Return of the Danu Read online

  "It means you do not leave her side until these talks and agreements are cemented and the witch is returned to her people. "You nearly started a war with the mother of my future grandchildren. Now I am telling you as your father, and your king that you will keep the witch safe."

  "I have duties," he started grimly.

  "Reassigned," his father interrupted him just as grim. "The girl is your only concern until I say otherwise." His father slapped him on the shoulder and smiled. It was the smile Ansgar knew well. His father was not going to budge. He cursed in his head, fluently and with relish.

  His father marched away with a spring in his step that made Ansgar more than a little wary.

  What are you up to old man?

  ***

  Elena took a moment to study the guards at her back.

  The two warriors looked much like the others that they walked through to leave the mass of soldiers at the walls. These might have the height and coloring of the others but there was something cold and hard in their eyes that reminded her of their General. It made her wonder what they had seen to look so unapproachable.

  "This is it," the one on the right said, motioning to a house and making her focus away from her guards and the man they had left behind. She blinked at the sight of the home. Not because it was a pretty little house, because it was with its ivy strewn walls and blue shutters, but because the garden that surrounded it glowed with wild power. It might not be obvious to anyone not of Danu blood, but it was clear enough to those that could see, that if she had been paying the least amount of attention, she could have walked to the house blindfolded.

  The warrior on her left stepped up and held open the gate for her. It was attached to a waist high stone wall that surrounded the little house and barely contained the over abundant garden and blooming tree at its center. Elena took a deep breath and stepped into the garden. The moment she did she felt the weave of magic and sank into it with a welcome sigh. She did not see the warriors fall back and grab for their swords. Her eyes were closed, and her senses were tied up in the weave. She was not aware that she was glowing with power until she heard a gasp and a giggle.

  The giggle drew her eyes open and to the door of the little stone house with the blue shutters. A woman stood there, holding the shoulder of a young boy at her side. He was looking at her with wide happy eyes. The woman that had to be his mother, despite the difference in their coloring was looking past Elena with open concern. Elena smiled at the child and then turned to see what had the woman so worried.

  The two warriors stood well back from the gate, swords out and in front of them as if they were waiting for an attack. Then she noticed that the shadow of the great tree was eclipsed by a new light and raised her hands. Only then recognizing that her power had flared so that she glowed as if lit from within. Immediately she shut down her connection to the weave and nearly cried out at the pain returning to her shoulder. Unfortunately, she could not cut off all the power flowing to her so while her glow dimmed it did not disappear.

  The garden did not want to release her any more than she wanted to be released. The loop of power turned down to a trickle but remained constant. It would take some distance to make it let go completely. The weave here needed the touch of a Danu regularly to renew its power. She understood that and did not have the heart to deny either the weave or herself the connection. But it made what she was obvious to anyone with eyes to see. Anyone looking at her would have no doubt what she was, and the Southern soldiers needed no reminder that she was a magic user.

  "Sorry," she said looking at the warriors. "I was not prepared for a garden the queen of the Danu had pampered. I went deeper into the weave then I expected from a simple city garden."

  The soldiers looked less than impressed with her explanation, but they sheathed their swords at least.

  She heard the woman who could only be Amelia blow out a breath before she stepped out of the house with her son. "The healer arrived before you, so I was aware that you were coming, please come in." There was more than one question in the pretty golden-haired woman’s eyes, but she asked none of them, merely gave both warriors at her gate a searching look before she led Elena into her parlor.

  A woman stood at the far side beside a tea service and looked less than happy to be there. Elena could not blame her, since she had her own warrior standing at her back, making it clear that he was not so much there for her protection, but more to keep her where they wanted her to be. The woman had the light coloring of the Northern people. Like the Danu they had been conquered by the Southern armies. Unlike the Danu they had given up without a fight but that did not make them comfortable with their conquerors. From the look on the woman’s face she would like to be anywhere but called into service.

  Her eyes when they hit on Elena and the knife still sticking out of her shoulder went wide and frightened. It was not just the Southern warriors that she feared. Elena gave her a serene smile she hoped would put the lady at ease. Though lady was a loose term. The girl could not have been more than sixteen or seventeen. Barely a child and very young to have become a healer.

  "Be at peace, I am no danger to any in this house." While she could soothe any savage beast she came across, she had always wished the same would work on human beings, but that was a different gift than what she possessed. It did not surprise her that the healer only looked away uncomfortably.

  One of the warriors, and if she kept spending time with them, she was really going to have to get names, stepped forward and gave the healer a hard look. "You are the healer. She has a wound. Heal it."

  A man of few words, Elena thought, a smile almost slipping across her face. But the reaction of the woman he was talking to was not so funny. She was shaking her head and looking petrified. Elena thought it was the warriors she feared until the woman spoke.

  "I cannot touch her," she did not bother to look at Elena again but backed away into the corner as far as she could get from the Danu in the room. "Everyone knows their magic will call down the wrath of the Green on anyone who does."

