“It does?” she asked in genuine surprise. “What does it explain?”
“It explains how you washed up on Lewis in the first place,” he replied with a knowing nod. “Obviously you must have been on a ship coming across the Atlantic. You must have gotten caught in a storm and wrecked, and you washed up here. That explains why you lost your memory.”
Ree sank back in her seat. She’d dodged that bullet but knew there were still others coming at her.
Major Kirk put his papers aside and stood up. “Now, Miss Hamilton, I have someone here who wishes to see you.”
He walked around her and opened his office door.
Ree turned around as Cora Gunn entered the room.
Chapter 13
A half-day’s sail after dropping Ree off at Aberdeen brought the Prometheus to the Orkney Islands. Ned raised his spyglass and scanned the islands dotting the horizon.
Gilias spoke up at his side. “Are ye sure about this?”
“I’m sure,” he replied, his focus still on the islands. “Take us in and anchor off the Isle of Flotta. I’ll go ashore and find someone to repair the ship.”
“I dinnae like it,” Gilias muttered with a shake of his head. “Orkney is the Gunns’ stronghold. The place will be crawling with them.”
Ned turned to face him. “That’s exactly why they winnae be expecting us to come here,” he replied with a wry grin. “We can get the ship repaired and head back to Aberdeen to collect Ree.”
Gilias scowled and gave his head a rueful shake. “Ye have yer head entirely too full of Ree these days. I dinnae like it at all.”
Ned titled back his head and laughed. “We’ve known each other all our lives. Have ye ever seen me take the slightest notice of a human woman before? No, ye havenae. She can help us in our search. She kens something about alchemy and potions and all that. I wouldnae keep her around if she didnae.”
“Are ye sure about that?” Gilias countered. “Are ye sure ye wouldnae keep her around for her pretty face and handsome figure?”
Ned roared with laughter. “Listen to the man! Handsome figure! Is that why ye pinched her from Lewis? If I didnae ken ye better, I’d say ye were jealous.”
He walked away before Gilias had a chance to answer. The subject of Ree still touched a nerve with him. He wasn’t completely sure she could help him with the Cipher’s Kiss, and he didn’t care. He wanted her for himself—nothing more. If she never accomplished anything else, he would still want her.
He climbed up to the poop deck and watched the Orkney Islands slip past as the Prometheus nosed between them and angled into a tiny bay barely big enough to hold her. The crew dropped anchor, and Ned gave orders to lower the skiff.
“Stay on board,” he told Gilias. “If I’m no’ back in an hour, head for the open sea and dinnae come back. Understand?”
“At least take a few lads with ye,” Gilias replied. “It’s foolhardy to go into enemy territory alone. Ye should ken that yerself.”
“All right. I’ll take Duncan.”
Gilias humphed. “Ye might as well go alone.”
Ned laughed. He couldn’t let Gilias infect him with this crippling doubt. He’d chosen his course—now he would stick with it. He hopped down into the boat, and Duncan joined him. Taking up the oars, the boy rowed them over to the island.
They hauled out the skiff and Ned started up the beach. Duncan hurried to catch up with him. “Gilias says this is Gunn territory.”
“He’s right,” Ned replied. “Be prepared to fight for yer life to get back to the boat.”
Duncan fell silent, glancing all around with his hand on his saber hilt.
Ned didn’t look right or left. If the Gunns got wind they were here, they would attack in force. He and Duncan wouldn’t stand a chance, so there was no sense fretting about it beforehand. In the meantime, he had a job to do. He led the way up the beach, toward the highest point he could find where sand met soil, which wasn’t very high, and then pointed toward the east. “Over there. Come on,” he said.
He hurried along the coast, past rolling farms and fields, and after a furlong, crossed a large block of farm land until he came to a rambling collection of houses. He knocked on the door of the first one he came to. Duncan hung back, pretending to guard Ned’s back.
A thick-set man wearing only a kilt answered the door, his eyes flying open when he came face-to-face with Ned. His dirty sandy-blond hair stuck out from his head, and dirt caked the lines of his muscular hands. His eyes glared out from under heavy brows, and his beard covered half his chest.
