Stranded By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 2

by Preston, Rebecca

  “Let me tell you what’s going to happen,” the goblin said softly, almost kindly. “It’s one of two things… I don’t know which one, as I don’t predict the future! But I like them both just the same. The first one is that nobody in the castle notices that you’re gone. I certainly wouldn’t,” he added, twisting his lips. “Plain little thing like you. Nobody comes to your rescue. It gets dark, we get stronger, we overcome your pathetic little iron weapon there and we feast on your guts til dawn.”

  There was a raucous cheer at that idea, and Grimtooth waved his little band into silence, beady eyes fixed on Nancy’s face. She maintained an expression of bored disinterest, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was getting to her. His band of cronies had been threatening her all day — wanting to bite off her fingers, to chew off her face, to do horrible things to her body… or her horse, if they could get to her. She was grateful, deeply grateful, for the iron, but she was frightened out of her wits… not that she was going to let Grimtooth know that.

  “The other option,” he said softly, “is even more fun! And it saves a lot of hassle for me and my boys. You like that, don’t you? Saving me and my boys the hassle? This second option, I like it a lot. What happens, is those idiots in that castle do notice you’re missing. They send out search parties to hunt you down, but they’re stupid and blind, can’t sniff you out like we can, can’t tell where you are without seeing you with their dumb eyes. Can’t even see in the dark. Pathetic, you humans, utterly pathetic. Wouldn’t have one in my band if you paid me… sorry, sweetie, hope you weren’t thinking of joining us.”

  Another ragged cheer. Nancy spat at the goblin’s face, hoping at least for a flinch — but quite the contrary. He turned his cheek to allow the gob of saliva to hit him… then extended his long, pointed tongue to lick it lovingly from his cheek.

  “Delicious.”

  “You’re hideous,” she spat, losing her control for a moment.

  He chuckled. “Don’t flirt with me, sweet cheeks, you’re not my type. Where was I? Oh, the search party. Yes, they’ll look for you, one by one they’ll come to find you… and one by one, we’ll leap on them, cut their throats, drink their blood and stash their bodies in our little larder. One by one by one, until the whole castle’s emptied out. Then we’ll eat you. Then we’ll take the village. Doesn’t it sound so much nicer? I can’t wait for the feast, what about you boys?”

  The goblins cheered again, their voices high and horrible in the late afternoon. Grimtooth leered at her.

  “If you wanted to make it easier on yourself, you could do us a favor,” he entreated, his voice wheedling.

  “And what’s that? What favor could you possibly want from a human?”

  “Well, you don’t have much going for you, it’s true,” he said, to the sound of amused chuckles from his band of goblins.

  She couldn’t get a good sense of how many there were — they kept moving behind her, constantly trying to get behind her guard, hoping to wrestle the iron out of her hand, no doubt. She was staying vigilant, just like Anna had taught her. She’d stayed vigilant all afternoon. But she was beginning to feel the tell-tale cracks of despair creeping in. She was getting tired, her mind starting to wear out… and she could tell that the little goblins could sense her weakness. They were getting bolder, creeping closer to her as the night closed in and darkness started to rise. It was getting close to sunset, and what was it that Grimtooth had said about the goblins getting stronger after dark? Useful information, she thought, grinding her teeth… if only she could take it back to the Sept to share with the scholars there. God, she’d kill to be back in that stuffy library, just for a moment. Just long enough to rest her eyes….

  As if sensing this wavering, one of the goblins struck. It leapt at her without warning, its grasping hands outstretched, clearly trying to grab her by the arm and wrestle the iron bar from her hand. It was Anna’s training that saved her — she was able to block the creature as it grabbed her, twisting its little arms around and sending it howling as the iron brushed against its skin. Grimtooth had been watching, and he cackled amusement, clearly completely disinterested in the suffering even of his own goblins.

