“And what question was that?”
“My hand. You asked what happened to it.” Darter lifted his shriveled left arm and showed it to Malcolm, Donal and Anna, who were all watching on with a combination of amusement and confusion. “What happened was that I held an iron bar. When first we came here — Grimtooth, Needle, Longfingers, Nibbler and I, we were the first group through — we stole into the village in the dead of night. They forced me to steal a bar of iron.” He shuddered delicately. “I carried it all the way from the village to the Loch and then down to the burgh, where Grimtooth was still holding the doorway open. Then I jammed the iron in between, holding the door open indefinitely for more and more and more of our fellows to come through.”
Nancy’s eyes widened. Just as Maggie had suspected — the gate was being interfered with by iron. No wonder Nessie didn’t want anything to do with it. She stared down at Darter’s arm, horrified by the damage the iron had done. “You did that for them? Wasn’t it painful?”
“More than anything I’ve ever experienced,” he said simply. “But nowhere near as painful as the punishment if I refused.”
“You poor thing,” Nancy said gently. “But that means…” Her eyes widened. “That means you’ve been to the burgh. You know what it looks like. I assume you can swim underwater for long periods of time?”
He gestured to the side of his neck, where a few flaps of skin revealed a set of gills. “Water or air, I can breathe either.”
“Can you guide me down there?”
He peered at her, surprised. “Guide you? You’re human. You breathe air.”
She grinned, looking back over her shoulder at her friends. Here it was — the perfect opportunity to fix the problem with the burgh once and for all. She even had a guide.
“What if I told you I could carry air with me?”
“Then I’d call that magic,” Darter said brightly, “but if it’s a guide you need, I’ll be your guide. No obligations, no favors owed,” he added quickly, throwing his hands up. “Unless…”
Donal looked suspicious. “Unless what?”
“I no longer have a home, you see,” he explained, his eyes downcast. “Were I to prevail upon your hospitality and remain here, beyond the burgh…”
“You’re Unseelie,” Donal said suspiciously.
“In name only,” Darter said, shrugging his little shoulders. “Betraying Grimtooth will result in my expulsion from the Court as soon as word reaches them. I’m an apostate, politically speaking, at this point.”
“If your allegiance is truly not to the Unseelie Court,” Donal said thoughtfully, “we can discuss the matter. But only once the current emergency is dealt with.”
“No obligation, no commitment,” Darter agreed brightly, bouncing from foot to foot. His withered arm didn’t seem to slow him down too much, Nancy noticed with a smile. “I just want to help. Grimtooth… I don’t like his practices. I’d be most happy to assist in his defeat. With nothing owed to anyone.”
Nancy grinned, rising to her feet and turning to Donal with a challenging gleam in her eye. “I have the gear, I have a guide, I have a plan. Any more objections I can handle for you?”
Malcolm hid a laugh in his hand, his eyes shining with affection for her.
Donal just spread his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Be safe, Nancy Kane. All our hopes go with you.”
Chapter 55
Nancy climbed the spiral stairs two at a time, her heart pounding. Now that she finally had the go-ahead to try diving down to the burgh, she was full of anxiety about the trip. What if it didn’t work? What if she couldn’t find the burgh and simply had to return to the surface once her air was out, leaving the burgh jammed open indefinitely? Would they be consistently overrun by goblins until all of Scotland was taken over? Surely not. She’d have heard about a goblin infestation in the history books, surely. And besides — she had little Darter at her side, to guide her. Though she knew she should be wary of goblin trickery— a few of the men had certainly made dire comments along those lines and fixed the little Glashtyn with suspicious looks as he’d made his way into the castle —something about Darter just made her think she could trust him. After all — hadn’t he already proved that he was on their side and not Grimtooth’s? If he’d wanted her dead, all he would have had to do was leave her to die after she’d helped him with the arrow. That had been what she was expecting, after all — no part of her had felt that anyone was going to help her except maybe her friends at the Sept, back when she was in Grimtooth’s clutches. No — she had a feeling that little Darter was going to help her find the burgh as best as he was able. After all, though faerie politics seemed rather abstruse and obscure to her, the facts seemed pretty plain in this case — Darter had betrayed Grimtooth. If he was on anyone’s side, it wasn’t the Redcap’s.
