by Amy Isan
Where she didn’t have to worry about the well running dry, or winter setting in too early and the highlands always straddled the line between spring and summer. Where cool breezes cascaded off the loch, and tickled her wind-burnt cheeks as she threaded her arm through Gavin’s.
And he would take her quietly in the night, his hand touching the small of her back where it only grazed the small hairs. Where she was never left without shivers rocking up her spine, and blushing cheeks from Gavin’s blue eyes catching hers.
In reality, she shivered and fought away the chill of the air. She heard groaning outside the carriage, and after her heart started racing, realized it must’ve been Katrine. She slipped out of the carriage and found her where she left her, bundled up in the blankets with a bit of frost tickling the edge of the grass. The moon hung in the sky like a bright jewel, illuminating them both and giving their shadows life. Elyn pitied the Lady, and felt her heart tear a little for feeling any sympathy for someone who she thought of as wicked. Elyn untied the rope securing Katrine to the wheel, and lifted her up. Katrine stirred, but the grip of her dreams or nightmares kept her from rousing to full awareness.
Elyn lifted Katrine into the carriage and laid her down on the cold wood. Anything was better than the frozen ground outside. She gathered the blankets she had left and put them back over Katrine, feeling a bit of her guilt fade away with Katrine not groaning so pitifully any longer.
She took a moment to take a drink of water. She planted her hands into her hips and craned her neck upward. The moon was near the horizon, and looked as big as the mountain that cradled it. Elyn imagined the same moonlight shining down on Gavin, and his shadow just as big as hers. She inhaled the chilled air and let it fill her lungs, burning her throat and nose with icy tendrils.
As she moved back to the carriage, she stroked each of the horses. They were huddled near each other, and felt warm to the touch. They seemed to be doing alright considering how bad Katrine was doing.
Elyn turned into the carriage and found Katrine still sleeping soundly. She curled up on the floor and pulled the blankets back over herself, and thought about her plan.
She would infiltrate Iverlochy, disguised as Katrine. They looked similar enough, and she was sure she could mimic her voice easily. Then, if Maxwell did intend to truly marry Gavin and Katrine, she would be married in her place, securing their bond. After that... she didn’t know. It was a start though. Plus, she couldn’t wait to see the look on Robert’s face when he found out the truth of what he had done.
But what would she do about Katrine in the meantime? That was the question that plagued Elyn’s mind as she dozed back off, her eyes fluttering shut and the image of Katrine’s sleep stained on her eyelids.
***
Elyn woke in shock as a weight pressed down on her chest, knocking the wind out of her. She stared up through blurry eyes as they focused on Katrine, sitting on top of her, holding the sword’s tip right above Elyn. Katrine’s hands were gripping the sword with feverish adrenaline, shaking and making the pointed tip hover in and out of Elyn’s line of sight. Elyn’s heart pounded in her ears.
“I thought ye were a fool but I didnae know how much of one,” Katrine said. Her voice didn’t shake or hesitate at all, as if she had been rehearsing. “Killing ye when you were sleepin’ just wouldn’t have the same flavor.”
Elyn narrowed her eyes and struggled to move her arms out from under Katrine’s thighs. Katrine tightened her grip and grunted, before pushing the blade closer to Elyn’s neck.
Elyn froze up and didn’t dare to move. She stared up at Katrine’s dark eyes and breathed quietly. “Donae do this.”
“Why not? Should I not kill my kidnapper? Wouldn’t ye have done the same if ye weren’t a fool?”
“No.”
Katrine glared, but didn’t answer.
Elyn continued, being careful to choose her words and not talk too quickly. “I’ve killed men, but it haunts me. I donae ever forget their horror-stricken faces in the last moment when they realize they’re going to die. I canae stand seeing them anymore. I would never want to add to that list.”
“I donae believe ye. Who have ye killed?”
Elyn looked around, thinking. The blade had been cold at first, but was warming against her neck. “Too many. The first time was an accident, and I try not to think of it. Donae do this, Katrine.”
Katrine hesitated, and Elyn felt the pressure from the sword lift for a small second. She pushed it close again, and shook her head. “What about Dominic? Wouldnae ye just like to kill him? For making ye suffer?”
