little boy looked from his father to Helen, confused and clearly about to object — but Niall was gone before he could say anything. Clearly confused — and a little frustrated — he flopped down next to Helen, a scowl already brewing on his face. She bit her lip, worried. If he was already this grumpy, they may not even have one good day ahead of them before the inevitable tantrum.
“How about we go up to the roof?” she suggested. “We can see if we can see the Monster from up there…”
“We won’t,” he said, sullen. “She’s hiding. She’s hurt.”
Helen sighed. This was going to be a long day.
And a long day it was. Eamon was restless and distracted all day, clearly waiting for any opportunity to go outside. Helen was desperate to entertain him, but even the courtyard wasn’t enough — he wanted to go riding again, to visit Darter, to go into the forest, to walk along the beach… all wonderful places, true, but all places that a Kelpie might be hunting. And though it was still daylight, Helen was loath to go against Niall’s wishes. Who knew how bold the Kelpies might be growing, with the Monster out of action? They were intelligent — had they already realized that their main predator was out of action, nursing her wounds at the bottom of the Loch? Had the word spread amongst them that the humans they’d been hunting were less protected now?
Helen felt more exhausted at dinner than she ever had… and it seemed that she wasn’t alone in that. There was a worried energy in the air — the servants seemed less chatty and more withdrawn, the guards were standing around in solemn clumps discussing their patrols in low voices, and even the scholars and herbalists seemed less energetic than usual… and given their book bound tendencies, that was really saying something. Niall came to sit with them, looking tousled and exhausted, his hands roughened by what seemed to have been a long day of work.
“Three of the docks are badly damaged,” he explained, his voice rough from shouting commands all day. “It’ll be a few days until they’re repaired — not to mention the damage to three fishing vessels. The fishermen are trying to help out, but they’ve got work to do, fish to catch, families to support. It’s not a good situation, Helen.” He rubbed his head with his hands, looking utterly dejected. “I’m trying to look on the bright side, but…”
“Sometimes there’s not much of a bright side to look on,” Helen sighed, putting her arm around him and resting her head on his shoulder.
At least they had each other for comfort. She fell into bed again with him that night, and they stayed up late together, finding comfort in each other’s arms, in the wordless physical distraction of lovemaking. And afterwards, she crept back to her own room, feeling odd about staying too long with Niall. What if Eamon saw that they were sharing a room? With the boy already so close to a tantrum at all times, she didn’t want to tempt fate by drawing an unwelcome comparison to his lost mother. Niall seemed to understand, but there was a shadow on his face as she crept out of the room, and it took her a long time to fall asleep in her own bed.
She’d hoped things would be better in the morning. But it seemed the opposite was the case. Because she’d barely been awake for an hour when the awful news reached her.
“More attacks,” Niall said simply. And the look on his face made her lower her eyes in grief.
Chapter 48
It seemed the Kelpies, just as Maggie predicted, had been emboldened by the loss of their main opposition in the waters of the Loch. With the Monster gone, sightings of the creatures had tripled. She learned that at breakfast from a worried conversation between two guards, one of whom said he’d narrowly avoiding being attacked by a Kelpie stalking him in the darkness. And not only were they growing bolder — they were beginning to stray outside of the confines of their previous nocturnal behavior. Several of the guards reported that Kelpies had been spotted hunting well after sunrise, when usually the gray light that preceded dawn was enough to scatter the creatures completely. One had even made an attack on a guard with the sun well over the horizon, its black eyes flashing red and its sharp teeth glinting