Darter agreed to meet her outside the castle gates in an hour once she’d gotten her gear together and discussed the trip further with Malcolm. He was shadowing her for all the world like a loyal spaniel, clearly worried to death by the plan ahead. She supposed she understood. He was used to being able to assist with things, with being present in the midst of all the action and danger… but when it came to this particular situation, there was no way he could follow her.
“Are ye sure I can’t come down with you?” he said beseechingly as they walked down the corridor toward her room, for all the world as if he’d been able to hear exactly what she was thinking. She resisted the urge to laugh.
“Not unless you can hold your breath for about … oh, thirty-five minutes.” She’d done the math — thirty-five minutes was the maximum length of time she’d safely be able to stay underwater. That gave her five minutes’ worth of air to return to the surface. Her instincts howled that it was nowhere near long enough, that even five minutes to return was cutting it unbelievably fine, that she was risking suffocating down there or at the very least getting close to it… but it was the only way. Five minutes of air would be plenty. She’d trained for this. She’d done emergency training, too, studying the best ways to optimize limited air, and she was fully prepared to put that training into practice here and now. After all — it might be the last time she went diving. That was a sad thought, among all the chaos. She wished her last ever dive could be a more pleasant occasion… a swim for pleasure, not for business. She could have gone down to visit with Nessie, perhaps, or visited with some other exotic flora and fauna from the depths of the Loch…
“I’ve heard tell of an invention, actually,” Malcolm was saying as she opened the door to her room. “A kind of bladder made of sheep’s gizzard, with a tube to breathe through. It’s been used in other areas to dive underwater and stay there for some time. If you could put off your dive for a few days, I could ride out and collect some, so myself and a few good men could dive down with you, armed…”
“We can’t wait a few days, Malcolm,” Nancy said gently, digging her equipment out of the drawer and beginning the standard checks that went on before a dive. “You and Donal said it yourselves — the Goblins aren’t going to stop attacking us. Tonight, they’ll be back at our walls, testing for holes in our defences. And their numbers aren’t getting any smaller. The more we kill, the fewer arrows we’ll have, that’s all… you didn’t meet Grimtooth, you don’t know how ruthless he is.” She shivered a little. “He doesn’t care at all about his army. He’ll sacrifice a thousand bodies just to wear us down… and more will keep coming through the burgh unless I can do something about it. Now, not tomorrow, not in a few days when more men can come with me… now.”
Malcolm heaved a sigh, clearly deeply worried about her, and she tensed a little. Was he going to try to talk her out of it entirely? Say he couldn’t lose her again? She didn’t want to fight him, but she wasn’t like Anna. She couldn’t keep fighting for her own basic independence, couldn’t stay at odds with a man she was romantically entangled with… it would just be too hard, too wearing on her spirit. She’d wind up agreeing with him that she sh
ould keep herself safe… she’d lose her courage, lose her fight, lose part of what made her unique. And though she cared a great deal about Malcolm, and it wrenched at her heart to think of losing him before their relationship had even had a chance to properly begin, she knew that if he tried to stop her diving right now, she was going to have to end things with him.
But he just smiled, and she felt her heart fill with warmth as he spoke. “You’re right, of course. It’s me that’s scared, and I’m trying to find ways out of it. I’ve just got to trust you, Nancy.”
“Aye,” she said, mocking his accent a little, but meaning it. “You do. And you can. Malcolm, this is the thing I do best in the world. I’ve been doing this since I was ten years old. If anything explains why the Sidhe brought me here… it’s this. It’s my destiny to help fix this — to help save everyone from these goblins. So I know I can do it,” she added, grinning a little impishly at him. “I must be able to, or the Sidhe wouldn’t have pulled me out of that cave.”
