Rainlashed (16 page)

“He did not hurt me,” she ventured into the expectant silence that fell as soon as she began to speak. “He fed me on the best human food and clothed me in silks and satins.”

One of the elders brushed her testimony aside with a dismissive wave. “That is not the point. He kidnapped you and for that he must be punished.”

“It
is
the point,” she protested. “He meant me no harm.”

Another elder, his beard grizzled with gray, spoke up. “He kept your skin from you. What greater harm could he do to one of our kind?”

“He wanted only to keep my by his side,” she protested. “He gave it back to me when I began to sicken. Would you punish a man for that?” She moved closer to them, to convince them with her proximity, if her words were not enough. “He is no fisherman who sought to spear me for my pelt or to prevent me from stealing his fish. Punish men like those as you please and I will speak not a word in their defense. For their crimes against our kind they do not deserve to live. All I ask is that you do not class Iain Argyle with men such as those. I have forgiven him for his sins against me and bear him no grudge—why can you not do likewise?” She stopped at last, her breast heaving with passion and with fear.

The chief elder looked at her for some moments before speaking. “This man, this Iain Argyle, cannot be allowed to escape scot-free.”

She instantly opened her mouth to protest his judgment, but he held up his hand to silence her. “Hush, Maya, do not argue with the law of your own kind. This human committed a grievous crime against the selkie folk, as well you know. That he later repented of his wickedness and let you go free does not cancel out his guilt. He will be punished as our law allows. That is my last word on the matter.”

With a wave of his hand he dismissed the elders and those who had gathered to hear their judgment. Graceful despite his age, he clambered into his sealskin and slipped into the water at the cavern’s edge.

Maya crouched by the rocks as one by one the selkies left, until only her sister Caity was left to comfort her. She knew only too well the meaning of the sentence the elder had pronounced. Capturing a selkie was punishable by death. Her selkie folk would kill her lover. They would kill Iain, the man she loved and who had loved her back again.

“Do not be sad,” Caity whispered, stroking the hair out of Maya’s eyes. “There has already been too much sadness when you did not come home with the sisters and me and we told the story of your capture. We thought you were lost to us forever.”

“They will kill him, Caity,” Maya said, and the words made her break out into open sobbing. Now the elders had gone, she could not control herself for a moment longer. “They will send a wind to capsize his boat or a wave to wash him off the rocks when he is walking by the shore. There will be no saving him from their vengeance.”

“If he were to go unpunished, other humans would take heart and grow ever bolder in their actions against us,” Caity argued. “If you save him from our wrath, more of us may die.”

“I cannot let a guiltless man be punished for the crimes of a few fisherfolk who care naught for our anger,” she cried. “Whatever the law allows, that would not be just or right. I will not let that happen.”

Caity looked at her, her eyes wide with a sudden understanding. “You have fallen in love with this man who captured you, haven’t you?”

Maya hung her head. Her feelings for him shamed her in front of her selkie folk, yet she would not change them even if she could. “I have.”

“And you would protect him even if he were guilty ten times over.”

Maya’s voice was small and sad as she confessed to the truth. “I would.”

“Then we have no choice but to swim for our lives. Or rather for his.” She slid off the rocks and into the swirl of the water at the mouth of the cavern. “Come, Maya, we still have time to rescue him, if we hurry.”

Maya joined her in the cool water. “You must not come with me, Caity.”

Caity’s face fell. “I only want for you to be happy,” she said passionately. “You gave your life for mine on the rocks, offering yourself to save me. I will never forget that. Never. You may need my help to rescue him.”

Maya shook her head. “This is my fight, Caity, and mine alone. Go back to the sisters. They will watch out for you until I return.”

Caity’s eyes were overlarge in her anxious face. “You will not turn your back on us and turn full-blood human?”

Maya took her youngest sister in her arms. “I could never do that. You are my sister and I love you dearly. I would never abandon you.”

Caity blinked back the tears that were swimming in her eyes. “You will return to me?”

Maya kissed her on both cheeks as a pledge of her word. “I will return, I promise you.”

Maya swam towards the mainland with the strength of desperation propelling her. Once the elders had pronounced sentence they did not dally in carrying it out. Even now, they would be weaving the charms that would put him in danger, and she would not be strong enough to break them. As soon as the charm was completed, both the wind and the waves would be his deadly enemies. She had to warn him before it was too late.

She surfaced close to the rocks where he had first found her, her tail slapping the water as she came up for a welcome breath of air.

He was on the shore, sitting on the rocks, dabbling his bare feet in the rock pools. His eyes on the ground, he had not seen her break the surface of the waves.

She knew a moment of panic. Last time she had put herself in the power of this man she had barely escaped with her life. Surely she was not so foolish as to put herself in his power again? It was not too late for her to change her mind. She could turn her back on him, leave him to the mercy of the charm the elders worked on him and swim away to safety.

None of her selkie folk would think the less of her. On the contrary, they would applaud her decision to leave human affairs in the hands of the council of elders, where they belonged.

Just then he looked up from the rock pools and his eyes met hers. Maya knew at that moment that she could not run. This man was her fate, whether she liked it or no. They were bound together by ties that counted for more than life itself.

Trancelike, he stood and moved towards her, his eyes never leaving hers for a second. “Maya.”

The whisper carried towards her over the rustle of the wind and the muted roar of the waves. The anguished hope in his voice touched her heart. And again it came, stronger and surer this time. “Maya.”

