Aidan (2 page)

“Aye, brathair,” said Kyla. “Ye canna beat Storm.”
Kyla pulled her long, light-brown, hair back, tying it with a ribbon as she spoke.

“Well, then I jest need a guid luck charm also,” said
Aidan, standing up with his sword in his hand.

“Well, ye jest dreamt o’ one on thet stone pillow o’ yers,” said Ian with a smile. “Tail and all.”

Onyx and Ian started laughing again, and Aidan threw down his sword and lunged at them, knocking Onyx off the chair and to the ground. Ian, in his usual form, wasted no time in getting Aidan into a headlock.

“Stop it, you three, and tell me what this is all about.” Wren stood with her arms crossed over her chest, waiting for an explanation.

“Aidan was tryin’ te dream up a lassie again, usin’ the Stone o’ Destiny,” explained Onyx, pushing up to a standing position and brushing himself off.

“I was no’,” said Aidan, stuck under Ian’s armpit. Then, reaching backwards, he got a
hold of his friend and flipped him over his head. Ian landed atop the table with a crash, and Onyx jumped out of the way of being hit. The squirrel chattered away, finding safety atop the Stone of Destiny.

“Then what
were
ye doin’ takin’ a nap in the middle o’ the day?” asked Onyx.

“
’Tis no’ the middle o’ the day,” grumbled Aidan. “And I was tryin’ te have visions in me sleep, the way Jacob did in the Bible.”

“Ye ken
ye three are supposed to be guardin’ thet stone, not usin’ it te find lassies te bed,” said Kyla, squinting and looking at them out of one eye. She was six years younger than her brother, at nine and ten years of age, but still, she’d kept up with Aidan and his friends her entire life. She was always around them, and wanting to be part of whatever danger they were getting themselves into. She wasn’t close to any of the women of the clan and considered herself more, ‘one of the boys.’

“I
take me position of guardian o’ the stone seriously,” said Aidan, going back and sitting atop the stone.

“Only someone with
rocks in their heid would sleep on the damned thing,” muttered Ian, sliding off the table and getting to his feet.

“The stone is only in our possession until the end
of the year,” Wren reminded them. “After that, it’ll go in secret to another clan to protect it, so the English never find out that their king stole a fake coronation stone so many years ago. This system has worked well for the last five and sixty years, so don’t ruin it.”

“Dagger
, ye didna tell Lovelle aboot it, did ye?” asked Ian. “Or any o’ yer family? After all, they are all English and if their king finds out the English have stolen a fake coronation stone, he’ll send his armies after it, sooner or later.”

“I did
na say a word te me English family,” said Onyx. “Only Love kens, but she willna tell the rest o’ them.”

“Ye
shouldna o’ told her,” said Aidan.

“
She is me wife. I can trust her.” Onyx raised his palms in the air and shrugged as he spoke.

“And she’s also a Sassenach
. Ye can only really trust the Scots thet our stone is in safe hidin’,” Aidan reminded him.

Wren cleared her throat just then and shook her head. “And I am English as well as Storm’s mother. So I am sure we can all trust that Scotland’s secret is still safe. Now hurry up, as Storm sent me to tell you that everyone is read
y to go to the trade fair in Glasgow, and we’re just waiting for you three.” She left the room with Kyla following right behind her, leaving the door open.

Aidan looked at the Stone of Destiny, having taken a personal guardianship over it these past six months
. Back in 1296, King Edward I, stole the coronation stone from the Scots from an abbey in Scone. Little did the king know, the abbot had replaced it with a fake, large, red sandstone, and the real stone was safe in hiding.

Becaus
e the English weren’t really familiar with what the stone looked like, they had taken naught but a decoy. And with the Scots taking turns over guardianship and moving it from clan to clan, they’d managed to keep safe the stone used in every Scottish coronation since Kenneth MacAlpin, the first king of Scots who was crowned over five hundred years ago.

“Ai
dan, ye dinna need te worry aboot me wife tellin’ secrets. After all, ye are the one who canna e’er haud yer wheesht,” spat Onyx.

