“Who’s your friend, Karma?” Lilia slowly circled the tree without dismounting. She finally spotted a pale hairy leg wrapped around the trunk. A helpful breeze shifted the leaves and smaller branches, revealing the hairy ass attached to the leg. Whoever it was had climbed as high he could go to perch among the safety of the tree limbs that would still support his weight.
“A Buchanan bastard.” Gray pointed to the plaid. “Those are definitely their colors.”
“Call off yer beast!” The branches shook and the bare ass disappeared, replaced by one bare foot and one foot in a half-eaten boot trembling on the limb. A grubby hand shoved the leaves aside, revealing an equally filthy face. The man squatted low, balancing an elbow on one knobby knee, his sagging man parts swinging down from his nasty matted crotch. “Call off yer beast and release me or the chieftain shall hear of this.”
“I am the chieftain,” Gray replied.
“Ye are notmychieftain,” the man sneered down at them. “My fealty lies wi’ the Buchanan and he will make ye rue the day ye ever stepped on Buchanan land.”
“This is MacKenna land, fool,” Colum said.
“Not for much longer—not when the Buchanan finishes wi’ ye.”
“You talk amazingly brave for a man who’s bare-assed and trapped in a tree.” Lilia paced the horse back and forth, taking care to stay out of spitting distance. She knew this guy’s type without a scan of his feelings. “The Buchanans took two men as prisoners. Ambushed them farther north of here. Where are they now?”
“Ye are the witch!” The Buchanan weasel jabbed a bent finger at Lilia, his delighted cackle raking across her already raw nerves. “Old Borden said MacTavish’s witch would come a looking for him. Damned if ye didna do just as he said.”
The man licked his lips and reached down between his legs. With a look that made Lilia want to vomit, he grabbed his limp cock and shook it at her. “I ain’t telling ye nothing, whore. Not unless ye wish to barter.”
Colum whipped out his bow and nocked an arrow. “Tell Lady Lilia what she wishes to know afore I nail yer cods to that tree.”
The squatting man quickly stood, scampering along the limb to a thicker shield of leaves. “I can stay up here as long as it takes.”
“I’ve had enough of this shit. Kismet—you’re on.” Lilia drew closer to the tree and the softly growling black cat gracefully launched herself up into the branches. Lilia returned to her designated position between Colum and Gray.
Colum slowly lowered the arrow and bow and turned to Lilia with a gleam in his eye. “Ye are a great deal like yer grandmother, are ye not?”
“I hope so,” Lilia said. “Kismet will get him down without maiming him so badly that he can’t give us any information.”
The outer limbs of the tree shook and rattled. Leaves exploded free of branches as Kismet convinced the man it was time to climb down. The Buchanan’s shouts and curses played a perfect duet with the feline’s yowls and hisses.
“Off me, black demon. Leave off, ye bastard!” Limbs cracked and popped. The man bellowed, bouncing down through the branches with Kismet firmly clamped around his face. He hit the ground flat of his back with a hard thud. Wheezing and gasping for air, he flailed both arms, clawing at the cat still attached to his face.
“Good job, Kismet,” Lilia called. “It’s Karma’s turn now.”
The black cat immediately disengaged, leapt back to her perch on Lilia’s saddle, and started licking her paws, furiously grooming away the filth she had just encountered.
In one great lunge, Karma straddled the man’s body, bringing his snarling muzzle within inches of the man’s face.
“Now.” Lilia eased her horse closer. “I’m going to ask you again. Where are the two prisoners? And if you lie to me, I will make you wish Colum’s arrow pinning your nuts to the tree was the only pain you had to worry around.”
The man lay perfectly still, terror in his face as he kept his unblinking gaze locked on Karma’s dripping fangs. “Not far. Go north. Keep to the glens. Ye should meet them well before midday.”
“How many?” Gray asked.
“Four.” The man blinked rapidly as Karma lunged closer, his clicking growl sounding hungrier. “But more come. The Buchanan himself. And his son. Maybe more.”
“When?” Colum asked. “And how many more?”
The man didn’t answer, just locked his jaws and flinched his face away from Karma’s teeth.
“Why are more coming?” Lilia asked. “Why are more men needed?”
The man remained silent, his mouth clamped shut in a stubborn scowl.
Karma settled his jaws around the man’s throat and rumbled a deeper warning growl.
The man’s eyes popped open, his expression a strange mix of defiance, rage, and fear. “The Buchanan means to regain the honor stolen from him. He’ll not stand being cuckolded by MacTavish nor made the fool by the MacKenna. He means to make ye both pay for the way ye’ve soiled his name. MacTavish will pay with his life. The MacKenna will pay with his clan’s land.”
