“I suppose we have some time to make up for, then,” he murmured against her throat, kissing a trail down her neck to her collarbone, and she grinned, curling her body into his arms, feeling him already beginning to respond to her caresses —
Then there was a pounding on the door. Startled, they both sat bolt upright — then Malcolm cursed, vaulting out of bed naked — not a bad sight, Nancy thought smugly to herself. He started yanking his clothes on willy-nilly, staggering a little with his sleepiness, and she gathered the bedclothes around herself as the chilly morning air struck her exposed skin.
“No fair,” she complained.
“The meeting,” he said hurriedly, dragging his trousers on. “The emergency meeting about the goblins — it’s soon —”
“Oh, crap,” she whispered, and before too long she was also doing the awkward dance of getting her clothes on as quickly as possible. But before too long they were ready, and Malcolm strode to open the door, revealing Donal, who’d been pounding on it for as long as they’d both been dressing. She strode to Malcolm’s side, torn between embarrassment at being caught in Malcolm’s room like this and defiance — after all, it wasn’t as though the Laird could say anything judgmental about his tanist falling for a woman from another time. And sure enough, Donal just grinned at them both, his eyes sparkling with mirth. But he didn’t comment at all — simply asked if they were coming and turned away down the hall. Nancy followed along — and smiled to herself as she felt Malcolm slip his hand into hers as they walked.
Sure enough, the dining hall was full of villagers again — Nancy stopped in the doorway, surprised by the number of people with worried faces who were sitting on the various benches and tables of the Hall. It seemed that more and more villagers were choosing to attend these meetings, wanting to know what was going on, hoping there was something they could do to keep themselves safe… she sighed to herself at the magnitude of the bad news the Sept had for them. If even the castle wasn’t safe from the goblins, what hope was there for the village? Things were looking dire.
She heard shouting from outside and frowned. The voice was familiar, but surely it couldn’t be… she got to her feet and walked out into the hall, not believing what she’d heard. But to her surprise, there stood Maggie on the threshold of the castle, shouting irritably.
“Let me in, you daft fools —”
“Maggie? What are you doing here?”
“Nancy! Get this door unblocked, would you?”
Nancy stared at her, confused by what she meant — the castle door was standing open, nothing but empty space separating the two of them. But then she realized what the problem was. There on the ground, on the threshold of the castle, there lay one of the black iron dirks that the castle folk had distributed the night before. Maggie was eyeing it like it was a coiled snake, and she hissed with displeasure when Nancy ran over to scoop it up.
“Put it somewhere else, will you? That’s a good girl,” Maggie said approvingly as Nancy tossed the dirk over toward the wall. “It doesn’t burn me quite as badly as the pureblood Fae, but it does leave some nasty marks and I’d rather not have the hassle if it’s all the same. Has the meeting begun yet?”
“It’s just about to,” she explained, leading Maggie through the hall of the castle. “Is that why you’re here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you outside of your cottage before, Maggie. Did you walk?”
“I have my ways,” was all she’d say, dusting her hands off. “But you’re right, I don’t tend to come here much. Too much iron,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “But I’ve an important message for you all, and I felt that made a visit necessary.”
Donal was quieting the people of the hall when they came in, and he looked up with some surprise to see Maggie there. Nancy sat with her on an empty bench toward the back of the gathering, wondering whether she wanted to speak first — but the little old woman seemed perfectly content to sit and wait for the meeting to continue.
Donal opened with a brief but direct description of what had happened the night before — the attack on the castle, the hordes of goblins that had been dealt with… but the unfortunate fact that there were definitely more out there, if they’d been brave enough to attack the castle. The villagers were all murmuring amongst themselves. John the blacksmith stood up — Nancy was surprised to see him there, assuming he’d have been too hard at work in the forge to spare the time. Things must have been getting dire.
“Laird Donal, we can’t keep going like this,” he said. “Your men are all exhausted — and you’re clearly stretched too thin to defend us and the Keep as well. What are we going to do about these creatures? How can we put a stop to their nonsense once and for all?”
