by Terry Spear
“He might no’ have anything to do with it. But someone else wants me dead, set up the ambushes, hired the mercenaries to kill me aboard the ship, and killed my da so my brother could rule the clan.”
“What would the motivation be in that?” Cael asked.
“Someone who would be my brother’s righthand man? Someone my da would never have elevated in position? Someone who knew if I ever had the chance to lead our people, he wouldna be my righthand man?” Quinn said.
Cael smiled darkly. “You mean me.”
“Or the five others who are so fiercely loyal to my brother,” Quinn said.
“You attack us for your own misdeeds? Who’s to say you were ambushed at all? That the mercenaries tried to kill you? It’s all your word against no one else’s. There’s no one to back you up.” Dogmael was itching to kill Quinn now. He could see it in the way he gripped his drawn sword, his blue eyes dark and narrowed, his dark brown hair whipping across his face in the sea breeze.
“I do have witnesses for the ambushes, and I have witnesses concerning the mercenaries.” Not who were now with them, but Fenella had heard the men’s threats to kill Quinn if he had survived the shipwreck, and the one man intended to kill Avelina and him, thinking he was unarmed. So she was Quinn’s witness to that. Whether his clansmen would believe the words of the two women was another story.
Even so, everyone looked back at Dogmael, waiting to see what he had to say to that. He just grunted.
“What are you going to do about it?” Cael asked again.
“Speak to my brother.”
“And these men?” Cael motioned to the men with Quinn.
“We are here to make sure he gets to speak his mind before being cut down,” Baudwin said.
“You mean to take over from your brother,” Cael said to Quinn.
“If my brother is at the root of attempting to have me killed and has lied about me killing my da, aye. I have no other choice.”
Cael motioned with his sword to climb the hill to the castle. “After you.”
All of his clansmen stepped out of Quinn’s way to make a path for him and Liam, Baudwin, and the others.
“What have you been doing since I was stuck here, missing out on all your adventures?” Liam asked Quinn as they trudged up the hill.
“Same old thing. Trying to stay alive. It was a good thing you hadna come with me.”
“I would have helped you to fight those bastards on the ship.”
“Aye, but you dinna swim as well as me.”
“True.”
“Besides, if you had managed to make it to shore, Avelina couldna have saved us both if you’d been as injured as me.”
Liam frowned at Quinn. “You were injured?”
“I’ve been healing up just fine.”
“Och, and you plan to fight your brother when you are still suffering from injuries?”
“I fought them,” Quinn said, motioning with his thumb to the three men following Baudwin and Hamish. “And I hadna even had that much time to recover.”
“I have told the council already what I believe,” Liam said.
Quinn glanced at his friend.
“It was a risk I had to take, hoping you were still alive, and afraid you’d make it back home, only to be thrown in the dungeon.”
“And they said?”
“They said they needed proof. More than just my word that you are innocent in the case of your da’s death. What will you do if your brother is innocent of trying to have you murdered?”
“Then I’ll have to learn who is at the root of it.”
“Then Quinn will come to work for me,” Baudwin said. “If he’s going to die, it’ll be in battle against our enemies, not fighting his own clansmen.”
Quinn smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“You are married to my daughter, and I dinna want you to get yourself killed if you were to return here under your brother’s rule. I wouldna want to fear for my daughter’s life.”
“Liam, when did the clan learn that I was stuck in the cave when we were eight?” Quinn asked Liam.
“You’re asking about that now?”
“Do you know?” After Quinn and Avelina had talked about it in the island shelter, he hadn’t been able to let go of it. He had to know the truth. “Didna anyone question where I was that night?” Quinn couldn’t believe no one would have learned from his brother what had happened.
“Your brother said you wanted to prove your manhood and were staying in a cave for the night. Your da thought it would build character. But by the time we broke our fast the next morn, and you were still no’ back, he asked your brother which cave you were staying in.”
“He lied. Even back then, my brother lied.”
Liam shook his head. “That was the only story we knew. You were sick from the cold and lack of food and water, and everyone was so grateful to have you returned alive, you never said what had really happened.”
“I thought he told Da, but it was too late to dig me out.”
“You were stronger for it, despite what your brother did.”
“He bolted when he heard the rocks caving in. I couldna make it out in time because I was farther back in the cave.”
“Did he cause the cave-in?”
“I dinna think so. We were no’ supposed to go there. Mayhap he was afraid he’d get into trouble if he said he’d been there too.”
“Worse, that he came home and didna tell your da that you were there, until the next morn. He made it sound like he knew naught of the cave-in.”
“Bastard.”
“Aye.”
They came within sight of the castle and Cael said, “These men need to be disarmed.”
“They willna be,” Quinn said. He wasn’t allowing his brother the opportunity to kill Baudwin and his men, if Cormac decided to give the order.
“They canna,” Liam agreed. “They’re no’ here to start a war. They’re here only to see that Quinn has his say.”
Dogmael snorted. “This is the only way you can take over the clan.”
Quinn shook his head. “When have I ever said I wanted to?”
They approached the gates and the gate guards were frowning.
“They willna be disarmed,” Quinn said, Liam echoing his statement.