Ned smiled. “How are ye, Norris?”
The man cast a hasty glance over his shoulder, into the house, then ducked outside and pulled the door closed behind him. “Are ye mad, coming here? Do ye ken what they’ll do if they find ye?”
Ned crossed his arms over his chest. “Me ship’s damaged,” he replied with a sigh. “I need ye to fix it in a hurry.”
“I could get drawn and quartered for helping ye,” Norris snapped in a hot whisper. “Ye ken that, do ye no’?”
Ned rolled his eyes. “Aye,” he said in a labored tone. “That’s why I’m willing to hold ye at gunpoint while ye work. Then ye can tell everyone I forced ye against yer will.”
Norris stroked his beard. “I suppose I could go along with that. Where is she?”
“Out in the channel,” Ned answered, nodding his head to the side. “Her hull’s breached, and we patched it up as best we could. Can ye do it?”
“Ye’ll have to haul her out,” Norris said with a rueful grin.
“Where?”
“The only place is down the other side of the island.”
Ned shook his head and huffed. “It’s too exposed. Too many people could see us. It has to be here. Can ye do it?”
“The question is can you do it,” Norris returned. “Ye haul her out onto the beach. When ye’ve got her out high and dry, ye come and get me and I’ll take a look. I make no promises. Understand?”
“Aye. Good enough.” Ned nodded his thanks, foregoing a handshake that neighbors might see.
Norris went back into his house and Ned headed back the way he’d come with Duncan trotting at his side.
“Who was that, Sir?” Duncan asked.
“Norris Gunn,” Ned replied.
“Why would he help us?” Duncan replied. “He might just report us to the rest of the Gunns.”
“Not all the Gunns are our enemies, lad,” Ned told him. “Ye must learn that. Appearances can be deceiving. That man will save all our lives and more into the bargain, even if his name is Gunn.”
Duncan fell mercifully silent on the way back to the ship. Within an hour, forty men worked on the beach building skids of wood and anchoring a windlass to a thick tree. By last light, they hauled the ship ashore as water poured from her sodden planks.
Ned sent Duncan to fetch Norris who came down to the beach and started bellowing orders to everyone. If all went well, the Prometheus would be underway again in no time.
In the meantime, Ned turned his attention to the island on which he found himself. He’d never planned to get this close to the Gunns’ territory. Now that he was here, he couldn’t squander the opportunity. He strolled inland. The Isle of Flotta wasn’t more than one big farm. Norris was probably the only person here who had ever laid eyes on anyone by the name of Lewis. These people certainly never went hunting the Gunns’ immortal enemies. Most of Clan Gunn had never seen or come into contact with the Angui. They knew only the legends about the immortals’ harsh treatment and treacherous retaliation.
Ned crossed the island. Across a narrow channel, the Isle of Hoy basked in the sunshine. The small town of Lyness faced Flotta. That’s where Ned would find what he was looking for. He just had to find a way to get over there. As he thought the matter over, a fisherman pulled up on the beach in front of him.
Ned hailed the man. “Would ye mind rowing me over to Lyness? I’ll make it worth yer while.”
Half an hour later
, he strolled the streets of the town. Now what should he do? While he’d been relatively safe on Flotta, the instant someone recognized him here, he was a dead man. If the Gunns were going to recognize him anywhere, it would be here in Lyness. Kilts and sabers swished all around him. Here, in the heart of the Gunns’ territory, the Falisa ran academies to train hunters to track down their immortal prey. These men knew how to fight, and they wouldn’t give up until they killed him. The Gunns’ best and brightest came from Lyness.
That sword cut both ways, though. As strong as the Gunns might be in this town, they would keep their most closely guarded secrets here too. If Ned hoped to glean any valuable information, either about the Cipher’s Kiss or the Gunns’ activities, he would learn it here.
Even if Ned died, Gilias would take the repaired Prometheus away. All the men on board would be saved. What was one life worth compared to stealing some invaluable information from under his enemies’ noses?
