Page 35 of Highlander Redeemed (Guardians of the Targe #3)

N IGHT WAS FALLING . A crackling fire cast a small circle of flickering light around the Guardians where they worked near the burn, leaving Scotia alone in the dark.

Her back was beginning to hurt. Her hands were numb, and so were her feet.

Malcolm had trussed her up like a deer ready for roasting, then tied a rope around her waist and the tree, just as she’d been tied to the Story Stone.

It had taken every bit of courage she could muster to let him do that to her without complaint. She hadn’t said a single word.

She did not think she had another word in her after her confessions of this afternoon anyway.

She had told the truth about almost everything, not knowing if it was too late to make a difference.

She still didn’t know, wouldn’t until Duncan returned and she could tell him that she had lied when she said she held no love for him.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on Duncan, saying his name over and over in her head until she knew he was still alive. He felt closer now, as if he were heading back to the glen. Would he even give her a chance to tell him of her heart?

He must, even if he could no longer love her. It was her last secret, held so tightly she had hidden it even from herself.

Something passed over her, a sensation that made every hair on her skin stand up.

“How often do you have to renew the barrier?” she asked, recognizing the sensation as the same one she felt when she entered and left the bower, passing through the barrier .

“I thought you had gone to sleep,” Jeanette said, but did not look at her sister. She was moving her hands through the air in one of the blessings their mum had taught both of them many years ago. She had discovered that it strengthened a barrier once it was created.

“I could never sleep like this,” Scotia said, holding her bound hands up to make her point.

Rowan looked over at her. “That is the first time you have even made reference to your situation. ’Tis most unlike you, cousin.”

“Do you think I cannot change?”

“I think that remains to be seen.” Rowan held the Targe stone up in front of her, face high, and a light breeze whipped up, swirling around the bower.

“What are you doing?” Scotia asked, desperately needing something to take her mind off the pins and needles in her hands, and the chill of the ground that was creeping into her backside.

“Practicing. Just as you have practiced your sword skills with Duncan, we must practice using our gifts through the stone.”

The breeze grew stronger as Rowan closed her eyes and concentrated. A branch cracked overhead, then flew across the bower to land, broken end buried in the ground. Rowan opened her eyes and grinned.

“’Tis a handy thing to be able to do, aye?” she asked no one in particular.

“Wheesht,” Jeanette said. She was staring into an overfilled cup of water sitting on the ground in front of her, one hand held out to Rowan, who moved the stone close enough for Jeanette to touch it.

“Can you see where the English are?” Scotia asked.

Rowan and Jeanette both shushed her.

Scotia watched as her cousin and her sister did things she would never be able to do. They prepared for battle in their own ways, not warriors with sword and shield, but warriors all the same. Scotia knew she would never be a warrior of any sort .

She was still trying to understand what Duncan and Jeanette had said to her, that she had not been responsible for letting the spy get to her mum.

Even if she had not caused her mum’s death, the belief that she had and the guilt that came with that belief had changed her, moving her in a direction she never would have imagined, filling her with pain, and hatred, and a need to see vengeance done.

That need for vengeance had driven her to seek out the English on her own, which had put Myles directly in danger and had cost him his life.

He had died right next to her, and she had not even been allowed to give him comfort as he did.

That lay heavy on her conscience too, turning her in yet another direction—preparing herself for battle so she would never put another warrior in a position to protect her when she should do that herself.

Two deaths. Two times her world was broken and put back together in a new way ...

She looked at the ermine sack that lay on the ground between the Guardians.

Twice broken ... like the arrow on the sack and on the Story Stone.

Was it possible? But if she was meant to be the third Guardian, if the twice-broken arrow really was her symbol, then why had the Targe not claimed her the day at the Story Stone, as Jeanette had been claimed when she found her mirror symbol on the grotto stone?

And then Scotia realized she knew the answer.

She was not worthy to become a Guardian.

Not then, but now? Now that she understood the things she had done wrong, the things the fear and hatred in her heart had led her to do, the things that she had admitted to and taken responsibility for, now would she be worthy?