  “The only useful thing a human can do,” he informed her, “is touch iron without any harm. So if you wanted to join us, we could let you live… long enough to do all our iron-related work for us, at least. There are a few pesky crosses we need removed from some window ledges, you see… a few frying pans, a few iron dirks…”

  She shuddered, realizing that the goblins must have crawled all over the outer walls of the castle the night before if he’d seen all the things they’d used to protect the windows. Still, she felt a fierce burst of pride in the people of the Sept that they’d successfully managed to cover all the windows and stop the goblins from getting in. “No way,” she said levelly. “I’d rather die.”

  “Oh, so would a lot of people once we get our hands on them,” Longfingers put in, his strange, pinched face looking thoughtful. “Once we get the blades under their fingernails and the broken glass into their eyes, why, they’re often very interested in the idea of death. Begging for it, even.”

  She shivered at that idea. But Longfingers didn’t let up — he seemed to warm to his subject, finding himself with a captive audience to torment.

  “What I do, is I have this very clever bag. It’s about the size of a human head, and it has a drawstring around the bottom. So what I do is I fill it with broken glass, then I pop it over the human head, with all the broken glass inside. You see? Then I pull the drawstring tight, nice and tight so no glass can escape. Then I give the head a little massage!” He gestured at her with his fingers, wiggling them with delight. “The nice tough bag stops the glass doing my little fingers any harm, and the person inside gets quite a treat! They talk a lot about death after that, let me tell you!”

  Despite her determination to be brave, Nancy was starting to feel sick to her stomach. These creatures were the most evil things she’d encountered in all her days… and they had her at their mercy. They were right… sooner or later, her guard was going to drop, and they were going to wrestle the iron off her. Maybe she should take Grimtooth up on his offer, she thought with despair heavy in her chest. Maybe it would be best to just stay alive as long as possible… anything that would stop that trick with the bag from happening…

  She heard voices in the woods, calling her name. For a moment, she almost thought she’d imagined it — but the goblins were reacting, too, their ears standing up on end. Grimtooth uttered a low, sinister chuckle.

  “Nancy, is it? What a pretty name for an ugly girl. Well, Nancy. I hope you’re ready to see all your brave rescuers killed and flayed…”

  But before he could finish that threat, there was a burst of light. And there, mounted on the black gelding he always rode, was Malcolm Grant, sword at the ready. Riding to her rescue. The relief that burst in her chest was tempered with fear for his safety.

  She only hoped he’d brought enough reinforcements along with him.

  Chapter 52

  Malcolm wasn’t alone. Behind him were half a dozen men on horseback, torches held aloft in the gathering evening air. Nancy could see the goblins hissing at the torchlight, wary of the flame, and noted that useful piece of information for later. She kept tight hold of her piece of iron, wary of the goblins using the distraction to try to wrestle it away from her — but Grimtooth was suddenly right beside her, just out of reach, his shrill voice reaching over the sound of goblin nattering and hoofbeats.

  “We have your woman hostage!” he shrieked, gesturing to Nancy. “Yield, or —”

  “They can’t touch me,” Nancy yelled over the top of them, not wanting Malcolm or Donal beside him to drop their guard. “I’ve got iron. Get them!”

  Malcolm urged his horse forward — the creature quickly trampled a handful of goblins, who shrieked and recoiled from the iron on the bottoms of the horse’s hooves. Then he leapt from the saddle, his sw
ord outstretched — it was a strange blade, not like the one she’d seen him wield before, and as the goblins shrank away from it, she realized it was forged from iron rather than steel. The blade whipped about, Malcolm clearly confident with the use of the weapon — though Anna had told her he was better with a bow than he was with a sword. Anna wasn’t there, she realized, scanning the people on horseback. Fair enough, too. She supposed even Donal had his limits — though she didn’t doubt that she’d asked to come along. She’d probably been furious when she was turned down, too, Nancy thought with a grin creeping across her face. God, she missed Anna. She’d give her a huge hug when she saw her.

