I laughed. “My father and I are of a different mind on the way tae comport oneself when traveling, though I daena want tae look an English Jack-a-dandy. I much prefer tae look a highlander when in the highlands.”
“Have ye been here afore?”
“Nae, but my father has told me so many stories I feel I have lived through it all.”
“Your father was one tae tell a story. Twas many a night I listened tae him tell of fights and— I am sorry tae hear of his passin’.”
I pushed my plate away. “I was thinkin’ on taking a walk around the castle. My father told me a great deal. I was hopin’ tae see it.”
“Just daena go tae the west walls, they are being built and there is a danger of having a chisel fall on yer head if ye get too close.”
One of the other men complained. “I will be glad when the clangin’ of the construction is over, it has been a racket for a verra long time.”
Thirty-five - Magnus
I left the Great Hall and crossed the courtyard tae the west walls. Under some scaffolding I found piles of rocks and some tools strewn about, includin’ a chisel and a hammer that I took for my own project.
I then skirted the courtyard tae the familiar stair. The one I would take with Kaitlyn, the route from the Great Hall tae the upper floors.
I remembered one of the last times I was there, our discussion as we climbed the steps —
You’re looking around at everything thinking about having sex there? This is all so scandalous.
Aye, see that table? Your arse would look verra beautiful bent over it.
Master Magnus, I believe you are drunk!
See that corner? I could spread your legs there. I think ye wouldna argue on it.
She had pointed at the window, remembering a time with me that I dinna ken and I had dismissed it as painful, but this was Kaitlyn, my Kaitlyn, remembering me. I longed for a chance tae tell her the joy it gave me tae ken she always wanted me in any year. I should have thanked her for it. I would, if I was ever able tae find my way tae her again.
I had seen Balloch Castle in the far off future and twas a ruin. Hammie had shewn me the images. I had studied them.
I had felt dismay at the time: Balloch was nae a home anymore. Once fortified and invincible, in the future twas only stone walls crumbling. Overtaken by trees and grass, the human endeavor dissolvin’ intae the earth.
It had been hard tae look upon, but I had made myself look, tae see what the future held. Was good practice for me tae ken that I was mortal and would turn tae dust some day. I had long been thinkin’ I could jump past m’own fate.
And my lookin’ at the images had taught me something: that high wall, the one on the east side, the one that had taken the brunt of the damage from the weapons of the future, had been rebuilt and of the ruins twas the highest wall still standin’ in the year 2382. Twas the wall that I had climbed with Kaitlyn the last night we had slept here taegether, and we had each other there.
We had laughed. She had been verra talkative, full of me and love and warmth, and losing her breath with it all and I had a view of her against the high starry sky and she had dazzled me more than the heavens that night.
I climbed the wooden steps, once a ladder, now built stronger, surer, but I kent that even these would nae last long. I arrived at the verra top of the highest wall.
Here, where we had once lain taegether, we had talked of the skies. I told her of the sureness of it. She told me of the vastness, and we decided taegether, whatever our view, whenever our location, twas always the same sky.
We found a comfort in that wherever we were we were both of us under it.
I found our spot, the exact point of that high wall and crouched there.
I love ye, I thought as I began tae strike chisel tae the stone.
Thirty-six - Kaitlyn
I woke slowly, the agony was familiar. The storm dissipated as I struggled to fully wake myself. After a time jump was the grogginess of a deep hangover, plus more, full body agony and wretchedness. If I had known my future would be full of it I probably wouldn’t have been so flippant with my health all those party nights. That being said, just after a time jump, what I really needed was a stiff drink.
The hypocrisy was freaking real.
My head was on the foot rest of the ATV. My body lay in the dirt beside it. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure where I was. Usually when I time-jumped to Balloch I landed in the woods to the east, but the world had probably changed a lot in 600 years. I guessed the forest was mostly gone.
I was in a grassy sort of plain and on first look didn’t see anything familiar. Captain Warren was beside me. I jostled him with my knee. “Hey, Warren, get up.”
He groaned and sort of pushed me away.
I said it again, “Captain Warren, get up. We’re near the castle and it’s probably dangerous and you’re supposed to be protecting me.”
He groaned again and sat up. “I forgot how awful it is.”
I jiggled Hayley’s foot and Zach’s leg. “Guys, get up, we gotta move.” They groaned and started sitting up.
“I know it sucks. Captain Warren, where did you go before?”
“Greece, Russia, mostly to gather antiquities.”
“That sounds fun.” I lurched to my feet and stiffly straightened in my heavy bullet-proof vest and helmet.
He looked around groggily. “Follow me.” He and I jumped on an ATV, and took the lead, driving into the shade-cover of the closest trees.
We were somewhat hidden at the edge of the woods, but Captain Warren looked all around as we drove, keeping an eye out for trouble.
I asked, “Which way is Balloch Castle?”
“Tae the north, and Magnus’s castle is that way.” He thumbed the direction he had been watching. There was a far off rumble and the earth shook.
