Page 49 of Highland Slayer
“And you did,” Mateo said. “That was very brave.”
“Do you know of someone who could help me return home?”
“Where is home?”
“Jura.”
“Where is that?”
“An island to the north.”
“Off Scotland?”
“Aye,” she said. “It is to the west. Sometimes we will take a boat to Glasgow, which is closest.”
He understood the general area. “We are going north, to the Highlands,” he said. “Far to the north, past Invergarry, past Loch Ness. When we go, you can come with us, but I should tell you that we have seen signs of the Ormsfolk. They found your boat.”
All of the color drained from her face. He could see it. Her breath caught in her throat and tears instantly filled her eyes. “Nay,” she whispered. “Please… they have not. Theycannot.”
He could see the terror in her expression. “I am afraid they have,” he said. “But you must not fear. The nuns here will protect you. And my friends… we are knights. We will help. We have sent for more men also.”
Leonore’s hands flew to her mouth in horror, perhaps in disbelief. When she blinked, tears spattered. Mateo reached out to take her hand.
“Do not fear,” he said in a surprising show of compassion. “I promise, we will help.”
“Please…” she whispered. Then, she swallowed hard and continued. “If I could only leave, I will go north. I do not need an escort. I did not mean for men to go to battle for me.”
Mateo indicated the sanctuary. “Not only men will go to battle for you,” he said. “This place is inhabited by warrior nuns and it is their duty to protect women. You are a woman, so they will protect you.”
Leonore only seemed to grow more frantic. “They cannot,” she said, standing up on quivering legs. “You do not understand. I have seen the Ormsfolk in battle.”
“Leaving will not—”
She cut him off. “They have brought prisoners into their village,” she said, growing agitated. “I have seen them cut off hands and feet and arms and toss them into the ponds where theeels eat them. They leave their prisoners alive and cut off pieces of them, a little at a time, and toss it to the eels. If they find me here, they will do the same thing to me!”
Mateo stood up, albeit slowly. He was feeling weak and woozy. But he towered over Leonore as he reached out to grasp her wrist, trying to keep her calm.
“No one is going to cut you into pieces,” he said, his voice soft as he turned her around for her cot. “You will not worry. I will not let them take you prisoner again.”
She was trembling and weeping. “You cannot stop them,” she said. “If they want me, they will find me.”
“I can stop them.”
She dug her heels in, refusing to move, as she turned to face him. “Will you give me your word that you will not let them take me alive? You must put a sword in my belly before they can take me. Promise me.”
Now, Mateo was the one starting to feel horror. “I will give you my word that I will not let them take you hostage again,” he said. “You seem to have a poor opinion of my fighting skills.”
She shook her head, grasping both of his hands tightly. “You have not seen what I have seen,” she wept. “You have not listened to the cries of pain from prisoners left without feet, without hands. The Ormsfolk will cut something off and then leave them long enough to start healing and then cut off something more. The screams of men and women losing their legs haunt my dreams.”
Mateo sighed heavily. “You are ill, my lady,” he said. “Your mind is not thinking right. You must sleep.”
He was trying to push her into bed again, but it was like trying to move a tree. She was rooted where she stood, unwilling to move.
“They brought one man to the village, a warlord from an isle in Scotland,” she said. “I do not know what made him special,but they had a particular torture for him. Little by little, they cut off his limbs and threw them to the eels. When they cut off his legs, the big bones, they had fire waiting, and they burned his flesh to seal it as soon as they chopped his leg off so he would not bleed to death. The smell of burning flesh is something I cannot get out of my nose. When there was nothing more to cut off from him, they cut off his ears. I heard someone say that they cut off his manhood, too. Then they put him in a dirt hole to die, with only his head left. He sang for eight days in that hole. I know this because I marked the days.”
Mateo couldn’t keep the disgust off his face. “What did he sing?”
Leonore broke down in tears. “Te Deum,” she whispered. “He sang to the glory of God for eight days before he sang no more. Then they threw dirt over him and buried him.”