Still she hesitated. Was she right to take this path? Or was her heart wrong? Was it leading her to destruction and to death?

Then, from behind her, she heard the sound of the rising wind and the building water. It was as she had feared. The selkie’s vengeance was ready to be wreaked on her captor.

She no longer cared for her own death—her only thought was to save her lover. With a desperate flick of her tail, she launched herself onto the pebbled beach and wrenched off her selkie skin.

He came towards her, his eyes shining and his arms outstretched. “Maya.”

She avoided his embrace with a quick sidestep, ruthlessly ignoring the look of hurt that came into his eyes. There was no time to dally or even to explain. Her skin in one hand, she grabbed his arm with her free hand and began to pull him towards the rocks. “Come, come quickly.”

His feet were dragging over the stones. “Where are you taking me?”

The noise of the water behind her was growing to a powerful roar. She risked a look behind her and blanched at the sight. The selkie’s rage had called forth a wave larger even than she had imagined. Using a strength she did not know she possessed, she pushed him in front of her on to path to the top of the cliff. “There is no time to talk,” she gasped. “Get to the top where you will be safe and I will explain.”

He turned his head to look back at her, a question in his eyes. The question remained unspoken as he saw the wall of water rushing towards them and the reason for her sudden haste burst in on him with great clarity.

He grabbed her arm and began to scramble up the path, pulling her with him now instead of the other way around.

The cliff seemed endlessly high. Their feet scrabbled and slipped on the loose gravel as they raced for their lives.

Finally they reached the top where they stood for a bare moment, their breathing labored and their chests heaving with the effort.

Below them, the small cove was awash with water. As they watched, another vast wave broke against the rock face, sending huge sprays of saltwater spurting up into the air.

Maya shivered as the spray drenched her naked human body. She tugged at her lover’s arm as he stood silently watching the destruction below them. “Come away from the edge. The cliffs could crack and fall into the water.”

He let her pull him backwards from the cliff until even the cautious Maya was satisfied there was no danger. “You knew that was going to happen.” The thought that she had sent those waves hurt him more deeply than even her leaving had.

“I did.”

He looked at her with sad eyes. “Were you so angry with me that you would drown me?”

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes at his accusation. “The waves were not my doing. I could not stop them.”

“Why did you come back to save me?”

“Because I am bound to you.”

He had no more power over her. “I gave you your freedom—the freedom which I should never have deprived you of in the first place. You owe me nothing.”

“You gave me my life back again. I have given you yours.”

“So we are even now? Is that what this was about? There is no further obligation that lies between us?”

She shook her head. “None.”

Slowly the water receded back into ocean, grumbling as if it knew it had missed its target. It left behind a wrecked and shattered beach strewn with seaweed and other detritus from the ocean depths. The huge rocks along the shore had been broken and tumbled about like a child’s playthings and lay scattered on what was left of the gravely sand.

He would not have stood a chance if he had been down on the beach when the wave came in. The wave would have tossed him and broken him against the rocks, sucked him under the raging torrent or swept him back out to sea to drown. No human could possibly have survived such a wave. Not even a selkie could have swum its way to safety against such a force. But Maya, his own precious Maya, had risked her life to come and save him.

He turned his head to look at her once more. She was more beautiful even than he had remembered and her beauty clutched at his heart. Though he knew in his heart that it was hopeless, that a selkie could not want the love of a human who had treated her so badly, he could not let her go without trying to win her heart one more time.

He reached out for her, putting all his love and longing into that simple touch. “Tell me, Maya, was that the only reason you came back here? To save my life?”

“Maybe I did not want you to die.” Her voice was a mere whisper. She was looking at her feet, not at him, as if she was risking much to admit even so little to him.

He tipped her chin back gently so that she had to face him, so he could read the truth in her eyes. “Was there a particular reason you did not want me to die? Did you miss me, Maya? Did you miss me as much as I missed you?”

“I…” she shrugged helplessly as her voice trailed off into nothing.

She did not need to say any more, for he had read the truth in her face. “You care for me, don’t you Maya.”

“I care for all creatures,” she said defensively.

“But you care for me more than you care for any other man, human or selkie. You cannot deny it. I have read it in your eyes.”

“I cannot stay with you and be a human for your sake.”

He looked at the skin clutched tightly in her hand and gave a heavy sigh. Her knuckles were white with the tightness of her grip. “I will not take your skin again, Maya. I have learned my lesson well. It belongs to you.”

“It were best you did not,” she agreed, though her grasp on the skin did not loosen. “I saved you from the anger of my people once. You might not be so lucky a second time.”

“The wave?” he asked, astonished. Since Maya had not called it up from the depths, he had thought it merely to be a freak of nature that her seal nature had allowed her to sense while he was oblivious. “The selkies sent that wave?” The narrowness of his escape sent a sudden shiver down his spine.

She nodded. “It was to be your punishment.”

“Your people have that much power?”

“We do, although we do not choose to use it often.”

“And still you chose to save me from it?”

“I would not have you die on my account.”

He took her hands in his and kissed her on the mouth gently. “I did not deserve for you to risk your life for me, but I thank you anyway.”

She pressed her body against his, writhing her nakedness against him until his cock was achingly hard. God, how he wanted her, this selkie who had stolen his heart away. “Make love to me,” she whispered into his ear. “I cannot stay with you, but we can be together one last time. Here in the open air where I belong.”

The invitation was too close to what he desperately craved himself to be able to refuse. He shrugged off his sodden greatcoat and spread it over the grass. “Come, lie down with me.”