Chapter Four
"There's a man at the wall," Vevila told her sisters, "a really big man."
"What was he doing?" Kellan asked.
"Nothing," Kane answered, "he was just staring out at the ocean."
"It looked like he was going to set up camp." Vevila added. "He had a fire going anyway."
"What is this?" Aunt Caryn asked, overhearing their discussion.
"He has a big wagon and even bigger horses," Kane told her. "I've never seen horses that big before."
"What did he look like?" Aunt Caryn asked.
"Really big," Kane told her, "not just tall, but giant like. He has dark longish hair which looks like it needs a good brushing, a beard and mustache."
"His clothes looked odd," Vevila added, "like maybe what they wear in France."
"What was the color of his eyes?" Aunt Caryn asked impatiently.
"I don't know," Kane answered sharply. "He had his head down."
"Humph," Aunt Caryn rummaged through one of the cupboards, and then grabbed her coat and hood. She then marched out the door.
"I'll follow," Alana announced.
"Me too," Dara told her. The others nodded
Alana and Dara were the stealthy ones. If they didn't want to be seen, they wouldn't be. They quickly changed into dark dresses and tall black socks.
Caryn made her way to the wall and climbed over. She crept toward the fire. It was Stefan! For a minute she panicked wondering what he wanted. She pressed her hand against her eyes, first things first. She watched as he took another swig of his drink. He was staring moodily out toward the ocean. She studied him for a while. She couldn't tell if he could see the property or not.
She walked over to one of the horses. It was big! She shivered as it looked down on her with piercingly intelligent eyes. She quietly untied its lead. She walked back to where she could see Stefan. She picked up a rock and threw it at the loose horse. The rock smacked into its shoulder and it screamed in fright. Stefan smacked his mug down and hurried to the disturbed horse. She had expected it to rear and run, but it didn't. She ran to his mug and poured in the valerian. She heard him making soothing noises to the horse, and then heard him make his way back. She just barely made it out of the firelight before he returned. She settled in to wait for the sedative to take effect.
The twins watched their aunt pour something into the large man's mug. It didn't take long before he was snoring into his plate. They watched as Aunt Caryn got the groggy man to climb into the wagon. Dara watched with humor as she ran around trying to harness the big horses. She only managed one. The one she hit with a rock, wouldn't let her near.
"Fine," she exclaimed.
Caryn climbed onto the seat and started to drive the wagon across the ramp the girls had built up. She hoped it would hold against such a large wagon.
For days, they had been piling rock up by the wall, trying to create something that a wagon could be pulled up over. It was crude and the rocks kept shifting down. Their donkeys had no trouble at all walking up the newly formed incline. This was a little different. Caryn kept feeling the rocks shifting under her.
"What are you doing?" the large man slurred and lurched toward her.
She grabbed the first thing that came to hand and slammed it against his head. It was a hammer and made an ominous thud against his skull. He slumped down onto the floor of the wagon. Caryn ignored him and continued to drive the wagon down the embankment.
Alana jumped with surprise to find the big horse at her side. The horse stomped onto the ground. The twins stood and stared up and up at the horse. She lowered herself so they could climb up on her. She was so big that Alana felt as if she was doing the splits just to sit on her. They followed the wagon.
Caryn paused only long enough to grab one of the donkeys, and tie her to the wagon. She then made for the far reaches of the property—to the real ocean.
The girls and the horse stayed well out of her sight. They watched as her aunt left the wagon by the cliff side and climbed onto the donkey to return home. She hadn't even checked on the man she had injured, or unharnessed his horse. Dara wished her a good, achy ride home.
They waited until she was out of sight and then rode up to the wagon. Alana patted the horse to signal that they would like to dismount. The horse obliged them by lowering herself close to the ground.
"What a beautiful horse you are," Alana said soothingly as she stroked her long silky head.
Dara didn't waste any time before climbing into the wagon to check on the man. Alana quickly followed. He had fallen into an awkward sprawl. Blood was freely flowing from a scalp wound above his ear.
"She whacked him but good!" Alana exclaimed. "He's going to need some stitching."
"We need to get his body straighter," Dara said worriedly. "He's sprawled pretty strange."
"Here," Alana handed her a clump of cloth. "You try to stop the bleeding. I'll try to shift his body."
Dara held the cloth tightly against the wound as Alana shifted his legs around to extend in front of him. She looked into the wound. The bleeding wasn't slowing down. She had heard that head wounds tended to bleed a lot so tried to stay calm. She could see the rhythm of the bleeding.
"We need to get his head higher than his heart," Dara told her.
Alana spied a bag of feed and pushed and tugged on it until it was placed behind him. They got on each side of him and pulled him up to lean on the bags.
"His skull is okay," Dara frowned in concentration. "It looks odd though. Maybe he had another injury before."
"How do you know?" Alana asked.
"I can see it," Dara frowned. "I'm not sure how, but I can see that the injury rips through his skin and into the muscle. I'm going to give him some rough attachments to stop the bleeding."
Dara concentrated on sending little bits of energy to the edges of the wound. She had never done this before, but had watched mama do it to her knees countless times. The attachments seemed to be holding. The wound had stopped bleeding.
"I think, I got it right," Dara told her. "There is bruising into the muscle and he's going to hurt like hell. What did she give him?"
Alana sniffed the mug and found the pungent smell of valerian.
