“I canna think what else tae do, Princess, tis right there. I will go get m’sword and I will return, and if ye look, ye will be able tae see me most of the time.”
“I can’t see anything.” A tear rolled down my face. “Don’t leave me here, please. I’ll come with you.”
“Nae, ye canna see in the dark, twill be unsafe. If I go fast, I can get my sword and return before anyone figures out that we are missin’. I will return in just a moment. I need ye tae wait for me, be verra quiet, daena make a sound.”
“How will you find me?”
“I ken where ye are. I will find ye, I promise. I will go right there and come right back — ye wait right here, daena move.” He turned to look back then said, “Promise ye winna move or speak, promise?”
I nodded.
Somehow he saw me. “Good, I will be right back.”
He stood and was gone, slipping away through the night.
I was alone.
It was like sensory overload. My internal processes were loud, echoing, but I couldn’t see at all, nothing — like being in a vacuum, a darkness so encompassing it made me want to scream, sitting alone cross-legged in a forest.
In the dark.
In Scotland.
In a totally different century.
There was a shift beside me, a movement.
I burst into tears.
There was a rustle in the leaves.
I cowered and then whispered, “Who is it?”
Dude climbed into my lap.
I sobbed, folding over so my forehead was on the back of Dude’s head, terribly frightened. I stroked Dude, tears rolling down my cheeks.
He didn’t curl up and get comfortable, he sat like a sentry, on my criss-crossed ankles, facing in the direction Torin had gone. I hoped that meant Dude could see. I hoped Dude would let me know if he saw something go wrong.
What if something happened to Torin?
If he died, I’d die too. I was probably already dead, just acting out the motions of escape. There was no way we were going to survive this. Torin had promised to protect me and minutes later, here I was — alone in the woods.
Then it came: faint, far off — yelling.
My heart dropped like a stone.
Oh God. He’d been seen.
I crouched lower, peering into the darkness.
Should I stay? Run? Go to him?
Every choice seemed like the wrong one, so I froze.
Then I heard steel — the sound of metal clashing against metal, ringing sharp and terrible. I’d heard it once before on my own lawn, but this was worse: a melee through the trees, that I couldn’t see, and Torin, the only person I knew in this world, was in the middle of it.
Men were shouting. Boots thudding. The wet, grunting sounds of bodies colliding. My protector was fighting for both our lives.
