It didn’t bear thinking about, she decided, pulling her cloak tighter about her. They were pacing the walls — it seemed to help Donal and Malcolm think. Brendan was with them, too, already starting to look haggard again, but with the dark night closing in and the torches on the wall already lit, there was no time for anyone to get any rest. They’d just have to stick it out… and though she was pretty exhausted from her ordeal with the goblins, she wasn’t going to be seen to be the one who needed a rest.
What she was going to do, however, was make sure everybody got fed. Leaving Malcolm, Brendan and Donal deep in conversation about the best way to ration their dwindling supply of rations, she headed down the steps and across the courtyard, pulling her cloak tighter around her shoulders as she went to chase away the autumn chill. On the way, she couldn’t resist stopping in to visit with the chestnut mare she was so fond of. She’d given the horse a thorough rub-down when they’d gotten back in, and it had seemed to restore some of her usual good humor. Now, with a pail full of oats, she was every bit the same sweet creature Nancy had met all those weeks ago. That’s good, she thought to herself, stroking the horse’s neck before heading back off toward the castle. If the mare could recover so easily from the trauma of the goblins’ interference, then so could she. She still felt sick and frightened when she thought about her encounter with Grimtooth and his band, but in the end, nothing that bad had actually happened. She’d been lucky, she knew… and what was more, she owed her safety not to the men who’d come and rescued her (although they’d helped) but to the little goblin who had run to fetch them at the risk of his own life.
What did that mean about goblins, she wondered, thinking of Darter — he hadn’t even given her his name, she’d learned it from the other goblins. Was it his species that made him kinder than the others? No — there had been other Glashtyn goblins among Grimtooth’s band, laughing and conniving along with all the rest. It wasn’t a species thing… it had something to do with the individual himself. That meant that there was a chance that not all goblins were evil or mischievous… just some of them. What did that mean for the battle with them, she wondered? And what did that mean for Darter? Was he out there somewhere, being hunted down for vengeance by Grimtooth and his band? Or was he already dead? She hoped not, somehow. He’d done her an enormous service by bringing her rescuers to her. Would Donal give him safe harbor, if he asked? After all, he’d saved Nancy’s life… but still, harboring a goblin? That might not go over so well with the villagers. She stifled a worried laugh at the very thought of trying to explain the scaly, furry-eared little creature to Father Caleb. He’d shriek ‘demon’ so loudly he’d break every glass in the village then pass out.
Well, she couldn’t think about it now. For now, she needed to get hold of some food for the men on the wall. If they weren’t going to sleep, they were at least going to have something to eat… she’d make sure that happened if it killed her. Dinner seemed to be off — the dining hall was oddly empty, with people drifting in and out to pick up snacks or pieces of bread from the kitchens rather than the dining hall itself. She moved into the kitchen, frowning a little… only to find Blair, hard at work with a huge platter of what looked like sandwiches in front of her. As Nancy watched, she put some roast meat between two slices of bread, adding a generous dollop of some kind of preserve she was spooning out of a jar, then placed the finished sandwich on a plate.
“Hi, Blair,” Nancy said hesitantly. The woman worried her still — she was so stern, so organized. But Blair gave her a bright smile as she looked up.
“The hero of the hour. Hello, Nancy.”
“What do you mean?”
“You did well, last night. Getting everyone organized. Defending the windowsills.” Her eyes were twinkling, but the compliment was sincere.
Nancy found herself blushing a little, pleased to hear that her efforts had been noticed.
“I mean, I can’t shoot or fight, it was the least I could do…”
“No, Nancy. The least you could do was nothing. You did a great deal more than that, and I’m grateful. Are you hungry?”
“Yes,” she said, “but I’m actually here to bring some food to the men on the Walls —”
“Practical girl,” Blair said approvingly. “You can run these out for them, if you like. That’s why I’m making them.”
“Great minds think alike.” Nancy laughed, moving over to the table where Blair was wrapping the sandwiches in a sheet of what looked like butcher’s paper before setting them neatly in a basket. That done, she handed the basket to Nancy and dusted her hands.
“Off you go, then. We’ll outlast these bastards,” she added as Nancy went to leave, surprising her a little with the mild profanity. Blair always seemed too proper for swearing. “I’ve gone through a few sieges here myself.”
“There’s a lot of them, that’s all,” Nancy admitted, worried despite her determination to be strong for everyone else’s sake. “Nasty creatures… and our forces are split between here and the village…”
“The Sept of Clan Grant won’t fall,” Blair said, shaking her head. “Not while women like you and I are here to defend it. Mark my words.”
Heartened by that despite her lingering reservations, Nancy nodded, then turned and headed out the door. Best to get food to the men as early as possible. After all, they had no idea when the attack might come — and they didn’t want to get stuck in the midst of a siege with empty bellies. She climbed the wall on the opposite side, planning on circling round and delivering as much food as she could to the volunteers on the wall. Some of them were trained soldiers, who took the meals with appreciative nods — the rest were volunteers like the ones from the night before, looking nervous and excited with their bows in hand and a careful ration of arrows. Nancy noticed that everyone was armed, too, with one of the cold iron dirks from the armory that had been used on windowsills. She hoped they’d all been replaced with horseshoes or pots and pans… and then made a connection. Perhaps that was why Blair was distributing sandwiches… no more kitchenware to cook with. It was so ridiculous that it startled a real laugh out of her as she made her way around to where Brendan, Malcolm and Donal were still standing.