“Aye. Of course I would, but that satisfaction donae last. It donae stay with ye. The pain does though, it never leaves.”
They met each others’ eyes for what felt like forever to Elyn. She timed her breath so the blade was lifted higher each interval, trying to stay calm and keep her heart from making her voice shake and betray her fear. Adrenaline coursed through her, and she felt it was almost too much to bear. Tension grew thick in the air, and the carriage felt dewy and humid.
“Ye just gonna kill me when we get to Iverlochy anyway!” Katrine cried.
“No! I’m not! I donae think yer a bad person, Katrine, maybe just... influenced by the wrong people.”
“Like who?” Katrine asked. Elyn frowned, and Katrine continued reluctantly, “...my father...”
Elyn nodded slightly, only moving an inch.
Katrine looked pained, and she pulled the blade away from Elyn’s neck. Elyn gasped for air as Katrine climbed off her, before throwing the sword aside and collapsing into a heap. She cried and tried to wipe away her tears as they came, but they came too fast and heavy. Elyn sat up and crawled over to Katrine, putting her arm around her and cradling her. She didn’t see Katrine Maxwell, daughter of the horrid Robert, crying, but Sheena, or someone that Elyn should be taking care of. As much as she wanted to be angry and upset at her, she couldn’t bring herself to. She stroked Katrine’s hair and shushed her, doing her best to soothe her. To comfort her in a way that her ma had when Elyn had injured herself when she was a young. At least some things could be helped.
Elyn stared ahead through the carriage and saw dust kicking up in the distance. The bandits. Elyn let go of Katrine and retrieved the sword, before getting ready to step out of the carriage.
“Wh-what are ye doing?” Katrine said. She sniffed and dried her eyes.
“Those men are back to harass us again. Can I trust ye with a weapon? Ye won’t turn on me again?”
Katrine nodded. Elyn pointed to one of the containers in the back. “I think I saw a sword in there, grab it and make yerself useful. One of them should have a lame leg, so he won’t be much of a threat. I hope.”
Elyn stepped down and out of the carriage, standing with her legs apart and her sword ready. She didn’t want to have to kill anyone, but if it came to it, she would. At the end of the day, she’d never forget the men she had killed, but she also couldn’t stomach the thought of the only other option: being killed herself.
The dust cleared a bit and the pounding hooves grew louder. The two men rode briskly, and even from the distance, Elyn could see the fury in their eyes. One of them had a leg bound in crude branches, tied off with rope. His leg was bowed and stuck out as they bounced along, before catching up to the carriage and the women.
They brought their horses to a stop, kicking up one last plume of dust into the air. The men stared on at them, and Elyn gripped her sword tighter. She prepared herself, just as she heard Katrine climbing down from the carriage with a short sword in her hands. She wielded it with strange grip, her left hand placed above her right.
“I thought I told ye to stay away!” Elyn barked. She raised her sword. “I’ll cripple ye other leg if you’d like.”
“Nay,” the uninjured man said. He held up his hands in surrender. “We donae want any more trouble. Stewart is hurt and I canae help him myself.”
“What are ye sayin’? Ye want our help?” Elyn asked.
Stewart, the injured man, nodded solemnly. He looked as if he were a dog that had been kicked. “This is the best we could do.”
“It looks terrible,” Elyn said.
“We figure the least ye could do for breakin’ his leg is fix it!” the second man said. He raised his voice, but it didn’t carry any anger in it. “We’re clearly used ta attackin’ farmers, which ye aren’t, it’s obvious as the sky now.”
Elyn didn’t back down. She repositioned her grip on her sword and braced herself. “Why should we trust ye? What clan are ye with?”
“Clan?” The man looked at Stewart. “We aren’t in no clan —,”
Stewart interrupted, “if ye want our names ye can have ‘em. We’re the Cirlc brothers. I’m Stewart and he’s Gregary.”
Katrine held her hands up, “Wait — why are ye here again? Weren’t ye trying to attack us?”
