Highland Sorcerer (11 page)

Pure energy, Charity
thought.

"'Twill be a simple matter for him to
open the postern door, shift into that state and while he's magic,
slide into the barrier and push it aside to allow us through.
Aldreth will never know he's there or that her spell has been
tampered with. His touch is light."

If it was as light as Edeen’s had been
in her head, Charity could well imagine Aldreth wouldn’t sense
it.

She'd gotten the gist of the plan when
Col explained it the first time. In his energy form, he could
penetrate a small part of Aldreth's spell that surrounded the
castle easily. However he based all his plan on the hope that the
witch wouldn't notice the disruption to her magic if he replaced
the disruption with himself. In that moment of shifting from one
form to another, Col was going to insert himself within that
breach.

It sounded all well and good while
focused on how to get Toren out, but now that Col was actually
inside the castle alone, Charity worried over the young man. It
would take only one thing to go wrong.

"Ye don't think Aldreth will sense
him?" Edeen frowned. "'Tis such a small door." She realized the
girl sought reassurance from her.

Charity forced a smile. "He'll be fine.
You'll see. If it doesn't work, he can always turn into a bird and
find another way out."

Edeen grinned wickedly. "Or a beetle
and dig through the floor. 'Twould serve the lad right."

Charity grinned back, grasping onto the
humor the same as Edeen to mask their worry.

They hurried to the back of the castle
where no guards were stationed. As powerful a witch that Aldreth
was, she had need of only a few mercenaries. The fewer men running
about her keep, the easier to maintain control, Charity supposed.
And keep from getting into the spells woven upon the
castle.

An inconspicuous wooden door swung
outward, disturbing several rodents that scurried away from the
refuse piled at the threshold.

After hiding Col’s clothes beneath a
fat shrub, Charity and Edeen hurried across the grassy area where
the thick vegetation ended.

They reached the wall and Charity
looked up into the open doorway. White light flickered across it,
expanding and shrinking at the edges. Energy hummed across her skin
like a living force ready to snap at them. Aldreth's barrier. She
couldn't see it, but she could feel it.

"Is that him?" Charity looked into the
flickering light.

Brow creased, Edeen glanced at her as
though she were crazy. Yeah, dumb question. Of course that was
Col.

What the hell were they supposed to do
now? His magical self stretched across their only entrance. Were
they supposed to go through him?

Uh, apparently so.

Edeen gathered her skirt high, gingerly
stepping between puddles of grease and moldering food remnants.
This was undoubtedly the door whoever cleaned up the kitchens used
to toss out the garbage.

She’d never again complain when her
trash compactor jammed up or when the garbage trucks knocked over
her big plastic trash can.

"Hurry. He can't hold this form long,"
Edeen hissed and ducked inside, right through her brother. She
seemed to disperse in shooting rays of light.

Damn. Wow. Okay then.

Charity pulled her skirts up. She could
do this. Tucking her head down, she plowed in.

And felt…warm and safe. Playful,
inquisitive. Emotions tingled all over her. She never imagined
Col's magical essence would be so infused with his personality.
There was so much depth to him, strength of seriousness and
deep-seated feelings overlaid with a lightness of being.

Then it was gone and she stumbled
forward into Edeen's outstretched arms.

"Ye're through. Ye're
through."

Charity grabbed the girl's arm to
steady herself and turned quickly to see the brightness that was
Col dim and materialize as a man who pitched forward onto his
face.

"Col." Both women scurried to him,
skirts puffing around his naked form.

"Col, Col." Edeen twisted his torso to
get his head into her lap. "Col." She pulled dark strands of his
wavy hair off his face and tapped his cheeks. "Col."

Charity found his pulse at this wrist,
rapid, but steady. Her palm over his chest monitored his breathing.
She began to unleash a small tendril of reviving energy.

Edeen grabbed her hand and pulled it
from Col’s chest, and Charity’s magic pulled back inside her. “Not
in here. Aldreth will sense magic being used within her
walls.”

Charity nodded. Of course she
would.

“
And…” Edeen frowned. “I
fear when we find Toren, he’ll be in terrible shape. The desire to
heal him will consume you.”

“
I can control
myself.”

“
Do not forget I experienced
your memories.” Edeen’s features turned sorrowful. “I know what ye
feel for him. But do not heal him. Not within the castle. We must
get him safely out first.”

“
I won’t put him, or us, in
danger,” Charity assured her, even knowing it was going to kill her
to see Toren that way, really see him so hurt, not just through a
memory.

Edeen nodded and turned her attention
back to her brother. "Col." She shook him.

Dark brows pinched together into a
grimace. "Let's not be doing that again anytime soon."

Edeen's shoulders dropped in relief.
"I…. Are ye well?"

Dark lashes lifted, revealing dark
smiling eyes. "Aye, well. Though ‘twas not the enjoyable experience
I’d hoped for."

Edeen pushed up on his shoulders
roughly, though her eyes were soft. "I imagine not. Go on then, get
yerself off the floor before we're discovered,"

"Oh, that." Col cocked his head to the
side where another guard lay sprawled upon the stone floor. "He was
guarding the door."

Edeen's forehead bunched in concern.
"Did ye fight him? Are ye hurt?"

"Nay, but I could use his clothes." He
shifted over the guard and began unstrapping the man’s belt. "I bit
his ankle, then changed into a man and clobbered him." His grin was
pure male smugness.

He quickly donned the guard's breeches,
shirt and shoes. Col stood, wobbling a bit, though Charity kept a
hold of him, suspecting he might be a little unsteady on his feet.
He nodded at her in gratitude, not alerting Edeen to his weakened
condition. No doubt his sister would hen-peck him into remaining
here at the door.

