“But we don’t need one. Six, maybe seven of us, along with another group to be a distraction.”
“It sounds like you have a plan,” Johnne says.
“I do, but we need six healthy men to slip over the walls and rescue the prisoners. They have them in a pit in the back of the castle. He’s doing….” Rob trails off as his voice tightens. He clears his throat and runs his hands through his hair.
“Aye, I know, son. The tales are spreading already of the horrors that lord is doing,” Johnne says. “Well, if you have a plan, we’ll need more men. There are more able bodies at the other camps. Can you travel to them and enlist their aid?”
“I can.”
“I’m going too,” I insist, inserting myself into the conversation.
“Quinn, you can’t,” Rob says.
“Can’t I?” I say, hands on my hips and defiant. Agnes snorts so loud that it startles the woman next to her. “I’m a healer. You’re going to travel across the rough terrain, you’ll need me. And I can help convince the other villages to help if I heal their wounded.”
Rob looks apoplectic but Johnne laughs. His laugh is much higher in pitch than I would have ever guessed for such a big man with a deep bass voice. It sounds like he’s inhaled helium. He laughs so hard tears fall down his face and he doesn’t bother trying to hide them.
“Well, Rob, I think this time you’ve been outsmarted. I’d never thought I’d agree to send a woman out like this, but these are strange times. Also, I am sure that the other parts of the clan could benefit from a healer visiting. It’s done. The two of you gather a force; then we’ll go after our boys.”
“Thank you,” I say to Johnne. He smiles and gives a knowing wink.
I give Rob a smile and turn away. Alesoun gives me a look of disapproval as I walk past to gather my things. I know this isn’t the way she would do this, but I’m not going to stand passively by while Duncan is in harm’s way. If I’m to be the Destroyer, then I’ll start with Lord Nicholas. He’s going to see what happens to anyone who hurts my man.
ChapterEight
My thighs burnas I huff up the steep incline. Rob offers a hand and I’m not too proud to accept it. He doesn’t seem to be tired at all even though we’ve been walking for hours, and the sun is dipping below the horizon. We’ve made small talk throughout the day but most of our energy has been spent on moving fast.
“Do you think we’ll make it?” I ask, wiping sweat from my face with the sleeve of my blouse.
“We must.”
He doesn’t ask what I mean by it. He knows. It’s not only Duncan that’s held in Lord Nicholas’s cages. When Rob escaped there were over a dozen men. Rob hasn’t said much about what’s being done to them, but he doesn’t have to. I saw his wounds and my imagination is more than up to the task of filling in the blanks.
“How much farther?”
“Can’t be far,” he says. “There’s another hunter’s camp on the far side of this ridge. I’d lay odds that Clan Head Alaqhon set up survivors there.”
“That’s good,” I say. “Think we can make it before the sun goes down?”
“Ach, are you scared of the dark?” he asks with a teasing grin.
“You never know what is in the dark.”
“Aye, could well be a MacGregor waiting for you.”
He isn’t looking in my direction when he speaks, and I can’t read him. He’s made more than one comment like it through the day. I don’t understand why but it I suspect that he doesn’t trust me. Why, though?
“You and Duncan were close. Are you the same age?” I ask. I hope if I can get to know him better, maybe it will break down the wall between us. I hope.
“No, Duncan is two years older than I,” Rob says, pulling me over another small ledge.
The incline continues to get steeper, but there are shelflike breaks as we work our way towards the top. Grass grows in patches between broad swathes of bare rock. Scraggly trees that are barely more than a couple of limbs on a trunk find purchase in cracks, clinging to life.
I’m about to say more but Rob puts his hand over my mouth and forces it shut. One quick look, enough for him to shake his head and silence my protest, then he turns back towards the top of the ridge.
He motions down as he takes a knee. Moving slowly, he pulls the musket off his back and works to prime it. He doesn’t look at the gun, letting muscle memory do the work. His eyes remain focused ahead, staring at the ridge above us. I look where he’s staring but all I see is two goats grazing close to the top.
The moment I see them I also feel them. It’s a strange sensation or more an awareness. I feel their breath and hear the beating of their hearts, slow and steady. The rhythm of life laid down by their heart and lungs. They haven’t picked up our scent and continue to graze as Rob raises the gun, taking aim.