“Fighting over there. Follow me.” He spun our ATV in a circle and Zach pulled his in behind ours. We raced through the woods, winding through trees and over brush. It wasn’t far, but our engines made a racket, and now that I was looking I recognized the mountains and although the woods were thinner, more sparse, even the landscape seemed familiar.
Thirty-seven - Kaitlyn
We pulled up at the edge of the forest and climbed off the vehicles. “Oh. I mean, wow, that is… so ruined.” My stomach hurt at the sight of Balloch. Where are all the people? The family that we loved? Magnus? Where are the lives that made up the interior of this building?
It was as if the living breathing people had held up the roof and firmed up the walls and when they were gone the monument to their lives had crumbled in their absence.
It wasn’t just ‘as if’. It was exactly that.
My family and friends had died and the building had mostly collapsed.
It was like seeing the ruins of Lord Delapointe’s castle but so much more terrible, heart-wrenching, and weird.
This had been the Campbell stronghold. The seat of the clan. And Balloch Castle was left here derelict, trashed, all but forgotten.
Hayley asked, “Is that the same castle? The same one we were staring at for days? It looked so new, now it looks so old. It’s freaking crazy how this works.”
Captain Warren, not noticing my sadness, climbed off his ATV, and rifled through the bag. He passed out more guns, making sure we were all armed and ready, and then he slung the bag across his shoulder.
After looking in all directions, he decided it was clear and led us in a jog across the empty fields to the broken down wall that used to be the front gate.
It began to rain. The thick clouds overhead let loose in what could only be called a deluge. There was no getting out of it, because there was not really a roof left anywhere. The courtyard was stone with grass busting through, walls covered in ivy, like a temple in the rainforest, flourishing under this weather. This castle had been taken over by Mother Nature and was almost unrecognizable without the people, the attention and care — the shelter.
I stood under a half-
roof near the gate and tried to figure out where to put the vessel to turn on the homing button, but logically the courtyard didn’t make sense. It would be found out here in the open. The trouble was if I put it in the woods it might never be found.
I didn’t know if it would work inside one of the rooms. We had always jumped from outside, except the one time when we jumped from the prison at Delapointe’s castle, but what if I left the vessel in one of the rooms and it was found or it didn’t work? I needed it to be somewhere outside.
Hayley said, “So where are you going to put it? I don’t mean to pressure you but it’s wet as hell out here.”
“I don’t know… now that I’m here this seems so…”
I took stock of the ruined building, walls dripping with rain, all that was left were the two tower staircases on the east side with the high walls, the ones where Magnus and I made love up there, at the top, that night.
It was sort of awesome that those were the high walls on the half of the building that was still standing and—
wait.
I pointed. “That’s where we need to go, up there.”
Thirty-eight - Magnus
There was a flat pale gray stone. I judged it for the length of what I intended tae write. I began with the letter I, chiselin’ the line straight and sure and deep, with a clink, clink, clank, though when I was done twas just a line, nae a message. I gave it a space and began on the letter N. When I got tae the letter E, a night watch came and asked what I was about. I explained that I was tae write words in the wall and since he couldna read, he left me alone about it.
I had the D and the next E in nae time. Below it I wrote A. And then I began the next word with a V…. So that after about an hour I finished. I sat back on my heels and took stock of it. It was there and I wondered if I should also put it in another place. What next? Waiting? For how long would I have tae wait? I had a cloth with me, I rubbed it along the cuts, then spent a few more moments carvin’ deeper for the V, smoothin’ the S. Until finally I kent that was the best it would be and I prayed tae God it was enough.
Thirty-nine - Kaitlyn
We climbed the steps covered in dark-stained stones with moss in the cracks. I passed the window seat where my husband, as old Magnus, had taken me on the sill, 600 years ago. My ass had been here. I sighed, it was so odd to think of it from here, now, so ancient.
The circular tower stair was crumbled at the top and there was no cover and rain poured down on us. We passed the floor that had our bedroom on it. For a half minute I thought, I could put a vessel there, maybe under the bed, that would be — but as I stepped out onto the half-gone floor, the rest of the floor clinging to one wall because the other wall was completely gone, there was a crumbling noise and a brick near my foot loosened.
Hayley gasped.
Captain Warren grabbed my arm and yanked me back to the safe stair. “Too dangerous, Queen Kaitlyn.”
I peered through the rain. Our doorway would have been down the hall and around the corner; it looked like it wasn’t there anymore.
“Yeah, you’re right, okay, yeah, we’ll go to the top.”
We climbed another floor and came out on the very top of the walls.
I said, “See all of that wall? That had to be rebuilt after Samuel sent an army to the past and fought us.” I pointed. “This whole wall was crumbled. Drones attacked, the Campbells were fighting back with their old-time weapons. Funny that now it’s the one wall that’s left standing…” I trailed off.
Zach said, “That’s so crazy to think about. Right here?”
“Yep, and I guess that’s probably why it’s still standing, because it had to be rebuilt, because of us.” I looked to the right, the wooden ladder that we had climbed to the highest walls was, of course, gone, but now there was a stone stairway, built after Magnus and I, but now so old.
