Page 14 of Her Highland Destiny

“That magic will save your son.”

She thought he might not have an argument against that. But he turned his head to the side and said, “Magic stole my wife.”

He hefted his packs and strode from the cave. Cassandra hurriedly assembled her own effects. A wild chill rent down her spine. She couldn’t lose him. She couldn’t lose the stone.

The hard packed dirt floor gave way to mud as Cassandra neared the mouth of the cave. Rain continued to pour down without respite. The horses had been tucked beneath a stone ledge that acted as a crude shelter over their heads. If nothing else, it had kept them relatively dry.

Fergus stood beside his horse, tying the packs into place behind his heavy saddle. Phillip had a similar leather seat, reinforced with a pommel to keep him locked into place despite the weight of his chain mail, and studded with metal to offer protection with the luxury befitting a knight.

The thought of her brother seemed like recalling another life, one a world away without hunger and rain, where she had a warm bed and the worst of her troubles was her family’s heavy expectation. Phillip’s broad smile radiated in her mind and left her heart aching for him and his constant instructions. She missed the comforts of home, but more than anything, she missed her brother.

The rain came down with such terrible might, any conversation between her and Fergus was impossible. Which was well and good, for it did not appear Fergus wished to speak. Indeed nor did she. Not when her soul was pained with the loss of everything she missed.

Together the miserable pair of them staggered through the storm, enduring the downpour as it pelted them with enough force to sting the exposed skin on their cheeks and hands. Their progress was painstakingly slow and the shoreline of the Isle of Skye took the better part of three hours to appear when it ought to have taken a third of the time.

Lightning streaked across the sky and flickered a brilliant light over them. Cassandra turned her face from the ominous sky and regarded Fergus. “We should wait for the storm to pass.”

He shook his head and pushed his horse onward to the gravel shore where a lone birlinn lay on its side. The vessel was crude, fashioned from a wooden hull with oars set beneath the narrow row of seats. Fergus hopped down from his horse and approached the simple boat.

The water ahead, their necessary path for quitting the island and making their way back to land, churned and roiled with wild, erratic waves swelling from all angles without any predictable pattern. Cassandra was no sailor, but even she knew navigating such waters would be impossible. “No one will ferry us across. Not today.”

“I dinna expect they will.” Fergus spoke loudly to be heard over the storm. He made his way back to his horse and removed his packs.

Cassandra watched him warily. “We will not be able to take the horses.” Nor did the birlinn belong to them. She could not help but assume it most likely belonged to a simple fisherman, one whose livelihood no doubt depended on the small boat.

“We’ll no’ be taking the horses.” He motioned for her to remove her items from her horse. “They’ll be payment for the birlinn.”

Within minutes, he had approached a small home in the distance and negotiated possession of the vessel from an overjoyed man who gladly traded the boat for the quality horseflesh he received in return. Securing the vessel though was only the smaller part of their victory. They still had to survive the crossing.

The waves washed over the sides of the simple boat and sloshed against them. Fergus and Cassandra were drenched, both from the splash of seawater and the deluge still raining down from above. Fergus rowed with all his might, but the birlinn seemed no further from the shore than it had been half an hour before.

Lightning flashed, followed by a crack of thunder so loud, it made their boat vibrate. Fergus’ stomach rolled with the waves, knocking and swirling until sweat formed beneath the layers of rain and seawater.

“Let me take the oars,” Cassandra shouted.

It was on the tip of Fergus’ tongue to refuse to allow a lady to head the rowing. But his stomach lurched in protest of doing anything more than cradling the offending bit of his body and wishing for relief however that might come. He shoved the oars in her direction.

Their hands briefly touched and strength whispered between them. It bolstered his countenance with a reserve he would not have otherwise had. She gripped the oars and drew her body back in a hearty row. The boat bobbed over the waves and glided further from the shore. Several more rows and they were finally making headway through the terrible might of the storm.

Even still as they rowed onward, the helplessness to the violent swaying gripped Fergus once more. His entire world swayed and his body was suddenly too feeble to keep him upright. A formidable wave slammed into the boat and delivered upon them a savage knock to the right. Fergus’ body lulled limp to the edge and teetered over the water for a brief moment.

A strong hand grasped his wrist and jerked him back. Again, the strength soared between them, and drove away the debilitating effects of his weakness. But he was not the only one to feel something from their connection.

Power roared through Cassandra’s veins and cast a calm through her soul. The stone called to her. He could hear it over the noise of the storm, and his own illness.

She did not know what to do with it. Frustration balled within her and rippled the calm.

Fergus remembered that very irritation when he’d first come into his ability. Not truly understanding it, yet knowing it was there. “Close yer eyes,” he ground out.

She closed her eyes, her hand still locked about his wrist. He grasped her other hand with his free one and locked their connection. Her strength hummed through his veins and the storm’s roar intensified with her connection to the earth. The sea beneath them pulsed with a thundering heartbeat as though it were locked in battle, and the wind sang in his ears. How did she manage living in such chaos?

He could sense her searching the link between them, testing it, testing him. A shudder wracked through him and a wall went up in his mind to block her from his thoughts. With their shared power, he would need to always be vigilant to keep her from knowing his mind.

Instead, he sent out memories of his own experiences. The way he had learned to tame it over the years, to groom it into submission so he was no longer at its mercy.

Cassandra released one of his hands and stretched her palm out over the water. The energy between them welled and drained from him toward her. Her fingers trembled.

The waves surrounding their boat calmed to a gentle lapping at the sides of the birlinn. Everywhere else, the water roiled and churned and spit angrily at them, yet their vessel remained in place.