Page 32 of Farlan (Immortal Highlander Clan McKeran #3)
“Maybe she should stay with our seneschal,” Ava suggested, nodding at Farlan as he came into the kitchens.
B odach told Rona to wait on the outside steps before he entered the castle and made his way down to the dungeons.
Tonight the clan would be holding the binding ceremony for their vassals, which would be an excellent time to observe them through the viewing scroll and see if his enchanted bats had subdued the McKeran.
Eager to find his treasure in the trap, he had been slightly reckless.
He couldn’t afford to make any more mistakes, or the clan might detect his efforts to take back what they had stolen from him.
I must be cautious and patient. Neither were Bodach’s strong suit, but he could try.
When he entered the room he was using as his observation post for the trap, he smelled pine, and saw dribbles of brown soil and green needles leading from one side of the chamber to the other.
He followed them into an adjoining room, where perched on the wooden frame of his favorite rack sat Chlíodhna.
Bodach stopped in his tracks. “Why are you in my territory?”
“This place is not yours.” She jumped down from the rack, shedding more of the brown soil and pine needles as she strolled around the room. Her nose twitched as she examined some of the other devices he’d once used to entertain himself. “Try as you may to soak it in the blood of terrified mortals.”
She’d come to wag her finger at him again. “If you’re looking for Rona, she’s sitting just outside the front doors. She’s nothing to me. Take her as one of your pets, if you like.”
“I wish to know why you use your power for evil,” Chlíodhna countered.
“You are the only one of your kind, which gives you great value as an immortal. The Fae fear you so much they exiled you here so you could not wipe out their kingdoms. You could use your power to right the wrongs within this realm. Instead you wield it to gratify your trifling desires.”
“Don’t you and Aosda do the same? Or did I imagine that circus you created from the toys of mortals?” He chuckled and shook his head. “Madam, we are all selfish creatures who hunger for diversion. It’s inevitable when one is so long-lived.”
She studied him for a moment. “I took a female mortal infant and protected her for nine centuries. I believed I was saving her life, but I nearly thwarted her fate. She had been born to save an innocent man from being swallowed alive by the greatest darkness in the mortal realm. Fortunately I corrected my mistake in time. What if your minion was meant for something greater than pandering to your cruelty?”
“Is this some impassioned plea for me to release my mortal servant?” He chuckled and shook his head. “Without my protection Rona will die, very likely at the hands of the next brute she offers herself to. She is what mortals call a shit magnet, and you know it.”
“So you use her and belittle her and couple with her for her own good, is that what you tell yourself? You are such a selfish thing.” Chlíodhna’s face changed into that of a regal old female mortal.
“I will take her from you someday.” She turned and walked through the stone wall, which created a burst of soil and pine needles that showered all over him.
“Meddlesome crone.” Bodach brushed the odorous debris from his clothing before he went to his viewing scroll. “Show me the bats inside the spell trap.”
The image that appeared on the enchanted parchment was that of a weapons cache atop the outer curtain wall.
The bats, which had grown much larger than the last time he had seen them, had what looked like a half-dozen dolls clutched in their claws.
They dropped them atop a pile of more tiny figures before flying out of a nearby window slit.
“Closer,” Bodach said, tapping the pile.
The image grew larger, and showed the motionless bodies of the dolls, which were dressed as maids, gardeners, guards and even a few watchers. Only their eyes moved as they lay in tumbled disarray. Some of the maids wept silently. Bodach grew instantly, completely enamored of this new development.
“How do the bats turn them into dolls?” he murmured, and the image of the viewing scroll shifted to show one of the bats waddling up to a guard and biting him on the neck.
The clansman stiffened and then began to shrink until he, too, was doll-size.
As he did, the bat that had attacked him grew a little larger.
“Oh, dear me. That is going to present a problem.”
Bodach went upstairs to find Rona just inside the entry. She now wore a bright pink smock dress and matching oversize bows in her hair, and smelled of the bubble gum she was chewing. This he knew was thanks to Chlíodhna, who likely was trying to teach him a lesson.
“Go back to your apartment,” he told her. “Wait for my call.”
“The nice old lady said I should let you go into your trap,” Rona said, blowing a bubble with her gum and popping it as she admired her pink-painted fingernails. “She said the monsters in there would turn you into the rat you are. I like her presents, Master, but she isn’t very nice, is she?”
Bodach slapped her. “She bespelled you. Snap out of it and go home.”
Tears filled the mortal’s eyes, but she sniffled and ducked her head as she trudged out of the castle.
He very nearly went after her, but beating his minion unconscious would not solve his problems. He needed to get inside the spell trap and bring those two monsters under his control before the stupid creatures ruined everything.