Claire Delacroix (30 page)

But the fire of the king’s love glowed in Baird’s heart, like an ember left in the cinders of a once great blaze.

What would his life had been like, if he had known such a feeling when he was a child?

* * *

Aurelia awakened the next morning to an insistent rap on her door. “Come on, princess, rise and shine.”

Baird.

She scowled at the window, the sky just barely lightening, then rolled out of bed and shoved her arms into the blue robe. Against all odds, someone still held the key to her Dreaming. She had no understanding of what she had witnessed the night before and that fact had left her irritable.

What good was a Dreaming that revealed nothing?

Aurelia tore open the door and confronted the man she suspected was at the core of her troubles.

Baird smelled delightfully clean, his hair was still wet but already starting to curl in its usual wayward fashion. He wore a plaid shirt and chausses of deep blue, his hooked finger held his jacket over his shoulder.

But there were shadows beneath his twinkling eyes. Aurelia was not the only one who had slept poorly. Sympathy flooded through Aurelia before she caught her wayward response.

Curse Baird and his dangerous charm! The last thing Aurelia was going to do was show him any compassion.

But Baird quickly proved her wrong.

He stepped closer, kissed her with an audacity unexpected, then backed away and winked. Aurelia’s unruly heart lunged all over her chest and she hated herself for so easily falling prey to his kisses.

“Daylight’s wasting, princess, get it in gear.”

And with that, Baird turned and strode down the hall, his long legs making short work of the distance. Aurelia shoved a hand through her hair and tried to gather her thoughts, only to have Baird turn back at the hall doorway.

“Chopper’s waiting,” he whispered loudly, then ducked through the doors.

Chopper must be an impatient chariot driver. Aurelia dove back into her room, washed and dressed as quickly as was humanly possible, then flung herself down the hall in pursuit.

Baird was waiting at the foot of the stairs. Aurelia barely had a chance to wish him good morning, before he had clasped her elbow to steer her outside.

“You make great haste,” she dared to say.

He grimaced. “No wind, it may not last.”

That made absolutely no sense. Aurelia slanted a glance to her impassive companion and was not surprised that, yet again, she could deduce nothing of his thoughts.

“You would leave Dunhelm to this Darian Mulvaney?”

Baird fired a very green glance her way. “You don’t like him?” he asked with a smooth disinterest that contradicted the gleam in his eyes.

Aurelia frowned and shrugged. “I am not certain that he should have the ritual well to himself.”

“Did you leave anything there?”

Aurelia deliberately avoided his keen glance. “Many have come to their demise there, either by accident or plan.”

Baird looked at her hard then, as though she had said something intriguing. Of course, the adventurer with the feathered hat had died in the chamber in Aurelia’s dream.

Had Baird witnessed that dream as well? It certainly had been disconcerting.

It was in that moment that Aurelia spotted the silver dragonfly waiting for them. A man sat within it, his eyes covered with shiny black shields not unlike those of the insect in question.

He grinned and waved. “‘Mornin’, boss!”

The din of the contraption was deafening.

“‘Morning, Tex!” Baird replied, but Aurelia balked when he would have led her closer. He leaned down and murmured into her ear. “Afraid, princess?”

“I am afraid of nothing!” Aurelia treated him to her most fearsome glare.

The cur’s eyes twinkled with mischief. “Into the chopper, then.”

“Chopper” was apparently this strange device. It looked fearsomely unstable, but the noise made questions impossible. There were no horses to pull the thing - like the chariot of the day before - though Aurelia could not have imagined that any sensible beast could have been persuaded to come near this.

Baird had a dangerously daring gleam in his eye. If he expected her to be afraid, then Aurelia would prove him wrong.

She climbed into the chariot and tried not to stare at its whirling wings overhead. Aurelia sat primly as though there was nothing unusual at all in boarding such a conveyance.

Then the chariot rose and wobbled uncertainly just above the ground. Aurelia panicked. Dunhelm dropped away beneath them with dizzying speed and as they moved out over the sea, Aurelia fought against her rising terror.

Never mind Baird’s assurances - those were no more than sweet lies to pacify her - he would see her killed! Had he not slaughtered her only brother?

