“What is that one about?”
“The battle of Flodden, a verra long time ago, and the men haena returned from the war.”
“A tragedy, we have to be dramatic for it, sing more.”
Magnus sang, “We'll hae nae mair liltin’ at the ewe-milkin’, the women and bairns are dowie and wae. Sighin’ and moaning, on ilka green loanin’, the Flowers of the forest are all wede away.”
“That’s beautiful.”
“Aye. But do yours once again, m’fair lassie, I have a need for the loud music of the time tae keep my mind off the comin’ storms.”
I picked up my phone to push play again. “That’s actually a great way to describe rock and roll.” And we sang.
Chapter 22
I pulled the Mustang down a dirt road that wasn’t marked. It had a decrepit mailbox and a broken-down rusted gate. The gate didn’t do anything but pretend to be a gate, sort of, just by looking like one. Magnus jumped out of the car, swung it open. I drove through, and he closed the gate across the road behind me.
The dirt road was super muddy because of the storms yesterday. I drove around the deeper puddles spraying mud behind the wheels, unsure if the Mustang would get stuck. Our car would need a really good washing when we got back. The tires slid a bit on a wet patch. “Come on come on come on.” I did not want to deal with a car stuck in mud while wearing all of these layers of woolen clothes. Plus it was growing dark out here on this dirt road in the woods near sunset.
We finally made it to the small grassy slope near the small dock at the edge of the freshwater spring. We parked our car to the side of the clearing under some trees.
I popped the trunk. Magnus strapped his scabbard and sword across his back and then we made a trip carrying our supplies. I had a leather backpack that looked antique. We had a couple of wool blankets. I had some protein shake mix in a ceramic jar with a cork lid and some protein bars wrapped in waxed cloth. We had a water filter. I had a small leather kit for medical emergencies, and it included a midwifery kit along with pages of directions and a small book called Emergency Childbirth. I had a bag of antibiotics and other medicines all wrapped in parchment paper and sealed with tape, plus the herbs and homeopathic remedies that Emma sent. I of course had my period stuff too, a menstrual cup and period panties. This time I was on top of the situation though: the PMS symptoms were mostly gone anyway. We also had a small stocked tool box.
“Well this is a fine load of stuff.” I stood appraising it in two small stacks. I joked, “If you can’t bring the eighteenth century into the modern age bring the modern age to the eighteenth century. The only thing we are missing is the cart and the horse.”
Magnus said, “I am missin’ the horse. We could go back for Sunny?”
“You don’t want to accidentally leave Sunny in the 1700s. Keep reminding yourself, ‘Sunny will be waiting for us when we get home.’
The corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “And when we get home, I will teach ye tae ride. We will get a partner for Sunny and name her Osna.”
“Remind me, what does that mean?”
“Tis the sound ye make when ye are happy in my arms.”
“I make a sound when I am happy?”
He grinned. “Aye, when I have bed ye well, ye sigh.”
“I do, I really do, I really like it when you get me there. And you have a deal. I’ll have a horse named Osna.” I checked through the pile. “The guns are still in their box in the trunk. Can you get them?”
Magnus returned up the grassy slope to the car. I checked the front buckle on my backpacks for the fifth time when suddenly from the dirt road came the sound of a car engine. “Crap.”
A silver Toyota pickup spun into the space and pulled onto the grass dividing me from the Mustang and Magnus. The truck’s headlights were shining at me so I was momentarily blinded. A dark figure stepped from the car. “Katie?”
I shielded my eyes. “Tyler? What are you—”
He slammed his truck door shut. Then opened the door and turned off his headlights. “Michael asked me to come check on his Uncle’s property, because of the bizarro storms — why are you here?”
“Um, because, um.” I gestured at Magnus. Tyler turned to see him. Magnus had his hand on the door of our car: frozen, calculating, watching. I waved my hand like it helped me to think. “We came to see the land too. I used to come here all the—” I had no idea what I was talking about. I was dressed like I was headed to a Ren Faire. I had a small pile of blankets and first aid supplies like I was headed on a Doctors Without Borders trip or something. Plus I was trespassing.
