Some Like it Plaid

by Angela Quarles

  Glances both curious and cautious fell upon him, and he made sure all were before him as they headed up the incline.

  Once they reached the top, he nodded to his father, who stood waiting for them on the speaking stone.

  His father studied the assembled crowd, his face grave. “The Roman visitor this morning brought news of fresh raids. Everyone must be extra vigilant now, and no one is to leave Dunadd unattended.”

  Grumbling sounded, but his father held up a hand. “We have no guarantee they will come from the direction of the signal tower. While we will, of course, watch for the alarm from that quarter, we need to be aware that the raid could come from any direction.”

  …

  As everyone shuffled away after the chief’s announcement, Ashley caught Eithne’s eye and gave her the prearranged hand signal. Eithne nodded and slipped into the crowd. Since the council still hadn’t granted the women a voice yet, the six of them had continued to meet in secret, and the hand signal was how they alerted the others to an emergency session.

  As casually as she could, she strolled toward their meeting place—the kitchen. No one questioned Eithne’s, Affraic’s, and Ashley’s presence there, and, so far, the presence of the others hadn’t drawn any attention, either. They were invisible.

  She washed some bowls, eager to have something to do while she waited for Eithne and the other women. One by one they arrived, their faces flushed, and took a seat around the main work table. They looked to her for direction, and she felt the full weight of that responsibility.

  She wiped her hands and joined them. “All right. Any concerns about preparations for a possible raid that the council hasn’t addressed?”

  Eithne leaned forward and looked up and down the table and back to her. “We should ensure that a proper supply of food and water is stored on the second floor of the keep.”

  Ashley nodded. “What do you need to get that done?”

  After they hashed that out, and they gave an update on their efforts to stock up on onions and other foodstuffs that also had healing properties, she asked, “Anything else? How about any elderly who might not be able to make it up to the keep in time? My neighbor lives alone, and I worry about her. There could be others.”

  They divvied up who would help whom at the time of the alarm. One of the other women said, “It’s not just the elderly. What about Murdina? She’s due to have her babe at any moment. She lives on the lowest terrace. She was one of the few who survived the last raid, and she lost her husband then.”

  “Oh God. That’s awful.” Ashley’s heart went out to the poor woman—to lose a husband was bad enough, but when she was pregnant, too?

  They all began talking at once. Ashley raised a hand. “We need to wrap this up. Eithne, you and I will be in charge of seeing she’s brought up safely.” Ashley stood. “If no one has anything else, I think that’s settled, then.”

  She held her fist out over the table. Chairs scraped the floor as the others stood. Grinning widely, they placed their fists over hers. Ever since their first shadow council, this was how they ended their meetings. “One for all,” Ashley said.

  And then smiled when the other ladies said, without hesitation and all at the same time, “And all for one.”

  So later that night, when Connall imperiously informed her that if the raid happened he expected her to head straight for the keep, she nodded without replying. She’d head to the keep, all right. But only after she ensured that Murdina was brought up safely with her.

  Several days passed in a tense state of watchful awareness. Ashley was reduced to giving only polite nods to Connall whenever their paths crossed in public. At night, when he returned to their hut, she didn’t even give him that much consideration. It was killing her to be so distant, but she needed to take care of herself first.

  She and Eithne were just emerging from the storage room when a horn blared from the top of the keep. Three short blasts followed by a long one—the agreed upon alert that smoke from the signal tower had been spotted and to prepare for an incoming raid.

  Without saying anything, she and Eithne set their burdens down and ran for the first terrace.

  Connall burst out of the keep at a full run and caught up to her. He had a shield and sword, and his hair was tied back in a queue.

  “In the keep. Now.” Without waiting for an answer, he continued his downward dash. She, of course, ignored him. The women were depending on her to hold up her end of the duties—so few women and children were left. Feeling like a fish swimming against the current, she worked her way down the incline to the lowest terrace with Eithne.

  By the time she pushed her way into Murdina’s hut, Ashley was out of breath. The pregnant woman was squatting on some kind of wooden stool with their midwife holding her arm.

  The midwife glanced up. “Her water just broke. She’s not going to be able to walk on her own up that incline.”

  Shit.

  “We need to make a stretcher.”

  She glanced quickly around the room. Three stout spears leaned against one wall. Ashley grabbed two and looked to Eithne. “We need rope.”

  “Bran should have some.”

  “Is he on this terrace?”

  “Aye, for he’s in charge of the docks, and he fishes for the tribe.”

  “Perfect. Just take the rope. We’ll return it later.”

  Eithne hustled out, and Ashley laid the spears parallel on the ground. Next, she stripped the bed of the heaviest blankets. She stared at the spears, working out in her head the quickest way to make a web of rope on which to lay the blankets and Murdina. It wouldn’t be the most comfortable stretcher, but it would do the job.

  All the while, the mother-to-be made no sound other than an occasional sharp intake of breath.

  “Is she all right?” Ashley asked the midwife.

  The older woman nodded. “She’s in a great deal of pain, but the contractions are far apart. It’s her first babe.”

  Eithne burst into the hut, trailing a long line of rope.