  The goblins were shrinking away, disappearing into the trees, scattering in a panic. Nancy watched them go, satisfied — and realized with some amusement that a few had run as far as the shoreline. As she watched, a huge gray head reared up out of the water, and with almost supernatural speed, took a goblin from the lakeside and swallowed it whole, before disappearing back into the water. She’d almost have thought she’d imagined the whole thing, if it wasn’t for the sickening crunching sounds ringing in her ears. There’s Nessie, she thought with amusement, always here to help. She wondered if the creature had been in the water by the shore the whole time she’d been kept prisoner by the goblins, just waiting for her chance. She made a mental note to get hold of as many hams as she could to bring down to Nessie as a thank you… not that it seemed like she needed any extra snacks, she realized as the monster reared back out of the water to snap up another goblin.

  Grimtooth was shouting at his men in the high, strange language that Nancy hadn’t been able to figure out the meaning of. It didn’t quite sound like the language the Sidhe had spoken to her in, or the language Maggie had used to banish the goblins all those nights ago when they’d taken shelter in her hut… this was something else, something high and piercing. The goblins scattered into the forest, Grimtooth the last to go, an ugly look on his menacing face. As he disappeared, the last thing she saw was him, his eyes locked on her face, drawing one sharp talon across his throat in an unmistakable gesture of threat.

  And just like that, the little battle was over. Nancy ran to her horse, which had gotten loose in all the chaos and was rolling her eyes and stamping her feet, clearly panicking at all the excitement. She caught the reins and stroked the horse’s nose, murmuring soothing things until the creature calmed down.

  “I’m so glad you’re safe,” she crooned to the mare, wishing she had an oat cake or something to give to her for her bravery. “You were so brave… you did so well…”

  “I was going to say the same thing to you,” came an amused voice from behind her. She turned to see Malcolm, standing with his sword still in his hand and one hand on his hip, annoyance warring with amusement on his face.

  “Malcolm. Thank you so much for coming —”

  “What were you thinking?” he demanded, anger in his voice as he stepped forward to grip her firmly by the shoulders. She looked into his face, unable to come up with an excuse. “You could have been killed … or worse.”

  “Yes, they told me all about it,” she muttered, shivering a little… and he relinquished his grip, clearly more worried about her than he was angry at her sneaking out of the castle. “You’re right. It was stupid.” How was she supposed to defend her actions? She’d snuck out of the castle at a time of great danger, in order to do something very dangerous, and in the process had been caught by the very enemy she’d wanted to defeat with her actions. She’d put all the men in danger who’d come to save her, and she’d no doubt worried the hell out of Malcolm, Donal and all the rest. She heaved a sigh, ready to take her scolding. “I put everyone in danger. Is everyone okay?”

  “No casualties,” Donal said, striding up beside them. “But if you’re going to go on recon missions in future, I’d thank you to let someone know where you plan to go.”

  “It wasn’t a recon mission,” Nancy admitted, gesturing to the pack that was still strapped safe and sound to her horse. “I was planning on diving into the Loch to try to close the burgh to any more goblin hordes coming through.”

  “Brave,” Donal said after a long pause, surprising her.

  “I was going to say stupid,” she admitted.

  “Oh, aye, it was definitely that as well,” he said with a smirk, “but no harm done, right? And we’ve knocked a few more goblins down. That should add to the dent we made last night, yes?”

  “I have some bad news about that,” Nancy admitted, twisting at the horse’s reins where they were resting against her palm. “The goblins…. their leader can perform incredibly skilled illusion magic. A lot of the goblins that we struck down with arrows last night… they weren’t real. We didn’t put a dent in their forces at all… Grimtooth called it a test.”

  Donal swore softly under his breath, then looked up at her, deep worry in his eyes. “Grimtooth? That was the leader? The Redcap?”

  “That’s what he said his name was.” She shrugged. “I can’t imagine why he’d lie.”

  “I know that name. He’s a serious threat,” Donal said, half to himself. “Illusions… that makes sense. We couldn’t find nearly as many bodies as we’d reckon we took out last night, even accounting for the ones that dragged themselves away. Blast.” He frowned, glancing up at the darkening sky. “We’d best get back to the castle. I’d imagine they’ll be launching a secondary assault sometime soon.”

  “Tonight, probably,” Malcolm said in a low voice, worry clear on his face. “Nancy… as much as I disapprove of your actions, you’ve gotten us some valuable information.”