“I come bearing dinner,” she said with some satisfaction, gesturing with the basket. Blair had done excellent work — there were still half a dozen sandwiches left, more than enough for the four of them to share. And she was grateful for the spare when Anna came charging up the stairs and seized her in a bone-crushing hug.
“You daft woman,” she muttered into her ear, yanking her forcibly down so she’d hear her. “Don’t you ever go rushing off by yourself again, you hear?”
“Anna, I told you I’d handle the siege,” Donal said calmly.
Anna flashed her bright eyes at him. “I know you did, and I told you that was a stupid idea and you’d damn well have me on hand to advise you, didn’t I?”
“I don’t recall where we landed on —”
“And here I am. To advise. How exciting.” She ducked to grab a sandwich out of the basket, and they all stood around eating for a moment, taking the brief moment of peace to fill their bellies before the inevitable assault would begin.
Sure enough, it was within the hour that the first few shots were fired… a volley of crude arrows that soared out of the trees and clattered rather uselessly against the castle walls. They’d been dipped in tar and set alight, but Donal frowned as he saw the volunteers crowd toward the front of the wall — Nancy watched as he directed a nearby group of men to go around and check the back of the castle for attackers. Sure enough, shouts and yelling soon emerged from around there — there were a handful of goblins attempting to scale the back wall of the castle.
Clever, Nancy thought, cold water in her stomach. The goblins were very, very clever… too clever, some might say.
The night was long, and dark, and full of horrors. But in part thanks to the information Nancy had managed to glean from Grimtooth and his band, they were ab
le to turn back the attack without too many casualties. The volunteers on the wall began to figure out how to distinguish a real goblin from an illusion — illusions disappeared if even brushed with iron, where the real ones would scream and recoil, so when goblins climbed up the wall, they’d wait until they were near enough to swipe at with long iron staffs that Brendan disappeared into the castle to retrieve.
A few real goblins did make it to the tops of the wall, and there were a few casualties — the creatures were nasty fighters, very quick, and even the more experienced soldiers weren’t used to fighting things that were three or four foot tall. But the casualties weren’t severe — some lacerations and injuries from the blades. Nancy helped guide one man with a deep wound in his forearm down the steps and into the castle, where to her surprise she found Blair presiding over a first-aid station, a half-dozen servants working hard to clean and bandage wounds and perform triage on the waiting wounded.
Nancy hesitated, not wanting to overstep — but at the same time, she was from the future. She knew a little bit more about wound treatment than these people did. So she sidled up beside Blair, who was organizing some soft, clean-looking bandages.
“What are you using to clean the wounds?” she asked, trying not to sound like she was being condescending. But Blair just answered, neutral and polite.
“There’s an herb with disinfectant properties that we steep in water. It creates an antiseptic serum that we use for most things. I’ve had a good long talk with Anna about what kind of breakthroughs are in store for our species, don’t you worry.” She smiled at her. “I’ve never seen a germ, but Anna’s explained the concept. We’ve probably got the most advanced medical supplies in Scotland, thanks to her.”
“That’s fantastic,” Nancy said sincerely. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Take care, Nancy.”
She headed back out to the wall, feeling a lot more positive about the attack. No serious injuries so far, and her main concern — the filthy blades used by the goblins — was well under control with Blair, who had not only accepted Anna’s futuristic instructions, she’d melded them with her own knowledge of herbs.
By the time dawn broke, the goblin assault had been vanquished — with only a few serious injuries. One man had broken his arm when two goblins had tripped him as he fought a third, and a woman had sustained some broken ribs as a result of a blow from a tough Redcap member of the band who— thankfully —was not Grimtooth. Nancy wasn’t sure whether she could have dealt with seeing that creature. As light crept up from the east horizon, the volunteers on the walls let up a ragged cheer, watching the last of the goblins slink away into the forest to nurse their wounds. There were definitely some more bodies than the other night, Nancy thought, looking down at the carnage… somehow, though, she couldn’t feel too triumphant. There were Glashtyn bodies among the Bogans and Redcaps that had been killed. Was one of them Darter, the goblin who had helped to save her life?
Chapter 54
They headed into the Keep for a well-earned breakfast, though Brendan insisted on remaining on the wall to keep watch. Blair had moved from the medical bay to the kitchen without skipping a beat — sure enough, there was porridge and bread at the ready, as well as some interesting new preserves that Nancy hadn’t seen before. She tried some on bread — it was a delicious, spicy jam. Malcolm was grinning.
“You know we’re in dire straits when Blair brings out the Disaster Jams.”
“The what?”