He strolled down the streets, gazing into every window until he found what he was looking for. He went inside the dusty old bookshop and the doorbells jangled when he entered, but no one looked up. A few men flipped the pages of books. The shopkeeper peered at Ned over his wire-rimmed spectacles. Ned nodded to the man and started perusing the shelves. He had no idea what he was looking for but felt certain in his heart he would recognize it when he saw it.
As he’d expected, the shop contained a wide variety of subjects, including several loosely connected with the Falisa’s endless quest to wipe out the immortals. Books on history, metallurgy, necromancy, and geography lined the shelves. He searched until he came to a section on alchemy. As he studied the spines of the books, his heart beat faster. If only Ree was here, she could help him figure out where to locate information on the Cipher’s Kiss.
She wasn’t here, though, so he just had to do the best he could. He pulled out a book entitled, The Glorious Golden Road, and thumbed the pages. The book listed dozens of recipes for every kind of homemade concoction. Part of the book included medicinal tinctures and remedies for hundreds of ailments. Another section enumerated spells of different kinds.
Ned studied the spells. Maybe the time-travel spell was in here too. Then he came to the last section of the book and read the heading, Advanced Practices. His blood screamed in his veins. He couldn’t just walk in off the street and find the mysterious elixir in a common bookshop. That would be asking too much.
His eye skipped down the list of recipes. There it was. For the Purpose of Prolonging Life. It wasn’t exactly what he was looking for, but it came close. He turned over the page and started reading.
To be combined with the Elixir of Longevity found in the Compendium of the Order.
Take two parts of the mixture below and infuse with the Elixir, and four parts—
“May I help you with something?” said a sharp, fluty voice.
Ned looked up to find the bookseller studying him.
The mousy little man gave him a quizzical smile, but his little eyes sparkled.
Ned snapped the book shut. “Not at all. Old books are something of a curiosity of mine. I seek out all the old bookshops wherever I go. I’m hopeless when it comes to buying up anything out of the common. Ye should see me study back at home.”
The bookseller gave a twittering laugh. “Well, that one there is out of the common, if anything is. What do you make of the potion for Prolonging Life?”
“I think it would make the right man a great fortune if it really worked,” Ned replied.
The bookseller cocked his head and blinked. His spectacles magnified his eyes until they appeared ten times their normal size. “Ye’re no’ from the Isles, are ye?”
“No, I’m not.” Ned pushed past him to the front of the shop. “How much for this one?”
“Where are ye from?” the bookseller asked. “I dinnae recognize yer tartan.”
Ned looked away. He couldn’t get into this conversation with anybody on this island, or he was finished. He made a show of digging some money out of his sporran while keeping a good hold on the book.
The bookseller made no move toward his desk to log the sale of the book. “We dinnae get many visitors from the mainland. I make a point of finding out all about the visitors that we do get. Ye might call it a curiosity of mine. I collect them the way ye collect old books, if ye ken what I mean.”
Ned kenned what he meant, all right. Sweat broke out on his neck. He couldn’t rush out too fast. He had to answer the man’s questions before everyone in the shop took notice of the fact that he wouldn’t divulge where he came from and what Clan he belonged to. He couldn’t count on these people being ignorant, either. Whatever story he came up with, it had to be plausible. These Gunns were educated if they were nothing else. He thought fast and named the Clan as far away from Orkney as he could think of.
“I’m a Kennedy of Ballantrae.”
The bookseller looked him up and down. “But ye’re no’ wearing Kennedy colors.”
“No, I’m not,” Ned replied. “Me own plaid was damaged in a pig hunt yesterday morning. A Frenchman I ken loaned me this one. It’s a fake, you see—not meant to belong to any Clan. He bought it in Paris so he could wear a kilt in the Highlands and blend in without attracting any notice, if ye ken what I mean.” He shot the bookseller a wolfish grin.
The man jumped back in shock.
Ned looked around the shop. Every other customer in the place was watching and listening to their conversation. A few returned to their books while some kept watching, a look of distaste on their faces.
