Exiles in Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (15 page)

“
You may be right,” Cassie
said.

They reached the six-foot-high wall
that surrounded the kitchen garden. It had been built in stone to
protect the plants from the wind that swirled through the courtyard
year round, though it wasn’t blowing tonight. The garden lay on a
slight south-facing slope to make the most of whatever sun peeked
through the clouds.

Cassie pushed open the door in the
wall and came face to face with the end of a pike. Her hands came
up and she froze. Donella crouched six feet away with her weapon at
the ready.

“
Whoa.” Callum had come
through the door right behind Cassie. He pulled up too, so close to
Cassie that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her
neck.

“
Donella, it’s me.
Cassie.”

Donella hesitated for another three
seconds and then lowered her pike. “The Bruce is here.”

“
We heard,” Cassie said.
“We want to talk to the prisoner.”

Donella narrowed her eyes and looked
past Cassie to Callum. “Who’s he?”

Cassie suspected that Callum was going
to get that a lot, as long as he was with her and in Scotland.
“Callum. A friend.”

“
He a Bruce?”

“
Mackay,” Cassie
said.

Donella harrumphed at that, though
what she meant by it, Cassie didn’t know. Every Scot knew something
about every clan, good and bad, but the Mackays were from the far
north and Cassie didn’t know how much contact the Grahams would
have had with them. “Come with me,” Donella said.

This time of year, the plantings were
well under way, though still small enough that if a fire arrow came
down among them there wasn’t much to burn. So far the Bruces seemed
to be focusing on getting through the palisade. That was on the
north and northwest sides of the castle, not here to the south
where the approach was steeper and the ground fell away to an
elevation several hundred feet lower than the hill on which the
castle rested.

Donella brought Cassie and Callum to
her hut, ten feet wide and fifteen feet long. Its southern wall was
the palisade itself. The hut had a thatched roof with a hole in the
center to let out the smoke from the glowing brazier. Thick candles
set in plates lit the interior.

Callum bounded towards the man lying
on a pallet in the far corner but then pulled up, moderating his
enthusiasm at the sight of the man’s wounds. He crouched to the
floor. “Hello, Liam.”

“
A tough one, he is,”
Donella said. “They walked him here, but by the time he arrived, he
was out of his mind, raving. Alexander MacDougall wanted to kill
him rather than leave him, but Lord Patrick wouldn’t let him. I
gave him a potion that put him to sleep. The MacDougall said that
there was no point in killing a man so near death—though after the
MacDougalls left, Lord Patrick said hastening it might have been a
mercy.”

Callum took Liam’s hand in his. “I see
a lot of blood.”

“
The blood isn’t his,”
Donella said. “He took a blow to the head and it looks like he used
his forearm as a shield. I’ve splinted the arm and bound it. We’ll
see about the head when he wakes.”

“
We need to go now,” Callum
said.

Men shouted outside the hut, calling
for reinforcements on the palisade. Callum glanced up at Cassie and
she nodded that she’d heard them too. It didn’t seem as if the
palisade had been breached, but it had to happen soon.

“
What if we waited for the
Bruces to come to us?” Cassie said.

“
I don’t trust them to stop
long enough to listen,” Callum said. “They’re fired up, more so by
the minute. No—” He shook his head. “I’m getting both of you out of
here.”

“
How?” Cassie
said.

“
I’ll carry him,” Callum
said. “We can go over the wall.”

Cassie might have scoffed, but
Callum’s intensity was such that she believed he really would.
“He’s almost as big as you are, Callum.”

“
You couldn’t carry him to
Cassie’s house, much less all the way to Dundochill,” Donella
said.

“
I can walk,” Liam said and
at Donella’s gasp added, “I’ve been awake on and off for a while
now.”

Donella poked at Callum’s shoulder to
move him out of the way and then crouched beside Liam. “Tricky,
aren’t you?” She felt his forehead.

