Highland Dream (Book 1)

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Aislinn was back in the twilight world, yet again it was a time she could not control. She knew she was ill. Had been feeling progressively worse since she managed to stop choking. She knew Camdyn had left her alone on the bed, which was the last thing she remembered before waking up in the mist of time.

Something was wrong, it had never been like this before. Even last time when she could not control it there was still a certain sense to the movement. But here snippets of death and life flew past her in a blur of colour and pain. It felt as if she was being spun in a butter churn, the feeling nauseating. She was unsure whether this was due to her feeling ill in the real world, or whether it was the dizzying movement around her. She thought it might be both.

She saw brutal battles, wounded and dying. Could help none of them. She did not have time for any recognition of the place, time or people. For when she focused upon one scene it change suddenly into something else just as quickly. Unable to keep her feet in these conditions, Aislinn sat head between her knees unsure as to what was happening, and how to stop this. Never had she been this out of control.

That’s when she thought she heard it. Camdyn’s voice. She brought her head up, no she definitely heard it that time. He was frantic. “Aislinn! Please Aislinn!” The desperation she heard in his voice almost broke her, but what could she do, she did not if it was his voice from the real world coming through to her. Or if it was a future to come that was mixed up in the nauseating mess that encircled her. She could get nothing from these visions.

Camdyn was frantic. He could feel Aislinn slipping away. They were all sure it was poison now, no illness they knew came on this quickly with these symptoms. Only they did not know what poison, or how she had taken it, or why someone would target her. No one else at the meal had been affected. Corey’s mother had been called for, she was the one to treat the last poisoning case successfully. But they were not this close to death at that point. Camdyn was losing hope.

They had waited too long. Why had he not noticed her becoming paler at dinner? After the choking she seemed to get her colour…the choking. He gave her his goblet. His goblet that he had not taken anything from after it had been refilled. “Aislinn. Aislinn please.” He needed her to wake up, to apologise, this was meant to be him, not her. It was his fault she was here in his place now. If he had tried another way to clear her throat. She had to survive, he had sworn to protect her. He promised her that no matter the outcome she was going to hunt down the perpetrator.

Nessia came charging through the door, Corey close on her heals. Camdyn saw red. This man was not to touch her his ‘feelings’ screamed at him. Standing abruptly, he was mostly ignored by those present, thinking he was moving to clear the way for Nessia. Hamish, stood silently against the wall by the door was the only one to guess Cam’s intentions, and he was not going to interfere. As Nessia knelt beside Aislinn, hand on her forehead and listening to he laboured breathing, Cam shocked everyone watching and grabbed Corey by the throat. Dragging the whelp out into the corridor no one protested the move, but questions would certainly be asked later.

Hamish quietly went to stand in the doorway, blocking the view of those within the room and stopping Corey from trying to walk back through. “You are not to go anywhere near her. I did not see you at the evening meal. You have been trying to catch her when I have not been around. And most importantly you have knowledge of poisons. You do not touch her, you do not talk to her. In fact, if I see you in the same room as her, I will kill you.” Pushing him away with the hand still around his throat, Corey hit the wall on the opposite side of the corridor.

“Cam, it wasn’t me. Why would I do that to her now? When I could have done this to her from the start or on the journey here. It would have been less public and more effective with the lack of healers.”

Cam rounded on him. “Because you know, as well as it do. That the poison was not in Aislinn’s cup it was in mine. If she had not started choking she never would have used that mead at all. It would be me in there in her place.” Walking until he was inches away, he made an oath. “I swear this right now, if I can prove this was you, you will die in the most painful way I can think of. Understood.” At the audible gulp and quick nod Cam left Corey where he stood slumped against the wall and re-entered the room. Moving past a silent Hamish, to head straight back to the woman that lay so still and silent upon the bed.

Hamish turned with his back to Corey, showing he was dismissed, but did not leave his position from inside the doorway. No one got in or out now without his permission. He watched and prayed for the vibrant young woman, he had grown to care for as a sister, over the space of a short afternoon. He also knew that if she did not make it, then Cam would be irrevocable changed, and it would definitely not be for the better.

As Cam neared the bed, it seemed a decision had been made. Isla looked to him as he neared, and he knew whatever this was he would not like it. Taking hold if his hand and pulling him closer to the bed, she whispered to him, “Cam, both me and Nessia agree. If we do nothing she will die. But it may be too late already for what we have devised.” She tried to gage how he would take that before continuing.

“Isla, I refuse to give up on her. You will not start now. It is not a possibility that she will die. She can only survive. She came here for a reason. She will live to fulfil what fate has shown her.”

Nodding at him, Isla could not let herself have the same thinking. The beautiful, clever, spirited girl so lifeless on the bed was probably lost to them already. She had to try though, she could not let goodness die without a fight at least, and Cam would never survive this. She had heard what he said to Corey about it being his goblet, everyone had. They all knew they were looking for a possible attempt on the life of the heir and acting Laird. But that charge may also include the murder of an innocent.

“Cam you must choose quickly, but think seriously first. If we try what we have planned it may make her last moments on this planet extremely painful and unnecessary. You could choose to let her go. Or try and give her final moments over to pain with only the slightest chance of her surviving and then she may not fully recover.” They were the hardest words she had ever had to say. Aislinn had already worked herself into the hardened heart of an old woman. She saw this girl as more of a granddaughter than Vika herself.

“What will you have to do?” A pause. “It does not matter, you have to try.” The statement was pure order, there was no other choice, but Isla wanted to be sure. “Cam, we will mix a solution out of charcoal. This will absorb the poison left in her stomach. We will then use a feather to make her bring this solution back up again. It will not be pleasant to watch.”

Cam looked at the girl on the bed. He realised, as he did when he found her, just how small and fragile she was. He forgot that when she was awake, the strength she showed when she verbally sparred with him, or joked with his men. She was stronger than she looked, she would fight, and these people were only seeing what was in front of them physically when she was in fact so much more. “Do it. Now. What do you need?”

With that everyone in the room was ordered about in a flurry of motion. Cam felt useless, but Isla told him the only job he could do, and do well, was to keep her anchored to this world through touch. Where ever she was right now, she would be able to feel him and hear him, and hopefully fight on if she knew he had not given up on her either. He sat behind her on the bed and pulled her body against his chest. Holding her in position for them to begin.

Aislinn felt like she was drowning, liquid filled her throat. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t move. The dizzying movement around her grew faster and faster, turning the world around her into a blur of colour. She felt Camdyn at her back and didn’t feel so alone anymore. Unsure as to what that meant, the confusion was over powered by the need to breathe.