by B Button
“Aye, I took us around a bit. I was looking for the horses.”
I’d decided that I needed to stop worrying about why I needed to meet Ivar Lennox. I’d try to get back to Berna and ask her, but I didn’t think it would do any good. I’d met Lennox now. Maybe whatever was supposed to happen would happen. There’d been no other instructions anyway.
When I made the choice to stay with Mac, I’d done exactly what I wanted to do, not what someone else wanted me to do, not something that was a Govment rule. It was exactly what I wanted. It felt great. I knew I wouldn’t be here with him and his family forever, but I decided that while I was I would do what I wanted. If it ever happened that I couldn’t make my own decisions, I would make the choice to go home. For the first time in my life, I felt powerful. I liked it.
“I didn’t see one loose horse. Will they really just roam around?” I said.
“Maybe. Some will find their way home, too. Others will be delivered when they are found.” Mac guided our horse into the front courtyard.
Una greeted us as I slid my numb bottom off the horse.
“Ye’re returned,” she said.
“Aye,” Mac said. “Anything I need to ken?”
“No, I dinna think so,” Una said.
“Good. Kally, ye’ll be all right? I’ll take the horse to the stablemen.”
“Thanks, Mac. That was fun,” I said.
Mac looked at Una and then at me. “T’was my pleasure.”
“Hurry up with ye,” Una said as Mac walked away with the animal. She turned to me.“We’ve got another dinner this evening. We have time for ye to talk to Corc before we sit down to eat.”
“Good,” I said, switching gears in my head. I would be glad to have that conversation over.
“Come along. I’ll take ye to him right now.”
“Sure, right away,” I said as I made my sore body follow hers.
We threaded our way through the castle and toward another area I had yet to see. We stepped down deeper and deeper into darkness.
Soon we came upon a room that Una called the surgery. From outside the door I could hear Corc.
“That is more than enough. I am fine woman. It is but a mere nick in the skin!”
“And he’s in a mood,” Una rolled her eyes. “Best of luck to ye.” She turned and disappeared back toward light of the upper level.
Gathering courage, I stepped into the surgery and was immediately surprised by both the sight of Corc and all the smells. The stinks reminded me of Berna’s cabin, but stronger, bigger and somewhat cleaner; a soapy smell mixed with a musky bitterness.
Corc’s “nick” was a huge gash. His forehead was half-normal, half-monstrous with stitches and dried blood. He was still a rock of man, but older and a little less solid. He’d scared me so much when he found me under Berna’s bed, but he’d been so kind to me at the Gathering. He’d been the one to watch after me. He took pride in his job. My disappearance couldn’t have been easy on him, even if he hadn’t liked me.
“Hi, Corc,” I said.
He looked up and his eyes grew huge. “Lass?” He said something to the woman who was tending his head. I didn’t hear the words, but she turned and left the room.
“Yes.” I walked to him.
“I hear ye saved me from the fire.”
“No, Mac did that.”
“He said ye helped.”
I shrugged.
“Thank ye.”
The silence that followed made me want to scream. I got to the point.
“I’m sorry I disappeared sixteen years ago,” I finally said. I wanted to tell him that I hadn’t meant to leave, but I had. I meant to run away, not be attacked, but to him there was no difference in what happened. I left, that’s all he knew.
“Aye? Weel …”
“I can’t tell you what happened to me.”
“I didna ask,” he said, but he cringed. “Sorry, lass. I guess I’m still . . .”
“Mad at me?”
“A little.”
“I understand, but I am sorry. Maybe you’ll forgive me someday?”
“Aye,” he said doubtfully, but the corner of his mouth almost turned up and into a smile. Almost, but not quite.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He reached up and touched his injury. “T’is nothing.”
“I’ve never seen ‘nothing’ look so scary.”
“I’m fine,” he said.
“Did someone hit you?’
