Breth and Jaelle tried their best to comfort Tal, but his fear ruled him nonetheless. His mind knew they were right. He couldn't know what the plan was to get Galdus away from Deirdre, because everyone who had touched Deirdre while Galdus touched her was susceptible to Galdus’s magic. For certain, they knew Galdus could read their minds, so it really was best if Tal and Breth and Jaelle didn't know what the plan was, let alone Deirdre herself.

* * *

Deirdre rolled over and rested her huge pregnant belly on her other side, but she sure wished she could sleep on her back like she usually did. More still, she wished she could sleep in her bower, where the druids could tend to her and take the pain away. Sure, the various sorts of tea here in the kitchen helped somewhat, but the druids took all the pain away.

This was her third week straight staying up here on the fourth floor of the broch. Tal had smiled sadly at her when he brought in the pot for her to use to relieve herself. Things were restrained between her and her husband, and as usual, she knew she was being stupid, blaming him for something that was the fault of Galdus.

She looked up where the sword hung by a leather strap from a wooden peg driven between the stones of the inner of the two outer broch walls.

The runes etched into his blade gleamed in the moonlight as if they were meant to be viewed this way. He was so beautiful and so useful. She longed to be able to share her thoughts with him…

Tal startled awake next to her, looking around.

"What?” she asked him. “I didn’t hear anything, and I was awake."

He gently put a hand over her mouth to shush her.

She felt resentment swell inside her.

"I'm not a child, Tal. Explain what you’re thinking."

Apparently he didn't agree with her, because he did it again.

Really angry now, she tried to get up so she could storm out of the room.

But of course her belly prevented it. Land’s sake, Tal made her angry. Galdus had never treated her this way. She looked up at the sword again.

Not realizing she was doing so, she shared her thoughts with him deliberately, rather than let him pick them out of her brain as he chose. It was an old habit formed from 12 years of communing with him constantly.

"Why did you have to go and say you were taking me away?"

He glinted in the moonlight. Was it her imagination, or was he doing it deliberately, the way he swung the tiniest bit from side to side and caught the light?

"Why don't you answer me? This is aggravating! Is their plan of keeping you away from the woods working?"

Unsure whether it was her idea or Galdus’s, she got the urge to take the sword down from the peg and test his powers. You know, just see if the plan to drain them was working.

She was reaching for Galdus when her husband covered her with his body, keeping her down.

"Someone’s coming up the stairs," he whispered in her ear. "I don't recognize their footfalls."

She had been struggling, but now she relaxed in Tal’s arms. He was trying to protect her. What had she been thinking?

The baby kicked.

There was her answer. She was allowing a baby to do her thinking for her. She knew better than that.

She whispered back.

"Wouldn’t the guard stop him from coming inside the broch?"

"Aye, unless the guard was killed.”

Deirdre started struggling against him again.

"Let me get Galdus then. He can protect us."

Tal backed away from her just enough that she could see his face.

"I would, except I think this may be part of the secret plan to try and rid you of Galdus."

Deirdre thought about that.

"There's no way anyone's taking Galdus while we’re in here with him, though. Should we go up to Breth and Jaelle’s room?"

Galdus glinted again in the moonlight, catching her eye again against her will.

She stared at him a moment, casting her thoughts at him.

"If you’re trying to tell me something, then just tell me."

Her oldest friend remained silent.

Good thing, she told herself. She wanted rid of Galdus. She wanted to stay with Tal. Oh, why did pregnancy have to be so debilitating? She couldn't sleep the way she wanted to, and now her heart was ruling instead of her head, making her break her resolve to no longer share thoughts with the old druid.

Tal put a finger over his own mouth this time.

Grateful for his consideration, she nodded and was quiet while he sat still in the lacy shadows of the moonlight filtering through the broch stones, listening.

When at last Tal did speak, he relaxed a bit first and no longer whispered.

"They turned around. They're going back down the stairs. They've given up."