Exiles in Time (The After Cilmeri Series) (24 page)

“
Callum!” Samuel said.
“Someone’s coming!”

Callum swung around.

“
I hear running feet,”
Samuel said.

“
Go! Go on!” Callum tossed
his friend the leading reins.

Samuel caught them in midair. James
dug his heels into his horse’s sides, clutching John to his chest.
Though Samuel would have waited with Callum, Callum slapped the
horse’s rump and got it moving too.

The horses disappeared around a
hillock. Samuel couldn’t have been comfortable at that pace with
his wounded leg, but the horses were Scottish, not war horses. They
were bred to the hills. They wouldn’t let the men down and could
start to move even faster as they descended into the village. The
starless darkness on the western horizon threatened to swallow all
light completely, but the moon took that moment to shine out
brightly. It would allow them to see where they were going for a
little way at least.

Callum stepped off the path and
crouched down. The trees were sparse up here and he was counting on
his stillness to hide him from the sight of whoever was coming. The
patter of feet came closer and as he listened, Callum realized that
the noise came from a single runner. He straightened and stepped
into the road. “It’s me!” He caught Cassie by the arms as she
barreled into him.

“
God! You scared me!”
Cassie gasped for breath. “We need to keep moving. How far ahead
are the others?”

“
I just sent them on—a
matter of minutes,” Callum said.

Cassie looked behind her, and they
both stilled to listen. “I don’t hear anything,” Callum
said.

“
That doesn’t mean they’re
not on their way,” Cassie said. “They followed me east for a little
way, but then it looked as if I hadn’t convinced them sufficiently.
I shot one. Once they figure out that nobody is shooting at them
anymore, they’ll come after us. I’m out of arrows.”

“
If they come, they come,”
Callum said. “Can you keep running?”

“
Of course.” Cassie
said.

Callum accepted her assessment. Few
qualities in a woman were more attractive than quiet competence,
something which Cassie had in abundance. “If we hurry, we can catch
James and Samuel before they reach the village,” he
said.

Callum and Cassie set off, but it
seemed the horses had moved more quickly than Callum had thought
they might. Cassie and he approached within half a mile of the
village and still hadn’t caught up with them. Callum slowed. “Could
they have taken another path?” he said.

“
There is no other path,”
Cassie said.

Then Samuel stepped from a stand of
trees near the river where the terrain flattened out.
“Callum!”

Cassie and Callum hurried to greet
him. James remained on his horse with John. “His breath is more
shallow,” said James.

“
We’ve made it to the
village,” Callum said. “Let’s see if we’re welcome.”

A river ran from a northwestern loch
to a second loch further east. The village nestled between them.
The horses clip-clopped across the wooden bridge that spanned the
river and along an earthen road, hard packed from years of use,
which led into the village. The quiet was absolute. Not even a dog
barked.

Cassie’s head was near Callum’s
shoulder and she spoke in a whisper. “I know it’s after midnight,
but surely our presence will bring someone out? Don’t they keep a
watch?”

“
It doesn’t seem like it,”
Callum said.

The village consisted of a dozen
houses clustered around a central green. A little church sat on the
north side of the village, a little way from the other buildings.
The white plastered stone walls reflected the lingering moonlight.
The church possessed a slate roof, the only one in the village, and
sported a tower and a metal cross above the doorway. The grounds
were protected by a low stone wall pierced by an archway with a
bell above it.

“
What’s the name of this
place?” Samuel said.

“
Duncraggan.” Cassie
pointed to a one-story building attached to the west side of the
church. “I’ll go and ask for help, shall I?”

“
Not alone, you won’t,”
Callum said.

Cassie made what sounded
like a
grrr
at him
but didn’t otherwise protest his involvement. She and Callum ducked
through the archway and walked down the path towards the front door
of the church, before cutting across the graveyard to reach the
back door. Samuel followed to a point halfway down the path but
stopped to wait twenty feet away. Once at the door, Callum
knocked.

Nobody answered. Callum turned to look
at Cassie, who shrugged, and he was about to knock again when a
shout came from the road. “You there!”

A dozen men, maybe all of the men in
the village, each armed with an axe or a farming implement, stomped
toward them. Several of them also held torches. The man who led
them had obviously hurried from his bed because even as he walked,
he swung his cloak around his shoulders and fastened it at his
throat.

Callum strode to meet him, with Cassie
and Samuel in tow, and arrived at the archway in time to set his
feet and present a composed face before the leader reached
him.

Ten feet away, the man pulled up. “Who
are you?” he said in Gaelic, “and what do you want? We aren’t
accustomed to being woken in the night by strangers.”

“
We don’t wish to make
trouble,” Callum said. “We come seeking shelter. Several of us are
injured and need healing. One is only a boy.”

Callum could see the leader studying
him, taking in his armor and sword, and then his eyes went to
Samuel and James, still on the horse with John. Cassie remained
just behind Callum and not in the man’s line of sight.

The man was six inches shorter than
Callum and ten years older, with bristling gray hair and a
close-cropped beard. “Tell me your name,” the man said.

“
Callum. But my name isn’t
important.” Callum gestured towards James. “This is James Stewart,
Guardian of Scotland, and the young lord Graham, from
Mugdock.”

It wasn’t often that Callum had seen a
man’s jaw actually drop, but this man’s did. He recovered quickly,
however, bowing abruptly. “My apologies, my lord. My home is your
home.” He spun around, organizing the men of the village with a
wave of his hand. James and John were helped from their horse and
they, as well Samuel, were swept towards the leader’s house. Callum
heard the leader tell one of the others to run ahead and wake ‘old
Hetty’ and bring her to his home, which sounded promising to
Callum.

