Nineteen
Callum crept along the ground, keeping his body as flat as he could manage, not daring to get up until he was at the moat. He rose only enough to slip over the edge of the moat wall, yet when he glanced toward the castle, his heart felt tripped within his chest. The moon shone on a window, and hanging there, seemingly by her fingertips, was a woman. He would wager his life that it was Marsaili.
“Alex,” he hissed, pointing at her.
“God’s blood,” Alex swore under his breath.
Before Callum could reply, she dropped and the darkness consumed her, the only trace of what had occurred a single splash and then horrid silence.
“She kinnae swim,” he growled, not waiting for a response. He dropped into the cold, black water and was swallowed immediately in a slimy liquid with a foul stench. He broke the surface, gulped in a breath, then swam toward where he thought she’d dropped, fear making his strokes choppy. Above him, he heard shouting, and then one by one, torches began to flare to life on the castle allure. A horn blasted from above, and a volley of arrows rained down. He went under again, searching for her, as did Alex and Cameron, who had pulled up beside him.
Nothing!He felt nothing but slime, grass, and water. He rose, gulped in air, and dove back under again. Still nothing. Dark despair entered him as he rose to and dove under the surface several more times, Alex and Cameron doing the same. Arrows dropped into the water around him when next he surfaced, and Alex and Cameron swam over to him.
“We have to flee,” Alex said. “She’s lost, Callum. And if we dunnae go, we will surely die here, as well.”
“I’ll nae leave until I have found her,” he bit out, refusing to believe she was gone.
“Callum,” Cameron said, his tone harsh. “Would ye make yer son lose both his parents? Marsaili would nae have wanted that!”
“Damn ye both!” Callum bit out and dove once, twice, three times more. And when he came up after his last desperate attempt, chaos filled the night, and grief filled his heart. He had failed her. She had drowned, and he had failed to save her. “I kinnae leave her,” he choked out to Alex and Cameron, who were treading water before him.
“For yer son, ye can,” Cameron said.
Yes, for his son. He had to. He nodded, a thousand regrets, a thousand memories, assaulting him. He shoved them down and swam through the darkness toward the shore.
Another volley of arrows flew toward them, and they all ducked under the water to swim the rest of the distance under the surface. When Callum came up for air, he was at the rocky wall of the moat. He gained his purchase at the same time as the other men did. They began to climb upward, toward the sound of shouting. Armed men raced across the bridge on horses, and when they reached the top, Callum paused as confusion swept over him. He had expected knights to be standing there waiting on them, but what he found was mass chaos and fighting.
To the left of him, Cameron muttered, “’Tis the Summer Walkers.” Cameron pointed at the flag that fluttered in the moonlight which bore no emblem. It was white and devoid of anything. As Callum glanced around, he counted, as best he could, twenty Summer Walkers. They were vastly outnumbered, but they had provided a much-needed distraction.
All three of them retrieved their swords from where they had left them, and when Callum stood, he raised his sword as Ulster’s men charged them. He fought through one knight only to be surrounded by three more. He lost sight of Alex and Cameron while he battled the man to his left and then the man to his right. When a sword whistled through the air behind him, he whirled around to meet his foe, his heart lurching. The blade of the knight’s sword came swooping toward him, but then the man grunted, swayed, and stumbled forward. As he did, Callum noticed the dagger protruding from his back, and when he searched the fighting throngs to see who had come to his aid, he could not believe his eyes.
Marsaili stood not four feet away beside Lucan. He had a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. She closed the distance between herself and Callum and jumped into his arms, hugging him fiercely.
“How?” he managed to ask, emotion closing his throat.
“I dropped from my bedchamber window.” She pulled back and bent down to yank the dagger from the fallen knight.
“Aye. I saw ye. I searched in the moat for ye. I thought ye drowned. I—” He shook as he spoke. “I thought ye dead.”
In the moonlight, her eyes widened. “I did nae see ye! I swam!” He could hear the happy shock in her voice. “I swam under the water, but then a hand grabbed me and I thought myself discovered.”
As a knight came toward them, Callum shoved her behind him and fought the man, felling him just as Lucan reached his side. Instinctually, he raised his sword to the man he considered an enemy, but Marsaili shook her head. “Nay, Callum. Lucan followed us. He went into the water to save me and guided me to the wall.”
Callum’s eyes flew to the man who looked battered and ill. By all accounts he should be dead. “Why?”
“She spared me,” Lucan said as a cough racked his body. “I owe her a debt, and I pay my debts.”
Callum nodded. “Take her from here,” he pleaded to Lucan.
“Nay,” she replied. “I will fight with ye. This night we will live or die, and we will do it together.”
He wanted to argue, but he knew she would never agree to leave him. “Together,” he said.
In that instant, she screamed for him to duck.
He fought with Lucan through four of Ulster’s knights, striking down his opponents with ruthlessness to make his way to the woods, but as the three of them reached the tree line, three more knights appeared. As he battled one, he could hear Marsaili’s grunts as she fought the other. He cut his opponent down by slicing across his legs, but when Callum turned, all he saw was a knight thrusting his sword toward Marsaili’s heart. She threw her dagger as she jumped sideways, and though it lodged in the man’s shoulder, it did not stop him. Callum raised his own sword as he closed the distance to her and took the knight’s head off in one quick blow.
Callum grabbed her hand as Lucan turned to them both. His gaze rested on Marsaili. “We are even now, aye?”
