Chapter Twenty Seven
Scotland
The journey brought them full circle and each immortal had a different purpose for being there. Now it was time to explain fully the future that might soon happen.
The little car arrived at Blackcraig Castle in the early afternoon. An artist built the castle in 1856 but for the right price, some guests stayed overnight.
"Alright then let's check in." Duncan told them getting out and going around to help Beth out. His hand lingered on hers and he leaned down to kiss it.
Her face changed as if by magic and she smiled forgetting all the discomfort she was going through.
He smiled back and said, "After you ladies."
After they checked in and then shown to their adjoining rooms, Beth sat on the cushioned sofa.
Looking at Duncan, she asked him, "Do you want to begin?"
He replied, "I don't know where to start."
"Then I will," she said with a serenity she hardly felt, "I used to know a mutual friend of Duncan's and I traveled to Paris to look for him."
Together they related the whole story that Frank McFadden told them. When they stopped short leaving out certain facts, Grace wanted to know more.
She insisted in asking, "How is this baby growing so quickly, because you appear to be near the end of your third trimester."
Duncan explained, "Before we knew what was really happening with Elizabeth, I happened to have several combats and win. The quickening intensified the connection and made the fetus grow."
Beth added, "It was very painful."
He said to her tenderly, "I regretted the pain you went through."
Grace turned her eyes away feeling such envy. Her heart wanted that kind of love again. She went to the door and told them, "I'm going to get some rest."
Seeing her out into the hallway Duncan requested, "Will you have dinner with us?"
She nodded then asked him, "What happens after the baby is born?"
With heaviness on his spirit, Duncan quietly answered her, "She may die or Evan could die." He walked with her to her room next to theirs elaborating, "I don't know what this gathering may bring but I do know what is at stake. The pain of knowing I may lose Beth or this child is almost too much for me to bear."
Grace asked him, "How will you keep them alive?"
He just said, "I have a plan."
Later that night…
Screams shattered the stillness of the midnight hour.
"No, Stop!" she yelled.
Sitting up in bed, Beth cried out frantically, "I need to get out of here!"
Shaken from a sound sleep, Duncan got up quickly and turned on the lights to see Beth in a panic.
She pleaded, "I am not safe."
"It's alright, sweetheart," He assured her, "I sense no other immortals except Grace in the next room."
She got out of bed and went to the closet saying, "You don't understand," she insisted, "IT is still coming after me. I need to somehow defeat it."
She began pulling on her street clothes when Duncan tried to reason with her asking, "Where can you go?"
She stopped and looked at him with distress. Pointing to the window she told him, "It's out there and I must go to where I feel it leading me."
He went to the suitcase and took out his clothes. He told her, "Wait, I'm coming with you."
A moment later, a quiet knock sounded at their door they Grace asking, "Is everything alright?"
Duncan opened the door slightly and said, "It's time and I'm going with her."
Grace agreed as well, "I'm going too."
Soon all three immortals were outside and walking together bundled up against the cool night air.
Two immortals carried their swords and one immortal did not. They walked farther away from the castle grounds until the forest closed around them.
"This is it," she finally said, "The place that is special to me."
Duncan asked her, "What are you feeling?"
Beth answered, "I feel calm."
Guided by an inner force, she walked away from them and went towards a small clearing. The moon light fell around her and she began to hum a single tone.
As Duncan and Grace watched her, a wind started to blow and picked up all the fallen leaves. It began swirling around her until she was almost lost from sight.
Beth sank to her knees and hummed louder trying to quiet the voices that raged inside her mind.
Grace said, "We have to help her."
Duncan replied, "No, she had to do this alone."
The wind blew harder and she felt pulled up and pushed through a tunnel. Her mind traveled far away until she emerged into blue light with a red mist hovering nearby. Then the voices started again.
"It took a long time for you to come here."
Turning towards the voice, Beth saw the image of Horton materialize. He stared at her with glowing red eyes. Her chest began to tighten with fear.