Tyler said, “The storms are really big and they’re happening at regular times.” He checked his watch. “About an hour from now…” He looked me up and down. “You really shouldn’t be fooling around out here. And have you guys seen or heard the horses?” He looked around the space. “I heard horses.”
Magnus’s hand moved to his sword hilt over his shoulder. “Horses?” He began walking our way.
And that’s when I heard them thundering through the underbrush. Horses. Men making that, “Haw!” sound. Right then, horses, ridden by soldiers, barged through the underbrush, over the bushes, through the dark trees, and down the slope. They descended on Magnus, trampling all around.
“Get behind me, Katie.” Tyler dragged me behind his truck.
He craned around the truck to see. “Who are they?”
“I don’t know.” They weren’t from the future, but they also didn’t look like they were from Magnus’s time period either. The horses had an armor on them and the men were in unfamiliar costumes, they were yelling like crazy without any familiar words. “How many are there?” I could hear the clanging and crashing of sword blades and I didn’t want to look.
“Three.”
I had to look. Magnus was fighting blade to blade against three.
“Shit shit shit, oh my god, they’ve surrounded—”
Tyler said, “I see it.” He opened his truck, dove across the seats, slammed open his glove compartment and pulled a gun.
I said, “Hurry, please hurry, they’re going to kill Magnus. Please help.”
He put his hand on my shoulder, keeping me down. “Hold on, I don’t have a clear shot and I can’t leave you—”
“Help him!”
I shoved his hand off and stood to look over the hood of the truck. Magnus’s sword arced down but a soldier behind him was swinging toward him. “Shoot them. Go run over there and shoot them. My husband is fighting for his life—”
I scrambled back up to see what was happening. One of the men dismounted. He prowled around Magnus in a circle. The two other men circled him up on their horses, their blades held high looking for an opening. And then, another man on horseback galloped from the woods.
“Oh my god, Tyler, do you see it? There’s more.”
He said, “Look, stay here, don’t move.” He crouched and ran around the front of the truck leaving me to myself.
My view was the dock. If I could get there. I could pull up the vessels and get us away. Tyler fired. I raced to the dock hunched over. Shitshitshitshitshit.
I dropped down on the dock, grasped the long chain hanging over the edge, and began tugging it up, hand over hand over hand from the water. It was heavy and long. The water was ice cold. Within a second my hands were ice-cold-freezing-rigid-painful. “Fuck.” One hand and another up and up. The chain dragged splashing and splattering. I took glances over my shoulder at Magnus — fighting for his life.
My eye caught as Magnus swung, misstepped, and stumbled forward. “Please, please, God, please let him live.
One of the soldiers jumped off his horse and charged me on the dock. Swinging his blade. Coming fast.
Tyler was a few steps behind, yelling wildly.
There was nothing I could do but cower in a ball. He would be on me in a sec—
Tyler fired, the man jerked, stumbled forward and collapsed on top of me. I shrieked and shoved him off.
<
br /> Tyler made it to me just as another man was running at us. Tyler said, “Get back man, Don’t come another step. I’ll kill you if you come closer.”
The chain felt even heavier as the safe box rose to the surface. I tugged and tugged and finally got a hand on the case’s handle and lugged it onto the dock.
Behind me Tyler fired. I turned to see the second soldier whip back, yell, clutch his stomach, and drop to the ground near our pile of gear.
Tyler stood over me, arms locked, pistol aimed. He fired toward the soldier Magnus was fighting and missed. “I can’t get a clear shot.”
Magnus’s blade sliced deep through the soldier’s arm. Blood gushed from the wound. The man dropped to his knees and then slumped to the ground. The last soldier charged Magnus, swinging. Magnus fought him in a circle, blow for blow, his sword swinging down and arcing up. He was growling and bellowing as they fought.
He had to be exhausted. I was exhausted watching it.