“Iron is effective,” Donal said, gesturing helplessly. “For now, we can at least take solace in the fact that their numbers will have shrunk since the assault last night. It should buy us some breathing room.”
“Not much, though,” came Maggie’s voice from beside her, clear as a bell. Though she didn’t seem to be trying too hard, Maggie’s voice effortlessly filled the hall, commanding attention as she got to her feet. “Laird Donal, may I speak?”
“Of course, Maggie. Your wisdom is much appreciated.”
“I received a message from the Sidhe last night,” Maggie said bluntly. She waited for the murmurings of the villagers to die down before she continued — Nancy could tell that many of them didn’t believe in the Sidhe, or faeries in general. How, then, did they explain the goblin attacks? she wondered. Were they really so determined to deny the truth of what was happening all around them? She supposed human beings never really changed. Just thinking of the people back home who denied the existence of everything paranormal, she could completely understand these villagers’ reluctance to accept the clear truth that they were being beset by faeries. It may have sounded absurd… but it was the truth.
“What did the Sidhe say?” Donal asked, his face drawn with sudden worry.
“It seems the problem with the burgh is more serious than we thought,” Maggie said, eyeballing the group who were watching her with a combination of distrust and concern. “The Sidhe came to me last night to inform me that the problem is that it’s being held open, somehow, by some kind of interference from the goblins. That’s how so many of them are making their way into our world from the Fae — usually, the gate is guarded on both sides, and difficult to pass through. At the moment, that’s not the case.”
Nancy stared at her, her heart pounding. The gate between worlds was being propped open? No wonder so many goblins were pouring through… she clenched her jaw, thinking of her scuba gear immediately.
“What can we do?” yelled one of the villagers, an older man who was looking at Maggie with deep fear. “The burgh’s deep underwater — how can we repair it?”
“Could you send the monster?” Donal asked.
Nancy looked around at the villagers, surprised by how calm they all seemed to be staying — it seemed that the time of pretending that there were non-supernatural explanations for what was going on had passed. She searched for Father Caleb to see what the priest thought of all this talk of goblins, monsters and magic — the very superstitions he attributed only to demons — but to her surprise, she couldn’t find the man. Had he decided against attending this meeting? Did he realize that he wouldn’t be able to save face, what with the irrefutable evidence of goblins?
“Nessie won’t go near the burgh,” Maggie said flatly. “Terrified of it. Says it hurts her. The only thing I can imagine is that there’s iron involved… but goblins can’t touch iron for more than a few seconds without losing a limb, so I’m not sure how that would have worked.”
“I can go,” Nancy said, shooting to her feet. She had to try — had to make this offer now, in front of the villagers. Maybe the added pressure would convince Donal that he had to let her help, had to allow her to dive down to the burgh. “I can swim down. I have the equipment.”
“You’ll drown, stupid girl,” s
aid one of the villagers dismissively, and she wheeled on him irritably.
“It’s you that sounds stupid. Donal, Malcolm — you know I can do this.”
Donal was frowning. “It’s too dangerous, Nancy. We’ve discussed this.”
“It’s dangerous for me not to go!” she exploded, heedless of the listening ears. “Donal — Laird Donal,” she corrected herself through gritted teeth, “you have to let me do this.”
“I think you’ll find I’m Laird of this castle,” Donal said, his voice low and deadly as he pinned her to her place with his eyes. “We’ll discuss this later. Thank you for your contribution. Now sit down.”
Fuming, Nancy sat back down — Maggie patted her on the leg in a gesture of consolation, and she gave the woman a grateful smile. It didn’t dull the fire in her heart, though. Talk later, would they? Oh, they absolutely would talk later. With Malcolm on her side, she’d be able to force him to give her permission. They were running out of options… and if Nessie couldn’t keep them safe from the hordes that were pouring through the burgh, she’d have to do it herself. She knew Nessie wouldn’t attack her. The main danger were goblins down there… she’d just have to take some iron and hope.
She had to. They were rapidly running out of options — and Nancy Kane refused to sit patiently in the castle until it was overrun by goblins. Not if there were any avenues of enquiry they hadn’t yet exhausted.
