Page 113 of The Splendor of Fire
“Léo.” Lachlan got to his feet; his eyes filled with grief.
Léo’s voice was dry and ragged. “When did you get here?”
“About an hour ago.”
Léo staggered forward and took a seat beside them. “How did he get you here so fast?”
Lachlan’s eyebrows knit together. “Fast tailwind off the coast of Coll. MacLeod ran the bìrlinn like a maniac to get back. Didnae sleep a wink. He made the roundtrip in nineteen hours.”
Léo rubbed his hand over his face, wiping the groggy vestiges of sleep away from him. Eilidh appeared from the back of the room and silently filled a cup with liquid from the kettle nestled in the fire. She handed it to him and sat down on the floor beside Hector’s chair.
Léo blew on the steaming drink and brought it to his lips. The comforting taste of mulled wine eased his soul and soothed his gravelly throat. “Thank you.”
Eilidh nodded, a look of heartache in her eyes. Léo looked away, unable to bear it. “Has there been word?”
Hector nodded. “We’ve had word from Mowbray MacKinnon at guard change last evening that Aileen is in Cràdh.”
Potent relief flooded him and he put his head in his hands. “Thank God. She’s alive.”
Hector’s voice didn’t carry the assurance he hoped it would. “Aye, she is alive. But Fingon and Niall are with her. Mowbray’s been unable to get to her. Yet.”
Fear like a rushing wave swept back over him as quickly as it had gone out. If they were with her, they were torturing her. He hung his head. “Saints.”
Hector shifted in his chair. “The scheduled shipment of food is to land at Cràdh tomorrow morning. Calum will drive the merchant vessel in as planned. You’ll be on board, along with Lachlan and myself and a contingent of our guard. A message was passed at guard change this morning to Mowbray that we’ll begin the attack there at prime tomorrow.”
Impatience curled around him and he couldn’t remain sitting. He rose and paced the room. “Why not today? Why not right now?”
Lachlan leaned forward. “Rushing into an attack is what landed her in Cràdh to begin with. We need to be ready and prepared.”
Léo blew out a breath and continued pacing the room like a caged animal, longing to hunt those who harmed her. “By now they’ll havenoticed that I’m not there anymore. Niall is sure to use our love against her. They’ll keep going until she gives something up, and she’ll never do that. What if she doesn’t make it until the morning?”
The room fell silent and they all looked at each other. For Aileen, the decision to die was easier than betraying her conscience and those she loved.
Eilidh took his hand. “We must pray.”
Chapter 35
CRÀDH PRISON - SEPTEMBER 27, 1385
Frigid sea water came over Aileen’s head and set the cuts on her face and hands on fire. Gasping awake, her vision faded in and out.
“Come on, Moira. Wake up.”
Her eyes closed. All she longed to do was sleep, but something hard and cold slammed into her nose; the sound of crushing bone rang in her ears and in her jaw. Red-hot pain licked up her face and caused tears to flow from her eyes. Rasping, she struggled to sit up, feeling something wet flowing like a warm stream down her neck. Vision returning, she saw Niall before her holding a horseshoe.
The metallic tang of blood flooded her mouth, and she put her fingers to her damaged face and felt it pour between her fingers onto her lap. She probed each one of her teeth, and with relief, found them all still in her mouth.
“That’s right. Wake up. I have questions.”
Head ringing with bells and a low whine in her ears, she looked around and saw Fingon heft a mace beside the hearth. She looked at the mace and then the Niall’s horseshoe, wondering which one of them had hit her.
She moved her swollen mouth as best she could.Ask.
Another bucket of water hit her face, stinging, but the cold soothed the ache. Feeling slightly more alert, her eyes focused. A quill and paper were forced into her shaking hands.
“Where is Léonid?”
Léo?Her head was so heavy it lolled to one side, and she looked at Niall with the eye that wasn’t swollen shut as she shakily wrote,Dun Ringill.