“Blair is the best measure of morale our castle has,” Donal explained, spreading some of the preserves liberally on his bread. “She knows when we need a boost… and when we do, she’s always got something tucked away to lift our spirits. So you know people are in poor spirits when she brings out the good jam…”
“We did well, though,” Nancy argued. “No deaths, only minor casualties…”
“Aye, but they’ll be back again tonight,” Malcolm said bluntly as he tucked into a bowl of porridge. “And the night after, and the night after. We’re under siege, Nancy. Sooner or later, we’ll run out of luck… and they’ll have us.”
She frowned. That had definitely put a dent in her good mood. Well, there was nothing for it… she had to bring this up yet again. Hoping the men wouldn’t yell at her, she took a deep breath.
“I think it’s time we talk about me diving to close the burgh, in that case.”
Donal shut his eyes for a moment. “Aye, I was thinking you might bring that up.”
“I want to do it the right way this time. Let me take some men with me, in case the goblins try anything. I’ll go in broad daylight — around midday, when they’re weakest —”
“It was midday that they took you prisoner,” Malcolm pointed out irritably. “Midday won’t guarantee your safety —”
“Well I’m not safe here, either, am I? Please meet me halfway on this,” she pleaded. “If I can close the burgh, that’ll stop so many goblins coming through. We can turn the tide. As it is… well, like you said, they’ll just keep coming until we run out of weapons. If I close the burgh, Grimtooth will run out of cannon fodder first.”
“She’s right,” Anna said simply. The woman had been forcibly sent to bed halfway through the previous night, but she’d been up and waiting for them when they’d come in for breakfast. “We’ve got to stop the tide of new recruits or every night we’re just treading water.”
“I’m the only person who can do this,” she said gently, looking at both of them. “When I came here, you told me it was for a purpose… that the Sidhe bring people through to achieve something, as well as to save their lives. Well, I think this is it. I’ve got a full scuba suit and forty minutes of air left. Let me get down there and seal that burgh.”
“You don’t even know where the burgh is,” Malcolm pointed out. “Nancy, it’s just so dangerous… there’s no guarantee you’ll find the thing, even if you could close it by yourself. And meanwhile, you risk being attacked by goblins…”
“I’ll figure it out. I have forty minutes of air,” she said again, choosing not to mention that she’d need at least ten of that to get down there, and another ten to get back… even ignoring the basic safety rules of thirds, she was going to be cutting it fine. But they didn’t need to know that.
“Do you even know what a burgh looks like? Because I don’t. I’ve never seen it. Well?”
“No,” Nancy admitted through gritted teeth, “but I can figure it out. I’ll see if Nessie will guide me —”
“The Monster wants nothing to do with the burgh,” Malcolm reminded her. “It’s as likely to lead you to a school of fish.”
“I have to try!” Nancy said irritably. “There has to be someone here somewhere — a scholar, or a faerie, or someone — who knows what the burgh looks like and can give me a description that will help get me there —”
“Sorry to interrupt.” Brendan’s voice, sounding very confused. “You have a visitor.”
Nancy’s eyes widened as she followed Brendan’s gesture. There, standing in the dining hall, a little nervous but very much alive and well, was Darter — the goblin she’d met yesterday, whose life she’d spared — and who had responded by saving her life in kind. He peered up at them, clearly a little intimidated, but determined to do what he came there to do — whatever that may have been.
What on Earth is he doing here? Nancy wondered. It was good to see that he was alive — but the favor he’d owed her had been returned. Why would he be back?
“Hello,” he stammered, that high, raspy voice familiar. “It’s good to see you’re okay —”
“Thanks to you,” she said, getting up and moving over to him, dropping into a crouch so they could speak on eye level. “Malcolm told me what you did — that you came to the castle, risked being shot again just to tell them where they could find me.”
“You saved my life. I was glad I could return the favor,” the little goblin said.
She couldn’t help but smile. “I never gave you my
name,” she started — and the goblin held his hands up as though he was frightened.
“Please! No need!”
She stared at him. “What?”
Malcolm cleared his throat behind her. “She’s new to all this,” he told the goblin, who blinked his dark eyes and looked back at Nancy.
“Well. You can tell me what your name is,” he said carefully. “But you must understand… if you give me your name, you give me power over you. Indefinitely.”
“Uh, okay.” She blinked at him. “Well. My name is Nancy.”
“And my name is Darter,” he said cheerfully. “There.”
“So if I’d said, ‘Let me give you my name’ and then said it —”
“I’d have had control over you,” Darter said simply. “But I don’t want that. I’m here to tell you something. To give you some information. Free. A gift. No obligations whatsoever.”
What a strange little creature, Nancy thought to herself, looking up at Brendan, who shrugged. Are all Fae like this? she wondered. Then again — she remembered the way that Maggie had been very clear about not holding to Fae etiquette. It seemed there were a lot of rules out there to learn about… suddenly, she was very grateful she’d been prevented from heading down to talk to the Sidhe earlier, if talking to a Faerie could result in such calamitous outcomes.
“And what’s the information?”
“It concerns Grimtooth’s plans. I owe him nothing,” Darter said dismissively. “When he left me to die, he abandoned all claim to my loyalties. So I’m a free spirit, a free glashtyn, free to tell you what he’s up to.” His eyes gleamed. “Especially as it has to do with a question you asked me when we met.”
Stranded By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 2 Page 33