The bookseller wilted. “Aye. I see. Very well. It’s ten pence for the book.”
Ned dropped the coins on the desk, and just to show he hadn’t been at all concerned about the conversation, he took another tour around the shop. He pulled a few more books down and studied the pages before he left with a hearty “Cheerio” to all and sundry.
He hurried down the street to the beach, worrying the encounter had been too close for comfort. When he got to the beach, he found he had a whole new problem. The fisherman who had rowed him over was nowhere in sight. He had no way to get off the island and back to Flotta. He scrambled onto a hill and looked around for any way to get across the channel. Evening was coming on, so all the boatmen had long since gone home to their own fires. The wind off the ocean chilled Ned through.
While he stood there thinking, he spied a bunch of figures rushing out of town toward him. His heart sank. They were after him. Even if he found a way across, he couldn’t lead them to Flotta. He had to lead them away from the ship and his men.
He dove down the hill and bolted for the beach, then ran parallel to the water’s edge in search of any place to hide. Shouting voices echoed over the hill behind him. Those men knew this island better than he did. They would find him. Then there would be one less Angui left in the world.
No! He couldn’t let that happen. He had to get this book back to his men, even if he himself didn’t live to see the Cipher’s Kiss created and put into action. This book might be the first piece of the puzzle that brought his people back from the brink of destruction.
That thought meant more to him than his own life. He put on speed and rounded a headland where the smooth shore rose to hills. The beach ended not far away. Rock jutted out into the ocean, and tidal pools pocked the rough surface.
Ned ran out onto the rocks and scrambled around the headland. The Gunns pursuing him fell out of sight. He had a few seconds to hide himself if he could only find a place.
The rock ended in a sheer cliff rising straight out of the water. Ned attacked the cliff with both arms and legs, doing his utmost to scale the wall. Once he got out on top, he would be able to see the countryside better.
He got halfway up when the voices sounded louder. They would race around that headland in a moment and see him plastered to the wall. They would surround him and put an end to him. He would probably fall into the water, and the secret of the Cipher’s Kiss would go down with him. His
people would never find it. They would never defeat the Falisa.
He put out his hand for another hold, and his arm disappeared into a cleft in the wall. He hauled himself up and stared inside. There was a narrow crack in the cliff face that plunged deep into the wall. It was barely big enough for a man’s body, but it was the best he would get at short notice.
He gave one mighty heave with his arms and dove inside, wedging himself as deep into the fissure as he could until only a thin slit of daylight showed beyond his reach.
The surf crashed outside. Birds sliced through the air and cried down at the men on the ground. Ned heard them running all over the place down there, but they hadn’t seen him. How many of them had ever climbed that cliff? They would never find the crack unless they looked right into it. No one would ever know it was there.
By the time their voices died away, the sky outside had turned from blue to pale green. Faint pinks and magenta tinged the sky, and a pale crescent moon sailed across the opening. Ned’s heart spasmed when he thought about that moon.
Gilias and Duncan and the others would look up at that moon while Norris worked to repair the Prometheus and would wonder where Ned went. They would fear the worst, and Gilias would start making plans to leave Orkney without him. That’s the way life went on the high seas. Gilias knew his duty, and Ned could rely on him to do it.
The stars came out, but Ned stayed where he was and let the surf lull him to sleep.
Chapter 14
Ree sat down on the bed in the room Major Kirk assigned to her. “How did you find me?”
“We didnae find ye,” Cora replied. “We reported ye missing to the authorities. We didnae expect ye to turn up in Aberdeen, of all places. That may be why the Major didnae find ye until after the ship sailed.”
Ree looked down at her hands in her lap. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. I’m very grateful.”
“Dinnae thank me, lassie,” Cora replied. “We’re only glad ye’re found at last. We feared the worst, and when Malcolm found ye on that ship, he said the most terrible things. It appears he questioned yer story. He suspected ye made the whole thing up, but I told him that cannae be. I believed in ye, lass. I kenned ye’d never take those ruffians’ part in any battle.”
Pirates of the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 1): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 11