Pirates of the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 1): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance

by Heather Walker

  Rosalynn beamed. “Ye may have as much as ye need, lass. Ye lads take yer strategic counsel somewhere else. We dinnae want to listen to ye yammer on.”

  “No,” Ree said, sitting up straight. “I want to hear.”

  “Ree has been involved in this since she arrived from America,” Ned explained. “She’s going to help us with the potion.”

  “Just as soon as we find the actual recipe,” Ree added. “Can you tell us anything about the Stones of Uist that would give us a clue?”

  “There’s nothing to tell,” Hamish replied. “They’re just regular stones, all standing up in a ring like any other ring in this country ye may have seen. There’s nothing unusual about them that could give the potion any power to grant…well, ye ken.”

  “We must go and see for ourselves,” Ned told Ree. “There must be something there.”

  “They couldn’t be on this island,” Ree remarked. “There’s barely space for the castle itself.”

  “No, they’re over on Barra,” Hamish replied. “We can give ye a boat…in the morning, of course.”

  “Thank you,” Ned replied.

  “Now enough of that,” Hamish exclaimed. “Ye must come and have dinner with us. Ye remember me brother Newlan, do ye no’, Niall? He’s here to visit, so ye can catch up with him as well.”

  “One more thing,” Ned replied. “I ask yer protection from the Gunns, who’ll surely come seeking me here. Ye must understand that before ye accept me under yer roof.”

  “Is that not always the way?” Hamish asked. “I dinnae ever expect ye on me doorstep without the Gunns two steps behind ye. We’ve faced them before, and we’ll do it again. Now come on. The food winnae develop its flavor over time like a rare whiskey, and I’m half-starved from all this talk.”

  Hamish and Rosalynn left the room, and Ned took Ree’s hand. “Are ye warm enough, lass?”

  “I don’t want to leave this fire,” she replied. “I don’t think I’ll ever get fully warm again.”

  “I’ll warm ye up soon enough,” he said with a smile.

  Ree smiled back. “Don’t keep me waiting.” She sighed. “Are you sure about this?”

  “What? Warming ye up?”

  She chuckled. “No, this. Why we’re here. I don’t see how a ring of standing stones can impart anything to the elixir that’s not included in the ingredients.”

  “We winnae ken that until we see the stones for ourselves,” he replied. “Still, I suspect there may be some detail to the situation we havenae worked out yet.”

  “Like what?”

  “Something in the air, or something in the soil, or perhaps something in the stones themselves,” he replied. “Perhaps whatever this mysterious element is can only enter the elixir when it stands out in the night air in that particular location.”

  “If you’re right,” Ree countered, “then we might be able to recreate those factors in the lab. If we find out what the mysterious element is, we might be able to make the elixir somewhere else, somewhere off the island.”

  “Until we see for ourselves, we’re none the wiser,” he replied. “None of that will happen until tomorrow, so ye’d best come and get something to eat while there’s still some left.”

  She got to her feet, but before they went anywhere, he stopped her. “Just remember, lass, these people ken we’re no’ married. They’ll put us in separate rooms, and that’s where we’ll stay. Dinnae come creeping into me room in the dead of night.”

  Ree laughed. “Aw, where’s your sense of fun?”

  “I can have all the fun ye like,” he replied with a twinkle in his eyes. “But ye cannae keep yer mouth shut in the throes of passion. Just be patient, and we’ll have all the fun ye can stomach after we leave this place.”

  Chapter 25

  Ned leaned on the oars and pulled for the Isle of Barra. Ree sat in front of him in the boat, and behind her, Kisimul Castle dwindled in the distance. She scanned the land rising behind Ned’s back and said, “I don’t like this place.”

  “What’s the matter, lass?” he asked. “What do ye sense?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “I felt it on the mainland when I looked over here. Something’s hidden here. I can’t figure out what it is, but I don’t like it. I want to get away from here. I don’t like what’s coming.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Don’t listen to me. It’s nothing.”