"Breathe," she chanted quietly, "Breathe because he cannot hurt me."
He taunted, "You are so pathetic." Horton/Ahriman said, "You would not head my warnings."
He told her, "All the rage you have inside from the slaughter of your village. Can you feel it?"
Beth held her ground and said, "I am free from that grief."
Horton held up a hand to his ear and said, "I can still hear them."
As if sent back in time, the scene played out in front of her. The snow was deep and red with fresh blood. The black ashes were falling all around her. The smell of burning flesh invaded her nostrils and she heard very clearly, the screams and wails of despair. She saw people running away only to fall down and quickly beheaded.
Seeing it again, she held back tears. Horton shadowed her saying, "Your death will be agony."
She said softly, "I am not afraid."
His voice seduced her with a promise, "You can still live. I will give you back your old life. It will be as if this past six months never happened."
He held before her another scene that looked different. She was back in Paris and walking with Duncan MacLeod along the streets. They were laughing and talking about the spring festival.
She wanted that life so badly it tore at her heart. Watching it a moment longer she finally told him "You can never go back."
Incensed with fury he yelled, "What McFadden told you are only lies, there never was any previous champions."
She shook her head at him denying his statement, telling the Horton image, "You are the deceiver."
He shouted, "I can bring you life or death!"
Richie now shimmered into existence with real breath and flesh. His eyes shown soft brown and she remembered how his smile dimpled his cheek.
Tears came to her eyes and she went to hug him tightly saying, "Richie, how I've missed you." She breathed in his scent. It was really him.
He hugged her back whispering, "Please do this for me, you've got to give this baby up. Duncan killed me and now you're dying because of him."
She confided in him something the demon did not know. She whispered into his ear, "I wanted to tell you a secret that a part of your essence lives on. Because of the quickening, it passed through Duncan into me and now this child will be born of you, Richie." She held him tightly saying, "He will have your loyalty and your brave heart."
Realization showed on his face Richie hugged her tighter and said, "I believe you and I want Duncan to win." He stood back a moment touching her face with his hand.
Horton roared loudly, "No! You are damned."
Falling to his knees and crying in pain, Richie dissolved out of sight and Horton said in triumph, "The same thing will happen to you."
Beth held onto the truth she knew, touching her heart she countered, "All your power is nothing. Richie is beyond this place. He is here with me."
Horton said, "I control you and you will kill this child."
Through a maze of complex realties in her mind, she heard Duncan's voice, "Without your rage it has no substance. It has no power without your fear. Without your pride, it has no form. Without your hate, it has no being. Do not fight it, just become one with it," was the last thing she heard before the demon shrieks sought to overwhelm her.
Elizabeth Windsor put down her defenses and knelt down allowing the evilness to wash over her like muddy water. The entity began to fade until it appeared as neither Horton nor demon.
She breathed deeply saying, "I've become one with everything and one with nothing."
It rose up like a red mist and roared like an ocean, "The Gathering is here and I will divide them!"
She answered simply, "I will bring them together."
It shrank with impudence and tried again, "Your village all died while you lived!"
She countered with, "They are a part of me now and I accept that."
It flickered brightly and declared, "I am a part of you!"
Looking into its center, she replied truthfully, "You always were."
At once, the blood red mist turned blue and Beth spun around as if falling into a vortex. The noise rushed at her until she abruptly hit the ground.
When she appeared out of the wind, Duncan and Grace rushed forward and caught her up in their arms. She gasped in air breathing heavily until all went quiet and she could feel them holding her.
A presence appeared before them with light flowing around him. The immortal said to Beth, "You have done well my child."
The vision expanded to include Grace and Duncan MacLeod. The immortal presence conveyed this message.
"You have accomplished an enduring legacy as Champion. I must tell you this, to defeat Ahriman's legion in combat you will have to command the best and risk losing those close to you."
Grace asked him, "What are you?"
He answered, "I am Cyrus, a guardian for immortals here on earth."
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