Chapter 16

 

 

Jamie bashed his way through the undergrowth and entered a small clearing fringed with dense trees. People clustered all over the place. They worked and talked in the doorways of rough stick shelters. Most were women and children, along with a few old people. Jamie didn’t see any able-bodied fighting men anywhere.

He caught sight of Marri and headed her way. “Awright, lassie?”

“Where ha’e ye been Jamie?” she asked. “Ye ha’e abandoned our village in its hour o’ need. I ne’er expected ye tae turn coward at the last minute.”

Jamie stiffened. What was the use in arguing with her about it? If she wanted to think him a coward, let her. “Is Jock aboot, or has he gone down tae search for the McLeans?”

“I dinnae ken what Jock’s aboot,” Marri replied. “He took Malcolm and Daniel. He has no returned since we left the village.”

Jamie frowned. “No? That’s odd. Where can he be?”

“I dinnae care,” she snapped. “I wish he’d take himself off and leave Daniel alone.”

Jamie softened. He took a closer look at her. Care and anxious uncertainty pinched her face. She was worried about Daniel. She didn’t want her husband to come to any harm. That’s all she cared about. She didn’t know, and she didn’t need to know all the political ramifications of who fought with who against whom.

He touched her arm. “I’ll find him fer ye.”

Her head shot up. “Eh? How’ll ye do that?”

“I’ll find him and bring him back tae ye. He’s no far off.”

She bent over her work where she couldn’t see his face. “The McLeans’ll kill him. I ken they will.”

“Ye ha’e naught tae fear from the McLeans.”

She snorted and said nothing. Jamie turned his back to her. These women went on with their lives, no matter where they went. The endless job of tending their children, cooking food, cleaning laundry, and making beds never ended. Life waited for no man. It didn’t care if Jamie fought and died driving those giants off.

He had to find Jock. He had to find a few good men who could fight, and he couldn’t do that if Jock kept running off after the McLeans.

He spotted Ganny across the clearing and made his way toward her. She looked up from her mending and smiled at him. She would help him if anybody could.

He crossed half the clearing when a thunderous roar startled him a foot in the air. He spun around. A massive giant, bigger than any he’d seen so far, burst out of the mountainside. Where were these giants coming from?

The curse must be causing them to spring out of the land itself, the same way the vampires came out of the rocks and sea around Duart. That was the only explanation.

Women screamed. They snatched up their children and ran in all directions. They scattered into the trees. The giant pulled back his monstrous club and pounded down on the camp. Jamie jumped clear just in time.

The next instant, he reacted on pure instinct. He leapt into the air, and his wings thumped out of his back. In the blink of an eye, he rocketed above the trees spitting fire in the giant’s face. The minute he cleared the canopy, he saw giants popping out of the ground like mushrooms. They poked their heads up above the trees so fast he couldn’t count them.

He tried the same trick he used before. He zoomed between them, burning a golden streak of fire over the landscape. He didn’t care how many of them there were, and he didn’t care if he lost his life fighting them. He had to distract them from the village camp while the people made their escape. Nothing else mattered.

The giants didn’t react the same way to him, though. He barely broke the treetops when the first giant fixed his beady eyes on Jamie. He took aim with his club. With incredible accuracy, he batted the dragon out of the sky. He hauled back his weapon like a baseball bat, tracked the whizzing form through the sky, and made contact with Jamie’s side.

Jamie spun through space, tumbling over and over himself. His tail wrapped around his wings. His own momentum confused him so he couldn’t untangle the mess. He hurtled far away from the camp until he sailed to a stop somewhere above the distant mountains.

He flipped over. His tail unwound, and he got his wings spread when another giant planted his legs, wound up, and smacked him back the other way. The blow stunned Jamie. His head reeled, and he tasted blood in his mouth. He had to get himself together to turn the tables on these giants if he expected to walk away from this.