  “Ye shouldnae discount yer instincts,” he told her. “I dinnae like the place meself, but we must find out its secrets if we’re to complete the elixir.”

  “I know.”

  The boat’s stern hit the beach. Ned jumped out and helped Ree climb out, and then they hauled the craft above the waterline.

  “Now where do we go?” she asked looking up at Ned.

  Ned gazed into the distance with narrowed eyes. “It’s a fair hike inland to the stones.”

  He set off across the sand with purpose, Ree swiftly following up. Behind them, the waves rippled onto the shore while ahead of them, the vast expanse of grassy fields stretched toward rolling hills in the distance.

  They hiked in silence past tiny cottages, some abandoned and decrepit, past the odd sheep bleating into the gray atmosphere. They moved deeper into the island for what felt like hours, trekking through unkempt field after unkempt field.

  Ned gazed up at the sky as his stomach churned. “We should have brought a picnic basket. Now we’ll no have anything to eat until we get back.”

  “Look!” Ree said with a gasp.

  Ned looked to where she was pointing and narrowed his eyes. In the distance was a ring of giant stones, jutting out of the ground like a giant’s teeth. “About time,” he said.

  “Come on,” Ree told him. “Let’s go and explore the place. If we find what we’re looking for, we can leave and go get you something to eat.” She set off for the Stones.

  Ned dragged his feet, hungry and grumpy. He should have planned this better.

  Ree, on the other hand, bustled all over the place, inspecting the Stones and the lichens growing on them and the grass and the bushes and the trees nearby. Every detail of the place infected her with excitement.

  The more enthusiastic she got, the more Ned resented her. He stood back picking moss off the standing stones and glaring at everything. This was a wasted trip, and now he had exposed himself and Ree to a possible attack by the Gunns if they were anywhere around.

  His head snapped up. The Gunns! Why didn’t he think of that? If they followed him to Barra, they would wait on the island itself. They couldn’t land at Kisimul without tipping everybody off to their presence.

  Ned kicked himself for not thinking of that. He and Ree were totally exposed here.

  He migrated closer to Ree, squatting at the base of one of the stones and studying what looked like a patch of dandelions. “Let’s go back to the castle, lassie,” he murmured.

  “I’m not ready to leave yet.”

  He struggled to keep his voice steady, fearful there were enemies creeping up on him from all sides. “Stand up and walk down to the boat. We’re leaving.”

  She spun around to face him, her eyes wide with surprise. “We came all the way here. We may as well look a little closer before we leave.”

  He grabbed her arm. “Come now,” he told her, his own eyes wide with trepidation. “It’s no safe for us here.”

  “Well, why didn’t you think of that before?” she asked, glaring up at him.

  He stood, dragging her up with him. “Come on. We cannae wait any longer.”

  She jerked away, turning her back to him. “I can come by myself. I don’t need you to babysit me.”

  He grabbed her arm and spun her to face him, his jaw clenched. “When I tell ye to come, ye come. Ye dinnae tarry around and make me tell ye again and again. Now come. I’ll no’ tell ye again.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, then bent down and pulled out a handful of the weeds she was looking at. What he’d first mistook as dandelions appeared to be a larg
e conical taproot.

  She held it up in front of him. “Here, eat this. It’s wild salsify. It’ll curb your hunger. Hopefully the extra blood sugar will improve your attitude, ’cuz right now, I don’t want to go anywhere with you.”

  “Why, you mean-hearted wench!” He seized her by the shoulders to shake her.

  Ree stared wide-eyed at the plant she still held up before his eyes. “Look, Ned!”

  “Dinnae try that old saw on me,” he thundered.

  “Look, Ned!” she cried. “This is it! This is the secret we’ve been looking for.”

  “What are ye talking about?”

  She held the root aloft. “Do you see these little knobs on the roots? They’re called rhizomes.”

  “What of it?” he snapped.

  “They’re pockets of microorganisms that live symbiotically with the host organism,” she said excitedly. “They transform elements in the soil into food molecules for the plant and transport them into the plant’s cells.”

