Three chests, I did not count the vessels as I have a great deal on my mind, a Trailblazer and the Bridge are here, and safe: the box with the Darner (Darners?) is empty. They are missing.
I dated it.
Under that I wrote:
My vessel is not working.
I opened the closest chest and dug through the straw for a vessel and held it, it felt lifeless. Och nae. Another and another. It took twenty minutes to go through all the boxes and check all the vessels. I had all that I remembered, none of them were missing, but none of them seemed to be ready tae work.
I left the vault with two more vessels tae test them out on the landing pad, traveling up the elevator tae the rooftop once more. I pulled all three of the vessels from my bag and twisted and turned them, growing more and more irritated, until the door opened behind me. “Your Highness! I thought you were not leaving! Are you planning to leave once more?”
I exhaled, exasperated. “Nae, I am nae.”
He said, “So I will tell Hilda that you still want breakfast.”
“Aye.”
I wanted tae scream. But I put the vessels back in the bag, raised my chin and stalked past him. “I am retiring.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
CHAPTER 48 - JAMES
BALLOCH CASTLE - MAY 30, 1710
As we rode through the front gate Lizbeth was waiting for Liam, and surprised to see us all. “Why haena ye gone?”
Quentin said, “I don’t want to alarm anyone but our vessel isn’t working.”
Lizbeth said, “Och nae, consider me alarmed! Is this a thing that regularly happens?”
I said, “Nope, I heard tales, but can’t remember the facts of them, usually it’s diabolical — most of the time I think they involved your mother.”
She said, “Well, this must be related tae the issue I wanted tae speak tae ye on.” She held out a folded piece of lined paper. “This was in a book on my private shelf, they are books given tae me from Lady Mairead, mostly, and I hae looked through them all, many times afore, but as I was looking for one in particular I found this within the leaves.”
I opened the paper and read:
I, Lochinvar Campbell, and Ash, are here in Balloch Castle in the year 1683 October the Saturday before the
it said drivers, but the word was scratched out and replaced with the word ‘drovers’ then continued:
arrived at creeve to sell cattle.
Our vessel stopped working.
There are drones here. Attacking us
Our vessel doesn’t work
and then nothing.
Quentin, reading over my shoulder, said, “Okay, this sucks, what is happening?”
“They got stuck in the year 1683? How the hell are they in 1683? but then... What does drovers and ‘creeve to sell cattle’ mean?”
Lizbeth said, “The drovers go tae Crieff tae sell cattle in October, usually the third week.” She counted on her fingers. “This might mean tis the second Saturday if tis afore the cattle market.”
I said, “With some time and calculations I can probably figure out what day of the month this is, I’m just not thinking straight.” I leaned over and kissed Junior on the head while he was cradled in Sophie’s arms.
