Aini embraced her father and Senga too. “I wish you weren’t here and that you were safe far away, but I’m also so happy to see you both. Now, did you hear anything more about the king?”
Senga shook her head. “It seems you have the same information we do. What we didn’t know is that Nathair is on his way here?”
Lewis grimaced and ran a hand over the place his ring finger used to be. Anger twisted Aini’s features. Bran was very, very glad she was on his side.
Thane filled them in on retrieving the stone necklace and Lady Darnwell’s arrival.
Owen stood on a chair—must be a family trait, Bran supposed—and opened his arms wide to address the gathered rebels. “I am sorry for my tardy arrival. I applaud you for all you’ve accomplished thus far. You are gaining advantages left and right,” he gestured to the necklace Aini wore, “and we are fully prepared to meet with our less than ideal allies. Tomorrow we battle the king for our country, for our people, for our freedom. For centuries, our land has thirsted for this moment and we will not fail her.”
The cheers that rose up shook the ground almost as much as Thane’s Coronation Stone. Hope rushed over Bran and washed away his fear if only for a second. He would help Thane stand up to that ogre of a father. This time, he’d be right there next to Senga and Thane. And Viola too. He refused to allow that man another moment of hurting the ones he loved most.
He blinked, realizing what he’d just thought about Viola. The willowy sixth-senser was talking to Aini about enlisting ghosts and strategy, her fair face animated and her lips moving a mile a minute.
A laugh popped out of his mouth. He loved Viola, God help him. She was a stranger, but he loved her and there was no use denying it.
She glanced at him and his heart stuttered. “What is it, Bran?”
Closing the space between them, he cupped her face with his chilly hands. “May I kiss you?”
Shock painted her features, but she smiled. “I would love that, if our Seer doesn’t mind.”
Aini pushed them closer gently, then slipped away.
Bran pressed his lips to Viola’s and he was flying, floating, on a cloud, a star—all of that romantic nonsense suddenly wasn’t so daft. This is what people meant when they used those wild phrases and silly terms. With every sweep of her mouth on his, every touch of her fingers at the back of his neck, he was undone and soaring.
Myles’s clapping slowly brought Bran back to earth. “This has been such a fine day, folks. Too bad those two-faced, donkey—”
“Myles.” Thane glared, then nodded toward Senga and Aini. “Please.”
“Oh yes. Thane Campbell, the gentleman with the dark past, has returned and thou shalt not be coarse around the women of his heart.” Myles put a hand to the side of his mouth. “He doesn’t realize they love all my creative comments.” He cleared his throat and took on the nasal tone of a noble. “What I was trying to say was: too bad those less-than-lovely gentlemen are here to ruin the mood.” He pointed to the cave entrance.
Nathair and his gray-garbed corbies stood in the dying sunlight, arguing with a mess of rebel guards.
Bran’s hands fell away from Viola. She grabbed them and curled her fingers around his. “I’m glad we settled this, then,” he said to Viola. “I’ll be back for more of you, if you like, after I speak to these two-faced donkey arses.”
“I was not going to say arse,” Myles corrected.
Neve smacked the back of Myles’s head.
Viola squeezed Bran’s hands once, then released him. Bran followed his Heir and Seer to the mouth of the cave. It was time to befriend his demons so his friends could beat the Devil.
Chapter 17
The World Burns Bright
Thane felt like a faded version of himself as he walked into the light to meet Nathair and Jack and all their hired hands. At least he had the power of his friends. Aini’s glare might end up melting someone’s face clean off so there was that. Vera, Owen, and Dodie looked to have grown a foot since their reunion—a family unit, strong and ready again. Bran was steady as the tides, urging Thane to keep on. They would have to talk about Viola very soon. When they weren’t busy trying to overthrow every government in their paths. Myles and Neve walked hand-in-hand, faces stoic, not a trace of fear showing.
Aini nudged Thane. “I’m going to rattle them up a little, okay?” She eyed Nathair.
“What? Uh, sure?” What was she planning?
