Page 30 of Desiring the Highland Laird
“I dinnae ken. Mayhap for when the other two lasses arrive.”
“Other two?” Callum’s brows drew together as he turned to look at his father. “What does that mean?”
Hamish clapped him on the shoulder and nudged him in front of the one he called the Shattering. It had the three women with the lightning at their feet.
“The Triple Goddess,” Hamish said. “Past, Present, and Future. The ones who protected the Chronos Stone until they could no longer. ’Tis why the Shattering happened.”
Callum stared at the hanging with the three women for a long moment. “Ye ken what happened at the Shattering?”
“Aye. It was told to me. The Triple Goddess harnessed their powers to shatter the stone into three pieces. Two ancient bloodlines. One divine destiny,” he said.
“Two?”
“MacLeod. Sinclair. Is the lassie a Sinclair?” Hamish asked.
“Aye. She said her name was Evie Sinclair.”
A tingling sensation went through him as he stared once again at the tapestry depicting the girl falling from the sky.
“The Chronos Stone was forged by the gods and given to the Triple Goddess for safekeeping. It holds all of Time itself,” Hamish said. “But when the Night of Shadows came, there were those who attempted to steal the keystone and to breach the barriers between the mortal realm and the realm of chaos. Driven by desperation to keep the stone out of their hands, the Triple Goddess made the decision to divide and hide the pieces of the stone, sacrificing its unity to preserve the integrity of All Time. ’Tis became known as the Shattering.”
Still staring at the pieces, Callum asked, “How do ye ken all this?”
When his da didn’t answer, he turned to look at him. Hamish stared at the tapestries, a pensive look on his face.
“It’s more than a prophecy, isn’t it?” Callum asked.
“It was a dream,” he said. “A beautiful dream I strayed into. The woman came to me.” He pointed to the woman in the middle, holding the stone in her hand up toward the heavens. The one with long silver hair and bright blue eyes. “She said her name was Moira and she was here to deliver a message. Och, I’ve told ye this before.”
He flattened his hand against the fabric in reverence.
Indeed, his father had told him the story more than once while growing up. While Malcolm and Jamie were enthralled by the tale, Callum never took it as truth. It was nothing more than a fiction. Da had described the woman in great detail from her silvery hair to her brilliant blue eyes touched by starlight. There was even a dimple in her cheek. Exactly how Evie had described her.
“Aye, ye have but tell me the message again, Da,” Callum said.
“The secret lies within the MacLeod bloodline,” he said. “When the stars align and the shadows of chaos eclipse the sun once again, the time will come to unite a warrior’s heartand a maiden’s grace. Together, they’ll reunite the pieces of the keystone and protect it, to safeguard it for time eternal. Three pieces of stone. Two ancient bloodlines. One divine destiny.”
Hamish’s gaze drifted from the tapestry to meet Callum’s. In them, he saw a distant look as he remembered the dream of which he spoke. If he didn’t know his da any better, he would think this nothing more than the ramblings of an old man. As it was, he knew his father was no madman. He knew his father was clearheaded and would never come up with something so farfetched as this story on his own.
Callum glanced back at the images depicted on the woven fabric. In the low candlelight of the room, he thought he saw the fabric shimmer. He thought he saw the images morph and move as if the scene had come alive.
He shook his head to clear it.
“Do ye believe now, laddie?” he asked.
He was silent as he considered this. He didn’t know if he believed it or not. He wanted to believe, but the story seemed to be too outlandish to be true.
“Do ye no see with yer own eyes?” Hamish said, a note of frustration in his voice.
“I see, Da.”
His shoulders slumped. “But ye no believe, do ye?”
“I—”
“Ye best be believing, laddie. For the time is upon us to become the protectors of the keystone.”
“How can we do that when we have one piece?” Callum demanded, thinking of the one piece he had in his sporran.