  Call down the wrath of the Green? Really? Elena crossed her arms and tried to look non-threatening, even while the woman went on and made it more difficult not to react with scoff.

  "I am an apprentice healer," the girl went on hurriedly when more than one glare came down on her head. Her words had all the desperation of someone sure that she was fighting for her life. "I need to go out into the edge of the Green to collect the herbs for healing. If I do what you ask, I will surely be killed."

  The warrior who had spoken looked from her to the warrior beside her clearly feeling the same. "Is this the best you could find?"

  He shrugged, looking suddenly uncomfortable. "I went for the healer as ordered, when I explained what we wanted they at first tried to refuse. When I explained I was there on the Kings command this one was thrust at me. They assured me her training covered what we needed, and the door slammed behind her."

  Elena felt the tension spike in the room and knew that the warriors were going to insist the girl do what they wanted, and the girl was too scared to listen when she assured her that the big bad Green was not going to attack her for touching a Danu. Before the men could say anything to frighten the idiot girl further Elena reached up and pulled the knife out of her shoulder in one yank. It hurt like fire, and it bled as bad as she had known it would.

  While the warriors around her were still cursing, and before the blood could fall on and ruin Amelia's nice clean rug. Elena turned and walked back into the garden drawing the weave and its magic to her. The soldiers reached out to stop her, but she moved fast ducking the hands that would have grabbed her as if they were moving in slow motion. She was in the garden before they could even get close. She sank down among the profusion of Green growing things and welcomed the magic. She did not need to hear the curses to know that the warriors had been stopped at the rock path by a sudden wall of Greenery.

  If she had been in the wilds she would have been abso
rbed directly into the soil. But here in the city so far from the Green she had to be content with the flowers and vines that grew around her nearly to her shoulder. She closed her eyes and sank into the weave while the wound on her shoulder healed and her blood was absorbed as pure power, and then returned to her as energy used for her healing.

  She was not aware how much time had passed until someone took hold of the knife she still had clutched in her hands and she opened her eyes to find Ansgar the Bloody, cleaning it off on his leathers before returning it calmly to its sheath.

  She sucked in a surprised breath at having the large warrior suddenly there and so close that if she leaned forward she could have kissed him. Where that thought came from she had no idea, but she pushed it away immediately. She looked around to see that the wall of Green was still at her back between her and the garden path, and the warriors standing there. She turned back and realized the prince must have jumped over the stone wall to come at her from the other side. Strange that the garden had not risen to keep him away like it had for the others.

  He raised a brow at her. But he did not ask what her sudden confusion was about and for that she was grateful. Instead he looked above her head and dismissed the other guards with a flick of his chin. Before she could back up or give voice to an objection Ansgar the Bloody reached for her shoulder and ripped away what was left of the material over the wound. She sucked in a breath, but he spoke before she could. "You are healed?"

  Elena huffed all the breath she had collected and decided arguing about his right to rip her clothes was useless after the fact. The wound he could see for himself was closed with only a small scar to show that it had ever happened. "Enough that I no longer need a healer. Please have them send the poor girl back."

  He raised a brow in question. "The poor girl?"

  Elena sighed. "She is a scared child that has been told touching a Danu will bring down the wrath of the Green. She does not need to be punished because her people think she is expendable, and she fears me."

  His eyes narrowed. "So scared that she refused to do the job the king asked of her?"

  "I did not give her the chance to refuse orders, so it no longer matters. It is not fair that her people sent her when she is little more than a child. Send her home and leave her be." Elena raised her chin. "I am no longer in need."

  Ansgar growled his displeasure but he barked a name. "Thane?"

  A second later one of the warriors, the one who had brought the healer, appeared as if by magic. He bowed his head in a brief salute.

  "See that the healer is returned to her people."

  Elena let a breath of relief remove the tension on her shoulders, until he spoke again.

  "I will get your report on this incident later, and then I will decide how to deal with Haven and its healers that do not want to heal."

  Elena glared at him.

  He ignored her look, his eyes going over her glowing form as she sat cross legged in the garden, nearly covered with Green growing things. "You are comfortable in this place?"

  "As much as I can be out of the Green."

  "Then you would not mind staying here while we work out the agreement between our peoples?"

  Elena tilted her head and studied him. "That would be up to the Lady Amelia. This is her home."

  Ansgar smiled, showing a lot of teeth. "I do not think she will have a problem with guests."

  Elena narrowed her eyes again. "Guests? Who else will be staying?"

  "I will," he said mildly enough but there was a bite of anger in his eyes she could not miss. "Since I am to be your keeper until you return to your people."

  She licked her lips and tried for a diplomatic answer. "If it is acceptable, I can stay here for the few days it will take to make the arrangements and plans." She lifted her chin. "But I do not need or want a keeper."

  "You stay, I stay." Ansgar said.

  Elena gave him surprised eyes. "Do you think I will run away?"

  "No, but I have my orders. You have been decreed as the Danu ambassador, and I am your guard."

  She laughed, she could not help it. And then realized he was not joking.

  "You are serious?" She knew she sounded as shocked as she was because he raised an arrogant eyebrow before he answered.

