Read Highland Magic for Free Online

you are still able to walk,”
Branwenn said with a sigh of relief.
    “Why are you still here? Have you no other
mortal to hound with your endless yammering?” His head ached so
badly now, his stomach was threatening to spew its bile.
    “Oh, and I suppose you would rather have no
one here to aid you should you swoon and fall to the ground again?” …you unthankful cur! , she finished in her head.
    The fey one had a point, but Callum would
rather eat a live toad than tell her so. “The door leading to the
tower is just ahead,” he said instead.
    They’d just come to it when, all at once,
Callum’s head began to reel and the cave walls began to billow in
front of him. Confused, he stumbled forward, hitting his head on
the frame and sliding to the ground. The taper fell with him,
coming loose from its base, and rolled several feet away. The flame
went out.
    “Callum!” Branwenn cried out in the sudden
darkness. Moving in the direction of her patient with her arms out
in front of her, she felt her way toward him. “You can not die yet, I won’t allow it!”
    Later, much later, Callum would recall this
moment—and the time previous—and question how the fey one could
possibly know his name, but for now, his befuddled mind could do
naught more than direct its thoughts to the problem at hand. He
managed to force his eyelids open and was met with complete
darkness. But he felt the now-familiar hands of the fey one as she
examined his head for new bumps. “I’ve no new wounds, but I fear my
head is spinning too much and my hand shakes too badly to unlock
the door.” Though his limbs were now lethargic, he managed, with
his good arm, to bring the leather thong that held the key out from
under his tunic and over his head. “Here, take this and I will tell
you the way to open the locks.”
    Branwenn nodded, tho’ he could not possibly
see the action, and felt for the key he held out to her. Grasping
it tightly in her fist, she stood and explored the door with her
other hand until she at last found the metal devices he’d spoken
of. They were cold to the touch, and shaped like—she took a moment
to become familiar with their contours—hearts? How strange. Now, to
find the keyholes. “These are unusual,” she said absently as she
slid her fingers lightly over the face of each lock. “It feels as
if they are all connected, but each also joined to its own
latch—and.... Are they interlocking hearts?”
    To fortify his waning strength, Callum took
in a deep breath before answering. “Aye, they are, and they require
a specific combination of turns of the key and slides of certain
brass plates in order to get them all open.” Luckily, even with his
fading mental acuity, he could still remember what that combination
was, for he’d practiced it many times with his mother after it had
been installed. She was the only other person who held a key to
this secret exit, as ‘twould be her means of escape during a siege,
should the need arise. There was a small, hand-sized door to the
left of the locks that only opened from the other side and which
used the same key. When open, ‘twas large enough to put one’s arm
through and unlock the door.
    Over the next quarter hour, Branwenn
diligently tried to follow Callum’s instructions, but because she
was doing so without benefit of light, the process took several
attempts before she at last found success. And, to her thinking,
with little time to spare—for their nerves were frayed to their
limits by this time and she could tell by Callum’s groggy voice
that whatever reserve of strength he’d been relying on thus far was
fading quickly.
    With a hard jerk of the handle, Branwenn
opened the arched oaken door and found the other barrier Callum had
told her of. Doing as he’d instructed, she felt for the recessed
stone and pressed. The barrier opened with little effort and she
peered into the chamber before her.
    Praise be, ‘twas lit by a torch that hung
from a sconce to