Ivy and Lachlan reacted at the same moment. She hacked with her axe in one hand and pitched dragons into the yawning abyss with the other. Lachlan battled on Kincaid’s other side. Ivy’s heart skipped a beat. They were winning. They could get rid of these horrid dragons and live to fight another day.
Kincaid scourged a path through the dragon hordes. He plowed a furrow between their scaly bodies until he cleared most of the dragons away from the castle’s front entrance.
The other dragons crowded all over the building didn’t take long to realize what was going on. A shriek traveled through the cloud of flapping creatures. In one concerted tide, they flowed off the castle and descended on Kincaid in murderous fury. They poured out of the sky onto his head and drove him to the ground.
He struggled all the way, but too many of them crowded on top of him at once. Lachlan and Ivy chopped through the mob to reach him, but more and more dragons appeared from every direction.
Ivy waded up to her knees in the things before she realized she had a grave problem. She couldn’t fight them fast enough. When Kincaid when down, the dragons on the periphery turned against her. Lachlan faced the same problem a few feet away.
The dragons crawled up her legs to her torso. She couldn’t drive them off. She got one dragon thrown away and screeching into oblivion before five more took its place. They hung off her arm so she couldn’t swing her axe. Panic seized her heart. She had to get out of here. She had to get away.
“Ivy!” Lachlan yelled “Pull back!”
She floundered in hundreds of bodies. She summoned all her concentration to look around, but she couldn’t see Lachlan or the castle. She turned one way and then the other. She flailed her arms. When she tried to move, she tripped over dragons and went down on one knee.
At that moment, a powerful hand grabbed hold of her shirt. Dragons flapped all around her. She bowed her head and closed her eyes to avoid their teeth and claws, but that hand kept pulling her back.
She kicked and fought until a voice murmured in her ear. “It’s me, Ivy. Come on. We have to get out of here.”
She tried to swim against the tide, but to no avail. She couldn’t move. “Kincaid! What about Kincaid?”
“He’s dead already,” Lachlan told her. “He bought us a little time. We must get inside while we can.”
She did her best to move in his direction, but when she turned away, the dragons attacked her harder than ever. They clawed her clothes and tangled their talons in her hair. They jerked her backward, and she landed flat on the ground. Lachlan lost his grip on her.
Ivy’s hand shot out. “Lachlan!”
“Ivy!” he cried, but it was already too late. The dragons filled the gap between them. They hauled Ivy away from him, back toward that hole sucking everything into it.
Ivy kicked and scratched. She bit anything that touched her face, but so many dragons covered her all over she couldn’t distinguish one from the next. Her axe fell out of her hand so she fought them with her bare fingers.
The noise of their cackling laughter blocked out everything else. In a few seconds, she heard nothing but the howling wind sucking down the hole into nothing. What lay beyond it?
She couldn’t let this happen. She couldn’t let Lachlan slip away from her after everything they accomplished to be together. She had to fight. She had to save herself and her child.
The hurricane caught hold of a few dragons and ripped them off her. She flipped over on her stomach and found herself face to face with that tunnel to nowhere. The wind dragged her across the ground into its deathly maw.
She closed her eyes against her doom when something jerked her away. Lachlan took hold of her ankles and wrestled her back from the brink. The dragons screeched in his face, but he cut them down with his saber. He slashed with her axe in his left hand to clear a path for himself.
He pulled Ivy back to the steps. He stood in front of her with both arms slashing and hacking like mad. “Get up!” he boomed. “Be quick!”
Ivy hauled herself to her feet. Lachlan backed her up the steps to the door, and Ivy yanked it open. Lachlan struggled a moment longer to gain the advantage. Then he and Ivy lunged inside to safety and slammed the door behind them.
Chapter 32
Lachlan stormed into the Great Hall. Blood and pulp dripped from his weapons, and feral rage simmered just below the surface. “What’s going on? What’s the state of things on the roof?”
