Page 76 of A Celtic Memory
“I’ll figure this out.” She nodded and pressed her shoulders back when all she wanted to do was break down. “Ihaveto figure this out. Do better.”
Until then, she would find Cian and fight alongside him. Help balance him out. Keep him from growing too dark. So she headed for the front entrance, only for his horse to block her way and give her a stubborn look.
“Let me pass,” she ordered, trying to sound firm despite her shaky voice.
He eyed her with defiance, stomped his hoof, and tossed his head in an obvious no.
“Let me pass, Tadhg,” she repeated, but he held his ground.
What was his problem? Had Cian somehow ordered his horse to keep her from going to his aid? Or was he determined to bring her to him? She had no idea. She couldn't risk the former, though.
Yet when she tried to sidle around him, Tadhg blocked her.
“Fine.” She spun on her heel, determined to go out the back way, but it was too late. One of the horses crashed through the stall and blocked that entrance as well. She frowned when another broke out of his stall, then the last two soon after.
“Hey, I mean you guys no harm.” She held up her hands in surrender. “I just want to help your king. Your people.”
They offered no response other than to close in around her. Eye her with what felt like sadness and regret. More than that, insistence as they backed her toward Tadhg.
When she turned, Cian’s horse knelt so that she could get on.
“So you want me to help him from your back?” She could only hope because the other horses were nudging her along. Giving her no other option. One horse, in particular, a reddish brown mare, nudged her more than the others. Seemed more insistent.
“Okay, okay.” While she would have preferred to keep Tadhg out of the line of fire, she swung onto his back and held on tight when he stood. “Let’s go help our guy.”
She yelped a little when Tadhg didn’t merely make his way into the fighting but flew out of the stable.
“Slow down,” she cried, but he didn't listen. Rather, he dodged around what had become a truly heartbreaking scene in the short time she confronted Siobhán.
Cian’s men were outnumbered.
The courtyard had turned into a bloodbath.
She bit back tears at the sight. At seeing so many she had come to know over the past few days dead, their lifeless eyes staring at the sky.
Oran came out of nowhere and dive-bombed any who tried to get at her. And Aisling? Forget holding back tears. They streamed down Madison's face when she spied the wavering form of a woman with a pixie-like face lying at Cian’s feet while he fought beside a dwindling group of his own men.
His fairy hadn't listened to him but remained by his side.
“Aisling,” she choked out as her shimmering light grew dimmer and dimmer.
She had defended Cian to the end.
“Cian,” Madison cried when it became clear Tadhg had no intention of bringing her to him. “No!”
“Ta.”However tortured, Cian’s eyes were dark when their gazes connected across the courtyard.“I will not leave my people, nor will I see yer life end.”
“Stop, Tadhg,” she sobbed. “Make him stop, Oran.”
Her familiar didn’t respond any more than Tadhg. If anything, the horse, no doubt aided by Cian’s power, flew over the drawbridge out into the field. Animals seemed to come out of nowhere to defend them. Birds dive-bombed warriors. Wolves slammed into anyone who got too close. Foxes and hares scurried around feet, tripping the men. Had this been any other circumstance, she would have been astounded because she knew they were here for her.
But this wasn’t any other circumstance.
Seen clearly when she looked back, stunned.
Just like in her dream, the castle was in ruins. Where before Cian had seemed lost, now he was a dark warrior fighting beyond a crumbled wall. One who needed her help, but she couldn’t go to him any more than she could in her dream. She was helpless. At the mercy of Tadhg and magic that seemed to have abandoned her. Because she tried to call on it. Feel it. But it was absent. Buried beneath too much anguish.
“Look at me, Cian,”she urged telepathically“Just once. Please. Before...”