“You’re right, of course,” Malcolm sighed, moving over to her and pulling her into his arms.
She let him hold her, wrapping her arms around his waist, taking a moment to just lean fully into the warmth of his embrace. It had been a long time since they’d been alone together, or at least it felt that way… and damnit, she wanted some more alone time with him. Fresh determination flared in her chest. She’d already been set on successfully closing the burgh and saving everyone from the goblins, but the reminder of Malcolm’s presence in her life was adding new fuel to that fire. With the goblins sorted, they’d both be free to spend more time together. Time spent in more enjoyable pursuits than searching for dead bodies, or riding around the village shoring up defences against goblin raids…
What a strange little life she’d wound up leading, Nancy reflected as she breathed in the scent of Malcolm. If she was honest… she wouldn’t change it. Not for anything.
When they broke apart, Malcolm cleared his throat, clearly trying to hide a little of his emotion behind a gruff exterior. He grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a gentle shake.
“You do a good job, y’hear? Don’t drown. Absolutely no drowning on any account.”
Nancy laughed, feeling suddenly dizzy and very, very fond of him. She reached up on her tip-toes to press a kiss to his lips, taking advantage of the fact that they were finally alone together to be a little bit affectionate with him.
“I’ve spent the last eleven years not drowning, do you really think some Scottish lake is going to be what undoes me?” she challenged him, grinning. “Now get out of the way, I’ve got a drysuit to put on.”
“Oh-ho, the famous tight-fitting dry suit,” Malcolm said innocently, walking over to sit expectantly on the edge of her unmade bed. She snorted at him, stripping down her layers of clothing to the base layer — the drysuit, despite Malcolm’s claims, wasn’t so tight-fitting that she couldn’t wear anything underneath it, and she didn’t want to get cold when she was down there. That being said, she was planning on moving pretty quickly. After a moment’s hesitation, she pulled her trousers off and pulled on the leggings she’d been wearing the first day she’d arrived in Scotland. They were still bone dry — good drysuit, she thought with a grin. As she fastened the wrist pieces, Malcolm whistled at her appreciatively, and she rolled her eyes.
“It’s not even that tight-fitting, you filthy-minded man,” she scolded him, unable to keep a grin from her face. “I can’t imagine how you’d react if you saw a wetsuit.”
“What’s a wetsuit? Does that one not get wet?”
“Drysuits keep you completely dry,” she explained, gesturing to the seals around her wrists and neck. “Wetsuits don’t, but they do hold a layer of water between your skin and the rest of the body of water that keeps you warm. Like insulation. I prefer a dry suit because it’s easier to get in and out of, and I like being dry once I’m undressed. Personal preference.”
“I suppose you have no choice, either,” Malcolm pointed out with a shrug.
She nodded, finishing her final checks, before scooping up the rest of the scuba gear in her arms — mask, regulator, and the two tanks of air. Each held about twenty minutes’ worth — it was good scuba practice to make sure that the tanks were depleted at roughly the same rate, in the unlikely event that one tank was damaged or destroyed. Well, there was absolutely no margin for any damage to her tanks, that was for sure. Once they were empty, they were as good as garbage… but until then, they were the only thing that was going to keep her alive down there, and she wasn’t going to let them get damaged.
“I’m ready,” she told Malcolm, gesturing down at her gear. She had her fins in one hand, too — she’d put them on when they were down on the beach. He fixed her with an admiring gaze, clearly enjoying what he could see of the contours of her body, and she rolled her eyes at him.
“Come on, Malcolm. We’ve got a world to save.”
“Aye, you’re right, you’re right.”
Hand in hand, they headed down the corridor together, headed for the shoreline — and what Nancy hoped would be her most successful— and most risky —scuba diving mission yet.