Christie collapsed against the table. No one could recognize his tartan for the blood, dirt, and gore caked in its fibers. He wore no shirt. A solitary rag hung from one elbow, and blood dripped from his hair. “They’re still up there. We got the men out just in time. They’re all over the castle. They cannae get in, and we cannae get out.”
“Well, that’s something,” Lachlan replied. “What’s the state of our force?”
“Force?” Christie asked. “We have two hundred men, but I dinnae like to send a living soul out there to face those things. We’re trapped in here until we find a way to get rid of them.”
“What do ye suggest?” Lachlan asked. “Ye cannae think on going to Urlu country like this. You’d never get out alive.”
“I wasnae going to suggest that,” Christie replied.
“As long as we’re trapped in here, we’re safe,” Ronald pointed out. “We could stay in here for a year or more without risking a man’s life. It’s the women and children I worry about.”
“Aye,” Lachlan agreed. “We cannae stay under siege for long. We must break their power.”
“I dinnae ken how,” Christie replied. “It’d take a doing of magic to get rid of this lot.”
“A doing of magic’s what it’d take,” Lachlan added, “and Kincaid’s dead. He tried his magic, and they overpowered him.”
“There must be a way to work the spell,” Colin put in. “Ye remember how the Urlus did it with that fraud Koto.”
“I remember,” Lachlan replied, “but we have no witch to do it for us and no dragons to defend her while she does it.”
“We must find a way to send the women and children away,” Christie told him. “We have no secret passage like we had at the Tower House, but we must find a way.”
“We could send them all down the basement,” Clyde suggested. “They’d be safe there as long as those things dinnae get inside the castle.”
“And when they do get inside the castle?” Christie asked. “What then?”
Clyde shifted from one foot to the other and shrugged. “Well, there’s no certainty they will get inside the castle. The women and children could hide there while we fight them off.”
Christie snorted and turned away. Lachlan intervened. “Never mind about that. We’re all tired and filthy, and we’re safe for the moment. I want every man here to go clean up and change your clothes. I want each of ye to get something to eat and take at least an hour’s rest. Meet me back down here in four hours, and we’ll discuss it further. Ye have my orders. Now go, and dinnae let me see any of ye dripping blood on the floor any longer.”
His words attracted their attention to their condition. They slunk away, one by one and left Lachlan alone. He returned to his own room. On the way, he asked one of the maids to bring up some hot water for him. He took off his dripping, filthy clothes while he waited for it.
What was the point of getting cleaned up and changed when he would only go out there and get dirty again? The battle would escalate in a little while, and he would be back where he started.
At least he and Christie and their cousins could think better once they got cleaned up. He recognized the same mindless rage and hate-fueled zeal in their eyes. He needed men with their thoughts in order to help him decide what to do about this situation.
The maid brought a tub and a bucket of hot water. Lachlan stepped into it and sponged the blood off his skin. In seconds, the water became just as bloody as the rivulets running off him.
A few minutes later, the maid came back with a second tub and another b
ucket. She took away the first tub, and Lachlan washed out his hair. The other maids must be doing the same for men all over the castle.
When he finally got himself in order, he put on clean clothes. He only wished Ivy was here to talk to while he bathed. Where was she? He hoped she was getting cleaned up in another room somewhere.
When the maid came back to clear away the bath water, Lachlan blushed. “Tell me something, Maddy.”
“Aye, my Laird?” she asked.
“That strange woman who came in with me, is she somewhere in the castle right now?”
“Aye. She’s down in the servants’ quarters. Mrs. McCrae is tending to her. Did ye want me to send word?”
“Aye,” Lachlan replied. “Tell Mrs. McCrae I’d like the woman to meet me in the Great Hall in three hours when I meet Christie and the others. I want her to sit in our conference.”
Maddy whipped around. “My Laird? The others willnae like that.”
“I didnae ask if they liked it. Tell her to come, and tell Mrs. McCrae to give the woman trousers to wear instead of a dress.”
Maddy’s jaw hit the floor. “My Laird!”
“Go along and tell her. I’m sure Mrs. McCrae can find a pair of trousers in this castle that’ll fit that woman.”