“Thet’s right,” agreed Ian, pushing back his dark, tousled hair. “Ye are the one who always opens y
er big mouth and says things ye shouldna.”

“Thet’s no’ true,” he protested.

“Really?” Onyx crossed his arms over his chest. “Then how did Lovelle ken what I was goin’ te do when I went te kill me faither? After all, ye and Ian were the only ones I told.”

“And how aboot the time ye told Kyla I was the one who hid her clothes when she was
bathin’ in the loch?” pointed out Ian.

“She’s me sister,” Aidan said in self-defense. “And I couldna let ye see her nake
d! And Dagger,” he said, nodding toward Onyx, “I couldna let ye kill yer faither, as I kent ye woulda regretted it someday.”

Onyx just shook his head and smiled.
“Face it, Aidan, if anyone wants te ken gossip, they dinna go te the alewives te find a waggin’ tongue, they come te ye instead.”

“Well, I willna e’er tell anyone aboot the stone,” he said, feeling a
wee bit bad that everything his friends were saying was true.

“Well, it’s been safe so far, so mayhap ye are changin’,” said Ian.

Just then, Onyx’s wildcat slinked into the room with a dead chough, red-legged crow, in its mouth. It saw the squirrel scampering around and dropped the bird and lunged for Aidan’s pet instead. The squirrel scurried up Aidan’s arm and settled itself on his shoulder. Aidan ran a hand over the squirrel to soothe it, and stood to put distance between his pet and its stalker.

“
Dagger, yer pet has grown since we last saw ye,” said Ian.

“Aye,” agreed Aidan. “I dinna think its safe
te bring it around camp. There are bairns and livestock and sheep in the hills . . . and squirrels here.” His squirrel agreed by scolding the wildcat from atop Aidan’s shoulder, flicking its tail wildly.

“N
ay, Tawpie willna harm them,” Onyx said, scooping up the cat, now having to use both hands to hold her, as she was no longer a cute little kitten. The cat’s eyes stayed fastened on the squirrel. “I have raised her from a bairn, and she is only bein’ playful since she is still so young. She listens te me, so dinna fash yerself aboot it.”

“Still, jest
te play it safe, ye should keep her locked up,” said Aidan.

“I willna lock up me pet any more than ye’ll do the same
te yers.” Onyx held the cat to his chest protectively. “Besides, she’s jest caught a bird so she willna be hungry fer awhile.”

“What is takin’ ye three so long?” asked
their chieftain, Storm, walking into the hut, followed by Wren. Storm and his father both served as chieftains to the clan, and took turns staying at either the Highland camp, or the Lowland castle they’d claimed near the border, Hermitage Castle. Wren spied the dead bird on the ground and jumped back, startled.

“Dagger
’s pet is killin’ off e’erythin’ in sight,” complained Aidan.

“No’ so,” Onyx replied.
“And I willna lock her up.”

“I canna endanger
the clan nor the livestock,” said Storm, shaking his head. The long blond braid at the side of his head swung slightly, and the cat tried to swipe out for it with its paw.

Storm scowled, but Wren reached over and took
the cat in her arms. She had always had a way with animals and truly loved them. “I’ll get Renard to keep an eye on Tawpie during your visit,” said Wren, offering the services of their eldest son of eight and ten summers for the job. He was actually Storm’s son from a previous marriage, but Wren had raised him as if he were her own. “He used to have a pet fox years ago, and loves animals. He’ll keep the children safe, don’t worry.”

“Then Renard and Niall will stay here te
watch the cat as well as watch o’er the stone while we’re at the fair,” said Storm. Niall was Renard’s cousin and also best friend, as they were about the same age, Niall being a little younger. But they’d both turned out to be excellent with handling weapons thanks to Storm, so Aidan knew the stone would be in good hands. And since the English didn’t even know it existed, it wasn’t in any real danger anyway.

“Storm, you know how much the boys look forward to the fair,” Wren reminded him.

“I’ll stay,” offered Onyx.