“I dinna ken. It’s all a bit foggy.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“The last person I saw before going to the stables was Una. The old woman forced me to eat before going out. I wasna hungry but she insisted. I think it was my own fault. I think I ran into a pole and knocked the lantern off and onto my head. I passed out and the fire lit.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Corc sighed, paused and looked at me with his still angry eyes. “The laird told me ye hadna changed much. He was right. Ye still look the same. How?”
“I age well, I guess. You don’t look much different.”
“Aye? Ye are a good liar.”
“Other than the horrible cut on your head, you look almost exactly the same too.”
Corc smiled this time, his crooked teeth somehow softening his hard face.
“I really am sorry,” I said again when there didn’t seem to be anything else to say.
“I suppose I should get let that wicked woman clean me up.”
“Sure.”
“I’ll see ye at dinner. Aye?” he asked.
“I’ll be there.”
“Kally?” Corc said as I reached the door.
“Yes.”
“Thank ye for apologizing. We all missed ye verra much. Forgive us for putting that burden on ye. Ye didna owe us a thing. We should have told ye that ye were free to go at any time. That would have solved everything. Forgive me for the way I treated ye when I first found ye. I . . . ”
“No, Corc. I owe you more than you’ll ever understand. We’re both sorry. Let’s both forgive.”
He smiled and then shooed me away with his hand before looking to his left. “All right, woman. Come get me taken care of. I’ve not got all day.”
I left the surgery and sighed. I was glad that was over with. A rustle sounded around the curve of the hall.
“Is someone there?” I asked, my voice echoing off the cold walls.
No one answered, but I was certain I’d heard something. I put my fingers around the pendant to keep it safe, and hurried to my room. I wasn’t ready to be assaulted again, and I wasn’t ready to go home. I made it safely, but I was spooked. Was someone watching me when I wasn’t looking? Who? Did they want me out of here? If they knew about the necklace, they knew about time travel. Again, who?
Una had found another dress that wasn’t too tight in the shoulders and some hair ribbon. I put the dress on but tied the hair ribbon around a bed-post. She had also left a comb and some scented oil or something that was in a small jar. It smelled of lavender so I dabbed a bit behind my ear. I’d never done such a thing. It was weird, but it smelled good.
The dinner table was full. Again, Brian Duncan sat at the head of it. He looked even more put together than he had before. Corc, with his sewn up cut covered with a bandage, sat to his right, and Ian and Maisie, with her eyes still avoiding mine, sat next to him. Mac sat me on his father’s left side and then he sat next to me. Una joined us at the other end of the table.
The conversation was noisy and busy, though I didn’t follow it well. Gealic was used to discuss a ruckus that had occurred at a pub in the village. Corc could tell a story like no one I’d ever heard and even without understanding the words, I got the gist of what happened and I managed to force a laugh or a smile at appropriate moments.
The laird broke into a story about Ian and Maisie’s daughter Bethia and one of her attempts to help him take off his boots. As the story went on, I realized that everyone was happy – fine, actuall
y.
This was a family having dinner. My mom and I ate dinner together, and we liked each other, but we weren’t ever jovial. I wished she could join us.
“Maisie,” I interjected during a silent moment. “I’d love to meet your children.”
“Aye, weel . . .” she began.
“They’re a handful and then some.” Ian laughed.
“I would still love to meet them.”
“Verra well. How about tomorrow morning?” Ian said.
“After her riding lesson,” Mac said.
“Riding lesson?” I said.
“Aye. Ye’ve got to learn how to handle a horse. Once ye do, it wilna be so painful to ride.”
“Verra weel, after her riding lesson,” Ian said. He smiled at his wife who clearly didn’t think I needed to meet her children. He was surprised by whatever look she gave him, and he didn’t hide it well.
“Where did ye go today?” the laird asked me, diverting my attention.
“The market. I saw lots of your land, green everywhere. I saw the ocean for the first time ever,” I said. “Oh and we met Ivar and Kirk Lennox.”
The table fell silent.
“Ye didna, Mac,” Ian said as he put his cup down.