Liam brushed away her ministrations
with his good hand and reached out to Callum. “Help me up.” His
left forearm was tightly wrapped, and he held it gingerly to his
chest. “I didn’t know where I was and thought it might be better
for my health if I played I was asleep.”

Callum grasped Liam’s hand and levered
him to a sitting position. “What happened to the rest of our
company?” Callum said.

“
Dead or captured,” Liam
said.

“
I realize that, but how
many survivors were there?” Callum said.

“
A dozen,” Liam said, which
was what both Cassie and Donella had told Callum too. “Your friend,
Samuel, was among them.”

Callum let out a sharp breath. “Thank
the Lord. I was afraid to ask.”

“
We heard in the kitchen
that they’re being taken to Dunstaffnage Castle,” Cassie
said.

Donella began to shake her head, but
then she turned it into a shrug and reached for one of the salves
on the table in the center of her hut.

Cassie turned to Donella, a
questioning look on her face. Callum had noticed the healer’s odd
movement too. “What was that?” he said. “Do you know something we
don’t?”

“
Plenty,” Donella said,
with a wary look. “But that I didn’t hear.”

Cassie eyed her for a second, feeling
that Donella wasn’t being honest, but gestured to Callum to stop
him from questioning her more forcefully. “We’ll find them,” Cassie
said.

“
We will,” he
said.

Cassie acknowledged that Callum was
going to go after the prisoners, no matter the consequences, all
the way to Dunstaffnage if need be. Cassie’s next decision was
going to be whether or not she was going with him.

Liam gestured to Callum’s temple.
“Looks like you’ve had your share of trouble as well.”

“
Oh, this?” Callum’s hand
went to his head and came away with a pinpoint of blood. “It
doesn’t hurt much anymore.”

“
Let me see that.” Donella
ordered Callum to a low stool, patted at his wound with a cloth,
and then brought an oil lamp from her table so she could see
better. She turned to Cassie. “What did you put on it?”

“
Sanicle and comfrey,”
Cassie said.

Donella nodded grudgingly. She could
hardly complain. Cassie had gotten the herbs from her in the first
place. “I will treat them both again and then you should leave,”
Donella said.

“
How?” Cassie
said.

Callum peered up at Donella. “You have
a way out, don’t you? A secret way. I can tell from your
voice.”

Donella sucked on her teeth. “You know
so much, do you? Donella knows some things too.”

“
I imagine you do,” Callum
said, “but if you could hurry …”

Moving steadily, though at a faster
pace than Cassie had ever seen her use, Donella patched up Callum
and helped Liam put his arm into a sling. Then she asked Callum to
pull Liam’s pallet aside. Muttering to herself, she knocked on the
south wall of her hut and then swung open a four by four section of
it. Freedom lay beyond the wall.

“
I trust you not to tell
the Bruce of this,” she said to Cassie. “Lord Patrick trusts
you.”

“
We have nothing against
your lord.” Callum grunted as he helped Liam through the opening.
Liam was having an awkward time of it since he had only one usable
arm on which to crawl.

Cassie turned to go too, but Donella
caught her arm. “There’s no going back if you follow
him.”

Cassie froze. “What—what do you
mean?”

“
You’ve lived cozy the last
few years, but your little shell is cracked now and no amount of
daub is going to mend it,” Donella said.

Cassie leaned in closer.
Donella’s voice had taken on a singsong tone. Others had spoken of
her as having the
sight
, but her eyes looked clear to Cassie. “Donella. What are you
talking about?”

Callum poked his head back through the
hole. “You coming?”

“
Yes!” Cassie squeezed
Donella’s hand. “Thank you for your help.”

Cassie’s show of affection seemed to
surprise Donella as much as she had surprised Cassie with her
warning. “Bring me a rabbit sometime.” Donella nodded to Cassie’s
bow. “You’re good about not damaging the fur.”