“Also,” she whispered, “when this is all through, we will pick up where we left off in Nathair’s office.” She grinned, cheeks red.
Thane hadn’t thought it possible to be roused in the middle of an extremely stressful situation, but Aini proved him wrong over and over again. “Aye, that we will.” He gave a look that he hoped told her how much he cared for her and looked forward to that moment, then he pushed those lovely thoughts to the back of his mind and focused on the task at hand.
The two factions of the rebel force lined up across from one another.
No one spoke.
Nathair wore that smirk Thane knew Aini hated. Thane just thought of it as Nathair’s face. His hate ran so deeply, he couldn’t properly process Nathair’s expressions. Jack looked bored. Thane truly wanted to punch him. A lot.
Myles eyed Thane, then Nathair. “So are we going to play Red Rover, Red Rover here or are we planning a king’s death? I’m up for either one, really.”
Neve had gone a bit pale. “Did you know the origins of that game—sometimes called Octopus Tag or British Bulldogs—is unknown. There is a Norwegian word that sounds like Rover which means robber and that an argument with that country may have—”
Nathair cleared his throat loudly and stepped forward. “It gives me great pleasure to see us all here like this. No guns. No fanfare. Just Scots and a few Brits joined together to fight injustice and raise my son, the Heir, to Scotland’s long forgotten throne.”
“And colonials!” Myles waved.
Thane knew he should’ve wanted Myles and Neve to keep quiet for their own well-bring, but he couldn’t want that. It was wonderful listening to their dafty humor and misplaced historical tidbits. For a while, with Nathair twisting him up and Jackie beating him down, Thane had thought he might never hear their voices again.
Aini might’ve felt the same, but she erred on the side of caution and gave Myles and Neve a decidedly Aini-style, schoolmaster look that clearly said Shut it, darlings.
Nathair walked toward Myles and extended his hand. Myles shook it, but when Nathair rotated a fraction, Myles wiped his hand on his trousers.
“He is right to bring up the colonials,” Nathair said. “It is my belief that this man’s mother—a powerful woman in the colonies—sold her cotton plantation and joined with a number of other wealthy colonials who would benefit from the fall of King John in Scotland. She sent a vast sum to us, and we used the monies to buy off more of John’s men, to purchase rocket launchers from a quiet source not far from our coast, and to fully stock Edinburgh for a siege if it should come to that. Our local farmers and those beyond this regions have been fully paid for their produce and meat. The colonial support is a huge factor in our strategy, as is the quiet support of the French.”
All the joking had left Myles’s face. He looked like he’d tasted something bitter and was rubbing his stomach. Nathair’s news had pure given him the boak.
“Myles’s mother gave up her foul business there?” Thane knew it would matter to Myles if she’d stopped running her plantation with hired men and women who were treated little better than slaves.
“Aye,” Nathair said. “It’s to become part of a conglomerate with minimum wage held up since it’s now a public company.”
It was surprising Nathair took the time to explain that. Thane took the offered olive branch of peace. “Good. Myles should have a request granted since his existence offered so much aid to the cause.”
Myles blinked. “Me? Uh. Okay.”
Nathair whispered in Jack’s ear, but they
didn’t interrupt Myles.
“I, uh, I request…” Myles rubbed his hands and he looked a little green. “…that our Heir and Seer are never again separated from one another or from a Dionadair leader such as Vera or Owen.”
Thane smiled. A fine demand.
Nathair’s jaw tensed. Jack’s men weren’t holding guns, but they definitely had them stowed within reach, tucked into their waistbands under those coats of theirs. Nathair could give the order to kill them all with one word. Of course, the rebels here had guns too and the whole thing would end up as a mess of death if a gunfight broke out, so hopefully Nathair would keep a tight hold on the reins of his temper.
Thane’s pulse rate increased like he’d eaten a speed caramel. The muscles in his arms and legs twitched with the need to fight. Aini traded a heavy look with him. She looked at the purple of the sunset, then at an empty space beside Jack.
“Now,” she whispered, so, so quietly.