Chapter 49
The meeting wound up soon after — there simply wasn’t much to talk about. A few villagers volunteered to join the patrols, at least — Anna offered to train them in basic combat, to get them at least slightly ready for a goblin attack. It was a sign of how worried the villagers and Donal were that nobody objected to the idea of a pregnant woman training a handful of men. Desperate times called for desperate measures — and though Nancy knew Anna was one of the most qualified fighting trainers in the castle, she knew for a fact that the people of this time tended to have a hard time accepting that. Her own husband included.
She ran up to Malcolm the minute the meeting was disbanded, her heart pounding and her chest full of righteous indignation. He looked down at her, looking tired and worried but still able to muster the energy to give her a broad smile.
“We have to talk to Donal,” she said quickly, gesturing to the Laird, who was deep in conversation with one of the villagers.
“What about?”
“About letting me dive down to the burgh, of course,” she said flatly. But Malcolm was frowning — not agreeing with her, as she’d expected.
“Nancy… I have to agree with Donal. It’s simply too dangerous for you to risk your life —”
“What do you mean, too dangerous? Malcolm, last night the castle was attacked. We all could have been killed by goblins in our sleep. At this point it’s too dangerous not to do anything.”
“I know you’re frustrated,” he said gently, taking her by the shoulders. “But —”
“But what? Malcolm, this is the one thing I can do. I can dive, I can swim down, I can close the burgh. Why do you think I was sent here? Why on Earth, of all the people that the Sidhe could have brought back here, was it me? A scuba diver, of all things? It’s because I can do this! This is the purpose the Sidhe brought me here for!” She wanted to hit him — he just kept staring at her, shaking his head gently as she spoke. “They want me to go down and check the burgh — that’s why they sent me through, that’s why they talked to Maggie about the problem. It’s me. It’s my destiny to go down there.”
“I can’t let you,” Malcolm said softly, staring into her eyes beseechingly. “Nancy, he’s underestimating your power, it’s true, but you have to understand — I can’t let you risk your life like that. I can’t lose you. Not now that I’ve finally found you —”
“Seriously?” She stared up at him, disgusted. “You’d risk the lives of everyone here for me?”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I would.”
“Malcolm — I know you think that’s a compliment,” she said levelly, trying to keep it under control, “but it’s really not. Think about what you’re saying to me — and to everyone around you, when you say that.”
He hesitated, torn. “It’s not that I don’t have faith in you —”
“I’m going back to my room,” she said grimly. “Alone,” she added over her shoulder as she turned to leave. “Don’t you dare try to follow me.”
She stormed up the stairs, so full of hurt and betrayal and anger that she could barely see straight. How dare he? How dare he put the kibosh on her like that — agree with Donal, of all people, that it was too dangerous for her to dive? She’d dealt her whole life with people telling her that diving was dangerous, that cave diving was a fool’s errand, that she’d wind up dead in some cave someday, floating upside down like a dead goldfish. To get that treatment from someone she… someone she cared about, she thought angrily… it was just beyond anything she’d ever expected.
But she wasn’t going to lose herself to anger. Not now. Not with so much at stake. So instead of throwing a tantrum or hurling herself onto her bed to cry her eyes out, as she sorely wanted to do, she simply knelt by her chest of drawers and pulled out her scuba gear. It had been a few weeks since she’d worn it, so she performed the usual checks, robotic and methodical. No damage, no signs of wear, no scrapes or scratches from her adventure in the cave that might have claimed her life were it not for the Sidhe… everything was in excellent shape. She checked the level of her tank, too, grimly setting aside the rule of thirds. She didn’t have enough air to follow the rule of using a third to get down, a third to get back, and the final third for emergencies. This was an emergency, and she was going to need every single bit of air in that tank.