If she was, it would mean they had yet another Guardian to help protect the clan and the Highlands. If she was, would her gift of knowing become stronger? Would she be able to use it at will? ’Twould make her gift an even more formidable weapon against their enemy .

And if she was not worthy? That would be yet another thing she would have to take responsibility for, for if she was not worthy, ’twas no one’s fault but her own, and the clan would be the one to suffer for her failures. She could not bear to let anyone else suffer because of her.

She needed to talk to Duncan.

Scotia waited for Jeanette to sit back on her heels. Her head hung down as if she were tired, or sad.

“Well?” Rowan asked.

“I cannot tell where the English are any better than I could this morn. If only I had traveled toward Oban once or twice I might be able to identify the land I can see around them.”

“Well, at least we know they are not in Glen Lairig yet,” Scotia said. “That means they must still be at least a day’s march from the castle, aye?”

Jeanette lifted her head and shifted off her knees to sit so she could see both Rowan on her right and Scotia on her left.

“I suppose it does, and that alone is useful,” she said.

“I might have something else of use,” Scotia said, trying to scoot more upright, but only succeeding in scratching her back on the tree’s rough bark. “I think the third symbol really is mine.”

D UNCAN ARRIVED BACK at the caves with the three MacKenzies and the blindfolded archer, who was injured but not badly enough to keep him from answering questions.

Nicholas came out of the surrounding trees without a sound. “The other one?” he asked.

“Dead,” Duncan replied.

Nicholas nodded at the three MacKenzies and pointed down the path to the Guardians’ bower. They took their leave, clearly meant to take up posts guarding the Guardians .

“What’s your name?” Nicholas asked the prisoner.

“Bryn of Beaumaris,” he answered without hesitation as Malcolm joined them from the same path the others had taken.

“An archer, aye? From Wales?” Nicholas asked.

“I am.”

“Why did you let yourself be caught?” Duncan asked. It had been exceedingly odd that as soon as the older soldier had fallen, Bryn had thrown down his bow and given himself up.

“I have no love for the English. I was taken from my home and my family and impressed into service in Edward’s army when I was ten and five. I was good with a bow. All of us who had any skill with the bow were taken by the king’s army.”

“Why did you not escape and return home if you have no love for the English?” Malcolm asked.

Bryn’s head jerked as he looked in Malcolm’s direction, though Duncan was certain the man could see nothing.

“I have no home to go to. My father was a mason. We followed the castles and lived in the work camps. It has been at least ten years since I became an archer. I know not where my family might be now.”

The three men looked at each other. Duncan shrugged, not sure whether to believe the man or not. It would be useful if one of the Guardians could tell if someone spoke the truth.

That dragged his thoughts away from Bryn to Scotia.

What had Nicholas done with her? He knew better than to speak of clan business in front of their prisoner, but he was worried about her, regardless of how angry he still was with her latest debacle.

He was not pleased with himself for worrying.

He should be done with her, but he could not stop his concern.

The look in her eyes when she was exposing all her fears and mistakes, when she took responsibility for Myles’s death, and her mum’s, had been so sincere, so without guile or pretense.

He had forced himself to keep away from her, though he had not been able to stand there and watch her blame herself for her mum’s murder .

It all made sense now, though, the changes in her, the choices she’d made.

“How far away are Lord Sherwood and his forces?” Malcolm asked.

Bryn sighed. “They are at least two days away unless he leaves the supplies and everyone but the soldiers to make their way separately. If he brings only the soldiers and they are all on foot, a day, perhaps a day and a half.”

Duncan looked to Malcolm, who was nodding his head slightly.

“How many men does he have?” Malcolm asked.

“He started with two score, but they have been harried almost every night since we arrived by other Scots. Perhaps a score and ten now? I am not sure as I’ve been scouting this area for several days.”

“Take him to the training area, Duncan,” Nicholas said. “Secure him there. Gag him. I will send someone to take over his watch. We have another situation to see to.”

“You do not mean to kill me now I’ve cooperated?” Bryn asked. “According to Lord Sherwood all Highlanders are murderous brigands, but then that’s what he says about the Welsh, too.”