  Ashley jumped up and helped her get it all inside. “Here’s what we’re going to do.” Ashley knelt by a spear, taking the end of the rope. “I’m going to tie a knot here and pass it to you. You wrap it twice around and knot it and hand it back to me.”

  Working quickly, they created a crude web between the two spears. As Eithne tied the last knot, Ashley grabbed one of the blankets and tied a corner on each end of the pole, just to make it a little more secure.

  She was about to lay another blanket on top when the hut’s door banged open and a wild-eyed woman barged in, her blond braid nearly undone, with bits of hair sticking to her tear-streaked face. “Aiden,” she screamed.

  Everyone froze.

  Eithne was the first to recover. She darted up to the woman, who was just looking at each of them and back outside, repeating “Aiden” over and over.

  “What’s going on, Alana? Where’s Aiden?”

  “He’s missing. My baby is missing. I need to find him. Help me!”

  Ashley stood. “Calm down. Tell us exactly what happened? Where did you last see him?”

  But the woman bolted for the door. Ashley leaped forward to grab her arm but missed. Dammit. They needed to work together. She dashed after her just in time to see the mother slip past villagers. In the wrong direction.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  She charged back into the hut, grabbing the doorjamb and swinging inside. “Can you manage the stretcher on your own?”

  Eithne nodded. “We’ll get her up the slope.”

  Satisfied, Ashley darted after the frantic mother of the missing child. She needed to get her up into the safety of the keep. But as she neared the bottom, all was chaos. Warriors fought warriors amidst shouts and screams. Ashley stumbled to a stop, chest heaving in and out. Shit. She couldn’t make it through that wall of fighter
s.

  Where is Alana?

  It ate her up inside to turn around and run back up, but in this, Connall was correct. They needed everyone heading up to the safety of the keep. There was nothing she could do for the mother now or her child. She dashed back up the incline, her legs burning now from all the running, and rounded up the last stragglers on the first terrace.

  “Leave your things,” she shouted to one older woman. “Your life is more valuable. Go.” She pointed up the hill. “Go now. The raiders are just below.”

  That got the woman moving. Ashley checked the rest of the huts on this level and then followed the others up the incline. At the second terrace, Eithne and the midwife struggled with the cumbersome stretcher, but Ashley needed to make sure everyone on this level had also vacated. She ran to each hut and, finding them empty, she hastened to Eithne.

  “Here, I’ll take this end. You go up and take one side from the midwife.”

  Ashley adjusted her grip on the ends, but a pair of men appeared. “We have her in hand. We were tasked with bringing her to safety but were delayed.”

  They were?

  Why hadn’t she or the others been told?

  A bang sounded next to her, almost making her drop one of the poles. Una, one of the other women on their secret council, was helping Ashley’s neighbor from the hut.

  Ashley frowned. “You two should already be inside the keep.”

  Una motioned to her neighbor. “Tell that to her. She refused to leave.”

  “They want to burn my hearth, they can burn me with it. I’m too old for this.”

  “Then who will teach the wee ones-to-come the tribe’s sacred songs? You know the oldest, some of which hold great power.” Una propped her fists on her hips and glared.

  “Hush with your blathering; I’m coming aren’t I?” And the older lady pushed past.

  One of the men took Ashley’s end of the stretcher.

  “Alana?” Eithne asked, coming up to her.

  She shook her head. “She disappeared.”

  “Where did you last see her?”

  Ashley explained and Eithne’s eyes unfocused. “The south ravine.” She gripped her arm. “If that’s open…”

  Her heart lurched. “What do you mean?”

  But Eithne was booking it back down the incline, her white hair billowing behind like an avenging angel’s wings. She caught up to her.

  “Eithne, where are you going?”

  “The men’s council blocked off the south ravine because with our reduced numbers, it was too much to guard. But it had been a favorite run for the children, and with the recent rains…”

  “It might have washed away, and Aiden…”

  “As one of the few children left, has taken advantage of it to play.”

  Sure enough, as they reached the approach to the south ravine, the bottom of it had washed out, leaving a slim tunnel beneath a giant boulder wedged in the gap.

  She skidded down the incline. “Quick, go get help. We need to block this again.” As Eithne ran back up, Ashley gathered up the largest rock she could lift and perched herself on a low edge of the boulder. From below, the main mass would keep her hidden.

  Palms sweaty she forced herself to breathe calmly.

  As the minutes ticked by and only distant shouts reached her, she began to relax but tightened her grip at the sound of scuffling. An arm appeared below her, pulling its owner up.

  She’d planned to wait until the person’s head appeared to make sure it wasn’t Aiden or Alana, but the muscular forearm stained with blood was no child’s or woman’s.

  Heart screaming holy shit, she raised her arm and as soon as a head appeared, she whacked him. He grunted and slid downward, his body twisting and blocking the gap.

  His heavy breaths filled the air, and chills raced down her spine. She didn’t think she could kill a man.

  Thankfully she was saved from having to decide as several warriors, led by Eithne, appeared at the top rolling another large boulder before them.

  “Stay where you are,” one shouted.

  Eithne stepped to the side and the warriors pushed the boulder down the ravine. It landed against her much larger one with a solid thunk.

