by Jane Stain
Kelsey knew this was Tavish giving her an opportunity to explore the secret door, so she wasted no time slipping away to go back and get it open.
It opened to a stairway going down. She held her torch down as far she could in front of her, but when that only revealed more stairs and more darkness, she went ahead and started going down, although not as fast as she might have were there light in the room. Praying that she wouldn’t stumble and fall and break her nose on the hard stone floor, she at last came to the bottom of the stairs and into a room. It was full of stuff, but rather than take the time to notice just what it was, she quickly powered up her camera and took several photos, then put it on screensaver and stuck it back in the pouch in the side of her leather backpack so she could rush back up the stairs, close the door, and run to hopefully catch up with the others before they noticed she was gone.
No such luck.
But to her amusement, it was Tavish who called out to her. She hoped only she could tell he was faking his anger.
“Where did ye go, Kelsey? Ye shouldn’t go away from the group like thon!”
Inspiration struck, and Kelsey put her hand on her abdomen.
“Och, I have na gone anywhere, it’s just that I have a wee stitch in my side. I canna gae as fast as ye can. Gae on ahead o me. I’ll make ma way at ma own pace. Surely thare canna be any danger in here, with the guards at both ends o the corridor.”
Seumas moved forward as if to help her, but Tavish held him back, still speaking as if he were angry, but unseen, he was smiling at her.
“Nay, Kelsey. Gae back and wait for us with the guards at the entrance, if ye canna keep up.”
Seumas took in a breath as if to make a case for Kelsey to come along with them.
But Tavish turned a genuinely angry look on him, and Seumas backed down.
Kelsey waved at them all and turned back to go the way she had come, saying farewell to them over her shoulder.
“Verra well. See ye at the top.”
Just before she turned around, she caught an apologetic look from Seumas and shook her head no, hoping he would let it drop.
He seemed to, because she heard them all going off the other way down the corridor behind her.
She kept on going a little ways, until she only heard them faintly and knew they’d gone around the corner. And then she went back and opened the second secret doorway. She took pictures in there with two fingers showing on her hand, so that later on when she looked at the pictures, she would know where this stuff was.
She catalogued a dozen more rooms this way. Unlike the second door room, most of them were very old bedrooms. None had any dust, because of the sophisticated yet simple air circulation system which permeated the place.
The whole time, she kept her eye out for any sign of Brian, but the only thing she noticed was that one of the beds looked slept in. She made a mental note of which room that was before she moved on.
But then the thirteenth door she came to led to a passageway that went down several flights of stairs and around corners and down long hallways—until the last secret door she opened dropped her off in the rough cave near the docks.
Sure enough, bows and quivers of arrows hung from the grooves in the walls. Tavish had been right about those grooves, and no wonder. But that didn’t bother her nearly as much as the fact that she had noisily emerged out of the wall on her hands and knees, right behind Seumas.
Aon deug
Kelsey met Tavish’s eyes, and in just a moment, with only the slightest facial expressions, they held a lengthy silent conversation.
“Hm! I’m impressed that you found your way back to us through the walls!”
“Believe me, I am too.”
“Did you find the artifact?”
“No, and I really looked hard, covering as much ground as I could.”
“It’s okay, I’ll just keep giving you opportunities to look.”
“Understood. And anyway, I’m having fun looking.”
“This is serious business, Kelsey—”
“Of course it is. Quick, do something about Seumas!”
She saw Tavish cast his glance about then, but it was too late.
Seumas turned around and made his way to her side protectively, narrowing his eyes at Tavish, who wrinkled his brow a little and playfully smirked at Kelsey while the large redheaded man lingered between them and extended his hand to her, offering to help her up.
“Kelsey! Verra glad I am to see ye made it back tae us.” He gave Tavish a sidelong glance. “Did ye stumble, Kelsey? Please, allow me tae help ye up.”
But she looked to Tavish.
Seumas got out of his way.
And Tavish came forward and tenderly helped her up. After he did, it was clear that he got just as much of a thrill holding her hand and she did his, because he lingered there, looking into her eyes and giving the back of her hand the barest caress with his fingers.
Alfred was standing there in the group with them, holding Eileen by the waist, and he cleared his throat.
“The dungeons we promisit tae show ye are around this last bend, on the other side o the docks.”
Kelsey caught an ‘I told you so’ raise of Eileen’s eyebrows, along with a warm smile of congratulations. She returned the look in kind, and Eileen’s smile changed to one of joy.
Tavish hung back with Kelsey a bit and gestured for the others to go in front of them.
“You go on ahead. We wull be there shortly.”
Seumas and Alfred took the hint and started off, but Eileen looked over her shoulder as they left and winked at Kelsey.
But just when they started walking that way, they heard shouts from the docks.
“Boats!”
“They’re coming!”
“Get the bows!”
“The MacDonalds are attacking!”
Tavish and Seumas and Alfred didn’t hesitate to grab bows and quivers from the wall and rush down to the docks, putting the quivers on their backs and drawing an arrow each while they ran.
Kelsey and Eileen stood there staring at each other, blinking.