I led them to the steps, so steep and dangerous they made my vertigo kick in just thinking about stepping on them, and we climbed, and then at the top of the walls, the view was crazy, big, wide, and very very wet.
He said, “Stay down, Queen Kaitlyn.” I ducked, though the surrounding area looked quiet, wet, primordial, like an ancient wet forest.
He said to Hayley and Zach, “You two stay here behind this wall, you have a view down the stairs and behind us to the front gate. Shoot first, ask questions later.”
Zach nodded. “Let’s all remember that I’m a chef, not sure what I’m doing here with weapons in some ruined castle in the future. But I will do my best to be a soldier. Even though I’m just a chef.”
Hayley joked, “I’m literally just a bestie who likes CrossFit. You and your brother taught me how to shoot and ride ATVS and that’s literally the only skills I’ve needed so far, so you’ll be fine.”
Captain Warren and I left them behind and headed further down the wall. There were long distances with nothing to hide behind so we hurried to a place with protection about halfway across the expanse.
I peeked over the parapet. “Is that Magnus’s castle over there?” I pointed past the trees. “Shit there’s smoke and helicopters and a—” An explosion blew up in woods past the castle, the ground vibrated.
“Yes, that’s Castle Don…” He checked his weapon, watching the fighting in the distance, a tank riding along a road, drones swooping.
He said, “I need to contact — give me a minute.” He used a two-way radio to make a call. I sat quietly waiting for him, but he kept talking longer, then put a finger up for more time, and I got bored.
I hand-gestured to Hayley and Zach that I was going farther down the wall.
I crouch-crawled a distance away, toward the place where Magnus and I made love.
I put my hand there on that spot. In real time it wasn’t all that long ago, weeks maybe? But in the timeline of history 600 years of sun and storm had washed any traces of us away.
This would be a good place. I could leave a vessel here. It would create a storm overhead and no one would come up to check for it.
Magnus, if he was at Balloch Castle, if he noticed the storm, and he would — he would probably—
That’s when I saw it: carved letters on the stone. A stone that was mossy green, but with chisel marks like it was an old gravestone or a historic marker. The first thing I noticed was a deep arrow pointing down. I rubbed my finger on it. These hadn’t been there the night we made love here, they would’ve been within my field of vision.
They weren’t there.
There were letters to the left and right of the V. And below it…
An M.
My heart raced as I used my sleeve to rub the dirt and wet off the stone to make out the letters that had been carved there until I made it out…
I NEDE
A VESEL
M
Oh my god.
Magnus.
I held my fingers there and then I pressed my hand against them. He had touched this. He chiseled this.
Oh my god.
These letters had been there through all these years to reach me, here and — oh my god.
I couldn’t go fast enough. I rifled through my pack for one of the vessels. I glanced over at Captain Warren, still on the radio, his head hanging, the news must not be good.
Hayley called through the rain, her voice muffled from distance and weather, way down at the far end of the wall. “What did you find?”
“A message! From Magnus!”
I found one of the vessels and — I wasn’t sure this was the best place, but Magnus left me the message here. He needed one and I had one. I needed to stop thinking, stop trying to decide, and do this thing.
I twisted the ends of the vessel and set it ready to jump and then, like Lady Mairead had told me, added two numbers to the sequence and set the dial’s status to ‘homing’, pushed the button, and put it on the —
There was a loud gunshot from the direction of the trees. I threw myself down and looked over at Captain Warren as he slumped forward over his knees then rol
led to the side, a bloom of red blood flowing from him.
Oh no no nnnnnnnnoooooo oh no oh no. I scrambled to the low parapet wall and clung hidden behind it.
He was ten feet away, laying still. “Captain Warren? Are you okay?”
Zach called, “Is Captain Warren okay?”
“I don’t think so!”
He said, “Stay down then! Shit, let me think!”
I got out my gun and held it in both hands, clutched to my chest.
The vessel was lying about five feet in the other direction. If I tried to retrieve it I would be exposed.
The markings around the middle glowed and there was vibration from the energy of it. It was warming up, the storm was coming. I wanted to race to the stairwell before it hit. I needed to get out of here, but I couldn’t.
There was no way I could crawl all the way to the stairs, part of the way there wasn’t a wall to hide behind. I didn’t know who was out there and where they were and I couldn’t get to Captain Warren to see if he was hurt or please don’t be — dead.
A bank of clouds built above us, wind whipped my hair and made it impossible to see. It was loud as shit.
All I could do was just hunker down. Zach’s voice a fair distance away, “Katie! Can you crawl here?”
“I can’t it’s too unprotected!”
A giant storm surged directly on top of me whipping and roaring. It made it impossible to hear, to see, to even think.
Forty - Magnus
It was beginnin’ tae get dark. I had been sitting beside my message watchin’ on it but twas just idle. What was I goin’ tae do, wait for 600 years while starin’ at it?
Now that I had done it I dinna ken what came next…
Under the Same Sky (Kaitlyn and the Highlander Book 7) Page 13