"Ugh! Valerian," Alana answered. "She used enough. She wouldn't have needed to club him if she had just been patient. I'm surprised he didn't smell it. It smells like old goat cheese. The wine doesn't hide the stink. He must have already been on his way to a bender, or he would have smelled this."
"He did,"
They both jumped and stared down into the brilliant sky-blue gaze. He lightly touched his head. They all stared at each other.
:Do be polite, Stefan,: a voice spoke from outside. :These two were spying on the woman to see what mischief she was up to. They did intervene, did they not?:
"Stefan!" Dara exclaimed. "Our Uncle Stefan?" She stared into his eyes. "Huh!"
"You must be the twins," he mentioned. "Keegan mentioned you a time or two, wild red hair, blue eyes, and identical faces."
They stared silently at him as he got up and moved clumsily to the table to pour himself another mug of wine. Dara quickly grabbed it away and tossed it out the wagon.
"You are not poisoning yourself with more wine," she informed him.
His eyebrows rose at her audacity. He was secretly pleased with his nieces. When he realized that the girls were alone, after Aine's death, he had moaned to himself about the idea of six, no seven, girls to watch over. He was not comforted when he realized that Caryn was in charge.
Alana poured him some cold water from his chill cupboard and handed it to him.
"Hot tea would be better," Dara told him looking around. "But I don't see any hot plate."
"He's a Fire Knight remember," Alana nudged her. "He doesn't need a hot plate."
"Oh yes," Dara replied, "in which case I suggest some hot peppermint tea with honey to sooth your stomach. A clunk to the head and nausea usually end up hand-in-hand—and don't fall asl
eep. People die when they fall asleep with a head injury!"
"We have to get back before Aunt Caryn misses us," Alana told him regretfully. "You should be fine. Celeste, in the village, is the best of healers if your head gets worse. The wound was clean, it bled enough and the hammer was apparently clean."
:Would you mind giving us a lift,: Dara sent to the horse.
:A pleasure,: she sent back. :I am Shalley.:
Stefan watched as Shalley rode away with the girls. They would get back to the house long before Caryn on her donkey. In fact, he knew Shalley would send a little confusion to the poor donkey. Caryn might not even make it home till morning—serve her right. The girls would be fine.
Shalley had sent him a message about a stranger messing with her lead. Neither one of them had expected for Shalley to get hit by a rock. Shalley rarely got angry, but that stunt had made her furious.
He had recognized the stink of the drug in his mug, and had pretended to drink it, to see what the bloody heck was going on. He recognized Caryn when she showed up, although it had been many years since they had seen each other. He had not expected her to club him in the head with the hammer!
Caryn had cracked his skull. He had to place himself into a tranced state to heal his skull, and to relieve the pressure of the concussion, a little risky, but necessary. Luckily, she was busy with the wagon and didn't notice the slight glow. He had deliberately left the wound bleeding, hoping she would have enough decency in her to render aid—no such thing. He had no idea what she was thinking of to have hit him, a virtual stranger, so aggressively.
He had been amazed when she had just callously left him here by the seashore. Another person with that kind of injury would probably have died. Maybe that was what she hoped. He was about to rouse himself when the twins invaded his wagon.
He thought about the care the girls had given an injured stranger and felt a sense of pride. They were good girls—and smart. They hadn't confronted Caryn. They had simply done the best they could, and then left. He suspected that Caryn thought she had the upper hand with the girls. He grinned. He could tell, without even meeting Keegan's other daughters, that she was way out of her league.
He touched the work that Dara did to his head, and removed the attachments. He then healed the rest of the wound. Not bad, he thought, not bad at all. A little training and she'd be a top notch healer. He calculated in his head, and was surprised to realize that she was only thirteen. He grinned with pride.
He stacked up some wood and lit it off. Fire was his nature, his magic, and his passion. He sat down on a pillow and gazed into the fire. He watched for Shalley, and saw that they were indeed, approaching the house. Caryn was nowhere in sight.
:Thank you kindly, Shalley,: Alana mind spoke to the horse.
:You will be okay?: Shalley asked. :She is a vicious person.:
:We are watching,: Dara agreed angrily. :Meet the others?:
:Yes,: Shalley snorted. :I would like that.:
"About time!" Kellan yelled out. "Oh!"
Kellan was astounded as the twins came out of the darkness riding the bloody biggest horse she had ever seen.
Shalley was not only big, but also very beautiful. Her head, legs and tail were a dark gray while her body was of a lighter gray. She had a very shaggy mane and her tail almost touched the ground. That was saying something considering how tall she was. She had dark spots which traveled from her loin and back quarters to her hock. Her fetlocks ballooned out like silky bells. She stood proudly looking at the sisters.
:Greetings,: she called to them. :I am called Shalley.:
Stefan laughed as he watched the girls rub her down and brush her out. They even shined her hoofs. He watched as they worked and talked. He could see the anger in their expressions as Dara described their aunt's malice and his injury. He was pleased that they were aware of their aunt's defectiveness. He knew that Caryn could be totally manipulative and selfish. It had amazed him time and again, how blind Aine was to her sisters failings. Aine had been a true sweetie, he thought sadly.
Shalley repaid the kindness of the girl's brushings by taking them on rides. She loved children. He grinned—he wouldn't be seeing her this night.