“I stayed on our land, big brother. There is not a thing to worry about.” Mac picked up his own cup and took a drink.
“Ian, we have every right to travel over the cliffs. Ye know that,” the laird said. “However, Mac, let’s not push anyone’s patience right now. Have ye forgotten our recent problems?”
“No, father, I havena. I was careful, and Kally wanted to see the ocean.”
“I understand,” the laird said.
Ian looked as though he wanted to say more, but he didn’t. “Ah, all is weel,” he finally muttered.
I wanted to know more, but the subject was changed quickly and any attempt I made to ask was ignored.
After dinner, we gathered in the large front room. It had been cleaned so thoroughly that I wondered if there was a speck of dust anywhere.
Lanterns burned throughout, but the fireplace was dark, the evening unusually warm. We gathered in a circle, and more stories were told over warm tea and pastries that were so good, even on a full stomach and a distracted mind, I ate too many of the cherry-filled rolls.
I listened, mostly. The stories I could contribute might have been fascinating, but incomprehensible. How would they react to cars, planes, the rise and fall of computers and cellular phones? What would they say about the Season of Quakes and the millions of people who died, and the changes in the continents? What would they say about the lonely lives we led in 2184 – lonely because there were so many rules and we were all scared of breaking them? Lonely because of so many reasons; reasons we couldn’t predict would cause such loneliness, but had nonetheless. And even with the life I led in the future, my most interesting story was about them, anyway.
Mac, Ian and Corc had all recently been out on their own hunting trips. Ian had hunted deer, and had been successful. Mac had hunted partridges but he hadn’t been as serious about the hunt as he’d been to just spend some in the country.
But it was Corc’s story that was the most unbelievable and interesting.
“I’d left the castle early, oh about a week ago now. I had in my mind that I was going to kill at least five of them.”
“Five what?” I said.
“Wolves, of course,” he said.
“Oh.” I didn’t like the idea of killing animals, but this was the way these people ate – except they didn’t eat wolves; they destroyed them because the wolves ate too much of the other food. My run-in with a wolf hadn’t been pleasant and I still didn’t know if the rock I’d thrown had killed it. I kept my opinion to myself.
“Aye, the wicked animals,” Corc said.
“So what happened?” I asked.
“Aye, weel, it was an interesting adventure to be sure. When I rode away from the castle, I had a funny feeling on the back of my neck, ye know how the hair stands on end?” We nodded. Corc’s voice was meant for story-telling. It was deep and thickly accented. I had to focus on the words so his tone wouldn’t hypnotize me. “I’m riding into the countryside and I dinna have my wits about me as I should. It was that feeling, ye see, it distracted me, made me feel too safe maybe. I dinna kin. But I wasna myself.” Corc lifted his hand and looked toward the ceiling and his memory. On another person it might have been too dramatic, but it worked on him.
“The day wore on and I hadna seen one of the wicked creatures at all, but I hadna noticed much else either. I was in my own mind, thinking of things I canna remember at this verra moment. But when I realized the sun was coming down and I hadna shot one arrow, I startled myself. I ken the country like the back of my own hand, but I had to get my bearings and figure just how far I’d gone.
“Once I ken my location, I wondered how I’d gone so far. I was a normal two days’ journey away, not the one day that I was sure I’d traveled. My mind was confused, but I didna have time to let it be confused. It was getting dark and I had to make a camp if I didna want to be unprepared. So, I went to work and built a fire and ate my dinner.
“The strange haze that had taken my day away from me wasna going to take away my night, I was determined. I would stay awake the whole night and then continue my hunt the next day. But the fates were again’ me and I fell fast asleep before I finished my broth. But it wasna to be for long. In what felt like a moment, I was up straight and awake with the panic of a bad dream, but I didna remember any nightmares.
“The fire was still burning low, and the darkness was thick all around. I blinked and tried to clear my eyes so I could understand what the noises I heard. Once I was aware, I realized that I was surrounded. Surrounded by ‘alf a dozen of those evil animals.”