What if Baird had found the knife she had forgotten beneath his bed? He would cast her out of this chariot in the name of vengeance and see her dashed to pieces on the rocks below.

Well, she would not go alone! Aurelia lunged across the tiny chariot and latched onto Baird with all her might.

“You will not be rid of me so easily!” she shouted.

The chariot lurched hard to Baird’s side of the chariot and the ground danced sickeningly before Aurelia’s eyes.

“What in the hell?” Baird bellowed.

“Je-
sus
! Boss!” roared the chariot driver. He struggled like a driver settling a wild team, launching a torrent of expletives as he did so.

Baird tried to extricate himself, but to no avail. Aurelia locked onto his shoulders and was not about to let go.

“You will not cast me to a gruesome death so easily!” she shouted at him.

“You’re not going to die, unless you keep this up!” he retorted.

“Ha! I will not believe your lies, you treacherous cur! My brother learned the price of trusting you to your word!”

The chariot steadied, the driver heaved a sigh of relief and glared over his shoulder. “I told you that these small choppers are more unstable than the one we use in the States, boss. What in the hell were you doing back there?”

“Everything’s fine now,” Baird said evasively.

“Oh, I get it! Lady’s afraid of flying, huh?” The chariot driver grinned as though this were a huge joke.

“I am afraid of nothing!” Aurelia shouted, her fingers nearly hooked into Baird’s flesh. “I am half Viking!”

The driver laughed. “Right! And I’m all Texan, but it took some talkin’ to git me into one of these babies the first time.”

Aurelia glanced down at Baird to find his corner of his mouth quirking in the half-smile she found so beguiling. His eyes twinkled and were startlingly green at such close proximity. Aurelia belatedly became aware that she was sitting on his lap, her arms curled around his neck.

He looked straight into her eyes, the very image of sincerity. “You’re not going to be flung to your death,” he murmured so quietly that Aurelia had to read his lips. Her heart began to pound. “Didn’t I give you my word?”

He had.

Aurelia licked her lips, not liking that she had played the fool and provided his amusement. Her face heated with embarrassment.

Baird slid his arms around her waist easily as though she sat thus all the time. “You should have just told me that you wanted to sit in my lap,” he teased.

Now Aurelia could not put distance between them fast enough. She darted back to her seat, earning another curse from the driver.

He glanced back with irritation. “Could you all just decide where it is that you all want to sit? Go ahead, make my life easier, it won’t break my heart.”

Aurelia had a hard time understanding his drawling accent, never mind his words, but when she looked to Baird that man winked mischievously. Aurelia turned quickly to the window, her pulse pounding unevenly in her ears.

Oh, he had a dangerous charm!

They were over the sea now and it did not seem that this shiny bird had any intent of falling out of the sky. Fascinated by the fact that they indeed flew like a dragonfly, Aurelia leaned away from Baird and looked out over the landscape.

It was dotted with buildings of marvelous construction that confused Aurelia once again. Black roads stretched across the land, painted with brilliant yellow lines. Shiny things, much like beetles but in myriad colors, shot along these roads at alarming speeds.

Aurelia chewed her lip. She looked up to the whirling silver overhead and once again felt overwhelmed by the changes Baird had made in her world. It had to be Christian magic at root, for there was no other explanation.

Or was there?

* * *

Aurelia found Kirkwall a shock after the small towns near Dunhelm. Here there were countless chariots like the one she had ridden in there, and buildings beyond number. There were more people bustling about than she could have imagined and many small ships bobbing in the harbor.

She kept silent as Baird inquired after her sire, certain in her heart that Hekod would never have come to this place.

Or would he? Was this not much as she had long imagined Micklegarth? But no one had seen or heard tell of her sire, after all. They trudged from place to place, without success.

When Baird offered a meal called ‘brunch’, Aurelia was glad to accept. The shop they entered smelled so good that her stomach protested its empty state mightily. It was only after she had finished eating her fill that Aurelia noticed the curious glances of those around them.

And Baird’s wicked grin.