“Nay,” said Storm.
“I need ye three te help me sell and trade fer goods we need at camp. Ye three are the best at gettin’ a guid, fair trade, and also the best prices, so ye’ll come with. Renard and Niall will take watch fer now and they can still go te the fair in a few days time.”

“I had a dream,” said Aidan
anxiously. “I’m no’ sure what it means, but I saw the English comin’ inte this cottage.”

“No’ another o’ yer dreams,” grumbled Storm, not believing in anything supernatural. “Last time ye
had a dream, ye had all the lassies bathin’ e’eryday becooz ye were sure if they didna, they were goin’ te get the pox.”

“Aye, but I enjoyed thet,” said Ian with a smile.

“Nay, this is different,” Aidan tried to explain. “This was so real. And I’m no’ sure what the English were doin’ here.”

“Mayhap t
hey were hunting bonnie lassies . . . with furry tails,” said Ian, causing another fit of laughter between him and Onyx.

“Aye,” said Onyx, trying to catch his breath. “Mayhap Aidan should stay on watch so he can bite them all in the tails when they arrive.”

“Haud yer wheesht,” snapped Aidan, pushing past them out the door with his squirrel on his shoulder. They could make a jest of his dream, but somehow he knew that it was one of those visions like Jacob had so many years ago. And though he had no idea what the dream meant, he felt that his Scottish angel was in trouble and somehow needed his help.

Chapter 2

Liddel
Castle, Scottish Border

Effie MacDuff opened her eyes, hoping to hell that she’d only been having a bad dream. But when her vision focused on the bars in front of her small confinement, she realized the nightmare was real.

“
Coira?” she cried out, looking around for her younger sister. The floor swayed underneath her, and to her horror, she realized she was hanging in an iron basket from the side of a castle. She rubbed the bump on her head, still feeling like her skull had been split open by the English soldier when he knocked her senseless after she’d tried to defend their gypsy camp.

“Effie?” she heard her sister’s small voice
, and turned to see that she, too, was hanging like a bird in a cage. “I’m scared.”

Effie jumped to her feet, nearly hitting her head atop the grates of her confinement. She w
asn’t tall by any standards, and their cages were barbaric, crude and small. She looked down to see the English soldiers looking up and them and laughing. She and her sister were on display for all to see, and the thought of this sickened her as well as made her very angry.

“Let us out o’
here!” Taking hold of the bars, she tried to shake herself free. She glanced down to her bedraggled clothes, now torn and dirty from her scuffle when the men attacked their camp. She was relieved to see that the soldiers hadn’t stolen the MacDuff brooch of her grandmother that held closed her arisaidh, the long cloth wrapped around her and fastened at her shoulder. The metal, round brooch was engraved with a lion embedded with an amethyst eye, holding up its paw with a sword. Around its head was the clan’s motto, Deus Juvat, or God Assists. It was all she had left to remember her family by, since the death of her mother years ago. By the grace of God, her descendants had passed down to her the MacDuff brooch. So now all she had left was this, and Coira, her younger sister.

“You’ll stay put until we get word to King Edward that we’ve caught the descendant of
that traitorous bitch, Isabel MacDuff,” sneered one of the guards.

“Effie, what are they talkin’ aboot?” asked her sister from the iron cage beside her.

For her entire life of twenty years, Effie had lived the life of a gypsy, keeping the secret her dying mother had told her the day she lost her life birthing Coira. Effie had only been six years old at the time, but she knew her life was never going to be the same after what her mother confessed to her that day. She missed her mother dearly, and only wished she were here right now.

“Dinna worry aboot it,” she told her sister. “I’ll get us out o’ here, I swear.”

“But they took yer dagger as well as yer bow and arrows. We have no way te protect ourselves from these bluidy bastards.”

“Coira, watch yer words, as they arena thet o’ a proper lassie.”

“Ye canna tell me thet when I learned e’ery foul word I ken from ye, big sister.”

Effie knew this was the truth. She’d learned to fight
to protect them, and had hardened her heart the day she lost her mother. But her mother had warned her that the English would find them some day. And though they were MacDuffs, they were also descendents of a woman who angered the English years ago, and now they were the ones who were going to pay for it.