“I willna have ye go alone.” It didn’t matter that the child knew the way better than anyone. All he knew was he had just gotten her back after fearing her lost forever.
He strode back into the main hall and hailed Jasper. “Bella and I must go ahead. Lorna may be trapped in the priest hole behind the kitchens. I canna wait for the smithy.”
“I will bring them.” The war chief thumped his chest, then crossed himself. “God be with ye all.”
“A light for ye, chieftain!” Ebby came running with another lantern fashioned the same as the other but larger. “This one holds more fat than the one Mistress Lorna carries.” Eyes brimming with tears, she pressed a fist to her chest. “My prayers are with ye. She is the kindest soul. I dinna want to lose my mistress.”
“I dinna want ye to lose yer mistress either.” Gunn took the lantern and handed it to Bella. “Lead on, Arabella. Pray we find her safe and whole.”
The child took the glowing cylinder, ran to the tunnel entrance, and charged inside without hesitation. Gunn kept close, thankful for once that his daughter had always disobeyed him when it came to the maze running throughout the walls. That disobedience could very well save Lorna’s life.
Bella paused at the pit and dangled the light over its edge while squinting downward. “She remembered it, Da. She isna here.” Without waiting for his response, she scurried onward toward the passage’s offshoot that led to a solid wall and the priest hole.
Gunn wished the place was flooded with light so he might see ahead. “Lorna!” he called out, straining to pick up on the slightest response. “Give me the lantern, lass. I can hold it higher and cast the beam farther. Ye can call to her too, if ye like.” He didn’t add it would make him feel better for both of them to rage like banshees until Lorna answered.
“If she is in the hole,” Bella said, “the wall will keep her from hearing us. Master Grogan said that was why he ordered the stone cutters to make those blocks extra thick. So enemies couldna find those hiding within.”
When they reached the end of the passage, Gunn’s heart fell to the pit of his stomach. Cloth protruded from a seam in the wall. He dropped to one knee and ran his fingers across it. “Her skirt,” he whispered, almost choking on the words.
Bella rested a hand on the stone and bowed her head. “I am so sorry, Da. I didna mean it to hurt Mistress Lorna.”
He turned and swiped the tears from her cheek. “Dinna fash yerself, my wee one. We will get her out. I swear it.” He pulled his dirk from its sheath beneath his arm. “Show me where ye removed the shim.”
The youngling directed him to the lever stone. “Right there. See the space?”
He shoved the blade into the crack as far as it would go, then pushed on the lever with his foot. Nothing happened.
“Master Grogan said it wouldna work that way,” Bella said. “Once the balance of the shim is gone, the wall and both levers must be completely reset.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes as she bowed her head again. “I am so sorry. ’Twas meant to trap that wicked cow.”
“Shh, lass.” He pulled her into a hug and tried to comfort her even though he felt like raging at all the powers, both the old gods and the new. They could damn well stop toying with him. He was feckin’ tired of their sorry games that fractured his heart and soul. “All we can do is wait for Jasper and the men. They will bring pry bars and hammers.”
With her face buried in the front of his shirt, she sobbed all the harder. Bella was not a fool. She knew the sealed-off room would not keep Lorna alive for long. The priest hole was intended for short periods of hiding only. The air would go foul after a few hours.
Clatter echoing from the mouth of the tunnel gave him hope. He patted Bella on the back. “Listen.”
She lifted her head and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. Even in the shadowy light, he saw hope in her teary eyes. “Jasper! Hurry!”
Gunn rose to his feet and joined his daughter in her call. “Hie yerselves! The mistress of this keep is in peril.”
Several lights bobbed into view, making a glowing line down the narrow passage. Jasper led the men, single file, all of them bearing iron rods and hammers. “We will have the Lady Lorna returned to yer arms in no time,” Jasper said.
Gunn held out his hand. “Give me a prying bar.”
One of the men placed a heavy rod in his palm. It was longer than he was tall and had a beveled end. He wedged it in the crack above the cloth dangling from the stone. As he leaned into it, Bella ran forward and stopped him. “No, Da. From the bottom. Master Grogan said we must always lever the swinging doors from the bottom. ’Twill loose them from their hinges carved into the wall and make them easier to move.”
“I would listen to her,” Jasper advised. “She was Grogan’s shadow every time she slipped away from Freyda and Mrs. Thistlewick. Even though she was little more than five years old at the time, he always called her his canniest apprentice.”
“Ye are certain?” Gunn asked her.
“Aye, Da. Master Grogan let me watch him balance them all and test them to see that they worked proper. Said someone needed to know how to work them for when he left for heaven and couldna help us anymore.” She pointed to the corner of the wall beside the fouled lever. “Lift here with all yer might, then the others can wedge their bars into the side to keep it from closing as ye force it back.”
“Good enough.” Gunn nodded at Jasper and the other men. “Ye heard her.” He wedged his pry bar into the bottom of the stone where Bella had instructed. With all his might, his heart, and his soul, he bore down on the rod. Dust filtered down from the ceiling, and the wall groaned with a great grinding of stone against stone.
The others rushed forward, planted their bars into the ever-widening crack, and shoved hard to keep the wall from sliding shut once more.
“’Tis working!” Bella called out. “See her clothes? They slipped down to the floor. The block is moving.”
“Again!” Gunn growled, repositioning the bar and bearing down on it even harder. Sweat poured off him. Pain ripped through his straining muscles. None of it mattered. He would get his Lorna freed. Then a thunderous crash and a scream shot terror through him.
