She threw up her hands in exasperation. Could anything else go wrong this morning? First, she’d met a ghost on the road and now this! Were the Highlands trying to tell her something? Didn’t they want her to reach her destination?
There was a spare wheel in the back, along with a jack and wrench for taking the wheel off. Abi opened the compartment and stared at them. She had no clue what to do. She’d never changed a wheel in her life and each time she had a problem, she just called her breakdown service. She glanced around. The road ran between a line of barren, wind-blasted hills that looked like the humped ridges of a dragon’s back. The only signs of life were a few birds wheeling in the air. How long would it take breakdown to reach her out here?
She yanked her phone from her pocket, scrolled through the numbers, and dialed the one she needed. It was only when she pressed the phone to her ear that she got the high-pitched beep that told her there was no signal.
She howled in annoyance. “Agh! Okay!” she yelled. “Anything else you’d like to throw at me?”
Her words echoed off the hills and then died into silence. If there was one thing Abi hated, it was delay. Throughout her career she’d learned to be efficient and productive and being stuck on a lonely road in the middle of the Highlands was neither of those things. Each moment she lost was another moment where she could be searching for her friend.
She chewed her lip, looking around, then did some calculations in her head. She estimated she’d gone about five miles since she’d met Irene MacAskill. That meant that Tarness shouldn’t be too far.
“It should be just around that bend,” she said aloud. “An easy walk!”
Feeling better, she locked up the car, slung her coat around her shoulders, and set out. The day had turned overcast, with a slate gray sky looming over her and a chill wind blowing down the valley. Although it was late summer, it already held a hint of the autumn to come. Abi pulled her coat tighter about her.
Up ahead, the road passed between the knees of two of the hills before sweeping round to the left, out of sight. She walked at a steady pace and soon came abreast of those hills. Something on the rise to her left caught her eye. It was the ruins of some old building. It had crumbling gray walls and most of the roof had fallen in. A derelict castle. There was something forlorn about it, out here in the empty wilds.
Abi found herself wondering what life there must once have been like. For a castle to be built here must mean this had once been an important, prosperous area. What had happened in the intervening years for the castle to be abandoned and this place to become so desolate and empty?
Pushing such thoughts from her mind, she passed between the hills and came out on the other side.
And stopped, staring.
The road wound on ahead of her through a vast, empty glen. There was no sign of the settlement. A few hardy sheep were grazing in the glen. They raised their heads to glance at her disinterestedly before returning to their meal.
Where was Tarness? She’d been so sure it must be right here!
This wasnotwhat she needed. She looked around, hoping to spot some wood smoke that would indicate a croft nearby or hear the sounds of a car coming along the road. There was nothing but the bleating of the sheep and the moan of the wind.
Her eyes alighted on the ruined castle again. If she climbed up there, maybe she could get a signal on her phone or if she returned to the car, the sat nav would tell her where to go. But that would mean retracing her steps and she’d already lost too much time today.
There was nothing for it. Turning off the road, she began hiking up the hill, through the stunted bushes and the knee-high grass that whipped at her legs. As she moved higher, the wind strengthened and it moaned and whistled through the empty windows and doorways of the castle like a lost soul.
Abi slowed as she reached what must have once been the main door into the castle. It was wide and yawning, a stone arch easily big enough for twenty people to walk through side by side. There was a slot in the top that might once have contained a portcullis, but that was long since gone. She stepped through and found herself in a warren of tumbled walls and broken paving. Crumbling steps led to empty air. The ceilings were long gone and the walls were spattered with bird droppings.
Abi paused in the middle of a large space that might once have been a hall and took out her phone. Holding it high, she moved around, trying to find a signal. But the stubborn thing refused to connect.
Damn it! She tucked the phone back into her pocket and retraced her steps to the main gate, deciding she would have to return to the car after all. But as she approached the yawning arch, her steps slowed.
Something was wrong with it. Or rather, something was wrong with the space beneath it. The air was blurring, shimmering like air above a fire. Abi stopped and cocked her head, staring in puzzlement.
What the—?
The heat-haze suddenly cleared and images formed instead. Abi saw fields full of crops stretching ahead, the waist-high wheat shimmering in the breeze. Many people dotted the fields, working to get in the harvest. A mounted man appeared on the road, riding towards her. She couldn’t make out his face, only his blazing blond hair trailing behind him.
The man came on and Abi strained forward, eager to make out his face. But he suddenly stopped, pulled his horse around, and galloped away.
No!Abi thought.Don’t go! Wait!
She took a step towards the arch. She had no idea what was going on but her legs seemed to move of their own volition, as though pulled by a lodestone. The arch was right above her now. Behind, lay the cold, empty castle, ahead lay the strange image of the golden fields of wheat and the blond-haired man.
Fate offers us choices, my dear, and ye are about to be given one. The question is, what will ye choose to do?
Abi stepped through the arch.
***
IT FELT AS THOUGH SHE’Dstepped off a cliff. Her stomach dropped and she had that awful sense of falling that she’d only ever experienced when she’d been on a rollercoaster. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sensation was over as soon as it had started, and she stumbled onto her hands and knees. Nausea churned in her stomach and, for one horrible moment, she thought she might throw up.
