Page 62 of Duncan

“You took your time returning,” he said, and grew startled at how thin and reedy his voice sounded. “Release me at once, or I shall tell the king you cruelly sported with me when I might otherwise defend our settlement.”

The commander stopped, and then dropped down on the sand as more Selseus came out of the water.

Their strange scent made Duxor’s stomach turn, for they stank of his creatures. Had they killed them all? “Didnae you hear me? Remove these cords or I shall tell Merrick you tortured me.”

“As you tortured us, master?” The one he assumed was Jamaran stood and came to loom over him, its gray and white body shifting into that of a Cait Sith he’d merged with a white-mouth. “Dinnae you ken how painful ’tis when you jam together a shark and a shifter?” ’Tis as if set on fire inside and out.”’

He couldn’t remember the female’s name; he had changed too many. Nor could he read her thoughts anymore. She thought like a shark now, not a person.

“I shall heal you.” His voice was shaking badly now, so he cleared his throat. “Release me, and I’ll reward you handsomely, I vow.” He looked around him as much smaller shifters came crawling and then toddling up the sands to cluster around the legs of the Cait Sith.

“My spawn, they’re hungry,” the shifter told him, and smiled with the teeth of a shark. “Ever and always, and I’m the same. Shall you reward us now, master? Surely we deserve such.”

Duxor shook his head violently. “No, first you must obey me, and release me, or I cannae restore you. Spare my life, and I shall see you and the shark separated. You shallnae suffer any longer.” He cried out as one of the tiny shifters latched onto his arm with its needle-like teeth. “Please, I beg you. Spare me and I shall give you whatever you wish.”

“I desire your flesh,” his creation said as she bent down.

Duxor screamed as her young converged on him, biting chunks out of his flesh, the sound ripping through the air, and then all he knew was agony as she tore out his throat.

EVEN WITH WHAT Julianne had said, Duncan wasn’t prepared for the scene of utter carnage spread all over the bay shore. The corpses of hybrids and Finfolk littered the blood-soaked sands; others floated in the dark waters of the shallows. The stench of death came rolling up to the cliff stairs, as if the sea had turned into a vast caldron of rotting fish. Down by the surf’s edge his brothers had formed three lines; the frontmost attacking the shifters that came surging out of the shallows. Those that managed to get by them were quickly dispatched by the second and third ranks, but it quickly became obvious there were far more hybrids than MacMar warriors.

“Caroline’s at the cove,” Nyall said as he rushed over after helping slay two shifters that resembled enormous eels with mortal limbs. “Fletcher’s protecting her.”

“Shaw?” he asked.

“Connal has him patrolling the inner bailey,” the captain said. “Naught shall get past him and into the stronghold.”

As long as we keep the enchantress away from Dun Ard. He glanced down at the heavy boots Nyall wore, which had been hastily fitted with slate stone soles. “Watch your back, Brother.”

Hurrying with Nicole and the other women for the secluded spot, Duncan drew his own sword, and used it to behead a small shifter that slithered out of the surf toward the women. Ahead he saw Fletcher grimly dealing with a dozen more, and ran to aid him.

“Facking things keep coming.” For once, more determined than enraged, the seneschal swung his sword through the last shrieking shifters before wiping the blood spatter from his face onto his sleeve. Then he saw his wife and swore furiously before he demanded, “Uiseag, what do you ladies here with only Duncan protecting you?”

“I’m their protection.” The petite redhead made a casual gesture, and a new group of shifters emerging from the sea went flying across the bay. She stood on her toes to kiss her husband. “I love you, but I have to go smash a ship’s hull now, dear. Take out your temper on the hybrids, please.”

Caroline had on her wet suit and was watching the ship sailing into the bay with a dark expression. As soon as she saw them, she sheathed the dagger she was holding and trotted over to meet them.

“They’re getting ready to lower their skiffs, so now’s the time, Lark.” As the seamstress turned her attention to the merchant trader she said to the lifeguard, “Jules, as soon as you drop Nicole jump back, okay? Our guys need our help on the beach.”

“I’m taking Nick and Duncan,” the lifeguard told her. “He wants to go, too.”

Caroline gave him a narrow look. “You two need to work fast. If I have to freeze time to stop the shifters from overrunning the castle, I will.”

The sound of water and something heavy crashing down into the bay drew everyone’s attention, and Duncan saw the Cait Sith’s vessel land on a group of shoals near the ferryman’s islet. Wood exploded in all directions from the hull as the rocks smashed through the lapstrake.

Lark rejoined them. “Okay, they’re not going to sail off anywhere in that boat. Um, I also knocked some of them into the water. What a shame they never learned to swim.”

“Stay close to Nyall and Fletcher, my ladies,” Duncan told her and Caroline before he took hold of the other women’s hands. “When you’re ready, Lady Julianne.”

The lifeguard nodded, and then the air around them began to glow. The world blurred as a powerful force seized Duncan and the women and rushed them through space and time until they stood on the deck of the merchant trader, surrounded by Cait Sith sprawled everywhere. The shifters gave them astonished looks as they scrambled to their feet and brandished daggers, swords and unlit torches like clubs.

“Hey, shape-changers. I’m back.” Julianne released his hand to give the crew a cheerful wave. “My friend Nick here needs to talk to you about that dark enchantress chick with the awful name. Could you like call her out, too? She should hear this stuff. Oh, and I’d say laters but I don’t think I’m going to see you again. Also didn’t like that movie. So not sexy.” She winked at Duncan, and then vanished.

The door to the cabin flung open so hard it broke off its hinges and went over the side of the sinking vessel. As a darkly beautiful woman emerged, her eyes glowing with power, Duncan pushed Nicole behind him.

The enchantress had dressed for battle in gleaming black armor etched with Fae symbols in silver. Thousands of huge black pearls clustered around her magnificent face, and fresh blood reddened her full lips. In her black eyes glittered a terrible joy as she approached them.

“Derdrui,” he said. “Cease your attack on the Clan MacMar, and order your shifters to surrender, or you shall die here tonight.”