Archers on the wall walk looked down at them, bows in hand, ready to shoot their target if anyone looked like they were going to attack their clansmen.
“They’re no’ here to fight anyone,” Liam called out to those in the outer bailey and the men on the wall walk. “Only to learn the truth about what Quinn has been charged with.”
“You canna all go inside,” Cael warned.
“Then tell my brother that he can speak to me out here, before all of you. That way it will be fairer,” Quinn said. He was afraid if he went in with just Baudwin and Liam, they’d be slaughtered, if his brother didn’t want the truth to come out.
“Aye,” an elder on the council said, joining them. Two more followed him, all gray haired, no longer fighting battles unless the battle came to them. “I’d like to know the truth. We all would. Here. Among your people, Quinn.”
“If you have been wronged, ‘tis your right to have the final say in this,” another said. Elphin had always liked Quinn and had expressed some concern before when Quinn returned home, injured, when he’d fought the men who had ambushed him while doing his brother’s bidding. “There have been too many attempts on your life to be mere coincidence. If I were you, I’d be thinking everyone was out to murder me. And for what reason? You have always been one of us, loyal to a fault. I dinna blame you for bringing our allies with you to see that you have a chance to speak freely.”
“Aye,” the first council member said. Enda was always a fair man.
Quinn thought he’d have a chance to sway him in his thinking.
The other four council members reserved judgment, not wanting to reveal how they felt about it one way or another.
“I’ll ask Cormac to c
ome and meet you here,” Dogmael said. Then he hurried to the keep.
Quinn was surprised Cael hadn’t gone to see Cormac first, unless he thought to take Quinn down if he believed he was a traitor to his da like his brother had said.
Cael gave Quinn an evil smirk. “If your brother didna want to kill you before, he sure will now.”
18
Cormac took forever to come out, armed, and shouting orders. “Arrest my brother at once! And any who interfere. If they fight, kill them!”
“That is always your way, Brother. Use someone else to kill me. If Da had been alive—”
“He isna because you murdered him!” Cormac spit out.
“If Da have been alive, he would give a mon a chance to plead his case. No’ you, eh, Cormac? You’d have me put to death and silence me once and for all? Did you have Da murdered like you tried with me? Or did you kill him yourself? He was knocked off his horse, calling for your aid, from what others have said. Was he injured when you struck him down? Or was he just so shocked his first-born would do anything so odious as to attempt to kill him that he didna fight back? And why do you accuse me now of murdering him? Why no’ after the battle? You thought I would die after you had men try to murder me. But I canna be killed.”
“All lies. I knew you would twist the truth and return home to try and murder me!”
“I would have been loyal to you until the end. I still dinna know why you wish me dead. Whatever have I done to you?”
“I think I know the answer to that,” Lorne said, entering the outer bailey with a dozen men. Like Liam, Lorne had always had Quinn’s back. “While you were away cavorting with island beauties, Quinn, and from what I’ve learned, married the chief’s daughter, I was questioning everyone I could about how your da died.”
“We thought he’d died in battle. You know that as well as any man here who fought in that last battle with him. The men who took off with my brother to steal my bride away, had told me before they left how Quinn had killed our da,” Cormac growled, pointing his sword at Lorne.
“Your paid mercenaries. Your paid assassins,” Quinn said. None of his clansmen had liked the mercenaries, so that made them immediately suspect. Cormac must not have told their people that the mercenaries were the ones who claimed Quinn had murdered their da. Conveniently, they were dead and couldn’t speak for themselves.
“Two of our men saw Cormac kill your da,” Lorne said.
Cormac’s face turned red. “They lie. Or mayhap you lie. Who are these men who never came forth with these accusations?”
“They both witnessed the chief call out to you for help when he was knocked from his horse. You rode to his aid, so the men thought. Instead of lifting your da onto your horse, you struck him a mortal blow with your sword. They were engaged in combat after that and you were busy fighting also. They never said anything because they knew you and your supporters would kill them. They thought the same if they told Quinn the truth, he couldna fight everyone, and that all three of them would die. But word has gotten out that you have tried to have Quinn murdered several times, and they finally told me the truth,” Lorne said.
Quinn suspected his own brother had murdered their da, but hearing the truth made it seem unreal. “You killed Da to take over the clan! Why try to kill me then too?” But then Quinn added, “You thought I would try to do to you what you had done to Da!” As if he could be just like his brother!
“Is that no’ why you are here now, Brother? With your own armed mercenaries?” Cormac waved his sword at the men with Quinn. “Though I dinna know how you could have encouraged them to come here, unless you planned to raid my treasury to pay them.”
“We came with him as friends, no’ for money,” Baudwin said, “and we are more like kin to him than you deserve to be.”
“You think you can take over with a handful of men when I have an army to back me?” Cormac had to know that none of his men, but a handful, were here to take his side.
And there were about sixty of Baudwin’s men here, not a handful.
A man ran through the gates and shouted, “More come. Two more ships just reached our shore!”
Everyone looked at Quinn to explain why he was starting a war with them. “I only wanted to say what I came to say. I wasna anywhere near where my da was when he fell in battle. And I have witnesses to prove that. Now it seems there are witnesses who can testify to you having murdered our own da.”