A tiny grin tugged at one side of her gorgeous lips as Nathair’s hair blew back. Jack startled as a wind rose. Nathair lunged back, and Jack’s hand went to the gun Thane had guessed was hiding there.
“No guns, now, Jackie,” Thane hissed, coming up at his right.
Owen nodded at some of the Dionadair and Thane heard the click of guns readied.
“What was that?” Nathair eyed the air around him, lips pale.
Thane didn’t think he wasn’t talking about guns. Aini had done something with her sixth sense.
Jack crossed himself and spit on the ground. “Ghosts. That was a mess of ghosts.”
Viola wiggled her eyebrows at Aini, who winked. Bran covered a laugh with a cough.
“Fine.” Nathair dusted his jacket off like the spirits had left some of themselves on him. “Fine. We agree to the colonial’s request.”
Thane thought of something though. If he and Aini and a Dionadair leader were in the same place at the end of the battle—win or lose—Nathair could easily take them all out. If they weren’t looking or were injured or distracted. “I have an addendum to this request. It is non-negotiable.”
“Oh aye?” Some of Nathair’s old swagger returned.
Aini touched the Coronation Stone necklace at her throat and put a hand on Thane’s shoulder. Good girl.
“I mean,” Nathair sputtered, “of course. As you will it, my Heir.”
Thane fought an eye roll. “You and Jack both will be at our sides too. The entire time. If you wander off, your lives are forfeit.”
That would keep them from bombing the stars out of wherever Thane, Aini, and the Dionadair leaders were fighting if Nathair decided it was in his best interest to off them. Surely the curse would keep Thane and Aini safe, but it hadn’t behaved like they’d originally believed, so this was insurance.
A shout came from the forest that led to Edinburgh. “They’re here. The king’s nearly here!”
Thane dragged Aini to him on instinct. She gripped his jacket and whispered a prayer.
A Dionadair scout Thane had met at the safe house in Greenock ran up to Vera and Owen. “I saw a line of military vehicles north of Berwick and trailed them, tracking and checking their pace. I tried to tune my radio to their signal. I managed to hear them talk of a quick attack on Edinburgh to squash the rebellion before the French hit the coast to the south.”
“Nice work, man.” Owen gripped the scout’s shoulder.
Jack and Nathair traded words and two of their men hurried away.
Nathair raised his head. “It seems we have no more time for talk except for those details that are immediately necessary. I need your plans so we can tie ours into them and do the best we can with what we have.”
Inside the cave, Aini went over the strategy. Jack added comments and suggestions along the way, and with Owen and Vera’s final polish, Thane felt as good as a person could about rising up against one of the most powerful men in the world.
Vera slid around the gathering and pulled Thane into a relatively private spot between two carved-out rooms. “Our other scout reported back too. Do you know who takes over if we shove John into the dirt where he belongs?”
“His daughter?”
“Aye. And she met with our scout.”
“What? You can’t keep this kind of thing to yourself.”
“I didn’t think the wee thing would even get an audience. He posed as a tech genius ready to bring the royal company into the next age. I thought it was a daft thing to try, honestly. But it worked so here I am telling you now, my Heir.”
Thane gave her a look, knowing there was a hint of attitude hiding inside her words. Vera respected Thane and Aini as Heir and Seer, but she also knew them as friends and human beings who were fallible. It probably wasn’t a bad thing that she worked around them from time to time. But this was Vera. Her plans went from a bit risky to downright bananas in a blink.
“So what did this dafty, secret agent find out?” Thane glanced at General Aini over there, pointing and making lists to her heart’s content. The candlelight gleamed over her dark hair and in her wide eyes. No one spoke over her. None would dare. She was magnificent.
Vera snapped at Thane’s nose. “Over here, lover. Focus. Now, John’s heir—Elizabeth—said she wants nothing to do with war. She signed a pact with our agent.”
“No.” That would be amazing news.
Vera unrolled a tiny sheet of fine paper. The calligraphy showed a peace agreement between Elizabeth, Heir to the British Empire, and Aini MacGregor and Thane Campbell, MacBeth’s Seer and Heir to the Scottish throne respectively.