"You okay to do this?" Charity
whispered. As much as she didn't want to overtax the boy, she
didn’t want him out of her sight again either. They were so close
to getting to Toren, it felt like an internal pull to reach
him.

"Aye, fine." He went to the downed
guard and dragged him into a dark corner. "Edeen?"

"This way." Edeen took the corridor to
the left, leading the way from the information she'd gleaned from
the other guardsman's mind.

Glancing behind them, Charity hoped the
man didn't rouse soon or that someone else came upon him like that
in whatever those were that he was wearing. Some form of long
underwear. Without any other rooms close to stash him in, there
really wasn't any other choice, but to leave him in the
hall.

Edeen led them unerringly through the
tight passageways. The entire castle felt like a giant maze, and
they the rats. More so as they took several stairways descending
deeper into the lower floors of the keep. Where else would a
dungeon be, but in the dark underbelly? Charity thought
dismally.

The castle was eerily empty. They only
had to duck into an adjoining corridor once as two guardsmen walked
past. Either Aldreth couldn't find good help or she wasn't fond of
having too many people underfoot. Weird. Charity assumed all arch
villains bent on world domination would want legions of minions
around to fawn over them.

She shook her head. Her nerves were
wound so tight her thoughts were loopy.

"Shhhh, there's a guard inside." Edeen
peered around the corner into a cave like room where a lone man sat
near a locked wooden door. The walls looked as though they'd been
hewn out of the surrounding stone.

The guard sat near a small table spread
with the remains of a partially eaten bowl of stew and a half loaf
of bread.

"I’ll distract him," Edeen whispered
and turned to go.

Col grabbed her arm and mouthed
"no."

Brows lowered, Edeen shrugged out of
his grasp and sashayed boldly as she pleased into the
dungeon.

The guard was on his feet in an
instant, confusion stamped upon his swarthy features. "Ye cannot be
in here. No one's allowed in here. Who are you?"

Smiling as though she hadn't a care in
the world, Edeen moved beyond the guard, making him turn to keep
his eye on her. She lifted her hand to his chest. Oh, geez, she was
going to dive into his mind right now, right here. Except she
wouldn’t, not after she’d warned Charity about not using magic
within the castle. No, Edeen simply had her hand on his chest, was
distracting him…for what? Oh.

Both Charity and Col moved forward.
Charity grabbed the pewter bowl from the table at the same time
Col’s arm lifted…and wham. She clocked the guard a good one on the
back of his head. Stew splattered the wall. The guard crumpled to
the floor.

Col and Edeen gaped at her momentarily.
Col’s arm was still mid-lift before he dropped it to his side. His
mouth stretched into a wide grin. "Good whacking, lass."

The bowl dangled from Charity's
fingers. She couldn't believe she'd just hit a man over the head.
She'd never hit anyone in her life. Well, okay, maybe Randy
Summerton in the third grade, but he'd been picking on
Lenore.

Not wasting any more time, Col dragged
the man away from the door. "Keys?"

Charity's gaze snapped from the downed
guard to that door. Toren was just behind that plank of wood. She
was suddenly cold like all her blood had fallen to her
toes.

Col slapped his palms against the door.
"Where are the keys?"

Charity searched the guard's
body.

Col lowered beside her. "I'll make him
tell us."

"Or…" Charity slid a heavy iron ring as
large as her fist from the guy's thick belt. A large skeleton key
dangled. "We could use this."

Chapter
Sixteen

He'd been hanging from the wall for
eons. Time no longer held any meaning. Hours blurred into days.
Days could be mere hours. He no longer had any sense to it. His
entire existence pared down to remaining sane long enough to hold
off Aldreth. Nay. Nay. Nay. As long as he could draw breath, it
would be nay.

He could not be certain there was even
a point anymore. Surely Shaw had taken their clan into the
Shadowrood by now where darkness could no longer touch
them.

Shaw knew what had to be done and would
not shirk from that responsibility.

The door swung inward.

Toren used what little strength he had
to lift his head and face the witch head on.

The Healer Enchantress walked in and
his resolve plummeted. So his suspicions were correct. She had been
working with Aldreth all along.

'Twas a cruel turn of fate.

He let his head sink forward, no longer
having the will to support it.

Truth be told, he had hoped to be wrong
about her. He had started to seek out her image when Aldreth’s
tortures became too much. He would recall the firm determination to
her lips when she proclaimed she would save him. Even though it was
possibly a lie. He had been a fool, letting himself take hope and
solace in her when it had all been another type of torture, a
wicked game Aldreth and the Healer Enchantress contrived to get him
to relax his guard.

"What has she done to you?" Her
traitorous hand slipped onto his chest, the other at his cheek,
lifting his head so she could peer into his face.

Lovely eyes peered up at him, brimmed
with convincing concern. He faltered, the desire to believe her
worry was not false was overwhelming. His heart turned to ice caged
within his ribcage. He would not be fooled again.

"He's feverish."
Edeen?

Toren's muscles went rigid. Nay, his
sister could not be here. His gaze flicked to the side where
Edeen's beautiful image wavered, hazy and indistinct where she
stood close to him beside the treacherous healer.

"Nay," he rasped. "Please
nay."

"Shhhh, it's going to be okay." The
healer cupped his cheeks to keep his gaze locked on her. "I
promise."

She moved a little to the side, out of
his view, her palms slipping from his face and gods help him, he
felt bereft of her touch.

Strong arms slipped around him, pulling
him away from the cold wall. A firm chest bumped his and he felt
himself lifted, the weight of his hanging body taken from his arms.
He cried out at the sudden ease of pressure as icicles prickled
across the length of his limbs.