Eileen swallowed.
“Dae ye think we shoud tak bows ower an gae help them?”
Kelsey grimaced.
“Dae ye know how tae use a bow? Because I don’t.”
Eileen shook her head.
“Nay, I dinna either.”
Meanwhile, they could hear the shouts of battle coming from the end of the hallway around the corner.
Alfred was giving orders.
“Warwick, tak the boat on the left. Seumas, tak the neist boat tae the richt o Warwick’s. Ian, the boat tae the richt o Seumas’s…”
The other men were saying “Aye,” accompanied by a lot of scuffling about, and in the distance, the MacDonalds were shouting their own orders, which the women could hear, but not really understand because of the general noise of the sea between them.
Kelsey quietly took a bow and a quiver down anyway, put the quiver on over her leather backpack, then crept over to the wall between her and the battle. She looked back to see if Eileen was going to do the same, and then waited for her.
When Eileen caught up to her, the sounds of the battle were lower and the waves breaking against the rocks seemed louder.
Eileen whispered, “Ye are na charging in there, are ye?”
Kelsey crept forward along the wall till she was almost at the bend, then turned her head back toward Eileen and waited again for her to catch up before she whispered back.
“Nay, but I am no gaun'ae juist stand around here without knowing what’s gang on ower thare.”
Eileen nodded vigorously and urged Kelsey on with a tap on the waist with the back of her hand.
Kelsey crept along the wall until she could peek around the bend, holding her torch behind her so that its light didn’t give away her location.
Tavish, Alfred, Seumas, and the other dock defenders had thrown their torches down on the smooth stone floor of the dock area and found cover
behind various rocks, where they were busy shooting one arrow after another into the dozens of men who were approaching on half a dozen lantern lit boats. Most of these men were rowing, but a few had bows out and were shooting back.
Eileen started to come around the corner by Kelsey’s side with her torch held high, but Kelsey frantically grabbed her skirt and held her back.
Tavish met Kelsey’s eyes full of fear for her, nodding urgently back toward the secret door she had just come from, silently pleading for her to please go to safety.
The moment she had waited seven years for had finally come. She saw such deep love and caring in his eyes that her heart commanded her to run to him and fall into his arms and never let go. But her head knew he had to pay attention to the battle and would only worry needlessly about her if she stuck around.
She struggled with this choice for a moment, but then another enemy arrow whizzed by and she came to her senses. Putting as much love and caring as she possibly could in her own eyes, she nodded at Tavish, then turned around and gently took Eileen by the elbows to keep her from going into the battle scene.
“There are arrows flying all places, Eileen. We canna gae oot thare.”
Eileen struggled with her.
“But we canna make it back tae the top before the invaders reach us. I’d rather dee oot thare shootin at them than feel them at ma back as I run away!”
Kelsey shook her head quickly.
“We can gae up unseen. I found a way. Come on!”
Eileen looked doubtful, but she quit struggling and followed Kelsey over to the secret door, which was down low to the floor.
Kelsey put her bow down on top of Eileen’s, handed Eileen her torch, and then wasted no time opening the secret door. With the invader’s cries getting louder and the sound of feet scrambling on the rocks ringing through the cave, the two of them got themselves, the torches, and the bows inside, and then Kelsey hurried to close the secret door again.
She and Eileen held each other for a moment and cringed, listening, but determination overtook Kelsey, and she withdrew from Eileen, slung her bow over her shoulder, picked up her torch, and started to climb the stairs—careful to hold up her long skirts with her other hand.
“Come on, let’s go get help!”
Hope bloomed on Eileen’s face then, and the weaver eagerly climbed the stairs as well.
The two women ran all the way up, went through the other secret door, and then ran up the passageway and the final stairs to the entrance guards before they all but fell on the ground, exhausted and gasping for breath while they explained.
“Dubh! Luthais! We’re under attack!”
“Please! Send more men down there!”
“Dozens o invaders are coming by boat!”
“The guards are holding them off with arrows for now, but hurry!”
Dubh and Luthais blew on the ram’s horns they had around their necks, and a runner came over and left.
A few moments later, Laird Malcomb led over dozens of kilted warriors who Kelsey recognized from supper in the castle a few hours before. They all went running down the stairs single file with their claymores strapped to their backs. Up on the sea-facing battlements, dozens more guards were rolling huge stones into the water below. Some yielded distant splashes, and others scored the satisfying sound of a boat’s floor cracking and enemy voices calling out in alarm.
Kelsey tried to get up to follow Laird Malcomb downstairs, but she had used up all her adrenaline. Her shaking legs wouldn’t cooperate. She looked over at Eileen, who wasn’t doing any better.
She’d sat there gasping for breath for a minute, trying to get her legs under her, when she felt a gentle hand on her back and turned to see the sympathetic face of Isabel, Alfred and Seumas’s mother.
“I am indebtit tae ye, Kelsey and Eileen, for coming in such earnest tae get help for my sons—even if, God forbid, they should perish.” She stood and extended a hand to each of them. “Come inside and let us await them together.”