  "My father has decreed it to be so." He did not sound any happier about that then she was, but it was ridiculous. Ansgar the Bloody would not have been anyone’s first choice for diplomatic negotiations. He spoke with quiet menace, making it more than obvious that arguing would gain her nothing, and that it was not by his will but the kings that he was doing this.

  Elena wondered if that she should be worried that the man who would have killed her brother and started a war between their people, a man who hated magic users with a fiery passion that everyone was aware of, was now her babysitter.

  Chapter Three

  Elena was still distracted by her thoughts when they rejoined the others in the parlor and Amelia brought them tea. She smiled at the woman and took the proffered cup, ignoring Ansgar as much as it was possible to ignore a giant looming warrior who glared down at her. "Thank you. I think I need to apologize for just showing up here the way we did. I hope the warriors at least asked you before they barged in and appropriated your parlor."

  Amelia glanced tentatively at Ansgar and then turned back slightly paler to smile at Elena. "You are a friend of Katrine's?"

  Elena smiled. "She is my queen."

  That made Amelia blink. "So, the rumors are true, she is Queen of the Danu?"

  A sudden pounding of small feet across the stone floors precipitated the arrival of the small child she had seen in the garden. Looking at him closer there was no mistaking that even with his dark hair and olive toned skin was clearly Amelia’s child. It made Elena wonder what had happened to the Southern warriors who had been her husband. There was no mistaking the marriage cuff the woman wore on her wrist. Elena had seen one nearly identical on Katrine’s arm.

  "Kat is Queen? Of the Danu?" He asked seeming more awed by that than the towering warrior prince that glared down at them.

  Elena sensed something else from the boy and tipped her head distracted from her musings. "Do you have a friend in your pocket?"

  Amelia narrowed her eyes at her son, forgetting for the moment the rest of her scary guests. "Jaak?" It was a definite mother tone and immediately Elena realized her mistake. She had not wanted to get the boy in trouble. He looked up at his mother and then sighed and pulled out the small grey mouse he had in his pocket. There was a small screech from the healer who had not yet been escorted away. The girl was doing her best to fade into the walls. It made Elena want to roll her eyes at such a display over a small mouse.

  Amelia just looked appalled. "Oh, Jaak. What were you thinking?"

  "He has a hurt paw. The cat had a hold of him and I saved him, but if I let him go like you asked, he won't be fast enough to get away the next time. And Peli has an evil cat and brags that he eats all the mice."

  Before Amelia could say anything else, Elena held out her hand. "May I touch him?" her eyes on the injured mouse. She could feel the creatures’ pain but waited until the boy gave her a dubious look and then tentatively presented his mouse to her cupped protectively in his grubby palm. The poor thing was barely moving, and Elena had no doubt that the boy was right. If he freed the creature it would indeed be cat food. She placed her palm over the mouse in his and called the power of the weave she shared with the creature.

  "It is the nature of things that cats will eat mice. It does not make cats bad, but in this instance, I think we can at least give your friend a fighting chance." Her cupped hand lit up with a gold shimmer right before the mouse suddenly perked right up and ran from Jaak’s hand up Elena’s arm to hide under the hair covering her shoulder. Elena laughed at the ticklish feel of whiskers on the skin of her neck even as Amelia jumped back with a gasp at the mouse's sudden movement.

  Elena paid no attention to her audience. She sent soothing waves
of power at the mouse and then gave it silent directions in her head. The mouse tickled her one more time and then scampered down her body, the couch and then across the floor, causing the healer to screech loudly and jump up on one of Amelia's chairs. Jaak watched it run with glowing eyes.

  He turned back to Elena. "You healed him," he said in awe. "I didn't know Danu could do that."

  "Nor," Ansgar the Bloody said. His voice hard and suspicious. "Did I."

  She did not have to see his face to know that he was not happy about what he had just seen.

  He took hold of her arm and was hauling her bodily out of the house in a clear rage that left no doubt to how much he did not like what he had just seen. Elena wondered just how foolish it had been to heal the mouse, but honestly, she had not done anything close to what she was capable of, so she was a little surprised he was taking it so badly.

  As soon as they were away from the others, he hauled her around and glared down at her. "Since when do the Danu have abilities outside the Green?"

  Elena told herself to go careful. She gave Ansgar her serene eyes. "I was connected to the Green through Katrine's garden and it was not such a big thing to heal a small mouse."

  "You spoke to it," he growled, and she finally understood what he was really worried about. "Can Danu speak to the animals?"

  Elena did her best to keep her new tension off her face. "The Danu," she said carefully. "Have many and varied gifts in the Green and to some extent we can affect the natural world around us, which includes the animals in the weave, but if you are asking if I just had a conversation with a mouse?" She gave him big eyes, her voice trailing off. "Well, I'm not sure what to say to that."

  Ansgar growled low in his throat, and Elena gave him pitying eyes. "You might need to get a grip on this paranoia you have going against magic users if you plan to deal with us for the foreseeable future."