Read Enchantress Mine for Free Online

name and who would destroy Dagda in a twinkling in order to possess the exquisite child. Fren smiled, showing his blackened teeth. In time, he thought to himself. Everything came in time. He had but to be patient.

Chapter 2

    T hey sheltered that night on the edge of the forest where Fren loudly bewailed the lack of an inn or at least a peasant’s cottage, particularly as Dagda would not let him light a fire. Fren was obviously a man used to his creature comforts.
    “Light a fire,” said the Irish giant matter-of-factly, “and you will attract every outlaw and brigand in the area. They are desperate men, and they would as soon slit your throat for your boots as look at you. Are you so eager to die?”
    “Then how are we to eat?” demanded the slave merchant petulantly.
    Dagda chuckled. “How have you ever survived all these years, Fren, trekking the world as you do with your human merchandise?”
    “I do not make it a habit to travel in backwaters such as this, giant,” said Fren loftily. “I travel along civilized roads with inns and other respectable accommodations. I have my own people who see to these matters.”
    “Well,” said Dagda, “tonight I will see to these matters, and you will sleep upon the hard, cold ground wrapped in your cloak, and you can fill your fat belly with my uncivilized bread and cheese, and drink my poor wine, slaver; or you may go hungry while you stand there a fine target for whoever may be lurking in these woods.”
    With a nervous look about him Fren quickly plopped to the ground saying, “Where did you obtain bread and cheese, not to mention wine?”
    The Irishman smiled knowingly as he cut a wedge of bread from a loaf he had pulled from his pack, and then sliced a chunk of cheese. He handed both to the slave merchant without further explanation. Fren raised a bushy eyebrow, but then he shrugged, and devoured his cold supper. It had suddenly occurred to him that were Dagda not with them he would have found himself caught in a dangerous situation for he had not realized the distance betwen Landerneau and the coast. It had not occurred to him that he could not make the round trip in a day. He ate silently, watching as Dagda slivered delicate curls of cheese which he then placed upon pieces of the soft center of the bread before giving them to Mairin. The child ate with a good appetite. He had found in his years of dealing with humanity that children were usually much more resilient than adults. Only rarely did one pine so deeply that it died. This child, however, was a survivor.
    They rested. He and Dagda took turns keeping watch, and every noise in the black night set his nerves on edge. The child slept peacefully. Shortly after dawn they continued on to the seacoast village where they would meet up with Fren’s two assistants and their cargo. As they rode Mairin was again silent, but Fren saw that she noted everything about them even if she said nothing. She was obviously not stupid.
    It gave him personal pleasure, however, to see her eyes widen with just the slightest shock of fear when she first saw his string of prime slaves. He had some fifteen of them. Twelve men of all shapes and sizes, each one wearing a metal-studded leather slave collar, and bound together by a chain that was strung through an iron loop attached to the back of each collar. The three young women also wore collars, but they were bound together only upon the land, and then by the more humane method of a chain about their waists. Once they had set sail for England in the lumbering round boat the slave women were released. Women were considered manageable.
    Fren, his party, and their horses were housed upon the open deck of the ship which carried wine and salted fish in its hold. The vessel skirted the coast of Brittany and Normandy sailing through the Pass de la Deroute with Brittany behind them, Normandy to the right, and a group of islands on their left. Mairin watched the navigator with interest as they