  “How does that help us?” Ned asked. “Something sitting out in the moonlight all night would never incorporate them…” Little by little, his eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

  A grin spread across Ree’s face, and she nodded. “Do you remember? Give me the book.”

  He tore the book out of his sporran and almost ripped the pages turning to the potion, then handed her the open book.

  She read down the page. “Yes! Here it is. Cover the bowl with ten leaves of the hefmorquen flower and fire in a rotary kiln at a temperature of two thousand degrees.”

  “That’s impossible,” Ned remarked. “There’s no kiln in existence that could reach that temperature.”

  Ree lowered her arm, staring down at the root in her hand. “Not here, there isn’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know of a rotary kiln that reaches that temperature,” she replied, looking up at him. “In fact, I have access to it on a daily basis.”

  Ned didn’t like the tone of her voice.

  She murmured under her breath, almost speaking to herself as she cast her eyes down at the plant in her hand.

  “What do ye mean, lass?”

  She raised her clear eyes to his face. “The kiln is in San Francisco, in the time where I come from. The hospitals use it to dispose of medical waste, and a friend of mine runs the facility. He would let me use it. Don’t you see, Ned? It doesn’t matter if we find every ingredient in this recipe. We’ll never be able to complete the elixir in this time period. We’ll never complete it except in 2018, where I come from.”

  Ned shook his head. He wanted to back away but couldn’t move. “Dinnae say that, lass.”

  “I have to go back, Ned,” she said with a resigned shake of her head. “If I don’t, I’ll die here and you’ll never be able to make the elixir. You have to send me back, and we’ll meet up again there. When I see you next, I’ll know all about the Cipher’s Kiss and the Angui, and we can work together there. We can make the elixir, and we can be together. It’s the only way.”

  He whirled away shaking his head, but he couldn’t erase the words. “I cannae. I cannae send ye back. I cannae live without ye, so dinnae ask me to try.”

  She tossed the root away and turned her eyes south, toward the beach where they’d landed. “Come on. We’ll go back to the castle now.”

  He didn’t hear her and worry about their safety seemed trifling all of a sudden. This was too terrible to think about. He kept spinning in confusion until Ree appeared in front of his eyes. She laid both hands on his cheeks and kissed him. “I’m right here, Ned. I haven’t gone anywhere. We’re still together, and I’m not leaving until you tell me to go. Understand? As long as you want me, I’m here. I’ll always be here.”

  “Lass,” he groaned.

  “Come on.” She took his hand and led him back across the island to the boat.

  They strolled hand in hand over the fields, toward the beach, where the sea spread out before them, tranquil and all-knowing as far as the horizon. Nothing disturbed that peaceful blue mirror.

  If only Ned could fall into a slumber like that, a slumber that would black out all his cares and woes. He could forget everything that had ever happened to him and everything that would happen. He no longer cared about the Cipher’s Kiss. He would live a lifetime with Ree until she died, then kill himself so he would never have to live a day without her. He didn’t want to endure the rest of eternity with half his heart gone. How blissful it would be to die like everybody else! One lifetime—who could ask for more than that?

  They trailed down a hill, the grass waving around his knees. He stopped to pull her into a kiss, and she smiled up at him. She was ready for this. She’d made her peace with this decision. Where she was going, she would see him in a few hours. She didn’t have to stare down the cold, heartless centuries before she held him in her arms again. Every step led him closer to that living death, and she led him there by the hand.

  A clanging sound caught his ear, a sound of metal against metal. He looked up the hill as a man strode into view. Ned didn’t recognize him. Anyone less familiar with these Highlanders might have mistaken the deep green and dark blue tartan for MacNeill. Then the wind caught the stranger’s kilt and tossed it against the man’s legs. Ned caught a glimpse of a thin red strand running through the plaid pattern. This man wasn’t MacNeill at all. He was wearing a Gunn tartan.

  The hair on the back of Ned’s neck stood on end. At that moment, several more men crested the hill.

