“The Sight comes and goes with Ilysa,” Teàrlag said, shaking her head. “She lacks faith in herself.”
Not something Teàrlag suffered.
“Can ye tell us why Rhona and Fergus left the castle?” Niall asked. “Are they a danger to the clan?”
“Rhona is not the danger,” Teàrlag said. “But there is a danger to our returning warriors, and Rhona knows what it is.”
“We must find her then,” Moira said. “Do you know where she and Fergus are?”
Teàrlag rolled her eyes back and made a strange humming noise as she swayed in her seat. After a time, she stopped and blinked several times.
“Well?” Niall asked.
“I can’t see their destination,” Teàrlag said. “But they’re sailing south along the coast of Sleat toward the point of the peninsula.”
“Is there anything else ye can tell us?” Moira asked.
“Rhona has vengeance in her heart,” Teàrlag said. “And she is looking for Hugh Dubh.”
Chapter 37
Asound pricked Duncan’s ears.Footsteps?They sounded too light, and no torchlight shone on the stairs.
Clink, clink.Duncan heard a key turning in the lock, followed by the slowcreakof the iron door swinging open. Perhaps the guards had returned for another attempt to beat the plans for the attack out of him, though they should know by now that it was hopeless. A few men could not be broken, and Duncan was one of them. He did not take special pride in it, but he knew it to be true nonetheless. He closed his eyes for a moment, steeling himself to bear the pain to come.
“He’s in here!”
Duncan’s eyes flew open at the unexpected sound of a little girl’s high-pitched voice. It was so black in the dungeon he could not see anything.
“Hush!”
That was Ragnall’s voice this time. Duncan thought he must be having a waking dream, as men do when they’re beaten and kept in darkness, but then he sensed someone standing next to him.
“Ragnall?” he asked.
“We brought a mallet for the chains,” Ragnall said.
“That was my idea,” the girl said.
Duncan felt laughter bubbling inside him, like a madman. Surely, God was having a joke with him—or giving the famed warrior a lesson in humility—by sending two bairns to rescue him.
He took the mallet from Ragnall’s hand and felt for the chain that shackled his legs to the wall. Then he slammed the mallet against the chain again and again until one of the links broke. He did the same with the chain that held his arms to the wall, and he was free.
“We must be very quiet as we go up,” Duncan warned the children. “Ragnall, you’ll come with me. Sarah, we’ll see ye safely to your bedchamber door first. Where is it?”
Sarah had been permitted to sit at the high table with Ragnall, and she appeared to have free run of the castle and time to play. That meant she was from a highborn family and would sleep in one of the bedchambers, rather than in the hall or the kitchens. She was probably being fostered here like Ragnall.
“I’m not going to bed,” Sarah said. “I’m staying with you and Ragnall.”
“There will be trouble tonight, and ye must be safe in your bed with your clanswomen,” Duncan said. “Now, which bedchamber is it?”
“I’m not telling.”
Ach, she was stubborn enough to be a MacDonald lass. “Ragnall, where is it? ’Tis far too dangerous for her to come with us.”
“Two floors above the hall,” Ragnall said.
Sarah made a sound like a growl, which Duncan ignored. With that settled, he led the pair through the iron-barred door, up a set of steep stone steps, and along a narrow passageway. At the end of it, light shone around the edges of the low wooden door that led into the undercroft. Duncan put his ear to the door. It must be late indeed, for there were no voices or sounds of clanking pots coming from the kitchens.