“But...but...how?” she said. “How have you got here ahead of us?”
Magnus winked at her. “Because traveling by river is a damned sight quicker than traveling by horse.”
“We got free of the fair and Alice’s men,” Conall explained. “But were forced south until we reached the river. Once there, we ‘borrowed’ a boat and rode the river all the way here. We arrived a couple of hours ago.”
Kai nodded, grinning. “It’s good to see ye, my friends.” He looked over their shoulders and a worried expression flashed across his face. “Emeric? Oskar?”
“Dinna worry,” Magnus said. “They made it out too. Oskar has gone to Laird MacDonald to get help for those injured at the fair whilst Emeric is sailing to Dun Saith to rouse the Order as ye commanded. He will bring them here.”
Conall looked around, his wolf-gray eyes glancing up at the keep towering above them. A wary expression crossed his face. “Do ye think this is a good idea, Kai? There is no need for ye to go up there. Magnus and I can carry the warning. After everything that happened here...”
He trailed off and Caitlin was surprised by the spasm of anguish that twisted Kai’s features. He shook his head.
“None of that matters. What matters is that Lord Alasdair is warned and that Leif Snarlsson is stopped.”
Conall shared a look with Magnus. “Aye, that may be so, but from the gossip we’ve heard since we arrived, things are not as they once were in Dun Cator. Lord Alasdair is old and it’s Lady Lorna and her husband who run Dun Cator now.”
Kai stilled. His expression went as blank as stone but Caitlin didn’t miss the flash of anger in his eyes or the way his mouth twitched as though suppressing a snarl.
“Then it is to Lady Lorna and her husband that we must deliver our warning,” he said, his voice cold. “Let’s go.”
Without waiting for the others, he marched off. Conall gave Caitlin an apologetic shrug and Magnus took Smokey’s reins, gently stroking the giant horse’s nose.
Having no other option, Caitlin set off after Kai and Conall, leaving Magnus to bring up the rear. She had no idea what was going to happen when they reached the keep but she couldn’t shake the suspicion that whatever it was, she wasn’t going to like it.
Chapter 14
Lady Lorna and herhusband run Dun Cator now.
They were not the words Kai had been hoping to hear. He had hoped to speak directly with Lord Alasdair and not see the lord’s daughter at all. If he had been really lucky, Lorna and her husband would not even be at Dun Cator. After all, Lord Alasdair’s holdings stretched up and down the coast with many more settlements under his stewardship.
Lucky?he thought to himself.Did you really expect to be lucky? Then you are a damned fool.
One thing he’d learned was that if fate had a chance to piss on him, it generally did. Why should he have expected anything different this time?
He led the way through the winding streets and up towards the gates of the keep. It had been many years since he’d walked this path but it felt like only a heartbeat had passed. His feet remembered the way with no prompting.