  Ned’s blood ran cold. The very scenario he dreaded most played out before his eyes. He was stuck out here with Ree.

  All at once, Ned knew what he had to do. He grabbed Ree’s hand and bellowed at the top of his lungs, “Run!”

  Chapter 26

  Ree spun on her heel and took off at top speed across the fields. She didn’t dare turn around. She didn’t have to. The men on the hilltop shouted with one voice as they charged.

  She should have listened to Ned and left the Stones of Uist when he’d told her to instead of shooting off her mouth. Under the circumstances, she didn’t have time to regret that mistake. She heard sabers sliding out of their scabbards. She heard Ned draw his weapon too. He fell behind a few steps, and she glanced back to see if he was okay.

  “Run!” he bellowed. “Get to the boat and push off. I’ll cover ye.”

  “What about you?” she asked.

  He whirled around to face the enemy closing in behind.

  Ree charged toward the beach, her lungs about to burst. She spotted the little boat in the distance and made for it, making up her mind then and there that she wouldn’t leave Ned behind. The Gunns would cut him down if they caught him. They might spare her and take her captive back to Malcolm, and she would use that to her advantage to save Ned if she could.

  Steel clashed against steel, causing her to look back over her shoulder. She saw Ned engaged with three men at the front of the pack. They moved to surround him. He swiped his blade back and forth and roared his maniac challenge. He knocked his adversaries away and ran on, but the Gunns closed in at every step. The next time they caught him, he wouldn’t be able to throw them off.

  Ree hit the beach, her prosthesis sinking into the sand. She plowed her way to the boat and gave it an almighty heave. It moved a few inches and stuck. The Gunns drew closer, yelling and waving their weapons above their heads.

  Ned spun around to hold them back while Ree struggled with the boat. She could only brace her one good leg against the ground, so couldn’t get leverage to push the boat effectively. She wanted more than anything to call Ned to help her, but he had his own problems to deal with.

  The Gunns swarmed onto the beach headed straight for Ree and would have captured her if Ned hadn’t leapt in front of them. He chopped his saber in all directions, attaching his enemies with such ferocity they had to turn all their attention on him.

  Ree couldn’t look at them. She focused all her power on that boat. She jammed her hip again
st the rail and heaved until her muscles ached. Inch by inch, she shoved it to the water’s edge.

  “Ned!” she cried.

  “Get out!” he bellowed. “Get in and push off!”

  “I can’t leave you,” she called back.

  “Get out now!” he thundered. “Get on board!”

  He couldn’t say any more. Ten men surrounded him, all hacking at him at once. He danced from one foot to the other and whipped around in a circle to counter them all at once. His hair slapped at his checks back and forth, and his kilt sailed around his knees. His saber clanged against his opponents’ weapons. He shattered one blade and hacked a chunk out of another. He blocked other blows with his dirk, then pranced back the other way and thrust the short blade into someone’s back.

  Ree felt the waves catch the boat. It bobbed on the ripple. All she had to do was hop aboard and row away from the shore. She would be safe, exactly the way Ned wanted her to be. She held the boat with one hand. It whispered freedom. One step, and she would be safe. She could row back to the castle and…

  One glance over her shoulder, and she knew she couldn’t do that. She couldn’t leave Ned here, probably to die. What kind of life would she be going back to without him? What would her life be worth?

  She already blamed herself for her brother’s death. She might not be responsible for that, but she would be responsible for this. If she walked away from Ned in his hour of need, she would never forgive herself. She would carry the guilt of this for life, and she would deserve it.

  She leaned back and pulled the boat up just enough to stop it from floating away. Once she knew it wasn’t going anywhere, she dashed toward the fray. She drew her saber, then lunged into the mix to take her place at Ned’s side. She roared at her enemies and stabbed and cut at every human body in sight.

  The Gunns drew back in surprise.

  Ned drew back in surprise.

  Ree didn’t recognize herself, but she never gave herself a chance to doubt. She stabbed someone in the chest, and he fell away with a groan.