  At a sharp cry and a scuffling sound, she climbed up the boulder and peered over—the attacker had slid partway down the ravine.

  Wasting no more time, she jumped back down and accepted the help of the warriors to climb back up to the main thoroughfare.

  By the time they made it to the door of the keep—still open wide, thank God—Ashley’s muscles were shaking from spent adrenaline.

  As they made their way inside, the doors slammed shut behind her with a thud. The scraping of wood against wood followed as the older council members barricaded the door.

  Outside, shouts were growing closer when they finally reached the second floor. The elder council members followed up behind them and barred the door leading down.

  Now they had to wait.

  Ashley slumped against the wall and slid to the ground, her legs giving out. Her whole body shook.

  She worked to catch her breath and glanced at all the assembled villagers, worry clear on their faces. And now that the hectic activity of getting everyone safely up into the keep was accomplished, she had nothing more to do but think about Connall and the others out there fighting off the raiders.

  Despite all her anger and frustration at him, still she worried. Please be okay.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Out in the courtyard, Ashley worked alongside Eithne tending the wounded. The sun was already on a fast slide into the western ocean. For most of the day they’d been holed up in the keep, restless and scared and startling at any loud noise or scream. Finally, a warrior knocked the all-clear signal on their barricaded door, breaking their tense wait.

  Thankfully none from their own tribe numbered among the dead, and the wounds were all minor. Prior to the raid, she’d made up a large batch of the antiseptic ointment, and she worked on flushing the wounds and getting them wrapped up.

  But a pall hung over the villagers, none yet willing to venture down the slope to their homes, even though Connall and the others had declared it safe. Only a short while ago, warriors had found Aiden’s mother, cut and muddy but alive.

  Somehow, via the south ravine, she’d made it past the raiders in search of her son, and when she couldn’t find him, and the raiders were passing back through, she’d hidden in a slight crevice covered by a patch of gorse.

  Ashley couldn’t fight a sick feeling in her stomach whenever she thought about Aiden, how scared the little boy must be.

  “I’m not cut out for this kind of life, Eithne,” she choked out, wiping her nose. They worked their way over to the next warrior deemed most in danger of infection.

  “You’re as capable as any of us,” the older woman admonished.

  Shouts from the door of the keep brought her head up. Connall strode out, followed by a contingent of warriors. He didn’t spare her a look as they marched down the incline.

  “Where are they going?” she asked.

  “To look for Aiden before the sun sets fully. There’s a chance the raiders didn’t take him. That he hid like his mother.”

  Ashley bit her lip and looked down, her heart breaking. God, she hoped they found him.

  …

  Rain slid down Connall’s exposed skin and had long ago drenched the fabric of his kilt and mantle. The folds stuck to his thighs as he and his men trudged up the last incline to the courtyard. Not a soul appeared to greet them on their way up, and his steps were heavy—from scouring the nearby land through the night, to lack of food, but most of all because they’d not found the boy.

  As he’d surmised, the tribe was still encamped on the upper courtyard. His gaze immediately tracked to where Ashley crouched, spreading ointment on the ar
m of one of his wounded men.

  His jaw worked. She’d disobeyed him. For he’d seen her back out on the lower terrace after he’d ordered her to the keep.

  Aiden’s mother dashed up to him, her face streaked by tears. “My Aiden?”

  Connall could only shake his head. The mother stumbled into the keep, keening, and the sight—while it tore at his insides—also firmed his resolve.

  He clasped his hands behind his back and straightened his shoulders, addressing the assembled villagers. “It is with a heavy heart that I’m reporting our search for Aiden unsuccessful. We were able to fight off the raiders before they could do any damage, or abduct any others, but we’re going to assume he was taken. While our warning system helped us fight off the attack, the boy would not have been taken if everyone had obeyed orders and retreated to the keep as soon as the alarm was given.”

  Ashley stood, her forehead creased. She opened her mouth, probably to give some excuse as to why she’d disobeyed but glanced around at their audience and closed it.

  Without another word, he strode for their hearth home, knowing she’d follow.

  When she whirled in behind him, he held up a hand. “Truce.”

  She stopped and folded her arms across her chest.

  “I realize you were only trying to help the tribe, but we need to come to some kind of compromise.”

  She pulled in a deep breath and nodded. “I’m listening.”

  “I promise that in the future, I will always listen to you and try to implement your good ideas, for you are truly a valuable member of the tribe. If not for the signal tower, more than Aiden could have been lost. However, in return, you need to drop the council request. And when there are situations that are a matter of life and death, you will follow my directives.”

  “But there are things the men’s council doesn’t even notice. You need those women on the council.”

  “Can you act as their advocate with me? I promise that whatever concerns you learn of from them, I will listen to.”

  Since she still appeared to hesitate, he said, “I saw you on the lowest terrace during the fighting and the sight…” He cleared his throat and stepped closer to her. He tugged on her braid. “The sight sliced fear through me, as sharp as any sword. Having you amongst the chaos of battle and not safe in the keep placed you and the others in danger. If you’d been hurt, I’d never forgive myself.”