Maddy blinked at him. Then she raced out of the room. Lachlan stretched out on his bed and closed his eyes. These people better start getting used to Ivy and her strange ways.
The sooner everyone accepted her as their Lady, the better off they would be. In a few days, Ivy would become Lachlan’s wife. Once they got rid of these dragons, Ivy could go back to wearing dresses if she wanted to. In the meantime, Lachlan needed her blade. He needed her brain in the conference, too.
If only he had her here right now, curled up on his bed in his arms, he could rest in peace. He wouldn’t have to worry about her being mistaken for a servant. She wouldn’t come to his room any time soon, though—certainly not until this battle ended.
He must have dozed off. A pounding knock on his door woke him out of a sound sleep. “Lachlan, mon!” Christie shouted. “It’s half an hour overtime. Are ye coming?”
Lachlan sprang to his feet. “I’m coming.”
He and Christie marched downstairs to the Great Hall and found the men fresh-faced and clear-eyed. Lachlan glanced around. “Where’s Ivy?”
The men exchanged glances. “Ivy?”
“Never ye mind,” Lachlan replied. “Any change in the situation?”
“No change,” Aiden told him. “We just checked the roof. They’re all still up there, as thick as thieves, and they’re hanging around every window. No one’s going in or out anytime soon.”
“We have two hundred men,” Lachlan pointed out. “Could we fight our way out?”
“How?” Colin asked. “All right, so we get the two hundred men outside to fight them all at once. Then what? These things’ll keep coming at us, no matter what we do. They’ll pick us off, one after another, and then the women and children’ll be left undefended.”
“We could use the men to get the women and children out,” Christie suggested. “We could defend them while they got away somewhere else.”
“Where would they go?” Lachlan asked. “The dragons’d only follow them.”
“No’ necessarily,” Christie pointed out. “Do ye no’ remember what the Urlus told us about the curse? It centers on the woman who cast the spell. Ivy could stay here with us men to fight these things. Once the women and children got away they’d be safe. They could seek refuge anywhere on the Isle.”
Lachlan’s head snapped up to stare at his brother. “That’s it. That’s the answer.”
Christie looked around. “What’s the answer?”
“Do ye no’ see?” Lachlan cried. “The curse! It’s centered on the woman who cast the spell, and that’s no’ Ivy. Ivy has no power to cast the spell. It was the other woman—Alexis.”
“I dinnae understand your meaning,” Christie replied.
Lachlan grabbed his brother by the shoulders. “Listen to me, laddie. Ivy and I were coming over the hill just afore when those dragons attacked the castle. They swarmed all over the walls so thick we couldnae hardly get inside. We would have been stuck out there if Kincaid hadnae come along and helped us. Do ye no’ see? The dragons were here, all over the castle, while Ivy was all down the coast along of Loch Spelve. Do ye no’ see? Heavens above! That’s it! The dragons attacked the castle when Ivy wasnae anywhere near it. They attacked the source of the curse.”
Aiden rubbed his chin. “Ye lost me there, mon.”
“Alexis must be here!” Lachlan cried. “She must be! It’s the only explanation.”
He whirled away. “Where are ye going, mon?” Colin cried after him.
“I must go find Ivy. Get the women and children together, Christie. Get them ready to evacuate. Ye and Ronald’ll lead them away of the castle. Take them to Craignure. That’s the nearest place. From there, ye can disperse them all over the Isle, wherever they’ll be safe and looked after. I leave that to ye, lad.”
He raced out of the room in search of Ivy. He had to find her and tell her. Alexis—here! She had to be. The dragons wouldn’t attack a woman with no power. Alexis must be attracting them here. She must have been here the whole time. That was the only reason the dragons or the vampires or anything else would attack at all.
He rifled his memory for any scrap of information he ever heard from the Urlus. Hazel Green cast that spell that brought her and her friends to Urlu. The curse centered on her until she found a way to lift it by repairing the fabric. The same must be true for Alexis.