I dialed the number into the combination lock on the case. It took two tries before I got it open. Inside were the two vessels wrapped in waterproof bags. I opened one of the bags as Magnus took a blow that knocked him to the ground.
“He’s tired, he’s going to get killed.”
“I know, I need to get closer, stay right here, don’t move.”
“What’s going to happen to me? He’s the only one left.”
Tyler said, “We don’t know that.” He raced toward the truck to get a better shot as Magnus got back to his feet and swung his blade up knocking the man back.
Magnus swung at him again and again and again forcing him up the slope until finally Magnus arced his blade down bellowing and cut the soldier between the neck and the shoulder with a burst of blood. The man dropped lifeless to the side.
Magnus held his heavy sword tip to the ground, leaned forward, breathing heavy.
I watched from my place on the dock, on my knees, my skirts wet from the splashing. Tyler rushed back to stand guard over me. I was watching Magnus from around Tyler’s legs. How were we going to get rid of Tyler before we jumped? How were we going to explain all of this insane crazy bullshit violence and swordplay?
Magnus swung his sword over his shoulder and into its scabbard. He grabbed the reins of the horse closest to him and a strap on a dead soldier’s armor and pulled the horse and dragged the body down the slope toward us.
I jumped to my feet and rushed to the other horse and led it to our gear. Tyler followed me. I asked, “What are you doing?”
“Nothing, just—”
Magnus dumped a body on the pile. “Are ye okay, Kaitlyn?”
“I’m okay.”
Tyler said, “Was that it, all of them? Are you sure?”
Magnus shook his head. “I daena ken—”
“There are probably more.”
Magnus eyed him suspiciously. “Och, then we needs tae go fast.” He went to drag the last body down to our gear.
Suddenly from the woods more men on horseback, charging from the trees, bearing down on Magnus.
“Magnus! Run!”
Tyler pulled me behind him.
I turned away so he couldn’t see what I was doing and twisted the two halves of the vessel so it hummed to life.
Magnus was hurrying down the slope dragging a body behind.
“Hurry, Magnus, hurry!” My heart was racing.
Four horses were thundering behind him.
He yelled, “Say the numbers, Kaitlyn!”
He reached me, dropped the body onto our pile, and wrapped the reins of the horses around his arms. I said the numbers. He threw his arms around me as the soldiers roared down the slope.
I reached the end of the numbers as horse hooves were about to crash down on us and then I felt the ripping of my body as the vessel hurled me through time.
Chapter 23
The pain was so intense my body was tight frigid stiff while my mind writhed in agony.
Magnus’s voice close by, “Kaitlyn?” I peeled my eyes open. Frosty breath came from my mouth in puffs. Part of my rigidity and pain was shivering because of the ice forming on my skin. Magnus tucked a wool blanket around my face, tight. He pushed the ends of it under my hips and around my feet.
He pulled another blanket around his shoulders, sitting beside me, head bowed, icy air around his cheeks. I slid into unconsciousness again.
Chapter 24
I didn’t think the pain was gone, or if it was it had been replaced by a new pain. Freezing cold air pain. A chill that had entered my bones and was making it hard to think. Like frozen all through. Magnus’s voice came to me from a distance. “...who are ye?!!! What are ye doin’ here?” He sounded enraged.
I tried to peel open my eyes.
Tyler’s voice. “...I was checking on the property, man, what the fuck?”
Magnus and Tyler were arguing. I groaned, opened my eyes and tried to focus. Magnus was standing over Tyler, a wad of Tyler’s shirt in his hand. Red in the face, yelling. Scary yelling. “Tell me what ye are doin’! Are ye a brother? Dost ye plan tae kill me?”
“No — what? No.”
Magnus shook Tyler. “What dost ye want with Kaitlyn? Why are ye surroundin’ her?”
“I’m not, what?”
Magnus drew back his fist. “Tell me what ye want with her or I will kill ye where ye lay. Tis nae difference tae me, ye are a dead man now any way ye think on it.”
