Page 45 of Keepers of the Highland Crown
Chapter 23
Roar!Nella tilted her head less when the sound from an approaching waterfall at midday echoed her ears. Callum slowed Luss, and the beast gave a low huff as if saying,Thank you.
Callum tightened his arm about her waist. “Nella, we should be growing close.”
“Aye.” She glanced over her shoulder at his features. Any bit from mirth in their times together was gone. Jaw set and eyes keen, he met her gaze. “Callum, ’tis near, I hear the falls. Your instincts on following the weapons, you believe the Benefactor is preparing to arm a massive force of men-at-arms.” Nella’s words were weighed by fear. “Dare we ask for what means?”
“I believe the hundred-year war just finished in the Kingdom of Norway under King Magnus’s sire would tell the tale there.”
“You believe the Benefactor seeks the King of Scots’ throne?”
“Look at the siege of Kenilworth occurring right now regarding the English struggles in power. Aye, I think whoever is gathering weapons at a pace I have never seen is seeking just this. The very Kingdom of Scotland, at a time when peace should reign supreme.” Callum cursed something in Gaelic under his breath.
“Nella.”
“Aye?”
“The blood shed at Largs shall not be in vain.”
Was she almost unable to speak at the weight just pressed upon them by the possibility at what they were standing against? Almost. They were Scots, fighters one and all! Bring it, Benefactor! Her knight would fight to keep the kingdom whole! The blood in their veins was the same as those ancestors who once fought the Romans so passionately that they had to erect Hadrian’s Wall in defense.
“Nae, it will not!” she vowed for his ears, then declared, “I believe the waterfall is just down the ridge ahead beside the forest tree line in the distance.”
He nodded. “I will set us toward the boulders over yonder.” He pointed at the pines’ edges which vanished in a downward slope so only the pointed treetops appeared in the distance like the arrow heads in Callum’s quiver.
Steering Luss into a bramble thicket, Callum murmured, “We will tie Luss here, ’twill be a sound place for our concealment.”
As Callum halted the beast, she gave one more pat with the stallion flicking his muzzle up as if giving a nod of approval about himself. Callum threw his leg over the hindquarters.Thump. His feet hit the ground before he reached for her. Raising her leg, she inwardly groaned at her stiff muscles from the hard pace at making certain they arrived in a timely manner.
She set her hands onto Callum’s shoulders, and he gently encircled her waist as if he were capturing a butterfly then eased her down softly, setting her onto her soles.
He brushed her cheek gently with his fingers course from the trade of being a warrior and knight. “You remain close and shadow me, understood?”
She laid her palm over his. “Aye, we step away from this the same as we began this day – together,” she said solemnly.“I cannot lose you either, Callum, ’twill break me to consider otherwise. Understood?”
“Aye, my Nella, aye.”
Creak. Creak. Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp.“The wagon is approaching on the forest trail below with a four-beat walk by the charger,” she explained.
Callum kept her hand in his while they picked their way in care through the blaeberry bushes as they crouched low like the gray clouds lingering overhead.
She picked up her cloak with the skirts higher when they snagged on a sapling branch, and the scent by fallen pine needles became stronger from the treetops after a stiff gust blew their direction when they neared the cliff’s edge. The wind’s direction was good; it would aid the words spoken below by traveling on the air up toward them. Nella nodded to herself, while her step paused beside Callum’s as a wide meadow thrust into view beneath the hilly ridge they stood. Callum silently tugged her toward the largest boulder among mother nature’s granite clan on the ledge.
Once they reached the boulder, Nella leaned forward. The vista had dragonflies which darted about in tight formations like warriors of the sky practicing maneuvers while butterflies floated same as the mist billowing from the nearby falls. Such a bonny place for so dark a purpose by those who wished to snare the crown from King Alexander.
As she leaned more over half the boulder, her stomach pressed the granite, the cold cutting though her several woolen layers like the blades which approached in the wagon below them. Callum released her palm, retrieving an arrow into his grasp before nocking the yew bow. Could he make a shot from this vast a distance? She glanced at his clenched jaw then back down into the valley. Aye, he was the finest archer she had ever seen. Time to turn toward her strength.She tilted her skull.
“You believe they will appear as promised?” Sir Brayden asked Tomas while sitting on the wagon’s front bench.
“The missive was very detailed, this was the place chosen,” Tomas replied curtly while steadying his hands on the two steed’s reigns.
“Nella?” Callum murmured. He must have seen them conversing on the approach.
“Sir Brayden harbors worry if the Benefactor’s warriors will appear as planned,” she explained. “Tomas seems certain in a rather terse manner.”Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.“They shall appear, Callum. I hear riders approaching from the north of where we hold.”
“How many?”
One charger’s gallop. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six… Gracious! “Callum.” Her tone was etched by worry. “Forty at least.”