“Wolves,” I said, not meaning to speak with such a sigh. Not actually meaning to speak out loud. “Sorry.”
“No need to be sorry, lass,” Corc said. “Aye, wolves. They circled me and there was no one of them that didna want the blood at my throat. They snarled and growled and barked and moved towards me, one step at a time, but all of them moving together.
“I was certain I’d seen the last of my days. How could I possibly get myself away from so many animals? I picked up my arrows and bow anyway and tried to load. But panic caused me to fumble and drop everything. I gathered my things again and picked what I thought was the most ferocious creature of them all and pulled back on the bow. Could I steady my nerves enough to make a direct hit? Even though none was more than a couple men’s heights from me, I didna think I could take a clean shot. But I tried anyway. And I missed. And then I missed some more. And I n’er miss.
“I thought I was gone for sure. But then it all changed. Suddenly and unbelievably, I have to tell ye all.” Corc stopped and looked at the floor as he shook his head.
“What is it, man?” Ian asked.
“Ye’ll not believe me. I dinna believe myself.”
“Give us a try,” Mac said.
“Weel, there was another wolf came upon us. She stayed in the background and started growling and fussing. I think she was the one with the mark, mind ye.” Corc pointed at his forehead.
“The one that had Mac?” I asked.
“Aye, I think, but I canna be sure.”
I looked at the laird as he took his mug to his mouth. He glanced at me and nodded but remained silent. I didn’t think that wolf could still be alive, but interjecting my doubt would have ruined the mood of the moment.
Corc continued, “She was big and mighty and not only scared me, but she scared the rest of them as weel. They stopped their forward movement, looked at me with regret in their mean eyes and then retreated. Literally turned tail and ran toward and then past the she-wolf who’d joined us.”
“I supposed there’s not anything wrong with that. Why wouldna we belive ye?” the laird asked.
Corc sat forward. “It was what happened next that is the magic part.”
�
��Tell us,” I piped up.
“As I watched her turn away toward the retreating pack now, mind, I watched with eyes that didna blink. I watched with my attention now awake and full. And as I watched, the animal . . . weel, she disappeared.”
“What do ye mean, disappeared?” Ian asked.
“Like that,” he snapped his fingers, “she disappeared. Poof – one second there and the next, gone.”
“It was dark, Corc,” the laird said.
“Aye, to be sure, but I ken what I saw . . . and then didna see.”
We were all silent for a moment. I was certain no one knew what to say. I certainly didn’t.
“I told ye that ye wouldna believe me.”
“It’s not that. Ye were tired, Corc and ye said it, ye werna yerself.” The laird shifted in his chair.
“There it is. Make of it what ye will. I can only tell the story as it happened. I canna make any of ye believe.” Corc wasn’t able to hide his hurt feelings at the general sense of disbelief.
Mac went to his side and man-patted him on his arm. “We werna there, friend. I’ll believe what ye say until I can prove it different.”
I believed Corc. I believed every word. I don’t know why, except for the fact that something even more strange had happened to me. I was not one to disbelieve anything at all. I, of course, kept my feelings quiet, but I did smile at Corc and hoped he saw my support.
The rest of the evening was more jokes and stories all around. But by the time I’d eaten three more pastries, I figured I was in for a deep and long night’s sleep. I was exhausted and sore from riding the horse and I wanted to fall into my bed.
And much to my surprise, Mac jumped up and offered to escort me to my room.
“Okay,” I said. My room wasn’t far from where we were and I thought I could get there on my own, but I didn’t argue.
Mac crooked his arm. It took me a second to figure out what to do. I slid mine arm through his, and we left the party. It felt weird.
We made our way down the hallway, toward the kitchen. His legs were so much longer than mine that our timing was mostly off and embarrassing. Just when I’d become comfortable around him, this was awkward and uncomfortable. I was glad to reach the room.
“Here’s we are, lass.” Mac smiled easily. “I had a lovely day today. I hope ye did, too.”