Another shattering impact shook him to his core. He went flying back the other way, and he wasn’t flying the way a dragon should fly. They were hitting him back and forth with their clubs. They never let him touch the ground. The instant he stopped moving, another one smashed him back the other way.

Was it the fourth or fifth time they hit him? He lost count. The next time one of them sent him catapulting far and away, he lost consciousness. He floated in a haze of pain, fear, and hopeless disappointment. So this was how an Urlu met his end. One of these times, they would crush his head. They would break his ribs, and those would tear his heart and lungs to pieces. He would bleed to death, and then this catastrophic pain would stop.

Another shivering blow rattled his teeth together. He no longer struggled to right himself. He couldn’t win this. He tried, but he ran out of time. No one would bring his brothers here to save him the way he’d saved Callum. It was all over.

The next time a giant hit him with its club, he didn’t even feel it. The whole scene happened somewhere beyond Jamie’s senses. He slipped into a blissful dream beyond awareness.

When he stopped flying this time, no club smashed him out of the sky. He swam up through the blackness to realize he wasn’t moving anymore. Was he dead? He blinked hard. He tried to move his legs and wings, but he couldn’t move anything but his head. He screwed his neck around.

He was moving over the ground somewhere high above the forest. He took another look, and he realized where he was. One of the giants held him in its fist while it walked toward Piper’s wing. It was heading straight for the villagers’ camp.

Jamie’s mind cleared. He had to stop these things killing everybody. He twisted back the other way and spat a burning jet of flame into the giant’s face. The creature bellowed to the Heavens. He roared in pain and surprise. Without thinking, he raised his fist and threw Jamie down onto the ground with all his force.

Jamie shattered branches falling through the canopy. They ripped and smashed his already broken body. He grunted in pain and slammed into a pile of jagged boulders scattered at the foot of the mountain. He somersaulted down them to the clearing.

He hit the ground hard. His head struck the rock, and he lost consciousness for a fraction of a second. When his vision cleared, he looked up at a clear blue sky. He barely had time to register the fact that he wasn’t a dragon anymore. The fall and his injuries must have shifted him back. He was nothing but a helpless man.

Into that empty space, the same giant tromped into view. The monster wiped its hand across its head, and its hair smoked. Other than that, Jamie’s fire didn’t touch it.

The giant narrowed its eyes down on him. It growled low in its chest. In front of Jamie’s eyes, it lifted one massive foot to smash him to powder. Jamie tried to move. His whole being screamed for him to get up, to get away before it was too late. His limbs wouldn’t obey him.

The giant’s foot blacked out the sky. Far away, a bird flitted past the giant’s head. The world would go on the way it always had after Jamie Cameron was long gone. He relaxed back on the cool soil. He couldn’t do anything. He gave up the fight.

The foot whistled through the air. It snapped a few trees out of the way coming down on top of him. All at once, something tightened around his shoulders. He whipped back out of the way in the nick of time. He slid across the ground, and the giant’s foot crashed into the ground a few inches from his feet.

The giant frowned down at him. Jamie didn’t have time to look around before the giant took another step. He raised his foot to crush Jamie again. Jamie tried to sit up. His foggy brain couldn’t comprehend what was going on.

The giant moved in. Its foot came down hard to destroy him. Out of nowhere, Grace jumped to Jamie’s side. She yanked his saber from its scabbard. Faster than Jamie could think, she dropped on one knee at his side and raised the saber above her head. The giant stepped down, and the saber impaled his foot to the hilt.

The giant let out a screech that shook the hills far and wide. It jumped away in a hurry. It screamed and ran in all directions. The other giants stopped whatever they were doing to stare at him.

He flailed his arms in all directions. He hopped on one foot. The sound of his screams worked a charm on his comrades. The other giants turned tail and bolted over the distant horizon. Only the one Grace stabbed in the foot remained.

