The Gifts of Artis MacKai - Excerpt

“A' Ghaoth Anoir,” she whispered, the ancient name for the terrible east wind. 

Mist gathered around the ship. 

“Harr.” Fionn murmured and pointed at the deep white fog advancing on the wind. 

Legends told by the sailors who taught Artis sailcraft described the fates of those who’d found themselves surrounded by the thick, chilly fog and never come home. Everything from Selkies to Banshees and worse were blamed for the disappearance of those who vanished in the mists. 

The current continued to spin their vessel with dizzying speed. 

The now relentless wind made a sharp whistling noise as it tore at the sail Fionn struggled to keep furled. 

“An Fheadag,” Fear increased the tremors cold sent through Artis’ body as she named the second of the two most fearsome winds striking at the same time? 

How is this possible? 

The temperature plummeted. 

She half expected snow. 

Instead, rime formed where sea spay clung to the birlinn. Her clothing turned white from the freezing mist. Across the ship she could scarce see Fionn’s pale face. 

“What’s happening?” his call came hollow, weak and distant against the ploverlike whistling. 

Artis opened her mouth to answer, but the ship suddenly shot forward sending her backward where her head impacted the gunwale. Pain lanced through her brain, and she lay still, praying she suffered no permanent injury. She prayed even harder that Fionn had not been knocked overboard. 

The spinning current had been overcome by an easterly drift more powerful than any Artis had experienced. 

The little birlinn fairly flew atop the waves at a speed that doubled if not tripled the small vessel’s normal sailing rate. 

How long the ship traveled and how far was impossible to know. The Harr kept pace with the vessel, obscuring everything from sight. It blocked the sun and any other light source. 

Without access to sun, moon, and stars, Artis could not tell where or when they were. 

She must find Fionn, be certain he suffered no hurt. She grasped the gunwales on either side of her and began struggling to her feet when the wood beneath her rose. Some great wave lifted the birlinn. The ship would be tossed when the wave broke, but where? To another wave? To a shore? To dash against a rocky coast? Would she die and never see Fionn’s face again? 

Hero Bio:  Sir Fionnlagh MacKai was a man without a heritage. Raised in a cruelly abusive environment, he escaped his miserable life. So desperate was he, that he faced a blizzard rather than continue being beaten and kicked without reason. That blizzard would have killed him had he not found a young girl and a gravid mare stranded in the snow. That girl became his best friend. Her family became his. That friendship grew into a love he could not deny despite the knowledge he lacked a heritage worthy of her. 

Heroin Bio:  Lady Artis MacKai had the gift of knowing. She knew rather than foresaw possible future events. At the age of eight she knew she must brave one of the highland’s worst blizzards to fulfill make sure of a gift promised by her murdered mother. The girl braved freezing cold, snow and wind to find the promised foal. She knew she would not perish, though no one else would ever believe her. She did not know she would meet a boy whose mere presence helped keep her alive. Nor did she know until many years later that she would sacrifice everything for love of him.