  “Look, I did what I could with the cards I was dealt,” she said, grinning. But something was niggling at the back of her mind. “How did you find me, by the way? Just luck, or —”

  “Actually, that’s a strange story,” Malcolm said, glancing at her sideways. “I’ll tell it as we ride. Best to get back before nightfall and prepare for the siege, if that’s what we’re up against.”

  “At least the village patrols have been strengthened with a few locals,” Donal was saying, urging his horse on along the road. “We’ll have more men at our disposal to man the walls. And the iron’s still on every windowsill.”

  “Every windowsill but mine,” Nancy admitted, lifting the iron dirk out of her bundle and gesturing with it.

  Malcolm chuckled. “At least you brought a weapon with you. Shame it was stuck with your horse and you couldn’t use it.”

  “Iron saved my life,” she admitted honestly. “They couldn’t get close enough to me because I had this iron bar in my pocket. They tried, and I know they’d have gotten it off me eventually, but it was enough to hold them off until you guys got here.”

  Malcolm and Donal exchanged glances. “Something else saved your life, too. An act of kindness.”

  She stared at them both, not understanding. “What do you mean by that?”

  “Did you meet a creature by the name of Darter?”

  She stared at them a little longer… then a few connections clunked into place. The little goblin she’d rescued… the dismissive way the other goblins had spoken about him. He’d run off into the woods after telling her he owed her one. Did that mean—

  “The most curious thing imaginable. Brendan came to me, telling me a goblin had voluntarily come to our gates with information. So we interrogated him, of course — goblins are tricksters. He risked an arrow through the eye just by standing there, you understand,” Malcolm said, chuckling darkly to himself. “But stood there he did. Just kept shouting that there was a woman who belonged to us, and that she was in danger, and he’d lead us to her. We all thought it was a trap, of course. That’s why we took so long to come to you,” Malcolm admitted sheepishly.

  “I mean, I’d have done the same thing. Goblins are… the enemy, right?” She was reeling. Had the little goblin she’d freed really risked his life like that for her? She remembered what he’d said before he disappeared. I owe you a favor. The same way some peo
ple uttered promises, or oaths. She remembered something about faeries… something about their word being very important, about promises having great power. She’d done him a kindness by freeing his leg from the arrow… and in turn, he’d brought her friends to her to save her life.

  “Finally, he gave us a description of you, and we realized that we had to come and get you, regardless of whether it was a trap or not. But it seemed he was telling the truth.”

  “I can’t believe he risked his life to save me,” she murmured, taken aback. She supposed they were equal, then. But had that been all that motivated the goblin’s actions, a desire to pay back the favor she’d done for him? Or could it be that he was a good goblin — one capable of kindness and empathy? If so, he was in danger if he was in league with Grimtooth and his band. “Where is Darter now?”

  “Not sure. He slipped away in all the fighting,” Malcolm said, looking around. “I hope he has the good sense to steer clear of Grimtooth and his band. Goblins don’t take kindly to betrayal.”

  Nancy shivered, remembering the nasty things Longfingers had described. She hoped Darter was somewhere safe.

  Chapter 53

  There was a solemn mood as they rode back to the castle. Nancy was deeply, profoundly grateful to be back at what was rapidly becoming home — having been stuck imprisoned with the goblins for so long, she was feeling very grateful to be safe and sound. But the relief was difficult to relish with any enthusiasm, knowing as she did that sooner or later, there was an attack coming that was going to make the previous night’s violence seem like child’s play.

  And that was the frustrating thing — they had no way of knowing when the attack would come. Goblins were sneaky, and they knew full well that simply shoring up the castle was not an option. If the goblins realized that they had pulled forces from the village to defend the castle more thoroughly, then the goblins were going to attack the village. It made sense — after all, at the meeting that morning several of the villagers had reported that there had been more thatch fires and attempted thefts. A few of the dogs had been bribed with bones — thankfully, the villagers had been in the habit of feeding the dogs before nightfall, so that they were difficult to bribe. Something horrible occurred to Nancy as she thought about the bones that had been offered to the dogs… as far as they knew, no animals or livestock had been taken. So what had the bones come from?