He managed to stop his rampage long enough to pull the thorn out of his foot. He tossed the saber away and trained his ferocious gaze on the spot where Grace still knelt at Jamie’s side. He took hold of his club in both hands and made a bee line for the two helpless people on the ground.

Grace grabbed Jamie by the shirt. “Get up! Hurry!”

Jamie struggled to his feet, but he couldn’t move as fast as the giant. The monster took one huge step. He would have pulverized both of them in one blow, but at that moment, the wolves streaked past Jamie’s head. They launched themselves at the giant. In seconds, they attacked him in a black swarm. They tore into his legs and body. They climbed up to his head and clawed his face.

The giant turned his attention to the new threat. He waved his club in the air before he figured out how to combat the wolves. He grabbed a dark one off his neck and flung it full force into the mountainside. It slammed into the rocks and slumped into a motionless heap not far away from where Jamie sat.

The other wolves redoubled their efforts, but they couldn’t fight this thing. They could only slow the giant down. The giant kicked wolves off his legs and slapped them off his shoulders. He cleared all but two of them who clung to his head.

Jamie couldn’t watch anymore. He had to do something. He couldn’t move fast, but he didn’t really have to. He didn’t bother getting to his feet. He changed right there on the ground and took off into the air.

He gained an altitude level with the giant’s head. He let out a shriek of warning. A few of the wolves heard him and dropped away from the giant. Jamie didn’t hesitate. He shot his flame at the giant’s legs. He covered the giant’s clothes and chest in flame.

The giant bellowed. He went berserk thrashing against the flames. The two wolves perched on his head looked down. They couldn’t get away. Jamie waited until he knew for certain his fire engulfed the giant. The monster couldn’t put that out. It would consume him, and he wouldn’t bother anybody anymore.

Jamie bent his wings. He rocketed down on the giant’s head. He snatched up the two wolves in his claws and zipped away. The flames woofed around the giant’s shoulders. They fizzed through his hair. The giant shrieked and roared, but it couldn’t stop the fire burning it alive.

Jamie fluttered around for a moment until he felt one of the wolves wriggle. He set them down next to Grace and landed on his feet. The two wolves shifted. They were Clyde and Alec McLean. Jamie put out his hand to shake theirs when they heard a gasp.

The three men turned around to see Grace on her knees. A still figure lay spread-eagled on the ground. Black hair fell over a young man’s face, and his eyes stared up at the empty sky. “Oh, Christie!” she breathed. “No!”

Jamie stared down at the young man. From here, he could see Christie wasn’t breathing. Grace sank back on her heels. She covered her face with her hands, and her shoulders slumped.

Alec inched closer. He barely spoke above a whisper. “What’ll we tell Lachlan? We cinnae go home and tell him Christie’s dead. It’ll ruin him.”

Jamie raised his eyes to the mountain. Another death. Another man’s life forfeited, and for what? Why did it have to be Christie? Christie never hurt a flea. He was every inch the warrior his older brothers were, but his tender heart shone out of him for all the world to see.

Jamie’s heart died with Christie. If this cruel old world couldn’t leave a man like Christie alone, Jamie didn’t want to live in it anymore. He didn’t want to fight this fight if he couldn’t save a man like Christie. What was the point of fighting all your life, when the best and bravest went down like this?

In front of Jamie’s eyes, a flash of white appeared on the mountainside. Jamie realized he was looking straight up at Piper’s cave. The old man sat on a rock next to the cave opening, exactly where Jamie just spoke to him.

The white got bigger, and a tall, thin figure emerged from the cave’s dark mouth. A young woman walked out into the sunshine. Her long, dark hair hung in wavy layers around her angular face, and her dark eyes gazed out at nothing in particular.

She wore a white blouse with large pointed lapels, and a string of delicate pearls accented her throat. She wore straight black pants over her slender legs. Jamie stared up at her in wonder. She stepped straight out of his dreams. This was the woman he’d been looking for, the woman who could lift the curse. She had to be.