Page 58 of Duncan

Dearg flashed her shark’s teeth. “Aye. ’Twas that red-haired serving wench saved you.”

“Say no more in her presence,” the dark-haired shifter told the laird. “For she will share what she learns with the other hybrids loyal to Derdrui.”

“Lock her in the dungeons,” Connal ordered the guards. Once they had left with Dearg, he regarded Fiacail. “Only twenty-one hybrids attacked the village. How many more infest our waters?”

“The spawn that escaped us during the last moon, they’ve grown large enough to mate. Hundreds, mayhap thousands.” She nodded in the direction of the bay. “Permit me return to the sea with some of your men and nets, and I shall summon them.”

“You said they’re mindless,” Nicole said. “Won’t they just kill you and the men?”

Fiacail smiled. “Dinnae fret. They shallnae end me, for I’m their màthair.”

“’Tis too dangerous,” the laird said to the shifter. “These creatures show no regard for any other life. They may end you before we can stop them.”

“Not if I’m with her, Laird,” Nicole said. “If I touch them, I can control them.”

Duncan shook his head. “They are too many, and they move too fast. Dinnae act the fool.”

“I’m not stupid,” she countered. When he gave her a lofty look she added, “Fine. Since I’m too dumb to take care of myself, I won’t help you heal anyone anymore.”

“We don’t need to risk any lives at the moment,” Valerie told her husband. “And I can find out what Dearg knows.”

Chapter Fifteen

Jamaran sent out the patrols to again circle the island in their ongoing search for the Selseus king before he swam another circuit of the bay by himself. The beautiful blue of the sea and the abundant, colorful life around the reefs usually brightened his dourest mood, but he had been worried too long, and that worry now bordered on sheer panic.

For the better part of two days he had been trying to reach Merrick with his thoughts, as they shared their minds entirely with each other. Yet despite his efforts he had been unable to detect a single thought from the other man. That meant either Merrick had journeyed a great distance away from him, or he had died. Because he knew the king’s thoughts as intimately and completely as his own, he was also aware of how melancholy he had grown since the mortal woman he loved had rejected him.

I should ken if he ended himself, surely.

That thought had brought him to the traitor. He had no interest in listening to more lies from him, but he suspected if the king had been abducted, Duxor might know why, and by whom. When he went to inform the MacMar laird, which he would soon have to do, the more information he had, the better. At the same time he didn’t wish to alarm their allies if Merrick had simply gone somewhere on his own to sulk over Meg, which he had been prone to doing of late.

I shall see what Duxor says, and then decide.

When he finished a patrol of the entire bay, Jamaran swam to the sea caves where MacLeir had imprisoned the traitor.

What do you here? The former royal heir gave him a sulky look through the crystal bars that shimmered with the ferryman’s power. Did my cousin order you slay me, then?

Our king’s vanished. Some of your monsters’ spawn attacked the village, and the MacMar captured another posing as the maid it killed. ’Twas a wee one with yellow hair. He watched his eyes as he related that, and saw a flicker of excitement when he mentioned the maid. You ordered that thing slay a young lass?

’Twouldnae matter if I did. He averted his gaze. The changed no longer obey me.

Jamaran used the charm MacLeir had given him to open the cave cell, and took hold of Duxor by the throat. As the traitor struggled, he dragged him through the water, swimming to the islet where the Selseus went to die. Hauling him through the shallows and onto the sands, he tossed him between some old stakes poking out of the dunes and cleared his gills of water so he could speak.

“I shall leave you here so you may strangle and burn,” he promised Duxor as he straddled him and took out a coil of woven hide cord he’d brought to bind him. When the traitor said nothing he nodded. “’Tis your death, then.”

“Wait. Wait,” he begged. “That wee shifter, she’s called Dearg?” When he nodded Duxor sighed. “She obeys the enchantress in all things, and I reckon ever she’s done since I changed her. Always I tasted a bitter blackness in her mind, like rot. ’Twas the dark Fae witch, I vow.” As Jamaran began tying him down his eyes bulged. “What do you, Commander? I told you all.”

“You lie as easily as you breathe.” Quickly he finished binding his neck, arms and torso to the stakes, and shifted down to restrain his legs and feet. “You shall remain on land until I find my king, or Merrick returns to the settlement.”

Duxor gaped at him. “I could die before he comes.”

“The king passed sentence on you that day you returned,” Jamaran told him flatly. “When you die for what you did matters naught.”

He tested the knots in the cords to assure he couldn’t escape before he waded back into the water. The traitor called his name over and over, and spewed more lies as he beseeched him to spare his life, but once he submerged, the clean sound of the rushing currents masked his whining pleas. For a few moments Jamaran floated through the shallows and across the outer border of the settlement, wondering if he should return to the palace and wait for his search parties to report to him. No, he could not remain there doing nothing but fretting. Nor could he stand yet another hint from the elders that, when the king died, the heir would have to assume rule over the Selseus.

What had Merrick been thinking, naming his heir before disappearing like this?

Once more he reached out to the missing man with his thoughts. My king, do you yet live? Summon me and I shall come for you.