“This is it,” she said in an even tone, using Daar’s cane to point at the stream. “This is where I found the nugget.”
“Where?” he asked, scanning the rippling water with the beam of his flashlight.
“Just up there.” Sadie pointed at where she could hear the water churning over a sharp drop of ledge. “There’s a tiny bowl that forms an eddy just below that ledge. And the bottom of the pool is littered with nuggets.”
She led him to the small eddy. Sadie turned so that Eric wouldn’t see her reach into her pocket and palmed a handful of the nuggets, hiding them in her fist as she made her way to the edge of the small pool over the falls.
“There!” she yelled over the noise of the rippling cascade, throwing the nuggets into the churning water. “Shine your light there, at the eddy.”
As she had hoped, Eric took one last cautious look around and tucked his gun into his belt. He scrambled over the strewn boulders to the edge of the eddy and shone his flashlight into the pool of water.
Faint bits of gold sparkled back at him.
Sadie took a small step away from him, into the blackness of the forest, but stopped when Eric turned his flashlight on her.
“Get down here,” he said. “Hold the light for me.”
Taking a look around, Sadie sighed and climbed down to Eric. Where in hell was Morgan? She may have foolishly gotten herself into this mess, but he was supposed to get her out of it.
She crouched beside Eric. The moment he tried to hand her the flashlight, Sadie took Daar’s cane and smacked him over the back, putting all the force of her anger behind the blow. She heard Eric splashing in the pool as he tried to get back to his feet in the water.
He shouted for her to stop, but she continued to run until gunfire erupted and tree bark exploded beside her. Sadie stopped and slowly turned around. Eric was standing in the pool, water dripping from his hair and clothes, the beam of his flashlight glinting off the barrel of his gun. He cocked the hammer to fire again, and aimed the weapon at her chest.
“Wait,” she said, “I lied. This is nothing,” she added, waving at the nuggets in the water.
“There’s more gold upstream than you could carry in a lifetime. But it’s hidden. I can show you were it is.”
Eric was silent for several seconds, then suddenly he waved the gun. “Then let’s go. But if you run again, Quill,” he added in a snarl as he stepped out of the pool, “I won’t miss next time.”
Chapter Twenty-two
Sadie led the way toward the magical pool,where she hoped Father Daar and his Gaelic words would make the cane do something magical to save them.
Where was Morgan? And Callum and the others? Why wasn’t this mountain teeming with warriors, dammit?
Sadie saw the glow of the grotto ahead and breathed a sigh of relief.
“What’s that light?” Eric asked from behind her.
“It must be coming daybreak.”
“We’re on the west side of the mountain,” he countered, moving up beside her and peering through the tall trees. “The sun won’t reach here for hours.”
“It’s a very high waterfall. Hear it, Eric? It sends up a mist that the sun’s rays must be touching. It’s filtering the light down.”
Sadie led him through the trees until they reached the edge of the large, shimmering pool. She inconspicuously searched for Father Daar, but the priest was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly, she spotted him on the far side of the pool, just to the left of the waterfall. He was frantically tugging on the branch of a cherrywood tree. Sadie immediately led Eric to the right side of the pool and spoke loudly, trying to warn Father Daar of their presence.
“Wait until you see it, Eric. The entire floor of the cave is covered in gold nuggets.”
She saw Father Daar shoot upright and whirl to face them. And then the old priest ducked behind the tree he’d been tugging on. He quietly pulled on a back branch instead.
“Where is it, Quill?” Eric asked, stopping and staring up at the towering cliffs surrounding them. “Where’s the gold?”
“It’s there, hidden by the falls,” she said, using the cane to point to the far end of the pool. “Just walk behind it.”
He nudged her forward with his gun. “You go first.”
“I can’t,” she said, leaning heavily on the cane. “Just let me rest here for a minute.”
She started to sit down, but Eric grabbed her arm and pulled her along after him. There was a loud snap from Daar’s direction, and Sadie watched in horror as the branch he’d been tugging on broke free and fell on top of him.
“Who the hell is that?” Eric hissed, turning his gun toward the priest.
Sadie rapped Eric’s hand with her cane, but he didn’t drop the gun, instead whirling to pull her off balance. At the same time, an angry roar came from the lower end of the pool. Sadie saw Morgan standing with his sword in his hand at the entrance to the grotto.
And Faol was standing just in front of Morgan, his hackles raised and his teeth bared.
Blood slowly oozed from where Eric’s bullet had grazed his chest, but the wound didn’t keep Faol from growling at Eric.
With his arm now firmly around her neck, Eric started backing away, pulling her deeper into the pool. “I’ll kill her, MacKeage!” he shouted, touching the barrel of his gun to her head. “Slowly walk over to your right, to the cliff wall.”
“Tàs as,”Morgan hissed at Faol, using his knee to push him to the right. In unison, Morgan and the wolf moved toward the cliff.
“Remember the magic, girl!” Father Daar shouted.
Having forgotten about the priest, Eric whirled in his direction, spinning Sadie with him.
Father Daar pointed a finger at her. “Use it!”
Sadie was violently turned around again at the sound of a growl, and a gunshot rang out beside her head. Sadie screamed when she saw Morgan, running toward her with his sword raised, fold in half and fall to the ground. Faol lunged from the edge of the pool, and Eric stepped back and fired again.
Sadie slammed her cane into Eric’s ribs. “No!” she screamed, striking him again, struggling to get free and reach Morgan.
Faol knocked them both off balance enough that Sadie was able to push Eric away and scramble to the edge of the pool. She reached Morgan just as another gunshot sounded, the bullet ricocheting off the ground beside them. Morgan rolled in a blur of movement, pulling Sadie with him as he grabbed the cane out of her hand.
He rose to his knees with his back to her, one hand grasping the cane, the other hand covered in blood pressed against his side. He held the cane over his head, pointed it at Eric, and shouted something in Gaelic.
Lightning suddenly cracked with blinding brilliance through the air, charging the mist with a rainbow of colors. The ground beneath them began to tremble. The cliffs began to groan and rumble. Large chunks of granite broke from the towering walls and fell into the water with thunderous splashes.
Eric’s gun fired several more times. Light swirled through the grotto, and Sadie could no longer see Eric as he became surrounded by black whorls clawing at him through the mist.
Sadie screamed, not understanding what was happening.
Morgan continued to shout, the cane in his hand sparking with blinding energy. The mountain groaned louder, violently shaking as if trying to shrug off the chaos. Huge blocks of granite fell around them. Uprooted trees came crashing down, vibrating the earth with deadly shivers.
Black fingers chilled with the stench of death swirled past her, the howl of their rage making Sadie’s ears hurt. She saw Eric clearly for one blinding moment, running to where she had told him the gold was, as the fingers reached him, clawing menacingly.
She could hear his screams.
And her own. She could hear the mountain growling as it crashed around them. Morgan turned and pushed her, telling her to run.