Two men finally came forth. Fanch and Griffith.
“We are ashamed we didna go before the council and tell the members what we had seen,” Fanch said.
He was a sturdy warrior, but Quinn understood why he and the other clansman, Griffith, would have been reluctant to tell anyone the truth, worrying that no one would believe them and fearing for their lives, as well as for their families’.
“You lie!” Cormac shouted. “What is my brother paying you?”
“He has no money to pay anyone. We have to do what is right,” Fanch said.
“You can fight me, and this time try to kill me by your own hand, or you can be judged by our people. Da was well-loved, you, no’ so much.” Quinn knew his people would despise him now for what he had done.
“You think you can take me? Then come and try,” Cormac said.
“It willna be the same as sending your thugs to bushwhack me, or killing Da while he was on foot, and you were riding a horse, swinging your sword at him, when the last person he’d expect to betray him would be one of his sons—his eldest. His favorite.”
Cormac had his sword out and Quinn unsheathed his. He hated to fight his own brother. He’d looked up to his brother, four years older than him. Cormac had taught him how to fight, to defend himself, and now Quinn was going to have to use everything he’d learned against his brother.
Cormac was sure-footed, fast, and deadly. He knew he was a dead man for murdering the chief. There was no way out for him. He would take Quinn’s life at the same time, if he could, so that he couldn’t take over the clan.
Everyone, his clansmen and Baudwin’s, moved out of the way to give them room to fight.
Quinn had only faced his brother in practice and friendly competitions. He knew his strengths and weaknesses like Cormac knew his.
“Were you injured badly when the ship sank?” Cormac asked, as if mentioning Quinn’s injuries would make him fear his older brother. He was eyeing Quinn, looking for any sign of weakness.
“Aye, I was, Brother. Will you do the civilized thing and give me another chance if I begin to falter?” As if his brother had been honorable in the least and would do anything decent regarding Quinn now.
“You are lying now, just as you lied before. Nay, I will give you no quarter.”
A few men talked amongst themselves, but Quinn was concentrating on his brother, who wasn’t making a move to take him down, just yet. Quinn suspected it was because Cormac wanted him to make the first move. He would have too. When it came to fighting his brother, Quinn had always been eager to prove to Cormac, and their da, that he could best him and would rush forth to take him on. And Cormac always got the best of him. This time, Quinn couldn’t be so hasty. Not when it meant his life was at stake.
“You have never beat me in practice before, Quinn. You willna beat me now.”
“He beat me,” Odran said, slamming his fist to his chest. “And he’d suffered from injuries before he had to fight me. Only the former chief and our new chief could do so.”
Cormac snickered. “You’ve never fought me.” He turned his attention to Quinn. “Are you going to stand there all day, Quinn, or are you going to fight me? Afraid you’re too injured to fight well? Afraid I’m going to beat you like I always do?”
“Why did you kill our da? Afraid he would choose me over you to succeed? Or just tired of being his second-in-command? You couldna wait to take over instead?”
That comment pushed Cormac into engaging Quinn. As soon as Cormac charged in to swing his sword at Quinn, he moved in and cut Cormac
’s sword arm. Cormac howled in pain and fell back.
Quinn had learned time and again that rushing to engage the enemy could have dire consequences. For the first time that he was battling his brother, he used more guarded measures. But the wound he’d given his brother didn’t slow him down, only enraged him further.
His brother swung his sword at him again, and Quinn slammed his sword against Cormac’s, blocking the blow, the two weapons clanging.
Heart racing, Quinn readied for another assault. But he wouldn’t make the first strike against his brother in the beginning, hoping the tactic would rattle Cormac. Quinn wouldn’t do what he normally did when fighting his brother. Maybe this time, he would be the victor.
His brother slashed at him again, and Quinn stopped him. This time, he struck at his brother, forcing Cormac back. And again, hitting hard, their swords striking, sparking. They parried and thrust, defended and attacked until they were both breathing hard, their hearts beating furiously.
“God’s wounds, Brother,” Cormac growled, his face red with exertion, sweat pouring off his brow, “when did you learn to fight?”
“From the best. You.”
Cormac swung his sword, but Quinn finally found the opening he needed and thrust his sword into Cormac’s chest. He’d never wanted it to end like this.
You killed our da was running through his mind like a mantra. You killed our da for naught more than the lust for power.
“Awww,” Cormac groaned. He faltered, and Quinn pulled out his sword. Blood poured out of the wound, and Cormac clutched his chest. “You…would’ve…done”—he collapsed to his knees—“the same if…”
“Never.” Quinn wasn’t a murderer like his brother.
Cormac collapsed on the ground on his back and stared up at Quinn.
“It should never have been like this. Between you and me. Between Da and you,” Quinn said.
Cormac snorted. “Now what? You’ll… take over… the clan?”
“If the council agrees. Aye. But it never had to be this way.”
Panting, Cormac closed his eyes, his hand over his chest, his other loosening on his sword grip. “He was…going”—Cormac coughed up blood—“God’s knees”—he coughed again—“tell…council..”—his eyes fluttered open—”you…you were his choice.”