Thane’s heart beat fast in his chest. “This says she’ll call off the war here and in France. That she doesn’t want our country or French land either.” He put a hand to his head, shocked.
“Why do you think the French are being so supportive?”
“I’d thought it was only because we provided a nice distraction while they made their next move in Calais.”
“If we assassinate John, the French will get everything they want and they won’t be in trouble with the United World Federation. No embargoes for assassinating a leader. No fees or reprimands. If we keep their support secret and we, as rebels, do their dirty work, it’ll be roses all day long for our old friends.” Vera dusted her hands like it was all said and done.
Across the room, Aini leaned over a map Nathair had spread over the long table in the center of the cave’s main room.
“This is the weakest spot in Edinburgh’s city walls.” Nathair jabbed a finger on the map. “The old part of the Flodden Wall in Greyfriars Kirkyard.”
Aini’s voice carried across the room’s damp rock. “But we have Talfer’s Wall beyond that over in that direction, right?”
“Right.” Thane rubbed his lip. An idea sprouted in his brain. “Aini and I will sneak into King John’s camp. We will take him out. The fact that we publicly announced we would stick with Nathair and Jack is actually perfect. Not for the reason I originally suggested, but for a new reason. We’ll dress in dark, hooded clothing and dress another two the same, sending them with Nathair and Jack. Our people will gravitate toward the two they believe are their Seer and Heir and it will distract from what we’re up to. Plus, if we have any information leaks, this at least will remain secret.”
Vera shook her head and some of her hair fell out of its pins. “It’s the most dangerous mission though. Why would I let my two most valuable people head right into the lion’s mouth?”
“Because we are prepared for it. And no one else is. It will take supernatural means to take down John. He’ll be surrounded by very loyal guards—the core group who will give their lives to protect him. This is how we will use the curse. If it works…”
“It will.” Vera thumped a fist against her chest.
He nodded, wishing he felt as sure. “It will. And you can bet Aini won’t let anyone else take this risk. It’ll be her or no one.”
Vera grinned in Aini’s direction. “It’s true. She’s become everything my brothers and
I ever dreamt of.”
“Aini?” Thane raised a hand.
Aini’s forehead wrinkled as she moved to see him better. He waved her over. She said something to Jack, a fierce loathing clear in her look, then pushed past him to get to Thane.
“Vera here,” Thane said when Aini walked up, “just told me something very interesting and I think we should consider a new plan.”
A wrinkle appeared between her eyebrows. “Why don’t you tell the group?”
“This is going to be a very secret plan no one knows about except Vera, Owen, you, and me.”
He explained everything.
She tapped a foot on the ground, gaze roaming. “Okay. Okay. But we have to include Myles, Neve, and Bran.”
“Why?”
“There is no way they’d let us go off without them. Plus, the colonial group who sent the funds have a mole in John’s inner circle. Myles can be the contact for that mole and we can use the help when we get inside his camp. Jack just told us about the woman.”
“I don’t trust him.” Vera glared toward the group.
“I don’t either, but why would he lie?”
“For the fun of it,” Vera said.
Thane didn’t trust Jack Shaw any further than he could throw him, but Aini was making good sense. “So there is a man inside John’s camp that supports us. A colonial contact.”
“Yes.” Aini chewed the inside of her cheek, always thinking, planning.
“He can help us infiltrate the camp possibly.” Thane let out a breath. That was a good thing. Hopefully. Unless Jack was lying. “So we head into Edinburgh proper with the rest of the forces, but at the walls, our small unit breaks from the rest secretly. We head wherever John sets up his little court. Do we have this contact’s name or number?”
“They call him Walker. His family has a stake in this new conglomerate Myles’s mother created. He is a lowland Scot. Not an Englishman.”
“Small blessings.” Vera snorted.
Aini almost smiled. “Nathair believes the king will begin a basic siege. No food or goods into the city. Make the city sweat and hope we give up.”
The Edinburgh Seer Complete Trilogy Page 58