“
I will.” Cassie ducked
through the hole, waited a moment for Donella to set the panel back
in place, and then ran at a crouch from the palisade to the edge of
the plateau some thirty yards away. The trees had been cut down
along its rim, but a few remained below the level of the field as
the hill fell away. Callum crouched with Liam behind some bushes.
Liam had his head down and was breathing hard.

“
I’m not entirely sure what
to do next,” Callum said. “Do we go to Stirling, or should we try
to do something about this little war the MacDougalls have
started?”

“
Do you think Robert Bruce
would listen to you?” Liam knelt in the grass, holding his wounded
arm with his good hand

“
He might,” Callum said,
“but can we really walk up to the rear of the Bruce force and
introduce ourselves? They’ll attack us on sight.”

“
If it’s really the Bruces
who’ve come, then Robbie could be with them,” Cassie
said.

“
That’s a good point,”
Callum said. “I’d like to think that he would listen to
me.”

“
Whatever we do, we can’t
stay here.” Cassie glanced back to Mugdock Castle. What had Donella
meant about Cassie following Callum?

A great shout came up from the outer
bailey. “Sounds like they’ve breached the palisade,” Callum said.
“That’ll keep both sides busy for a while.”

“
We can follow the cliff
around the edge of the loch,” Cassie said. “Once we’re away from
the castle, then we can decide what to do.”

“
Lead on,” Callum
said.

So Cassie did. The going was rough:
Lord Patrick had deliberately encouraged the growth of vegetation
around the loch so as to discourage an army from trying to do
exactly what they were doing. Fortunately, the moon had risen and
the clouds had cleared, so they had light to see by. Even so, ruts
and holes in the ground that lay in shadow tripped them up. They
had to walk nearly a mile, which was a good half hour of effort and
more than Liam could afford. Callum was holding up well,
considering he’d spent the day in bed too, but Liam was more
seriously injured than he. He held onto Callum’s shoulder with his
good hand and winced painfully every few steps as the movement
jarred both his arm and his head.

They reached a point within a hundred
yards of the outer pickets of the Bruce camp before they stopped to
regroup. Cassie was in favor of walking right up to the soldiers
guarding the perimeter, but neither Callum nor Liam thought that
was a good idea.

“
Why don’t I just talk to
them?” Cassie said.

Callum moved to one side, a step away
from Liam, and lowered his voice. “No.”

“
I pose no threat.” She
spoke in modern English.

Callum scoffed at her. “There’s no way
I’m letting you walk up to those men all by yourself.”

Cassie glared at him. “I’ve lived on
my own here for years. Don’t you think I’ve learned how to handle
myself around soldiers by now?”

“
Maybe you have,” Callum
said, “and maybe you’ve learned not to fear, but we would fear for
you and we’d be too far away to help you if the men were to capture
you and bring you into their camp.”

“
That’s what we want
though, right?” Cassie said. “We need to find Robbie Bruce, or at
the very least, his father.”

Callum shook his head. “No. We should
all go together.” He switched back to Gaelic, turning away from
Cassie so as to include Liam in their conversation. “You and I will
help Liam to walk between us and he can hobble and moan and pretend
to be more ill than he is.”

“
I don’t think I will have
to pretend much,” Liam said.

Cassie agreed, albeit reluctantly, and
they did as Callum suggested. Four men guarded the entrance to the
camp and spotted the trio the moment they stepped from the trees.
Two came forward to meet the three companions before they’d crossed
half the cleared space that separated the camp from the
trees.

“
Halt!” One of the soldiers
barked the order. “Put your hands where we can see
them!”

Liam, of course, had only one hand to
raise. Cassie and Callum compromised by propping Liam between them
and holding up one hand each.

The second soldier stepped closer.
“Who are you?”

“
My name is Callum. I was
one of the men who rode with Bishop Kirby, Robbie Bruce, and James
Stewart. I am King David’s emissary to the throne of
Scotland.”