Baird did his a-viking again with the gold card, launching a charming smile at the woman just to smooth the way. Aurelia seethed that he should be tease her about her eating, but waited until they were outside to have her say.

“What is the matter?” she whispered.

His grin widened. “They must be wondering whether you’ve got a pair of hungry greyhounds under the table.”

“I have always had a healthy appetite!”

“And an awesome metabolic rate.”

Aurelia did not know what that meant, but it was not flattery, that was for certain. She would have strolled proudly away from Baird, but a window snared her attention.

Aurelia froze and leaned against the glass, her breath fogging it as she strained closer. It was not the window itself that fascinated her - she had already wondered at that marvel - but the item displayed. Aurelia touched the glass in wonder.

It was her mother’s own silver bracelet. The same bracelet that had graced Aurelia’s own wrist when she climbed to the walls to help defend her father’s holding.

“What’s the matter? What is it?” Baird asked, his voice low with concern. His hand landed on the back of her waist and in the reflection, Aurelia saw his head bent close to her own.

He looked the very image of a man confused and concerned. Liar! That he should mock her in this was beyond reprehensible!

Oh, he had confused her with his generosity and challenged her assumptions about his character with his pledge to do her no harm. But this, this travesty showed his true colors as Aurelia knew them to be.

Aurelia spun to face Baird, her vision blurred with tears. She pushed him away from her, unable to bear such proximity to one who wished her ill.

“How could you do such a thing?” she demanded in a voice that throbbed low with emotion. “How could you steal my only token of my mother? Did they give you so much coin that such a betrayal was worth it?”

* * *

Chapter Nineteen

Baird’s heart sank as he read the label perched beside the silver bracelet displayed in the museum window.

Pictish bracelet - silver

c.a. late 8th century

Part of the silver trove discovered in west Rousay, 1934

The bracelet was about three inches deep. A graceful eagle with a long tail was encircled with a Celtic braid to make a medallion. On either side, those same tangled creatures that covered the stone slab in Dunhelm’s well filled the width of the bracelet. The bracelet was not hinged, but had a rounded slit that would rest on the inside of the wrist and make it easier to put on.

Baird fought to ignore the way his hair was standing on end.

“Aurelia, this is a museum.”

She blinked at him uncomprehendingly, her tears threatening to spill at any moment. Baird gripped her shoulders and stared into her eyes, willing her to believe one less dastardly thing about him. “I didn’t sell your bracelet. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Then how did it get here?”

“Apparently, it was found somewhere on the island in 1934.”

She glared at him. “I do not understand this 1934.”

Baird smothered a sigh. She never made a slip in her story, that was for sure. “It’s a year, a date, the number of years since the birth of Christ.” He frowned. “Well, not exactly, there’s a mistake in the calculation somewhere.”

Aurelia’s face was pale, her tears dispatched and her eyes wide. “Nineteen hundred years since the birth of this Christ?”

“Well, now it’s almost two thousand, but like I said, the calculation is off...”

Aurelia clutched two fistfuls of his shirt and gave him a shake. Her gaze was fever bright. “How much of a mistake?”

Baird shrugged. “I don’t know. Twenty or thirty years. I guess it depends who you listen to.”

But Aurelia wasn’t listening to him. She turned away and scanned the street, the breath leaving her lungs in a low hiss.

Then she abruptly pivoted back to Baird and her features were drawn tight with fear. What was she afraid of?

“It is spring?”

“Yes. It’s March - “ Baird checked his watch “- well, it’s the 21st.”

Aurelia waved these details away with a dismissive gesture. “I know nothing of this March. When does the Month of Eostre begin?”

Baird blinked. “Eostre?”

“Eostre!” Aurelia’s eyes flashed with impatience. “The festival, in the spring, the beginning of spring.” She rolled her eyes, apparently incredulous that anyone could not know such a thing. “Has the day already passed when day and night are of equal length?”

“Oh! The equinox.”

“Call it what you will. Has it passed?”

It obviously mattered so much her that Baird had to find the answer. He’d never paid much attention to all that astronomical gunk, but at least he knew where to find it. There was a card shop across the street, and just as Baird suspected, they sold calendars.