he could take a breath, cold steel bit into his neck. In one fluid
motion, Ciaran had dismounted, pulled his dagger, and threatened his
second-in-command. Niall stared, confused by the actions of the man he would
follow through the gates of hell. Ciaran’s face resembled a stone mask.
    The female in
Niall’s arms stirred, and as he held her he could actually feel the spasm of
pain in her as it built, traveling from her midsection and radiating outward.
The pitiful thing opened her mouth, but she was so exhausted no sound escaped.
The knife slid away from his throat.
    Ciaran knelt on the
ground, holding his hands to his head, rocking in time to the spasms of pain
shuddering through the woman. “I can’t take her pain any longer, Niall.” He
groaned. Slowly, he picked up his dagger, moving his hand and arm in an upward
arc, his intent plain. Ciaran meant to kill the woman.
    Her eyes flickered
open and they shone silver in the pale moonlight. “Please,” her lips whispered.
“Help me.” She stared up into dark, stormy eyes. “Where am I? Who are you?” She
sighed. Her long, dark lashes fluttered down to shutter her eyes.
    Niall exchanged a
look with Ciaran. “What language was that, Taoiseac ?”
    Ciaran stared at the
woman lying between them. “I dunno, Niall. I understood naught of her words,
but I know in my heart she asked for my help. Honor demands I give it.”
    “Please, Ciaran, let
me take her to Siobhan,” the older man pleaded.
    Ciaran bristled.
“Nay, Niall, no other man will touch her.” Snarling, he whipped off his mantle
and wrapped it around the shivering girl. He scooped her into his arms and
strode to his horse. Holding her in one arm, Ciaran stepped up into the saddle
and cradled her across his hard, muscular thighs. “Ride, Niall, and bring your
woman.” Ciaran wheeled his stallion, shouting to his men to bring the peasants
to the castle. He galloped off, leaving the others in the dust cloud his
horse’s hooves kicked up.
    ****
    “What happened? You
said she would not remember,” the female accused.
    “She won’t. He came
too soon. The transition was not yet finished,” he explained.
    “They are tied, yet
he would have killed her.”
    “Nay, I would have
stayed his hand if he had not.”
    “Who are you?”
    The two voices
stilled at the intrusion of the third.
    “Who are you?” Becca
demanded again.
    Silence.
    ****
    “Shush, cailín,”
Siobhan crooned, brushing the tangled hair back from the woman’s face. She
winced as she examined the results of the savage beating. “You’ve been hard
used, little one, but you are safe now here at Caisel Ailfenn. Ciaran, An
Taoiseac of Clann MacDermot, has granted you protection.”
    The girl moaned
again, the words she muttered strange to Siobhan’s ears. Young, yet no child
this one and as near as she could tell, the girl was still a maiden. Odd that a
man would use her so terribly yet would not drink from that cup. Siobhan
cleaned her with a soft, wet rag, clucking over the cuts and welts lacing every
inch of girl’s body. Her nails were torn and bloody, her knuckles covered with
cuts and bruises. This one had fought hard.
    Every jostling
movement the MacDermot made bringing her up to his chamber caused spasms of
pain to ripple through the girl’s body. To spare her more distress, Siobhan
left her naked beneath the down coverlet. The stranger’s soft sigh filled the
room before she finally succumbed to the gentle hand of deep sleep.
    Siobhan rinsed the
rag, her mouth grim as she noted the dark red tinge to the water in the basin.
She knew the two men waited in the hallway, both anxious for news.