Page 89 of Kilted Abduction
“Aye. We will,” he replied and turned to Kai. “I’m goin’ ahead. Ye, Calum and the others can catch up with me.”
Kai nodded. “We’ll see ya at the cove.”
Magnus mounted up and spurred his horse out of the yard, getting on the road to Moonlight Cove. It wasn’t a far ride, but Fairfax’s men had had a sizeable head start. He just hopedthat Ciara fought them enough to slow them down, to keep them from casting off and getting downriver. If that happened, Magnus wasn’t sure how he was going to find her again. While she could be bound for her ancestral lands, Fairfax might be taking her somewhere else. Perhaps one of his estates in England. If they got her away from the Isle of Skye, she would be lost forever.
Lowering his head and gritting his teeth, the cold wind lashing his face, Magnus spurred his horse on, determined to get to the cove before they cast off.
“What dae ye see?” Kai asked.
Magnus knelt behind a screen of bushes on the shore of the cove watching the birlinn. The wooden vessel had short sidings, a shallow draft, locks for twelve oars and a tall mast with a square sail that was currently furled. The deck of the small ship was abuzz with activity, but they had not launched yet.
“Seems like they’re waitin’ fer somebody,” Magnus said. “Ciara is onboard though. I arrived just as they were gettin’ her on deck. She’s up near the bow.”
“Looks like two dozen men on the shore,” Kai noted. “Nae good odds fer us.”
Between the dozen on the vessel and the two dozen more on shore, Magnus nodded. “Aye. the odds are bad. But I’m nae goin’ tae give up.”
“Nae sayin’ ye should. Just sayin’ ye need tae come up with a plan.”
Magnus scanned the shoreline, searching for an approach to the birlinn that would not attract the attention of the soldiers but found none. If they tried to get to the vessel from the land, they would be cut down before they ever reached it. But when his eyes moved from the land to the water, he knew he had his answer.
“We’ll approach the birlinn by water,” he said. “They’ll never see us comin’.”
Kai pursed his lips then shrugged. “Could work I suppose.”
“Be a lot easier than approachin’ by land,” Calum said.
“Then let’s go,” Magnus said. “I dinnae ken who they’re waitin’ fer, but I want tae be done with them by the time he arrives.”
They stripped off their cloaks and secured their weapons, then quietly made their way around the screen of bushes and slipped into the water. Magnus sucked in a breath and gritted his teeth as the shock of the cold water gripped his body. But he pushed on. He swam quietly from the shore and approached the side of the birlinn. As he drew near, he could hear voices on the deck.
“If Laird MacDougal is not here soon, we will leave without him.”
Adrenaline shot through Magnus’ body. That was Fairfax. Magnus and his men were in position and moving as one unit, they reached up, hauling themselves out of the water and over the railing of the vessel. For a moment, Fairfax and his soldiers didn’t move, staring at Magnus and his men in disbelief. He caught sight of Ciara bound and gagged at the bow of the vessel. She had a bloodied nose and bruises on her cheeks, which filled him with the darkest rage he’d ever known.
“Kill them!” Fairfax shouted.
All at once, the deck of the vessel exploded in activity as Magnus and his men clashed with the English soldiers. Steel rang against steel. Magnus parried the thrust of the soldier who ran up on him, turning his blade aside with ease, then drove his elbow backward. He felt the man’s nose give way beneath his blow, the sound of its crunch satisfying. The man howled as blood flowed down his face. Spinning gracefully, Magnus drove the point of his blade through the man’s back, then yanked it free as he fell.
The quarters were close, all was chaos, and Magnus saw both of Calum’s men fall beneath the blades of the English soldiers. Calum dispatched a pair with ease, spinning and flowing between them before rounding and slashing them both across the necks. The deck was slick with blood and the air reverberated with the shrieking of the wounded and dying.
Kai, Magnus, and Calum stood back-to-back-to-back, parrying blows in dizzying flash of steel. But one of the blades got through, sinking deep into Magnus’ arm. He grunted in pain but stepped back, pulling the attacker’s blade from his arm and knocked it aside before lunging forward, driving the point of his blade into the man’s throat. He fell to the deck with a wet gurgle.
The men on shore, finally realizing what was happening aboard the birlinn, rushed toward the water, shouting strings of curses. Those curses though, turned to screams of agony as a dozen riders on horseback emerged from the trees behind them, firing volleys of arrows into the men. The water churned as they fell, their bodies feathered with arrows, turning the water around the birlinn scarlet. Thora, who led the charge of riders, gave him a wave when the last of the men had fallen.
“Magnus!”
His sword at the ready, Magnus whirled around at the sound of Ciara’s scream. Fairfax stood behind her, the edge of his dagger pressed to the soft flesh of her throat.
“Let her go,” Magnus growled.
“Never.”
“Ye’re done, Fairfax,” Magnus said as he stepped forward. “All yer men are dead. Ye’re alone now. Let her go.”
“I’ll kill her,” he said.
“Let her go and ye can go on yer way,” Magnus said. “Dae we have terms?”