Eileen’s children ran to greet their mother before she got halfway down the hallway to the nursery.
“Maw!”
“Maw!”
“Maw!”
“Maw!”
Once more, the small blonde woman was enveloped by her four small blond children, who hugged her various arms and legs and waist.
Kelsey and Isabel stayed back and enjoyed this scene, which while chaotic in itself was calming in contrast to the battle outside. But the battle soon intruded. Even within the thick walls of the castle fortress, they could hear the muffled voice of Alfred’s lieutenant shouting orders outside.
Isabel took Kelsey’s hand and made her way over to Eileen and the children.
“Let us crowd around the small windae i the nursery an see whit we can see, eh?”
Eileen nodded and led the way.
“Come, children.”
Kelsey and Eileen put their bows down on the table and took off their quivers and set them beside the bows.
They all crowded into the narrow arrow-slit window. Unable to move around, Kelsey’s view was limited to one section of the battlement, but it was satisfying to watch the kilted warriors there pushing their stones over the edge at the enemy boats. Eileen had a view of the soldiers rolling the stones up a ramp onto the battlement, and from time to time she would comment on that. Isabel had commanded the view of the exit from the downstairs, and she watched it silently, her face a mixture of fear and hope for her sons. All the children could see was the night sky full of billions of stars, and the women took turns picking the children up now and again so they could see what the women were talking about.
Kelsey’s breath caught.
“They’re all rushing tae ma section o the battlement!”
She was jostled as everyone tried to see what she was talking about. One of the kids managed to get in there and take her place.
“Look! They are! Everyone’s running ower thare.”
Kelsey looked at Eileen who gently pulled the child out of the way—but then Eileen herself pushed into that spot so she could see.
“This has tae mean all the boats are tryin tae dock! Get them! Get them!”
All the children joined in with their mother, yelling and screaming as if the people out there across the courtyard could hear them, and as if they would work more frantically if they did.
“Get them! Get them!”
It reminded Kelsey of the football games her parents used to attend with her at her high school. She nosed in there, pushing Eileen’s face away so she could see.
Dà dheug
The boats were coming in to land now, and Tavish’s fellow guards were rushing them, so he could no longer use his bow. He set it aside and drew his Claymore off his back.
The Rocky dock area echoed with the metal on metal ringing sounds of sword fighting—and then the stones started to fall from the cliffs above. Whoosh! Foom! Crack!
Tavish and Seumas and all their fellow guards cheered.
An answering cheer came from above—along with more of those blessed stones which were tearing the boats to shreds and even hitting a few of the attackers directly.
But there were so many enemies. They abandoned their boats and swam for the rocky shoreline, climbing over each other in their enthusiasm to raid this ancient castle.
Tavish rushed in with the other defending guards, and then he was fighting for his life—hacking and slashing his way through the bodies that scrambled up on the rocks, dodging and ducking the swords that came at him.
It went on and on and on, until he could feel himself tiring.
But all he could think about the whole time he fought the intruders was surviving long enough to get back to Kelsey so he could get her home. Why had he brought her here? The old time was far more dangerous that anything they would do to her in the new time! Yes, he’d known she’d love it here in the old time, and he’d been wishing for years that he could share this with her, but it had been selfish and stupid of
him to bring her here. What was he thinking?
Well, done was done. All he could do now was survive this so that he could get back to her—and get her home safely.
They had the high ground, up on the rocks while the enemy tried to climb up from the sea. But they were outnumbered six to one, and Tavish was just about too tired to go on fighting when he heard the battle cry of more fellow guards coming down the inner hallway through the castle toward him. His fellow guards out here on the dock heard it too, and they all let out a cheer.
This reenergized him just enough—he hoped—so that the reinforcements would get here and he wouldn’t die and leave Kelsey abandoned.
His fellow guards were almost at the docks, and he was getting ready to retreat and let them take over, when he felt a blow to the back of his head and the world went dark and quiet.
Trì deug
Kelsey, Eileen, Isabel, and all the children were cheering. All the men on the battlements had come down to the entrance to the underground castle, and the men were running out, slapping the hands of their fellow guards, not unlike sports teams did the beginning of games. They cheered even louder when they saw Seumas come out, and then again when they saw Alfred come out.
A few moments after that, Eileen and Isabel ran out the door together, presumably to go greet Isabel’s victorious sons together.
The children stayed with Kelsey.
“Where’s yer friend?”
“Did he gae doon thare with Alfred and Seumas?”
Kelsey didn’t look at them, just kept staring out the window, telling herself he would come out in any moment. He would be the next one. No, the next one. No, the one after that. The next one now.
“Aye, he shall be coming oot any moment now,” she said.
The eldest child scolded her younger brothers and sister.
“Hush, ye dafties! She’s afraid he’s dead and wull na be able tae come oot!”
Kelsey winced at that, but she didn’t dare look the little girl in the eye or say anything to her. Kelsey knew that would break the dam and let out the tears of despair that she was only barely holding in. She took a deep calming breath, telling herself there was no way she was going to be crying when Tavish came up, all triumphant after his battle.