The leader’s hut looked like all the
others in the village but for its larger size, and like the other
buildings, was built in stone without mortar. It had a thatched
roof, unlike the church, and was good-sized for a medieval house:
close to twenty feet long with its related buildings clustered
behind it. The headman’s much younger and very pregnant wife met
him at the door and gave way as Samuel and James were herded
inside, along with the two men carrying John.

Cassie and Callum didn’t go inside,
instead remaining on the threshold. The leader glanced at them and
tipped his head. “Please. Come in.”

“
We dare not,” Callum said.
“It’s possible we have been followed by men who do not come in
peace.”

The leader stepped closer, crowding
Callum out of the doorway, and shut the door behind him. “What are
you saying? You’ve brought disaster to my people?”

“
I hope not,” Callum
said.

The man’s chin jutted out. “How
many?”

“
We hope no more than a
dozen,” Callum said.

“
We’re farmers and
herdsmen!” the leader said. “How can we defend against even that
many soldiers?”

James pulled open the door behind the
man. “I’m sorry to bring trouble to your village. Our horses are
tired, but not blown. If you have a man to spare, he could ride to
my family’s holding at Callander. I would go myself, but—” James
swayed and Callum caught him by the shoulders.

“
Are you wounded?” Callum
said. “Where?”

James had been holding his left arm
across his torso and now turned his hand palm up to show Callum the
blood on it. “It’s not serious or I would have said something
earlier. The exertion of riding has opened the wound
again.”

Callum looked at the headman. “What is
your name?”

“
Martin.”

“
Do you have someone we can
send as Lord Stewart suggests?” Callum said.

“
Yes.” Martin’s bluster was
gone in favor of brisk certainty. “I will see to it.” He walked off
quickly towards the village green where several men still
gathered.

“
I should be the one to
go,” Cassie said as she helped Callum ease James back inside the
hut. The only place to sit him was on a bench against a side wall.
He needed the bed, but that was taken up by John.

“
No, Cassie,” Callum said.
“How many of these villagers have real weapons? I need you to
fight.”

“
I’m not a soldier,
Callum.” Cassie’s voice was soft.

“
Maybe not,” Callum said.
“But you think more like one than any other able-bodied man
here.”

Callum meant it as a
complement of a sort, but he could see why Cassie might not see it
that way, even if she’d made it clear that she didn’t want him to
treat her like a medieval woman. She
was
a woman, and a beautiful one at
that.

“
I don’t have any arrows
left,” Cassie said. “I’m not going to be much use to
you.”

“
The villagers might have a
stockpile.” Callum tugged on the end of her braid and then dropped
his hand at her narrowed eyes.

“
I’ll ask Martin when he
returns,” Cassie said. “But for all that the MacDougalls and Bruces
employed archers in their companies, most men in Scotland don’t
know how to use a bow. They use snares to trap small animals, but
the lords forbid the hunting of big game. Archery requires years of
practice to be able to take a bow into battle.”

“
That’s how it is in
England, too,” Callum said. “Until they fought the Welsh, they
didn’t understand how powerful a regiment of archers could
be.”

“
Given that, do you think
it would be better if I stayed here and guarded James and John?”
Cassie said.

Callum bent his head to hers. “You’re
actually willing to stay behind?”

“
No, but I thought I’d give
you the illusion of control,” she said.

Callum laughed and shook his head. “I
wouldn’t mind having you at my back.”

Cassie turned to the healer, who had
slipped in the back door while they were talking to Martin. “How is
Samuel?” she said.

As the first order of business, Hetty
had bound Samuel’s leg so he could walk if he had to. “He’ll do,”
she said.

Hetty went to James next, tugging up
his shirt to get at his wound. Cassie moved to crouch in front of
Samuel. “How does it feel.”

“
I’m fine,” Samuel
said.

“
Uh huh. You must be James
and John’s last defense,” Cassie said.

“
I can fight too,” said
James from his bench.

Callum glanced over at him. “No.” He
held out his hand to Cassie. After a brief hesitation, she grasped
it so he could pull her to her feet. “Cassie and I will take care
of this.”

Callum rotated his shoulders to loosen
his back and shoulder muscles as he and Cassie left the hut. The
darkness would have been complete if not for the torches in the
hands of the men that Martin had posted on the green and on the
bridge, waiting for the MacDougalls to come, if they were going to
come.

“
There’s no denying I feel
naked without my bow,” Cassie said. “I don’t have any other weapon
but my knife.”

“
I wish Samuel and James
still had their swords,” Callum said. “I’d give one of theirs to
you, even if they protested. As it is, I think our village chief is
arming his men. Maybe he can arm you too.”

Cassie and Callum followed the sound
of men’s voices around the back of Martin’s house. In many medieval
houses, the byre for the animals was attached to the house, but
Martin’s home was more advanced than that. He had a barn and a
shed, and it was to the shed that he had brought his villagers.
Callum and Cassie watched Martin pass out axes and roughly made
swords to each man who asked for one.

Cassie approached and fingered the
hilt of one of the swords. “Where did you get these?”

“
We’ve been collecting them
over the past few years,” Martin said. “When you live as we do,
surrounded by powerful lords who think nothing of crossing your
fields on their way to marauding, you learn to defend
yourself.”

“
Do you have any arrows?”
Cassie said.

Martin shook his head regretfully.
“None in the village have the skill to make them.” Carrying a seven
foot long pole arm, he headed to where his villagers waited
patiently on the green.