The Scot's Quest - Keira Montclair Page 0,34

have caused them. He ran into the great hall, expecting to see someone had fallen down the staircase or suffered some equally painful injury, but no one was there.

A lithe form flew down the staircase and then across the great hall. Dyna. He called out to her, but she ignored him, racing toward the tower.

He followed her up the twisting tower stairs, which ran around the edge of the tower in a circular fashion, and through the first door on the second floor. She paused in the doorway of a private chamber. Although he stayed behind her, he could see her sister flailing wildly on a bed close to the door, her screams wild. Their mother sat in a chair across from her, kneading her hands while Dyna reached for Claray and spoke to her in a soft voice. “There, there. I’ve killed them all. They’ll not bother you again.”

Connor came out from an attached chamber, wrapping his arms around Sela. “Another one so soon?”

“Aye,” Sela replied. “I have no idea why they are starting up again. Dyna, you must go back to sleep or you’ll get sick again. ’Tis why I didn’t want you sleeping in the tower. How could you hear her?”

“I felt her screams, Mama,” she said softly. “I didn’t need to hear them.” She started rocking her sister back and forth, singing softly. Her fingers ran through her sister’s dark red waves, a soothing ministration that clearly calmed her.

Something softened inside of him. If this wasn’t proof of a soft heart, he didn’t know what else could be. Perhaps he’d just found the answer to part of his quest. Alex Grant would probably have seen this situation many times. The fact that no one else had come up to the tower at such a torturous sound indicated this was a common occurrence.

“Can I help?” he whispered, afraid to break the spell she had cast over her sister.

Dyna shook her head and waved him back out the door. He left, though he wished to speak with her. He wished to know what had happened to make her sister scream so. Dyna had said she’d killed them all. Killed what?

Back in the great hall, he grabbed an ale from a side table and took a seat in front of the hearth, the dying embers still crackling out enough heat to warm him.

A few moments later, Dyna entered the hall, coming over to take the chair next to him.

“She is better?” he asked, offering her an ale.

Dyna refused the ale, let out a deep sigh, and leaned over to rest her elbows on her knees. “Aye.” He could hear a hitch at the edge of her voice, as if she were fighting tears. She stared at the floor as if embarrassed by her emotions.

“May I ask what caused it? What was she striking out at with her arms?”

Dyna sat back up, her battle with her emotions over, and said, “Spiders. She thinks she’s killing spiders. Thinks they’re attacking her.”

“What? Why?” It wasn’t until he asked that he remembered the conversation they’d had at MacLintock Castle. Els had said something about spiders, hadn’t he?

“My mother was forced to work for an evil group of men. One of the ones who controlled her was a twisted person named Hord. He liked to collect spiders, and if Mama didn’t follow their instructions, he would place her in a small chamber and unleash a bag of biting spiders.”

“Bloody hell. But Claray?”

“My mother did something this Hord didn’t like, and one day he sent Claray into the chamber with her. My sister was three. My mother still has nightmares about it occasionally. Claray seems to go in streaks. They’re back again. She fights the spiders in her mind.”

“So they were both bitten by this large horde of spiders?”

“Aye. I try verra hard not to imagine it, lest I succumb to the fear myself. My father, grandfather, and grandmother rescued them from those bastards. Hord came back to kidnap Mama, and my father killed him.”

“I’m sorry you all have to deal with such a thing.” He glanced over at her, still beautiful even though she’d been sick for days. The longing to touch her, to hold her stole over him, but he fought it. “How do you feel? Better? You were quite sick in the cave.”

“Aye, I’m not completely healed, but I feel much better. My thanks for getting me back here safely. I don’t recall the ride home at all.”

Derric snorted. “Because you slept