Alexis certainly didn’t cause all this trouble with Aegir, though. Lachlan couldn’t blame anybody but himself for that. Lachlan incited Aegir’s wrath by stealing Ivy.
Lachlan raced through the halls. He searched every room, but he couldn’t find Ivy. Where was she? He poked his nose into the servants’ quarters and found Mrs. McCrae cleaning up a bunch of bloody water. Ivy’s old clothes lay in a heap by the fire, but Ivy was nowhere in sight.
“Where’s the woman that was down here afore?” he asked Mrs. Macrae.
Mrs. Macrae set her hand on her hip. “She’s gone upstairs to look for ye, and I’ll have ye ken I did what ye asked and gave her a pair of riding trousers we had hanging around. Just so ye ken I did it under protest. It’s no’ right, a lady going around unnatural like that.”
“She’s a different race,” Lachlan explained. “She comes from a different people where that’s the normal attire. Once this battle’s over, I’ll thank ye to dress her as ye please. I’m sure she’ll thank ye for it as well.”
He could see Mrs. Macrae winding up for another sally, so he beat a hasty retreat. So Ivy went upstairs to look for him while he went downstairs to look for her. He had to find her. He couldn’t let her slip through his fingers at a time like this. If anybody knew where to find Alexis, it would be her.
Where or how Ivy would find her, Lachlan couldn’t begin to fathom, but it was their only shot to get rid of these dragons.
Chapter 33
Ivy broke away from Mrs. Macrae’s ministrations as politely as she dared. She asked directions to the armory—not from Mrs. Macrae, of course. Mrs. Macrae would never stand for a woman carrying a weapon. Instead she asked directions from a little boy hurrying by.
She found a lightweight axe and a short blade like the ones she used at the Tower House. Once she got them, she went in search of Lachlan. She met a lot of people who had seen him in the last few minutes, but she never found him.
Where could he be? She didn’t want to lose sight of him in the next wave of battle. She asked another little boy where to find Lachlan’s bedroom, but before she got there, she met Colin coming down from the roof. “Ye must go down to the Hall. All the women and children are preparing to evacuate as soon as the men get outside. Ye must go with them. It’s the only safe way.”
“Are you sure Lachlan wants me to go with them?” she asked. “Are you sur
e he doesn’t want me to stay here and fight?”
“Go downstairs,” he told her, “and when ye see him, ye can ask him for certain. In the meantime, ye must go where you’re safest. That’s orders.”
Ivy sighed. She turned around to follow him downstairs, but after he hurried away, she paused. She didn’t want to evacuate. She certainly didn’t want to leave Lachlan. If he was going to fight these dragons, she wanted to do the same thing.
Too many people died in this war. She didn’t want to run. She couldn’t believe Lachlan would send her away at a time like this, either. She had to find him.
She climbed the stairs. One hallway lined with doors followed another. She lost track of where she was or what each room held. She could only assume they were bedrooms…or whatever. She would explore the place later.
She came to the end of the stairs. They ended in a single wooden door stood, but when she opened it, dozens of dragons flapped into her face. She caught a brief glimpse of the roof in front of her.
She tried to slam the door, but dragons blocked it. They fluttered through the gap and beat their wings in her face. She struggled against their bodies, but she couldn’t get the door closed.
They rushed at her in a cloud and knocked her back. She stumbled and fell down three steps. The next thing she knew, dozens upon dozens of the things raced through the open door, right into the castle.
Ivy screamed. She had to alert anybody what was happening. Footsteps pounded up the stairs, paused, and some ran away again. Two kilted legs planted themselves over her, and she stared up at Christie hacking at the things in bloody rage.
Shouts echoed down the stairs. Ivy took a moment to recover. The next minute, she leapt to her feet at Christie’s side. She battled the dragons back to the door, but the damage was done. She had no idea how many of them already got into the castle.
Between her and Christie, they drove the things back. Christie swung the door shut, but at that moment, four dragons caught Ivy by the hair. They dragged her a few steps forward. She couldn’t hit them with her blade when they were so close to her own face.
Sea Queen (Phoenix Throne Book 6): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 22
