He said, “Ye can continue on?”
I said, “Aye. Did you bring Archie up here?”
“Nae, we kept tae the fields on the edge of King’s Park, but I wanted tae speak tae him alone for a time.”
“Is he doing okay? I haven’t had the time to check in.”
“Aye, he is much better — he told me somethin’ interestin’.”
“What?”
“That he is using one of Barb’s wisdoms tae keep himself calm about becomin’ a king someday.”
“The ‘pay attention to the butterflies...’ one?”
“Nae, the ‘Do what makes the best story’ one.”
I looked up at the dappled light filtering through the canopy. “How does that apply?”
“He is thinkin’ tae himself that the story is one he canna step out of, so he might as well make it good.”
“Ilovethat, Barb would be thrilled if she knew her great-grandson was living according to one of her maxims. Especially if she knew he was a prince. Her mind would be blown by all of this.”
Magnus said, “He is growin’ intae a fine boy. I believe she is lookin’ down upon him, and warmly smilin’.”
I said, “She had a beautiful smile.” I turned and looked out at the woods. “She would have loved it here.”
We walked for a bit, then he said, “Look at the trees.”
I had been concentrating on my horse picking its path — the road was rocky, and somehow I thought my concentration was necessary, but Magnus was riding in front now, and my horse was content to follow him and was careful enough.
I didn’t need to look up, we were as high as the canopy and it was lush and green and beautiful, as if we were nestled in the upper branches.
I said, “I would love to live in a treehouse.”
He laughed. “Och nae, like a bird, mo reul-iuil? What... How...? I hae too many questions tae even begin.”
“I know, I know, it doesn’t make sense, but still...”
He said, “Twould be fun for about an hour, tops.” Then he twisted in his saddle to ask, “Are ye good, we are goin’ higher still.”
I said, “Yes, I’m good, and I love the air up here, it smells like flowers and trees and clean...”
“Aye, the air grows more fresh as we go.” He arched to look up at a grouping of eight hawks swooping in the blue sky over the rise. “We hae been havin’ some fine weather.”
I said, “We deserve it, couldn’t have happened to nicer people.”
He said, “Aye, but the hawks above mean change is comin’.”
“Does it? Uh oh. I don’t like the sound of that. We have been winning, I don’t want it to get scary again.”
“Twill. Ye canna be the King of Scotland and expect the winds tae favor ye with calm, tis more likely tae bluster with ill-will, tis the way of the winds, ye canna fight them.” He looked up again and back at the guards around us. “I daena want tae frighten ye, Kaitlyn, I just want ye tae ken. We hae a great deal of power, tis likely that we will be warrin’ over it.”
“The part that sucks about that is it’s power you didn’t really want.”
“Aye, true.”
“Is there something going on that you haven’t told me about?”
