"Catriona?"
"Aye. Coming.” She hurried into the cave, pausing just inside the entrance to let her eyes grow accustomed to the absence of light.
“We’ve a store of torches inside a ways—if they didna find them,” Sawny whispered as he eased his way deeper into the cavern. Flints clicked together several times, cracking blue sparks into the darkness with every hit. A torch burst into flames with a reassuring whoosh, highlighting Sawny’s proud smile. He held the light high and motioned them forward. “Come. We’ve torches enough for everyone, and we’ll need them since we’re pushing through the belly of the mountain to reach the stables.”
Catriona dreaded the journey but it couldna be helped. Sawny led the way, and she fell in step behind him since the two of them knew the bowels of the mountain better than anyone else. She’d often hidden here as a child whenever her father was in one of his drunken rages and now she understood why her mother had ne’er scolded her for such. She’d been much safer dealing with the dangers of the caverns than dealing with the dangers of her father.
They edged their way through the damp tunnels of stone, turning sideways to squeeze through some openings and ducking low to crawl through other passages until they at last reached an open space with vaulted stone ceilings that could rival any cathedral.
“This is where ye hid before,” Alexander said as he held his torch high and looked around. “We’ve traveled longer than the last time and yet here we are. Have ye become turned around, lad?”
“Nay,” Catriona said as Sawny gave Alexander an insulted scowl and a shake of his head. “This vault just looks similar, but if ye know it as we do, ye ken the difference. That’s why many have died in these caverns.”
Sawny waved his torch back toward the way they’d just come. “The ceiling. Note the swirls in those stones?”
Alexander and his men lifted their torches, studied the markings, then nodded.
“This is the room of the dragon,” Catriona said. “Can ye make it out?”
“Aye.” Alexander scowled closer at the marks covering the stones. “I see it now. Good way to keep your bearings.”
“'Tis the work of the goblins,” Sawny added with a wink and a snort.
Alexander waved toward an opening up ahead. “Move, boy. I’d like to reach the stable before nightfall to give us plenty of time to make our way to the root cellar when it grows dark.”
If they all made it through this uprising alive, she’d ne’er darken the innards of the earth again, Catriona swore to herself. She breathed in a deep breath of the dank air, relieved when she picked out the faint scent of horse manure and straw up ahead. “We’re nearly there.”
“Good,” Alexander said. “I’m tired of no' being able to see the fine bounce of your arse in these shadows.”
The rest of the men chuckled. Father William snorted the loudest.
“Quiet now,” Catriona scolded with a hissing shush. “If anyone’s working at the back of the stable, we dinna wish to give ourselves away.”
“We need to put our torches out and store them here,” Sawny said in a hushed tone. He gathered up all the lights and stomped them out, leaving them in an inky blackness.
“Hold hands,” Catriona ordered, taking hold of Sawny’s hand in one hand and Alexander’s in the other. “We dinna wish to leave anyone behind in the darkness.”
“Amen to that,” Father William said from the back of the group.
Ducking her head, Catriona squeezed past the boulder covering the exit and wiggled into the dimly lit stable without letting go of Alexander’s hand. Alexander grunted and huffed against the confines of the passage, his broad shoulders and height complicating his entry. He finally shoved his way through and one by one, the rest of the men followed. They gathered in the wide space at the back of the rows of stalls, doing their best to move quietly amongst the straw and dried rushes scattered across the stone floor.
“Shinny up ahead and see what ye can see, aye?” Catriona urged Sawny with a barely audible whisper. She drew in a sniff and wrinkled her nose. The tang of rotting hay and stalls sorely in need of mucking filled the air. If Murtagh were still alive, someone’s arse would be kicked and their heads would be on a platter. “I canna believe Calum is such a fool,” she told Alexander. “Filthy stables make for weak horses.”
“He’s too weak a man to mind the business a chieftain must mind for the benefit of the clan.” Alexander motioned for everyone to lower themselves to the back wall and sit while they waited. “Do ye think ye can persuade your people to accept a female chief?”
Alexander may as well have reached into her lungs and snatched out all her air. Catriona stared at him. “What?”
He gave her a slow, easy smile she barely detected in the low lighting. “Ye are damned and determined to save your people only to abandon them and leave them without a leader to guide and protect them? Come now, Catriona. Ye are so much wiser than that.”
Was he mocking her? She swallowed hard and sat taller, lifted her chin and fixed him with a narrow-eyed look. “Nay. I’ll be convincing them that their next chieftain should be yourself since ye are my husband.”
Even in the shadowy light of the torch-lit sconces flickering on the walls, Catriona noted how Alexander’s eyes flared open wider and his jaw dropped. Good. That would teach the man to mock her. 'Twas early in their marriage. She best get the rules set straight here at the start.
Sawny interrupted the lesson, scurrying back to them with his back bent to hide below the level of the stall walls. He made a beeline to Catriona, his face red and wet with tears. Catriona opened her arms, and he flew into them as if she were his mother. He shuddered in her arms, thumping her shoulders with his balled up fists.
“Sawny boy, tell me?” Hugging him tightly, Catriona looked over at Alexander for help.
Alexander patted the boy on his back and spoke in low, soothing tones. “What happened, lad? What did ye see?”