Tyler’s hands were up trying to protect his face. I groaned again and struggled to my feet. It was so freaking cold out here. I shuffled over to where Magnus was standing over Tyler. “Magnus? S-s-s-stop—” My voice was weak and shivery.
His eyes were so full of fury they didn’t see me.
“Stop.” I grabbed his sleeve on his fighting arm.
He shook my hand off. “What dost ye want with her? Explain it, now, or ye will lose your life because of it.”
Okay this was getting heated. Magnus was red-faced with the look he carried when he found the men who abducted me.
One word slammed into me — ‘bloodlust.’ I grabbed his arm and clung to it. “Stop!”
He swung my hands away.
Tyler said, “I saved your life, Katie — get this fucking barbarian off me.”
Magnus turned on him again, past the point of stopping, “What did ye call—”
I threw myself back onto Tyler, my body between him and Magnus’s fist and I begged, “Stop, please, Magnus. Stop.”
He dropped Tyler’s shirt with a shove to the ground, causing me to fall backward on top of him.
With his chest heaving and an expression of shock in his eyes, he shook his head and stepped backwards. He took another step backwards, watching me try to pick myself up off of Tyler.
I asked, “Tyler are you okay, also what are you doing here?”
He brushed himself off. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. Where even is here? Why does my whole body hurt? Why the fuck is it so cold and you need to tell your husband...” He glared at Magnus. “To never lay a hand on me again.”
“He won’t. Right, Magnus? He won’t.”
Magnus was glowering, his chest rising and falling in heaves. I pulled the blanket around my shoulders. “And to the other stuff, you’ve just time-traveled with us to the 18th century. Seriously. I don’t know the mechanics of it, but Magnus is from 1703.”
“Bullshit.”
“No, it’s not.” I shook my head. “It’s too cold out here to explain what I barely understand myself, but it’s the truth and you’ll know once you’re here for longer than ten minutes. For now, let me get you a blanket and Magnus and I will discuss getting you back home.” I limped, stiff from cold and fear, over to our pile.
There was a dead body on our blankets. I pushed its shoulder trying to move it but it was way heavier than it looked. Magnus came to my side and pushed the body off. I carried a blanket to Tyler. “Wrap in this, it will help.”
“There’s blood all over it. There are dead people. We might
catch some—”
“You know, there’s blood on all of them. We were lucky we weren’t killed. Wrap up in the freaking blanket.”
“Is it dark to you? Really dark?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it’s very dark.”
I returned to Magnus. He was standing staring at the ground, incapable of speaking, trying to pull himself back from the edge. I pulled a blanket around his shoulders. And looked up into his eyes. “Come back, Magnus.”
“I canna trust him.”
I pushed a lock of his hair back behind his ear. “But you can’t kill him. He’s here accidentally and we’re responsible for it. We have to get him back.”
“He called me a barbarian.” He glanced at Tyler and shook his head.
I smoothed down his chest. “I’ve used that against you before. I know—” I took a deep breath. “You aren’t. You can’t let him get to you.” Magnus was looking everywhere but at me — “Magnus.”
He looked into my eyes.
“I need you to get on top of it and listen to me—”
“What if he is here tae kill me? He could be a brother, or — he could be here tae take my throne, and I daena have a way tae stop—”
“He had many opportunities before, right? He didn’t. He’s just a know-it-all and a control-freak who’s bordering on a death wish. We have to get out of the cold, into the castle. We have to decide what to do about Tyler. Not killing him.”
Magnus scowled. Then nodded. “Will ye be careful around him? I daena what he is up tae but I think he is of a danger tae—”
I shook my head. “He’s not a danger to me, but I’ll be careful.”
“I was goin’ tae say a danger tae me.”
“Well that, my husband, is literally the same thing. If he’s a danger to one of us, it’s to both of us. I’ll be careful. You be careful. But we need to get ourselves out of the cold. And him out of the cold. He has a mother and a father back in 2018, he can’t disappear here, imagine what that would do to his family?”
Entangled With You Page 10