Chapter 56
When they reached the hallway on the ground floor, Nancy blinked with surprise. There were a dozen soldiers standing there, fully kitted out in their armor, with swords at the ready and looks of steely determination on their faces. Donal was standing there too, Anna at his side, both of them armed and ready. Anna looked particularly striking, sword at her side and a set of armor that had clearly been custom-made for her slight frame. Nancy’s eyes flicked between the triumphant-looking woman and her husband, wondering exactly how this particular fight had gone down.
“What are you all doing here?” she asked, confused. “You can’t dive with me…”
“No, but I have a suspicion that Grimtooth might be keeping an eye on the castle,” Anna said grimly. “If he sees you heading for the lakeshore on your own, I bet he’ll capture you again… and this time it won’t be so easy to bring you back home. So you’ve got an armed guard. Should buy you some time, if they’re brave enough to attack while you’re diving.”
Nancy swallowed hard, looking around at the stern faces of the guards. They looked ready for action, tired as they were, and she felt an impulse to speak to them all.
“Thank you all, for helping me with this,” she said honestly, trying to look at each of the men’s faces in turn. “I appreciate your faith in me. I’m going to do my best to seal that burgh and make sure not a single extra goblin gets added to Grimtooth’s army.”
The men nodded and murmured their approval, and she smiled, feeling a little like an old-fashioned general who’d just made a speech to his troops on horseback. She wished she’d known they were coming, she’d have prepared some more inspirational words. But those would do. She’d thank them by getting that burgh sealed up and dealt with — that would be the best thanks of all, she suspected. One of the men offered to carry her scuba gear for her, but she politely turned him down. She felt safest with the gear in her arms, or on the back of her horse.
Speaking of… as they headed out into the mid-morning sun in the courtyard, she was delighted to see her old chestnut mare, ready and waiting for her with her saddle and bridle already on. She gave the horse a pat before attaching her scuba gear to the saddle, making sure that the air tanks in particular were safely tied… she often had nightmares of dropping one by accident and having it explode. She knew of a man who’d been killed by an accident with a faulty tank — he’d been carrying it across a parking lot, and it had exploded, not only killing him but doing a huge amount of damage to the cars around him for a huge radius. Compressed air was a serious thing… she knew how much pressure was held inside the cans. That’s why she had such a rigorous routine of checking them and stuck strictly to the replacement schedule that was recommended by the manufacturers. These, thankfully, were quite new — no risk at all of an accident like the tragedy that had killed that
man. And besides — they were checked extremely regularly for any signs of damage or weakening, and she knew she could trust them both.
Darter was waiting for them out by the gates, looking a little nervous as he stood ready to lead her down to the burgh. Brendan was with him, keeping a beady eye fixed on the little goblin… and fair enough, too. If she was him, she wouldn’t trust a goblin, even a goblin that had proved himself to be an enemy of their enemy…. after all, he hadn’t quite proved himself a friend. She hoped he would, if she was honest. She liked the little goblin, and she knew his chances weren’t good if he couldn’t convince the people of the Sept to accept his presence and care for him. Maybe he could find a home here, somehow… but all of that would have to wait, she thought, shaking her head a little to clear it. First and foremost, they had to sort out the burgh. The question of Darter’s destiny could wait… as can the question of my own, she thought worriedly, glancing up at Malcolm as they headed down the land bridge.
“The burgh is close to the castle,” Darter told her as they rode. He’d jumped aboard her horse with her, scrabbling up to sit in front of her on the horse’s neck — though the mare had rolled her eyes worriedly, Nancy had been surprised to see that she didn’t object too strongly to the little goblin’s presence. Perhaps she can sense he isn’t the same kind of goblin as the ones that tried to terrorize her and me earlier, she thought with amusement, giving the horse’s neck a reassuring pat. “If the waters weren’t so dark with peat, the burgh would be visible from the walls.”
“That’s interesting,” Nancy said thoughtfully. Perhaps that was why the castle had been built where it had been… though that might also have had to do with the convenient landform of a little island joined to the mainland by a natural bridge.
Stranded By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 2 Page 34