Gregary frowned and looked sincere. He went down to one knee and hung his head low, biting his lip and crossing his chest with his hand. “I deeply regret that — If ye want the truth, we were cast out of our clan when we let some reivers get away with a handful of cattle... My brother and I have been out in these miserable moors for the last two months. So when we saw the carriage, I guess we snapped, thinking, if the reivers could do it, why couldnae we? It was time to start exercising our ruthlessness.”
Katrine whistled. “Beggars and homeless. Why shouldnae we just finish ye off and put ye out of your misery?” Elyn looked at her and saw shadow of a smile cross her lips, which Gregary couldn’t see with his head hung low.
He apologized again. “We’ll do anything. If ye just take care of my brother and let us ride in the carriage for a bit. Anything.”
Elyn felt a thrill at the idea. A solution to her problem after all. “Anything?”
“Yes,” Gregary said. He looked up and Elyn lowered her sword.
“I guess I did do a number on yer brother. We need protection on our way to Iverlochy — I donae know any other bandits who would turn themselves into the MacDonald Clan like that.”
Gregary rose to his feet with a broad smile on his face. He quickly moved over to Stewart and his horse and helped his brother down. “Here, help me carry him.”
Elyn stepped forward and lifted Stewart’s legs into the air. She and Gregary hauled him near the carriage and set him on the grass.
“I donae have a lot of experience with breaks, but there must be something in the carriage,” Elyn said. “Katrine, go look.”
Katrine climbed inside and started digging around through the crates, spilling out boxes and barrels full of bread and furs. Gregary and Stewart stared ahead while Elyn examined Stewart’s leg. She cut the rope holding the branches to his limb, and pulled them apart. His leg was swollen, but most of the damage looked like it was on the surface.
She sucked in air and carefully brushed her hand over his swollen calf. He gasped in shock, balling his hand into a fist and pounding it against the cold dirt. “Dammit!”
“Shush,” Elyn said. She looked to Katrine who had ducked out of the carriage holding cloth bandages and some thin planks of wood. “This is all I could find.”
“It’ll work,” Elyn said. She took them and laid the supplies near Stewart’s leg. “This’ll be better than what ye had, but I canae cure this. If we can get ye to Iverlochy, they might be able to take care of ye.” She wrapped his leg with the tanned cloth and tightened the bandage into a knot, before splinting the injury with the planks and tying it off with some twine. He winced and wiped his brow, his gaze having been fixed up into the sky during the procedure. He admired the work, twisting his leg gently and looked to see if it was completely covered.
“Thank ye,” Stewart said. His brother helped him up with a pull of his hand and they stood together, looking a bit embarrassed. “I donae know what we can do to repay ye.”
“Take us to Iverlochy, like I said,” Elyn said, placing her hands on her hips. “If ye can do that, I’ll make sure Gavin MacKenzie welcomes ye into our clan.”
“In the highlands?” Gregary said. “I’ve never been up there.” He fixed his eyes on the distant horizon.
“Let’s get going,” Elyn said. “I’m sure we have another day’s ride ahead of us.”
After tying the horses to the carriage, Stewart climbed inside to rest. Gregary took up the spot near Elyn at the front. Gregary gave her a brief smile before staring ahead again, and Elyn felt a twinge of sympathy for him. A lowlander with no home to call his own, a not entirely unfamiliar feeling for her.
***
The day’s ride was uneventful, but arduous. The carriage climbed back out of the valley that the lowlands resided in, and the familiar mountains and breeze of the highlands greeted Elyn and her companions. For some of them, the first time in their lives. To Elyn, the previously familiar peaks broadened and revealed craggy hills. Stewart and Katrine talked quietly in the back of the carriage, occasionally bursting into fits of laughter. It warmed Elyn’s heart to hear laughter again.
Elyn felt her chest tightening throughout the trip, feeling Gregary’s closeness only pained her to think about how far away Gavin was. She refused to think of her plan not working, but she wasn’t sure how she’d go through with it with Gregary and Stewart on her plate now. She was silent, until Gregary broke the tension.
“You mentioned a Gavin... but I donae know who that is.”
Elyn looked at him, a bit confused. It was the first time anyone had asked who Gavin was, and maybe, the first time someone didn’t want to kill him. “Laird of the MacKenzie Clan, and my husband-to-be.”