It was dangerous, she admitted to herself now, alone. She knew how dangerous it was. But Malcolm and Donal, they didn’t — they just thought she couldn’t do it. Well, they were wrong, and she was going to prove it to them. First and foremost, she’d close up the burgh, whatever that took. Then she’d happily accept any punishment they could offer her. She had to act now, while the goblin forces were diminished. After the assault on the castle, there would be dozens less in their ranks… which meant they’d almost certainly be calling for reinforcements from the other side. She wasn’t going to let them get them. From what she could gather, the goblins only traveled through the burgh at night — that was when they’d heard Nessie fighting with them, after all. They must be nocturnal. That meant that if she went now and closed the burgh up, she could hopefully ensure that whatever goblins were already on this side were the only goblins that would ever be here. Then they could work on the project of picking them off, one by one.
But she couldn’t just walk through the castle holding scuba gear — that would draw far too much attention. After giving it some thought, she wrapped the gear in her cloak, then grabbed the iron dirk that had been laid on her window ledge, sticking it halfway into the bundle. If anyone asked her, she would just say she was taking an armful of iron to the villagers to help them shore up their defenses. That made sense, right?
Thankfully, she didn’t need to explain herself to anyone. The castle was quiet as she moved through it — it seemed most people were catching up on the sleep they’d missed out on the night before, what with the attack hauling everyone from their beds to help defend. Well, good. She didn’t need any witnesses to what she was about to attempt. With the meeting — and the sleep-in that she and Malcolm had indulged in — it was already around midday, and she wanted to be back in the castle well before dark. She’d learned her lesson the other night, that was for certain.
Maggie must have already left the castle, because the old woman was nowhere to be seen. Nancy decided against using the old woman’s jetty as a jumping-off point for her dive — that would be the first place Malcolm would look for her if he realized she was missing, and she didn’t want anything to try to get in the way of this dive. But she still needed to be close to the burgh. She decided, as
she tacked up her chestnut mare, that she’d ride up past the castle in the opposite direction — riding away from the village and Maggie’s hut, instead of toward them. It was unknown territory, but few people from the castle ever went that way. She’d find a spot to jump into the water, swim around to where she knew the burgh was, roughly speaking, then attach her mask and dive from there.
Plan made, she swung aboard the horse, having already fastened her bundle of scuba gear to the saddle. The mare set off willingly, though there was a nervous edge to the way she walked, and she kept sniffing at the air as though something unpleasant was on it. Perhaps she can smell the traces of goblin blood, Nancy thought with a shiver. She rode out through the gate — there were a couple of volunteers on duty, and they waved cheerily down at her as she rode. Her stomach twisted. Defended by untrained men… they desperately needed to get control of this goblin problem before it was too late. She knew the volunteers would do their best, but there was a reason that it was best to have trained soldiers on guard.
She sensed that there was something wrong almost as soon as the castle was behind her. It was her horse, first, that gave away that she should be worried — as they headed down the road, searching for a sandy beach or inlet from which to access the Loch, the horse was uneasy, tossing her head, trying to turn back. Nancy ascribed the nervousness to the unfamiliar path they were taking and urged her on. But before too long, the horse’s shifting became too hard to ignore. There was a strange smell, too — the stench of a fire, and roasting meat. A kind of meat she’d never smelled before. Something acrid, and foul… something deeply wrong, something she could tell was wrong in her bones, for the same reason that her horse kept shifting her weight around, rolling her eyes in fear.
Then she saw them. There, camped out on a beach that would have been perfect for her purposes… there was a fire, and surrounding it, maybe a dozen goblins. They were unmistakable. Not quite the same as the drawings she’d looked at, but familiar enough that she recognized them instantly. One was a Redcap — taller than the others, and wiry, he sat in pride of place right next to the fire, gnawing at a piece of meat on a stick. Around him were gathered three Bogans, deep in conversation, and even from here she could see the sharp knives glinting at the belts they wore. Around them were maybe eight more goblins — bogans too, from what she could tell, though something about their bearing and the way they kept a safe distance from the fire indicated that their status was lower. That must be the ringleader, she realized, her heart pounding hard in her chest. The Redcap must be the leader of the band, just as they’d suspected. They were camped so close to the castle!
Stranded By The Highlander: A Scottish Time Travel Romance-Highlander Forever Book 2 Page 30