Gregary whistled. “So he’s got a castle and such, yeah?”
“Aye.” Elyn thought for a moment, deciding what she would say.
“Who’s the other woman? Katrine?”
“Katrine of Kinfauns Castle of the Maxwell Clan.”
“Maxwell...?”
The horses sputtered their lips and shook their heads, lashing their manes through the air. Elyn glanced at Gregary. “Do ye know the name?”
“It’s familiar, maybe I heard of them from our clan.” Gregary stroked his beard.
Elyn shrugged. “I doubt it was very good things ye heard, considering the trouble they’ve put me in my entire life.”
Elyn sighed and loosened her grip on the reins. The horses felt her hesitation and began to slow, so she pulled them taut once more. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and met Gregary’s, who seemed oblivious to all that had happened in the highlands. How he couldn’t have felt any of the effects of it, and that Elyn had never considered that kind of disconnect before. Surely everyone knew what had happened, didn’t they? She breathed deep and began to tell him what she and Gavin had uncovered, and the trap they had both walked into. As she spoke, she realized she wasn’t just telling Gregary what had happened, but was explaining herself to Katrine, even if Katrine didn’t quite realize it. Elyn hoped she might, otherwise executing her plan in Iverlochy was going to be a lot more dangerous. Maybe Gregary would come in handy after all.
In the distance, Castle Iverlochy’s shadowy outline appeared over the crest of a hill. The looming figure was murky and unclear, but unmistakeable nevertheless. Elyn pointed across the vast distance. “There it is, Iverlochy. Shouldn’t be much longer now.”
“What are ye going to do there?”
Elyn bit her lip and peered back into the carriage to see if Katrine was listening. Her and Stewart were asleep, their heads resting on each other.
“I need to impersonate her, because she’s supposed to marry Gavin. I’m sure it’s the only way I’ll get into the castle without being killed. The only reason I was kidnapped, as far as I can tell, was to keep Gavin from resisting. This is probably my only chance.”
Gregary nodded. “Will she agree to that?”
“I donae think so.”
***
The sun was low in the sky when they made their final approach to Iverlochy. With dusk setting in, Elyn decided it was now or never to e
xecute her plan. She gave the reins to Gregary and climbed into the back of the carriage to rouse Katrine. She couldn’t just kill her, after all.
Katrine woke and groaned as she stretched her arms. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “What is it?”
“We’re here, and I have to ask ye something.”
Katrine narrowed her eyes, but her sleepiness took away any hope she had of looking cold or intimidating. “Aye?”
“I need to get into the castle and see Gavin. I need you to let me impersonate ye.”
Katrine’s eyes widened as the question sunk in, and she scowled. “Why would I let ye do that? If we’re here, I can just have my father’s men kill you.”
“Ye won’t though. I know that. Ye aren’t that kind of person.”
Katrine glared. “How do ye know what kind of person I am?” Her voice startled Stewart awake, and she glanced at him with her knitted brow. He recoiled and turned away, a scowl on his face. “You. You’re just some commoner who thinks she’s royalty. I’m the one who deserves this, I deserve to marry Gavin.”
Elyn sighed, and glanced at Gregary. “I’m sorry, Katrine, I really didnae want it to come to this.”
“Come to what? Are ye gonna kill me? After everything ye told me?”
“No, but I canae have you being so unpredictable. Ye donae even know yerself.” Gregary crawled into the back of the carriage and sidled up next to Elyn. She nodded to him. “Do it.”
Gregary lunged forward and snatched up Katrine’s wrists, who tried to fight him off. She screamed as loud as she could, and Stewart yelled.
“Get off of her Gregary! What are ye doing!”
Gregary shook his head. “We have to help Elyn, she’s the only one who’ll give us a home again.”
“B-but —,”
“Just do it, grab her legs!” Gregary grunted as he pulled Katrine’s wrists together and twisted a rope around them. Stewart reluctantly seized up Katrine’s ankles and bound them together. Katrine fumed and groaned, and Elyn took an extra square of tan cloth used for Stewart’s brace and stuffed it into her mouth. Katrine’s cries for help were muffled, but her eyes were as furious and filled with fire as ever. Elyn frowned.